GPS smartphones such as the BlackBerry 8820 have become popular with today's modern road warriors so it's no surprise that Samsung has announced their own GPS phone, the SGH-i550. Reports say the unit is tentatively scheduled for launch this November but specific release markets or prices have yet to be officially announced.

On paper, the i550 looks like it will be a strong contender in the mobile smartphone market. The unit is a tri-band GSM phone with 3G capabilities via WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and is equipped with the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 (Symbian OS 9.2).

The i550 also comes with a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, HSDPA connectivity, a 3.5mm audiojack, a 1200 mAh battery which is said to be good for up to 24 hours of heavy use, and of course a built-in GPS receiver.

The i550 looks to be a solid phone for workers and travelers. If the phone proves to be popular with the mobile phone community, then we'll undoubtedly be seeing more GPS enabled phones from Samsung.