Samsung confirms a Tegra-based smartphone is in the works, all other details shrouded in mystery

NVIDIA's Tegra chip has shown itself to be quite a gem, especially in the field of augmented reality zombie destruction. Looks like Samsung agrees with that sentiment, and has confirmed that it's currently developing a smartphone with the powerful processor. That's not a lot to go on, but knowing the capabilities of the CPU, we're excited. It's probably safe to assume an AMOLED touchscreen is a given, as well as a plethora of TouchWiz widgets, but whether or not the phone goes with Windows Mobile or Android is still a mystery. A recent rumor suggested one of the "top five" smartphone makers would be releasing a $199 GSM-based Tegra device by year's end -- no indication if these two reports are one in the same, but we'd love to see what Sammy has in store sooner rather than later.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 24th 2009 6:46PM]

This is juicy. Android, Tegra, physical QWERTY? That *would* be my top choice for a phone, should it happen. I'm glad a lot of others are with me on that. Why is everything pure touchscreen, even the Xperia X3? tf?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 24th 2009 6:50PM]

damn- a decently hot phone with the specs to back up today's custom UI overlays! how long do we have to wait for this one?

[Taylor Posted Jul 24th 2009 6:53PM]

Before the end of the year.

[Wesley Posted Jul 24th 2009 6:58PM]

Yeah Samsung Tegra with AMOLED screen, that looks just like the Omnia Pro in the pic with slide out qwerty, but bigger screen, lots of memory, good camera from omnia hd with xenon flash and on Winmo 7 thanks. With Winmo, cause it will be so much more useful due to the apps available e.g. could be used as a sat nav when driving, using good navigation software that Android does not support and because battery life will be so good, even more so with the AMOLED screen. Winmo 7 should be hugely better than 6.1 and made for touch e.g finger friendly, no stylus needed and capacative screen.

Half of the posters need to get updated with what Tegra is and can do before posting, you bunch sound like a bunch of clueless idiots - must be Apple fanboys.

[Levi Posted Jul 24th 2009 8:20PM]

I agree on all fronts. Tegra is impressive, and the people busy bashing it are brainless. Bashing the device because it can do something they don't care about... they don't think for two seconds and realize it will be powerful enough to do everything they do on their precious device at the very least.

I had an iPhone for about a year, tried a WinMo 6.1 device for a week, and really didn't like it. There was plenty about it I liked, but it wasn't an enjoyable overall experience. I have high hopes for WinMo 7 though, mostly because I think MS is going to have to work pretty hard to make something awesome in order to compete in this market. They need to make something that will function as well as WinMo always has for business users, as well as presenting an attractive, fast, and anjoyable experience for the average consumer. It's gotta be flashy, basically. I imagine it will have equal support for capacitive and resistive screens, as there will be business users who will always prefer the accuracy of the stylus. It will probably look muuuuch nicer than previous versions, and hopefully have a whole realm of customization that iPhone OS lacks (I don't know how Android does on this front).

[Zodiac Posted Jul 24th 2009 7:01PM]

What kind of battery life you get? One hour? :)

[Wesley Posted Jul 24th 2009 7:09PM]

By the looks of your posting history Draco, you are one of those apple fanboys that I mentioned in my earlier post:)

[Levi Posted Jul 24th 2009 8:14PM]

nVidia claims up to ten hours of HD playback. Apple also claims the 3GS has longer battery life than the 3G... point being, we'll see. IF they can even come close to their claims, it should be an improvement.

[INNUENDO 64 Posted Jul 24th 2009 7:02PM]

I really like the design approach samsung has taken with this phone and the i7500

[Levi Posted Jul 24th 2009 8:22PM]

I'm kind of hoping HTC re-releases the Hero, or releases a revision 2 or something, with a Tegra or comparable processor. The Hero looks really nice, but the concerns that Topolsky had with the phone were the concerns I had predicted, and can't stand. Anytime a device lags, skips, freezes a bit, or has choppy frame rates, I sigh. Every time. So I'm hoping Tegra should fix these gripes, and more companies start using them.

[Kaitian Posted Jul 24th 2009 9:46PM]

What's the B7610 picture on there for? Is that what it'll look like when Tegra is finalized?

[prithviraajhotmailcom Posted Jul 25th 2009 1:06AM]

One basic problem with Samsung , as seen in various user comments , is that of incoming calls esp. second calls breaking original calls and the volume getting reset to mid level in the middle of a call ... call related issues. Samsung should test , triple test , the call capabilities, sms and tactility before they release this super fab beast to give a run for their own brand of netbooks ;-)