At every price point, there are certain phones that are built like tanks -- finely-tuned machines that were obviously designed and built with a meticulous eye for detail. They don't always look good, but they feel good -- and when you're talking about a device that you're likely going to be holding, using, and typing on for hours each and every day, "feels good" is a surprisingly important checkbox to mark.

The Samsung Exclaim doesn't fall into that category. At $79.99 on contract, it's cheap, but it's not that cheap -- in the QWERTY category, the Rant, Lotus, and Rumor 2 all cost less and we're pretty sure we'd rather have any of them, particularly the Lotus. Sprint Navigation works well (as it usually does -- though we didn't like how the portrait softkeys were still functional in landscape mode, so the bottom key confusingly corresponded to the left function) and the Exclaim has one of the loudest, best speakerphones we've heard, but it's doomed by its whopping 17.8mm of girth, its cheap, bendy plastics, and the fact that it lacks a rudimentary touchscreen for entering digits -- something that the similar LG Neon has (for $50 less) and the Rant overcomes with a dedicated, fixed numeric keypad. Yes, the Exclaim slides down to provide the functionality, but it's an unnecessary mechanical burden that adds more thickness than it's worth -- put simply, there are better ways of doing this.

For what it's worth, the slide-out keyboard works quite well -- teens and twentysomethings will appreciate the dedicated text and emoticon buttons, and the duplicated softkeys and directional keys are helpful -- and 3G is a plus, but in the face of hot, cheap competition from other models in Sprint's lineup (including some of Samsung's own, ironically), the Exclaim is a definite pass.

Samsung's Omnia II and its gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED screen is still without a Verizon release date, but don't let that stop you from enjoying Italian site HDBlog's ten-minute guided tour of the device. Hard to tell exactly how crisp is from the footage, and we also couldn't help but note a good bit of interface lag, especially when using the new cube menu. We're hopeful that'll get remedied before launch, and all in all, it's looking good, and the hardware definitely has some style. Grab some popcorn, video is after the break.

[Via Slashgear]

Samsung's launch of the Glyde was, well, far less than stellar -- but hey, second time's a charm, right? Shots have surfaced from HowardForums of what's apparently the Glyde 2 / u960. Looks like we've got a more expansive keyboard that makes better use of space on the bottom slide out, some TouchWiz action on the screen, and unsurprisingly a nice, big Verizon logo just above the screen. Nope, we don't have a release date or official confirmation of any sorts, so for now just hang tight on the farthest edge of your seat and feel free to browse the other shots of the device in the gallery below.

[Via Phone Arena]

Details are scarce, but it seems that this blurry, partial photo of an unknown QWERTY Samsung might be the "Link," a smartphone destined for Bell -- allegedly as soon as July 15. Seeing that it's being described as a smartphone, that virtually guarantees that it'll be running Windows Mobile, and from the look of it, we'd probably have to expect WinMo 6.1 Standard. Technically, S60 is a remote possibility -- Samsung is an S60 licensee, after all -- but the company has yet to release S60 gear on North American soil, so why start now?

[Via Unwired View]

We get it. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes when you're staring into the sad abyss of an empty Tennessee fifth, the idea of initiating an impromptu video conference in total darkness seems mighty compelling. That's where Samsung's SCH-W760 with 7.2Mbps HSDPA and front-facing infrared camera can help. It's available now in Korea and could be the difference between making a solo bed-spin performance or 3- to 6-months served at county for violating your restraining order. The choice is yours for KRW580,000 or about 445 of the green stuff.

Samsung's already committed to offering Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrades to Omnia IIs released with 6.1, but just how necessary is that commitment going to end up being in practice? Microsoft's Austrian outpost has announced that the Korean company's latest WinMo superphone will be launching in the domestic market in September with 6.5 already installed -- suggesting that at least some of these handsets in other markets around the world could be coming out of the gate in the same configuration. It also raises new questions about the market launch for 6.5 on a broader scale; we've always known it'd be hitting toward the end of 2009, but we've never gotten an exact date out of anyone for retail availability -- presumably because it has as much to do with manufacturer partners' plans as it does Microsoft's. We're not saying the Austrian Omnia II will be the first WinMo 6.5 retail device anywhere, but at this point, it's looking likely that this'll be in the first wave.

[Via WMExperts, TamsPPC, and wmpoweruser, thanks Daniel M.]

We're hearing a couple interesting tidbits of information from the same ultra-reliable tipster with regard to the Samsung Strut -- an LG Lotus-esque QWERTY clamshell that would fill a form factor gap in Verizon's lineup (albeit a form factor that didn't really exist a few months ago). First off, the tipster tells us that he's starting to see accessories flow in that specifically list Strut compatibility; this doesn't necessarily mean anything since none of the accessories are exclusive to the Strut, but it's interesting nonetheless. On the flipside, he also tells us that the Strut firmware in Verizon's system is nearly a frickin' year old, which is pushing the boundaries of a phone that the carrier would still be planning to release. At this point, it's entirely possible the phone got canned at some point along the way -- but it's also possible it'll launch any day now. Anyone super excited about it either way?

We still think that the Saga is one of the better portrait QWERTY WinMo phones currently on the market -- the optical mouse is awesome and global roaming is a more-than-welcome capability -- and it's only gotten better with the release of an official update from Samsung. The new build features Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile 6.1 AKU (1.5.1, if you're curious) and adds the capability to send MMS messages when you're roaming on GPRS, but most importantly, it unlocks GPS so that third-party applications can take advantage of it. This is a trend that Verizon's been pursuing full-force this year, and needless to say, it's a welcome one.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers, at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used on handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday. One charger for any mobile phone... where's the catch?

Somewhere along the line, some higher-up at Samsung clearly said "I've got it: geometry-themed d-pads." The rest, of course, is history -- Samsung ran with that theme, giving birth to the Jet and the Omnia II. But wait -- what if you could go back in time, take something like the S5600, and facelift it just a bit to give it a similarly unusual appearance? That's exactly what Vodafone has chosen to do in launching the midrange full-touch featurephone, apparently working with Sammy to add in a diamond-shaped nav pad and rechristen it the fierce-sounding "Blade." With a 3.2 megapixel cam, HSDPA, and GPS, it's nothing to sneeze at; whether it's worthy of a name as awesome as Blade, though, is another story altogether.

[Via Unwired View]

We've already seen a couple of these semi-officially, but it seems that Samsung has now fully, honestly announced these four fresh models for all of the world to ogle. There's actually not a lot to see here -- they're so well-buried in Samsung's literature that we were only able to find the S6700 ourselves -- but they present interesting options for anyone looking to get in on mobile music at a ridiculously low price point. Starting at the bottom, the M2310 and M2510 together formulate a powerful one-two flip / slider punch (okay, that's saying a bit much) with dedicated music controls and support for up to 8GB of microSD storage; the M2310 has a VGA cam while the M2510 steps it up to 1.3 megapixels. Moving upwards, the C5510 adds in a dual-band 3G radio, 16GB expandability, and a 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, while the S6700 slider (pictured) tops out the range with HSDPA, a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, GPS, and 120MB of storage on board. Still no word on when or where these are launching, but it seems like the S6700 might be available in some regions if you look hard enough.

[Via GSMArena]

This project's a few days old, but it's so cool that we wanted to bring it to your attention anyway: "andromnia." From the name, you might be able to gather that this is all about porting Android to the Samsung Omnia, which represents the marriage of one awesome piece of hardware with one very awesome platform, as far as we're concerned. Of course, a project of this magnitude requires hackery of the highest order, and the going's not easy -- things like "calling" don't readily work at the moment -- but it appears to be actively developing, so if you've got an Omnia handy and WinMo isn't really your bag, we'd recommend keeping an eye on this.

Yes, folks, that day you've been so eagerly awaiting is nearly here. Soon you won't have to suffer the agony of pixel envy on your cellphones thanks to Samsung's M8910 Pixon12 and its whopping 12 megapixel sensor, capturing light through a 28mm wide-angle lens like that in the Nokia N86 (which has a miserly eight megapixels on tap). Sammy's handset has been put through its paces ahead of release, stacked up against the likes of a Canon A620 and a 350D SLR. The phone does quite well, producing images as good or better than its compact competition, but we're not quite sure we agree with the assessment that it "can reach the detail resolved by a true DSLR" -- at least, not in this batch of images. We want to believe, though, we really do; those SLRs are heavy, and we're not a particularly strong bunch.

The big Android news today is all out of London and New York today, but if we move a bit eastward, there's some cool stuff going on in Deutschland, too: Samsung's i7500 Galaxy is now available. The beastly smartphone immediately becomes the highest-end Android device to date and will have a little while to enjoy the top of the hill until the Hero drops, thanks in no small part to its 5 megapixel cam, support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 8GB of internal storage, and a 3.2-inch AMOLED display. Looks like it's yours for €69.99 (about $98) on contract, so count us in -- and how about some time on the Nürburgring while we're at it?

[Thanks, Jon]

You've been able to find the Exclaim and Snap for a while now if you've dug through third-party retailers hard enough, but Sprint's finally selling them directly from its own site. The Snap -- which we'd already known would hit this week -- is a portrait QWERTY handset running Windows Mobile 6.1 with support for HTC's Inner Circle functionality to block out email noise when you feel like you're about to lose your mind; it runs $149.99 on contract after rebate. The Exclaim is a low-cost QWERTY side slider designed to do battle with rival LG's Rumor 2; it'll set you back $79.99 on contract. Finally, the LX370 is a basic numeric slider with a 2 megapixel camera, running $99.99 with your name on the dotted line.

[Via Phone Scoop]