Samsung i8510 INNOV8 preview: First look

The new Samsung uber-phone, called Samsung i8510 INNOV8, is finally in our hands. It packs so many goodies that it's hard to decide where to start from. It's not the first 8 megapixel handset but it's the best we've seen so far and better yet it's among the most loaded smartphones to see daylight. Everything about the i8510 INNOV8 speaks high-tech and since this is the case, we guess it has come to the right place, 'cause high-tech is what we do for a living.

Official photos of Samsung i8510 INNOV8

When you take the Samsung i8510 INNOV8 in your hands you somehow feel you are looking at the forefront of mobile technology. And it makes you think - if they give those to ordinary people like us, what are they really holding up back in their neat labs? But we digress.

We rarely see mobile phones that truly impress us and the Samsung i8510 INNOV8 is among those few. We are in the process of making a full review however we couldn't help but post a quick preview for all of you to enjoy.

Samsung i8510 INNOV8 at a glance

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, GPRS/EDGE class 10, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
  
• Dimensions: 106.5 x 53.9 x 17.2 mm, 140 g
  
• Display: 2.8-inch 16M color TFT, QVGA resolution (240 x 320 pixels)
  
• Memory: 128 MB RAM, 8/16GB flash storage, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
  
• OS: Symbian 9.3, S60 3rd edition UI, Feature Pack 2
  
• Still camera: 8 megapixel autofocus, mechanical shutter, automatic lens cover, dual Power LED flash, digital image stabilizer, geotagging, auto panorama shot, face detection, smile detection, blink detection
  
• Video camera: MPEG4 VGA@30fps, QVGA@120fps high-speed recording
  
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi with DLNA certification, 3.5mm audio jack, TV-out, universal microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS
  
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, Optical touchpad, 3D hardware accelerator, DivX support, stereo speakers, DSP audio technology, FM radio with RDS
  
• Battery: Li-Ion 1200 mAh, Talk time: 8 h 30 min, Standby: 310 h
  
• Expected release date: August 2008
  
• Expected retail price: 750 euro (1170 US dollars)

The Samsung i8510 INNOV8 (previously rumored as Samsung Primera) has a name that seems really hard to pronounce, but in fact it's the word INNOVATE with some untraditional spelling. The device was announced only recently and it seems it will hit the market even sooner while other top-of-the-shelf devices such as Nokia N96 are still holding back for late autumn.

The Samsung i8510 INNOV8

Now that we have this baby in our hands, you can rest assured will put it properly through its paces. But for the purposes of this preview will try to present it more concisely covering only some of the matters of interest such as hardware and design, multimedia, web browser, GPS and of course, camera performance. We will try to give you all of our initial impressions, but you can count that we'll do a deeper analysis once the excitement settles in the days to come.