AT&T launches the almost-Omnia Samsung Eternity
By Will Park on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 3:54 PM PST In AT&T, Announcements, New Hardware, Samsung
Samsung sure knows how to milk current handset trends. The latest touchscreen craze has Samsung crunching out smartphones of all sizes and form-factors for almost every imaginable demographic. The Samsung Eternity from AT&T (NYSE: T) is just such a handset.
AT&T has gone live with their Omnia look-alike, the Samsung Eternity. With its 3.2-inch touchscreen (with pseudo-haptic feedback that vibrates the entire device with each touchscreen “key-press”), 3 megapixel camera, 3G data connectivity, and the TouchWIZ UI running point, the Samsung Eternity reminds us of the Windows Mobile-powered Samsung Omnia. But, with Samsung’s own mobile OS under the hood and a lack of WiFi connectivity, the Samsung Eternity is definitely not going satisfy the Windows Mobile loyals out there.
AT&T is offering the Samsung Eternity for $149.99 when purchased with new two-year contract and after rebates are applied.
Similar to the Vu, the Samsung model isn’t described as a smartphone and so will compete more against high-end media phones. Samsung will bring its in-house operating system with a TouchWiz layer rather than use Windows Mobile like some of its touch devices. The leak would have the Eternity ship in November for $149 with a two-year plan. There’s already a fans forum for this at http://www.Samsung-Eternity.com check it out folks.
This phone is a lot of hype anbd overpriced for what you get. I foolishly was suckered into buying this instead of the iphone when my local wireless dealer wasn’t carrying apple products yet (lame). For $220 bucks I have had to replace this phone already in three months. It was represented to me as a comperable smart phone to the blackberry but obviously is not! Contstant lock ups, not having a good operating system to use app’s with, and a lousy representation of its capabilities makes this a loser in my book.