Digital Trends

Samsung Juke SCH-u470

February 20th, 2008 | by Damon Brown

Features and Design

The Samsung Juke is fairly thick at about an inch, and is made up of two parts. The bottom half is a crystal-like keypad along with standard buttons like the power key and send, including a camera key. The buttons themselves are almost flat, but the ridges between them are just wide enough to feel the indentation. They are small – no thumb pressing here.

The top half is a thin vertical screen, about ¾ of an inch across and an inch and a half tall. Below the screen is a radial dial, smooth, yet ridged, not unlike a vinyl record. From a practical standpoint, it’s close cousins with the iPod dial. 

Samsung has kept the details simple. The model we tested was a metallic blue with shiny silver trim (It is also available in red and black). There are only a couple of switches on the side: on the left, volume control buttons, and on the right, a key lock switch and a well hidden external wire connector. On the back is a small camera lens. When closed, the thick device only shows its vertical screen and radial dial control. Use your thumb to push the screen to the right, clockwise, and the top half with jut out like a switchblade.

Setup and Use

The Samsung Juke comes with a USB connector, wall plug and earphones, which is basically all you need to get the most out of the device. It is a music phone.

The music is available by just hitting the center of the radial dial (which is the equivalent of the OK button). It asks if you want to listen to music, get music through the V-Cast direct download service or sync it to a music library on the computer.

Verizon’s V-Cast multimedia software is required to sync, and it only works on Windows XP or Vista-enabled PCs – no Macs here. It was a fairly small 20 MB, available online at http://www.vzam.net/vcastmusic/. V-Cast will grab all your music and make it available in its iTunes-like library browser. Plug the Juke in and, using a drag-and-drop method, move any songs, playlists or albums to the device. They transfer quickly, as in about one second each song. The battery will also charge via the USB. 

Image Courtesy of Samsung