Samsung intros i7110 with AMOLED screen, Symbian

Samsung on Monday announced the introduction of its i7110 bar-style handset, which will be shown to the public at London's Symbian Smartphone Show over the next two days. The handset notably features a 2.6-inch OLED screen with 240x320 resolution, which helps contribute to the smartphone's approximate half-inch thickness and also produces much richer colors than most LCDs. The use of Symbian's S60 operating system also gives it access to true smartphone-level apps.

Inside, a built-in GPS sensor allows users to geotag their photos as well as receive pedestrian and driving directions. The pedestrian navigations are programmed for 10 of Western Europe's biggest cities, with the AMOLED display again helping through its high visibility in bright sunlight. The handset's built-in FM transmitter allows users to hear the navigation instructions when driving via their vehicles' sound systems.

The smartphone also offers entertainment options acting as a multimedia player with multi-codec support, including DivX-encoded videos in addition to H.263, H.264, WMV, MP4 and RV. Music file support includes AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, Real Audio and WMA. The files can be stored either on the embedded 50MB of memory or a microSDHC card up to 16GB in capacity; an increasingly common 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash help encourage regular photography.

The i7110 also includes a Wi-Fi module for connecting to Internet-connected networks, while wireless network data access is done over HSDPA networks. Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 connections are also part of the i7110's specs.

While pricing has not been announced, the Samsung i7110 will launch in Russia in November, with a wider introduction coming soon.