We’ve been talking about this phone for months and months and yes, months, I kid you not. The Samsung Gem has news spanning back to August 4, 2010 and it’s got regular updates all the way up to the present where it’s available on U.S. Cellular for basically free ($ 29.99 after $ 80 mail-in rebate and 2-year contract.) At one point we saw it on Bluegrass, another time we had it coming out with Verizon, once it even cost $ 200! Crazy time! Now we’ve got it in our hands and it is truly, yes truly, a little gem.

First Impressions

This phone looks utterly unique. It features a large diamond-shaped home button on the front, an upside-down triangle for an ear-level speaker, and another diamond on the back to cover up the camera hole. The front also features several more physical buttons including call, hang up, menu, and back, and there’s everyone’s favorite on the right side – a physical camera button! It’s all plastic chassis, a tiny 3.2-inch screen above. Rounded on the top and bottom, flat along the sides and top, and a nice maroon/red battery cover back “with Google.”

This is going to be a hot contender for those looking to get into Android without a lot of initial cost and an ever-so-slightly unique looking handset. We’ve got a hunch that it’ll be lasting long with the 1500 mAh battery, it weighs essentially nothing, and the last time we were looking at a U.S. Cellular phone, the data did not drop once, not even in the deep woods of Northern Minnesota.

So we’ve got high hopes.

[Video coming soon!]

Take a peek at the unboxing video, have a glance at the gallery of close-up images below, and hold on to your hats in anticipation of a full review, soon!