First impressions count and as you open the phone up the slider facility feels solid and well constructed. Our initial fear of sliders came from a very early model from a different manufacturer that always felt like it was about to snap in half – and then actually did! Thankfully, the Samsung Soul seems a lot more sturdy.

It’s also a touchscreen phone, but not as we know it Jim. A tiny touchscreen at the bottom of the main window allows you to navigate using virtual buttons. Unfortunately, they don’t work as well as dedicated real buttons would – they’re just not accurate enough and you’ll find yourself re-pressing a number of times to get the desired effect, or accidentally pressing the OK button in the middle. This did improve with a few days practice, but still happened enough after that to be a bit of a pain. At least Samsung’s system of giving your finger a little buzz lets you know when you have successfully made contact.

The psychological effects of having that tiny touchscreen are also pretty irksome. Once you’ve pressed something on it, you see choices on the main screen and try to do the same. Of course, the fact the main viewing space isn’t a touchscreen means you actually need to use the dedicated buttons to the left and right to make these choices – but again it takes your brain a while to be trained in not making this mistake over and over again.