CeBIT: Samsung Shows 10-Megapixel Camera Phone

HANOVER, GERMANY -- Samsung Electronics is planning to launch in the second quarter a cell phone that boasts a 10-megapixel-resolution digital camera, the company said at the CeBIT technology show on Thursday.

The SCH-B600 is due to go on sale in South Korea in the second quarter of this year and continues a line of cell phones with high-resolution cameras from Samsung. The company launched a 5-megapixel camera phone in October 2004, a 7-megapixel phone in July 2005, and an 8-megapixel model in November 2005.

From one side the handset looks like a conventional cell phone; from the other, it looks like a digital still camera, with an autofocus 3X optical zoom lens and a flash.

Images and other data can be stored to the handset's internal memory or on MMCmicro memory cards.

The high-end handset supports South Korea's satellite digital broadcasting service. This serves several TV and radio channels on subscription to compatible receivers. Samsung has already launched several cell phones with such a feature.

Other features include MPEG-4 video recording; a music player that plays MP3, AAC, and AAC+ files; a TV output port; a document viewer; and Bluetooth and Pictbridge printing.

No price was provided for the telephone, which is compatible with the Code Division Multiple Access 1X EvDO standard.

Another New Phone

Samsung also launched at CeBIT on Thursday a handset designed to offer functions often found on stand-alone music players. The SGH-i130 is based on the Windows Mobile operating system and packs an 8GB hard drive.

The built-in music player supports the MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and Ogg music file formats and has dual speakers, an amplifier, and a Bluetooth stereo link. Other features include a 2-megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth printing, and a video output connector. It will be available in Europe during the second quarter of this year, Samsung said.

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