The menu button was long seen as a poor UI choice-Google removed it from the core Android spec in 2011-and Samsung finally joined the rest of the ecosystem and dumped the menu button with the Galaxy S5 last year. Back then Samsung's Android phones used a menu button, so Tizen did too. The menu button betrays Tizen's age. It was designed circa-2012 as a drop-in Android replacement that would run on the same hardware. So if you're looking for an option, you usually end up pressing "menu" on every single screen and hope that something pops up. Tizen makes the same mistakes that Android did: it hides a bunch of options behind a menu button, with no on-screen indication that there are more options in the menu button. On the front of the phone you'll find Samsung's trademark hardware home button, flanked by "back" and "menu" buttons. Besides the SoC, you've got 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 3.15MP camera, and a 1500mAh battery.
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This is a Cortex A7-based CPU with an integrated 3G modem, roughly comparable to something you'd find in an entry-level Windows phone or the Moto E. For the Z1, though, Samsung skipped its Exynos division and went with someone else's SoC: a 1.2GHz dual-core Spreadtrum SC7727S SoC. With Tizen, Samsung finally has a smartphone OS to call its own, which puts it in a position of nearly Apple-esque control over everything from the design to the internals to the software: the OS, the SoC, the screen, and the phone body. It's nowhere near premium, but for a $92 smartphone everything here is standard. The whole device feels airy and almost hollow, like the fake demo smartphones that some stores use. The back is a matte sheet of thin plastic that peels off to reveal a removable battery and MicroSD slot, along with two SIM slots. The viewing angles are pretty good, and the 233 ppi means the screen isn't a pixelated mess even if it can't compare to more expensive phones. The 800×400, 4-inch LCD isn't bonded to the front glass, so there's a visible air gap between the two surfaces. The body of the Z1 is an all-plastic rectangle with rounded corners and a faux-metal ring around the sides. The Z1 will have to do battle with the likes of Google's $105 Android One smartphones and Xiaomi, which set up shop in India a few months ago. Relegating Tizen to the developing world might seem like a cop out, but as the second-most populated country on Earth, India has become a smartphone hotspot. Which brings us to our vessel for Tizen: the Samsung Z1-a low-end $92 device debuting in India.
A blog post this month from the company claimed "Tizen is 'lighter' than other operating systems," positioning the OS as a good choice for low-end devices and a key to Samsung's "Internet of Things" strategy. Sometime in the last six months, though, Tizen's smartphone strategy was rebooted. It was running on a flagship device that looked a lot like a Galaxy S4, and as late as July 2014, Samsung executives were telling Tizen developers that the OS would debut on a " decent premium device."
When we last saw Tizen on a smartphone, it looked rather promising. What was originally a smartphone OS ended up trickling into the market in Samsung cameras and smartwatches, where it has basically served as a one-off "feature phone" OS. The OS was originally scheduled to debut in 2012, but it ended up being delayed, and delayed, and delayed. Along with the shift in Samsung's market confidence, Tizen's focus has shifted too. If Tizen feels late to the party, that's because it is.
Basically, everyone started making big screen phones, and Samsung's good times were over. Better competition from Apple, Chinese OEMs, and the rest of the Android ecosystem sent Samsung sales plummeting and put the company on the defensive. Today, the threat of Samsung dumping Android sounds like something from a bygone era. Specs at a glance: Samsung Z1ġ.2GHz dual-core Spreadtrum SC7727S (Cortex-A7)ĭual SIM slots, FM Radio, MicroSD slot, removable batteryĪt least, this was the conventional wisdom about Tizen a few years ago, when Samsung was dominating the Android ecosystem and making record profits. Samsung and Android rocketed up the market share charts together, but was Android successful because of Samsung, or was Samsung successful because of Android? Tizen was supposed to answer that question. If Samsung ever got tired of Google's Android requirements, Tizen would be there as a cold war threat and good negotiation leverage for Google Play licensing talks. Tizen, if you'll recall, is Samsung's "Android Killer." While Samsung rose to power on a wave of Android devices, it was also quietly developing its own OS in the background. After one of the bumpiest pre-launch situations in recent memory, Samsung's home-grown OS has finally hit smartphones. Further Reading Tizen versus Android, in picturesThis is the Samsung Z1-the world's first Tizen phone.
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