Samsung patents mobile phones with gaming focus

Two designs for handheld-inspired handsets

15 August 2007 10:27 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Some recently filed patents suggest that Samsung maybe working on producing a gaming phone for market.

Further to the supposed news that the iPhone is planning to become a fully-fledged gaming device, and that the rumoured to be coming soon Nokia N81 will count N-Gage gaming as one of its big selling points, it seems mobile gaming is a hot topic.

Samsung has filed two patents. The first is for a phone with a slide up screen looks like it will boast gaming as its primary function:

"Multi-functionality and multi-purpose utilization including video communication, game, Internet, and camera functions as well as a voice communication function."

It looks as if Samsung want this model to offer as an realistic as possible mobile gaming experience:

"A wide display device and a sound system for providing a real-like game in the game mode are required."

The second patent, although it certainly mentions gaming as a focus, seems on closer inspection to be more of a multimedia offering:

"A portable communication terminal such as a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) phone, a game phone, a chatting phone, a camera phone, a Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Layer-3 (MP3) phone, a cellular phone, a Personal Communication Service (PCS) phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and a Hand Held Phone (HHP)...

...In particular, to a portable communication terminal for games, which is easy to use in a game mode or a DMB mode, as well as in a phone mode."

This jack-of-all-trades handset certainly seems to offer it all. Time will only tell if these designs go from patents to production...