CTIA 2005
Although not slated for release in the U.S., Samsung was also showing off a few phones at CTIA that include world-first technologies.
The SGH-i300 is the first GSM phone to be announced with a built-in hard drive. What's really nice is that the i300 also includes a solid set of high-end technologies to complement the massive storage space of the 3 GB drive.
Among these technologies are Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone OS, a high-resolution QVGA display, a 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, and support for nearly every popular music and video format, including MP3, AAC, AAC+, H.263, H.264, and even Ogg Vorbis. A spinning scroll wheel (similar to the Nokia 7280) provides fast, iPod-like navigation through playlists, etc.
The i300 also has a full array of connectivity, including USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth, and a TransFlash memory card slot.
Unfortunately, Samsung has a very poor track record of actually releasing high-end GSM phones with industry-leading features like the i300. For example, they never released the Watch Phone, the X410 Bluetooth phone, the D700 or D710 Symbian phones, the P705 TV phone, or the i250 Microsoft Smartphone... But if they do ever release the i300, it's supposed to be a tri-band GSM model, so it should be available for import and use on GSM 1900 networks in the U.S. like T-Mobile.
Samsung's other headline-grabber this season is the SCH-V770, the world's first 7-megapixel camera phone.
Samsung will only be releasing this one in their homeland - South Korea. It's definitely on the large side, but still an impressive size, considering that there aren't really any ultra-compact 7-megapixel standalone digital cameras on the market yet.
It's clearly not designed for the casual camera-phone user. It's really more camera than phone - probably designed for people who would carry a 7-megapixel camera around everywhere anyway, and don't want to a carry a separate phone device. So basically, the opposite idea compared to most camera-phones.
CES 2006
Review: LG VX-8100
LG VX-3300 / 3280
LG VI-125
LG VX-8100
