First Call: Samsung M520

The Samsung M520 is a slim, professional looking slider available exclusively from Sprint. Our first impressions of the device are that it's a simple, easy to use cell phone, but does have its drawbacks. Principal amongst these are the rather small screen. When you first look at the Samsung M520 you'll think that it has a much larger screen because of the large reflective area that takes up most of the front. Unfortunately only a small part of this area is actually used for the display.

Fortunately the small screen is made up for by the M520's comfortable control keys and keypad. The latter is especially important for a phone with a slider form factor as we often find that in these phones the keypad bumps right up against the bottom of the upper part of the slide mechanism, meaning your fingers will bump up against the lip every time you try to use the top row of keys. On the Samsung M520, by contrast, there is a small amount of space around the buttons, yet they aren't too small or cramped to use.

The Samsung M520 does share one unfortunate physical issue with one of our lowest rated cell phones, the Samsung Blast. This is that when the phone is opened up you can see on the back that there is a large gap that many things, up to and including coins, can fall into. This causes us serious concern about durability, and the M520's all plastic construction only increases these concerns.

Check back later this week for our full review of the Samsung M520.