The main selling point for the Samsung S8000 Jet isn't its OLED screen, or its 5Mp camera, or even its sleek and compact good looks. For this model, Samsung is highlighting a major element of the modern multimedia phone that often gets overlooked – the processor. The Samsung S8000 Jet comes with an industry-leading 800MHz …
The 600MHz Cortex A8 in the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre is much faster than the 800MHz ARM11 in the Jet.
The ARM Cortex A8 is dual-issue doing twice the work clock for clock as the ARM 11. And that's ignoring the NEON SIMD engine in the Cortex for vector processing.
The advert is enough to put me off the phone. Even though i've already been put of Samsung's for life after trying to develop for their shoddy Java VM.
I would not touch a samsung phone with a shitty stick. The (pretty good) hardware is always crippled with a really badly implemented UI, full of weird compromises and pointless restrictions.
How long did you try this for? If it's got a Li-Pol battery, these seem to take several charge / discharge cycles before they get into their stride.
I got a new Li-Pol battery equipped smatphone recently. Battery life was utter crap on day one, barely making it through the day even though it spent some time plugged into the USB port of my PC as I added stuff to it, slightly better on day two and got really good after a week. Since then it'll happily do two full days of decent usage between charges.
...but I'm with Skavenger on this. The advert is enough to put me off the product. Nice thing about the market as it stands is that there are enough alternatives to allow me to make such a shallow decision without suffering too badly for it...
...were I actually looking for a new phone right now, that is...
It is my fondest hope, that some day, phoneset makers will realize that a good phone is defined by the craftsmanship of the design and the responsiveness of the UI, not on 'how close we can make it look like an iPhone until someone tries to use it'. Sidekick (RIP) and Android got this. Why must we have so many also-rans that don't?
If someone wants an iPhone, they'd be buying it (or waiting until the exclusivity expires). If they don't want an iPhone, they won't be buying something that looks like what they don't want.
For a phone?! Is this some sort of joke? I don't think I'd pay more than about £15 for that sort of thing. What the hell can it possibly do that makes it worth over three HUNDRED quid?
...and it's not so bad. But, because we all like to slate products - here's it's bad points:
My phone freaks out and tells me the inbox is full when it reaches 200 text messages (instead of the 500 the specifications promise). In fact, I had nearer to 300 texts combined between my Sent Items and Inbox when it told me it was full - but the 'Memory Status' read as 200/500. Bug-tastic!
One bad thing is that it makes you pick a wifi network / data connection in the settings of each app instead of being intuitive and either letting you pick the connection you wish to use as you connect, or it should automatically 'guess' which one you want to use (ie, trying for wifi first, and then using data).
The default web browser is shite. Thank god for Opera Mini (though even Opera Mini will cause problems with people with fat fingers on this screen. Fatties, maybe carry a makeshift stylus?).
The camera is pretty good - shame it takes at the aspect ratio it does, and not the nicer 6x4 size a 'proper' camera would - but other than this, there's a wealth of useful settings. The flash is a bit harsh on just about everything, but there are enough settings to take a good photo - you just need to know what to do with them.
Widgets are nice, some pointless, but quite a lot of the ones you hope will be good are just bookmarks. Lame. What's more they have a widget to download more widgets that just takes you to a website once you've found the widget you want to download. Also lame (and hard to navigate when it's so small). I've looked into developing my own widgets and there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to submit them so others can download them ala an 'App Store'.
I can't scrobble my music from the default player to Last.fm. :(
There are, however, many things that this phone can do that are nice ideas that, say, the iPhone can't. Being able to shake the phone to get rid of the app you're using, tapping the phone (anywhere - not just the screen!) to stop and start music, the camera hardware, the tactile feedback, to name but a few.
I know this doesn't affect people who upgrade their phone/car/partner/life every year, but my experience of two small OLED displays is that they deteriorate quite quickly. I think it is significant that Kodak had a camera with one a year or two back, and now they don't...
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Samsung S8000 Jet
The main selling point for the Samsung S8000 Jet isn't its OLED screen, or its 5Mp camera, or even its sleek and compact good looks. For this model, Samsung is highlighting a major element of the modern multimedia phone that often gets overlooked – the processor. The Samsung S8000 Jet comes with an industry-leading 800MHz …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 12:48 GMT
Gary Littlemore
OS??? #
What OS is the Jet running on?
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 12:48 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Cortex A8 is much faster #
The 600MHz Cortex A8 in the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre is much faster than the 800MHz ARM11 in the Jet.
The ARM Cortex A8 is dual-issue doing twice the work clock for clock as the ARM 11. And that's ignoring the NEON SIMD engine in the Cortex for vector processing.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 12:48 GMT
Scary
Disappointed #
That's not a jet, it's a phone.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 13:27 GMT
Skavenger
Horrid Advert #
The advert is enough to put me off the phone. Even though i've already been put of Samsung's for life after trying to develop for their shoddy Java VM.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 13:27 GMT
Paul Hates Handles
Gah... samsung. #
Is it as crap and unresponsive as other Samsungs? I had a go on the 8300 today as I have to write code for an app for it. Utter dogshit.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 15:23 GMT
sgb
No way #
I would not touch a samsung phone with a shitty stick. The (pretty good) hardware is always crippled with a really badly implemented UI, full of weird compromises and pointless restrictions.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 15:23 GMT
TeeCee
Battery life. #
How long did you try this for? If it's got a Li-Pol battery, these seem to take several charge / discharge cycles before they get into their stride.
I got a new Li-Pol battery equipped smatphone recently. Battery life was utter crap on day one, barely making it through the day even though it spent some time plugged into the USB port of my PC as I added stuff to it, slightly better on day two and got really good after a week. Since then it'll happily do two full days of decent usage between charges.
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 23:59 GMT
Neill Mitchell
What OS? #
What OS is this thing running? Come on Reg, this kind of information is rather vital!
Posted Thursday 20th August 2009 23:59 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Well duh... #
"Perhaps the powerful processor puts some extra drain on the juice"
No shit, sherlock.
Posted Friday 21st August 2009 09:04 GMT
Stike Vomit
Re: What OS #
The Jet runs Samsung's TouchWiz OS.
Posted Friday 21st August 2009 09:04 GMT
David S
It's shallow, I know... #
...but I'm with Skavenger on this. The advert is enough to put me off the product. Nice thing about the market as it stands is that there are enough alternatives to allow me to make such a shallow decision without suffering too badly for it...
...were I actually looking for a new phone right now, that is...
Posted Friday 21st August 2009 09:41 GMT
Jason Hall
UI #
Along with others here, I find the Samsung hardware to be excellent.
Unfortunately whoever designs the UI (on older models at least) should be killed. With a blunt stick. Slowly.
They are really that bad.
Let's hope they get the screen responsiveness sorted out one day, then they would give the jebusphone another competitor.
Posted Friday 21st August 2009 14:39 GMT
whitespacephil
How quick #
How quick, for example, does it take to turn on?
How quick, for example, does it take to get into camera mode and ready to take a picture?
How quickly can I start going in to my address book from hitting the power key.
All of these things I care about. And yet, I still have no idea how quick this "jet" is.
Apart from their lousy advert, did you see their attempted vile viral campaign they tried to promote through B3ta. Utterly poor.
Posted Thursday 27th August 2009 00:13 GMT
Blain Hamon
bad knockoffs #
It is my fondest hope, that some day, phoneset makers will realize that a good phone is defined by the craftsmanship of the design and the responsiveness of the UI, not on 'how close we can make it look like an iPhone until someone tries to use it'. Sidekick (RIP) and Android got this. Why must we have so many also-rans that don't?
If someone wants an iPhone, they'd be buying it (or waiting until the exclusivity expires). If they don't want an iPhone, they won't be buying something that looks like what they don't want.
Posted Friday 28th August 2009 14:24 GMT
Robert Long 1
£330 #
For a phone?! Is this some sort of joke? I don't think I'd pay more than about £15 for that sort of thing. What the hell can it possibly do that makes it worth over three HUNDRED quid?
Posted Friday 28th August 2009 15:00 GMT
coxy
I own one. #
...and it's not so bad. But, because we all like to slate products - here's it's bad points:
My phone freaks out and tells me the inbox is full when it reaches 200 text messages (instead of the 500 the specifications promise). In fact, I had nearer to 300 texts combined between my Sent Items and Inbox when it told me it was full - but the 'Memory Status' read as 200/500. Bug-tastic!
One bad thing is that it makes you pick a wifi network / data connection in the settings of each app instead of being intuitive and either letting you pick the connection you wish to use as you connect, or it should automatically 'guess' which one you want to use (ie, trying for wifi first, and then using data).
The default web browser is shite. Thank god for Opera Mini (though even Opera Mini will cause problems with people with fat fingers on this screen. Fatties, maybe carry a makeshift stylus?).
The camera is pretty good - shame it takes at the aspect ratio it does, and not the nicer 6x4 size a 'proper' camera would - but other than this, there's a wealth of useful settings. The flash is a bit harsh on just about everything, but there are enough settings to take a good photo - you just need to know what to do with them.
Widgets are nice, some pointless, but quite a lot of the ones you hope will be good are just bookmarks. Lame. What's more they have a widget to download more widgets that just takes you to a website once you've found the widget you want to download. Also lame (and hard to navigate when it's so small). I've looked into developing my own widgets and there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to submit them so others can download them ala an 'App Store'.
I can't scrobble my music from the default player to Last.fm. :(
There are, however, many things that this phone can do that are nice ideas that, say, the iPhone can't. Being able to shake the phone to get rid of the app you're using, tapping the phone (anywhere - not just the screen!) to stop and start music, the camera hardware, the tactile feedback, to name but a few.
Posted Monday 31st August 2009 06:43 GMT
James Pickett
Screen life #
I know this doesn't affect people who upgrade their phone/car/partner/life every year, but my experience of two small OLED displays is that they deteriorate quite quickly. I think it is significant that Kodak had a camera with one a year or two back, and now they don't...
This topic is closed for new posts.