Samsung S3850 Corby II preview: First look

Introduction

Feature phones have been busy adding more features to their arsenal in a bid to survive the onslaught of cheap smartphones. The Samsung S3850 Corby II is one such phone. Corby put a bargain price on touchscreen – the Corby II moves up a notch but stays within budget.

Samsung S3850 Corby II

Samsung S3850 Corby II official photos

Touchscreen, Wi-Fi, multitasking, app store – those things used to be associated with smartphones, but the Corby II has them all on its list of features.

The latest TouchWiz, fresh from recent stints with both Bada and Android, blurs the line with smartphones. In fact, the major difference between the Corby II and a low-end Bada phone is that you install Java apps on it, instead of Bada apps.

The J2ME platform has been around longer and many useful apps have been developed for it, while Bada OS is relatively new.

Anyway, the Samsung S3850 Corby II can’t run away from its name. The bigger screen and better specs aside, the Corby II is for beginners. So, no high-end features, thank you very much.

Samsung S3850 at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS/EDGE class 12
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 109.9 x 66.6 x 11.7 mm, 102g
• Display: 3.2" capacitive TFT touchscreen, QVGA resolution (240 x 320 pixels)
• Platform: Latest TouchWiz UI with multitasking
• Memory: 26MB user available storage, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• Camera: 2 megapixel fixed focus camera with smile detection, QVGA@15fps video recording
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 3.0 (A2DP); standard microUSB port; 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: FM radio with RDS; accelerometer sensor; Facebook and Twitter integration; DNSe sound enhancement; Find Music recognition service

Some might not be happy with the cutbacks – but the lack of 3G connectivity is offset by the Wi-Fi support, while the low camera resolution is not a showstopper. The social networking support is a key feature – some people just can’t do without Facebook and Twitter.

Samsung must be getting better at building cheap phones – the Corby II feels extraordinarily solid despite its all-plastic body. With DNSe and a good-sized microSD card you can skip the dedicated music player, the Corby II will handle your musical needs.

Samsung S3850 live shots

The color combo and the software package make the Samsung S3850 Corby II a youth oriented phone – suited to their means and interests. Read on if you think it’s right for you. See you after the jump.