Samsung SGH-L870 - new S60 slider

[Rafe]

Today, at the S60 Summit in Barcelona, the Samsung SGH-L870 was publicly unveiled. The L870 is a S60 phone in a slider form factor and has a 3 megapixel camera, FM radio and 3G connectivity. It runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (the first Samsung device to do so). This takes the total number of S60 devices to 79.

Read on in the full article.

[krisse]

Is that button to the left of the d-pad the menu key?

It's starting to get a bit confusing for S60 users with the traditional swirly key, the newer E51's home key and apparently now this bit of paper with an arrow key, all doing the same thing. Should't they agree on one icon and stick to it, as they have done with the C button?

Where's the N85, or even N100? ;-)

This phone looks absolutely smashing. Is it stainless steel? I sure hope it is after all the Nokia plastics. The d-pad looks cool. The keys look good. I dont care what they're for as long as they work great. Cant wait.

[mattrad]

Engadget is reporting that this phone will be running Apple's Mobile Safari, not the standard Webkit browser. I wonder if it'll be able to play Flash content? AFAIK Webkit can but Safari cannot.

[davidmaxwaterma]

Originally Posted by krisse

Is that button to the left of the d-pad the menu key?

It's starting to get a bit confusing for S60 users with the traditional swirly key, the newer E51's home key and apparently now this bit of paper with an arrow key, all doing the same thing. Should't they agree on one icon and stick to it, as they have done with the C button?

I agree, they should just stick with the swirly key since people know that means 's60' - well, *some* people know that means S60, and buy specifically because you can get s/w for it (or their existing s/w works for it).

Not any more.

I blame Steve, personally. Yup, it's all his fault

[krisse]

davidmaxwaterma, whatever they choose they should stick with it across all S60 devices, otherwise what's the point?

[Mikeyboy01]

You lot don't half contradict yourself on this site extremely often. On one side its all "Wouldn't it be good to have lots of different manufacturers release S60 devices", but then on the other side "they've all got to be like the ones that area already out there and have the same key labels" ???????????????

You do understand that S60 device sales are a small part of the overall market that Samsung and Nokia sell to? In all reality, not even the most important part either, possibly that will change in the future, thanks to devices like this driving S60 to the mass market. You can't expect Samsung to cater layouts and features of a mass market device to a few million Nokia S60 users - who probably are so taken with N95's, N82's etc that they won't buy the device anyhow!!!!!!!!!

Will the majority of people who buy this device buy it because it is S60, or because it is Samsung and it has 3mpx camera? Will they even be aware that it is the same UI that is in countless Nokia devices? Do Samsung even want them to?

It seems Samsung calls S60 WebKit ... mmm ... well... Mobile Safari

The Apple fanboys are going crazy.

[krisse]

On one side its all "Wouldn't it be good to have lots of different manufacturers release S60 devices", but then on the other side "they've all got to be like the ones that area already out there and have the same key labels"

You're putting words in my mouth! :-)

I never said "they've all got to be like the ones that area already out there"

I never said anything about features.

I never said anything about layouts.

I never said the phone hardware had to be similar in any way.

All I said was that the menu key label should be the same on all of them. That's just a tiny label on one button, not too much to ask, surely?

It seems Samsung calls S60 WebKit ... mmm ... well... Mobile Safari

Sounds like Samsung's spin department.

Technically they could claim Webkit, S60 and Safari are the same thing because they use the same browsing engine, and perhaps Samsung has chosen the Safari label because it's flavour-of-the-month in certain quarters.

[davidmaxwaterma]

Originally Posted by krisse

davidmaxwaterma, whatever they choose they should stick with it across all S60 devices, otherwise what's the point?

Right, I agree; except that they've already chosen one...the swirly key.

Steves point is that the swirly key's icon's meaning isn't obvious. I think it's supposed to represent some kind of 'task switching', but the meaning is quite geeky. He thinks it should be a 'home' icon, though that only makes sense half the time, IMO.

My comment is from the point of view of an s60 app developer - there's no way for a user to know if their phone is running S60 and so will run my app. My only option is to provide a list of phones.

Of course, it would be *much* better if they would print on it "S60 inside" or something - it doesn't even have to be in an obvious place...

[davidmaxwaterma]

Originally Posted by krisse

Technically they could claim Webkit, S60 and Safari are the same thing because they use the same browsing engine, and perhaps Samsung has chosen the Safari label because it's flavour-of-the-month in certain quarters.

Technically, perhaps. Politically, though, I'm not so sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple legal department do something about this.

[fernando20]

Leave the swirly key alone! Seriously, I fail to see how a house or that samsung icon could represent better the menu.