First announced at the ITU Telecom World in December 2006, the Samsung Ultra Music F300 raised a few eyebrows with its dual-screen feature when it made its appearance at CES early in the year. It's odd to see the cell phone playing second fiddle but, as its name suggests, the spotlight on this Samsung is on its musical talents. We have a prototype with us now to give you a preview.

Upside:
We felt an instant affinity with the Ultra Music F300 the moment we picked it up. The 9.4mm-thick phone is gorgeous and we are particularly fond of the matte-black soft-touch casing. But what's really unique to the F300 is its dual-LCD screen feature.

On one side, you get the conventional candy-bar phone keypad with a miserable 34 x 12mm display. Granted the keys are large and provide tactile feedback, but we do wonder why Samsung scrimped on the LCD estate. We wouldn't have minded smaller buttons in exchange for a slightly more reader-friendly (read: Larger) screen.

Flip the phone over and our eyes found instant relief. It could just be us, but after staring at such a small screen for a while, the 2-inch LCD on the opposite side of the F300 appeared larger than it really is. A dedicated key on the side of the unit under a keylock button allowed us to switch between the phone and music player modes on the F300. Just below the 2-inch display were touch-sensitive controls with a central hardware play/pause button.

Menu navigation is done mostly by sliding our thumb horizontally or vertically on the touch-sensitive controls, although there are times when the volume key comes into play, too. It's difficult to find any direct semblance between this Samsung and an iPod nano. But at the back of our mind, the F300 appeals to us like an Apple would, except that this one has a larger screen.

Changing SIM cards used to be a hassle since most phones required removing the battery to swap cards. On the F300, the process is a whole lot simpler because the card slot is easily accessible on the side of the unit. Other features on the F300 include a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and an external memory card slot for microSD flash media.

Downside:
The F300 is controversial in several areas. The dual-LCD screen is one. The omission of a removable battery is another. Because of its ultraslim profile, the Lithium-ion cell is built into the phone, so that rules out the convenience of a backup battery. Its dual-LCD nature also had us pondering on which screen we should rest the phone on. Either way, one side's going to get scratched.

Outlook:
It is a mixed bag with the Ultra Music F300. To us, it's more like a case of moving one step forward and two steps back. No doubt, there will be people falling in love with the ultra-chic design and deciding to just buy it off the shelves as a standalone music player. But, as a music device, there's competition from the Sony Ericsson Walkman camp; and as a cell phone, it's going to be hard to justify our money for that miniscule screen.

The Samsung Ultra Music F300 is expected to be available in May. Check our full review then.