The Samsung Africa Forum was held in Nairobi, Kenya this year and I was invited to attend the press conference where Samsung announced its product lineup for the African region.

The event is fairly new; the first one was held in Johannesburg last year (which I couldn’t attend), but those who attended said it was a huge improvement compared to the first one.

The products announced and unveiled were cameras, printers, monitors, home appliances and entertainment, a solar powered notebook (exclusive to Africa – and has up to 15 hours of battery life), a range of Smart TVs, along with the Galaxy S II smartphone and the main attraction: the Galaxy Tab (10.1 and 8.9)

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South Africa will be getting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in July at a cost of R 5,499 (16GB) and R 6,499 (32GB). The Galaxy Tab 8.9 will arrive about 4-6 weeks later at a cost of R 5,299 (16GB) and R6,299 (32GB). The Galaxy S II will be available in July at a cost of R6,699.

All products were exhibited at the Kenya International Conference Centre where we got to demo them. One of the products that impressed me was the interactive e-board for learning, which lets you can draw on the board with the e-board pen or your fingers.

Samsung also very strategically placed what it calls the ‘worlds largest Smart TV’ (75” LED TV) at the entrance of the exhibition, making you stop and stare. And possibly or most probably want. Like Kojo did.

Personally, I don’t buy into the whole ‘Smart TV’ idea, like 3D TV. I use my TV for TV/movies/games. It just feels weird browsing the Internet on your TV or playing with apps. In a living room. In a house with other people. Who may have other interests. Also, I have other devices that can do the same thing, so it’s not all that exciting. It does make a good platform to turn your kids into geeklets, though.

The trip was rounded-off with a gala dinner at the (world famous?) Carnivore restaurant. The highlight of the evening for me was winning a Samsung P580 business notebook. W00t!

I think what (not only Samsung) but most companies hosting events need to do as a priority, is offer the media free WiFi (password protected – linked to registration maybe). It would have made tweeting/blogging/publishing easier. Having said that, we managed to get #SamsungAfricaForum trending in Johannesburg.

Thank you Samsung, for hosting us comfortably in the middle of Africa.

– This blog post was written on the flight back from Nairobi to Johannesburg, over the Mozambique and Zimbabwe border.

Yesterday I played with the Samsung Galaxy Tab (it was not given to me for review). My husband’s client gave it to him to create apps for them.

Anyway, my first impression was that it looked nice and I did (apparently what everyone else did) and put the ‘massive’ device to my ear and said “so this is how you’d look when making phone calls?” It’s kinda funny when you picture people walking around with that thing against their ear whilst having a conversation. I also liked the screen, it is responsive.

I’ve used an Android phone before so I know that you require a Google account to access market place and several built-in Google apps. I logged in with one of my Google’s accounts and downloaded a few apps: Facebook for Android, Angry Birds, and Comics. I logged into Facebook, posted an update and played Angry Birds.

Then I realised I should logout of my account since everyone using the tablet at my husband’s office will have access to my email. It is not a straight-forward process, you have to reset the device to do so, and this process wipes everything you downloaded. Hmmm.

I then went into the Facebook application and what do you know, there isn’t a “logout” button. Why? WHY?!! Does nobody care about the user experience? Oh wait, don’t answer that…

Why is everything such a mission with Android? People think Android is synonymous with cool, because it’s open source. Yes, it may be cool for developers, but nobody took the time to work around making processes simple/one-click, the way Apple does. Of course I’m going to compare it, since Apple owns 95% of the tablet market.

It is small things like this that makes the whole experience better. Imagine if the App Store was tied to your email? This is Google’s biggest problem. They tie your Google account to all their offerings and I find it sneaky. But Google and privacy is another topic.

Manufacturers are focussing too much on hardware, and quick to offer the best ‘up-to-date’ product, and just dumping Android onto it. Because they don’t care about the user-experience. I don’t know if Apple has made me this way: where I expect everything to be simple, less-complicated and uncluttered.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is priced at R5999 on kalahari.net, as a SALE price. Normal price is R7999. Thanks, but no thanks. Give me two entry-level iPads instead.

I haven’t blogged in a while as I’ve been really busy. Here’s a review I wrote which was published on My Digital Life.

I’d never used a Samsung phone before the Wave landed on my desk. All I knew about the phone was that it was Samsung’s first phone running the new bada operating system.

What Samsung got right was the Wave’s physical attributes – at 11mm thin and weighing just 116g, it’s very light in your hand, has rounded edges that feel good, and the screen is just amazing. Its slate form factor features three buttons: call, reject/power-off and main menu.

Screen

It has a 3.3-inch, 480×800 resolution AMOLED display, which has to be seen to be appreciated. It is crisp and colours appear vibrant. It makes you want to browse websites, play games and look at pictures, just for the sake of it. What Samsung has done with this capacitive touchscreen is put an anti-smudge coating on top of the scratch-resistant tempered glass. After extensive use, you will notice the lack of fingerprints, which makes all the difference.

Messaging

The first time I replied to an SMS on the Wave, I hit the send button unknowingly. Somewhere while trying to change a word from autocorrect, the message was already gone. What I found frustrating was having to add words to the dictionary if it didn’t exist – this, after typing the word and it being changed to something else. Overall, it was tedious composing SMSes, which made replying with a quick phone call a better option.

Camera / Video

The five-megapixel camera takes really good pictures, both indoors and outdoors, with an outdoor visibility mode and an option of eight resolutions. Other features worth mentioning are anti-shake, and face and blink detection. Video is fantastic. The Wave is capable of recording in 720p HD quality, getting rid of the need for a camcorder.

Widgets

The Wave has multiple homescreens for you to add widgets and when you run out of space, it will add another, up to a maximum of ten screens.

As I’m not a fan of push e-mail, I selected the Gmail widget immediately – but was disappointed that it was not actually a widget, just a link to the browser.

The feeds and update widget works better at pulling your Facebook and Twitter feeds (for reading only), than the individual applications itself. While the Twitter app never loaded profile pictures from your stream, the Facebook app was buggy – it took a few tries for a status update and completely failed at uploading an image.

Connectivity

I had no problem connecting to my home WiFi and browsing the mobile web, but the biggest problem thereafter was that social applications by default used my 3G connection. I went into settings and under applications, I could only choose my Vodacom 3G connection points. There was no option for selecting WiFi for applications.

I was overall impressed with the user interface; from sweeping the screen to unlock, and scrolling between different homescreens, it was very responsive. Although, for some reason, it took more than one try to answer and end a call.

The Samsung Wave’s hardware cannot be faulted – from looks to features, it’s what you’d want in a phone. However, there are little bugs in the OS that can be frustrating if you are new to Samsung – but can be overlooked by other good features.

IN SUMMARY

Good: Responsive; anti-smudge screen; excellent video recording capabilities
Bad: Apps limited and not polished; messaging is tedious
Rating: 7.5/10
Price: R4900.90
Contact: Retail outlets

SPECIFICATIONS

Dimensions: 118mm x 56mm x 10.9mm
OS: Bada
Processor: 1MHz
Display: 3.3-inch touch, 480×800 WVGA resolution
Memory: 1GB
Storage: MicroSD, expandable up to 32GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, HSDPA, USB
Other: Five-megapixel camera, 720p HD video recording, MP3 player, FM radio, games, 3.5mm audio jack.

When I found out that Dion Wired was having a special on their  Samsung 24″ HD monitor – I thought it was an excellent deal at R1699 (normal price R2999 – special ends 6/9/09). I wanted it, I had the money but I couldn’t justify buying it because I had bought another Samsung 19″ monitor in February this year.

While my colleagues and I were discussing what a cool monitor it is especially at that price, I said, “if I could sell my current monitor then I’d buy this one”. To my surprise Patricia said she’ll buy it! So after calling Dion Wired for three days, checking for stock, I managed to get it yesterday.

When I got home, I had to resist opening the box so I didn’t miss Asr – because I knew it will take a while before I tore myself away from it. But I managed to set it all up in time and prepare for iftaar because yesterday was left-overs day (loads of left over Debonairs and barbeque wings).

I watched bits of The Dark Knight in HD and it is awesome!