Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Another device turned up in the post for us to take a look at and this one is the Samsung SGH i780 Windows Mobile Professional device. This phone impressed us from the moment we opened the box and switched it on. The form factor is fantastic combined with a great front facing Qwerty keyboard...The major difference with this and other square screen devices is the screen resolution. All previous square screen devices we have seen followed the 240 x 240 resolution but this phone has a 320 x 320 display which makes for a much better viewing experience."



It's good to see vendors Not Named Palm trying the square-screen format, but with a halfway decent resolution. Let's hope we see a North American-frequency-compatible-GSM or CDMA version of it come to this side of the pond. :)

"The i780 looks and feels gorgeous. It is made of a strong black plastic. The battery cover was simple to remove but a little tricky to put back on. Powering up for the first time, allowing the i780 to create all my data and voice setup then reveals a lovely Samsung today plugin. Everyone I have shown the i780 to, is amazed."



The i780 is a rare beast - it features a 320x320 screen, a first among Windows Mobile device. Software compatibility isn't as a big a problem as it is with WVGA screens, though I'd still expect some apps will have trouble especially games. As you can see, the reviewers were quite taken with the device and it certainly looks solidly built. The i780 features HSDPA, 2MP camera, BT, WiFi, FM radio, aGPS, and 128MB RAM, which is finally becoming a standard feature at least among higher level devices. Sadly for our US friends this one's triband GSM, though I wouldn't rule out Samsung coming up with a quadband variant. Read the review for more info, or hit up Shaun McGill's Samsung i780 blog for even more.