Samsung's new Ultra Music for Sprint?
Samsung Ultra Music
(Credit: Fosfor Gadgets)Samsung is no slouch when it comes to music phones, but at CES 2007, the company is doing everything it can to top its efforts of previous years. Instead of offering new music features, however, the Samsung Ultra Music brings an innovative music phone design. And if our hunch is correct, we should see it from Sprint by March.
While most music phones barely give a thought to music functionality in their designs, the Ultra Music takes a more Jekyll-and-Hyde approach by combining elements of both devices. Yes, dedicated music controls are here but you'll find dual displays and a unique two-sided design as well.
Look on one side of the Ultra Music's candy bar design and you'll see it appears to be a standard cell phone with a numeric keypad, navigation controls, and a color display. But flip the phone over, and you'll see an even larger display and a touch pad for accessing the music player's menu. And of course, it just wouldn't be a high-end Samsung phone if it didn't try to be slim. The Ultra Music comes in at just about a half-inch thick.
Other features should include stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a speakerphone, and a microSD card slot. Though Samsung won't announce the carrier or technology, all signs point toward Sprint being the launch carrier by the start of March. Pricing is still unknown but we expect it to fetch arund $200 with service.
Asia got a GSM version of the Ultra Music last month (they always get the good stuff first) when the Samsung F300 Ultra Music debuted at an electronics show in Hong Kong. It's unclear whether that model will make it to the United States.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
