While I was in Korea, visiting Samsung on an all-expenses-paid tour of their HQ, I got a chance to take a tour of an Anycall Studio. Anycall is Samsung's brand name for their cell phones in the Korean, Chinese and Russian markets. Similar to the Samsung Experience store in New York, or any manufacturer's retail store (Apple), the Anycall Studio lets new customers come in and try the latest models. A few bonus services, like printing photos from a phone or a recharging a dead battery, are available for a small fee.
While none of these phones are available in the U.S. market, I thought our dear readers might enjoy a peek at the mythical land of cell phones that lay beneath the 38th parallel. But first, check out our gallery above of the Anycall showcase and the animated display table that asks you questions to select a phone. Then, click on the thumbnails below to see a gallery of each phone I got my hands on.
The first phone we looked at was the SCH-B750, available on SK Telecom. At first glance, the B750 seems like an average Samsung clamshell, reminiscent of the AT&T Sync. Unlike that blasé American phone, the screen on the B750 swivels, allowing you to hold the bottom in your hand and view the screen like a camcorder. The maneuver is exactly the same as the Nokia N93, but whereas the Nokia might be mistaken for a real (albeit small) camcorder, the B750 is smaller, and looks like any other phone when not in camcorder mode. Because its Korean, you would also get DMB for mobile TV, a 3-megapixel still shooter and video out, so you could play your movies on your television. But, if you don't live in Korea, you won't be getting this at all.
According to Samsung, one of the hottest new phones on the market is the one I saw being produced on the company's Gumi assembly line, the U600. Alternately called the Ultra Edition II 10.9 phone, or the SCH-C220 if you're an SK Telecom customer, the phone is an attractive, and super-thin, slider. During my interview with the Samsung design team, I got to see a sketch of the inspiration for this phone, which laid out the smooth curves side-by-side next to a shoot of bamboo. The designer calls the effect "soft minimalism," and the phone emphasizes unbroken surfaces and rounded edges. In Korea, the phone's nickname is "miniskirt," though my masculine sensibility hopes I could still carry this phone without baring my thighs, because it is a very slick piece of hardware. The phone features a 2-megapixel camera, GPS with real-time traffic (for Korean roads, of course) and an electronic dictionary. I saw one for sale in a local mall for well under $300, but my Korean is non-existent, so I couldn't tell you through what hoops you'd have to jump to buy it for that price.
Finally, a couple days ago I mentioned that Koreans don't type on QWERTY keypads, but that doesn't mean there aren't any available. While I was at the Anycall store, I snapped a couple pics of the Korean version of the Samsung BlackJack. Here, the phone is called the SCH-M620, and it is a bit different, though basic specs, beyond the type of network, are pretty much the same. Click the thumbnail for a close-up of the Korean-character keyboard.
In the days to come, I'll talk about a few other phones I got to see, including phones for fashion, phones for photos, and phones I found on the 8th floor of E-Mart, a huge electronics mall whose top floor is completely devoted to mobile phones.
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