Samsung Corby S3650 Preview

Introduction and Design:

The new school year has begun and as always, it probably comes with new knowledge, teachers, friends… and why not a new cell phone that has been designed with youngsters in mind? That´s what the Samsung Corby S3650 is, an incredibly compact and likeable device with 2.8-inch QVGA capacitive screen.




You can compare the Samsung Corby S3650 with many other phones using our Size Vizualization Tool.

Aside from send and end keys, there is an interestingly shaped button located below the screen that gets you one step back into the menus. Unlike the high-end Samsung handsets, the Corby doesn’t have a multitasking menu. Moreover, it comes without 3.5mm jack and microUSB, so you charge the phone using the manufacturer´s proprietary port.



What the Samsung Corby S3650 has in excess though, is youthful design and cheerful mood that gush forth from the flashy-colored back panel. Moreover, it can be easily replaced if you feel tired of the current color and the manufacturer has promised the phone will come with two extra panels, so you can personalize the color to suit your mood or clothing.  



As a whole, we do like the Samsung Corby S3650, because even if an affordable phone, it doesn’t have a cheap feel to it. Ultimately, we think the manufacturer has done great and the target audience of the handset will find it appealing.

Software and Functions:

Aside from its joyful overall look, the Samsung Corby S3650 sports an entertaining interface that, yet again, targets youngsters. Similarly to all the latest touch screen handsets of the manufacturer, it´s based on TouchWiz, but we can see several novelties have been integrated. For an instance, there is a youthful phone theme that, you can see more of it in the review pictures and replaces the font, main menu icons and home screen wallpaper. The latter is actually supposed to change depending on what time it is, but the function seems inactive on our prototype.



Other extra feature that should have been here is the so-called “Pop-up SNS”interface that allows you to keep tabs on what your buddies on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are doing at the moment. The current social networking functions of our prototype boil down to uploading pictures and videos to different networks and, except for the above mentioned providers, you have Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, Photobucket and Friendster as well.

We quite like the Photo contacts. The list gets automatically filled in with your most frequently dialed contacts and we must say this is really comfy, since you don’t need to do it manually. Unfortunately, the Samsung Corby S3650 lacks screen QWERTY keyboard, probably because its display is not large enough.



The device sports a pretty decent browser that loads heavier pages without a hitch and allows you to zoom in and out smoothly by sliding your finger, just like the Samsung Jet S8000. By the way, browsing www.phonearena.com using the funny font that gets installed by the phone theme makes for invaluable experience. Still, the web surfing functionality of the handset is a bit crippled due to the lack of Wi-Fi and 3G support.



So, what would a phone with youthful design be good for if it lacked decent camera and audio player? Well, we will tell you - for nothing. Fortunately, the Samsung Corby S3650 like a decent performer in both respects. The phone audio player is pretty much the same as the version on other TouchWiz handsets and feels comfy enough, plus you will also get an FM Radio with RDS that features audio recognition. The camera itself is equipped with 2-megapixel sensor, but comes without flash. Still, we are really impressed by its speed. The average time between two consecutive shots is less than a second and this means you can take pictures like really fast, so you can be sure you won´t miss a single interesting moment at parties.





We are slightly disappointed to see that, similarly to all other handsets by Samsung, all games preloaded onto the phone are trial versions. This may prove to be a significant disadvantage for a phone revolving around young people. We hope to see this has changed when the retail units start shipping.

Expectations:

We are pleased by the Samsung Corby S3650, its cool overall design and good functionality. It´s expected to roll out with an affordable price-tag, which means it will probably grab the attention of the audience it aims. Let´s wait and take a look at the performance of the retail units and how comfy the socially-oriented Pop-up SNS functions will prove to be. After all, there are quite a few handsets on the market, based on the very same idea.

Samsung Corby S3650 Video Preview: