Samsung G810: why?

Samsung have announced a Nokia N95 with optical zoom. Yes, it does have 3x Optical zoom. The rest of the specs, are, dare I say it, close to identical to those of the N95 (it also has a xenon flash, I know, but if the G800's flash is replicated here, than that's close to worthless). Which, as you may recall, was launched almost a year ago.

The Samsung G810 is aimed to become the 'imaging flagship' for the Korean manufacturer. This is interesting, since their previous 'flagship', the G800, made its debut on the market a very short while ago (the G810 adds S60 3rd Edition FP1 and WiFi to the mix). Maybe Samsung finally aknowledged that they might as well use their S60 license if they went to the trouble to become a licensee in the first place.

The phone does look very classy. Here's the issue. It trumps the N95 in only two respects, that are the looks and the optical zoom, respectively. And that's it. And while it does look good, I think the 'fashion-conscious' crowd would definitely go for the also newly announced U900 Soul, which is a lot thinner (granted, it's not a smartphone, but then again us smartphone lovers are used to bulky devices) and also features a 5MP camera (although without the optical zoom).
So what's left going for this phone is the optical zoom. But. How many people actually can not live without this feature?

If the rumors are true, it will cost 580 euros. That is more than even the N95 (which was a revolutionary device) went for when it was released, and way more than an N95 costs today.
So going back to the optical zoom. How many people are willing to shell out this much cash for that feature only? And how many will choose the N95 instead?

Don't get me wrong. I like Samsung. I like how they crawled their way up the ladder to become the world's No.2 handset manufacturer. I like how they decided to up the ante in the 'slimness' craze started by Motorola a few years ago. I like the fact that they are an S60 licensee. But I don't think this is the right way to go. The way I see it, on the S60 front Samsung (and LG, for that matter) have three options in order to actually sell S60-based devices:
-come with revolutionary features (like Nokia did with, for example, GPS on the N95)
-don't bring any revolutions in features, but pack already existing features on high-end devices from Nokia in a more pocketable (read:slim) 'box'
-again, do not revolutionize anything, just make what everybody else makes, but have your devices be a little bit cheaper (with features on par with other high-end devices, of course).

Either of these strategies would, in my opinion, mean that Samsung or LG would really gain marketshare S60-wise.
But the G810 delivers none of the above. I don't think that optical zoom or xenon flash are in any way revolutionary features (they've been seen before, the optical zoom on the Nokia N93 and Samsung G800 and the xenon flash on several Sony Ericssons starting with the K800, and now Nokia N82 and 6220).

Time will tell if that will indeed be the price for this device. I certainly hope it won't be. For S60's sake.

Full specs of the Samsung G810 here (please keep in mind that 18mm is the minimum thickness - this way of reporting dimensions is a tradition for Samsung -, the maximum thickness being 22mm).

A comprehensive and very detailed preview is available at Mobile Review.

Here is a hands-on video from Symbian France:



And another one from Portable Gear:



And some images from Mobile Review: