Samsung has announced to unveil its latest Monte S5620 mobile phone for the UK, joining the soaring rank of touchscreen models that are likely to cost between £150 and £250 unlocked.

The new launch is a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen device capable of displaying 480 X 272 pixels, possessing a widescreen QVGA capacitive display. In addition, it supports a 3.2 megapixel camera with smile & panorama shots as well as face detection, and 3G connection.

The phone is revealed to make social networking go a simple task. Samsung has squished Facebook and MySpace applications onto the Monte, as well as offering Bebo and Twitter widgets for the home screen. Moreover, it is revealed to support a number of instant messaging clients.

The Monte is running Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz UI, which is revealed to be suppressed by Bada, but for now that means movable home screen widgets and the like.

It will also support loads of IM applications on board, so while this may be aimed at the mid range of the market, there will be a need for some unlimited data too.

However, the phone pricing and the exact UK release date are still to be disclosed.

The model is expected to encounter tough competition from Nokia & LG though as well as Samsung's older/clearance models.