April 3, 2008 9:37 AM PDT

Hands-on with the Samsung SGH-G810

by Kent German

Two months ago at the GSMA World Congress, Samsung unveiled the SGH-G810. We weren't able to handle it then, but here at CTIA we finally got to play touch and feel.

A 5-megapixel camera phone and an upgrade to the Samsung SGH-G800, the SGH-810 is a bulky slider phone in shiny silver. As expected, it's heavy on the camera features with an autofocus, a 3x optical zoom, and a xenon flash and it looks like a standalone shooter when viewed from behind. The large, full-color screen is lovely, and the controls and keypad buttons were pretty easy to use. Other features include GPS navigation, Bluetooth, TV output, USB 2.0, a 3.5mm headset jack, Geotagging for photos, Google search and Gmail, multiformat audio and video support, and Wi-Fi.

Samsung SGH-G810

(Credit: Samsung)

The GSM phone is unlocked, but it will be a long time before it lands at a U.S. carrier--if it does at all. We'll give it a full trial just as soon as we can get a review model, but in the meantime check out the attached SGH-G810 video.

Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent.