Samsung Announces 'Wireless Hand PC'

This week at CES, Samsung announced a new category of handhelds it calls the "Wireless Hand PC" and unveiled its NEXiO S150 - the first of such devices. Unconcerned with the continued PDA sales slump, Samsung plans to market NEXiO to enterprise customers who need to mobilize their workforce.

Embedded wireless technology and landscape orientation give NEXiO the ability to view full Web pages while keeping size to a minimum. "We think we're much more than a PDA," Samsung's David Nichols told BetaNews.

Unlike most PDAs the NEXiO is viewed on its side, sporting a five-inch display with 800x480 pixel resolution to remove any need for horizontal scrolling. Samsung says this feature will correct the problem of awkward Web browsing that users experience on handhelds. For meetings on the run, an external VGA port is included for connectivity with large displays and projectors.

NEXiO will initially launch in Korea and is expected to make its way to the United States by late 2002. The S150 is based on Windows CE 3.0, but Samsung tells BetaNews it will migrate to the newly released Windows CE .NET platform within the year. The company will include a number of CE-based applications on the device's 64MB of RAM, including Pocket Word and Samsung's own Outlook compatible PIM.

For its Korean start, Samsung has built support for CDMA2000 directly into the NEXiO S150. The 2.5G always-on connection will allow for current speeds of around 56kbps and provide cellular phone capabilities using the stereo microphone and headphone jack. Additional modules for GPS and 802.11b will be available as well, according to Nichols.

The NEXiO S150 will cost the equivalent of $850 USD in Korea, which Nichols acknowledges is "way too high" for a US launch. Samsung is instead shooting for a price point of under $700 USD.