Samsung is capitalizing on its Olympic sponsor status with a new AT&T Wireless handset, configured to access Olympic content.
Samsung has announced a new handset, the dual-band SGH-E316, billed as "the official Olympic-designed handset".
 | The SGH-E316 is a typical camera phone with atypical branding
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Despite the branding, the SGH-E316 is, from a hardware standpoint, a typical camera phone. A flipphone design measuring 83.8 x 45.7 x 22.8 mm when closed and weighing 85 grams, the SGH-e316 features dual color LCD displays. The internal display is a 128 x 160 pixel 16-bit color TFT display, while the external caller ID display is a 96 x 94 pixel 16-bit color TFT display, an unusually high-quality external display. The usual button configuration is standard for Samsung and nearly identical to that on the popular SGH-E100.
The SGH-E316 runs a dual-band 850/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS radio, designed for North America. The battery is rated for 4.7 hours talk time or 298 hours standby. Text input is via T9, and the phone of course supports SMS, EMS, and MMS messaging as well as polyphonic ring tones and Java-based games. Otherwise the same as the SGH-E100, the SGH-E316 adds a VGA (0.3 megapixel) camera with digital zoom and a multi-shot feature.
The SGH-E316 will be branded for the Olympics, however, with Olympic-themed ring tones and images. As it will be offered through another Olympic partner, AT&T Wireless, the phone will also be preconfigured to access Olympics-related content through AT&T Wireless's mMode data service.
The SGH-E316 will be available 11 August through AT&T Wireless for a price of $199 USD after instant and mail-in rebates, with a two-year service agreement.
High-resolution images of the SGH-E316 are available on the following pages.
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