Digital Solecism

The rumors are out there. Samsung has released information on the F490 and P720 phones in Europe and the Ukraine. Sprint will be getting a somewhat ‘cheaper’ version of the F490, calling it the M800.

(Mocked up picture, definitely not the real deal. Icons on the bottom are accurate at least though)

Here’s what we know about the F490 version, keep in mind we don’t know what will be changing to make the Sprint version less expensive:

• 3.2″ haptile feedback touch screen
• 432×240 resolution
• “Croix” user interface
• 5 megapixel camera
• 3G Speeds
• MP3/AAC/MP4 playback compatibility
• Dimensions: 115 x 53.5 x 11.8 mm
• MicroSD card expansion slot
• Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0

What will Sprint cut to cut costs? Who knows. The only thing we know for sure, is that as usual they will be cutting the 5 megapixel camera down to 2 megapixel. Ugh! But at least this is a step in the right direction for Sprint. This is a fairly nice and unique new phone.

I have used this interface on several phones before and was not too impressed. Generally the touch screens were either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Hopefully Sprint will take the time to make sure it is fine tuned.

Some websites are trying to label this yet another iPhone killer, but it isn’t even close. It is a totally different kind of phone. There’s no swiping your finger here, and no built in iPod interface. It is like most any other touch screen phone, you point, it goes, and that’s about it. No word on what the on screen keyboard will be like though.

For some reason even with the information out there, Sprint and Samsung are trying (and failing) to keep this very quiet and have even sent cease and desist letters to at least one website for posting publically available information. Too funny.

No word on release dates.. but I can tell you I think it’ll be sooner rather than later. Sprint is being very hush hush about it and I think they might surprise us in the next month or so.

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