Oh man – we just got to spend a bit of time with the just announced Samsung Moment. Hardware-wise, it’s stolen the crown as my favorite Android device. It’s a bit basic on the software end — it’s Android, straight up, with no apparent major modifications — but we really, really dig the hardware.
Check after the jump for our early impressions and pictures. This page will be updated as we add new notes.
- With a nice big 3.2″ AMOLED screen and a slide out keyboard, it’s certainly not the slimmest device. It feels a bit big in the hand – but not overly huge
- Though we only got to spend all of 5 minutes with it, I loved the keyboard. It blows the keyboard on other Android handsets I’ve used out of the water.
- The 3.2″ AMOLED screen is absolutely gorgeous. Being that it’s AMOLED, we can only assume that it’ll suck something terrible in the sunlight – but indoors, under the florescent lights of the San Diego Convention Center, it shined.
- Software wise, it’s all pretty stock. The model we tested was using Android v1.5, Cupcake. The final model will be on v1.6, otherwise known as Donut. Unlike the Samsung Behold II announced yesterday (also Android powered), Samsung didn’t throw TouchWiz onto this one. There are no major UI modifications, as far as we could tell.
- The optical sensor that serves as the D-pad seemed a bit strange at first, but I had no issues with it. Unlike the Omnia, which also had an optical mouse, there is no mouse cursor onscreen here. It’s purely used for directional movements (such as jumping from text input to text input) as far as we could tell.
- The only thing that I didn’t like about the hardware were the touch-sensitive buttons below the screen. While they look great, these buttons (home, back, menu) are too commonly pressed to not have physical buttons dedicated to them.
What’s the third thing on the camera area?
Flash + Lens + ?
Shiney metal posing as a mirror
its called a Vanity Mirror
Very cool! Interested to see how that AMOLED will preform in the sunlight though.
From other AMOLED vs TFT comparisons I’d say pretty well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FICAHsE_enE
Also if you really can’t wait you can always stop in an AT&T store and get your hands on a Samsung Impression (if they even still have any) and see for yourself.
After the T-mobile G1, this seems much much better…. Good to andoid picking up fast
Those Home and Return buttons should have been proper buttons, not touch ones, they always feel too uncomfortable
I’ve been using the myTouch since before release, never used a trackball before, and…I barely use the trackball. Also, it tends to collect skin and dust and whatnot, like an old school mouse, yuck.
I’d love an optical sensor instead on my next Android phone. And a keyboard, which I’m finding myself missing more than I expected.
Looks a bit ugly.
Any word on compass or multitouch?
I want to know too. This will be the deciding factor for me. If it has a compass, I’ll wait until November, if not, it’s a Hero for me this weekend.
We “need” to know this :)
I have not seen compass listed as a feature in ANY article yet.
Tsk, tsk. Somebody used the flash while shooting a device with a screen:)
Hah – nah, that’s one of the fluorescent lights above the show floor. They make shooting devices a total pain in the ass.
Looks like a good alternative to the Hero if you NEED a physical keyboard, but for the same price the Hero is the better device. Right?
It looks kind of cheap in the pictures – how was the build quality?
Interested about battery too, as that seems to be one of the Hero’s negatives
I’m deciding between this and the Hero for my next phone, trying to weigh out pros and cons.
Hero:
Better UI
Better camera (presumably)
Trackball
Physical Home\Menu\Back buttons
Moment:
Faster CPU
Flash for camera (or flashlight use)
OLED screen
Optical trackpad
Physical keyboard
It seems as thought this beats out the Hero In the things that are important, Mainly the processor speed/ and a physical KB witch is always better than a touch screen one. But still, I would hate to buy one or the other to find out a month down the road that i should have gotten the other one lol. Cause by then its too late.
No Sense UI. Sense more or less makes the Hero.
Sense UI is an HTC software product. However from what hear it can be ported to other android phones.
This may be my new phone…. Is it a capacitive or resistive touchscreen??
capacitive 320×480 screen
I’m getting ready to bail on Verizon for a Hero on Friday. The Motorola Tao had me second guessing, but this phone makes me sure I’m headed for Sprint’s much cheaper plans. I guess I’ll try the Hero and if I’m not satisfied because of lag or no physical keyboard, I’ll switch to the Moment. At any rate I’ll be looking to Cyanogen for a better ROM for either phone. Is multi-touch hardware or software or both?
wow.. Samsung is surely going the Android way.. three handsets in a row…
Guess Samsung is surely thinking of giving competition to HTC over the number of Android devices..
Would the last device to leave symbian please turn off the lights?
This.
Greg, you should do a comparison of the Palm Pre, HTC HERO, and Samsung Moment.
Nice…so dumb question…does it sync with outlook? How bout wit a mac?
Not a dumb question. To steal a line from another companies marketing…
There is an app for that.
Have you tried to use the phone as a modem?
After tmobile/sidekick/Microsoft lost all 4 years of my data I’m sold on the Samsung Moment as a replacement. Bye bye forever darn stupid company. Only an idiot hires idiots to manage their IT department and that’s what tmobile did. Get that MS? Your the idiot too as it’s you that insisted on upgrading Danger’s cloud servers and didnt’ do and validate a backup. No offsite emergency catastrophic backup either. Insane in this day and age and reflects how little tmobile cares about it’s customers.
So my question is a little more complex. My corp. e-mail requires that if you use ActiveSync, your phone has to be encryption enabled,,, which means basically if you don’t use the phone for about 20 minutes the phone must have a password entered. HTC Pro 2 does this, Palm Pre does not. I had to go to a Sprint store, find a Sprint employee with these phones, and try to log in on their phone to find out. Seems it’s not often somebody requires this, so how do I find out if the Moment is capable? Other than the obvious answer, go to a Sprint store, find an employee with this phone, try it…
Much appreciated if anybody knows.
-Dave
my name is Judy, and I plan to exchange my Hero for the Moment as soon as Best Buy gets it in (I have already talked to them about doing that) precisely because the Moment does have the landscape slider. Don’t you just love having choices? I want to stay with Sprint and Android, so I couldn’t be happier that Sprint is committed to providing choices for everyone. Share your view with me at http://www.SamsungMomentForum.com a fans site for the upcoming Samsung Moment.
I bought the Samsung Moment, the day before it actually came out…I loved everything I read about it…I did not want the Hero, because of the obvious, no Qwerty Keyboard…I didn’t want an all touch screen phone.
I can’t say that I dislike the Moment, but, I bought it on Saturday and had to get a replacement on Monday. There was a problem with the charger plug in device. The battery barely lasts through a 30 min conversation. My biggest problem with this phone is the battery..is is of no use to me, if I cannot use it to text more than 6 text messages and make many phone calls…I am very disappointed. However, my friends with the T-Mobile HTC Google have told me they also have battery issues…
One would think if the manufacturers were indeed concerned about the public opinion of their devices they would strive to insure that the battery produced enough power to handle more usage than it does.