Samsung H1 goes full circle with Vodafone 360: Hands-on photos

The Samsung H1 is the flagship phone with Vodafone 360, the network's new online gaggle of services. That means it's all about social networking on this touchscreen phone

Flora Graham

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Flora Graham

Sept. 24, 2009 9:54 a.m. PT

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The Samsung H1 -- also known as the Vodafone H1 360 -- is the vehicle Vodafone is stuffing with the petrol of its Vodafone 360 service.

On other phones, using Vodafone 360 means installing an app, and on most phones, you'll only get access to the service's address book feature. It aims to bring together your contacts from social networks, and has a handy Web site so you can manage them online as well as on your phone.

In the Samsung H1, it's all baked in, with a groovy user 3D interface to boot. You also get the full range of Vodafone 360 features, such as the ability to prod your friends with a message telling them where you are, including a link to the built-in map application.

Samsung and Vodafone will also be releasing a less-expensive model called the Samsung M1, which it insists on also referring to as the Vodafone M1 360 by Samsung.

Click continue to see more of the Samsung H1 in action.

Update: You can pre-order the H1 from Vodafone now, and it will go on sale on 30 October. It will cost from free on a two-year, £35-per-month contract.

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If you don't like the Samsung H1's Cover Flow-style 3D contact list, you can also choose to see your peeps as a boring old 2D list. For each contact, there's a page that shows recent calls and messages, shared Facebook photo albums and status updates.

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This list of shared photos took a few moments to download over 3G.

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The H1 has a Samsung special AMOLED screen, which is lovely and vivid, and a 5-megapixel camera.

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A button on the side launches the H1's unified search page, from which you can search the phone or the Web.

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The H1 wasn't bad looking, and it felt solid and not too thick, with a responsive touchscreen.

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The H1's 5-megapixel camera offers a good bunch of photo options, unlike some of its smart phone competitors, which only have simple cameras and require apps to do more with your shots.

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To get the most out of the H1, your friends will have to get one too, or at least install the Vodafone 360 app. Here it is on a Nokia N85. We thought the user interface looked well-designed.