I love when companies other than Nokia produce S60 handsets. I think it keeps Nokia on their toes, and drives innovation/competition within the S60 community, which can only benefit the consumer. The first thing out at the S60 Summit in Barcelona, Spain, is the Samsung L870. This is another S60-based handset from the Korean manufacturer, in a slider form factor. The handset is clad in stainless steel casing with sleek styling, and should be available throughout Europe in August 2008.
Samsung has produced several rather cool S60-powered devices lately, but all lack a key ingredient that I find rather frustrating. Every Samsung S60 handset is lacking GSM 850MHz, which is widely used in the United States, and in other parts of North and South America. I’m not going to try to say that this handset is going to bomb without GSM 850MHz, but I do think that Samsung might see a bit of a rise in sales, specifically here in the States, were they to add this frequency. I’ve often wondered why they don’t, especially since the manufacturer uses quad-band GSM chips in other handsets such as the Windows Mobile-powered BlackJack.
In any case, I’m looking forward to trying to get my hands on the Samsung L870, it’s definitely a sexy handset. Here’s the specs:
- Tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) and WCDMA (2100MHz)
- 2.4″ QVGA display
- S60v3 FP2 (the same as the upcoming N78 and N96 from Nokia)
- 3 megapixel camera
- Bluetooth 2.0 w/ A2DP
- microSD card slot
- 103.5mm x 50.5mm x 13.5mm (4.1″ x 1.9″ x 0.5″)
What do you think? Sexy, sure, but how do you feel about the tri-band GSM? Does it make you feel like we’re back in 2006?
