Samsung Electronics has launched the Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0. If you think the product line sounds familiar that's because it's really just the international name for the Galaxy Player, which is essentially the Galaxy S sans phone capabilities.
The Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 will be first available in Russia and will be gradually rolled out in other countries, while the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 will be first available in Switzerland. The Galaxy Player devices are slated to arrive in the US this spring, but Samsung has yet to say exactly when.
"With the GALAXY S WiFi 4.0 and 5.0 we're delivering a rich, immersive experience for multimedia enthusiasts," JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business, said in a statement. "A large, high-quality screen, a world of fun and useful applications and great communications services make this a powerhouse device at an affordable price."
The 4" and 5" screen models of the Galaxy Player weigh just 5 and 7 ounces, respectively. Both devices boast Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity, front and rear cameras (including flash on the 5" model) for videoconferencing or photography, a microphone for VoIP calls over a WiFi via Qik, stereo speakers with Virtual 5.1 surround sound and Samsung's SoundAlive post-processing technology, and support for Adobe Flash 10.1. Both devices run Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) and will be upgradeable to Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread).
Both Galaxy Players support numerous multimedia formats natively, eliminating the need to transcode files: audio (MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, and Flac) as well as video (DivX, Xvid, WMV, MPEG4, and H.264). Drag 'N Play support means files can be simply dragged from a PC right onto the player; installing special software of any kind on the PC is not required. A MicroSD slot allows 32 GB of extra storage, supplementing the 8GB on-board storage. Galaxy Players are DLNA Certified and support AllShare, meaning content can be streamed to and from a PC or television without wires. Last but not least, they have Google certification, so they can access the Android Market.
Samsung is trying to challenge Apple where many other companies have already failed: the MP3 player market. Personally, I'm more excited about the Samsung Galaxy S II, and smartphones in general, but apparently the South Korean company thinks it's still worth trying to take on the iPod.