UPDATE 3: Phone will be launched in Feb in Italy for 129 euros.

UPDATE 2: Other European countries will get the phone for about 149 euros.

UPDATE: Star II will arrive in Russia by end of February. It will be an MTS exclusive initially and will be priced at 6,990 rubles (US$234).

Star II that was leaked last week has got an official acknowledgement from Samsung. The phone will take helm from the 30 million seller Star phone and will be available from February in Germany followed by other European countries, CIS, South America, India and Middle East.

Just like the predecessor, the Star II also concentrates on the social networking aspect which now comes with Social Hub, pre-loaded Facebook, Twitter and multi IM apps.

Additionally the 12.4mm thick phone comes with 3-inch WQVGA screen, TouchWiz UI 3.0, 3.2MP camera, Bluetooth, 1000mAh battery, QuickType T9 Trace keyboard, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.

Samsung maybe doing well with its touchscreen-equipped Android and bada phones but we cannot undermine the fact that Star (S5230) – running proprietary OS – was the one that set the ball rolling. Samsung has announced that Star sales have surpassed a whopping 30 million units.

Launched in May 2009, it is the second phone after E250 to sell 30 million units and have sold about 15m in Europe, 5m in Latin America, 3m in Russia and 1m in China.

Samsung Star’s success could be attributed to the phone’s affordable price and came with features like a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, TouchWiz UI, 3.2MP camera, DNSe, Bluetooth, microSD card slot and more.

Clarion Hotel Stockholm in Sweden has initiated a pilot project that replaces a conventional hotel room key to a mobile phone and the first phone to be used in the project is Samsung’s Star S5230N.

Selected guests were handed out the device with the pre-loaded software which allowed them to check in or check out the hotel with the phone.

Using the service is pretty simple. A guest needs to book a room like they always do but the booking confirmation is received on the phone. The guest can later check-in to the hotel, after which a digital room key is sent that can be used to unlock the door.

Clarion Hotel is conducting this pilot to gather feedback for NFC-related services and says the new technology provides better security as the hotel can reissue new access credentials, in case the guest loses his phone.

Just like what Samsung did with Corby styled headsets, they’re adopting the same strategy for its other headsets. Now users owning Monte, Star or Wave devices will be able to pick similarly-styled Bluetooth headsets. The HM1600 has been designed similarly to Monte whereas HM3100 to Star and HM3200 to Wave.

However, aesthetics is not the only thing these headsets boast of. All the models support Bluetooth and feature echo and noise cancellation, automatic volume control, multipoint technology to connect to different Bluetooth devices and 3-level battery indicator. The HM3100 and HM3200 also include a cradle to recharge the headset.

The HM1600 has a talk time of up to 7 hours and standby time of up to 400 hours. The HM3100 has talk / standby time of up to 4.5 / 180 hours and HM3200 has a talk time of 5 hours and standby of 200 hours.

NM1600 goes for 1,290 rubles ($42), NM3100 for 1,690 rubles ($55) and NM3200 for 2,290 rubles ($74)

Samsung is already selling S3370 as Corby 3G in Russia and now they’ve announced it for the Indian market. However, this time the phone will belong to the Star family and will be known as Nano 3G. Samsung wants to provide a 3G handset on the cheap and Star Nano 3G enables it for them.

The device as we know features a 2.6-inch display, 3G support, TouchWiz UI 2.0, pop-up SNS, 1.3MP camera, FM Radio, microSD card slot up to 16GB, e-dictionary, mobile tracker, fake call, mobile prayer and downloadable apps from Samsung Apps.

The Star Nano 3G phone goes for just Rs. 7,320 and is bundled with 2GB card, stylus pen and leather pouch.

Samsung’s Corby range might have taken Star S5230’s cheapest touchscreen phone tag but the hot selling Star is living in the form of special editions. Two special editions of Star S5230 have been rolled out in Germany – one to please the football fans and the other to please the women. The Fan Package phone allows soccer loving German consumers to show their support for the team who’ll play the FIFA world cup in South Africa this year. Samsung will sell the device in white to match Germany’s jersey color.

On the other hand, La Fleur Edition comes in dull pink hue with lovely floral designs on the battery cover and bit on the front side of the phone.

Both the phones will start selling in May for 245 euros.

Via

UPDATE: Check out a small hands-on video of the phone from Mobile-review.

Samsung’s aging Star phone has got a new lease of life with the addition of TV viewing feature. No it’s not the DMB that the Koreans are used to get in almost every phone but an analog mobile TV receiver where consumers can enjoy free-to-air TV channels. The Star TV (S5233T) has been launched in Southeast Asia and if Samsung plans we’ll see the phone in India too.

Telegent Systems is providing the analog mobile TV receiver while Samsung has brushed up the UI to provide rich graphical controls. A user can flick the screen to switch channels, one-click screen capture and record, on-screen keypad channel entry and reception of incoming SMS messages with continuous TV viewing.

With plethora of touchscreen handsets available from Samsung, this milestone was somewhat expected. They’ve announced to sell its 50 millionth unit this month ensuring touchscreen handset market is where the volume (and money) is. The total figure is cumulative of 10m units from 2008 and 40m this year.

However, if we consider the growth percent-wise, Samsung’s this year full-touch phone shipments have increased by 4 times. Touchscreen phones accounted for a total of 5 percent sales in 2008 whereas this year it has contributed to the tune of 20 percent out of its projected 200m unit sales.

Samsung’s mammoth volume is obviously the result of affordable touchscreen phones like Star (S5230) that has sold more than 10m units in just six months of its launch and now its Corby (S3650) that has recorded sales of more than 3m units since its launch in September.

Europe leads the pack for Samsung with 19m units touchscreen phones followed by United States, China and South Korea recording sales of 6.3m, 3.4m and 3.0m respectively.

Samsung’s hot selling S5230 Star has reached the iconic milestone. The phone has surpassed sales of 10m units and is the fastest selling Samsung device till date. Star achieved this figure in just 6 months, about 4 months faster than Samsung’s E250 that reached the 10 million landmark.

Star boasts a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen, TouchWiz UI, DNSe, Bluetooth 2.1, microSD slot, 3.2MP camera with SmileShot and more.

Own a Samsung touchscreen equipped phone? Use an Airtel connection? If you answered yes to both the questions, there’s some good news for you. Airtel is offering three months of free data usage up to 100MB on Samsung phones. The phones include Corby S3653, Star (S5233), StarW, S5603, F480 and i8910. To activate, send an SMS to “my data” (without the quotes) to 543210.

[Via| Thanks, Ashish!]