Samsung S500i (SGH-S500i) Preview
Discontinued 27th September 2005 Updated
17th November 2005 (corrections)
The Samsung S500i (SGH-S500i) is an
i-Mode handset scheduled to be released on 1st October
to coincide with O2's i-Mode launch in the UK.
There's a certain cosmetic similarity
between the S500i and the Samsung
E720 and E730
devices, but underneath this is a significantly diferent
phone. Sitting near the top of the range of O2's
i-Mode devices, the S500i comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera,
multimedia playback, stereo speakers and a 262,000 colour screen.
It's a 2.5G tri-band GSM device, although i-Mode can
run on 3G phones too.
In case you're not familiar with i-Mode,
it's an interactive information service tailored especially
for mobile phones, covering things such as banking and
shopping, rather than the entertainment-orientated O2
Active service. Elsewhere in the world, i-Mode is quite
a mature technology, although market penetration is
patchy.
The Samsung S500i comes with Bluetooth,
expandable memory and has 80Mb of internal memory already,
in line with other similar Samsung clamshells.
Joining the Samsung SGH-S500i in O2's
lineup are the Samsung Z320 slider (presumably a 3G
i-Mode phone), and the low cost NEC 411i and 343i 2.5G
handsets. These handsets should be available for contract
and pay-as-you-go customers from October 2005.
It's hard to say if i-Mode will be a
success as it depends on the quality of i-Mode services
available to O2 customers. However, consumers who are
frustrated by the fiddlyness of WAP browsers may well
warm to the ease of use of i-Mode services. However,
the SGH-S500i looks like an excellent handset in its
own right, and may be a great help to O2's launch campaign.
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Samsung
S500i at a glance
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Available:
|
Now
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Network:
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Tri-band
GSM
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Data:
|
GPRS
+ i-mode
|
Screen:
|
240x320
pixels, 262k colours
|
Camera:
|
1.3
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Medium
clamshell Size tbc / weight
98 grams
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Bluetooth:
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Yes
|
Infra-red:
|
Not
specifed
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
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Battery
life:
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Not
specified
|
|
|