2004 Holiday Pre-Preview
It's been a while since Samsung first launched the i600, but that was with Verizon, and with the old 2002 version of Microsoft's Smartphone software...
In the meantime, a lot of people have been wondering when Sprint would get into the smartphone game. Sure, they offer PDA-phones, but a smartphone is something different, and so far Sprint's been the only top-five carrier without such a device. But now, finally, they are about to join the smartphone party. Meet the Samsung i600 for Sprint:
There's not much to see, since it's the same exact hardware offered by Verizon. But it does have the 2003 version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, which is what Sprint was waiting for. (Verizon now offers the i600 with the 2003 version as well.)
Key features include a large color display, an SD card slot that supports SDIO, an infrared port, and speakerphone. Sprint will begin offering the i600 by the end of this month, for $649.
The other notable phone coming soon from Samsung is the SGH-P735, Samsung's first megapixel GSM camera phone.
The P735 has Samsung's unique "swing" hinge design. At first glance, it looks a lot like the "twist" design of Samsung's A600 and A610 models, which allowed the display to face in or out, open or closed. But the swing design is actually a major improvement, because it adds a fifth position: a 90-degree landscape orientation, something previously seen only on the swivel-style Motorola V80. The landscape mode lets you use the whole display area to frame your shot, while keeping the body of the phone vertical so it's easy to hold one-handed.
The nifty hinge is just the top of the iceberg, though - the P735 is quite a feature-packed phone. The excellent 262,000-color main display is complemented by a color external display, and as I mentioned, the camera is megapixel. Other features include a memory card slot, MP3 player, video capture, and infrared.
The P735 is expected to be released by T-Mobile USA by the end of the year.