Samsung reveals latest music phones

Samsung Electronics has unveiled a refreshed lineup of three new cell phones that are targeted at music lovers.

The handsets have more of an emphasis on music than other phones and are intended to be just as much music player as cell phone. The SGH-i450, SGH-F330, and SGH-F210 are aimed at the same market that rival Sony has had success in with its Walkman music handsets.

The top-of-the-range SGH-i450 has as its top feature an amplifier developed by high-end audio specialists Bang & Olufsen. The smartphone runs the Symbian S60 software platform and is a dual-slider design: slide up and the smartphone features are activated, slide down and the music player functions appear on the 2.4-inch display.

One weak point of the handset is the amount of built-in memory, which is just 35MB. That's about enough for 7 to 10 songs, which is dissapointing for a music phone. Memory can be expanded up to 4GB with a Micro SD memory card.

It works on WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) networks and supports HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) data service up to 3.6Mbps.

The phone will first appear in Italy at the end of October and will follow in other European countries. It will cost about €360 ($508) before carrier subsidies.

The SGH-F330 is also an HSDPA slider-handset. Music control keys are on the front and sides of the phone and other features include a 2-megapixel camera. It has an even smaller 24MB of memory but also the memory card slot. The phone is 13.5 millimeters thick and has just become available in Germany. It will be available in other European countries soon and will cost around €260 before carrier subsidies.

The third phone, the SGH-F210, has a swivel design where the top half of the handset swivels around to reveal a keypad on the bottom half. There's an FM radio built-in with RDS (radio data system) support. The handset is just 31mm wide and 21mm thick. It packs 1GB of memory and like the others can be expanded with a Micro SD memory card. It is about to be launched in Germany and will be available in other European countries soon. It will cost around €280 before carrier subsidies.

Details on launches in other markets were not immediately available.