Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have announced new cell phone handsets compatible with the fast HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) data download services beginning in South Korea.

Samsung's handset is the SCH-W2100 slider. It supports HSDPA up to 1.8Mbps and has a built-in tuner for South Korea's terrestrial digital broadcasting service. There's a 2-megapixel camera with auto focus, MP3 player, text to speech, a file viewer and TV-out function. It's available now and costs about $739.

LG has two handsets, both of which are also sliders. The KH1000 is similar to the Samsung phone in that the screen slides upwards to reveal a small keyboard. With the SH100 users first need rotate the phone through clockwise through 90 degrees and then slide the screen upwards to reveal the keyboard. This has the advantage of allowing for a slightly longer keyboard than the other KH1000.

The three phones are initially for the South Korean domestic market only.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.