Samsung Shows Skinny 'Slider' Phone

ILSAN, SOUTH KOREA -- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has taken the wraps off a new slider-type cell phone, its thinnest yet, at this week's Korea Electronics Show here.

The SPH-V8400 follows a trend for thin phones that was kicked off with Motorola's Razr, but unlike that handset and several imitators, which are all clamshell models, the new Samsung handset is a slider type. Despite the change in style, the new phone is much the same size as its clamshell competitors.

It measures 0.63-inch deep, which makes it thicker than the 0.52-inch thick Razr and Samsung's own SCH-V740 thin clamshell phone, which is 0.58 inches deep. The length is slightly longer at 4 inches compared to 3.92 inches for both the Razr and SCH-V740, but it's in the width where the new slider scores. The phone is 1.8 inches wide, which is less than the 2.52-inch-wide Razr and 2.04-inch-wide SCH-V740. It weighs 3.2 ounces, which makes it the lightest of the three handsets.

Only in Korea

The phone is designed for use on South Korean CDMA networks and includes a 1.3-megapixel resolution camera, a 260,000-color TFT LCD, an MP3 player, and the Picsel file viewer software for PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and text files. It is compatible with the Pictbridge printing system.

It is scheduled for release only in South Korea in late October or early November and will cost between $700 and $800, said Erin Lee, a spokesperson for Samsung in Seoul. The same model won't be available overseas.