With all the Samsung phone announcements this week, you’d think they didn’t just have a launch event in London. But in addition to the Galaxy S3, they’ve also taken the wraps off the Focus 2 for AT&T and two more phones. The latest: the Omnia M and SHV-E170.
At least initially, neither is destined for U.S. shores.The E170 is arguably the more existing of the duo, and it’s launching in Korea. It sports the same dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor as the Galaxy S2 HD LTE, though that’s where the similarities end. The E170 has a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display and 5MP rear camera (as opposed to 4.6 inches and 8MP), and Android 4 instead of 2.3. Other specs haven’t been revealed yet, but Korea Telecom says that the E170 will include a high capacity battery.
The Omnia M is heading to Europe, and looks to be a re-worked Focus 2. The $50 LTE unit impressed Russell during his brief hands-on, but it does ship with a 1.4GHz chip — compared to a 1GHz processor in the Omnia M. Though Samsung has bumped the processor back, they’re still including a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and the same 5MP rear-facing camera. LTE has also been pushed aside in favor of HSPA, and there’s a reduced-capacity battery on board as well. The switch from LTE to HSPA should make enough of a difference that the 250mAh drop won’t be too noticeable.
One more feature worth noting is the Omnia M’s scant 384MB of RAM. That means your Windows Phone experience will be somewhat limited, but this is clearly a phone that’s aimed at first-time smartphone buyers.
