Samsung DuoS (SGH-D880): two SIMs in one phone Discontinued

8th October 2007 At first glance the Samsung DuoS looks nowhere near as interesting as the recent Serenata or Armani phones, but you'd be wrong.. because as far as we know, the Samsung DuoS (or SGH-D880) is the first mobile phone two support two different SIM cards simultaneously. At the moment, if you want two SIM cards in your phone then it's awfully tricky. The process often involves cutting SIM cards down or somehow squeezing in an add-on bit of hardware. The Samsung DuoS gets around this by having two SIM slots in the back, and both SIMs are active at the same time. Now, you probably either see the plus points of this dual-SIM arrangement straight away, or you don't. Just in case you don't - the advantage is that one phone can act as a home or business device, or perhaps the second SIM card can be on a network from a different country that you visit often, or perhaps the tariff on one SIM card is designed for data and the other for voice. Or maybe you're a secret agent or something, but if you find yourself carrying two phones for whatever reason, then the SGH-D880/DuoS might be exactly what you need. The SIM cards can be on different networks, and even for different countries. Bear in mind that this is only a tri-band GSM phone, so data rates are limited to GPRS and EDGE and there are no 3G capabilities. Samsung have designed the interface to be as simple to use as possible and users can name each SIM whichever way they like, so they don't have to stick with "SIM 1" or "SIM 2". This switching isn't just for voice calls, but it allows separate ringtones, text messages, email configuration and other settings.. so the DuoS really is like having two phones in one. The DuoS even has two signal strength indicators. Apart from the two SIM card slots, the Samsung SGH-D880 / DuoS is a pretty decent phone. There's a 2.3" 240x320 pixel display, 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, microSD expandable memory, a multimedia player and USB 2.0 connection. Because the dual network connections draw more power than a single one, the battery in the SGH-D880 is a large 1200 mAh (milliAmpere hours) rather than a more typical 800 mAh cell. It's a pretty normal size for a phone at 104 x 51 x 19mm, although we don't know how much the D880 weighs. At the moment, the Samsung DuoS / D880 has only been confirmed for release in Russia later this month. It's a relatively expensive device at 18,000 rubles (around £350 or €510) before tax. Expect to have to pay the full price without any discount, because no carrier will want to subsidise a handset that another carrier will use and locking the device to a single network would be pointless. We think that the Samsung DuoS is a very clever idea, and are frankly a bit surprised that it has taken a manufacturer this long to come up with something like this. It's quite possible that the SGH-D880 will be a very popular phone when it hits the market, and perhaps we will see more dual-SIM phones emerging during 2008. Slashdot It Digg this Post to del.icio.us Subscribe to our newsletter for more news on upcoming releases

Samsung DuoS (SGH-D880) at a glance Available: Q4 2007 Network: GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 Data: GPRS + EGDE Screen: 240 x 320 pixels Camera: 3 megapixeks Size: Medium slider

104 x 51 x 19mm Bluetooth: Yes Memory card: microSD Infra-red: No Polyphonic: Yes Java: Yes Battery life: Not specified