MWC 2009: Samsung overview

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is a fully touch-operated slider that features a 2.8" OLED scratch-resistant capacitive touchscreen display with WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels).

Dressed to impress with a slim 12.7 mm body and a finely brushed metal frame, the S8300 UltraTOUCH also has the features to do so. The handset comes with an 8MP autofocus camera with dual-LED flash that can capture videos up to WVGA resolution at 30fps. Next are the built-in GPS with A-GPS support, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, microUSB and the microSD memory card slot. FM radio with RDS is also on board, making Wi-Fi the only major abscence here.

However the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH partially compensates for that with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as 3G with HSDPA (7.2Mbps) support. The handset also comes with the sweet DviX and XviD support, meaning that you don't have to convert your favorite videos to mp4 for watching them on it.

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH will run on the latest reincarnation of the company's proprietary TouchWiz user interface. It brings quite a number of improvements over the previous edition including new widgets, photo contacts like the Omnia HD and an improved image gallery.

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH was actually announced a week before the Mobile World Congress and we already previewed an early sample of the device from the comfort of our office.

Still, the units here at the Samsung booth are quite more brushed up and we simply couldn't miss the chance to take some live photos of one of the coolest looking device recently.

Here are some live photos of the final design which will most probably find its way to the retail units. We are in fact quite fond of the looks of this handset and its UI also seems to perform pretty impressively.

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH

There were several things that managed to impress us about the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH. For one, the touchscreen was really responsive and the picture quality of the display was simply amazing. As far as the ergonomics are concerned the device is hardly spectacular but that is compensated for by the slim silhouette and the really nice looks.

We also got a glimpse of the two extra color versions of the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH that the Korean company will offer. The blue version will appear on the market along with the red one, while the one with the black keypad will be released a while later.

Samsung S8300 UltraTouch alternative colors

We also managed to take several sample shots with the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH camera. Have a look at those now:

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH camera sample photos

Finally, we captured a couple of WVGA videos with the handset and those turned out simply great. We were quite surprised by the quality this relatively compact phone was able to pull even now at this pre-release stage.

Samsung S8300 camera sample video 1

Samsung S8300 camera sample video 2

The Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is expected to start shipping in March 2009 with an estimated price of 549 euro.