Samsung i550 Palm OS Smart Phone Gets FCC Approval

Samsung has received permission for the Federal Communications Commission to release the SPH-i550 in the United States.

The i550 will be an updated version of Samsung's popular i500. Like its predecessor, the new model will be a CDMA phone created for Sprint.

This device will use a clamshell design with a screen on one side and a phone keypad on the other.

Its primary display will be a high-resolution touchscreen, but it will also have a smaller, full-color, OLED display on its exterior to display time- and phone-related information.

The i550 will run Palm OS Garnet (5.2) and have 32 MB of RAM. It will also have an SD slot for additional storage. This slot will include SDIO support so it can be used for other peripherals, as well.

This smart phone will include a 1.0 megapixel camera with flash. It will be able to record both still images and short videos.

This won't be the i550's only multimedia capability. It will be able to play both MP3 music and MPEG4 videos.

As this is a Palm OS smart phone, users will have access to all the software written for this platform. Although it doesn't have a keyboard, users will be able to enter text on the Touchscreen with either Graffiti 2 or a pop-up keyboard.

The i550 will be able to connect to CDMA 1XRTT wireless networks, allowing it to handle both voice calls and transfer data at up to 144 kbps, though 40 to 60 kbps is a more realistic, real world, speed.

It will come with a cradle and use a swappable battery, though it is not yet known what capacity this will be.

The Samsung SPH-i550 is expected to be available from Sprint sometime during the second half of this year. Pricing is not yet available.

Related Links

• Brighthand Reviews the Samsung i500
• Samsung Preparing i530 Palm OS Smart Phone