[Official] LG Electronics Introduces Symbian Powered LG JoY Smartphone

'Sgunna have to be some device to mount any kind of an N95 challenge ... <snigger>.

It could always do well on price though, N95 isn't going to cost peanuts.

krisse wrote:It could always do well on price though, N95 isn't going to cost peanuts.

True. I wish there was a Symbian for that mid-range market though, it's a pretty big one and would give a huge userbase for Symbian software.

krisse wrote:True. I wish there was a Symbian for that mid-range market though, it's a pretty big one and would give a huge userbase for Symbian software.

hmmm.... Release date is similar to n95, I wonder if it runs on s60v3 feature pack 1 as I'm pretty sure n93, which does run on feature pack 1, would be cheaper by the time this phone is released and who would want to miss out on 3d hardware acceleration that it provides.

but its good to see multiple Non Nokia s60 phones coming out, competition leads to innovation.

Yes, competition is good, and even if the two phones were identical it helps to have several different brand S60s because some people just prefer one brand over another.

I wonder if any US carrier will pick this up. I am sorely disappointed that N95 doesn't appear to be coming to US shores; yes, I know Mobile Review states Nokia plans to release one with similar feature sets, but that usually translates to phones that have been stripped of some functionality. I also realize I can still by the N95 when it's released, but it will cost a pretty penny without carrier subsidization. Maybe LG will make inroads where Nokia hasn't. I sure do like that N95 though!

(By the way, did you know America is getting the N75 exclusively? It won't be on sale anywhere else. Nokia seems to have done it specifically for the US market, hence the thin casing.)

The problem is the immense power that carriers have in America, most people there seem to just buy whatever their carriers choose to offer them and a lot of Americans don't even realise that they can use their SIM card in any GSM/3G phone. If a company in America wants to try and sell a phone without the permission of the carriers, many potential customers won't know they can use such a phone, and many of them also won't understand why they have to pay so much when their carrier's phones seem to be free. It means there's nowhere near as much competition on the hardware front as there is with, say, televisions or games consoles or mp3 players.

Yes, the phones cost more up front if you buy them away from a carrier, but you do still pay the same amount or more for the phone because American carriers charge quite high monthly fees. You're still paying for the phone, but it's in installments. They're not expensive for what they are, most new phones are about the same price as an iPod or a PSP, but have far more functionality.

But, as you say, carriers in America are notorious for stripping away functionality, in the past some of them even removed bluetooth from certain models because they didn't want people downloading free pictures or ringtones from their PCs. They did this again recently by insisting that Nokia remove the wi-fi support from the E62, presumably because they didn't want customers using wi-fi for free phonecalls or internet access.

Nokia's releasing a wimax phone some time next year, I assume they're not the only ones, and it should be interesting to see how this plays out, whether alternative wireless standards in America manage to take root and stop the main GSM/CDMA/3G carriers doing whatever they want. Goodness knows the American mobile market could do with a bit of competition.

Yes, the phones cost more up front if you buy them away from a carrier, but you do still pay the same amount or more for the phone because American carriers charge quite high monthly fees. You're still paying for the phone, but it's in installments.

Quite true. But sadly, we do not get a discount on those high fees if we are not buying a phone through the carrier. So in essence, if we do buy the phone from another source, we buy it twice. We pay up front, and then pay the "installments" you mention.

They're not expensive for what they are, most new phones are about the same price as an iPod or a PSP, but have far more functionality.

Without getting into the convergence debate, while this may be true to some extent, I already have both of those devices, and I am quite happy with each. Why buy them again? Or more to the point, why replace them with a phone that will not play any of the music I've purchased recently, or have anywhere near the game library, much less the nice controls.

Still, I was looking to replace my Palm PDA (mostly used for ebook and offline web, and some text editing, but it has never really replaced my old Psion) recently, and I thought the E61 or the E70 would work nicely. After looking at all my options, especially the screen and software options, I purchased a used Sharp Zaurus C760 for the short term and will re-evaluate things in the next year or so.

Anybody know where to see the specification sheet of that LG Symbian Phone? Post here. Thanks.

You do have to wonder about how committed LG and Samsung are to the new devices announced today as I can find no mention of them on either the LG or Samsung website!

langdona wrote:You do have to wonder about how committed LG and Samsung are to the new devices announced today as I can find no mention of them on either the LG or Samsung website!