I have always been a Nokia fan and always looked down to the Korean manufacturers, until I found Samsung Monte. This is a new boy in the league of touch screen phones launched by Samsung (Star, Omnia, Corby).
The good points:
Sleek Body design (a little girlish though), better grip and handling. The SD card and the SIM, both can be changed without removing the battery.
Very advanced receptive touch user interface. No more poking stylus or nails on the screen.
Very less noise distortion even while travelling and clarity even in crowded places.
Big bright screen with option of adding widgets.
Loads of features: 3G, Wi Fi, GPS (with Google maps), 3.5 mm jack, Side Lock button, 3.2 mp camera, Dolfin Browser v1.5 and lot of applications (Facebook, MySpace, IM, etc)
The bad points:
Not very fast response to multiple tasks.
The phone hangs sometimes after receiving/ attending calls.
Plastics look really toy like, the phone definitely cannot be compared with Nokia in sturdiness.
The earplugs are not PC compatible.
The phone comes with a screen guard pasted beforehand and the box contains a 2GB memory card, Soft Pouch, 3.5 mm earplugs, Datacable, SD card adapter, one battery and manual. This phone is at par with Nokia 5800, HTC touch, Cookie Pep and to a great extent with Apple iPhone. I got it on ebay for Rs. 9000/- which makes it a real value for money (Nokia 5800 was costing 14000 to me).
I would recommend this to first time touch screen users (not to iPhone wizards :))