Samsung waited quite some time to get out a phone running on its home-made Tizen software; the Samsung Z1 is just that. Expectations were high up that it will launch this month, but it seems Samsung has pushed the launch date back to January. To be more exact, a Samsung official stated that the device will launch on the 18th of January in India.
Hopes were high up that Samsung would produce a powerful, top-notch Tizen device. It appears that the company suddenly decided for the opposite. They motivated that they would prefer to stock up on apps before issuing very powerful devices running on Tizen. As such, the wait is on for a premium Tizen device, in the meantime the launch of the Samsung Z1 is the best next thing to look out for.
The Samsung Z1 is not a spectacular machine. The specs on this panda-cub are allegedly a 4-inch WVGA display, a 1.2 GHz dual core chip and 512 MB of RAM. The camera packs 3MP while the connectivity package features Wi-Fi and 3G support. A sneak peak of the Samsung Z1 was made available via a leaked presentation slide. Also two screenshots are available for the newest version of the Tizen OS. One is of the homescreen and the second one is of the phonebook.
Screenshots of Tizen running on the Samsung Z1
The Samsung Z1 will be the first entry-level smartphone running Tizen OS
Regarding the availability of the Samsung Z1, the release on January 18th will make it available for India, while in February it will expand to China, then South Korea.
A recent rumor suggest that the Samsung Z1 might be encased in metal. Stylish looks, even though the performance is not that satisfactory. The sub-100$ price on the device makes it an economy option, with little to compete against the mainstream version of Android or iOS. Tizen is only in the position to face up to the baby-version of Android One. For what it is worth vs. its performance, the Samsung Z1 is quite the bargain and we are excited to actually see what the Tizen has to offer.