A new TouchWiz UI certainly is just the tip of the iceberg as Samsung continues to prepare for MWC by making its announcements a week in advance. Next up… A sexy new ultra-thin 8 megapixel slider. The Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 touts a 2.8-inch AMOLED, anti-scratch, anti-smudge touchscreen that dominates the front of this 12.7mm thin handset. Samsung’s upgraded TouchWiz interface is present and accounted for, as is an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 30fps VGA video recording, HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps, GPS with geo-tagging support and a 3 x 4 keypad. Full details on this solid offering from Samsung will be revealed at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona but in the meantime, hit the jump for a few more pictures and the full press release.

Seoul, Korea, February 9, 2009 – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the launch of the elegant “UltraTOUCH”, the perfectly beautiful and fully equipped full-touch slider phone. This debut comes ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where Samsung will deliver its new vision for full-touch mobiles at the forefront of style and design. As with previous Ultra editions, the UltraTOUCH re-defines perfectionism in style, design and technology – now with full touch.

“With its refined contoured design, Samsung UltraTOUCH is our elegant full-touch hero at this year’s Mobile World Congress, proving again that Samsung’s mobile phones are at the forefront of style,” said Mr. JK Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile Communication Division of Samsung Electronics. He added, “We are committed to strengthening our portfolio of full-touch phones by introducing a variety of handsets to suit every lifestyle. UltraTOUCH leads this portfolio as our most iconic, high-end phone and will further enhance Samsung’s leadership in the premium full-touch market.”

Ultimate Style
Samsung has long been regarded as the most stylish mobile phone manufacturer. As the newest flagship edition to the Ultra range (Samsung’s leading style brand), UltraTOUCH is a truly beautiful full-touch mobile, boasting revolutionary touch screen technology, sophisticated design and packed with multimedia features. Centre stage is the 2.8” AMOLED anti-scratch full touch screen, which offers astonishingly bright and vivid colours.

The ultra-slim 12.7mm body of UltraTOUCH unites perfect form and function with full-touch screen and additional 3×4 keypad slider. The subtle arcs and slender contoured silhouette in the design ensure a timeless beauty and the polished ‘silky back’ design means that the phone looks fantastic from every angle. With a brushed metal frame for durability and an anti-scratch, anti-smudge screen, users can keep their phone in great condition.

Ultimate Multimedia
As you would expect from Samsung, the UltraTOUCH is alive with technology. Its embedded 8 megapixel camera with dual power LED flash and smile shot mode means you can capture incredible photographs on your phone. In addition to the industry-leading mobile phone camera, UltraTOUCH offers GPS navigation, providing detailed maps to take users from door to door. Geo-tagging via the GPS chip allows you to tag photos with geographic information, making them easier to use on social networking and photo sites. The high quality 30fps@VGA video recording captures action smoothly, while the groovy music player means that you can listen to sounds as slick as your phone. Samsung UltraTOUCH is also powered with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, offering speedy internet access.

Ultimate User Interface
Samsung UltraTOUCH provides the best ever full-touch user experience and universal 3×4 keypads together. Users will enjoy being able to control the mobile easily and intuitively – flicking through photos, navigating through maps and surfing the web have never been easier and more interactive thanks to the upgraded TouchWiz user interface. Mobile widgets can be dragged and placed on the screen for one-click access to favourite applications, or the slide-out tactile 3×4 keypad offers a tangible alternative behind the attractive touch screen, creating endless customization opportunities to make your phone your own.

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Reportedly slated for released in March of 2009, the Samsung S8300 has just been served its first spoonful of leaky goodness as images and preliminary specs trickle out into the internet. First things first, it’s not pretty. We’re going to have to keep our fingers crossed for a few color options because orange and black only works one day each year. To make matters worse, the back of the handset, when slid open, reveals a pretty tacky cross hatch pattern that might be ok for a temporary mobile wallpaper but most definitely not for a permanent pattern on the back of a handset. Moving past the look of the S8300 however, things get pretty juicy:

• 2.8″ AMOLED touchscreen display, WQVGA resolution, 16 million colors
• 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash
• Integrated GPS
• FM radio with RDS
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 60MB internal memory
• 7.2Mbps HSDPA

If a dumbphone with a hell of a camera is something that sounds appealing and you can stomach the look, March might just be your month. Of course the S8300 will surely drop in Europe and/or Asia first but Samsung has been surprising us lately with the coming of a few US-3G compatible gems. Keep em coming, Sammy – but please, leave the crazy case designs on the drawing board. Hit the jump for a few more pics.

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