With the possibilities that mobile phones aimed at fashion-conscious consumers can offer, its no wonder that this part of the market has attracted more & more attention lately. The most popular designated fashion-phones of late have been the Nokia Sirocco series, but what it made up for in style it lost severely in terms of features. Samsung are trying to be one of the first to attempt to come up with a credible fashion-phone that doesnt sacrifice features for appearances with the launch of the P520 Armani.A body constructed from brass-coloured metal ensures that at least in the looks department, the Armani ticks all the right boxes. Making it an even more appealing prospect is the quality of materials used in the body-shell, as the P520 Armani seems able to cope with finger prints easier than the majority of recent handsets, which is a very welcome surprise.On the front of the handset you have the domineering 2.6 screen; two call buttons; the speaker and..thats it. Obviously a large amount of paraphernalia on the front isnt needed as youve got a large touch screen, but the hard controls have been limited to keep from spoiling the sleek design.Considering the features packed in, the dimensions of the P520 make it an extremely compact device. Thickness has been limited to 10.5mm which is actually incredible, considering that this is a upper-mid-range handset measuring only 87.5 mm x 54.5 mm in height and width and 85g in weight, but then again Samsung are the masters when it comes to thin mobile phones, so perhaps this shouldnt be as much of a surprise.As well as the previously mentioned full-touchscreen display, you also get a 3.2MP camera, 60MB of internal memory and an SD memory card slot. Although this may not sound ground breaking in normal handsets, in a fashion phone this is positively futuristic.Samsungs new Croix-UI has won a lot of plaudits since being seen in the F700 and deservedly so, so you would expect for it to be just as good, perhaps better, in what will likely be a more expensive device C WRONG! Though the UI itself is very good the speed is atrocious. So much so that it reminded me a little of Samsungs own E900 on the basis that actions seemed to register long after a key was pressed. Basically the insufficient processor used on the P520 Armani means a lot of thinking time is required. The 3.2MP camera module fitted to the P520 isnt necessarily going to be an industry leader, but it is a good all-round performer, especially when you consider that it lacks autofocus though does come with an LED flash, which helps to produce image results on a par with the Sony Ericsson W890i.With the P520 Armani, Samsung have come up with a device that is better specified than any other mobile phone masquerading as a fashion accessory and covers all the bases required for this niche, namely looks and exclusivity.Again, the real let-down is in the UI, which is clearly far too demanding for the P520s lacklustre processor to handle, which makes actually using the phone rather than just looking at it a painfully slow experience.Another deciding factor for many will be the price which is comparable to a lot of high-end smartphones such as the HTC TYTN. For the same price as the P520 Armani, you can easily get hold of a much better phone with better all-round capabilities, but saying that the Armani phone isnt a purchase to be made logically, its expense will only add to the aura of exclusivity surrounding it, so it will surely find its own market niche with ease, youd just better not be in a hurry.brass ball valve brass fitting