Samsung U700: Ultra-thin, ultra-fast Web phone

Earlier this year, we went all Thierry Henry and decamped from London to Barcelona -- sadly not to earn millions for sitting in a plush treatment room all day, but to check out all the new mobile kit for 2007 at the 3GSM show. In between the random Far Eastern stalls and some burly journalists we stumbled across the new Samsung Ultra Edition II range.

These mega-thin handsets are impressively slender, but one phone in particular, the U700, left us rather impressed -- and it's finally available for free on a monthly contract with Vodafone.

The Samsung U700 measures a skinny 12.1mm thick, but squeezes in a 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED photo light, an expandable microSD slot and HSDPA -- aka high-speed Internet access on the go. This is one of the thinnest HSDPA handsets available in the UK and we think it's one of the best-looking too.

So aside from being able to slip it easily into your pocket, you can use it to browse the Web at speeds of up to 1.8Mbps, which is lightning-fast compared to GPRS. The U700 also lets you make video calls and you can listen to your tunes using the built-in MP3 player.

If you were tempted by the Samsung U600 but wanted a bit more oomph, the U700 will certainly tickle your mobile fancy. Expect a full review soon. -Andrew Lim