Samsung has launched two Galaxy S WiFi smart players , featuring 4 inch and 5 inch screen-sizes respectively. These media players (or mini tablets as you wish to look at it), are based on Android 2.2 with a 1GHz Processor and supports WiFi. These are now set to directly compete with iPod touch.
What makes it a tablet and not a smartphone is the absence of support for mobile network. These two devices are similar to what iPod is in Apple’s product portfolio, where they have iPhone based on iOS and iPod on same OS platform worth every other feature except calling.
This means that Galaxy S WiFi will be directly in competition with the iPod and if so it is expected to be priced similarly. The iPod Touch 32GB is currently sold in the Indian market at 32GB at Rs 15,500, and we expect Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 to sell at couple of thousand less and the 5.0 at the same price.
The Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 will be launched in Russia first while Switzerland will be the first country to get Galaxy S WiFi 5.0. Both the tablets are expected to be launched in other countries, including India, later.
“With the GALAXY S WiFi 4.0 and 5.0, we’re delivering a rich, immersive experience for multimedia enthusiasts.” said JK Shin, president and head of Samsung’s mobile communications business.
He added, “A large, high-quality screen, a world of fun and useful applications and great communications services make this a powerhouse device at an affordable price.”
Samsung Galaxy S wifi, however, support VoIP (video as well) calling apart from being an audio and video player (with multi-codec support). It has also the capability of playing games, downloading applications, web surfing and doing some content editing.
Samsung is truly hoping to challenge the dominance of iPod in the personal media player market with these two products. And it is being seen as a challenge from the Android camp. While Android has already gained the top slot in smartphone arena, it will be interesting to see how it performs in this space.
Apart from the features already mentioned above, the device will feature, GPS, 3.2 Megapixel rear and front VGA camera, Google mobile services such as Gmail, Google Talk and YouTube.
Another very important benefit of Galaxy S Wifi over iPod is the fact that it will come with 8/16 GB memory, plus mircoSD slot.