Samsung today announced their newest slim flip phone, the SGH-A747, otherwise known as the Samsung SLM. The SLM follows the obviuos family lineage of other thin Samsung flip phones, notably the Helio Fin, and at just over a half inch thick, it won't be the thinnest flip on the market, but it will be impressively slim, nonetheless. More importantly, though, the SLM will be the debut device for AT&T's Napster Mobile service. Napster mobile, which was announced last month, will give AT&T the music download store they have been lacking, while CDMA competitors like Sprint and Verizon Wireless have had stores available for some time.
What differentiates these mobile music stores most is their pricing, and AT&T has decided to join the high end of the pricing model. Songs will be available in five packs for $7.50, or individually for $1.99. This is about what you'd expect to pay on Verizon's V Cast music store, though Sprint has taken the lead by offering $0.99 downloads this year.
We're disappointed by the music download service, especially since it uses the Napster brand, but doesn't offer the subscription service that is Napster's main selling point. And, a subscription-based mobile music service would have been a truly novel selling point, but instead AT&T has caught up with a product that is already behind the market, at least in terms of price. Still, other features, like simultaneous downloads to your home PC, can also be found elsewhere.
At least the Samsung SLM looks like a nice device. Beyond the mobile music store, you get full HSDPA for video share, as well as AT&T's other video and music streaming services. The SLM features a 2-megapixel shooter, and can store photos and music either on 50MB of internal memory, or, we presume, external memory.
The Samsung SLM will be available from AT&T on Black Friday, November 23, for $150 with a contract agreement.
|
|
Archive