Samsung F490 reviewed: pales against iPhone & Viewty

Three days into the launch month for the Samsung F490 - the keyboard-less sibling of the F700 - and already Mobile-review have their opinion of the device available. As ever, they’ve done a comprehensive job with screenshots and coverage of pretty much all the F490’s features, comparing it to rivals from LG and, of course, Apple. Review author Eldar Murtazin establishes early on that the Samsung’s main rival is the LG KU990 Viewty, but the iPhone inevitably makes a comeback in his conclusion.

So what’s the score on the F490? Samsung will be disappointed to see that Eldar thinks it fairly middling - a niche product, at best, with predicted difficulty finding sales when compared with the Viewty’s more feature-packed camera (the LG phone has autofocus while the F490 does not), and coming out poorly when compared to the iPhone’s multimedia functionality.

“The F490 will enjoy reasonable sales on the market, but with no hopes for becoming a best seller, though. Being pushed by the LG Viewty and having to cope with the Apple iPhone (even though it is not official in most regions), the F490 won’t be able to unfold its full potential. So, the best way to look at it is one of the first Croix OS based phones – the impending solutions are going to be much more interesting” Eldar Murtazin, Mobile-review.com

via PhoneMag