The Samsung SPH-i300 is a

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

running on

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued 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. ...

, manufactured by

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

. The device was released in October 2001 and marketed in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for use on

Sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

's CDMA based cellular network. It was the first "PDA phone" (as devices that combined phone and PDA functions were then called) in the US with a color screen. The phone has a

candybar A candy bar is a type of portable candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate wi ...

-style design. It operates like a standard color Palm OS device, but several hard (external) and software buttons launch the 'phone' application, which manages calls. The phone shipped with a charging cradle with a

DE-9 The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smallest connectors used on computer systems. Description, ...

serial port A serial port is a serial communication Interface (computing), interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in Pa ...

, extra battery, and a case.

Applications

Installed applications included ones carried over from existing Palm handheld non-phone devices: Graffiti, Memo Pad, Date Book, Scheduler, Calculator, To Do List, Alarm/Clock, Address Book, Expense Manager, and Palm Desktop Software. ZIO PalmGolf was another application. In addition, applications to support voice and data communications were included:

Blazer A blazer is a jacket worn as part of a smart casual or business casual look. Similar to a sport jacket, a blazer is not part of a formal suit, and the terms "sport coat" and "blazer" may be used interchangeably in daily life. A nautical bl ...

, Mail, Messages, Phone, Speed Dial, Voice Dial, and Voice Memo.

History and reception

The SPH-i300 was the first Palm-OS-based smartphone from Samsung, and cost $499. The phone was not compatible with Sprint's

CDMA 1x CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatible ...

network (which is actually 2.5G but was wrongly labeled by Sprint as 3G) and its maximum connection speed of 14.4 kbit/s made browsing slow, but browsing "the real web" in 2001 was an advance on the

WAP browser Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an obsolete technical standard for accessing information over a mobile cellular network. Introduced in 1999, WAP allowed users with compatible mobile devices to browse content such as news, weather and sp ...

s on other mobile phones. It competed with another Palm OS phone, the Kyocera 6035, which was the first Palm OS based cellular phone.

Follow-up SPH-i330 model

Samsung followed up the SPH-i300 with the SPH-i330 in 2003, also on Sprint. The SPH-i330 has a more rounded body and PC connectivity over USB rather than a serial port, but has the same screen, Palm OS version, and general feature set as the SPH-i300.

Footnotes

*All details and specifications are from the CNET review and specification page unless otherwise indicated.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samsung SPH-i300 i300 Palm OS devices Mobile phones introduced in 2001 Discontinued smartphones