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..."

Curiously, while the music layout has obviously been designed to maximise the convenience of holding the X830 horizontally, the camera viewfinder sticks with the default vertical orientation.  Like the old joke about the gynaecologist decorating their hallway, pictures are framed through a letterbox; only after you've taken the shot can you pan left or right to see exactly what you captured on the periphery.  I missed being able to hold the phone in both hands to steady it, as is much the fashion with cameraphones recently, and had to take care not to cover the lens with my finger.  Nonetheless, image quality is reasonable for a 1.3-megapixel lens and there's a fair range of effects and frames you can apply before transferring your pictures by cable, Bluetooth or MMS.

Battery life is quoted at up to 5.2hrs talk-time or 230hrs standby.  If you're an overnight-charger guy like myself then you'll generally have to plug the X830 in every two days; that's with a moderate amount of calls and music.  As for price, SIM-free in the UK you could pick up an X830 from £165 ($330), but it's free with a new contract and probably as an upgrade too.