THE NEWLY-RELEASED P408 from Samsung is one of those camera phones that really makes you go 'wow'. While the Korean handset maker has been showing off the P408 with a swivel-mounted display since late 2002, it has only hit store shelves now.
The highlight of the phone is the design of the display, which lets you rotate the screen 180 degrees and then close the clamshell phone so the display is on the top of the phone. The design is great for viewing content in the phone, since it basically turns the phone into a PDA that lets you interact with the device like a handheld.
It also sports one of the most impressive photo-taking platforms of any handset on the market. The CCD (charge couple device) image capturing technology offers some of the best image quality a handset can offer, while the high quality 65,000-colour TFT display offers an amazing view of your photos. The camera also rotates so you can take photos of yourself or your friends without having to turn the phone around.
There are many extras, including tri-band capability for roaming to practically anywhere in the world, and like all Korean handsets, the sound on the P408 is rich and clear.
So what doesn't the P408 have? Surprisingly, despite all its photo-taking capabilities, you won't be able to send photos to your friends using MMS, because the P408 doesn't support it. You have to connect to a PC in order to e-mail photos to other users.
Then there is the size of the photos. Despite the state-of-the-art camera, photos are limited to 352288 resolution, which looks great on the phone, but is tiny when displayed on a computer.