Helio, Samsung sculpt 11mm thick handset

Look down in shame, all you fatty clamshells, sliders and candybars because US virtual network operator Helio has launched the Fin, an ultra-slim handset that's a minuscule 1.1cm thick and packs plenty of features into its Size-0 magnesium body.

Helio's Fin: thin enough?

The 3G handset sports a 2.3in, 240 x 320, 262,144-colour display, and a three-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom. There's 100MB internal memory as standard, but this can be expanded up to 4GB through the Fin's Micro SD card slot. Fin was co-developed by Samsung.

The Fin measures 10.3 x 5.1 x 1.1cm and provides a talk time of up to three hours, the partners claimed. It's compatible with Bluetooth and handles MP3 and AAC audio formats, in addition to MPEG 4 and H.264 video.

Helio has equipped the Fin with a service that allows users to upload photos and videos straight to YouTube and Flickr - which sounds similar to a feature available on Casio’s EX-S880 and EX-Z77 digital cameras, which incorporate a branded YouTube Best Shot mode.

The Fin also features "messaging dashboard", which Helio said is a location for viewing all of a user' instant messages, texts, picture messages and emails from one place.

Helio's Fin: stylish too

The handset is available now is the US, with the retail price depending on the purchase location and network contract. Helio doesn't operate in Europe, but Samsung does and may will bring its skinny 3G phone over here. When that might happen, it didn't say.