BARCELONA, Spain - Samsung has updated its flagship Ultra line of devices with a new touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera-phone slider - the S8300 Ultra Touch.

As expected, the Ultra Touch runs on Samsung's own operating system, which lacks full multitasking; and is covered by the TouchWiz 3D user interface with mobile widgets, which brings fancy transitions.

There will be two colour versions: platinum blue, and platinum red. The latter colour matches Samsung's red TVs and laptop computers.

In terms of specifications, the S8300 is surely a high-end device, featuring a 2.8" AMOLED touchcreen, an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, accelerometer (motion sensor), A-GPS, HSDPA, Bluetooth, but no Wi-Fi.

The phone has a built-in DivX, XviD, and WMV player; and supports microSD memory cards.

The front part of the Ultra Touch bears a secondary camera for videocall purposes, a proximity sensor, ambience light detector, and ear speakers. Below these components, there is a 2.8" AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 240x400 pixels of resolution, protected by scratch-resistant glass. The display is built in a manner that it will not attract smudge marks.

There are no soft keys, but rather call keys, and a d-pad.

Users will a choice of using either the hardware numeric keypad, or an on-screen keyboard.

The widgets for the main screen are not yet available from third-party vendors, and no SDK has been launched yet.

The right side of the S8300 contains the microUSB port, which is relatively easy to open; the lock button, and the camera key.

On the left side of the phone there is a volume rocker, and a microphone.

The lanyard loophole is located on the bottom of the phone.

The top of the phone is left untouched.

The back of the phone only uncovers the camera when the device is slid open. The section which incorporates the camera is decorated in red and black patterns - every minor detail adds to the phone's stylish appearance.

The 8 megapixel camera has autofocus, dual LED flash, smile recognition, geo-tagging, and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR). The phone's software enables photo blogging as well.

The video tools on the device allow video recording in VGA resolution (640x480 pixels) at 30fps, video trimming, audio and video (live) dubbing, and the possibility to add subtitles.

Even though the aesthetic strategy of Samsung has changed, the Ultra line continues to be well-updated. The touchscreen and innovative user interface, together with the high-end features, will make the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch a best-selling mobile phone.

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