Samsung and T-Mobile today announced the release of the Samsung Blast slider-style mobile phone. The Blast focuses on keeping in touch with your friends through multiple communication features aside from just talk.

The crimson and black slider phone exposes a QWERTY like keypad similar to the Blackberry Pearl to allow faster and easier text entry. Users will want to use this advanced keypad to take advantage of the email service provided through the Samsung Blast with access to email through AOL, Yahoo Mail and Gmail as well as MAP4, POP3 and SMTP support. Sending and receiving emails go for the same rate as a picture or text message. The phone also supports messaging (SMS, EMS, MMS) including AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! and MSN Instant Messaging and it’s also the first to offer an advanced My Faves feature where users can send an “audio postcard” along with a photo to My Faves subscribers.

The Blast is a quad band world phone with GSM/GPRS/EDGE and features stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, an SD card slot supporting up to 2GB and a battery with a standby time of up to 8 days. The built-in medial player supports MP3’s and AAC files and the whole device measures a mere 4.16″ long.

T-Mobile says the Samsung Blast will be available in early August at a very reasonable $99, and will be available exclusively through T-Mobile at that price with a 2-year contract.