Samsung, the world’s third-largest handset maker has today released the world’s first camera phone with 5-megapixel resolution in Korea. In conjunction with Japan-based camera specialist Asahi Pentax, Samsung have devised a camera module specifically for the mobile phone. Poor quality mobile pictures will soon be a thing of the past – a mere grainy memory. Besides the incredible resolution, the SCH-S250 also includes the first QVGA display (240×320)) in a mobile phone that supports 16.7 million colours.
Your average mobile-wielding sulky teenager considers built-in cameras with picture resolutions of less than one megapixel passé, but the SCH-S250 will raise their little technical antennae. The 5-megapixel camera features a high-quality CCD sensor, 1/1000-second shutter speed, and QVGA (Quarter VGA)video recording. The unique “stretch” design protects the display and camera lens when not in use. 92 MB of built-in memory can store up to 100 minutes of high-quality video, but less than 18 still photos at full resolution. Additional storage can be added and a 32MB auxiliary memory is included as standard. And the people at Samsung and Asahi Pentax didn’t stop here – an MP3 player and TV output round out the features.
This little phone could be used as your portable office as it also includes a text-to-speech function allowing the phone to “speak” to-do lists and incoming text messages.
Furthermore, South Korea’s top mobile carrier, SK Telecom, has said it will introduce 10-megapixel camera phones produced by Samsung by the end of this year. The SCH-S250 price will be announced next week, so it is hard to predict yet how soon the kids will be fighting over it in the schoolyard.
Mobile operators love high resolution photos, as transferring them takes lots of bandwidth and there for cost the user considerably more than low res pictures.