Samsung’s 8 megapixel i8510 INNOV8

Featured, Mobiles, PDAs, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung David Peter

Samsung’s new 8 megapixel camera equipped i8510 INNOV8 is ready to make a big splash. This phone has hard core camera credentials, 16GB of internal storage, a big QVGA display, GPS, and just about every goody one would expect to find on an S60 smartphone. In short Nokia has got a Competitor. In terms of basic design, the Samsung i8510 INNOV8 will feel familiar to anyone that has used a Nokia N95 or N96 recently. The INNOV8 sports a very similar slider form factor, has a large 2.8″ QVGA resolution display, and a camera located on the back. Very Nokia like. But there are a few items that show that Samsung has chosen the road less traveled for some of its solutions. For starters, the d-pad controller has an optical joystick controller embedded in it.

i8510_innov8Another non-Nokia touch is the automatic camera lens cover that opens and closes as needed when the camera is activated. It even closes when the camera’s settings screen is accessed. The keypad is also quite un-Nokia. It is basically a flat metal sheet with raised finger guides on it. It offers good tactile feedback while helping to keep the phone overall thin. And while the i8510 is no competition for a RAZR, its 112mm x 54.5mm x 17.5mm (4.4″ x 2.1″ x .7″) dimensions are completely pocketable. Some might find the phone’s 149.7g (5.3oz) weight to be a bit high, but the INNOV8 feels very solidly built, which makes the extra heft easier to accept.

In addition to the normal left and right softkeys and the call send and end buttons that surround the d-pad, there are a number of other buttons on the phone. The silver button to the left of the d-pad brings up the main menu and can be held down to call up the task manager, which can be used to kill off running apps. The right hand silver button brings up the media app, which provides access to photos, videos, music, and other media. The M1 and M2 keys on the slide out keypad can be customized by the user and set to launch any application or web bookmark that they desire. By default, M1 launches the music player and M2 brings up the RealPlayer video viewer. Price of this mobile is expected to be $580 USDs.