Samsung West Asia Forum was a home to almost every Samsung product but the highlight of the show was the Galaxy S II. Samsung India announced the highly anticipated device for May and I got a chance to play with the device.

Design-wise the phone looks pretty good and despite the larger size than the original Galaxy S, Samsung has managed to keep the weight down to just 116grams. The phone’s lightweight is attributed to the phone’s plastic body and though one would want a premium material in a high-end phone, the plastic at the back does not look cheap.

The big Super AMOLED Plus display is good to look at and the Live Panels present in the TouchWiz 4.0 look handy. The phone seemed really fast and responsive and also comes with a set of motion commands (check out the video here) that adds to the phone’s functionality.

Check out some images and a short hands-on video below.

Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Tab 10.1 has got a hands-on treatment. The folks over at AndroidHD managed to lay their hands on the new Galaxy Tab for a whole day, which they summarized in a 12-minute YouTube video. You can check out the video below that shows most of the features of the tablet.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor, Honeycomb OS, 3G support, 8MP camera, 2MP front-facing camera, full HD video recording and playback, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.1 support, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n etc.

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There’s no doubt that Google’s second phone – the Nexus S is a variant of Samsung’s Galaxy S. Both the phones have similar hardware with few differences like the integration of NFC, LED flash for the camera, no HD video recording support, no expandable memory, contour display etc.

However, the thing that sets Nexus S apart from the Galaxy S franchise despite Galaxy S beating the Google phone in some areas is that Nexus S provides users with a pure Google experience and is in fact the first phone to run Android 2.3 OS (Gingerbread).

Although Nexus S’ body is made up of plastic just like the Galaxy S, the phone seems sturdy in hands. It has the same 4-inch Super AMOLED display as Galaxy S but touts a curved glass screen, which in reality is not noticeable. However, it is said to improve on the ergonomic front (which I’ll definitely test during the review).

The OS does not have drastic UI changes from Android 2.2 but the performance is evident. The few minutes I used, the phone was considerably faster and responsive. The keyboard has also got an overhaul, making typing easier than before.

Needless to say, I’ll put Nexus S through its paces over the next few days so in the meantime if you’ve any queries do let me know in the comments.

We had a chance to play with Samsung’s range of Galaxy Player at the CES. The Galaxy Player range currently consists of a cheaper YP-G50 and a power packed YP-GB1. It’s no surprise that the player’s inspiration is Samsung’s own Galaxy S device. Both the devices look strikingly similar but there are some differences like the 4-inch Super Clear LCD, a lower 3.2MP camera and 1200mAh battery.

Check out some pictures in the gallery below.

We managed to get our hands on Samsung’s latest bada device, Wave 525. Wave 525, unlike its elder sibling – S8500 targets the lower segment of the market by giving users the benefits of bada OS at an affordable price tag.

Don’t be surprised if at the first glance you take the handset as Samsung’s Star. The Wave 525’s design is strikingly similar with few differences here and there. The phone’s chassis is entirely made out of plastic, which is understandable considering the price point.

On the software side, the phone runs on bada OS v1.1 as compared to original Wave’s bada OS v1.0, which is more or less the same except the new OS adds over-the-air firmware update.

Check out some pictures of the phone in the gallery below.

Galaxy Tab won’t go on sale in India till November 10 but we managed to get our hands on the tablet for some time. Galaxy Tab is Samsung’s first Android tablet and it certainly won’t be the last. Samsung confirmed that Galaxy Tabs with different screen sizes at different price points are in the pipeline.

However, playing with the first iteration, we can say Samsung has done a good job. Galaxy Tab’s chassis is made out of plastic but the tablet does not feel cheap. It runs on Android 2.2 OS, which seemed pretty smooth overall with a few quirks here and there. Although we’ll hold the final judgment for the review, these are the few things we found:

- The 7-inch display with WSVGA resolution looks great
- Video calls work only via 3G
- Video playback was smooth
- Indian version comes pre-installed with MapsmyIndia maps with voice-guided navigation
- Galaxy Tab will be pre-loaded with 3 Idiots movie
- Special deals with Indian newspapers and magazines will allow users to subscribe them
- Samsung Apps store showed just a single app but Samsung has promised to add more once it’s launched. Meanwhile, users will be able to buy and download apps from Android Market

Samsung will also sell optional accessories like the Keyboard dock, Desktop dock, sleeves etc.

Samsung is yet to acknowledge Continuum but here we’re watching a video hands-on of the device. It’s a phone from the Galaxy S family and the phone’s selling proposition are its dual display – one acting as a regular one whereas the smaller OLED one known as the Ticker.

Although the video doesn’t really show much, the Ticker display can be seen firing up pretty quickly than the main display and showing email, social networking notifications, date etc.

The phone is rumored to be launched on October 29.

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Keeping its price debate aside, if you’re wondering what Samsung’s Android tablet is capable of then check out the video below. The video comes directly from Samsung highlighting the tablet’s speed and nifty features.

On the positive side, the video does not contain any simulated images so whatever you see in the video is the real deal.

Samsung is leaving no stones unturned to promote two of its hottest devices, Wave that has Samsung’s proprietary bada OS and Galaxy S that runs on Android OS. Samsung recently held an event in Mumbai where they invited us to try out the devices and also win. Well, we couldn’t manage to do the latter but we did spend a good amount of time with both the devices.

Wave is Samsung’s first bada device and is packed with features, enough to give many smartphones a run for their money. The device is made from a single aluminum enclosure (sans the battery cover) and it feels solid as well as light (just 118g). The phone is snappy due to its 1GHz CPU and features a 3.3-inch Super AMOLED and though we could not try out the display’s performance under sunlight, the screen looked great.

Another thing we tried out was Social Hub. Thanks to Samsung’s own OS, they were able to tightly integrate social networking services where all your facebook, twitter, myspace contacts merge with the contacts found on your phone. You can manually link contacts as well.

Overall, we feel Wave with bada has great potential provided Samsung continues to evolve bada and support them aggressively.

We also tried out Samsung’s latest Android device, Galaxy S. The first thing you’ll notice is its display which is similar to Wave’s but adds another 0.7-inches, taking it to 4-inches. Operating the phone and playing games is such a breeze and having Android underneath assures you’ll not run out of great of apps.

However, one issue that we did notice is Samsung’s choice for using plastic as the battery cover. Though it seems to be high quality plastic, something with metal would have gone well its high-end status.

We’ll review both the handsets in detail in coming weeks but for now, check out our hands-on pictures in the gallery below.

Samsung was showing off Pixon12 at the CommunicAsia where one Chinese site managed to get a brief hands-on showing some its very Samsung-ish features and of course the monstrous 12 megapixel camera.

There were trio of pics too taken by Pixon12’s camera that clicks pictures at a whopping 4000×3000 resolution. Each photo at full res will block around 2.5MB of space, so make sure to buy a high-capacity microSD card when you buy this phone.

More pictures and sample shots over here.

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