Samsung?

There was a time during and directly after high school where I used Minidiscs (and for a while, they were the best portable music solution).  Then, all of the sudden, nobody else seemed to be using CDs either--except they had all migrated to iPods.

I never bought a classic iPod.  I like the way the click-wheel works but I hated the look of them. They looked like retro washing machines.  I ended up buying a Cowan X5.

Now I find myself looking around and seeing Samsung everywhere.  True, the Galaxy Nexus looks cool, all my friends and family have heard me talking about it for the past few weeks, I'm sure.  Still, I haven't really considered Samsung past the coolness of that one phone and the Ice Cream Sandwich update.  I mean, they look cool, but I'm not into Android phones, so whatever.


In my mind, I realize that I've been seeing most Android manufacturers as the same, to a point.  HTC, Motorola, Samsung, etc, have been interchangeable in my mind.  If asked to pick an Android phone a week ago, I probably would just line them up according to screen size and grab the one on the larger end whose style I liked the most (probably a HTC, to be honest).

I mean, I know a little about them.  I know about their custom UIs.  When I had a HTC Touch Pro their custom UI was TouchFLO, and I hated it.  Now they have SenseUI, which I have never used but looks a little better.  Samsung has TouchWiz, and everybody says it's slow and laggy.  I don't really understand the need for a custom UI on Android.  Windows Mobile 6 without a custom UI bordered on unusable.  It was necessary if you wanted to sell a Windows Mobile smartphone to re-skin it.  Android isn't that bad, is it?

I have to admit, I must be missing something.  When my roommate's phone broke, he temporarily used a MyTouch, and kept complaining about the UI.  When his newer phone came back from the shop, he showed me the two phones in action side-by-side, and didn't I see how much better the new version is?  I couldn't see any difference.  I haven't used an Android device for more than a few minutes at a time, so I guess it all looks the same to me.

TouchWiz aside, I've started hearing more and more about Samsung phones.  I try to follow tablet news, but the Galaxy Tab line never really got my attention.  Maybe that's because I'm more interested in tablets with active digitizers, like HTC's Flyer and Jetstream, and Lenovo's Thinkpad Tablet.  If you're not interested in digital styli, at least you'd have to pass up something like the Tab for something like the Asus Transformer, with it's cool netbook dock, right?  Right?  If only the Transformer had an active digitizer...le sigh.

Anyway, less than a week ago this same friend made a comment that Samsung has suddenly become the new Sony.  I took this to mean they have good reputation, market penetration, and a nice, somehow classic style.  I doubt he was implying that Samsung was throwing piles of money away in order to win a format war.

I have to agree, Samsung has done a great job getting the Galaxy line out there.  To be honest, I much prefer angular designs to their rounded edge.  For example, I like the eeePC 701's beveled looks compared to the rounded 901.  I'd prefer a device to look like it'd double as a door stop rather than a skipping stone.  Look at the Nokia N8.  Okay, rounded, I know, but less skipping stone, more doorstop.  That's what I like, that's all I'm saying.

That said, I think I know what my next phone will probably be, and it will be a Samsung.  Probably.  I mean, it's not available in the US.  It looks like it may show up eventually, but no announcements have been made.  Okay you guys, stop asking, I don't want to jump the gun.  Why pine over it before it's even available to me?  Ok, you pressured me into it.  It's the Samsung Galaxy Note.  That's the phone for me.  For many reasons, some I've known, and some I just discovered as I was writing a post about it earlier today.  A post which I'll put up in a day or so.  Promise.

Till then,

David