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“Globally, we are number one for full-screen touch phones and recognize the importance of social networks in the modern mobile industry. Samsung’s target audiences are at the heart of its business strategy and the design and functionality of Samsung Genio Touch meets the needs of a highly digitally connected and style conscious youth audience – as does the affordable price point.”

And that right there, that last little sentence – almost like a stab in the back – is what makes us chuckle. That quote’s from some suit or other at Samsung that we can’t even be bothered cutting and pasting the name of and it’s why we sometimes have a little sad in our soul come these bleak Monday mornings. Let’s call him Johnny Fat Fingers, because no doubt this suit is so rich he overeats far too much and has to get his wide range of suits let out on a regular basis. Anyway, the point Johnny’s making up there, in relation to the Samsung Genio Touch, is that Samsung can’t get it out of their head that the only people who buy cheap phones are the ’style conscious youth audience.’ First of all, let’s have a little bit of sick in the mouth for that phrase in itself because you just know the only respect Johnny has for this youth is when he’s paying them to dance for him in seedy Korean night spots. But then the next assumption – that all these youth are poor – is just plain insulting. Just because you’re richer than some small nations, Johnny, doesn’t mean that everyone under the age of 25 who buys your phone is some ASBO-wielding, Dole queue scumbag. As does the affordable price point my arse.

Anyway, all of which bile should be set aside when you read this Samsung Genio Touch review, because as it shows the Genio is a decent little number, whatever your age or musical predilection. As does this official press release, if you can stomach more arse-speak from Johnny’s associates.

And if all of that’s a little too angry, just float away in the minute or so it takes you to watch this, frankly bizarre, video.

As though in some kind of Karmic re-aligning effort, watchphones seem to the be one of the things that mobile phone manufacturers are concentrating their efforts on at the moment. First we had the LG GD910 announced as hitting our shelves next month. And, obscenely expensive as it is, it looks pretty damn lovely. Now Samsung have slipped in there with their own effort, cheekily doing so with a release date that’s even earlier than the LG, and a price tag that’s less than half. Ouch. And the Samsung S9110 still seems like a stonker, with it’s TFT capacitive touchscreen, it’s Bluetooth and Outlook connectivity, and in many other things that this Samsung S9110 review will tell you about.

So, why Karmic, you ask? Well, we don’t think we’re going to be alone in claiming this, but: we haven’t worn a watch in over ten years, and pretty much the sole reason is because of mobile phones. Why, when you can carry a date/time/calendar sporting thing in your pocket, would you then also want to splash out for something to give you date/time (and nothing else) that you then strap to your wrist? Unless you really need those few accumulative seconds you’ll save each day by looking at it… So, after probably hitting the watch market all over the place for the last decade or so, it seems only fair that things like the Samsung S9110 start to bring back some love for the watch, right?

But, what’s that you say? This doesn’t make any difference at all, because the watchmakers still won’t be making any profit? And the mobile phone manufacturers will just be making even more profit.

Ah. Right. Yeah. Good point.

Oh well, sod it: line their pockets, go look at these Samsung S9110 deals. It’s not like they’re going to get any poorer.

We could try and tell you about the Samsung S5600 in a serious way. About how it is an update of the Tocco Lite, one of Samsung’s most successful ever phones. About how the S5600 is more or less the same phone, but with the additions of 3G and GPS capabilities, and with a slightly improved camera. We could tell you the phone still uses the great TouchWiz interface. We could tell you the phone still uses the same music player. We could point you in the direction of these great Samsung Preston deals. Or suggest, perhaps, that you visit Samsung’s official page. Or that you read this Samsung Preston review. Or we could…

BUT WE DON’T WANT TO DO ANY OF THAT! We just want to point at this thing and laugh like some demented bully. Look at its silly name! Preston! Preston! This phone is called Preston. Ahahahahahahhaa.

Because, come on. Come on! You honestly couldn’t find a better word, Samsung? Preston was the word you found when you were flipping through the OED, the word that you thought summed this thing up the best. Even looking at the other versions of this very same phone you can find so many other words that make sense. The Vodafone exclusive version of the same phone (the Preston is for Orange only) is called the Blade, for example. Or a similar model in India is called the Star. Whereas the American cousin as unpacked in the video below is the equally celestial Haley. Did those Koreans think that we have some kind of special pride in Preston? Did they think we’d see this name and go, ah! Preston! The place where, erm, they have a mediocre football team and it rains a lot, yes, that’s exactly the kind of place I want to be associated with, where do I sign up? And so on and so forth. Baffling times, dear reader, baffling times. If you have any insights as to where this name came from, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Do you think, when you read about a new businessphone: oh wow, look at that, a little business inside a phone. I wish they could make it more like an actual business. Maybe give it some little tiny employees to work inside and perhaps exploit and work for minimum wage. No, you don’t.

Do you think, when you read about a new smartphone: oh wow, look at how downright smart that phone is. I’m going to make mine take an IQ test and then get it to do all my tax returns. Again, no, you don’t.

Then why is it that manufacturers keep on with this futile attempt to make their cameraphones into actual cameras. The new Samsung Pixon 12, for example, which boasts more megapixels than just about every other actual camera on the market. This despite the fact that most of those megapixels will be redundant because unlike, say, a real camera, they’ll be crammed onto the tiny surface behind the tiny lens that is the tiny cameraphone’s camera. We’re not saying the Pixon 12 is a bad cameraphone, far from it. But, it is not, never has been, and never will be an actual camera. But we can hear those annoying voices in our head already, those so called friends waving the thing in our faces and telling us who their Pixon 12 is better than our Cybershot, or our digital SLR because it has more megapixles. AAAHHHHHHhhh, make them stop already, those nasty voices in our head. What you have there is a cameraphone – a phone, with something pretending to be a camera in it. Something that should be for taking pictures of people falling over drunk, or snapping a quick memory of someone before you pass out, or doing any number of similarly low key things.

The Pixon 12 is, in fact a semi-decent cameraphone, as this Samsung Pixon 12 review tells you. Just don’t go around pretending it’s anything else. Please. Or we’ll get very, very mad indeed.

We feel bad for HTC. They were, officially, without question, the first manufacturer (in the UK at least) to release a phone sporting the Google Android OS with the HTC Magic. However, the magic of the Magic seemed to be that it, well, pretty much disappeared. Most likely this is because most people, when you saying the word HTC, look at you a bit funny and wonder whether you’re trying to sell them some kind of new party drug. Something we think might just have to do with HTC rocking a 0.16% share of the phone manufacturers market.

Luckily for Android’s future fame (something that’s going to start coming on thick and fast any week now), the Samsung i7500 is a phone made by one of the top three global phone manufacturers, and it’s not a bad little phone at all. There’s all the usual AMOLED touchscreen, 5MP camera, 3.5mm jack and other stuff going on here that we’ve no need to bore you with (check out this Samsung i7500 review for all the specs), but it’s the OS that is the real story here. Finally you can have all those Google goodies (that have one-by-one crept into your life without you even realising) in the palm of your hand. Whether you’re a Gmailer, YouTuber, Google Mapper, Google Calendiser (trust us, it’s a word) or whatever other kind of Google, the Samsung i7500 is going to make all those already efficient and wonderfully simple parts of your lives even more accessible and so all the more better.

The chances are the i7500 is going to be very quickly overtaken by other even more streamline / powerful / sexy Android-boasting phones, but for a short time at least, it’s going to be able to bask in the glory of being the first truly Android phone this country has seen. Check out the video below for a great little taste of what’s on its way. And anyone want to buy some HTC?

As a Honda ad asked us recently (and rhetorically): isn’t it nice when things just work? Well, yes it is. And with the Samsung Jet S8000, Samsung will soon (although it’s not yet confirmed exactly when) be releasing something that doesn’t just work, but works very nicely indeed.

The main thing of note is the inclusion of the latest version of the TouchWiz software, the user interface that is now featuring in all of Samsung’s touchscreen releases. And for good reason: it’s intuitive, fully customisable (widgets wherever you want them) and, well, downright enjoyable to get to grips with. The sheer fact it was designed from scratch with touch users in mind (rather than being a shoddy conversion from a non-touch interface) tells you all you need to know. And thanks to the 800mhz processor (one of the best you’ll find on a mid-ranger), you can rest assured that whatever tasks you set of this thing it’s going to handle with aplomb. So whether you’re recording video, browsing up to five tabs at once on the internet (with another new addition – the Dolfin browser), uploading pictures to your Facebook using the handy ‘communities’ features, the Samsung Jet is going to handle it all.

And, not only is it nice when things work, it’s also nice when they look mighty fine too. And the Samsung Jet is no slouch in the design department either. In fact, we can’t really think of a better phone in this category when it comes to sheer pleasure in carrying/using. So, all-in-all, looks like Samsung are on to a winner with this little thing. Keep those ears pinned back for a release date, and in the meantime have a read of this Samsung Jet Review, and a look at this video:

It’s all in the name. Even if the name is one of those silly, long, pretentious and ridiculously numbered names that mobile phone companies are so fond of. Why not just the Samsung Omnia 2? Why the need for that full Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 moniker? Especially when this is the follow-up to last year i900…

Anyway, the important point here is that of all the new range of Omnia phones Samsung announced just last week, this is the one that they’re declaring as the second, the sequel, the follow-up, the ‘II’. The others, while great in their own right, are merely offshoots or spin offs from the main act. The Samsung Omnia 2 is the fully-spec’ed, high-end daddy of the new range, and it looks like it’s going to be a worthy follow-up indeed (kind of like an Aliens; rather than, say, a Matrix Reloaded).

The main talking point has to be the screen, and so it should be. Samsung have gone all out to make this something special, starting, in a pretty obvious but nevertheless impressive way, by making it the biggest touchscreen ever. Yep, that’s right, it’s 3.7” screen is the biggest ever on a mobile phone device. Not a bad opening, we think. And with the AMOLED technology making it brighter, sleeker and more contrasty than most screens you’ve ever seen too, this thing definitely has you hooked from the off. But like any good film, the Samsung Omnia 2 manages to sustain interest throughout. With the best possible specs out there – 8.1 MP camera, 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for 7.2Mbps Web browsing/downloading, Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgrading to 6.5 for free once that’s released – it’s also as good a smartphone as you can hope for. Fair enough, come actual release date (still unconfirmed, but we reckon sometime early autumn) these stats might not look quite so good, but we doubt they’ll be far beaten. (Check out this Samsung Omnia 2 review for a full rundown of the features.)

So beautiful, bold and a bit of a show off it might be, but like any good actor, this thing has the skills and credentials to back it all up. Check out this trailer for a sneak peek of what’s to come.

It’s all in the name. Even if the name is one of those silly, long, pretentious and ridiculously numbered names that mobile phone companies are so fond of. Why not just the Samsung Omnia 2? Why the need for that full Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 moniker? Especially when this is the follow-up to last year i900…

Anyway, the important point here is that of all the new range of Omnia phones Samsung announced just last week, this is the one that they’re declaring as the second, the sequel, the follow-up, the ‘II’. The others, while great in their own right, are merely offshoots or spin offs from the main act. The Samsung Omnia 2 is the fully-spec’ed, high-end daddy of the new range, and it looks like it’s going to be a worthy follow-up indeed (kind of like an Aliens; rather than, say, a Matrix Reloaded).

The main talking point has to be the screen, and so it should be. Samsung have gone all out to make this something special, starting, in a pretty obvious but nevertheless impressive way, by making it the biggest touchscreen ever. Yep, that’s right, it’s 3.7” screen is the biggest ever on a mobile phone device. Not a bad opening, we think. And with the AMOLED technology making it brighter, sleeker and more contrasty than most screens you’ve ever seen too, this thing definitely has you hooked from the off. But like any good film, the Samsung Omnia 2 manages to sustain interest throughout. With the best possible specs out there – 8.1 MP camera, 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for 7.2Mbps Web browsing/downloading, Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgrading to 6.5 for free once that’s released – it’s also as good a smartphone as you can hope for. Fair enough, come actual release date (still unconfirmed, but we reckon sometime early autumn) these stats might not look quite so good, but we doubt they’ll be far beaten. (Check out this Samsung Omnia 2 review for a full rundown of the features.)

So beautiful, bold and a bit of a show off it might be, but like any good actor, this thing has the skills and credentials to back it all up. Check out this trailer for a sneak peek of what’s to come.

One of the worst things about all the touchscreen phones we’ve come across recently is that too many seem to have had their UI’s imported from earlier, none-touchscreen versions of the phones. This most often means that while you’re using your fingers or thumbs to navigate, you still aren’t convinced the phone you’re using is a full touchscreen device. Not so with Samsung, who’s nifty TouchWiz interface is now up to version 2.0 and is improving in leaps and bounds. Designed from scratch with the touchscreen user in mind, it allows all your tapping, scrolling and dragging to feel as naturally in tune with the phone’s function as possible.

With TouchWiz 2.0 at its core then, the Samsung Omnia Lite is a phone we think a fair number of people are going to get a huge amount of satisfaction from. Basically a slimmed down version of the other Omnia series phones, the lite still gives you pretty much all the smartphone functions you could need, just not at the very highest specs. And we’re all for it, because unlike its chunkier relations, the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 is a supermodel thin 13mm, a not-too-heavy-considering-the-decent-battery 100g, and shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. And it also excels in the looks department, with a choice of two bold colour designs to set off the standard brushed metal and cool cellular pattering that’s standard.

So for all the GPS’ing, WiFi’ing and 3G’ing you’d expect from a smartphone, but in a much neater package, the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 could well be the phone for you. The only bad news is it’s not due out for some time – we’re currently hearing October but that might well change, so keep yours eyes peeled for more updates. And why not pass a little bit of that time reading this Samsung Omnia Lite review.

Jekyll and Hyde. That’s all someone needed to say: Jeckyll and Hyde. Someone, somewhere at some point should have just yelled those words out at any of the early meetings Samsung must have held about the upcoming Samsung Omnia Pro. And why? Well, it’s being reported that the Omnia will some with two UI’s. That’s right, two User Interface’s for you to choose from, or even switch between at the press of a button. One, tentatively called “pro” will be geared towards business users, making internet, email and other so-called professional features more easily accessible. The other, “media” will streamline all the, well, media options (video, music, etc.).

Now, far be it from us to judge something before it’s even been released, but we judge this a terrible idea! We’re obviously sure which of these two UI’s will be the evil one of the two, but you just know that one will be poorer. And you also know that not only will one be worse than the other, you will also without doubt that if only Samsung had allocated all their tech geeks / developers / graphic designers / etc. to all work together on one all-encompassing UI for the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610, then they would have produced a far, far better phone. Divide and conquer? More like divide and dilute, because no matter how good either is, we just can’t see how this is a good idea.

Anyway, enough ranting. The phone still has a kick-ass screen (3.5”, and incorporating some power-friendly, ultra-bright technology that should look mighty impressive), a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and all the other usual smartphone suspects, and it might be that you are a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde yourself, that the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 will satisfy your needs to be a suit-wearing “pro”-UI-using person by day, a ripped jeans, “media”-UI using type by evening. But we think you’ll be in the tiny majority even if that is the case. Check out a Samsung Omnia Pro review here, or watch the video below for a sneak peek of that screen.