SINGAPORE : Samsung has launched its new flagship Galaxy S Android smart phone first in the Asia-Oceania region, with the aim of riding the wave of innovation in the Android platform and providing smart phones for every budget.

Speaking at the launch in Singapore, Gregory Lee, CEO of Samsung Southeast Asia and Oceania, said he was confident that the phone will be a major success thanks to Android now being the fastest-growing smart phone platform and the rich variety of applications available on the Android Market.

Samsung is all about open platforms which will help each country build in localisations.

The US and European launches will follow sometime in July. Lee said it was rare in the US for all carriers to launch the same phone at the same time, but all have already signed up for the Galaxy S.

In the region, Singtel, AIS, Telkomsel, Optus (and soon Maxxis) have signed up as launch partners.

''This is only the beginning of Samsung's approach to smart phones. We will soon offer smart phones for every price point aimed at every consumer in Southeast Asia,'' he said.

Winston Goh, Product Manager, ran though some of the highlights of the phone.

The Galaxy S is 9.9 millimetres slim and comes with the industry's most powerful CPU right now, running at 1 GHz. This does not come at a cost of battery life. Standby is 250 hours on 2G and 200 on 3G. With the radios off in flight mode, it is capable of showing video for seven hours.

''And when your battery runs out, you simply open it and put in another one. You don't need an engineer to change the battery,'' he said, taking a sideswipe at Apple's iPhone with its non-replaceable battery. Goh later said that the Galaxy S was not magic, but the result of hard engineering work, also taking a jab at Apple's ''magical'' iPad experience.

The Galaxy S is the second phone in Southeast Asia that comes with Samsung's new Super AMOLED display that offers stunning colours and, unlike earlier AMOLED designs, remains readable under direct sunlight.

Also present is Samsung's Swype keyboard, where words are written on an onscreen keypad without taking the user's finger off the screen. This input method, as used on the Samsung Omnia II, currently hold the Guinness world record for phone text input speed.

The Galaxy S runs Android 2.1 and features all the usual Android features, such as tight integration with social networking, gallery and video playback.

In addition it provides eBook capabilities, HD video playback and recording, DLNA (digital living network alliance) connectivity, ThinkFree office that can view and edit Microsoft Office 2007 documents, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi B/G/N and mobile access point (tethering) dhcapabilities.

It supports 7.2 MBPS down, 5.76 MBPS up on 3G networks and EDGE class 12.

Other applications included, for the Singapore market at least, was an e-Nets (debit card) application for e-commerce.