Samsung have announced they're going to sell the new Samsung SGH-P900 mobile TV phone in Europe. Already on sale in South Korea, the SGH-P900 has an innovative 'crossbar' design, whereby the screen twists to landscape mode when viewing TV programmes.  As far as Europe is concerned, though, it'll be the first T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Mobile Broadcasting) phone, and will be launched in time for the FIFA World Cup.

 

This phone really is the business, offering not just mobile TV, but a fully-loaded set of multimedia features. 2 megapixel camera, TV out, record and playback TV programmes, it's got the lot. And to see it being sold outside of Korea and in Europe is fantastic news.  Maybe the technology gap between Korea and the rest of the world is slowly starting to close (at least a little).

 

Samsung will officially reveal the phone at next week's 3GSM, so keep reading our coverage of 3GSM for more details.  In the meantime, read more and see more pictures of the Samsung SGH-P900 mobile TV phone after the jump.

 

 

From the press release: Samsung unveils the SGH-P900, the Europe’s first T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Media Broadcasting) phone, to lead mobile broadcasting service through the 2006 FIFA World Cup. SGH-P900 is truly an unique product combined of many multimedia features such as TV & radio capabilities, a 2 megapixel camera and a MP3 player.

 

The SGH-P900 is successfully in operation as part of ongoing field trials in Germany and France. Samsung plans to launch the SGH-P900 in the second quarter of 2006 before the ‘2006 FIFA World Cup Germany’ gets underway, becoming the first handset manufacturer to handle the European T DMB standard.

 

To receive TV signals, users can easily flip the 2.2" TFT LCD screen to a horizontal position for optimal viewing. With a high resolution QVGA (240x320 pixels) screen with 262,144 colors, TV images are clear, crisp and flicker-free. The display shows up to 30 pictures per second, allowing users to enjoy a vivid live broadcasting as if they were at home.

 

The SGH-P900 comes in a compact size of 92 x 49 x26 mm. Seamless connection with personal computers is guaranteed by a built-in USB port and Bluetooth functionality. It also supports TV-output function, online browser, personal information manager and series of office functions. The SGH-P900 also features all of the classic functions of a high quality GSM/GPRS mobile.

Moreover, the 128MB user memory and the external memory let this innovative multimedia phone not just play, but also record and save TV broadcasts, videos and games. All of these add up to a whole lot of fun for soccer fans, who can print out their favorite goal moments or re-live match highlights in video format, even when the game is over.

 

"Mobile television will radically change TV viewing behavior in Europe," says Dr. Anthony Park of Business Development Samsung Telecommunication Europe. "Samsung has successfully introduced the world’s first DMB phones to the Korean market last year, where the T-DMB and S-DMB (Satellite DMB) standard are already deployed. At the IFA in Berlin last summer, we joined with T Systems in demonstrating the interactive capabilities of this system. Now, we want this phone to be another milestone along the road to mobile television in Europe."

 

This model will be revealed at 3GSM held at Barcelona in February.