Samsung's new Galaxy Pro smart phone is the latest Android handset looking for a bite of the BlackBerry market, with a Qwerty keyboard and a 2.8-inch touchscreen. Announced this weekend, it's already been confirmed by Three as coming to that operator's network here in the UK.
The phone was unveiled at Samsung's own SEA Forum event in Singapore, having been held back from Mobile World Congress last month, presumably to avoid it being overshadowed by the new Galaxy S II and a crop of other touchscreen Galaxy mobiles (the mini, Gio, Ace and Fit).
Official specs on the Galaxy Pro are thin on the ground, although in a blog post, Three confirms the 2.8-inch screen and physical keypad, as well as saying the device will run Android 2.2 Froyo, rather than the latest 2.3 Gingerbread software.
Three will also be selling the Galaxy Pro on its all you can eat One Plan, and is pitching the handset's Wi-Fi hotspot feature as a selling point -- although that's an Android feature rather than a Galaxy Pro feature, so applies to any Android phone sold through the network.
Our colleagues at CNET Asia have already got hands-on with the Galaxy Pro, and report that it has a bottom-edge lip like the Galaxy S, and a mesh-like cover on the back to make it more grippable. They confirm the screen has a poor 320x240-pixel resolution, and inside there's an 800MHz processor, with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
The camera is a 3-megapixel model, and Samsung's own TouchWiz software is layered on top of Android, including its Social Hub for pulling together email, social networking and instant messaging. Three has no release date for the device, but Samsung tells CNET Asia the phone will go on sale here in the UK first later this month.
There's certainly no shortage of competition coming up for this kind of Qwerty candybar handset with social features to the fore. RIM's BlackBerry smart phones continue to rule the roost thanks to their BBM messaging service -- although that's rumoured to be on its way to Android -- but the HTC ChaCha and INQ Cloud Q offer a similar form factor.
Here's Three's YouTube video of the Galaxy Pro, though:
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Comments 11
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anonymous 7 March, 2011 11:26
Dang that phone is UGLY
Nick Hide 7 March, 2011 12:31
You're not wrong.
Jordyboyy 7 March, 2011 12:59
Maybe if this phone had a better look to it then it would stand more of a chance of being a good Blackberry competitor. But the thing I like most is that it comes with Android 2.2 which makes it stand out a bit more. Another thingis that it has really poor specs so it will probably be a low-end smartphone so anyone wanting to buy this phone, don't expect it to be as good as most high-end smartphones.
anonymous 7 March, 2011 13:35
Up against BBM-equipped BlackBerries and the Facebook-button-toting ChaCha, I think it'll have a tough job, unless it's really cheap...
J4M35 7 March, 2011 14:10
It isn't ugly at all! I think it looks nice with the metal back and glass front. However, the screen resolution should be 480 x 320. Does "Qwerty" automatically mean low resolution screen or something?!
J4M35 7 March, 2011 14:20
Got to admit though, the mesh thing it's got going on looks UGLY. They should have just kept the back plain and minimalist. Also, I would have had touch sensitive Android buttons instead of physical where the Samsung logo is on the front. :)
Anonymous 7 March, 2011 16:44
touchwiz or whatever is the name of the name for samsung's android "skin" seems very out of place slapped upon the side of the screen like a pillar. i can see people going to slide their finder from right to left to move to a new home-screen and actually inadvertently selecting one of the "quick links" samsung has provided. ON a screen that size i'd say that is a bad move
Anonymous 12 June, 2011 05:46
the white colour is more attractive!
Snoozer90 15 June, 2011 15:40
Cnet UK should do a review on this... and also a comparison with the HTC chacha (and possibly the Black Berry Curve 9300).
Anonymous 8 August, 2011 11:54
I have had one of these for about 4 weeks now, and it has taken me a while to get use to it, some of the simple things seems worse, like how do you just forward amessage text message to someone and how do you save a phote that someone has text over to you. Those are the most annoying things I can't sort out - the manual doesn't tell you.
Other than that I like it alot, and it fits in your hangbag nicely.
If anyone knows how to sort out my two small queries I would be grateful :-)
anonymous 29 August, 2011 16:43
I NEED THAT PHOONNE !! NO JOKE !!!