Closely related to the Samsung F300, the Samsung F500 is a dual-face multimedia 3G phone with a “multimedia side” and “phone side”. However, the SGH-F500 is much more than a standard music phone.. this handset is designed to play videos and, optionally, receive digital TV broadcasts (according to Samsung).

The Samsung F500 receives digital TV transmissions using the DVB-H standard, as does the Samsung P910 and overdue Nokia N92. We don’t know if there will be a version of the SGH-F500 supporting the rival T-DMB platform, nor do we know if the DVB-H receiver is an add-on or will be included as standard in some F500 variants. (See our writeup on the Nokia N92 for a brief explanation of DVB-H).

Another unusual feature of the SGH-F500 is that it supports the DivX video codec, combined with a built-in audio player. This enables the Samsung F500 to play back MP3, AAC, WMA, DivX, MPEG4,H.264, WMV, WMDRM/MTP, DivX DRM, and OMA DRM media types. Yes, that’s a bit of an alphabet soup.. put it this way, the Samsung F500 is probably the most versatile media player we’ve seen to date.

Perhaps the SGH-F500 can be considered as the follow-on device from the Samsung P900 / P910 models, but it’s a much more elegant design. Samsung have designed the F500 so that it can be placed on a flat surface, rather that the P900/P910 which is a handheld device.

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Samsung SGH-F500 Ultra Video Review

The SGH-P900 (pictured) is an unusual looking phone that is slightly reminiscent of the Samsung Z130, with an unusual rotating display. However, the display on the SGH-P900 is designed for digital TV rather than video calling.

The Samsung SGH-P900 is a tri-band GSM device with GPRS and EDGE, a 2 megapixel digital camera, T-DMB receiver, 240×320 pixel display in 262,000 colours, 128Mb of internal memory plus microSD expansion, an MP3/AAC player, dual speakers and Bluetooth. It’s a large device for a GSM phone, at 95×48x27mm and 124 grams, but substantially lighter than the Nokia N92.

The TV technology in the SGH-P900 uses the T-DMB (”Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting”) system, which is a technology based on DAB digital terrestrial radio. This is a quite different system to the one used by Nokia in the N92, which is the DVB-H based on the DVB-T “Freeview” standard. Sony Ericsson are also committed to DVB-H. Cleverly, Samsung also have the SGH-P910 which is a handset that uses the DVB-H standard, so effectively Samsung have all the bases covered.

Samsung P900 (SGH-P900) specification:
Network: GSM 900/1800/1900
Data: GPRS + EDGE
Screen: 240×320 pixels, 262k colours
Camera: 2.0 megapixels
Size: Large clamshell 95×48x27mm / 124 grams
Bluetooth: Yes
Memory card: No
Infra-red: Yes
Polyphonic: Yes
Java: Yes
Battery life: Not specified

On the other hand, the SGH-P910 is a 3G device with UMTS 2100, plus tri-band GSM and GPRS (but no EDGE), a 1.3 megapixel camera, DVB-H receiver, 240×320 pixel display in 262,000 colours, 32Mb of internal memory plus microSD expansion, MP3/AAC playback, dual speakers and Blueooth. Size and weight are identical to the P900.

Samsung P910 (SGH-P910) specification:
Network: UMTS 2100 + GSM 900/1800/1900
Data: UMTS (3G) + GPRS
Screen: 240×320 pixels, 262k colours
Camera: 1.3 megapixels
Size: Large clamshell 95×48x27mm / 124 grams
Bluetooth: Yes
Memory card: No
Infra-red: Yes
Polyphonic: Yes
Java: Yes
Battery life: Not specified

The SGH-P900 and P910 are substantially lighter than the 191 gram Nokia. We still don’t know if there’s any market for this particular type of device though.

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Samsung SGH-P900 versus Samsung SGH-P910