Hands-on with the Samsung M510 Flip Phone

Samsung's slim and sleek M510 has been out for about a week now, and I've been giving it a whirl for the past few days. This update of the older, clunkier Samsung M500 is, I have to say, a hard phone to put down. Weighing in at just three ounces, this svelte, curvy clamshell feels light as a feather, and it packs in 3G data support to boot. The catch? It's way too expensive, at least for now.

First off, I love the M510's sleek profile—it's just about a half-inch thick (not bad for a flip phone), and the it closes with a nice, satisfying clap. I also liked the perfectly flat keypad, which made for easy dialing and texting, and the two-inch internal display was reasonably sharp and vivid. The 3G M510 ranks as a Power Vision phone, meaning you can watch streaming video via Sprint TV and grab full-track music downloads; a slot for microSD memory expansion is conveniently located on the right side of the phone, and you can listen to tunes over a stereo Bluetooth headset. You also get a 1.3-megapixel camera and GPS navigation—nice. Last but not least, calls on the M510 sounded loud and clear.

All well and good, except for one thing: at $130 with a two-year contract, the M510 makes for a pricey entry in Sprint's lineup, especially compared to the slim, high-profile Samsung UpStage ($100), the similar LG Fusic (just $10) and the older M500 (also $10). My advice? Wait a month or two; something tells me the M510's price tag will sink well below $100 before long.

Related:
Product page [Sprint]