Europe's very first mobile phone equipped with an
8 Megapixel camera, the Samsung i8510 Innov8 slider, is now available in the UK, exclusively offered by Carphone Warehouse. The handset is sold, for the moment, only together with a contract from Orange, UK's fourth largest mobile operator, but it will soon come via O2 and T-Mobile too.
One of the most attractive features of the i8510 is undoubtedly its 8 Megapixel camera. This comes with auto focus, dual LED flash, image stabilizer, face detection, WDR (Wide Dynamic Range), auto-panorama shots and video recording (120fps in QVGA mode or 30fps in VGA mode).
The new Samsung further brings: quad-band GSM connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS and EDGE, dual-band HSDPA connectivity (900 / 2100 MHz) for high-speed data transfers (7.2 Mbps), a 2.8 inch TFT QVGA display with 16 million colors, accelerometer, built-in GPS and A-GPS (allowing the camera to geotag the photos), Wi-Fi, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), full HTML browser, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Music player (MP3, WMA, eAAC+, AMR and Real Audio formats supported), FM radio with RDS, a 3.5mm headset jack, Video player, DivX certification, TV out, 3D games (FIFA 2008, Asphalt) and microSD card support.
Running on Symbian S60 3rd Edition, the i8510 weighs 140 grams and, when not slid, it measures 106.5 x 53.9 x 17.2 millimeters. Its battery is a 1200 mAh one said to provide up to 8.5 hours in talk-time mode or up to 310 hours in stand-by mode.
UK mobile users can buy the "Oranged" Samsung i8510 online, either from Carphone's subsidiary Mobiles.co.uk, or from Carphone directly, in an 8GB or a 16GB version. The smartphone's prices range from free (with a hefty data plan and a contract agreement for 18 months) to more than 200 GBP – it's all about the contract and data plan you want.
