By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter




Samsung Electronics, the world’s third-biggest cell phone maker, on Wednesday took the wraps off a handset with a 5-megapixel camera, claimed to be the first of its kind.

The cutting-edge model, named SCH-S250, is expected to hit the market next week through Korea’s top mobile operator SK Telecom at the price of about 1 million won ($875).

The new model, with a 16-million-color liquid crystal display monitor and 92-megabyte embedded memory, also offers a range of functions including four-hour video recording, an MP3 player and text-to-speech conversion.

``With this phone, we finally outpaced our rivals in Japan over vigorous competition over pixel counts,’’ said Samsung executive vice president Cho Byung-duck, who is in charge of the firm’s cell phone research.

Samsung debuted its first megapixel phone in October last year, about five months later than its Japanese competitors, Sharp and Mitsubishi Electric.

The Seoul-based firm, however, closed the gap to just a month by introducing a 3-megapixel phone this year, before eventually taking the driver’s seat with the SCH-S250.

Samsung started to develop the high-resolution phone from early last year by forging a partnership with Japan’s Asahi Pentax, which helped produce 5-megapixel camera modules.

The 5-megapixel capability means that users will be able to obtain a picture through a camera phone as good as any mid-range stand-alone digital camera.

``In addition to enhancing pixel counts, we have tried to improve the optics, in which camera phones have had some drawbacks up till now. As a result, our model substantially catches up with the quality of digital still cameras,’’ Cho said.

The next version of the SCH-S250 model will be equipped with more advanced functions like optical zoom, which allows people to take a picture remotely without compromising resolution.

Meanwhile, Samsung’s local rival Pantech & Curitel said it too has almost developed a 5-megapixel phone and is currently considering when to launch.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr