Samsung SGH-T509 (silver, T-Mobile)

Pros: Thin, aesthetically pleasing, nearly fully featured, good construction.

Cons: Lacking some specific options, makes your siblings & girl/friend(s) jealous

Summary: Let me start by saying that I am a self-admitted flip-phone monger. Up until I discovered the T509 no "candy bar" style phone had ever appealed to me. Three weeks ago I had my heart set on either the V330 or the RAZR. After using my Dad's RAZR for a while, I realized that it's (realtively lacking)features, enourmous length, and extreme commonness made it undesirable and the V330 was too much like my old V220. Enough about that.

After reading several reviews and looking at dozens of glamour shots of the T509 online, I had decided that I would seriously consider it once I reached the T-Mobile store, and I'm glad I did. While my Dad attempted to work out his service agreement I took the T509 for a test run. It's small size and ease of use, along with the incredibly crisp screen and multitude of features had me hooked.

About a half an hour later I left the store a proud owner of the thinnest phone in America. When I arrived at my friends birthday party I instantly sat down and began to explore the phone. I found it to be relatively intuitive as well as being incredibly responsive and quick. The buttons are all easy to use and well placed. My main bother with the buttons is that unlike my V220 the center "OK" button is non-functional until you reach the menu. I would have liked that button to be a shortcut to the menu. Moving right along, I quickly updated my phone book and began setting ringtones, groups, and adding picture ID's. This was all relatively simple as long as you remeber that it doesn't always ask you if you want to save an entry. Using the camera was easy enough, however it used (counterintuitively) the left and right buttons for zoom rather than the up and down buttons (which were used to adjust brightness). The camera quality was good enough for me as I only use it to take snapshots, being the owner of a 4 Megapixel Fujifilm. The camera also has a ton of extra features and settings that make it fun to use. The video quality was expectedly moderate, but as my V220 did not have this feature it was very well welcomed. My only major concern with the camera is that it always asks you, with fault to TMobile, whether you want to send the photo to "My Album." They have it set so the "yes" option is placed on the soft key usually reserved for "back" or "cancel" which resulted in several accidental sends to "My Album." Also, there is no option to disable this, as far as I know, nor can you disable the shutter sound. Again, minor annoyances.

The phone is highly customizable and is enigmatically beautiful in all of it's color schemes. Everytime my girlfriend sees this phone she tells me how pretty it is, and after assuring her that she is much prettier, I agree. I love taking it out in public because it is just so eye-catching. The only time it is not on a table within eyeshot or in my hand is when someone else is admiring it. The pictures do not do it justice. If you are even considering this phone in the slightest amount I would suggest that you go to a TMobile store and put it in you hand. It is so small and lightweight that it makes the RAZR look like a Nokia Brick. Any complaints about the length of this phone are null and void once you flip a RAZR and discover that it is about 2 inches longer. Even my V220 when unfurled is an entire inch longer and about 3 times thicker for that matter. It weighs next to nothing, yet it feels incredibly sturdy. On the table next to 4 flip phones (as it is now...T309, V220, N400, A460) it is the only phone that grabs your eye and begs to be picked up.

Call quality is very good and volume is sufficient. Even with one bar of service I can hear other cell phone users clearly and loudly. It holds a charge very well and when it becomes low charges up without haste. The sound quality, as far as ringtones are concerned, is good and there is a decent selection of basic tones. I have not discovered a ringtone mixer, but this isn't an issue for me. The lack of an MP3 player, for me at least, is actually quite welcome. Aside from the SLVR being rather odd looking, the idea of having an MP3 player in my cell phone is rather strange to me. I have a 20GB iPod Photo for that.

In summary, the Samsung SGH-T509 is not perfect, but it's amazingly attractive styling, great features, and most importantly good reception bring it just short of tangent to the perfection curve. I would suggest that at a price of $49.99 with a 2 year service agreement you go snatch one of these up and ditch your clumsy, common clamshell. Then again, maybe you shouldn't, I like being one of the only people around with one of these beauties.