The phone doubles as an MP3 player, and the sound quality is good through headphones (though not great through the external speakers). If you use the Rhapsody service, dragging and dropping playlists from your PC is a snap.

The camera is unspectacular at 2 megapixels, which is about average for phones of this caliber. The picture quality is fine, and you get several advanced features, including white balance and digital zoom, which you can use at lower resolutions. The camera also takes video at 15 frames per second, for up to a max of 10 minutes (or 30 seconds for video messages).

Overall, I found the Samsung Alias 2 great for calls--and that's what phones are for, right? But aside from the appealing keyboard (which, I admit, will probably never get old), the phone lacks the extras that might capture a buyer's heart. It comes with no games (though you can download them for a price), and its cooler features (such as visual voicemail and RemoSync) cost extra. Still, it has a lot of potential if you're willing to invest more than just the asking price, and it's a great phone for entertainment and for business alike.