Clearly not wanting to be left at the rear, Samsung has decided that GSMA 2008 is THE place to make a crash. The company’s showed off a total of nine new mobile handsets – not including the Soul or the Seranata. They range from high-end camera phones to entry-level handsets. Think they wouldn’t be Samsung if they weren’t sliders? Don’t jump to any conclusions; two out of the nine aren’t sliders.
(1).Samsung G810
The G810 slider is equipped with a large 2.6 inch TFT QVGA, 240 x 320 pixel display. It has a 5MP auto-focus camera with Xenon flash and (get ready for this!) 3x optical zoom. Thanks to the integrated GPS receiver, this monster mobile also offers ‘geotagging’, which marks exactly where a particular image has been taken.
Samsung has decided to go with Symbian v9.2 S60 3rd edition OS for this 3G-enabled, quad band phone that also has HSDPA support (3.6Mbps). Thanks to the TV-out feature you can view videos and images on your TV. Thankfully, Samsung has heeded our grievances about proprietary cables and incorporated a 3.5mm AV socket into the G810. Connectivity-wise the G810 is well-equipped, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.0, and USB v2.0 all bundled in. N96, look out!
(2).Samsung F400
Following in the footsteps of dual sliders like the N95 and Samsung’s own i450, the F400 too sports a slider design. But unlike the other handsets it only has a speaker that slides up. Bang & Olufsen has deployed its ICEamp technology to handle the audio, so we can expect a lot from the F400’s music capabilities. Other entertainment features include an integrated FM radio with RDS, a 3MP auto-focus camera and a video player. The 2.2 inch TFT QVGA display has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Bluetooth and USB v2.0 are supported.
Samsung also launched some low-end handsets. The problem is; if you’ve seen one Samsung slider, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Where design is concerned, Samsung phones don’t seem to differ much from each other, or from other models in the same range for that matter. It’s true that features may vary from model to model, but the designs do leave something to be desired.
(3).Samsung L770
The L770 slider comes with a 2MP camera with flash and a secondary videocall camera. It has a 2.1 inch QVGA display with 240 x 320 pixel resolution. Connectivity-wise it’s quite well-equipped, with 3G and HSDPA support, EDGE/GPRS, Bluetooth, and USB. It also supports microSD cards for external memory and has a built-in FM radio, music player, and document viewer.
(4).Samsung F480
Samsung’s F480 is not a slider (yippee!) but more an iPhone-styled device with a large 2.8 inch TFT touch screen. It’s slim at about 11.5mm. Features include a 5MP auto-focus camera with LED flash, image/video stabilization, and some video editing capability. It has a music player and FM radio with RDS, and comes preinstalled with Samsung’s Mobile Tracker application. This trainband handset is equipped with 3G, HSDPA (7.2Mbps support), EDGE, Bluetooth, and USB.
(5).Samsung P960
The next Samsung slider in the lineup is the P960 with DVB-H support. It’s equipped with a 2.6 inch TFT QVGA display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The quad band, 3G-enabled handset supports EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth v2.0 and USB 2.0. It comes with a 3MP auto-focus camera, music player, FM radio with RDS, and document viewer.
(6).Samsung J150
The J150 is a basic candy bar model catering to budget users. This candybar trainband handset comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera, supports EDGE, and has a 1.9 inch TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and just 65K colors. It also has an integrated FM radio, so it seems perfect for an emerging market like India.
(7).Samsung E251
Surprisingly, the E251 seems to be a clone of its predecessor, the E250 slider. Except for the color there doesn’t seem to be any variation in the specs. It has a 2-inch display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels, a VGA camera, supports Bluetooth, microSD cards and (proprietary) USB, and has an MP3 player and FM radio. Am I missing something?
(8).Samsung I200
The candy bar I200 is a pleasant change from the regular slider design. It has a 2MP camera and a 2.3 inch QVGA display. It’s a Windows Mobile trainband handset that supports Bluetooth and USB, and comes with some business features, such as a document viewer.
(9).Samsung J700
The J700 has a candy bar design. It comes with a 1.3MP camera and has a 2-inch display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. It supports EDGE, Bluetooth, and USB, and has a music player and FM radio.
Unfortunately, prices for these handsets haven’t been provided, but we’ll clue you in as soon as we get them. Stay tuned.
