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By Damian Koh
Oct 16, 2008

The INNOV8 marks the culmination of what Samsung wanted to achieve with the Symbian S60 platform, once the turf and playground of Finland-based Nokia. Even though the INNOV8 isn't the first S60 handset from the Korean phone-maker (there were a few others just before it), in terms of product positioning, we feel this is the one that's headed in the right direction and which could give Nokia's Nseries some serious competition.

Design

Like most recent Samsung handsets, the INNOV8 has a very solid feel to it, thanks to a right mix of plastic and metal (Duralumin) for the chassis. In the hand, the phone delivers a robust experience compared to the 8GB Nokia N95. There's one little nitpick. Although the choice of black adds a classy feel to the handset, its glossy front tends to pick up fingerprints easily.

Moving down from the 2.8-inch QVGA display, a cluster of buttons controls most of the phone's functions. When you slide it open, there's a second pair of shortcut buttons above the standard numeric keypad. The upside to this 3-by-5 layout is that it addresses one of the biggest problems of slider handsets where users' thumbs tend to hit the lower edge of the top slab.

The numerous shortcut keys and onscreen Active Standby bar (access to six shortcuts) also reduce the need to dive into most of the phone's menus after the initial setup, which will eventually work in the users' favor once they remember where each shortcut brings them. Although the D-pad and silver keys on the navigation cluster are not backlit, they are large enough such that it didn't affect the use of the phone even in pitch-black surroundings.

Like the Omnia, the INNOV8 has an optical joystick. This can be turned off in the settings. However, instead of a mouse pointer, it replaces pressing a directional button on a regular D-pad with a swiping motion. The joystick turns into a mouse pointer in the Web browser and that's where it truly shines. Otherwise, the conventional method of clicking on the D-pad is probably still the best way to scroll the menus. Elsewhere on the sides of the phone, there's a three-stop switch for toggling between various shooting modes, camera shutter, microSD expansion card slot (supports up to 16GB microSDHC media), volume rocker, a 3.5mm audio jack, and micro-USB port for connection both to the PC and charger.

In line with the NV-series of digital cameras, the INNOV8 has a blue ring on the circumference of its camera module. On the same side of the phone are the stereo speakers and LED flash. The only oddball when using the camera is the position of the volume rocker which doubles as a zoom lever. At its current position, which is on the opposite side of the shutter, we found it a little awkward to reach.

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