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Hands On With Samsung's Tizen Phone

Samsung showed off a prototype of its forthcoming Tizen-based smartphone at MWC. We got a chance to check it out.

By Alex Colon
February 27, 2013
Hands On With Samsung's Tizen Phone

BARCELONA - The wait for a Tizen phone isn't over yet, but it's now a little closer to becoming a reality. Last night, at a swanky restaurant overlooking the heart of Mobile World Congress, Tizen officially launched version 2.0 of its open source mobile operating system. We also caught a glimpse of the man behind the curtain, in the form of a prototype Tizen phone from Samsung.

From a hardware perspective, Samsung's Tizen phone is nothing we haven't seen before. The size, shape, and plastic build all bring to the mind the Samsung Galaxy S II . It has a nice, big display and a thin design, but so do most phones nowadays. Samsung assured us this isn't final hardware, which I hope is the case, because right now it doesn't stand out.

On the software side, the home screen is a collection of icons, a la Apple's iOS. On the demo unit, there was only one home screen, which I suspect is because there aren't enough apps to warrant a second page. The OS still looks and feels very young, but some of the core functions, like the Web browser, phone dialer, and camera are in place.

There's a sliding lock screen, along with a pull-down notifications and settings screen that are straight-up Android. Ditto the camera app, which, if you look at the slideshow, is almost identical to what you get on a stock build of Android. It was also pretty slow. Now, this build of Tizen is only weeks old, but I experienced a lot of lag in pulling down that notifications menu, not to mention uncomfortably long load times for apps.

Speaking of apps, there weren't many on display. Tizen showed some handsets running Vimeo, some with Fruit Ninja, and others with Need for Speed, but there wasn't much else. Representatives explained that mobile ecosystems are being equated with apps nowadays, and with HTML5, Tizen can put a huge number of apps at your fingertips. Still, there were just those few on display, despite claims that it should only take a few hours to port an app over from another platform.

MWC Bug Art

Although Tizen has been kicking around for some time, it looks like the new HTML5-based Firefox OS will beat it to the market in the form of phones like the ZTE Open and Alcatel One Touch Fire. Both OSes are meant to to power lower-end devices, although the Samsung prototype we got our hands on is certainly of a higher quality than either Firefox phone.

On top of showing off the new OS, Tizen also announced that Huawei has signed on as a partner to offer devices in addition to Samsung, and that the first Tizen phones will be available through Orange later this year. When pressed for more details on the release date, a representative explained that Tizen "is in no rush." Judging from the demo we saw last night, that's probably a good thing.

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About Alex Colon

Executive Editor, Reviews

I’m PCMag’s executive editor of reviews, steering our coverage to make sure we're testing the products you're interested in buying and telling you whether they're worth it. I've been here for more than 10 years. I previously managed the consumer electronics reviews team, and before that I covered mobile, smart home, and wearable technology for PCMag and Gigaom. 

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