Hands on with Samsung's i830

Yup, the i830 is really really real, and besides having a slightly more touchable, tactile keyboard, there was really almost nothing we could tell about it that was different from its "predecessor," the i730 (well, it is 0.9-ounces heavier than the i730, but who's counting?). Just a refresher, this is the "updated" version of their QWERTY Pocket PC phone that (still) runs Windows Mobile 2003 SE, and has EV-DO, 64MB RAM and 128MB flash memory, a QVGA display, SDIO slot, and stereo speakers -- but this time the WiFi is out the door in favor of a GSM radio so you can get ya businessman on worldwide.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2006 9:55AM]

Great! Now I can get screwed by more than one wireless carrier at the same time!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2006 10:31AM]

What you say?....

WiFi out the door. What are those people thinking.



So much for it doubling as a Voip handset.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2006 12:41PM]

I've got the i730 and its a great pda/phone. I use the WiFi all the time since I don't have EVDO in my area. Looks like they also removed the dual cameras that were on the prototypes.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2006 1:09PM]

Nice hardware, but Windows on my mobile? No thanks.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2006 2:01PM]

Wow, what a completely weak and pointless upgrade. No Wifi!? That was one of the selling points. GSM radio? Uh... who cares? And STILL running WM2003?

Bah!

I was waiting for the "next gen" i730, but screw it. I'm just gonna get the O.G. one.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 5th 2006 12:01PM]

I've got a friend who attempted to use the Verizon version of this phone. Said that after a few days, he liked the PDA functionality, but thought that the phone implementation was horrible - and therefore returned it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 6th 2006 4:27PM]

OK, I am one of those rare international business types and I'm looking to trade my i700 for a GSM compatible PDA phone. Since the i700 doesn't do WiFi, I won't miss it.



...and I don't want the camera. I own a real digital camera and the one in the phone just requires me to surrender it when I go visit customers.



But at $700-$800, I think I'll live with what I have for a while.