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3GSM Congress, Cannes 2004. Day 1

Products from Siemens

Products from Sony Ericsson

Products from Samsung

Contents, all articles from 3GSM Congress

Another exhibition brought up a lot of unexpected things, unlike the previous years a lot of visitors were from Russia. Around 30 thousand visitors are expected. Judging by density of the Airport, and the fact that about 50% of my plane’s visitors were flying in order to attend the exhibition I am pretty sure that this number will be reached. Another sign which is untypical for Russia is that a lot of companies and their representatives decided to invite journalists to attend the exhibition, this didn’t happen last year. Russia plays more and more important role on today’s market, since it has the developing market with biggest potential.

In Nice’s airport, the first thing that witnessed the fact that there is an exhibition around were banners with Samsung D410’s pictures on them. The company made advertisement materials that were generously presented in all cities more or less related to the congress.

In Nice, the place where we stayed, Russian speech was heard, people were speaking about the exhibition (but not as much as in Germany at CeBIT), as well as crowds who were going to Cannes in the morning. We will describe our impressions from the city and other nearby things in a separate material, but for now we’d like to stop on the main events that occurred during Day 1, those booths that we managed to attend.

I’d like to make a small lyrical digression about some companies like Alcatel and Sagem. These company’s workers were truly amazed with the fact that their products are being photographed, and even tried to forbid us doing that. A ridiculously funny accident accured on the Sagem’s booth, model from Chinese factory Bird that has been on sale for more than a month in Moscow was snatched out from my hands. Company’s representative actually screamed and forbid taking pictures. I think by the time when I will arrive in Moscow, I will have to publish the whole model line for 2004-2005, otherwise the situation when you are going to meet people and filming materials (Sagem myX-7 review published month ago, the first night was here) doesn’t meet comprehension.

Siemens

Our beloved company Siemens prepared rather nice. The phones were placed under the glass, or in the representative’s hands. But we were not allowed to take pictures from our own hands; we were told that we must have this answer arranged with press service. I can say only one thing, paranoia sometimes has its own limits, these companies should not have been presenting themselves on the exhibition, and otherwise what’s the reason to hide their models?

However a few calls had solved the case, my friend came to the booth and showed such models as CF62 and CX65. And if the first one is not something special, but just a clamshell made in style and shape of Sony Ericsson, then second model is really worth mentioning, meanwhile second phone has 11mb of memory and will most likely become top-sale when it will be released in its segment. The design is targeted on casual user; it is moderate and will suit a lot of people. The screen can display 65k colors, but it is not as nice, as you could have expected, more like an enlarged display from Siemens SL55. My personal opinion was approved by compares with other phones; the phone is average in all specifications. I can be compared with such models as Motorola v180, v220 from those that will be released on the market in approximately same time. Its biggest advantage is large amount of memory, and this a significant advantage. Model’s price will be around 220 dollars, but company’s management is still unsure if they will be able to provide such price with the mentioned memory amount. Perhaps the price or the amount of memory will be changed.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson booth’s appearance was presented rather poor, in white tones. The phones that were located on the showcase looked thicker than they actually were. I was unable to find something new, company’s representatives were walking with Z1010 in their hands; this model will be released in March in most of European countries.

A stop and unintentional sight at one of Sony Ericsson’s representative who was working with his laptop (I know that peeking is not nice, but it just occurred like this). The notebook was displaying company’s perspectives on European market for current year. The fact that the company will release 6 models was mentioned. Let’s start from the oldest model, it is P1000 (Linea 3), the successor of smartphone P900. The main difference is support of new screen, WiFi, bigger memory amount and some other slight innovations. The model will be released in October, November and will cost around 750 euros.

Two models will be replaced as the exchange for Т610/Т630, I will not lie to you, the titles were not mentioned. One of them is known as T650, and its pictures as well as the specifications were published more than once. Advanced version of this model is more interesting, it will be released in September; the main difference is presence of memory extension slot MS Duo, larger amount of built-in memory and new screen type. This phone is capable of setting new quality standard from Sony Ericsson and become top-sale hit. Exactly this model (T670?) will become the most powerful solution from the company on the market.

In middle segment we will see T330, which is a simplified version of T610 with camera, but without Bluetooth. It will appear for sale in April, May.

The company doesn’t have single positions in budget segment, and doesn’t plan showing anything revolutionary either. The replacement for T105 will have color display, MMS support, nothing peculiar except for cute design. This model will be released by the end of spring. Considering that this is an ODM-product, it is hard to say weather this model be popular or no, there will be not enough shipments during the first time, but later on it will be demanded only on those markets, where price fight for consumer has just began.

On separate pages you will see pictures and information about products that are presented by separate companies. The company list will be updated daily, and new reports will be published. Don’t forget to visit this page or main page in order to see these updates. I promise there will be a lot of interesting facts.

Samsung

Samsung’s booth did not feature a lot of phones targeted for European market, besides earlier mentioned phone with slider D410, the review of which you can read on our web-site.

You can also find reviews of such models as Е600, Х450, Е700, they were reviewed long time ago. Model P510 is an interesting novelty with automatic opening (alike T200). The designers had finally come up with the way how the phone should look like by the beginning of this exhibition. The front panel was slightly changed. The review of this phone will be published on Friday, meanwhile look at the pictures.

Update for UMTS-model Z100 was introduced, it is still not on sale, although was introduced on last year’s CeBIT. The new phone has the size of Z105, the screen that can display 262000 colors is present as well; it looks very impressive. The camera is still VGA, phone’s size is 95x50x26 mm, the weight is 120 grams. In my opinion this model doesn’t have anything special, a typical representative of UMTS-family phones. The only fact that is worth to be mentioned is that phone’s interface was completely reworked; similar solutions will appear on GSM market after 6-7 months. Some interface pictures will allow you to find out what the new interface is all about more closely. Video playback is running very smoothly thanks to the new screen, this is a really pleasant introduction. A separate button for quick menu access was introduced; this is something between a similar optional button on Sony Ericsson phones and quick line of functions on LG phones.

SCH-V410 can play video files as well, as playing music and download similar files according to user’s interest. Everything is simple and rather interesting. By pointing out the musical possibilities, soft-keys that are similar to those that are placed on mp3 players are placed on the front side. The phone has 64-tone polyphonic ring tones, it sounds loudly and sonority.

Another CDMA-model SCH-V500 has built-in 1.3mpx camera. The ability to record video clips with sound (mpeg4) with overall length of two hours besides taking pictures is this phone’s peculiarity. The phone is pretty compact for its functions – 96x50x26 mm, 110 grams. It also have built-in mp3 player, external OLED display that shows up to 4 colors. The internal screen is TFT, 262000 colors; 64-tone polyphonic ring tones are here as well. The phone is really pleasant when you are using it, and I liked it very much.

And now the most important information about this model’s design. The external part can be positioned horizontally and vertically, the picture will change its position as well, an interesting solution that was not seen anywhere before. It is slightly similar to shooting mode in Motorola v80, but here the company has overcome itself, by making the work in both modes possible. Another peculiarity is that this model has two built-in stereo speakers, this is certainly innovation comparing to other manufacturer’s models.

SCH-W110 is the first third generation phone that can work in both networks at once WCDMA, CDMA2000. Built-in camera has VGA resolution, this doesn’t impress at all; however video telephony is supported. The ring tones are 64-tone, external display is STN, 65000 colors, internal screen is TFT, but it can display up to 262000 colors. The phone’s size is 98x52x24 mm, the weight is 120 grams. The phone looks typically, spinning upper part is not impressive; everything is too common. Most likely this model was made just for checkpoint.

People’s interest was caused by SPH-V4400, a handset with 2mpx camera. The camera’s module sizes did not allow to place it just like in other models, it is located on the phone’s butt-end, in the leaf (alike LG7100, where this solution was caused by other reasons). The phone allows taking pictures and short video clips of rather nice quality, that’s why developers decided to provide their product with more interesting displays according to quality position. Both screens the external and the internal are made on TFT-technology, and are able to display up to 262000 colors. The user can record up to two hours of video (mpeg4), plus additional MMC cards are supported. Other functions are basic, 64-tone polyphonic ring tones, other features. Despite all features, the phone’s size is not very big 92x44x24 mm, its weight is 98 grams.

The phone’s disadvantage can be mentioned its thickness. It doesn’t sink in ones hand, but steps out significantly. Original mechanism of opening and upper screen rotation is based on hinge, which is located on the phone’s top.

I was unable to stop myself from taking pictures of girls consultants who were on Samsung’s booth. They deserve same amount of attention, or even bigger than company’s products.

Finally, Samsung’s portfolio can be added with company’s developments of displays for mobile phones. Separate booth with accessories was located in another hall, but you could have seen screen’s true quality there. I will say the truth if such screens are released during this year, and most likely they will, most of users will be shocked by their quality and possibilities. We just have to wait for 2nd half year.

I will not post pictures of Samsung’s smartphones, the very same I500 is known for more than a year. But not everyone was able to find out that it was updated, from now on it works under MS Windows Mobile 2003, instead of MS Smartphone 2002. This means that the phone’s shippings will begin in April, May and will be direct competitor for other manufacturer’s solutions.

Contents, all articles from 3GSM Congress

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Alexander "Lexx" Zavoloka([email protected]);

Published — 24 February 2004

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