Samsung Launches Galaxy S WiFi, Android-based Media Player

A long way from the spotlights shining on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy S II, Samsung used a distant corner of its stand at the MWC to launch its Galaxy S WiFi range, a collection of Android-based portable media players.

The recipe is simple enough: take a Galaxy S smartphone, get rid of 3G, tweak the exterior a little and, as if by magic, you've got a Galaxy S WiFi!  Samsung has been going after the iPhone's market share with the Galaxy S smartphone since last year, so it's only logical for it to now also offer a rival to the iPod touch ...

The new Samsung Galaxy S WiFi is a portable media player that runs Android 2.2 (an upgrade to 2.3 will follow) based on the same components as the Korean manufacturer's flagship smartphone, including your choice of a 4'' or 5'' Super Clear LCD display.  The new models are known as the Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and 5.09 respectively, and are the final result of the Galaxy Player project that we've been hearing about for months now with GPS, Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11n WiFi. 

The displays have a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, and the larger version has a 5 Megapixel camera at the back while the smaller model makes do with 3.2 Megapixels, and doesn't have an LED flash either.  As with the Galaxy S smartphone, Samsung has chosen a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor.


Like the 7'' Galaxy Tab tablet, the underside of both models has a glossy white finish.  The 4'' model seems perfectly at home in the world of semi-connected portable media players like the iPod touch, but the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 is not all that different from the Galaxy Tab without WiFi.  It's set to sell at a much lower price to avoid any unwelcome comparisons, especially given that the Tab will soon gain a WiFi version.

The 4.0 will be available with 8, 16 or 32 GB of internal memory, while the 5.0 will only offer 16 or 32 GB.  You can expand that yourself via a microSD slot while the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 also has a mini HDMI output.  Samsung has included a 1200 mAh battery for the 4'' model and a larger 2500 mAh for its big brother.

We still don't have information about pricing or a precise launch date for the two new media players, but the Galaxy S WiFi is set to be on sale by the end of February, so we should have more details before too long.

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