Samsung wasn't explicitly pushing touch sensitivity as feature this year, but you'd hardly know it with the selection of phones launched at the show. At the Fall CTIA 2009 show in San Diego, Samsung showed off phones in a range of form factors, operating systems and target audiences, but all of them used a touchscreen in some way. Whether it was the tablet-style Samsung Omnia II, coming soon to Verizon Wireless, or Sprint's new, Windows Mobile 6.5 Samsung Intrepid, a sort of combination between the Samsung Epix and the smaller, more sprightly Samsung Jack, it's clear that Samsung thinks consumers want touch options on a range of devices.
Samsung Omnia II gets a Widget Store
 Samsung kept their biggest news of the show a bit low-key, compared to their major hardware releases. At their CTIA 2009 booth, Samsung was showing a sequel to the Samsung Omnia, the Omnia II. We've seen this phone before, and we weren't even surprised by the Verizon Wireless branding, as the carrier's interest had already been made official. But this was the first time we've seen Samsung's new Widget store in action. The Omnia, like numerous other Samsung mobile phones, runs their TouchWiz interface, which relies on widgets to enhance the home screen experience. In the past, these widgets were limited to Samsung's or the carrier's own offerings, but now Samsung has opened up access to outside developers.
This isn't a surprise, as almost every carrier and major manufacturer has announced some sort of over-the-air distribution model for custom apps. But Samsung, more than most manufacturers, has plenty of TouchWiz phones already available, and they've successfully ported the interface across feature phones, Windows Mobile and soon even Android smartphones. That's a huge potential channel for developers. It's also interesting to see a Verizon Wireless phone with a Widget Store from Samsung and a Windows Mobile Marketplace from Microsoft, not to mention whatever app distribution Verizon Wireless will offer. In this growing salad of app stores and over-the-air downloads, the Samsung Omnia II is shaping up to be the first big phone where these forces begin to collide.
Samsung Moment is a Google Phone, hold the extras
 Samsung and Sprint today announced their newest smartphone, and surprise, surprise, it's an Android device. Unlike the HTC Hero on Sprint, the Samsung Moment will have a touchscreen up front and a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the side of the phone. Unlike the heavily customized Hero, the Samsung Moment will use a stock version of Google's Android OS. But that doesn't mean the device doesn't have any compelling features. In fact, the Samsung Moment will be the first Android device on the U.S. market with an AMOLED screen. The device will also use a faster 800MHz processor, a clock speed bump of about 50% over the competition.
We got to spend some time with the Samsung Moment, and we were impressed with the hardware. The AMOLED screen is fantastic and colorful. Samsung is wise to come out in front of this technology, it will surely become more popular as more people see the difference. Since the Samsung Moment was using the stock Google interface, it was difficult to see the advantages of a faster processor, but we never encountered any hiccups or lag in our hands-on look at the device.
The keyboard on the Samsung Moment was very nice. Keys were a bit stiff, but felt solid and discrete in our time typing on the phone. We weren't thrilled with the optical trackpad, but that's probably because we're used to the trackball on other Android phones. The optical trackpad doesn't control a mouse icon, it instead moves the selection cursor. It felt sensitive as we used it, and we could easily get the hang of it.
Samsung Intrepid Windows Phone
 Of all the Windows Phones released at the launch of the new mobile OS, the Samsung Intrepid on Sprint is the one that seems to rely most heavily on Microsoft's own interface designs, instead of a design overlay, like HTC's TouchFLO 3D or Samsung's TouchWiz. So, you get the new Zune-like homescreen and the honeycomb Start menu screen, and all of the other minor, but welcome improvements to the design. At first glance, the Samsung Intrepid looks more like an HTC Snap or Samsung Jack, so you might not realize that the phone uses a touchscreen above the keyboard. In fact, the Intrepid is quite a powerful little device, with a 3.2-megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. A for fast networking, and all of Sprint's 3G services on board.
In our hands-on time with the Samsung Intrepid, we were pleased to find the screen was plenty responsive to the touch. Though all the Windows Phones we've seen so far have used resistive touchscreen technology, the system as a whole has seemed more friendly and responsive to touch, especially on the Today screen and in the new Start menu. Still, the squat form factor of the Samsung Intrepid doesn't offer much real estate to the more tablet-friendly menu designs, so you'll do a lot of scrolling on every screen with this phone.
We did enjoy the keyboard on the Samsung Intrepid very much in our tests. It had keys that were somewhat stiff, with a pleasing snap to each click of the letter. We tried typing out a few lines in our hands-on time and were very pleased with how quickly our fingers became used to the new keyboard. It's a solid design for a business smartphone. We did find ourselves wishing for a more advanced navigation method than a simple D-pad, but we'll have to give it a longer try to see if the 5-way button works well with Windows Mobile 6.5.
Samsung Behold II is an Android phone lurking in the shadows
 It's fairly clear why Samsung wouldn't let us turn on the Samsung Behold II, and would only show empty shells with no batteries. While the Samsung Moment has some impressive hardware specs for an Android device, and also that slide-out keyboard, the Samsung Behold II, with it's TouchWiz interface and 3D cube menu running on top of the Google Android system, would quickly become the real story, stealing thunder from Sprint and their beefier Android lineup.
So, there isn't much to say about the Samsung Behold II, except that it will be an Android TouchWiz phone, and it will also feature the impressive photo capabilities that made the original Behold interesting. The Behold II will get a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and a flash. The phone will use T-Mobile's 3G network, and will also come with Wi-Fi for wireless Web browsing on your home network. Like the Samsung Moment, the Samsung Behold II will also use an AMOLED screen.
Samsung has already announced that the Behold II will come to T-Mobile in time for the holiday season, thus helping T-Mobile retain its lead on the Android race. Pricing and specific availability haven't been announced, but we'd be disappointed if this phone started at more than $200, and less so if it started at under $180.
Samsung Blue Earth gets solar
 In addition to the new devices, Samsung also had a working version of their Samsung Blue Earth phone for us to play with. The Blue Earth is Samsung's ultimate environmentally friendly phone. It isn't available in the U.S., but buyers abroad are treated to a tablet style touchscreen phone made out of recycled water bottles. Around back, the phone features a solar panel, and Samsung claims that an hour of charging in the sun will get you up to 15 minutes of talking time. It's a neat trick, and certain to be useful to some eco-friendly buyers.
In our hands-on time with the Blue Earth, it felt mostly like any other standard Samsung TouchWiz handset. The design is very stylish, though it's a somewhat thick phone by today's standards. The screen was nice and bright, though it did look a bit washed out, especially compared to the AMOLED screens Samsung is showing off on their other phones. But what can you expect? After all, it's made from water bottles, so we weren't expecting the highest quality components.
Otherwise, the Samsung Blue Earth phone uses a basic, icon grid menu scheme, but it also packs a few interesting extras for the greenest among us. There's a pedometer on board to track your steps, and perhaps encourage you to walk instead of drive from place to place. There's no 3G networking on board, but there is GPS, so the phone can guide you on your walking tours. There's also a 3-megapixel camera around back. The phone uses a capacitive touchscreen, so it was very finger-friendly, even for such a modest performer.
Samsung has yet to announce plans to bring this phone to the U.S. market, but we imagine that if the Samsung Reclaim, their recycled phone for the U.S. market, hits the big time, we'll see more recycled and solar panel phones come our way.
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