LAS VEGAS--A new Android smartphone from Samsung will be making its way to North America, as well as other parts of the world, this summer. Dubbed the Samsung Vibrant, the device was introduced at CTIA 2010 and includes features that boast the multimedia and social experience of the phone.
To start, the Vibrant boasts a 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen, which we first saw on the Samsung Wave at Mobile World Congress. Unlike regular AMOLED screens, the Super AMOLED screen places touch sensors right on top of the AMOLED screen, which eliminates the need for an additional touch sensor panel, removes air gaps, and improves touch sensitivity. It's also less reflective so the screen should be easier to see indoors and outdoors and has wider viewing angles.
The Vibrant is ideal for viewing video and photos. The president of Samsung's mobile communications business said that the company will work with content partners to make full-length movies and TV shows available on the Vibrant as well as e-books and magazines. You will be able to play back HD videos at 720p resolution, and a 1GHz processor is onboard to ensure things run smoothly.
Samsung kept throwing around the term "Smart Life" to describe the user experience on the Vibrant, which includes user-defined daily briefings for instant access to news, weather, appointments, and so forth, location-based search options, and a Layar Reality Browser that allows you to view augmented reality content. Like the Samsung Wave, the Vibrant is also meant to be a social hub and it integrates contact information and messages from various accounts to provide a unified view. CNET's Kent German, who was at the press conference, said it reminded him of Motoblur.
The Samsung Vibrant will ship running Android 2.1 (yes!) and comes with Bluetooth 3.0, a 5-megapixel camera, a Swype keyboard, and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) technology for interdevice connectivity. Pricing and carrier information were not released at this time, but the smartphone is a quad-band GSM phone with support for 900/1900/2100MHz 3G bands.
Stay tuned for our hands-on impressions and photo gallery!
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