Samsung Electronics will market the world’s first 5 Mp camera phone. The company said that its new cell phone handsets equipped with a 5 MP camera will be sold through SK Telecom beginning late this month.

Samsung Electronics is the world’s first handset maker to produce 5-megapixel camera phones, surpassing its Japanese rivals in highly competitive overseas markets.

Prior to the production of the newest camera phones, Samsung Electronics introduced the world’s second 3-megapixel camera phone in August, behind Japanese Casio. Pixels refer to the small dots that constitute a photo -- the higher the number of pixels, the clearer the photo, generally.

Samsung Electronics equips its 5-megapixel camera phones with a micro lens module (2.2Χ2.2㎛), one-twentieth the size of ordinary digital camera lenses. Samsung developed the tiny lens module in collaboration with Japanese lens maker Asahi Pentax. Samsung Executive director Kim Sang-bae said that other camera manufacturers do not have this proprietary lens module technology. Because the 5-megapixel camera phone is the first cell phone to have TFT-LCD, which can display 16 million different colors, it can express colors 60 times more accurately than can existing camera phones. The 5-megapixel phone also features an MP3 player and camcorder function. Samsung Electronics spent 18 months to develop the phone.

Samsung Electronics CEO Lee Ki-tae said that the development of the 5-megapixel camera phone is a remarkable accomplishment for Korea’s cell phone technologies, which not only enhance Korea’s competitiveness but also contribute to the development of the global cell phone industry.

Samsung Electronics forecasts that with the arrival of the 5-megapixel camera phone, low pixel cameras with a 1- to 2-megapixel lens will gradually disappear from the market.

From Chosun Ilbo