Hands-on preview of the Samsung Trance music phone

We have received the new Samsung Trance U490, currently available through Verizon Wireless. The Trance is a music slider, which is somewhat reminiscent of the original LG Chocolate, and available in Black and Electric Red. The front features an average 176x220 pixel display, but below it there are capacitive touch-sensitive buttons for the d-pad, left & right soft-key, clear button and dedicated music button. Sliding it open reveals the standard numeric dial pad, which is not touch-sensitive though. On the back are the hidden both 1.3MP camera and speaker, which says "Audio by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower."


For music storage, there is 1GB dedicated internal memory and you can use up to 16GB microSDHC cards. The music player sports a variety of user settings for Equalizer, 3D Sound (headphone only), and Skins. Multitasking is also supported, which means you can listen to music while performing other tasks, such as sending a text message for an instance. A 3.5mm headset jack allows for easy connection to wired earbuds, and Stereo Bluetooth is also here.


Overall the Trance is a nice slider, in-call quality seems good, but it is missing EVDO for data.