Samsung Messager Hits MetroPCS

The Messager targets the likes of the Sidekick with a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard.

Move over Sidekick, there’s a new side-slider in town. On Friday, Samsung announced the new SCH-R450 Messager for the MetroPCS network, a relatively no-frills handset except for its handy slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The simplistic rectangular phone gets a 2.1-inch LCD, 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 capabilities, and just about every type of text capability under the sun, including SMS, MMS, and IM. There’s also a microSD slot for expanding its storage by up to 2GB, speakerphone, Bluetooth, and advanced voice recognition.

MetroPCS has the phone available immediately, in black only, for $199 with no contract.