Samsung Genoa C3510 Review

How cheap can a cell phone equipped with touch-sensitive screen get?  As of lately, the answer is “quite a lot”. Touch screen handsets are all the rage and becoming more mainstream by the day, mainly due to affordable models like the Samsung Star S5230, Corby S3650, LG Cookie KP500 and Pop GD510. What we have in our hands today, however, is an even simpler cell phone, the Samsung Genoa C3510 (also known as the Corby Pop). This is a cheaper iteration of the Corby S3650 and it features almost identical hardware specifications, except for its downgraded camera.

Both devices look alike, although in the particular case of the Genoa C3510, you do not have the option to lend color to the overall design using replaceable panels, so as a whole, its outward appearance is more boring. Of course, this is our opinion and we all know that there is no accounting for taste, personally we just like the Corby better.



You can compare the Samsung Genoa C3510 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The Samsung Genoa C3510 integrates a 2.8-inch touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution that utilizes capacitive technology.


The buttons on either side of the device have quite a strange, pointed shape that makes them really easy to feel with your fingers. It is great that the microSD slot is easily accessible. The top side hosts a 3.5mm headphone jack, but despite of its presence, the boxed pair of earphones is compatible with the manufacturer´s proprietary port.


The overall appearance of the Samsung Genoa C3510 cannot be called eye-riveting, although this doesn’t necessarily mean it will fail to find its followers. The build quality is quite good and the device doest feel cheap in your hand, which is a commendable achievement.

Interface and functionality:

According to one of the most famous equations ruling over the cell phone world, Samsung plus touch sensitive screen equates to TouchWiz interface. There are several different versions of the software and at the time of the current review, the Samsung Monte S5620 runs the latest edition. Compared to it, the Samsung Genoa C3510 is a generation or two behind. Similarly to the Samsung Corby S3650, you don´t get multitasking functionality here, plus the lack of social networking widgets means you cannot use your phone to keep an eye on your social profile updates – the mentioned widgets have been replaced by simple shortcuts to the mobile versions of the corresponding web pages.


 
One of the improvements alongside of the Corby´s interface is that you have the option to browse your messages in threaded style. There is automated email account setup for people registered with popular service providers and the handset supports push notification alerts.



We would have never turned down a proper WebKit-based browser as the one available on the Corby, but alas, this is not the case here. The Samsung Genoa C3510 comes with Access NetFront that, along with the lack of 3G, means you will simply have to endure the long wait until pages load and put up with the fact that complex websites either fail to visualize properly or get loaded partially. In other words, the browser is usable for simple tasks only, which is quite normal for a device in this price category.



Camera and multimedia:

How does 1.3-megapixel camera sensor sound like? Perhaps some of our younger readers are unaware of the fact that digital cameras equipped with such sensor were all the rage in the last millennium. Therefore, we can safely assume that the Samsung Genoa C3510 is by no means worse, in terms of snapshot quality of course, than a digital camera… from a time long gone. This is an excruciatingly incapable camera as of today´s standards, not to mention its interface has basic functionality. The quality of the test shots speaks volumes.





The phone captures videos at QVGA resolution and their quality is bad to the point you would probably come to avoid watching them even on the handset display itself.

Samsung Genoa C3510 sample video at 348x240 pixels resolution.

Surprisingly, the music player lacks audio filtering options, which translates to a virtual nightmare in case you´ve got a huge audio library. Unless you spend enough time grouping your tracks in separate playlists. On the other hand, the audio playback quality through the boxed headphones is pleasing, even with the volume going at full blast, plus the equalizer settings do affect the output sound. The handset also sports FM Radio that works great.

Performance:

There are few aspects of the Samsung Genoa C3510 that are worth a good word really, but the in-call quality is one of them. During our tests, our callers sounded realistically and the loudness did pack some punch. They didn’t have any major complaints either, even if none of them rated the overall quality as the best ever.

The battery proved to be quite a capable performer. According to the manufacturer, it should be able to provide 10hrs of continuous talk time and keep the device operational for up to 720hrs in stand-by.

Conclusion:

All told, the Samsung Genoa C3510 comes with pretty much the same overall functionality as the Samsung Corby S3650, and adds a 3.5mm jack. Still, we don’t really think that sacrificing the browser and normal audio player is worth it and justifiable by the slightly lowered price.

Depending on the particular country, the Samsung Genoa C3510 will set you back with $135 to $185. For pretty much the same amount of money (or just a bit more), however, you can easily get the Samsung Corby S3650 that we consider much better option. The Samsung Star S5230 and LG Pop GD510 are great alternatives as well, because they belong to the same price category as well, but come with more extra features than the Samsung Genoa C3510. Still, it is not unlikely that the manufacturer decides to slash the price of the handset further in order to turn it into an attractive offer.

Samsung Genoa C3510 Video Review: