Samsung Byline SCH-R310

The Samsung Byline SCH-R310 is a very basic clamshell cell phone that lacks a camera and MP3 player, but has two unusual claims to fame. First, like other MetroPCS cell phones, there's no contract -- you can pay month to month with plans ranging from $30 to $50, plus some add-on options (see www.metropcs.com for details). Second, the Samsung Byline is designed for easy push-button connection with Metro ChatLINK, which MetroPCS describes as a "walkie-talkie" feature and sounds to us like buddy list meets conference call -- up to 10 friends can connect with a push-to-talk button. CNET, the lone professional source to evaluate the Samsung Byline thus far, is impressed with the phone's ease of use and features, but it says call quality isn't great.

Otherwise, the Samsung Byline is your basic cheap cell phone. It has just a small amount of internal memory (20 MB), low-res screens (1-inch external, 1.7-inch internal) and no microSD memory slot. You can text message, instant message, email and surf the web via a basic WAP browser, but the lack of a QWERTY keyboard puts a damper on things. The Samsung Byline SCH-R310 is Bluetooth-compatible and features voice dialing and voice recording, as well as a 500-entry address book. Five other MetroPCS phones support Metro ChatLINK. If that's not an important feature for you, reviews say that the Pantech Breeze is a good basic cell phone, and that it has a camera.

Reviews are scarce for the Samsung Byline SCH-R310. At this writing, CNET offers the only professional review. The usual stalwarts PCMag.com, Consumer Reports, WirelessInfo.com and MobileBurn.com haven't yet weighed in. We found no owner reviews at Amazon.com and just one at PhoneScoop.com.