Samsung Blast Launching On T-Mobile Today

If you're a T-Mobile customer, or are thinking about switching carriers, you've got a new reason to upgrade to a new phone today. T-Mobile is launching the Samsung Blast, which promises to keep you in touch with the world and looking great.

I'm partial to slider phones, probably because of my Ocean, and black phones always look good, so at first glance I really like the Samsung Blast. One thing that I find to be essential on any cell phone I carry is the integration of instant messaging clients, and the Blast makes the cut with AIM, ICQ, MSN (Windows Live) and Yahoo! Messenger. It also has built-in support for Yahoo! and AOL mail, sadly no Gmail.

For those who are quick with their thumbs, the Blast features an interesting keypad that promises to make typing a breeze without a full QWERTY keyboard. You'll also have a 1.3MP video/still camera, a built-in music player, a microSD slot for storing up to 2GB worth of pictures and music and Stereo Bluetooth. The GSM quad-band phone operates at 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, allowing you to take it almost anywhere and also supports GPRS and EDGE. The Blast will be priced at $99 with a new two-year contract and is available today.