Samsung's new slim phone

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Since the phenomenal success of the has left Moto's competitors frothing at the mouth, we knew they would eventually introduce their own Razr imitators. And as expected, Samsung is first to market with the SPH-A900, a new cell phone that the company announced yesterday at a New York City media event. Destined for Sprint before year's end, the A900 flip phone measures a mere 0.57-inch wide (just a hair thicker than the Razr) and promises Bluetooth, voice commands and dialing, and a 262,000-color display. In a step above the original Razr, the Samsung SPH-A900 also promises a 1.3-megapixel camera, 3G EV-DO connectivity, and a media player for viewing streaming-video content. It all sounds like a sweet setup, but considering it's a Sprint phone, I wouldn't doubt it if the Bluetooth were disabled in some way.

Besides the A900, Samsung unveiled a handful of other handsets set for the U.S. market in the next few months. The Samsung SGH-D357 for Cingular offers an MP3 player and support for push-to-talk networks; the Samsung SGH-ZX10 for Cingular will have world-phone support and 3G UMTS compatibility; and the CDMA Samsung A920 promises Bluetooth, EV-DO connectivity, and high-end multimedia options. T-Mobile should get another Razr imitator with the Samsung SGH-T809. At just 0.6 inch, the T809 comes with a megapixel camera, a TransFlash memory card slot, Bluetooth, and an MP3 player. But instead of a flip-phone design, the T809 sports a cool slider form factor. Lastly, T-Mobile has already picked up the Samsung SGH-T309. Features on the basic T309 include a speakerphone, instant messaging, and a VGA camera.