The Samsung F700, now known as the Croix, thanks to a deal with Vodafone is quite the amazing device. It is purported to be targeted as an iPhone competitor, even though the Croix is everything the iPhone isn’t. A great alternative to the iPhone sure, but I don’t know how much of a direct competitor this phone will be. This amazing phone is so great that we don’t even need pricing or availability to give it praise, which is good, because we have neither, just some new info on a great phone.

Here are the specs in case you forgot, up to 7.2Mbps HSDPA, VibeTonz vibrating touchscreen to simulate tactile feedback, a 5MP camera with auto-focus, 2.78-inch touchscreen, QWERTY keypad, microSD card slot, a cam on the front for video conferencing, Bluetooth, and a Flash based user interface. The music formats that work aren’t too different either with the only addition being the two Real formats, the list is as follows though: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, Real MP3, AAC(+), eAAC+, and Real.

So basically this phone loses a lot of the features that make the iPhone, such as the flash storage, the multi-touch touchscreen, and the OSX based OS. But it makes up for it buy not only improving all the iPhone features that are the iPhones downfalls, but downright makes them look really dated on the iPhone, such upgrades with the Croix include the addition of some sort of tactile feedback on the touch screen a QWERTY keypad that doesn’t require training to use, a fast WWAN connection instead of EDGE, and expansion slot (microSD), and a camera that’s worth a hoot. That 5MP cam is really quite impressive.

So again, I don’t know how much of a direct iPhone competitor is, but it will definitely sell, the Samsung Croix is truly and amazing phone of its own right and shouldn’t be brought down by everyone comparing it to the iPhone (like I did, hypocritical I know). Lastly this phone does, as I said, do a great job of making the iPhone’s downfalls really look bad. Especially the WWAN access speeds, that’s the one thing that keeps me from buying the iPhone now, is that the data speeds are so slow, whats the point of buying a smartphone it takes and hour to do anything on?

Samsung F700 (Croix) takes on the iPhone [via SlashGear]