Samsung Goes
QWERTY for Cell Phones
New handsets include built-in cameras, full keyboards, and e-mail
access.
Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Samsung Electronics plans to introduce two cell phones later this year
with full
QWERTY keyboards, including one model that supports Research
In Motion's BlackBerry e-mail technology.
The SGH-D550 is a tri-band
GSM/
GPRS handset with a 1.3-megapixel
digital camera, a slot for a TransFlash memory card, and support for
the BlackBerry e-mail service.
The handset resembles a standard clamshell design at first glance, but
an unusual hinging arrangement allows the screen to be rotated so that
it lays adjacent to the numerical keypad. When the device is turned on
its side, with the screen is in landscape mode, the keypad doubles as
the
QWERTY keyboard.
The SGH-D550's main screen is a TFT
LCD that can show 262,144 colors
with a resolution of 176 pixels by 220 pixels. A grayscale OLED screen
is used for the external display, with a resolution of 129 pixels by
96 pixels.
That's Entertainment
For executives who tire of sending e-mails and want some
entertainment, the sleek black SGH-D550 can also be used to play music
files in a variety of formats, including MP3 and AAC. The handset was
on display at the CommunicAsia exhibition in Singapore and will be
available in Asia and Europe during the third quarter. Pricing was not
immediately available.
The SGH-D550 wasn't the only Samsung phone with a full
QWERTY keyboard
on display at CommunicAsia. The SPH-M7000 is based on Microsoft's
Windows Mobile for Pocket PC software and supports CDMA2000-1x (Code
Division Multiple Access)
EV-DO (Evolution Data Only).
Running on a 520-MHz XScale processor from Intel, the SPH-M7000 has a
65,536-color TFT
LCD screen that slides sideways to reveal a full
QWERTY keyboard. In addition, the handset has built-in support for
IEEE 802.11b WLAN networks and includes a 1.3-megapixel camera with
flash.
The SPH-M7000 is expected to ship in the third quarter and will be
available only in South Korea. Pricing was not disclosed.
CommunicAsia runs through Friday.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...061405X,00.asp
===
"In the future, my private life will be expressed solely through art."
-- Britney Spears
Linear Mode
