Samsung's 7-Megapixel Camera Phone Hits Road

BEIJING -- Samsung Electronics plans to ship in a mobile phone with a built-in 7-megapixel camera in China later this year, according to a company spokesperson.

This marks the first time that the company has made a version of its 7-megapixel camera phone available outside its home market of South Korea, said Erin Lee, a Samsung spokesperson. "China is the only market outside South Korea where we are offering our most advanced products," she said.

While the new camera, the SCH-M709, will only be available in China, Samsung could roll out the phone in other countries, depending on customer demand and the response from operators, Lee said.

Camera Phone Specs

Samsung is showing the SCH-M709 at its booth at the PT/Wireless & Networks Comm China 2005 exhibition (PT Expo) here this week.

The SCH-M709 is built for CDMA 2000-1X mobile networks and is designed to look like a phone on one side and a digital camera on the other. The camera phone has a 7-megapixel camera with a 3X optical zoom and a 5X digital zoom and can take digital still pictures and video. The SCH-M709 also has a built-in MP3 player and has TV output.

The phone has a 240-by-320-pixel LCD screen capable of showing 16 million colors and weighs in at 5.6 ounces. Its dimensions are 5 by 2 by 2.2 inches. The SCH-M709 will be available in China during December. Pricing has not been announced, but comparable models sell for around $900, Lee said.