It's been a long wait for Samsung to push out a smartphone powered by its own Tizen software, but it looks like the much-anticipated handset is almost upon us.
There were expectations that it would launch this month, however according to The Korea Economic Daily it's now been pushed back to January. A Samsung official is quoted as confirming that the handset will launch on January 18, 2015 in India.
We had hoped to see a high-end Tizen smartphone, dubbed the Samsung Z, appear this summer. Samsung had a change of heart though, scrapping the handset launch and saying it wanted to stockpile apps before unleashing Tizen on the world.
The imminent Samsung Z1 is a much more modest affair, said to be sporting a 4-inch WVGA display and a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. There's also a dual-SIM card slot, a 3.2-megapixel rear camera, and 3G connectivity, according to early reports.
Z1 leaks
More fuel for the Tizen fire comes from a tweet and a blog posting that purport to show the Tizen-powered Z1 in the (metal) flesh. It looks stylish enough, even if there's not much power under the hood.
With a sub-$100 price tag and a limited launch in India, Tizen is being positioned as more of an Android One competitor than something that's going to challenge iOS and the mainstream version of Android. It may eventually reach the US and UK, but there are no indications of that happening right now.
Still, it will be interesting to finally get a look at Tizen on a smartphone (as opposed to a smartwatch) and find out what it's capable of. Let's hope the launch doesn't get pushed back any further, and that the Z1 doesn't meet the same fate as the Z.
Via Phone Arena
