With Samsung unveiling its metal series phones -- SGH E840, SGH D900i and SGH D840, it seems to be back in the rat race of launching strappy-looking handsets.

This new metal series by Samsung is most likely to threaten Motorola's market share, simply because the company hasn't bothered to add a new line since the Razr's launch.

The SGH E840 is by far the slimmest slider, with a flat keypad (just like the Razr) and a mirror LCD front says it is inspired by Apple's iPhone. E840 looks quite glossy with a black finish and metal encasing complete with touch-sensitive keys (on the front LCD panel) it paints a picture of elegance.

Although it costs Rs 11,499, it adorns an expensive look. While it is hard to find any design flaws in this model, the phone comes equipped with standard multimedia features like a 2 mega pixel camera, FM Radio, MP3 player, mobile printing, document viewer and 70 MB internal memory with expandable microSD memory (up to 2GB). With just a little touch, the menus come to life and the device is ready to use.

The Samsung E840 in our eyes is not an upgrade to the earlier Samsung E830 because this allows features like music library, document viewer but it is surprising that Samsung decided to leave out an infrared port, WLAN and 3G capabilities.

The SGH D900i is a 12.9mm slim slider that comes with a 3 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth stereo headset and enhanced battery life of 3.5 hours. The camera can take good images but only if you can hold it very still. The big difference between its competitors is not the camera resolution but the lens.

Although Samsung has added an autofocus, it feels inferior to Sony Ericsson K800i's autofocus lens or the Nokia N80's fixed focus with macro mode. The competition wins hands down when compared with D900i, when shooting actions quick movement or facial expressions.

Also, the Samsung PC studio is a foot-dragger at photo management, fickle at transferring files and lacks organisational editing software for images, which keeps this handset from being a real camera-phone contender. Priced lower than competition at Rs 14,899, camera enthusiasts might not look up to the D900i.

Lastly, the Samsung SGH D840 is fully equipped with entertainment features like MP3 player with integrated dual speaker, multi-format music player for streaming on to Bluetooth stereo headsets along with a 80 MB of internal memory (with external microSD memory) topped with a 2 mega pixel camera.

It directly rivals Sony Ericsson's W850i. While battery back up is almost the same at 5.5 hours, both the phones won't replace a stand-alone MP3 player just yet, but do the job admirably for short stints. It is available for Rs 13,499.