Samsung Unveils Android Smartphone

Samsung Electronics has launched the I7500 -- its first Android-powered mobile phone. The Samsung I7500 follows the HTC Dream (also marketed as T-Mobile G1, Era G1 in Poland) -- the first phone to the market that uses the Android platform. Samsung's Android handset features a 3.2-inch Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) touchscreen and 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, giving users access to Google Mobile services and full Web browsing at blazing speeds,reports efytimes.

The Samsung I7500 offers users access to the full suite of Google services, including Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar and Google Talk. The integrated GPS receiver enables the use of Google Maps features, such as My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route description. 

The Samsung I7500 comes with latest multimedia features. Along with supporting a 5-megapixel camera and various multimedia codec formats, the I7500 also provides a long enough battery life (1500mAh) and memory capacity up to 40GB (Internal memory: 8GB, External memory: Up to 32GB) to enjoy all the applications and multimedia content. The phone also boasts its slim and compact design with 11.9mm thickness. It also includes a 3.5mm headphone socket. 

The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June 2009. The company has not revealed pricing for the device.

Motorola is also working on hardware products that would run Android. Sony Ericsson is planning to release an Android based handset in the summer of 2009. Acer is rumored to be releasing phones called the L1, C1, E1, F1 and A1 (unconfirmed) late in 2009.