The megapixel arms race isn’t just relegated to digital SLRs, but now has hit fever pitch in mobile phones. Samsung has released their SCH-B600 ten-megapixel camera phone at the German Cebit electronics convention. The company says the camera does three times optical zoom and is the first one of its kind to offer auto-focus and fill-light flash.

The ten-megapixel camera, while impressive, is just one of the many other interesting features of the phone. Users can watch their daily soap operas via the integrated digital satellite receiver on the phone’s 2.2 inch 16-million color display. But if the screen is too small for watching television, owners can take advantage of the TV output feature. The phone can also record MPEG4 video and playback music in MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA and OGG formats.

The phone comes on the heels of Samsung’s eight-megapixel phone that was launched just last November. Samsung says the SCH-B600 will be available in Europe and South Korea in the 2nd quarter of 2006. There is no word on pricing or if the phone will ever be commercially available in the USA.