QWERTY-packing Android smartphones are certainly a little rarer than their touchscreen-only counterparts, but we’d still have second thoughts about picking the Samsung Moment. While its AMOLED display is bright and clear and its keyboard pleasantly expansive (once you’ve retrained your fingers to deal with its offset layout) its stock Android 1.5 OS pales in comparison to what other manufacturers are doing to distinguish their rival handsets. Most damning, though, is the price: Sprint will ask $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and presuming a new, two-year agreement when the Moment arrives on November 1st. That’s perilously close to the $199.99 of the Verizon DROID by Motorola, and right now we can’t find enough to recommend the Samsung over the new Motorola.

“The Samsung Moment and the Android platform are helping Sprint drive openness and innovation,” said Andy Rubin, vice president of mobile platforms at Google. “With the Samsung Moment’s built-in suite of Google mobile services, along with thousands of applications on Android Market, Sprint customers can enjoy a unique mobile experience.”

Samsung Moment offers simple device navigation through an optical joystick located just below the expansive display. It features Wi-Fi capability, integrated GPS navigation and accelerometer. Additional features include:

• Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.34 x 0.63 inches; weight 5.67 oz.
• Main Display: 3.2-inch AMOLED (320 x 480 pixels) 16M colors
• 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus
• Stereo Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technology
• microSD card slot (2GB card included)
• Media player with 3.5-millimeter headphone jack
• Built-in WiFi 802.11 b/g
• GPS

Check out a hands on report on slashgear

[via unwiredview]