A menu selection apparatus and a method in a portable terminal, and the portable terminal having the menu selection apparatus are provided to select a desired menu by using intensity of light collected from plural sensors, or to move a pointer to the corresponding menu, thereby simply and conveniently selecting the desired menu by using a finger. A light emitting unit(21) emits a light to a surface of a user's finger contacted with a specific surface of a portable terminal. A condensing unit(22) condenses a light reflected from the surface of the finger. A lightness sensor(23) senses the condensed light, and outputs the sensed light as an optical intensity signal in proportion to an intensity of the sensed light. A trigger interval calculating unit(24) calculates time intervals of a trigger signal generated when a change of the optical intensity signal is bigger than a certain value. A presuming unit(25) decides whether the calculated time intervals are within a preset time interval range, and outputs a menu selection signal for selecting a menu if the time intervals are within the range.
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