Samsung F700 Croix is pretty slick, slightly disappointing
Posted by Will on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 6:54 pm under Samsung, Devices
So, I got a chance to play with the only Samsung F700 Croix in the US. Pictures weren't allowed, which goes without saying, so you'll just have to take my word as truth here. The Samsung Croix, hyped to be the baddest UI this side of the iPhone, is almost everything you've heard. The capacitance-based touchscreen is an incredible experience, but haptic-feedback is a bit wishy-washy. The screen doesn't respond to touch per se, the entire phone vibrates to indicate a touch-input - it's slightly disconcerting, but since the touchscreen isn't pressure-sensitive, the vibration feedback (pseudo-haptic) is somewhat useful.
The black, glossy finish of the device is as slick as it gets, and the spring-loaded slide mechanism is a pleasure to use. But, the real story here is the award-winning Croix interface. Talk about a break from the pack. The Croix UI implements cross-based interaction - slide up to increase volume, to the right to fast forward. In terms of intuitiveness, the Croix UI fully deserves the iF Design Award.
We'll try to get some live Samsung F700 Croix pics for you guys, but until then, enjoy this video from Slashgear.
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October 23rd, 2007 at 8:34 pm
[…] Intomobile they have a video of the Samsung F700 Croix which has a Flash Lite User […]
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Hmm.. frankly, the video is not convincing at all, and looks like more eye candy yet again, without much intuitivity improvement. But I may be completely wrong, hard to say based on just that.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:14 am
So whats the "slightly disappointing" part? You say the UI is great and the body is great. i doubt the unconvincing haptic feedback alone warrants a title that harsh when everything else works fine on first impressions.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
The Croix is good eye-candy, but the UI allows for fairly intuitive controls (like music playback).
It's definitely disappointing that Samsung decided to go with the "pseudo-haptic" feedback rather than screen-based feedback (maybe to keep the Croix thickness to a minimum?). The haptic issue is a slight disappointment.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Thanks for posting this Will… it's great to finally see some live footage of the f700.
Did you get a chance to browse the web with it? This is a major part of what I need from a phone plus a decent size & res screen for it. (iphone has an awesome screen but no 3G and bluetooth data transfer is crippled on it).
Also, I know this is a broken-record question but any news on the release date for the UK market?
Thanks again for the great post.
Mike
December 24th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
[…] screen should also complement all that touchy goodness with some tactile feedback (presumably that pseudo-haptic, click-based feedback that we saw on the Samsung F700 Croix). Details are slim at the moment, but […]
December 24th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
[…] screen should also complement all that touchy goodness with some tactile feedback (presumably that pseudo-haptic, click-based feedback that we saw on the Samsung F700 Croix). Details are slim at the moment, but […]
January 16th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
[…] lucky Europeans, they get all the good stuff. The pseudo-haptic feedback-toting Samsung F700, with that Award-winning Croix interface, has popped up with a new color scheme. […]
January 16th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
[…] lucky Europeans, they get all the good stuff. The pseudo-haptic feedback-toting Samsung F700, with that Award-winning Croix interface, has popped up with a new color scheme. […]
January 29th, 2008 at 5:18 am
[…] hand, Samsung may decide to run its proprietary Croix interface which they already use on F490, F700, U940. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the former option, […]
April 10th, 2008 at 5:19 am
[…] the stylish QWERTY slider, Samsung F700, obviously isn't enough for Vodafone. They want more and more they got. I'm talking about […]