Most of us, if not all, look for a mobile phone that is functional, fun, and most of all budget-friendly. Tons of models out there pack in tons of features, too, but they do cripple the wallet. Samsung is smart enough to offer affordable options for mobile fanatics, without sacrificing quality and usability. In the third quarter of 2007, Samsung introduced us to the Samsung Blast SGH-T729. Read on and know the tricks this phone has up its sleeve, and you might have a blast with it.

The Blast is a slim slide phone in black and red finish, and measures 4.16 x 2.04 x 0.50 inches. It weighs only 2.9 ounces, making it easy to carry in a pocket or in a purse without adding excess bulk. The Lithium Ion battery has a talk time of 5 hours and standby time of 8.3 days. The Blast has a SureType keyboard, and has volume controls on the left spine, and camera buttons on the right. T-Mobile distributes this unit at $99 with subscription.

The SGH-T729 has a 2 inch LCD screen that displays 262,000 colors and a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. The brightness of the backlight can be adjusted. The Blast has a 1.3 mega pixel camera with digital zoom which can be accessed by sliding the phone up. Photos can be taken in seven resolutions or shot in night mode. Photo quality can be edited using balance adjustments, color effects, and one of 30 fun frames. There is also a self-timer and self-portrait mirror. The camcorder can record clips for MMS for 1 minute and 15 seconds. The length of videos can vary depending on available memory. The internal memory of the Blast is only 11MB, but it can be expanded with separately-sold microSD cards.

The Samsung Blast runs on EDGE packet data, and allows high speed web surfing, email, and downloading. T-Mobile equips its phones with instant access to AOL and Yahoo! Mail. You can also sync the Blast with your PC for file transfer. The Blast’s phonebook can store 1000 contact names, each having five phone numbers, email address, and notes. Contacts can be tagged with polyphonic ring tones or photo ID. Other PDA functions of the Blast are voice memo, calendar, to-do list, world clock, unit converter, alarm, and voice commands. You can record voice memos and customize them as ring tones, too.

The multimedia player can play songs in various formats such as mp3 and AAC, plus more can be downloaded from T-Mobile’s service. The Blast comes with three installed Java games: Cannonball, Midnight Casino, and Forgotten Warriors. More can be downloaded over-the-air through T-Mobile’s T-Zones for an additional fee. Skins, themes, tones, wallpapers, and screensavers are also available for download.

The Samsung Blast could use a few improvements in terms of speaker volume. Sound quality was not spectacular, and the music player seemed nothing out of the ordinary. Overall, the price of the Blast is friendly, and you will be getting more for your money with this one.