Samsung Beat DJ

Lastly, we have the Beat DJ, which runs Samsung's DISC User Interface incorporates Bang & Olufsen audio technology. The Beat DJ has 50MB of on-board memory - expandable to 8GB with micro SD cards. On the imaging front, this one sports a decent 3.0 megapixel camera. The speakers too are B&O branded and and are powered by their ICEpower amplifier.

The Beat DJ will retail at around the Rs. 18,990 mark.

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Samsung Star S5603

As for the Samsung Star S5603, it has a similar 3.2 megapixel camera as seen on the S5233 and is capable of video recording in QVGA resolution at 15 fps. This one too has a 50MB internal memory chip

, which can of course be expanded to 8GB. Rest of the features are similar to the S5233. And yes, this one gets you 3G connectivity as its name suggests. It is priced at Rs. 14,499.

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Samsung TouchWiz S5233

Korean electronics giant Samsung has unleashed three new touch screen handsets in the Indian market with the announcement of the Samsung Star S5233, Star S5603 and the Samsung Beat DJ.

The new launches come weeks after Samsung introduced its premium touchscreen handset, the S8300 UltraTouch, in the country. Additionally, this also takes Samsung's touchscreen handset tally to a respectable figure of seven.

Lets talk bout each phones individually now. The S5233 is quite slim at just 11.9mm. This one features a 3.0-inch WQVGA full-touch screen and Samsung TouchWiz User Interface with Mobile Widgets and an accelerometer sensor. It sports a 3.2 megapixel camera with smile recognition, multi-format playback and Samsung's DNSe sound engine along with recognition using Shazam's "Find Music". There is 50MB of Internal memory, which is expandable up to 8GB via microSD cards

. The phone also comes bundled with Google applications like Google Search, Gmail, Google maps. The S5233 will retail for Rs. 11,100.

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Microsoft Zune HD Comining Soon

After a whirlwind of speculations, Microsoft has finally announced Zune HD portable media player's arrival. At last, Apple's iPod Touch rival gets launched officially with a multitouch screen, HDMI port and is expected to be available in U.S. by fall. Last month, Zune HD's images and specifications were leaked out on the web. Microsoft hasn't announced the pricing and world wide availability of Zune HD as yet.

Apple iPod Touch's rival Microsoft Zune HD will sport a 3.6-inch OLED touchscreen, giving 16:9 aspect ratio with 480x272 resolution. The company has clarified that 720p HD video files will be downscaled to fit the 480x272 resolution screen and won't exactly be HD videos. Multimedia content in HD format (songs or videos) can be streamed to HD display via HDMI interface provided on Zune HD.

Also, Zune HD boasts of a built-in HD Radio Receiver that brings radio content with better sound quality as compared with the traditional radio output. However, for listening to HD quality radio content, local radio stations (especially in India) need to offer their content via HD channels.

Based on Windows CE, Zune HD will use touchscreen customized Internet Explorer version for web browsing. The WiFi support will allow downloading music tracks from Zune PressPass subscription service.

For more details, check the official Zune HD page.

At the upcoming E3 conference at Los Angeles in June, Microsoft will announce the new Zune video service for Xbox to replace the existing Xbox Live Marketplace for TV and movies. Additional details like whether Zune will have gaming support or not, are expected to be announced at the same time.

Microsoft, in its press release, mentions that Zune HD will be made available in fall and Paul Thurrott of Winsupersite stated that it will arrive on Sept. 5 this year.

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