Samsung shows Blackberry, Wi-Fi handsets

The T719 handset includes Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Connect, software supporting RIM's popular push e-mail technology. The phone's keypad is 5 keys wide by 4 rows deep, and onto these are mapped letters from a QWERTY keyboard in an attempt to make typing easier than using a conventional phone keypad. Other features of the quad-band GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handset include a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and EDGE data support.

Samsung didn't say when the T719 would become available but said it expects it to be the first phone available in the U.S. with Blackberry Connect. To be so it would have to launch before Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB's P990 and M600 handsets, which also have the technology and are due out in the second quarter of this year.

The South Korean company is also showing the T709 handset, which includes support for Wi-Fi, it said. The phone allows calls to be switched between Wi-Fi and cellular networks while they are in progress, Samsung said.