Samsung T509 May 9th, 2006 | by Vince Veneziani

Features and Design

Samsung's T509 is about as thin as a cell phone can get. It comes in at an astonishing 9.8mm thick and will be available from T-Mobile in May. Right off the bat, though, you'll notice this phone is long. So long, in fact, that it sort of kills the thin design Samsung had in mind for this phone. The keypad and button layout are what you'll find on most Samsung phones, and it also has a circular d-pad in the middle. The buttons are a little too big and could have been cut down to reduce the length of this phone, which would have made this phone a knockout. If Samsung could take off an inch or so, they'd have a serious SLVR competitor on their hands.

The phone feels half metallic, half plastic, which produces the feeling that you are holding a toy in your hand. After awhile you'll get used to it, though, so don't worry too much about this.

People will be sure to love the 1.9” LCD screen on the T509. It's got 65,000 colors that look amazing (there's no need for 262k colors with a phone that only does so much and is designed with fashion in mind). The T509 also has EDGE capabilities, so you can take advantage of high-speed internet browsing thanks to T-Mobile.

This phone is low on thrills, though. It has a dedicated camera button and charger port on the right, and volume control on the left. There is no music player software included or the ability to upgrade your storage space. Samsung has a great user interface, as always, and users of the T809 will notice that the T509's UI is almost identical. There is IM, text and media messaging, and other features like web browsing.

On the back of the phone is a very industrial-looking case with a small VGA camera/camcorder. Why Samsung hasn't caught on to using 1.3-megapixel cameras in most of their phones yet is beyond me; VGA is just too low-grade to be used for anything else other than MMS. The phone does have Bluetooth, so headset users shouldn't fret. It connects perfectly fine with a computer, too, so you can transfer files and ringtones.

One thing worth mentioning is that consumers interested in the T509 should be very careful about choosing this phone. It fits perfectly in a tight pair of jeans, so women will without a doubt love the design. But while walking around the city one day, I noticed I was walking over a lot of grates. This phone will fall through any crack you can imagine, so you have to be very careful not to drop it (point being this is a very thin phone). Plus, the phone isn't that strong, so it will probably shatter if it falls a few feet. Just keep these things in mind when considering this phone in May.