Saigon in 60 seconds

We were all stuffed inside a jeepney-type public transport in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — myself, other Philippines journalists, and Samsung Service Marketing general manager Jerry Lacson and Samsung Global Product Planning Group assistant manager Oliver Chung — trying to figure out how to win our first “challenge.” Yes, this was Samsung’s Amazing Challenge, and the idea was to locate five destinations in Ho Chi Minh (a.k.a. Saigon) and complete five tasks — all using the latest Samsung cell phone with its 8-megapixel camera.

Here’s the thing: I’m not the most gadget-friendly journalist out there. I still carry around a black three-ring binder to write down dates. My phone’s camera is a weak-ass 2 megapixels. I live without WiFi on my phone and I never take my laptop abroad.

But when Samsung offered to place a new Innov8 slider phone in my hands, and take a bunch of us from the Philippines around Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to test-drive it — well, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Once called Saigon (until American forces left in 1975 and it was renamed after the communist leader of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh) this city of 6.5 million is a bit like Manila, encompassing loose outer boroughs and provinces and still sprinkled with 19th-century architecture recalling its colonial past. Everybody — well, almost everybody — drives a bicycle, Vespa scooter or motorcycle. It’s that kind of city, and while traffic is not as bad as Manila’s, learning the Zen art of crossing busy streets without being run over by motor vehicles is a must.

We were intrigued by the Innov8’s sleek black and silver surface — a mix of metal and plastic, as well as corn (!) for extra biodegradability. We liked its slider design, making it easier to punch in numbers and text messages than the much-vaunted iPhone. We also liked the rolling track-ball, which made it easier to navigate the menu screen (which resembled the iPhone’s iconography).

And we really liked the features. For this Vietnam launch, Samsung downloaded local GPS maps from Viettel Mobile and had us punch in longitude and latitude coordinates listed on our Destination Challenge cards. To be honest, the GPS was only up and running on one of the group member’s phones. We crowded around that one and tried to decipher the GPS arrows telling us which way to go — eventually landing us at the Nha Hat Mua Roi Nuoc Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre. There, we donned local costumes, got filmed doing a dance and took pictures of everything around us (including the disquieting sight of young teens loading and unloading rifles under the watchful eye of a Vietnam military officer; must have been their version of C.M.T.).

Our challenges took us to Ho Chi Minh City’s Botanical Garden and Zoo, where we screwed together nuts and bolts on a local foot-powered rickshaw before riding it around the park; to a lacquer factory where trademark black wooden tiles decorated with crushed eggshell and mother of pearl were produced; and finally to a hip, WiFi-ready coffeehouse called Cream where we served up Vietnamese brew for group members. It came down to a photo finish between Team Philippines and Team Malaysia — each challenged to send an Internet WAP message to Samsung headquarters — but we came in a minute later than Malaysia, bagging second prize.

Still, the challenge gave us a chance to try the 8-megapixel camera’s trademark functions: a Panorama setting that lets you take 180-degree shots in one easy, sweeping maneuver; a Mosiac setting that allows you to graft up to 12 shots into one collage; Smile Shot (a Samsung innovation that uses composite software to detect just the right moment to capture someone’s best grin); Blink Shot (same thing with avoiding blinking subjects); and its strong video capability, supporting formats like DivX, WMV, Real Player and MPEG4. The Video Editor function is also a gas, allowing you to stitch together the best of your video captures on a tiny Storyboard screen. There’s a Smart Reader that allows you to shoot a business card and instantly transfer its information to a contact listing in the phone. And there are also embedded 3-D games (FIFA 2008, Asphalt), a music player and FM radio for added diversion.

All this fits nicely in a 16-gigabyte model that will sell for about P30,000 ($650) here, according to Samsung. The Innov8 will be launched in Manila this coming Thursday, and the big question is how it will appeal to Manilans who rely more on muscle memory than GPS when navigating the barrios and esteros of our fair city. Of course, the hot camera is likely to appeal to Filipinos, and it does take fine shots in a flash: a dedicated side button gets you there easy. Filipinos will also perk up at the notion of holding dozens of full-length movies in their phones (we watched sharp and clear clips from Black Hawk Down on the crystal-clear 2.8-inch 16-million color LCD screen on our models). Never a dull moment.

There’s also easy Internet and e-mail access, as we learned while killing time between the challenges. But what I find peculiar is that, with the technology of such phones, every experience becomes, in a real sense, a virtual experience. Sitting in the back of a jeepney, you open up your GPS maps; you Google street and establishment names to get instant information; your eye is constantly devoted to a tiny LCD screen, shaping and framing shots, packaging the experience. When do you actually get to enjoy the experience? Well, maybe later, when viewing your videos and great shots and uploading them to Facebook or Multiply. But in real time, in a strange country for the first time, technology has a way of turning our experiences into postmodern reflections, even before they happen. What initially appeals to the eye — that Vietnamese women selling oranges from a cart, that young lady in flowing white gown, or that little boy in the Batman costume — is almost obliterated in the onslaught of choices (Macro? Zoom? Smile Shot? Panorama? Incandescent Light?) so that you actually fail to gaze upon that which initially caught your human, non-megapixel eye in the first place. But hey, this is a non-gadget guy talking here.

And damn it, when the people from Samsung collected our phones at the end of the challenges, I immediately found myself missing its tactile feel and easy functionality. It’s almost an extension of the hand, eye and mind, in one slim hunk of steel and plastic.

Samsung is gradually expanding its phone line to include more “Infotainment” devices, recognizing the small but demanding market for pricier, cutting-edge phones that do it all — with style. In truth, its features are comparable to those of the top-line Nokia’s N-Series phones (though with more megapixels), as well as a certain Apple-logo-bearing mobile device that recently hit Manila. Though Samsung Southeast Asia regional product manager Luke Lee Jen Hwa was quick to pooh-pooh such comparisons at a press conference the next day: “The iPhone had no impact on the Innov8,” he said, demonstrating the phone’s slider tray. “We found our market still prefers the keypad.” So no touchscreen in Samsung’s immediate Infotainment future, either, apparently.

We wondered also why Samsung decided to hold their challenge in Vietnam, which is picturesque and intriguing, but a bit off the beaten path. Part of the reason was revealed the following night, with the presentation of a Guinness World Records certificate for “Largest Digital Photo Ever Taken” to Vietnamese photographer Hoang Trung Thuy for a landscape shot taken with — what else? — a Samsung Innov8 phone camera. Samsung Asia VP and chief marketing officer Jeong-Wook Kim shed more light on the invitation to Ho Chi Minh: “We wanted to highlight the camera function of this particular phone, and we wanted to increase use of the other functions, so we invited the media along.” Plus, he added, it’s a beautiful country — something not lost on the camera freaks in our group.

But the real goal is to get people jonesing for a phone that does everything — and beyond — extremely well. “Our mission is to target Infotainment consumers, those who won’t compromise on quality and design,” said Hwa. “We want them to say, ‘When I get this phone, this is the phone.’”

It’s no longer an intangible dream. We used to settle for crappy camera shots, small memory and no Internet connection, but the future is coming. The Innov8 is a strong contender in the Infotainment market.