Samsung's at it again.  They're about to unleash five new mobile phones onto the European market before Christmas, each one focusing on a seriously slim form factor. The credit-card sized Samsung SGH-P300, only 9.9mm thick, was announced on Tuesday.  Following on from this come the Samsung SGH-Z510 and Samsung SGH-Z540 for 3G mobile networks. These new mobile phones are only 14.9 mm thick, making them the slimmest third-generation phones available.

 

Finally, Samsung will finish off the range with two slide phones, one of which, the Samsung  SGH-D800 will, at just 14.9 mm, be the slimmest of its kind.

More on the trend to slimness after the jump

The Unlikely Power of the Motorola RAZR

The new trend to slimness is, of course, being driven by Motorola's RAZR, which proved to be extremely popular in Samsung's native market of Korea. Korean companies, such as Samsung and LG, have traditionally focused on pumping their mobile phones full of features, and ignoring design.  In contrast, Motorola focused on design by reading buyers’ tastes in advance. “RAZR is making waves among young people who cherish design,” says Im Chung-hwa, a marketing director with Motorola Korea. This also helps negate Motorola's uncompetitiveness against the Korena brands, as its long design cycle has soon dated its models compared to the sleeker domestic ones.

The result is that Motorola's RAZR mobile phone has outsold Samsung Electronics’ very similar V740 by 120,000 to 90,000 since the two phones were released near-simultaneously in Korea in June. Consequently, Samsung, LG and Pantech have all rushed to produce slim mobile phone handsets. Personally, I'm all for super-slim iconic handsets, but not at the expense of features. Nokia and Sony Ericsson seem to have the right balance of style and features at the moment.

What do you think, though? Which mobile phone manufacturer is really delivering the goods for you at the moment?

[source: Digital Chosunilbo]