Samsung today announced the launch of 'Soul,' its new flagship product for 2008. The Soul will officially make its debut during next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Samsung named the Soul to honor the completion of its exclusive Ultra Edition series of handsets; abbreviated for 'The Spirit Of Ultra.'

The Soul is a slim, lightweight and stylish device boasting essential functions. The usability is enhanced with features that adapt to the user depending on the application. With Magical Touch, navigation indicators on the keypad of the phone change according to the user's needs, making navigation of the menus simple, intuitive and direct. The navigation panel's icons change according to function.

For example, when in music mode, music related icons will light up on the navigation indicators. When in camera mode, camera related icons such as zoom and brightness icons will appear.

The Soul also offers a new series of graphic user interfaces (GUI) providing three different options for users. With this Thematic UI, users can change the UI according to their personal tastes. Additionally, users can create their own skins with the on-handset User Created Skin (UCS) setup. Display skins are customizable with various options such as background images, fonts and colors.

Continuing the look of Samsung's popular Ultra Edition series with extreme minimalism in a slim design, the Soul has a full metal body with a premium look and feel with a natural color and hairline texture.

At 12.9 mm thin, the Soul is equipped with professional photographic functions including a 5.0-megapixel camera. Features such as face detection, image stabilizer and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), up-to-date features even in today's digital cameras, are also equipped.

Users can enjoy fast Internet access through the 7.2 Mbps High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) browser and share images or video taken with the phone. With 7.2 Mpbs HSDPA, users can also download songs at a faster speed compared to average 3G networks.

"We believe that Soul is the answer for today's style-conscious consumers, excited by outstanding quality design and performance," said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung's Telecommunication Business.

The Soul will be supported by a major global advertising campaign and will be available in European countries from April.