14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung i740, one of the latest touchscreen smartphones to come from the South Korean manufacturer, has now a release date and a price. The handset first appeared on the Web about three weeks ago, but back then there weren't any details about its launch and pricing.
Apparently, the new Samsung will first be available in Ukraine, starting the second half of August. Its retail price will be somewhere around 1950 Ukrainian grivnas, which means 245 Euros or 386 USD. Not much for a smartphone, that's for sure, but this might be because the i740 lacks some features that most of today's high-end smartphones don't come without.
First of all, the i740 only brings tri-band GSM connectivity (900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS and EDGE, so you won't be able to enjoy the fast data transfer speeds that can be obtained in the case of a 3G handset. Furthermore, the new Samsung lacks Wi-Fi, a feature that lots of mobile users consider to be essential for a smartphone.
Minuses aside, Samsung i740 is a pretty good device, packing the following: a 2.8 inch TFT display with 240 x 320 pixels and 262K colors, internal GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, Music and Video players, FM radio, a 3 Megapixel camera with auto focus and flash, document viewer and editor, email, Web browser, expandable memory, USB 2.0 and 150MB of expandable memory. The smartphone measures 107 x 59 x 13.9 millimeters and includes a 1500 mAh battery that should offer decent talk and stand-by times.
Besides Ukraine, the i740 will probably also be released in Russia and other Eastern European countries, as well as in the Asian markets where 3G networks are not deployed yet (like China or India). Anyway, it's better that we wait for some official details to come from Samsung and clear the i740 mystery out.
