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Samsung's amazing new SCH-B600 10 megapixel camera phone is one of those fantastic Korean phones that normally remains just that: a Korean phone, destined for the super-advanced Korean market only. But according to Lee Ki-tae, the head of Samsung's telecommunications business, the Samsung SCH-B600 isn't just a technical masterpiece, it's also aimed at helping the company gain more market share - and that means Europe.

"Increasing our market share in Europe will be decisive in determining the survival of our mobile phone business," he said, vowing to push its share to 14-15 percent, up from the nearly 13 percent it currently has. As such, the SCH-B600 is set to go on sale in South Korea by June with a rollout in other markets later this year. So we should hopefully see this mobile phone being sold across Europe in late 2006, which should force the other major mobile phone manufacturers to up their mobile phone's features in order to compete. The war of the megapixels beckons!

Samsung has come along way from being the first to offer a mobile phone with a camera in 2000, the SCH-V200. The new candy bar styled B600 comes with 3x optical zoom, LED autofocus that automatically determines distance for the perfect photo, a manual focus function, and mobile DMB satellite TV capability. An impressive package for photo and multimedia enthusiasts alike.

Samsung has also thrown in Bluetooth, a 16M color high resolution TFT LCD display, and an MP3 player - just to name a few.

Unfortunately the new SCH-B600 is only available in the Korean market.

Samsung launched the first 5-megapixel camera phone in 2004, and the first 7- and 8-megapixel camera phones in 2005, so it's no surprise the Korean electronics giant has launched the world's first 10-megapixel camera phone at CeBIT 2006. Like its predecessors, the SCH-B600 looks like a regular handset from the front, but when you activate the camera application, a large lens extends from the back. You won't want to make calls at this point, because you'll feel like an idiot with the lens sticking out of your ear, but if you turn the phone horizontally and frame up a shot, passers-by won't realise you're using a phone -- it looks just like a compact camera.

Samsung hasn't just crammed in lots of pixels. You also get autofocus, a 3x optical zoom and a flash, so you can take candid close-ups and night shots as well as the usual mugshots in front of famous landmarks. You can admire your photos on the bright, 240x320-pixel screen and save them in the phone's internal memory, or on to MMCmicro memory cards. Other features include Bluetooth and MP3 playback. 

On the downside, once you get over having more megapixels than anyone else, you're stuck with a big, ugly phone that transforms into a big, ugly camera. There's also the problem of having to move to Korea, because the B600 won't work on UK networks. We don't expect to see a UK version, but some of the technology might trickle down into Samsung's UK phones. It's also a milestone that demonstrates Samsung's commitment to pushing at the limits of technology. -ML

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