Samsung Telecommunications India (STI), design and technology leader in the Indian mobile market, today, announced the launch of its full touch screen, ultra-slim Lifestyle segment mobile phone – the Samsung TouchWIZ in the Indian market. Exemplifying Samsung’s ‘Next is What’ positioning , the Samsung TouchWIZ has innovative features like Customizable Drag ‘n’ Drop and Auto Smile Shot which coupled with the Full Touch navigation feature make the phone experience remarkably easy and user friendly. The Touchwiz’s 5 MegaPixel, AutoFocus-LED Flash camera, refined metal body casing and luxurious leather cover combine the best of form and function to create new benchmarks in Lifestyle space in mobile phones.

The TouchWIZ is being launched coinciding with the Olympic Games 2008 and the entire communication campaign for this phone is centered around the Olympics. Announcing the launch of this new phone , states Sunil Dutt, Country Head, Samsung Telecommunications India, “Given the growing consumer interest in touch screen phones , the Samsung TouchWIZ offers a brilliant full touch navigation experience ; widgets with ‘Drag and Drop’ technology and User Interface with Haptic Feedback which makes the experience of using the phone highly interactive and easy. The TouchWIZ strengthens Samsung’s lineage in touch UI with the already existing portfolio of I780 & I710, the Giorgio Armani P520 and Soul.

The innovative, quick and simple ‘drag and drop’ technology of the Samsung TouchWIZ allows widgets to be selected from the left panel of the screen and dropped anywhere on the home screen. Since the Widgets comprise widely used applications like clock, calendar, alarms, Music Player, FM , Games and Profiles, this practically equips the user to set hotkeys on the touch menu for all these functions as per their will. The colourful widget icons add a dash of colour and life to the idle phone screen and desktop. Haptic Feedback offers a tangible feedback when a user makes a selection on the touch screen. “We believe that the Samsung TouchWIZ with its sleek styling, advanced functionality and its engaging user interface is the perfect answer for consumers going in for touch screen phones.” states Dutt.

The Samsung TouchWIZ with its 5.0 Mega pixel camera answers today’s customer needs as the perfect digital camera and multimedia mobile combined into one single device. Innovative ‘Auto Smile Shot’ feature makes its worldwide debut in Samsung TouchWIZ. This intelligent feature enables the camera to detect when a person is smiling and automatically take a picture when in the ‘Smile shot’ mode, so the user can easily capture his/her happiest moments. In addition, the chic Samsung TouchWiz is equipped with face detection, image stabilizer, auto focus, CMOS video lens and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR)- features found in the more advanced digital cameras of today.

The Samsung TouchWhiz is compatible with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (7.2mbps) networks and functions on GSM 900/1800/1900, and WCDMA 2100 bands. In terms of storage, the phone is equipped with 240MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 8GB via the microSD memory card slot.

Users can enjoy super-fast Internet access through the 7.2 Mbps High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) browser and share images or video taken with the phone. With 7.2 Mpbs HSDPA, users can also download songs at a faster speed compared to average 3G networks. The high speed internet access (HSDPA) and USB 2.0 connectivity of the Samsung TouchWiz enables users to transfer and download data faster. Whether they are music or video files, customers can enjoy all the benefits of being online on-the-go.

Other usage features include an integrated FM radio, multi-format video playback (MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, Real), and also MPEG4 video recording and editing functions. Media playback and user interfacing can be enjoyed on a large 2.8-inch TFT LCD (240×320) display screen. Samsung TOUCHWIZ (F480) is priced at Rs 20,990/-