Verizon Juke to launch Friday - 2GB and night-vision camera

I’m all for using words in strange, non-traditional ways, but only if they sound good; Verizon’s latest press release about one of their holiday handset lineup, the Juke, ticks the former but in no way satisfies the latter.  “Customers can Juke to the beat of up to 500 songs” they tell us, obviously hoping that Juke will enter the colloquial vocabulary as not just a place to go that has a jukebox but as a method of “getting down” and probably dancing in a ridiculous, gawky manner.  Still, let’s be kind and look at the phone itself: made by Samsung, it’s a very slender handset that swivels 180-degrees to reveal the keypad.

Obviously if you’re going to start Juking then you need plenty of internal storage, and while it’s no iPhone, Samsung have still managed to pack 2GB into the 3.82 x 1.18 x 0.83 inch, 2.82oz frame.  The scroll wheel - which we’ll just put down to an homage to the iPod, shall we? - lets you whip through playlists as so successfully tried on the Samsung X830, while there’s also stereo A2DP Bluetooth and direct USB connection to transfer music from your PC.  As is usual (and boring) Verizon only provide a wired headset, not a Bluetooth one.

Other features include a camera with dedicated night-shot mode for low-light situations, compatibility with Verizon’s rudely titled “Get It Now” service for game, ringtone and wallpaper downloads, and what’s supposed to be surprisingly good voice recognition software provided by Voice Signal.

When it launches on Friday the Juke will undoubtedly sit somewhere in the shadow of its headline catching Voyager brethren, but you’ll notice the main difference when you get to the tills: in exchange for a two-year contract Verizon will let you have it for a mere $99.99 (after a pesky $50 mail-in rebate).  That might not be enough to make me Juke, but I suppose I could manage a little jig.

Verizon Wireless