Samsung Launches Ultra Edition 13.8 Z720

Samsung has just extended it's Ultra Edition range with the new Ultra Edition 13.8, also called the SGH-Z720. The 13.8 is a slider, just like the current top-of-the-line 12.9 D900. One of the main differences is the thickness, which has increased to 13.8mm. With the Ultra Edition series being a focus on ultra slim phones, this new addition may lead one to think that they're not going in the right direction. After all, the slimmest phone in the series is exactly half of 13.8mm: its just 6.9mm (the X820).

The other (and more important) addition is HSDPA support. HSDPA–or High-Speed Downlink Packet Access–is also known as 3.5G, as it is the next in line after 3G/WCDMA/UMTS, offering faster wireless data transfer speeds. Apart from that, the phone supports tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900), GPRS, EDGE and 3G/UMTS as well.

The Z720 has a large 2.1-inch disply that's 240x340 pixels, 20 pixels more in the vertical than QVGA (240x320), and supports 262K colors. The camera remains at 3 megapixels and a secondary VGA camera for video calling is also present. The main camera can also record video in MPEG4/H.263. Media playback is largely the same with MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+ and WMA support, along with a "digital power amp" built into the phone.
 

Applications include the document viewer found on most Samsung phones and also Google search and the new Gmail app. Memory in the new Z720 is a downer: just 20mb of phone memory is available as opposed to around 60-80mb on most high end Samsung phones, but the microSD/TransFlash memory card slot still holds up the board.

The Samsung Ultra Edition 13.8 (Z720) has already been launched in parts of Europe and will be available in other places soon after. There has been no announcement of an Indian release date or price.