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Samsung U470: an X830 for Verizon?
We've gotta hand it to Verizon here; The Network's still got a bit of a reputation as a stodgy, old-school carrier that eschews style for reliability, but they've been working their rumps off the past couple years trying to shake that image with devices like the US-exclusive version of the Chocolate and the unusual VX9400. Still, though, we would've never expected a US carrier to pick up a variant of Samsung's wild X830, an ultra-narrow, swiveling music phone that isn't the easiest device in the world to use, but sure looks cool. phoneArena is reporting that the pictured device is the Samsung U470, a handset obviously in the X830's lineage, with a Verizon release planned for 2008. Features are said to include a camera, 220 x 128 display, A2DP, microSD slot, and if we had to guess, some rather healthy quantity of internal Flash. Mercifully, Samsung has opted for a traditional three-wide numeric keypad here instead of the tricky two-wide type used on the original, so we're pretty stoked that this one could be surprisingly usable despite its diminutive dimensions. Stay tuned!
Samsung's tiny X830 now shipping
It's not every day that a global release from Samsung gets as many oohs and aahs as one of their domestic pieces, but the SGH-X830 is a notable exception. The curious lil' spinner gets by with just two columns on its keypad (a rather low number, we reckon), brazenly sacrificing usability for fashion and the cool factor. Then again, for a phone of this shape and size, we could be going completely keypadless -- so we'll stop our bellyaching right here. Look for the "Flick & Swing" X830 to drop in a rainbow of six colors when it shows up in your friendly local importer's inventory.
Samsung SGH-X830 gets by FCC
Our theory here is that the FCC didn't actually see the X830, it just quietly slipped by. Yeah, it's that small; usability of the dual-column keypad could be an issue for some folks attracted to the handset, but for others, Samsung's submicronic spinner makes the grade on the 'wow' factor alone (present company included). Sure, internal memory's way down from the S4300 on which it's based, but when it comes to hot Korean tech, we'll take the trickle-down approach if that's our only option.
The X830: Samsung's oddball spinner to go global?
There are many variations of the theme, but the story typically ends the same: Korean manufacturer shows off hot phone; hot phone goes on sale in Korea; rest of the world never hears about the hot phone again. For a change of pace, we might have a happy ending this time. Remember the curious SPH-S4300 music-centric spinner we told you about a while back? It seems Samsung's found a few customers happy with the 2-column keypad layout, since they're releasing a nearly identical phone with GSM innards as the X830. Internal flash is down from 1GB to a fairly pathetic 82MB, but given the phone's microscopic 85 x 29 x 20mm dimensions, we're nearly willing to forgive. If you pick this one up, be careful, dear readers -- looks mighty easy to put an eye out with that spin mechanism. View the X830 stowed in its upright, locked position after the break.
