Samsung Announces FX 5.1- Channel Phone

I had to read it twice after I wrote it, but its true. Samsung's latest creation is the "FX", a phone that touts "5.1-channel audio" output. But it's not actually 5.1 - it doesn't have five speakers and a tiny subwoofer that you keep in your pocket - it's a sort of a virtual surround technology that decodes six channels and puts some top secret 3D spatialisation technology or whatever to make you feel like the sound is coming from behind you. I'll believe it when I get it in my hands, but like most cutting-edge Samsung phones, it doesn't look like this one will get out of Korea soon.

Even if the 5.1 doesn't actually sound like 5.1, the rest of the features in the FX, otherwise known as the SPH-M4500 or the SCH-M450, are extremely sound. To start with, the phone is a slim, 1.9cm slider with a 2.4-inch screen. No word on the resolution, but I'm willing to bet it's QVGA (what isn't?). The FX has a 2-megapixel camera and also a VGA camera for video calling, which means there would be 3G capability when it goes GSM (SCH is CDMA), DMB for digital TV, WiFi, I'm assuming Bluetooth too and a microSD/TransFlash expansion slot. The phone also has 'PDA functionality', which could be anything from actually being a Smartphone to just having a calendar and a to-do list in the Java folder.