Dallas (TX) - AT&T will soon begin offering Samsung’s SLM phone, a new device that is sure to raise some eyebrows with Apple and iPhone buyers.

The new cellphone, scheduled to be available on November 23 for $150 (after a $50 mail-in-rebate), will be selling side-by-side to the iPhone and offer similar functionality as well as features Apple customers are still waiting for. The phone is a fully decked-out clamshell phone covered in a brushed-metal finish and will be AT&Ts first phone to support music downloads from Napster.

Other than the iPhone, which is operating under AT&T’s moody EDGE network, the SLM supports 3G HSDPA to provide download speeds of more than 600 Kb/s, according to the carrier. AT&T says that the connection is high enough to enable the download of a music track in less than a minute. iPhone users will have to connect their iPhone to a Wi-Fi network to achieve broadband speeds and download songs from iTunes.

While the iPhone is locked down to iTunes, the SLM also supports AT&T Video Share, AT&T Mobile Music,  eMusic and mobile banking at Wachovia and SunTrust banks. Compared to iTunes, Napster mobile downloads are substantially more expensive at $1.99 per track or at $7.49 in a five-downloads-per-month package. Napster says that it currently offers more than five million different songs for download.

The SLM comes with a 2 MP digital camera, a 96- by 96-pixel 65K color external screen and a 176 x 220 pixel 262K TFT internal color screen and a 512 MB SD memory card.

At least in the entertainment segment, the SLM could emerge as a less expensive option to the iPhone, at least for users who don’t care about the brand and can live without the larger 3.5” screen, a web browser, YouTube and Google Maps integration.
 
Other carriers also have been rolling new phones. T-Mobile recently released its new Shadow phone and Verizon is now pitching its new LG Voyager and LG Venus phones, which are scheduled to hit store shelves this week. Both cellphones include a 2 MP camera, GPS, access to V CAST Video and V CAST Music as well as support for 8 GB SD memory cards. The Voyager has a 2.8” external touch screen and includes, like the iPhone, an HTML web browser. The Venus is designed into a slider form factor, has two LCDs – one of them acting as a touchscreen - and touch-key vibration for button-like feedback

The Venus phone will sell for $200 (after a $50 rebate) and the Voyager will be priced at $300 (after a $50 rebate).