Samsung i8510 - the 8 Megapixel Monster Smartphone

Samsung, currently the world's second largest handset manufacturer, has prepared a multimedia monster smartphone that presents itself as a real threat to Nokia's N96, Sony Ericsson's C905 and all the other highly-featured camera phones that will be released this year.

Named Samsung i8510, the new handset was first spotted on a Vietnamese blog. In terms of design, the smartphone seems to be a mix between the 5 Megapixel G810 and the Soul U900, both of which are sliders - hence the new Samsung is also a slider and it looks pretty cool.

The features included in i8510 are quite impressive. First of all, there's an 8 Megapixel camera with auto focus, xenon flash and video recording at 120fps (in QVGA mode). Samsung i8510 is said to run on a modified version of Symbian 60 - if true, it's the first S60 smartphone to pack an 8 Megapixel camera.

i8510 can have a built-in memory of either 8GB or 16GB, so there will be two versions released - just like in the case of Samsung Omnia and iPhone 3G.

A large 2.8 inch TFT display with 16 million colors and at least a QVGA resolution is packed in the new Samsung, to rival with the display of Nokia N96. Furthermore, the i8510 brings a set of features that, added to the ones already mentioned, makes it a true high-end smartphone: GSM and HSDPA connectivity (for data transfer speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps), Wi-Fi, internal GPS, DivX support, 3D graphics accelerator, TV out, 128MB of RAM, optical mouse and other goodies that for the moment are not known.

The i8510 measures 106.5 x 53.9 x 16.9 millimeters and includes a powerful 1200 mAh battery that should be able to keep the smartphone alive for up to 6 hours in talk-time mode, and up to 280 hours in stand-by time.

In conclusion, Samsung might have a major hit in this new slider smartphone. Let's wait though for its official presentation and its commercial availability (which are both a mystery for now).