The Samsung SPH-i500 was a

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is pro ...

-based

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...

manufactured by

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, acc ...

. It was previewed at CommunicAsia 2002 in June and launched later that year. It was later discontinued in August 2005. It was marketed in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

for use on Sprint's mobile phone network. The CDMA phone has a clamshell-style design, with the 160×240 pixel color display on the top half, and the

Graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

area and

telephone keypad A telephone keypad is a keypad installed on a push-button telephone or similar telecommunication device for dialing a telephone number. It was standardized when the dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) system was developed in the Bell S ...

on the bottom half. It operates like a standard color

device, but several hard (external) and software-imbedded buttons launch the 'phone' application, which manages calls. Once a call is connected, it is possible to switch back to another application. Despite the Graffiti interface, the device could not send text messages, though it could receive them. The phone shipped with an extra battery and extra stylus. The supplied power cable could be used as a travel charger or to plug into the included cradle, which could charge the phone and an extra battery simultaneously. Despite two batteries, the phone needed to be plugged in regularly. Swapping charged batteries would eventually result in a phone reset---a complete loss of user data.

Specifications

* Processor: Dragonball 66 MHz * Weight: 130 g * Operating System: Palm OS 4.1 * RAM: 16 MB

Applications

Applications include the

Handspring Handspring may refer to: *Handspring (company), a company that made personal digital assistants *Handspring (gymnastics), a gymnastics move involving forward or backward rotation of the body *Rising handspring or nip-up A nip-up is an acrobatic ...

Blazer A blazer is a type of jacket resembling a suit jacket, but cut more casually. A blazer is generally distinguished from a sport coat as a more formal garment and tailored from solid colour fabrics. Blazers often have naval-style metal buttons ...

microbrowser and Voice Memo, but exclude

Note Pad. Shortly after the i500 was discontinued, Handspring discontinued proxy service for the Blazer browser. Sprint provided a free install of Novarra's nweb browser as a replacement. This browser was functional on the i500 until its proxy was taken down in 2008. Installed applications included ones carried over from existing Palm handheld non-phone devices: In addition, applications to support voice and data communications were included: Note that the Voicemail application was not a distinct executable, but rather aliased directly to the Voicemail category in the Messages application.

History

The SPH-i500 is the last Palm-OS-based smartphone to use a clamshell design and employ Graffiti input. It is the only clamshell to use the upper block for the display, and the lower for input. Its successors use a brick form phone and a keypad for input. Samsung developed a follow-on Palm OS smartphone with multimedia features, the SPH-i550, but Sprint canceled it.

Reviews

CNET gave it 4/5, praising it as a good integration of Palm PDA and phone, but criticised its price and lack of expansion slot. PCMag gave it 4/5, a rating of "excellent", also praising it as a phone that unites PDA and phone with few compromises. It was also well-reviewed by Mobile Tech Review.Gade, Lisa, http://www.mobiletechreview.com/samsung_i500.htm August 26, 2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samsung SPH-i500 Samsung smartphones i500 Palm OS devices Samsung Electronics products Mobile phones introduced in 2002