Samsung’s Armani 2 Night Effect Mobile Phone Forgets to Include Stylishness

Samsung’s original Armani phone was a tiny, touchscreen, haptic-feedback gizmo, and actually not bad looking at all: so I’m confused about the upcoming Armani 2 Night Effect. It’s a plain candybar mobile phone, emblazoned with large Emporio Armani emblems and it seems to have totally forgone attempts at simple stylishness. Get this—around the edge of the phone there’s a red, green or blue-LED glowing strip, presumably the “night effect” part. Maybe it’s my impression of what style is, but that’s just tacky. The specs of the phone aren’t too amazing either.

• Quadband GSM, HSDPA connectivity
• 2.2-inch reinforced glass AMOLED display
• 3.2 megapixel camera, without flash
• Built-in FM Radio
• Dedicated music player control buttons
• 120 MB of User Memory
• microSD memory card slot
• USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0

Yup…120 megabytes of on-board memory, and we don’t know what sort of UI it’s got: is the haptic feedback still there?

It does look like it’s got a front-facing camera for 3G video calling at least, and I suppose the black metallic finish is quite interesting. The OLED screen should be good-looking too, but all in all the phone itself is a bit plain. It’s due in Europe for around $US430 (€300) in November with Asian and Middle East releases shortly after, but there’s no word on pricing or timing for a North American version. [OLED-info, Unwiredview and Gizmos.es]