Samsung’s Icon Phone Range Has An OS For Everybody (Except OS X)

Like a shotgun in the face of dumbphone owners everywhere, Samsung has blasted its new Icon range of smartphones onto the Australian market. The highlight? The Android powered Galaxy.

There are five new touchscreen phones as part of the Icon range. The Android powered Galaxy, the HD running Symbian, the new Omnia on Windows Mobile, as well at the Jet and Preston running a Samsung OS.

I had a bit of a play with each of them yesterday at the media launch, and they’re all really attractive phones. The fact that most of them include a 3.5mm headphone jack is a long-awaited relief, while the AMOLED screens all look pretty damn amazing.

In my opinion, the Galaxy Icon was definitely the most interesting of the five showcased, mostly because of its Android UI. It’s a very basic version of Android – there aren’t any software skins or special custom apps preloaded on this, which means it’s probably not as versatile as the upcoming HTC Hero, but it’s still a solid entry into the platform for Samsung. It’s got an RRP of $749 and will be available through Optus, Vodafone, Virgin and Crazy John’s, so it’s got a fairly wide reach.

The Omnia Icon – running Windows Mobile 6.1 – has a custom skin over the top to try and hide the platform a bit. It helps a little, but was nowhere near as intuitive as some of the other phones on offer here.

The Jet Icon, also has a lot of potential, but it won’t launch until October, unlike the other phones unveiled yesterday, which all land in September.

The HD Icon is pretty notable for recording 720p video at 24fps, as well as playing back DivX and having DLNA compatibility.

The Preston was (in my opinion, at least) the runt of the litter and despite being a pretty good looking phone, didn’t offer as much to make it stand out from the crowd. Except for an odd choice of name, perhaps…

What do you guys think? Any of these float your boat?

[Samsung]