Today, I got my mitts on Samsung's SGH-F300, the music-oriented member of the company's new Ultra line. With a design seemingly inspired by the black iPod Nano, this Janus-like (in both the classical and Microsoft senses) device has two faces, one for cell calls and the other for music. (I think they should have called it the Samsung Mullet—business up front, party in the back).
On the music side of things, you get a bright, 2.1-inch, 256-color, 176x220 pixel TFT display that can play video and facilitates easy navigation. The touch-sensitive control takes a little getting used to, but can be used to adjust volume as well as control playback once you get the hang of it.
Music gets stored on a microSD card, so you can't pack a ton of it on there, but the music interface is decent and you get a standard headphone jack as well as support for Bluetooth A2DP stereo headsets. A slider switch takes you from music to cell functionality; when it's slid over to the cellphone setting, buttons on the music player are disabled. And you can answer calls while the music you were listening to is automatically paused.
If this sounds good, and you live in the U.S., don't get your hopes up; the Samsung rep said that the phone's potential release in this country "depends" – upon what, he did not say (perhaps the Apple iPhone). –Eliot Van Buskirk
