Is brown the new black? Apparently so. Today, Samsung launched the brown clamshell, SCH-u550, on the Verizon wireless network. It looks boring from the outside, but it doesn’t seem too bad if you’re looking for a phone with a few extras. I typically scoff at camera phones with anything less than 2-megapixels, but this whole Night Shot feature intrigues me even though the u550 sports a 1.3-megapixel snapper. I take it this means no flash, but if the Helio Mysto, which is also made by Samsung, is any indicator then it should be a decent little cam. It also has digital zoom and takes video. Other features include stereo Bluetooth, IM suite, advanced speech recognition, speakerphone, microSD, and a bilingual UI for our spanish speaking friends. Sounds like a decent phone for only $70 after a $50 mail-in rebate.

I’d still recommend the u740, though. A QWERTY keyboard usually trumps anything for me. Samsung, how about updating that one? K? Thanks.