Samsung
SCH-V420

The Samsung SCH-V420 was a camcorder-style folding phone that was offered exclusively in the South Korean market. There were three variants of this device. The V420 was available via Korean mobile network operator SKT for use on its 3G CDMA 800MHz EVDO network. The SPH-V4200 was offered by rival operator KTF. There was also an international version of this handset known as the SGH-P730 for use on GSM networks. The phone was an early example of a flip phone where the display could be turned 90 degrees from a portrait to a landscape orientation making it ideally suited to watching videos and TV content. The V420 was also notable for being the only Anycall mobile phone to have an antenna on the left-hand side of the device. The example in the Mobile Phone Museum was purchased from a retail outlet in South Korea in 2004. It was used as a prop by media company Modeo in business development meetings with large US carriers to promote the concept of watching TV on mobile phones. Modeo was getting ready to launch a DVB-H network in some US cities to offer broadcast services. It preloaded video content onto the V420's memory card giving the company the ability to show what a mobile TV experience would look like on a mobile phone. This was a game-changer for the Modeo team. Modeo eventually launched a commercial service using the Modeo Foreseer phone. You can read about the story of the Modeo network in the description of the Foreseer phone here.