Samsung Unveils Its Thinnest Satellite TV Phone

Samsung Electronics has taken the wraps off a new cell phone that can receive radio and TV broadcasts direct from satellite.

The SCH-B500 phone is the thinnest handset yet to support the service, which is called satellite digital mobile broadcasting (S-DMB) and is available only in South Korea. It’s 13.5 millimeters thick, which is about half the thickness of first-generation models that went on sale in early 2005, and is 101 millimeters long by 52 millimeters wide. It weighs 100 grams, which is also lighter than earlier models.

The phone is compatible with the CDMA2000 1x EVDO cellular standard and packs a 2-megapixel digital still camera, a QVGA resolution (240 by 320 pixels) display, MP3 player, Bluetooth, document view and TV output. There’s also an audio book feature that will read aloud three fairy tales in any of four languages: Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English.

Samsung SCH-B500

Like other similar phones, the SCH-B500 will be available only in South Korea. The S-DMB signal from local provider TU Media covers only the Korean mainland, so it wouldn’t be very useful in other regions anyway. No price was provided.

-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)

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