Samsung floats new phone designs at 3GSM
Samsung F520
(Credit: Samsung)
Samsung F520
(Credit: Samsung)Samsung joined Motorola in making a big splash at the 3GSM in Barcelona. The company introduced a selection of high-end phones that feature new designs and improved interfaces.
The F520 has a unique dual-slider design that performs much like the dual-hinged Samsung SCH-u740. The F520 slides vertically to reveal the number keypad and horizontally to show the QWERTY keyboard. The new Flash-based menu interface utilizes a touch screen along with the normal navigation controls. There's a 3-megapixel camera and all the usual high-end refinements, but with support for the 900/800/1900 GSM bands and the 2100 UMTS band you can be sure it won't arrive at a U.S carrier.
Samsung's new Ultra Edition phones
(Credit: Engadget)The Ultra Edition 12.1 (U700) has a slim and sexy slider design and comes with tri-band (GSM 900/1800/1900) support, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity, and an infrared port. The Ultra Edition 10.9 (U600) is almost the same as the U700 but it adds some design refinements and lacks an autofocus for the camera. It's the only quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) handset of the bunch so it could just arrive on U.S. shores.
The Ultra Edition 5.9 (U100) has many of the same features as its siblings except that it comes in a slim candy-bar design. Finishing off the series is the Ultra Edition 9.6 (U300). It also offers a comparable feature set as the other Ultra Edition models but in a flip-phone design.
Finally, the i600 is an updated BlackJack complete with Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to see it in the United States.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
