Samsung Launches Galaxy Spica Android Phone

Samsung is adding another Android phone to its lineup, announcing the Galaxy Spica here at CES. In addition to the Galaxy Spica, Samsung also announced two touchscreen feature phones, the Corby Pro and the Corby.

The Galaxy Spica may sound familiar, because it’s not exactly a new phone; it was launched overseas late last year. The Galaxy Spica is a revamped version of the Galaxy, Samsung’s first Android phone. The Galaxy Spica, redesigned for the U.S. market, sports a 3.2-inch HVGA display, a speedy 800-MHz processor (also seen on Samsung’s Android-based Moment), and a 3-megapixel camera.

Like the Moment, the Galaxy Spica sports the vanilla Android 1.5 user interface, which might be a good thing if you’re not a fan of Samsung’s sometimes confusing TouchWiz 3D user interface. The Galaxy Spica also comes equipped with Samsung’s excellent DNSe 2.0 audio enhancement technology, which is typically found on the company’s portable media players. The Galaxy Spica has some other features that will appeal to multimedia junkies, including native DivX support, a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, and, of course, access to all of the excellent Android music and video apps.

Unlike many of Samsung’s latest high-end phones, the Galaxy Spica does not have an AMOLED display. Only a half-inch thick, the GSM Galaxy Spica is quite slim and pocketable. Price and carrier have not been announced.

Samsung also launched two feature phones targeted at younger, socially connected audiences, the Corby Pro and the Corby. The full-touch Corby features Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, which can be customized with various widgets. Users can also access their friend’s Twitter and Facebook feeds and update their status with a built-in notification feature. The Corby lets users easily upload pictures snapped with the 2-megapixel camera to Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, and other sites.

The Corby Pro might appeal to heavy messengers, as it has similar social networking features as well as a full-QWERTY keyboard. The Corby Pro sports beefier specs too, including a 3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi access, 3G/HSDPA and quad band connectivity, and access to more e-mail and multimedia features.

Pricing and carrier for both the Corby and Corby Pro have not been announced.

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