Update: As someone commented, it seems the newer version of the Samsung Jet now has the middle button as a menu button. As I've already mentioned, the one I've reviewed is an early retail unit so it's possible that Samsung updated the firmware on the newer units. Firmwares are being updated by phone manufacturers regularly to address some issues and improve the phone's performance. If this is so, the middle button change is very welcome and will improve the Samsung Jet's user interface.
I finally got my hands on the new Samsung Jet, the phone that was launched on Samsung's unpacked event. I'm pretty excited about this phone since this seems to be the same phone as the Samsung i8000 Omnia II but only different operating system.
The Samsung Jet is a very sleek phone that is a magnet for fingerprint smudge. It has a 3.2 inch resistive, AMOLED touchscreen with 480 x 800 pixel resolution. The screen is definitely super clear and the colors just pop out at you. There are three buttons on the front, the middle button is not a directional pad but a back button which is really very annoying. Every phone in the market has the middle button as a menu button but Samsung decided to make theirs a back button. On the left side is the volume controls and on the right is the lock key and two volume-like buttons on the bottom right side. I kept pressing these buttons thinking it was the volume control but it turns out the top one is to bring up the Cube Interface while the bottom is the camera button. On the back is the 5 megapixel camera and again, the back side is much more of a fingerprint magnet than the front side. There's really nothing mind blowing about the design except of course, the Samsung Jet leaves its competitors behind with its super clear and vivid screen resolution.
When I first handled the Samsung Jet, I thought I was handling a capacitive touchscreen phone. No really, everything was very smooth and fluid, totally comparable with the iPhone. You can customize everything, from your menu screen to the transition effects when you swipe your finger left and right. Everything is really fast and almost better than the capacitive touchscreen on the Samsung Tocco Ultra Touch. The improved and fast UI may be attributed to the Qualcomm 800MHz processor on the device. There was a time when I experienced a hiccup though when there were too many widgets in the homescreen but it may be a glitch on the unit which is VERY early retail unit.
The other additional user interface feature of the Samsung S8000 Jet is the 3D cube interface reminiscent of the 3D interface on the LG Arena. The Samsung Jet on the other hand, makes use of all six side of the cubes so you can access your photo browser, music, videos, radio, games, and the internet. The Cube is really a fun interface and it's nice that there's a dedicated shortcut button for it. Of course, Samsung may have overkilled their user interface a bit, what with their widgets already offering shortcuts to everything else and now a cube interface, it would be hard for users to choose which interface they want but it's good that all of them are useable.
The Music application did not change much. It's still the same music application found on the Samsung Tocco Ultra Touch. When you tilt your phone to landscape mode when playing music, you will get a CoverFlow like interface. Music quality through the speakers is okay though very soft. It may be because of Samsung's DNSE technology. There's a 3.5mm headset jack onboard which is a really nice addition. Thank God that Samsung didn't feel the need to put the headset jack on their proprietary connection again. Music quality when using your headset is really great, I haven't tried using the Bluetooth Stereo headset though.
One thing I hate about the Samsung Jet S8000 is the onscreen keyboard. When you're in portrait mode, you don't get to choose between alpha-numeric keypad or QWERTY keypad, you can only choose alpha-numeric or handwriting recognition, however, when you tilt it to landscape mode, that's the time you'll find the QWERTY keyboard. This would be a pain for those who're used to typing messages in portrait mode.
The Samsung S8000 Jet has a 5 megapixel camera with LED Flash. It has everything like face detection, smile detection, autofocus, image stabilizer, geo-tagging etc. Image quality is okay in low light conditions (sample below) though images come out a bit washed but that's because I didn't tweak any settings, I just pressed the camera button and this was what came out. I wasn't able to take a sample picture outdoors but no doubt that if it can produce an okay looking picture indoors it would definitely do well outdoors when there's ample lighting.
I don't have a sample DivX file with me to play but the Samsung Jet can play DivX videos outright without the need to convert it. I have no doubt that the Samsung Jet would be able to handle DivX videos without any problem since the Samsung Ultra Touch was able to handle an 358MB DivX file without so much as a hiccup then with an 800MHz processor, 358MB DivX files would be a breeze. I'm looking forward to watching high quality DivX videos on the screen of this device.
I also like the WiFi application on the Samsung Jet. Like the Bluetooth Application found on the Samsung Tocco Ultra, all you have to do is turn on the WiFi by pressing the screen and the phone will find available hotspots.
Wow, if Samsung can make the Omnia II this fast and responsive as the Samsung Jet then I'll definitely like the Omnia II. The Samsung Jet is a very media-centric device. The user interface is something else, I really like the 3D cube and the new TouchWiz 2.0 interface especially the transition effects. I just do hope that the slight hang that I encountered while putting too many widgets on the homescreen is just a one-time glitch or it would otherwise hamper a perfectly great interface by Samsung. A good buy and a good alternative if you're tired of hearing all about the iPhone and you just want a simple phone that has good UI, camera, and media player.
Got mine from Voda. Great phone. Love the vivid screen.
UI is smooth and fast but I've also experienced an occassional hang. But that's okay, I really like the screen and camera.
Has got a very good browser. Read that it supports flash content.
Has got Browser based on Webkit. Read that it displays flash contents in the page. Does iPhone display flash content?
LOL. No, iPhone does not support flash content, and it does not let you browse five webpages too. This phone rocks.
Will O2 carry this? I hate that they're always promoting the iPhone. FYI, O2, the iPhone is not the only phone in town! Jeez.
Yep, looks like O2 and Orange will soon get the Samsung Jet. Looking at it for my next upgrade.
One of Samsung's better phones. Really fast UI and great for watching videos.
This phone looks great. I plan to take it, but my concern is divx codec. Does it support all divx files? I had bad experience with divx codecs on previous phones, since I had to convert files.
Yep, it supports divX files and Samsung phones that supports divx files don't seem to have any problems playing them. THe biggest file i've tried is around 700mb and videos plays great without any buffering.
I wonder if Samsung can put the Bada OS on this phone through a firmware update?
Any ideas if this phone will download information from a Mac?
Sure. you need to download the Samsung PC Studio though, install it on your Mac to upload pics to your PC.
I have this phone and wanted to see what reviewers thought of it, but I couldn't be bothered to read the rest of the review once I read the line "The middle button is a back button which is very annoying". This is true on other Samsung phones, such as the Tocco Lite but the middle button on this phone is indeed a menu button, which can be rather helpful in many situations (Getting to other apps whilst saving the webpage you are on and accessing functions whilst in-call).
@Anonymous Feb. 20. This review was made last June, before the Jet was available in the UK market. When I did it, the middle button is indeed the back button. Samsung probably didn't make it the menu button because as you can see on the pictures, there are four row icons on screen which includes the menu so putting a menu button on screen and on the middle button seems redundant so Samsung may have think it wise (back then) to just make the middle button as a back button.
Fast forward to 8 months later and probably with a little firmware update, the newer Jet Ultras probably have been updated with the latest version of touchwiz. Just an FYI but thanks for pointing that out.
Does it have Korean keyboard for the text messaging? or can you change the language of interface to Korean?
I am thinking of buying this phone but worry about the battery performance. How is it for the owners out there so far ?
I got this phone last week and have had to charge the battery every day then it went off , took it back got another yesterday , charged used it for one text went to bed and this morning no battery any one else got this problem ??
got mine on contract- ornage..
I bought this phone on 30th June this year. Everything works great, except youtube (picture is always scrambled, and the sound is distorted). Youtube clips are viewed via the phone's Video player, when the fact is, that the Jet is supported by JAVA/WAP, just like youtube is. Can anyone help?
@Christian. Phones without flash support on browser plays youtube videos via the built in player. Even the iPhone plays youtube videos using their built in player. The problem might lie with your internet connection. Try viewing youtube videos only through wifi.
Jet is not fast. Hangs sometimes.
Screen invisible in direct sunlight. Screen freezes when in warm humid weather. Very short Battery life when browsing net.
I do not recommended it.
net connect very very slow & battery life very worst..