The Samsung X830 is an "Oooh! ... oh" phone. In the few weeks I've been carrying it around with me, without exception every person who has seen it has started off gasping about the size and shape, closely followed by puzzling over the distinctive (and here I use distinctive as a convenient short-hand for "ergonomically wretched") keypad. And it's this distinction which overshadows everything else the X830 can do, forcing it to bear that market-scything caveat of "as long as you don't want to..."

Navigation is handled by the jog-wheel, which also does service as a four-way directional pad.  In music mode, then, the centre button plays and pauses, while left and right (holding the phone landscape) skip forward and backward through the playlist.  Pressing up opens the track browser and down the menu, both of which you can then scroll through with the wheel.  Volume is taken care of with the two buttons now on top, while a 'hold' button locks the controls for safe pocket storage.

Open the phone and the music keeps playing, doing so in all scenarios aside from taking photos or video.  If you want to pause or skip, however, you need to close it again to get back to the controls; there was no obvious way to call up a music menu while texting, say.  Should you be so popular as to receive a call while listening to music the track will automatically pause and then restart when you hang up.