TV, cellphones & Adel Tamano

MANILA, Philippines - I love cellphones and any gadget that is small enough to put into my already overcrowded bag. And, believe me, I don’t carry a small bag. There are quite a few of these kinds of gadgets.

Let’s see — almost all cellphones in the market, MP4 players, lots of these new fangled cameras and then some.

I guess, I have learned that I must always be ready for any eventuality. Why? Blame it on seeing and hearing about too many tragedies happening in the world recently. There always seems to be something bad happening somewhere in the world.

If only there was more good happening. Or perhaps there’s a lot of good going around — but the good doesn’t make it to the news.

I make the rounds of my fave haunts on weekends to check out what gadgets, new, old, rip-offs or whatever else there may be.

Call it coincidence, but over the weekend I was looking at what the latest tiny TVs there are available.

Why?

Well, let me just say that I am no big TV viewer. And after spending a lot of time looking at the newest cellphones available — I decided to give my techie-genes a little shock.

And then, there it was — the Samsung Star TV cellphone or what is known by its robotic name Samsung S5233t.

I have tried the other brands that taunt their TV capabilities. But I was drawn to the Samsung Star TV not only because it’s called the Star TV, but also because Samsung has been very aggressive in introducing the latest and most innovative TV lines in the country today. Matter of fact, the Korean manufacturer recently launched its 3D TV. But that review is for another page and another time. Back to the Samsung Star TV, I get a few weeks to play with it.

By habit I set up the cellphone as I am wont to do by habit. I do this because, like most creatures of habit, I want to be sure that everything that I am used to on the Samsung interface works — and also because it is a good way to find out if there is anything new that may have been added.

Let me begin by saying that this full touch-screen cellphone from Samsung is really something that I could have and hold forever. The first time I powered up the phone and saw the UI, it reminded me of the Android OS. Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is fast, responsive and pretty slick. 

The screen is a full three inches with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. The display is bright and crisp, while the touch screen can be adjusted for sensitivity.

This allowed me to be able to choose how sensitive I wanted the screen to be to my touch. And, for me, I really like touch-screen cellphones that are quick on the draw and respond to the slightest of touch. The Samsung Star did not fail. 

The Samsung Star, I was told, comes with an aluminum stylus, primarily for handwriting recognition. There’s an option for alphanumeric, small QWERTY and full QWERTY as input method while the accelerometer provides automatic re-orientation of the display screen depending on the position of the phone.

But I am not one of those who really depend on a stylus. I actually find the use of the stylus quite archaic. I like touch-screen cellphones that respond quickly to the touch of the fingers on the screen. That is why it is good that the Samsung Star has a keypad that fits my fingers.

Old and good

And as I stated at the start, the old standard features in a cellphone are always welcome for those of us who like to experiment with all sorts of cellphones. The standard features make it easy for me to work through setting up the cellphone - therefore no wasted time.

I must say that Samsung has developed an interface that is easy to fall in love with. It is no wonder that I do know a lot of people who have switched to this Korean brand.

For starters, the phone runs a number of standard widgets for photos, music, clock, and calendar on the left side of the screen that you can drag and drop into the home screen for easy access. The home screen is also extended to two more screens just by swiping your finger sideways (there are three small dots that indicate which screen you are in). This is one feature from Android I like since it gives an impression that you have a larger virtual screen to work on. 

At the bottom of the screen are three physical buttons — two for making/dropping calls and a center button that functions as cancel/back button. While the phone is just 12-mm thick, the phone feels thicker than it actually is. But I like that because you have to grip a bit tighter and this definitely prevents accidental dropping of the phone. Also, it gives the cellphone a solid feel in your hand. The Samsung Star comes with a 3.15-megapixel camera.

Let’s connect

The Samsung Star has no Wi-Fi or 3G connections, just GPRS/EDGE. But I did not find this a problem as the connections with the telco I used were good and the Samsung Star was able to quickly get the info I downloaded.

I confess I spend the most time with the cellphone catching up on my TV viewing. I might add that there was a lot of catching up to do.

The Samsung Star TV is equipped with an analog mobile TV receiver. This means that I was able to catch the shows on the local channels — and a few on the cable network channels when I manually added them to the viewing list.

I browsed the Net and found that the analog TV receiver is provided by Telegent Systems. I also noticed that Samsung has made sure that Star TV is well-equipped with rich graphical controls.

I like that I was able to one-click capture, record, switch channels with a simple flick on the screen. Better yet, although not too good late at night, I was able to receive my SMS without stopping the TV show.

It really works

The Samsung Star TV has been truly able to integrate the analog mobile TV feature with rich graphical touch-screen controls.

More than that, Samsung has been able to make a TV viewer out of me. At least, viewing the TV programs that I may want to, but that no one else might be interested in watching.

It was a sad day for me when I did not bring the Samsung Star TV with me to the Star office the other day, as my number one senatorial candidate Adel Tamano was going to appear with Risa Hontiveros on ANC.

It was a day when the TV system at the office was down, and I missed the show.

Sad.

Cellphones and compact TV watching has been brought to an even more sophisticated level with Samsung’s Star TV. Just like my fave senatorial candidate Adel Tamano, who has raised the bar on just what makes for my number one senator.