Samsung has just announced the Samsung I7110. It will be showcased for the first time at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London (Oct 21-22). Samsung I7110, a slim and sleek bar type smartphone with only 12.9 mm thickness, comes fully-packed with high performance functionality.

Based on Symbian OS 9.3 (S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2), the I7110 is optimized for convergence with performance and feature enhancements. Users can choose from thousands of applications from the S60 applications library and have access to their favorites by using dedicated hot keys.

The I7110 offers a 2.6" AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen, to deliver outstanding experiences in navigation, multimedia, and connectivity. It boasts geo-tagging and navigation capabilities in pedestrian and driving modes. The AMOLED screen makes it a perfect pedestrian navigator as it provides sharp images even under intense sunlight. Currently, the pedestrian navigator is available in 10 cities in Western Europe including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, and Rome. In addition, the FM transmitter enables drivers to receive the voice navigation guide via car speakers.

Samsung I7110 is a great multimedia companion. Users will be able to enjoy high resolution photos with its 5 megapixel camera featuring auto focus and LED flash. It also comes with the latest digital camera features including 'smile shot' and 'blink shot' functions. The I7110 offers advanced video recording and play features. It supports multi-codec formats including DivX, thereby saving users from the issues associated with converting video files. It also features 50MB of internal memory and a SDHC-supported micro SD slot, allowing users to store various digital contents up to 16GB. The 1200 mAh battery can facilitate up to 11 hours of talk time and extended multimedia experience.

To offer seamless connectivity for multimedia experience, the I7110 comes equipped with HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. The phone also offers an 8-way optical mouse to maximize the easiness of mobile browsing.

The Samsung I7110 will be available in Russia from November 2008 and will soon be introduced in other markets.

More information: Full press release, Product page, Technical specifications.

Nokia has just announced its first Touch enabled S60 smartphone. Powered with the new S60 5th Edition platform, the 5800 XpressMusic has a large, touch sensitive 3.2" 640x360 pixel nHD widescreen display, 3.2 Megapixel (2048x1536) Carl Zeiss Tessar camera with dual LED flash and VGA/30 fps video recording, built-in A-GPS and Nokia Maps, support for up to 16 GB microSD cards (8 GB card is included with the device), 3G, HSDPA and WLAN connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR with A2DP and AVRCP, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, microUSB and 3.5 mm AV connectors and is powered with BL-5J 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery.

The touch sensitive screen (single-touch) provides tactile feedback using vibra. Touch the screen or move a slider and you will not only hear and see but also feel its reaction. It works all the time, unless you set a profile to not use it. The tactile feedback vibration works towards the screen, you can feel it as a 'click'. There are three levels of feedback and other simpler feedback mechanisms (like turning the phone over to stop it ringing). The 5800 has a proximity sensor preventing inadvertent touches and saving power.

Text input (ITU keypad with T9) and UI control work both with finger and stylus, at your convencience. You can enter text in four different ways, using finger and stylus: Handwritting Recognition (stylus), Full Screen Qwerty (Landscape orientation, finger or stylus), Virtual Keyboard (Portrait orientation, small Qwerty, stylus) and virual standard keypad (Portrait orientation, stylus or finger).

The new user interface provides serveral new home screen features making access to the most frequently used functions easier and quicker. Contacts Bar lets you put four favourite contacts on your home screen, and access them with a single-touch, track message histories, blog updates, photos and more. Media Bar, with Flash support, provides rapid access to favourite media like surfing the web and using online sharing services. The 5800 has three buttons located below the screen: End key, S60 Menu key and the Send key. Plus there's a Media bar key on the top providing access to Music, Gallery, Games, Video Center and Internet Browser.

This phone is of course mainly about music. The updated Nokia Music Player allows drag-and-drop transfer of tracks and playlist management. And the device is packed with all the music essentials - a high-quality player with graphic equaliser, in-box memory for up to 6000 tracks, standard headphone jack, powerful built-in surround sound and up to a-day-and-a-half of music play time.

The 5800 XpressMusic weighs 109 g and measures 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm. Its 1320 mAh battery provides 35 hours of music playback and up to 9 hours of talk time. Box contents include Nokia Music Headset, Portable Stand, Video-Out cable, stylus, carrying case and 8 GB memory card. The 5800 will be available in Q4 2008 in silver-black, red and blue colours.

Stay tuned for detailed review of the 5800 and its new S60 5th Edition as soon as we get a test unit.