Samsung’s Flagship SGH-U900 Soul Touchscreen Cell Phone Gets European Release [Europe Gets Soul]

Samsung’s new and much anticipated flagship touchscreen cell phone, the SGH-U900 Soul, which we reported on back in February, is now gradually becoming available in parts of Europe and should be widely available by the end of May.

The 7.2Mbps HSDPA Soul, which is a mere 12.9mm in thickness, features a prominent, touchscreen OLED navigation panel mounted below the main 16M colour QVGA TFT screen which is, naturally, application adaptive, also sports a 5MP with 4x digital zoom featuring face detection and image stabilization, integrated FM tuner with RDS. Another notable feature of the Soul is the use of audio technology by none other than Bang & Olufsen in the form of ICEpower promising phenomenal audio quality – though until we hear the Soul in action quite how well this translates (in terms of use in a mobile device) is open to speculation.

Official Samsung Press Release:

Seoul, Korea, April 21, 2008 – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone and telecommunication equipment provider, today announced the launch of ‘Soul’, Samsung’s first half flagship product in 2008. Starting from France, UK, and Germany, ‘Soul’ will be available through major European mobile operators and in most of GSM supporting open markets during April and May.

Geesung Choi, President of Samsung’s Telecom Business, said ‘Soul’ has already attracted tremendous market interest.

“Soul is a living proof of Samsung’s dedication to cater the consumers’ needs of style and features for their mobiles,” President Choi said. “I am pretty confident that Soul is going to be one of our historical best selling mobiles.”

‘Sou’l was showcased at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008 at Barcelona for the first time in February. Samsung named ‘Soul’ to honor the completion of its exclusive ‘Ultra Edition’ series.

‘Soul’ is the ultimate essence of mobile; a slim, lightweight and stylish product yet still boasting all the essential functions in one single device. A sleek combination of highly styled design and functionality is a triumph of extreme opposite values, ‘Portability’ and ‘Multi-function.’

‘Soul’ enhances the usability for the user with features that adapt to the user depending on the application. With Magical Touch by DaCP™, navigation indicators on the keypad of the phone change according to the user’s needs, making navigation of the menus simple, intuitive and direct. The navigation panel’s icons change according to function. For example, when in music mode, music related icons will light up on the navigation indicators. When in camera mode, camera related icons such as zoom and brightness icons will appear.

‘Soul’ answers today’s customer needs of a perfect 5-megapixel digital camera and multimedia mobile combined into one single device. Features such as face detection, image stabilizer and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), which are very up-to-date features even in today’s digital cameras, are also equipped in Soul.

Users can enjoy super-fast Internet access through the 7.2 Mbps High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) browser and share images or video taken with the phone. With 7.2 Mpbs HSDPA, users can also easily download songs at a faster speed compared to average 3G networks.

Samsung’s SGH-U900 Soul, which is available in three colour schemes – ‘Sterling Steel’, ‘Soul Gray’ and ‘Platinum Silver’ – is retailing for around €400 ($632 equivalent).

Samsung [via]