Samsung expands its “A touch for every lifestyle” strategy with the new Samsung Star S5230 and the Samsung Preston S5600 which have been launched recently. These phones join the popular line of touchscreen cellphones. These phones are 2.5G and 3G respectively and both of them utilize Samsung’s TouchWiz GUI. The S5230 sports a 3-inch WQVGA display whereas the S5600 sports a 2.8-inch QVGA panel. They both brag of compact design and intuitive usability.
The Samsung Star S5230 measures a mere 11.9mm in thickness. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera for crystal clear pictures. It is capable of recording QVGA resolution videos at up to 15 fps. It has an internal storage of 50Mb which can be further expanded to 8GB via a memory card slot. There exists an accelerometer to flip between portrait and landscape orientations. The presence of an on-screen QWERTY keyboard aids texting and emailing. Additionally, there is handwriting recognition for ease-of-use. The “Photo Contact” option allows users to call a contact by simply touching an appointed image.
It also supports multi-format and DNSe to make it user-friendly and for better audio quality. Through Shazam’s “Find Music” service the phone features music recognition. Browsing the Internet is easy with the accelerometer sensor for auto-rotation. In addition, the product arrives in several colors including Soft pink and Snow white.
There isn’t any information available about the pricing when it launches in Europe, Middle East Africa, South East Asia, South West Asia and Latin America from April 2009. However it is expected that the pricing will be reasonable considering the fact that high-speed data connection is not available. To add on to their pride, two million handsets have already been pre-ordered according to Samsung.
The Samsung Preston S5600 shares many similar features with the Samsung Star S5230 such as camera, accelerometer and PMP functionality. However it has added benefits like 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity and 80MB of standard memory (again with an 8GB-capable card slot). Favorite applications can be accessed with ease, thanks to the mobile widgets that can be placed on the screen for one-click access. It features music recognition using Shazam’s “Find Music” service and Multi-codec support including H.263, MPEG4, and WMV. Samsung Preston will be available in an assortment of colors including Sweet pink, Snow white, and Charcoal grey colors.
It will be available in Europe and Asia from May. Again, there has been no mention about the pricing.
“Samsung Star and Samsung Preston are significant additions to our full-touch screen mobile portfolio, featuring all the essential functions in one single device,” commented JK Shin, executive vice president and head of Mobile Communications division at Samsung Electronics. “I am pretty confident that the products will be one of our historical best selling mobiles. Focusing on our consumer-oriented strategy, Samsung will deliver various full touch products for every lifestyle,” he added.
In keeping with the product launching, Samsung will conduct a range of marketing activities. The ‘Samsung Mobile Live’ venture, the company’s “experiential marketing” program will be held at popular areas in countries witnessing major launches from June. Consumers will get the opportunity to touch and learn about the newest features of Samsung’s full touch products at this event; minus the pressure of a sales pitch. The core message of ‘Get in Touch’ will be put across in a compelling way throughout the duration of the program to strengthen its dominance in full touch products.
People from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East Africa, South East Asia and South West Asia will get to view a new television commercial for Samsung Star from end of May.