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If you're looking for a budget-priced slider phone with a camera and GPS, look no further than the M520 by Samsung on Sprint. With a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, Sprint TV, and the Sprint Music Store, it may just be the perfect phone for you.

The M520 by Samsung is a slider phone that is loaded with features including Sprint Navigation by TeleNav, stereo Bluetooth, a 2.1" display and Sprint On Demand news, sports, weather, and entertainment. The M520 also has the ability to purchase and listen to music over-the-air with the Sprint Music Store, and download songs to a MicroSD card up to 4GB (a 64MB card is included). Thanks to the built-in EVDO connection, songs shouldn't take that long to download.

There isn't much more to say about the M520, it's a small (weighing in at only 2.8 ounces), and easy to use phone that is perfect for first-time cell phone users.

The voice quality was decent, but background noise could be heard in noisy situations. Speakerphone quality was also very good, it was clear and callers could hear us perfectly, as long as there wasn't too much noise.

The Sprint TV service also works pretty great, sound quality was good but wasn't very loud out of the single speaker. We were curious to see why there weren't better speakers built-in since it is a dedicated music phone. The camera performance is good, but sluggish when navigating through the menus, but photo quality was excellent.

You won't have to shell out much cash for the M520 by Samsung, it's available today for just $49.99 with a mail-in rebate and a 2-year contract from Sprint.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Good overall performance.
• Cheaply priced.
• Attractive feature set.

Cons

• Background noise heard during calls.
• Under-powered speaker for a dedicated music phone.
• Camera menus are slow.

Final Verdict
4 out of 5 stars.

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