Samsung Electronics has launched the QWERTY smartphone GALAXY Chat, adding to the company’s range of Galaxy phones, designed especially for socially-active users.
The GT-B5330 GALAXY Chat will be the company’s first smartphone powered by Android 4.0 ce Cream Sandwich and will come with a full QWERTY keypad.
GALAXY Chat will be available from this month starting in Spain and then gradually rolled out to Europe, Latin America, Middle East, China, Southeast Asia, and Southwest Asia.
The 112g device measures 118.9 x 59.3 x 117mm and packs a 3-inch touch-screen, Wi-Fi, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 3.0, a microSD card slot, 1200mAh battery and 4GB of internal storage able to be expanded with a microSD slot.
The entry-level Android 4.0 device comes preloaded with its own dedicated launch key, with ChatON communication service connecting with users from any phone platform into a single community, assisting in group chatting and instant messaging, including text, animations or images.
While the company has not revealed about the pricing, Galaxy Chat seems to compete with BlackBerry Curve 9220 which also has a dedicated key for BlackBerry Messenger.
"The Samsung GALAXY Chat sports a sleek and compact design that complements your style. Navigating the phone’s app menus is a breeze with more visual icons incorporating 3D effects, a fully customizable Favorites tray, and widgets that you can resize or reposition according to your preferences," Samsung stated in a blog post.
"You also have the ability to launch the camera or view your notifications directly from the lock screen; and multitasking is made even easier with features such as the ability to swipe apps to instantly dismiss them."
Additionally, the phone comes preloaded with Game Hub and Samsung’s AllShare Play that allows users to play multimedia from or to other connected devices.
It features a Quick Office application offers easy viewing and editing of a wide range of Office documents, enabling users to work with Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint and Samsung’s S Planner app allows managing schedules and more.
