Europe : SANYO, the Japanese electronics giant, has given a facelift to its first 3G phone for the European market. The new S750i is a revamp and part of the company’s continuing commitment to exceed customer expectations.

The S750i is a redesign of the popular S750, which was launched at the end of 2004. Today the lighter S750i boasts a sophisticated silver and black casing retaining the slide-up opening and presenting a rounder, more ergonomic shape, which is in tune with consumers’ fast-paced lifestyle.

The features of the phone which have made the S750 a standout seller have been retained. This includes one of the largest screens on the market – a 2.4 inch high resolution QVGA which has 262,144 colours to guarantee extra sharp viewing quality. The high-quality integrated digital/video camera also remains a key element of the handset, as the popularity of video calling and photo messaging amongst consumers continues to grow across the UK. The S750i also retains its four times zoom dual camera functionality – 1.3 Mpix CMOS (with integrated flash) and 310K pixel CCD.

Besides the design makeover, the S750i includes a 32MB SD card, providing more memory for customers to store high resolution pictures, long recorded videos, mp3 music files and other data. A USB cable allows data transfer, synchronisation or modem functionality between the S750i and a PC. In combination with a Pictbridge printer the USB cable also makes direct print outs of photos possible.

“Our entry into the UK 3G market has been a tremendous success, with a great response from the consumers,” said Masatsugu Yamano, president of SANYO Fisher Sales (Europe) GmbH and also responsible for SANYO’s European mobile phone business. “However we can’t afford to rest on our laurels. SANYO’s achievements in the past have been because of our refusal to be complacent. We’re always looking at how we can make things better for our customers and the S750i is no exception.”

The revamped handset continues to support UMTS, GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Infrared. Other features include 72 polyphonic tones for almost real tunes, Java Game and WAP Browsing.

In the UK the SANYO S750i will continue to be available directly from Orange.