Sliding-type Samsung GSM phone revealed

One of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s newest GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) cellular telephones, as-yet unannounced by the South Korean company, has been revealed after it received regulatory approval in the U.S.

Pictures of the SGH-D410 and a draft user manual were published Monday when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the phone. Regulatory approval is required for all devices that emit radio waves over a certain level before they can be legally used in the U.S. It is usually one of the final stages before a company launches a product, although it does not mean a launch will definitely take place, nor that specifications will remain unchanged before the product is sold.

The phone is a slider-type handset where the top half slides length-wise away from the bottom half to reveal the keypad, according to the images published by the FCC. Such a form factor is becoming increasingly popular and several companies have recently rolled out similar handsets.

The images published showed a flat-panel display screen taking up around half of the top body of the handset. A small camera sits above the display at the top of the case where it can be swiveled around to face both forwards and backwards. Beneath the display is a directional keypad, soft keys and a power button. The main keypad is normally hidden and revealed when the top half of the handset is slid upwards.

The SGH-D410 is a tri-band GSM phone supporting the 800MHz, 1.8GHz and 1.9GHz bands, according to the documents.

Other specifications were not clear from the documentation published by the FCC. While the draft manual listed some functions, such as Java support and EMS (Enhanced Message Service), a notice on the cover of the document said some parts had been copied from that of another handset without making clear which parts did not refer to the SGH-D410.

A Samsung Electronics spokesman in Seoul could not immediately provide any additional information regarding the handset.

The handset looks almost identical to Samsung’s SCH-E170, a handset that has already been announced for the South Korean market.

That phone is one of the company’s most advanced and supports data transmission at up to 2.4M bps (bits per second) on a CDMA2000 1x EvDO (Evolution Data Only) network. Its camera is VGA resolution and the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen has 176 pixel by 220 pixel resolution and can show up to 262,000 colors.