LAS VEGAS -- Samsung announced a 4G LTE smartphone, hotspot and tablet for Verizon's new high-speed network today, quickly giving the nation's #1 carrier a full array of consumer devices. I got some hands-on time with the new gadgets.
(For hands-on photos, see the slide show below.)
The most important device of the bunch is the as-yet-unnamed smartphone, one of the first smartphones for the new network. The phone is a big Android 2.2-powered cell phone with a 4.3-inch, 800x480 "Super AMOLED Plus" screen, a 1Ghz Samsung Hummingbird processor, an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front for video chat.
The phone will also come "preloaded with popular LTE-specific applications," Samsung and Verizon teased in a press release. On my unit, that appeared to be Skype video chatting and a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot app.
The phone felt a wee bit thick, but I later realized that was an illusion: the phone is still slimmer than Sprint's Epic 4G, although it's fatter than T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant. The use of hardware buttons rather than touch buttons for the home and menu buttons will win some fans.
I was genuinely stumped about the Super AMOLED Plus screen, though. Samsung says it's supposed to provide truer colors thanks to an increased number of subpixels, but I just couldn't perceive the difference between the screen and that on other Galaxy S models. It wasn't blindingly bright like the LG Optimus Black, either.
Verizon's new 4G smartphones will all run Skype video chat, but the software isn't ready, so all I got was a canned video demo. The service looks good, but I've seen good-looking demos of other Android video chat services, too. None of them have worked well in real-life conditions; I hope Skype will be the first.
Maybe I sound a little down on the phone; I don't mean to be. It looks like a formidable Galaxy S smartphone. But it's hard to get too excited when key applications aren't ready, when the Motorola Droid Bionic has a better processor, and when Samsung and Verizon won't announce a date and price for the device.
Samsung also showed a 4G LTE version of the company's popular Galaxy Tab tablet. It's a Galaxy Tab with a general spec bump: a 1.2Ghz Cortex-A8 processor compared to the previous 1Ghz unit, a 5MP camera rather than the previous 3MP unit, and a textured black back. It also felt slightly heavier than the 3G model, but only by a little bit.
Otherwise, what can I say: it's a Galaxy Tab, the most popular Android tablet so far. These things are proliferating in various versions throughout the universe; I've reviewed five already, and Samsung announced a sixth one yesterday. This makes seven. Obviously, this Galaxy Tab will access the Internet as much faster speeds than the 3G model, but it remains to be seen whether that will mean a higher price.
Samsung and Verizon also showed a 3G/4G hotspot, the Samsung LTE Mobile Hotspot. Impressively slim and pocket-sized, the hotspot looks a lot like a Novatel MiFi. It supports up to five Wi-Fi devices simultaneously, and it has three colored LEDs to show whether it has 3G or 4G service and whether it's transmitting Wi-Fi. Samsung didn't give away anything about its price or battery life. It's cute, though, and looks usable.