Well, it’s finally happened. After years of teases, leaks, delays, and more, Samsung’s first Tizen smartphone is finally here.
The Samsung Z1 is launching today, January 14, in India. It carries a price tag of INR 5,700 (around $92 USD) and is available in White, Black, and Wine Red.
In terms of specs, the Samsung Z1’s got a fairly entry-level feature set to match its price tag. Up front is a 4-inch 800x480 display and VGA camera, and around back is a 3.1-megapixel shooter. Packed inside of its 9.7mm-thick frame is a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot, 768MB of RAM, and HSDPA 900/2100MHz connectivity. Powering the whole package is a 1500mAh battery.
The Z1 is powered by Tizen 2.3, which Samsung touts as being “lighter” than other mobile operating systems. The company goes on to say that Tizen needs less processing horsepower and memory than its competition, which allows for faster device speeds, smoother user experiences, shorter boot times, and longer battery life. Samsung has also included features like Ultra Power Saving Mode and Private Mode.
Because it’s lightweight, Samsung says that Tizen is a good choice for use across a variety of connected Internet of Things devices. That includes smartphones, TVs, wearables, vacuums, cameras, refrigerators, and washing machines. Tine is a “large and important part” of Samsung’s Internet of Things strategy, and the company says that all of its devices will be IoT-ready in five years, adding that “many” of those products will run Tizen.
So there you have it. After hearing about Tizen for years, it’s exciting to see the platform’s first smartphone finally launch and really kick the Tizen effort off. Some may lament the fact that the Z1 is an entry-level phone and not a high-end one, but that’s the way that much of the mobile industry is going. Google is focusing on emerging markets with Android One and Microsoft is doing the same with entry-level Windows Phones, and so it makes sense that Samsung would do the same with the Z1 in order to give Tizen a better shot at success.
Now that it’s officially here, what do you think of the Samsung Z1? Do you think that Tizen will take off?
