Samsung S3650 Corby also known as Genio
Touch has been rolled out by South Korean tech-titan in 2009. The
company has designed this touch screen mobile phone targeting
especially at kids and youngsters, who want to flaunt their exclusive
lifestyle as well as strike friendship via different social networks.
The handset is arriving in plenty of vibrant and catchy color
variants including White, Pink, Orange or Yellow along with tempting
and interchangeable back covers. In addition, the affordable price
makes it a most coveted-device amidst the target audience.
Design and display
Obviously, there is no any exaggeration
in the fact, if Samsung S3650 Corby is acclaimed as the forefather of
Samsung´s youthful series. Its nice curves, tiny screen, rounded
buttons- all remind us the design of Palm Pre handset.
Flaunting a mesmerizing combo of
contrast colors, this handset is eye-catching enough to capture the
attention of people at first glance. This contrast has been admirably
created by rendering motley colors to front, while the different on
back panel.
Unluckily, the device lacks the QWERTY
keyboard, may be due to itty-bitty display screen. But, we found that
alphanumeric keyboard is perfect to type quickly as well as
comfortably with the advantage of T9.
The visually appealing body of the
Corby measures the 103mm x 56.5mm x 12mm size and weighs just 92
grams. The 2.8” TFT touch screen of the Corby can display the
images at the QVGA resolutions of 240 x 320 pixels in 256K colors. We
noticed this screen a bit dull in comparison to crisp and sharp
screen of iPhone, HTC Hero, Palm Pre and other Samsung handsets.
Albeit, the screen is responsive enough with accelerometer sensor and
smart unlock. But, we noticed the pics and videos on YouTube somewhat
blunted. But, it can be forgiven considering the low price tag of
this device.
User Interface
In spite of being a budget device,
Corby has not been miserly in terms of user interface. It runs on
Samsung’s Touchwiz UI, which looks incredibly sharp on the QVGA
screen and performs smooth and fast. The device provides haptic
feedback, just on a touch on the screen and emits a buzz of
vibration, which can be easily turned off via settings menu. The
interface provides three separate home screen pages, where host of
widgets can be easily placed. But, we found that they are
frustratingly tapped and dragged because of jerking.
Internet Browser
Similar to Samsung S8000 Jet, the Corby
provides new WebKit-based Dolfin web browser. Although, it can't
match with the performance of iPhone's Safari but, it's better in
this price range. We felt impressed with its full Flash support and
one-finger zooming ability.
You can browse the web in landscape or
portrait mode. Just on pressing a key, you can activate the landscape
mode. But, unfortunately, the handset doesn’t support super-fast
connectivity, which restricts its usage and we experienced it in form
of a bit lagging while scrolling long pages.
Network and connectivity
Corby is 2G enabled and supports quad
band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900. But, what left us disappointed was
the absence of 3G network, Wi Fi, WLAN, GPS and maps app. However,
you can enjoy connectivity via Class 10 GPRS, EDGE. Data can be
transferred through Bluetooth and USB v2.0 port. But, we found the
HTML web browser not more than just a white elephant.
Applications
Corby contains a huge treasure of
plenty of apps to mess around with. It's preloaded with 27 widgets
along with the capability of downloading 75 more.
Its Pop-up SNS interface like other
Samsung models features large numbers of handy widgets especially
designed for social networking. You can foster friendship through
Facebook, Twitter and MySpace integration and share the pics and
video through YouTube, Picasso, Photobucket and Flicker. With a new
pop-up notification feature, you can easily update the status on
different social networks.
Using its Smart unlock feature, you can
simultaneously unlock the handset as well as open a menu, app or dial
a contact merely by putting a letter on unlock screen. Although Corby
is a multitasking device, but sadly enough, it doesn't provide the
facility of switching between the apps.
Multimedia
The 2 mega pixels camera of Corbey
doesn't support autofocus and flash and takes pics on just 1600 x
1200 pixels. Although, the quality of shots is average, but we found
its speed impressively fast. On self-timer settings, you can take
pretty good shots. With easy to use inbuilt photo editing software,
you can add simple corrections and filters on photos.
The camera is also capable of recording
video at QVGA 15 fps, which can be played back in various formats
including WMV, MP4, H.263 and H.264. Even though, playback feature
didn't captured our too much attention, but we also didn’t find any
glitch regarding to image quality.
Corby is also fitted with an
extraordinary music player, through which different music tracks can
be easily managed as per name, album, artists or genres. It supports
varied formats just like MP3, WMA and eAAC+. It also comes with FM
radio and RDS facility. The headphones act as an aerial, without
which FM radio can't be played. The audio quality of the Corby is
surprisingly pleasing with host of filtering options and various
equalizer presets.
Calling and messaging
The quality of calling was reasonably
good, but we found it a tad troublesome to position the phone against
the ear due to amazingly sharp edge atop. But, it can be comfy with
hands-free headset, which can be used with any 3.5mm jack.
No doubt, the absence of QWERTY
keyboard is an apparent downside of the Corby. The T9 keypad also
performs slow. But, the messaging on this handset is a cinch with
keypad occupying 3/4th part of screen in addition to a box for
choosing likely words.
Corby lacks the Exchange, but it
supports IMAP as well as POP3 emails. You can easily set up multiple
email accounts. But, the device doesn't reach the messaging level of
iPhone in terms of ease.
Battery life
The 960mAh battery of the Corbey is
robust enough considering the lack of Wi-Fi and 3G. It renders 15
days of standby time and 9 hrs of talk time, which is far better than
its competitor LG Pop GD510.
Specifications
Dimensions 103 x 56.5 x 12 mm
Weight 90 g
2.8 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen
supporting 240 x 320 pixels and 256K colors
2 MP camera with 1600x1200 pixels,
Smile detection
Video QVGA@15fps
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Li-Ion 960 mAh Standard battery with Up
to 730 h Stand-by and Up to 9 h Talk time
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Internal memory 50 MB
microSD Card slot up to 8 GB
Pros
Compact size with attractive design
Excellent Web browser
Affordable touchscreen phone
Good audio playback
Great social networking
Cons
Lacks 3G, Wi-Fi, WLAN and GPS
Poor camera without autofocus and flash
Absence of QWERTY keyboard
microSD slot under battery cover
The bottom line
Without doubt, the Samsung S3650 Corby
lacks crisp screen, subtle interface and support to 3G and WiFi. But,
it renders pretty good web browsing and social networking features,
for which it has been especially designed. Thus, it's a perfect-buy
for the kids and younger generation, who are on the look out for a
stylish handset, with which they could enjoy different social
networks.
