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Samsung intros F218, F338 musicphones in Hong Kong

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 18th 2007 @ 2:55PM

Samsung pulled out all the stops at a star-studded event last week in Hong Kong to usher in its F218 and F338 phones, spinner and slider members of the company's MusiCall series. The two models seem to be little more than localized versions of the F210 and F300 for Europe, respectively -- but if music's your gig, that might not be a bad thing at all. The F218 features 1GB of integrated storage with microSD expansion, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel cam, and ACCESS' NetFront browser (on that crazy little display, imagine that!). The F338 adds 3G data and microSDHC support -- a good thing, since it lacks the F218's ample in-built memory -- and goes for a slightly more traditional slim slider package.

[Via Mobilewhack]

Samsung's tiny X830 now shipping

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 3rd 2006 @ 11:46AM

It's not every day that a global release from Samsung gets as many oohs and aahs as one of their domestic pieces, but the SGH-X830 is a notable exception. The curious lil' spinner gets by with just two columns on its keypad (a rather low number, we reckon), brazenly sacrificing usability for fashion and the cool factor. Then again, for a phone of this shape and size, we could be going completely keypadless -- so we'll stop our bellyaching right here. Look for the "Flick & Swing" X830 to drop in a rainbow of six colors when it shows up in your friendly local importer's inventory.

Samsung SGH-X830 gets by FCC

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 11th 2006 @ 12:26PM

Our theory here is that the FCC didn't actually see the X830, it just quietly slipped by. Yeah, it's that small; usability of the dual-column keypad could be an issue for some folks attracted to the handset, but for others, Samsung's submicronic spinner makes the grade on the 'wow' factor alone (present company included). Sure, internal memory's way down from the S4300 on which it's based, but when it comes to hot Korean tech, we'll take the trickle-down approach if that's our only option.

The X830: Samsung's oddball spinner to go global?

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 12th 2006 @ 8:33AM

There are many variations of the theme, but the story typically ends the same: Korean manufacturer shows off hot phone; hot phone goes on sale in Korea; rest of the world never hears about the hot phone again. For a change of pace, we might have a happy ending this time. Remember the curious SPH-S4300 music-centric spinner we told you about a while back? It seems Samsung's found a few customers happy with the 2-column keypad layout, since they're releasing a nearly identical phone with GSM innards as the X830. Internal flash is down from 1GB to a fairly pathetic 82MB, but given the phone's microscopic 85 x 29 x 20mm dimensions, we're nearly willing to forgive. If you pick this one up, be careful, dear readers -- looks mighty easy to put an eye out with that spin mechanism. View the X830 stowed in its upright, locked position after the break.

Continue reading The X830: Samsung's oddball spinner to go global?