We were so googley-eyed over the Samsung i770 in the leaked Verizon presentation that we totally didn't bother checking out the slide for the SCH-i760. Been there, done that, we figured.

Except there was a little tidbit in there, as pocketnow noticed. Looks like it's going to be getting a little Windows Mobile 6.1 love. The best part is it looks like it's going to be getting the love right quick, sometime this month. Hopefully that bodes well for other 6.1 upgrades. We're still smarting from the months we spent sitting on pins and needles waiting for the WM6 upgrades last year, a slew of 6.1 releases this summer would sure be the kind of ointment we'd need to salve those wounds.

Forum user levinda was one of the "lucky" few who managed to sneak in an order for the Samsung SCH-i760 when it was briefly available via a backdoor method. The i760 looked like a sweet device to me, if only because the unique keypad on the front would give it a bigger screen. The devil, though, he's in the details, and according to levinda, the details suck:

- [...] Basically, unless you have really big hands it is almost impossible for me to use one-handed, even when I didn't need to slide the keyboard out!

- I thought the front keypad would enable one-handed use for quick typing of SMS. Wrong! It only has ABC text input. [...]

- Power button. Any time I wanted to turn on the phone I had to hit the power button on the top (not easy one-handed for a lefty) or slide out the keyboard. [...]

- No abilty to diable the touch screen during a call. Why don't all WM phones have this option? [...]

- WM softkeys not alingned under their screen functions

Read: I Jumped To The i760...For Less Than 48 Hours - WM Experts

Basically the Treo is still king of one-handed QWERTY use (as we mentioned here) and the SCH-i760 just isn't as well-thought-out as it should be. If you're going to try something new with button placement on a Windows Mobile device, make sure that you do some usability testing.

Mobility Today scored some live shots of the hottest sliders coming this fall. On the Verizon side we have the UTStarComm XV6800, which has a blue casing that manages to look even uglier than its name sounds. Also on Verizon we have the near Samsung slider and I agree with Ciccone - it's a lot chunkier than I expected.

The real hotness, though, is our first real shot of an AT&T branded Tilt instead of unlocked Kaisers. The good news is that, except for the badge, there appears to be virtually no change. The bad news is that, according to Engadget Mobile, the Tilt will be missing it's rumored launch date tomorrow due to "some pesky network certification issues."

Apparently if you give Verizon's business unit a call and ask for SKU# SCHi760ZKV, they'll kindly set you up with the device that's due to be officially released on Sept. 24th. Or at least they did, who knows if they've shut it down or not yet. The i760 is something I've been looking forward to for awhile, an innovative little slider with a standard keypad and a shifted-down 5-way to make more room for a large touchscreen. We saw it accidentally appear on a corner of Verizon's site before, so it's little surprise that it's accidentally appeared again - but now in physical form in people's grubbby hands.

The specs, they are nice:

• 60 x 110 x 20 mm
• 150 grams
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• 400 MHZ Samsung (naturally) Processor
• 128MB ROM
• 64 MB RAM (54.5MB for the User)
• 2.8" touchscreen, 320x240
• EVDO
• MicroSD
• Bluetooth 2.0
• WiFi (both B and G)
• 1.3 mp camera

[...] if you need the best and brightest on Verizon, this is, hands down, your best bet. Run, don’t walk, to you phone and call those CS reps. Give them this SKU for the device, SCHi760ZKV, and tell ‘em BGR sent ya’.

Read: Verizon quietly releases the Samsung i760 | The Boy Genius Report