Samsung i780 and StyleTap: The best Palm OS PDA ever?

[Shaun McGill]

The Samsung i780 is at the top of the current range of smartphones in terms of specification. Here is a brief list of the stand out features-

Tri-Band GSM 900/1800/1900MHz, GPRS, EDGE, 3G/UMTS 2.1GHz HSDPA
Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi 802.11b/g, MiniUSB 2.0
A-GPS Receiver
2 megapixel digital camera on the back and VGA camera for video calling on the front with 2 x digital zoom
2.6" Touch Screen with 320x320 pixels
Rom 256MB, RAM 128MB
Dimensions- 61.3 x 115.9 x 12.9 mm, Weight- 120g

As a Windows Mobile smartphone, the i780 is impressive indeed and does almost everything I want very well. The only issue, which should be sorted over time, is the 320 x 320 screen which is not compatible with many applications on the market. The big sellers seem to work well though so nothing major is missing. There is one big advantage to the 320 x 320 screen though in that it is the same as a Centro or Treo and as such should lend itself well to the StyleTap emulation of Palm OS under Windows Mobile.

I loaded StyleTap up and proceeded to test a few applications on the i780. My first port of call was Scrapbook which had become indispensible on my Centro for storing all of the information I need on a daily and less frequent basis. It worked perfectly and is just as usable on the Samsung as it is on the Centro. You do need to use the stylus rather the buttons, but the keyboard works perfectly for data entry as well which is a bonus.

I then tried some games and they all played perfectly as well- Bejeweled 2, Monopoly, Sol Free and Drug Wars offer the exact same experience under StyleTap as they do on a dedicated Palm OS device. The StyleTap launcher is basic, but does the job and I suspect that ZLauncher will also work but have yet to test it. When I tried the Weather application from Deluxeware it still used my Windows Mobile internet connection and the installed Palm programs do automatically show up in the standard Windows Mobile program listings which is extremely handy.

The i780 has made StyleTap come of age and finally brought the Palm OS experience to a device that is good looking, slim and boasts enough features to live with the competition in 2008. To be fair, StyleTap has brought the Palm OS experience of age to the Windows Mobile platform and shown me that it is finally possible to have two virtual operating systems on one smartphone.

StyleTap is available from www.styletap.com and the i780 from www.clove.co.uk.

[cgk]

the i780 really is a cracking piece of kit, I picked mine up on thursday and just love it.

[gavinfabl]

Second that. And Styletap is cool

[Philippa]

That screen looks gorgouss. Seriously tempting.

[Shaun McGill]

After some tips from Gavin, I am struggling to fault this phone. At last the TyTN has lost out (took a long time though). Now, back to playing with the iPhone

[enrico]

Does StyleTap work with the camera, bluetooth, internet etc. functionality of the phone?

[Axim addict]

The Styletap thing could be a way to pull previous Palm OS users over the line, who want to use a new WM device but have spend a fortune on Palm OS software...

And speaking of the Palm OS experience, I just bought a Centro for my girl and it was like a reunion! Still love Windows Mobile more though, but it was nice to see how everything used to be on my Palms again.

[SEkker]

Ok - I am now confused. If the Treo 755 had wifi, would it not have nearly all the features in this device?

What made me convert over to CLIE PDAs was the new functionality Sony brought to the table - a great, hi res screen, the terrific thumbboard, the scrollwheel, some good and well-integrated software. Heck, if Sony had put a phone into their future NX-80 devices (which had wifi options even back then), it would cover most of the features of this device.

Styletap IS cool, tho.

[Shaun McGill]

I am now confused. If the Treo 755 had wifi, would it not have nearly all the features in this device?

Yes, if it also had built-in GPS, HSDPA, better battery life, was much thinner and was able to almost run two operating systems

[Shaun McGill]

Does StyleTap work with the camera, bluetooth, internet etc. functionality of the phone?

I will check- it certainly uses the internet connection for weather updates etc.