Early this morning, Samsung announced the two newest additions to its full-touchscreen line up that might not fill a gap, but they sure do look purty. The S5230 and S5600 handsets are aimed at the European market for the time being and may stay there, though the US seems to actually be keeping up with its friends across the pond when it comes to doing away with keypads. It is becoming more and more apparent that the keypad-less form factor is one that Samsung is embracing, fully, so we should expect plenty more of these puppies down the road. Specs:
S5230
- EDGE/GPRS Quad Band (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
- 3.0″ 262K WQVGA LCD (240×400) touchscreen display
- 3 Megapixel camera, CMOS (Smile Shot), 15 fps video capture
- H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MPEG4 video support
- FM Radio with RDS, DNSe
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, eAAC+, WMA, AMR,MIDI,SP-MIDI, i-melody, WAV audio support
- Music Recognition/SNS/Photo Contact/Gesture Lock/Wide Idle screen/Handwriting
- TouchWiz UI with Mobile Widget
- Bluetooth v2.1 / USB 2.0 FS
- Internal Memory 50 MB + External Memory slot : microSDHC (up to 8GB)
- 104 x 53 x 11.9 mm
- 1000 mAh battery
S5600
- HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (900/2100MHz)
- EDGE/GPRS Quad Band (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
- 2.8″ 16M TFT (240 x 320) touchscreen display
- 3 Megapixel camera, CMOS (Smile Shot), 15 fps video capture
- H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MPEG4 video support
- Video recording supporting QVGA@15fps
- FM Radio with RDS, DNSe
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, eAAC+, WMA, AMR,MIDI,SP-MIDI, i-melody, WAV audio support
- Music Recognition/SNS/Photo Contact/Gesture Lock/Wide Idle screen
- TouchWiz UI with Mobile Widget
- Bluetooth v2.1 / USB 2.0 FS
- Internal Memory 80 MB + External Memory slot : microSDHC (up to 8GB)
- 102.8 x 54.8 x 12.9mm
- 1000 mAh battery
Not bad, not bad at all. Provided these handsets are well-subsidized, as they are expected to be, we’ll surely see them roaming the streets of Europe. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is here to stay on low and mid-range handsets — yea or nay? The S5230 will drop across Europe some time in April with the S5600 to follow in May.
