Wonder what the next batch of Galaxy phones will start looking like after the S3? The Samsung Galaxy Chat should give everyone a good idea, and the good thing is, it isn’t expected to cost as much. The specs are pretty basic, but impressive where they need to be. It has a 3 inch capacitive touchscreen at 320×480 resolution, which is great when you consider that the ever-popular Galaxy Y features a 3 inch screen at a dinky 240×320 resolution. The fact that the Galaxy Chat features an even sharper screen than the Galaxy Y is made more impressive when you realize that it is meant to be a messaging phone. In addition to the full touchscreen, there are 3 capacitive keys right underneath the screen for basic navigation (menu, home and back), and a full hardware QWERTY keyboard. The thing I like the most? It runs ICS out of the box.
Another thing to note about the Samsung Galaxy Chat is that it comes with Nature UX, which is the same UI layer that’s on the S3. Galaxy phones originally came with TouchWiz UI for the longest time, and even came on their WinMo, Bada and lower end feature phones like my trusty Samsung Star. TouchWiz was one of the less offensive skin layers that manufacturers tend to use, but it’s time for a refresh, and it’s nice we’re seeing a few things trickle down from the Galaxy S3.
The camera is just a 2mp shooter without a flash, which is okay since this is being targeted as a messaging phone, not a camera phone. Connectivity is covered with WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and 3G. It should also come with 4Gb of internal storage (expandable to 32Gb via MicroSD) and a 1,200mAh battery. That smallish battery capacity concerns me, since the Galaxy Y comes with the same size battery while using fewer hardware components. No word yet on what the CPU, RAM and ROM are going to be, but since it’s running ICS, expect it to have at least a 1Ghz CPU and 512Mb of RAM.
Those who want a QWERTY smartphone but prefer Android over Blackberry should be pretty happy with the Galaxy Chat once it arrives. Not only does it have a larger screen than most messaging-oriented phones, but it’s also in portrait orientation, which is what most phone apps were optimized for. The Galaxy Chat is scheduled for a July release beginning in Spain and will gradually be rolled out to the rest of Europe, Latin America, Middle East, China, Southeast Asia (that’s us!), and Southwest Asia.
Sources: Engadget, Samsung and Gdgt.com
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