IFA 2012: Samsung overview

Samsung Ativ S hands-on

The smartphone member of Samsung's new Ativ family, the Ativ S, is the first Windows Phone 8 device to go official. Unfortunately, a Microsoft embargo forbid us from being able to get any pictures of the device turned on, so we'll have to share our impressions of the Ativ S purely from a hardware perspective.

The Samsung Ativ S

In hand, the Samsung Ativ S is surprisingly light, but in a good way. It comes in at right around the weight of the Galaxy S III, but the Ativ S has a brushed aluminum body. The slightly-curved back panel makes it very comfortable to hold. The thickness is just 8.7 mm, which certainly contributes, too.

The Ativ S is deceptively light

The Samsung Ativ S runs a dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU with either 16 GB or 32 GB of storage and 1 GB of RAM. Its 8 MP camera is capable of recording 1080p video at 30 fps, while the front-facing unit is of the 1.9 MP variety.

The front and rear-facing cameras

Along the lower part of the back panel runs a faux-grille, which is mostly aesthetic but does hide the rear speaker along the left side.

The speaker grille on the back

We were able to snap a few pictures next to the Samsung Galaxy S III. As you can see, the two devices are very similar in terms of dimensions, but the brushed aluminum on the Ativ S feels better in-hand.

Next to the Samsung Galaxy S III