Mobile shooters may now have a new Camera-centric handset to anticipate in 2009. A NAM friendly variant of the 8 megapixel Samsung i8510 Innov8 has just passed through the FCC. Unlike the European model with UMTS 900/2100 that was released earlier in 2008, this apparently new variant will have 850/1900 3G. With Samsung having a history of producing subsidized phones for the North American region, hopefully we can expect to see the S60-powered Innov8 come to North America possibly with AT&T and/or Rogers branding and a consumer friendly contract price.

[Via IntoMobile]

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You might have seen us lust after this device in the past, if so, know that we got our hands on it and you didn’t. Just kidding, guys! Sort of. This phone is the true definition of a beast. It’s packed to the brim with more features than you can count, and it oozes futuristic sexiness. There’s only one problem for us uncivilized Americans… there’s no U.S. 3G. Mayjah fail. We’re about to start tearing it apart for our review, but here’s a couple of our first impressions… The screen is absolutely gorgeous, we LOVE the optical joystick, sound quality is probably as good or better than the N95 8GB, and well, who can hate on S60 FP2? What we’re not feeling is the fact that some S60 applications do not work (most of Nokia’s and Qik… get your act together!), the phone when slid open is a little uncomfortable to use sometimes, and as much as Samsung tried, their custom home screen and theme is absolutely horrendous. Hit the gallery for all the shots you can handle!

Click on over to our Samsung Innov8 I8510 hands on gallery!

Honestly, we don’t know whether to laugh or cry. What would you say if we told you that the hottest most well-specced S60 handset in the world was made by Samsung as opposed to Nokia? What would you say if we told you that Samsung finally came around and threw a quad-band GSM antenna into it? Right, us too! Now what would you say if we also told you that Samsung opted out of WCDMA 850, leaving North Americans to hunt for WiFi when we need to get our high-speed on? Heart wrenching, we know. The phrase “so close but yet so far” seems apropo. Last night Samsung made a reality out of the rumored 8 megapixel beast of a slider otherwise known as i8510. Its specs are amazing:

• Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), dual-band WCDMA (900/2100MHz)
• Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition FP2
• 2.8″ 16m color QVGA TFT display
• Built-in GPS receiver and accelerometer
• WiFi
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization and face, smile, and blink detection
• Video recording QVGA @ 120 fps or VGA @ 30fps with full editing suite onboard
• 16GB internal storage, microSD card slot
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• 106.5mm x 53.9mm x 17.2mm (3.9″ x 1.9″ x 0.6″)
• 1200mAh battery

N96? What’s that? An S60 smartphone that will have WCDMA 850, that’s what. If not for the AT&T 3G compatibility issues you can believe that we would be snatching up the Innov8 faster than you can say “Europe’s hottest S60 camera phone”. 2009 should be an interesting year for S60, to say the least.

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All we can say is… Wow. Ok, obviously that’s not all we’re going to say but the latest Samsung handset making its way through the rumor mill seems way too good to be true. Apparently Samsung is working on a new S60 slider that, if it lives up to the specs, might make the Nokia N95 look like a kid’s toy. In fact forget the N95, this thing might just stomp all over the N96 as well. Seriously, look at these specs:

• 2.8-inch QVGA (240×320 pixels), 16m colors
• 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus, xenon flash (though it looks like LED in the image above) and 120 fps video recording
• UMTS with HSDPA support, WiFi, GPS, TV out, DivX support, dedicated 3D graphics chip
• Optical mouse (same as i780 and i900 Omnia)
• 1200 mAh battery
• 106.5×53.9×16.9 mm metal case
• 16 GB internal memory (possibly an 8 GB version as well)

Some people are reporting that the i8510 will run Feature Pack 1 while we’ve also read a few claims of FP2. Obviously we’re hoping for the latter but then again, if Samsung stays true to form none of this will matter for us here in the US. It seems like every time we see sweet high-end handset come out of Samsung it has a tri-band GSM antenna stuffed inside. Samsung! Please! Say it with us; “quaaaaaad-band”…

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