Following delays of over a year, Samsung finally shipped its first Tizen-powered handset, the Z1, earlier this month in India. The arrival of Tizen on smartphones – remember it’s been on Samsung’s Gear smartwatches for almost a year now – has been a long time coming, and there’s been plenty of speculation among press and mobile industry watchers that Tizen could emerge as a viable alternative to Android for the Korean electronics giant.
What we’ve found during our initial hands-on time with an Indian Samsung Z1, however, is a phone that’s very much at ease with Google’s ecosystem.
I want one of these – if only to see what Samsung can build if they’re not just shipping Android.