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As flexible, fun, and at times as mystifying as a Cirque de Soleil contortionist, the Samsung P735 is a hard-core entertainment phone with major media capabilities.

The P735 initially appears to be a rather thick flip-phone with a neon-lit control disk sticking out of the top. A bright external display shows time and basic caller ID information (although, annoyingly, you can't check the clock without first flipping the phone open). Calls are loud and sharp, though we had problems with audio dropouts and a slight background hiss in our Manhattan tests.

The real thrill comes when you twist and flip the phone into five different positions. They all have uses, too: Rotate the screen 90 degrees for landscape photos, flip it backwards for self-portraits, or close it face-up over the keypad for use as an MP3 player or a compact camera. We couldn't resist fidgeting with the flippy screen even when we weren't using the phone.

The P735's 1-megapixel camera is fairly good for this class. Pictures in our simulated-daylight tests were unusually sharp and clear for a camera phone, though colors tilted heavily towards blue. Outdoor shots were darker and bluer than we'd prefer, but still very good for a camera phone (check out our Cameraphone Gallery to see how this phone's images compare to those of its competition). The video recorder is unusually powerful for a phone, able to capture up to an hour of 352-by-288 video at a time. It isn't camcorder quality, but it's the best we've seen on a phone so far.

The huge 64MB of internal memory holds hundreds of photos, and you can expand it with a conveniently externally-mounted RS-MMC slot. (The phone comes with a 32MB card, for a total of 96MB of memory.) The built-in MP3 player plays songs off a memory card in stereo; they sound fine, though bass is weak.

For gaming, the P735 supports Java and comes with six games, including Metalion, a 3D flying-and-shooting game. Performance seemed about average for a high-end non-smart phone; the P735 crashed several times during the JBenchmark Java benchmark tests, preventing us from getting good results (though it didn't crash during actual games).

To enjoy all the P735's media wealth, though, you'll have to put up with a very quirky interface. The navigation pad is unusually far from the option buttons, leading your finger to stab confusedly at various keys when you're trying to pick menu options. To dump MP3s onto the phone, you need to put them in a special directory on the memory card—which isn't listed in the manual. And the phone uses a proprietary headphone connector.

The P735 lacks business-friendly features like a speakerphone, Bluetooth, and EDGE network support, though you can sync the phone's organizer with your PC using the optional data kit. T-Mobile's Nokia 6600 delivers MP3-playing capability, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone for much less money, although it only has a VGA camera and the camcorder is no match for the P735's. Cingular's Nokia 7610 smartphone, on the other hand, offers all of the P735's features and more for $449.

Still, if price is no object, the P735 is T-Mobile's best multimedia phone, and it's fun to flip.

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Copyright ?? 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.