The RAZR has been almost a runaway success for Motorola, selling 12 million units since it's launch, primarily because (we think) of it's oh-so-thin form factor and aesthetics. It certainly has not been because of it's advanced functionality. (If you want a RAZR, it's now available for 88 shiny dollars. Note that a new RAZR is about to be released, however, featuring a 1.3MP camera and iTunes compatibility.)
Rivals like NEC and Samsung have only just begun to release competitive models - The NEC L1 and the Samsung SPH-V8400 are similarly thin clamshells.
However, Samsung appears to have gotten the drop on Motorola as far as thin candybar phones go. While the Motorola SLVR has been rumoured for almost a year, it's still not released, and now working prototypes of a competitor are already in the wild - and it's smaller. This is the Samsung P300. It first appeared on Slashphone about two weeks ago, but italian site Cellularmania has more pictures, and specifications - it apparently has dimensions of 87 x 54 x 8.9mm, (the SLVR is 49 x 113.5 x 11.5) a widescreen 220x176 TFT display, 80+MB storage, bluetooth and a 1.3 Megapixel camera.
We don't think it's quite as pretty, but the size is excellent. It's success probably depends upon price, especially in a market where the 89.9 x 49.9 x 8.8 mm VK2000 is expected to cost under $100. The P300 does have better features though...
Click here to see more pictures, including shots of the P300's interface.
[Thanks, Tony!]
