Samsung S3850 Corby II Review – Specification, Features, Price

The original Corby had introduced the touch screen at a bargain price to the consumers, and now Corby II has pushed the boundary of what should be included in a budget feature phone like Wi-Fi, Multitasking and App Store, traditionally these features were earmarked for smartphones.

Samsung S3850 Corby II

Specifications

Some of the key specifications that blur the boundary between Corby and a smartphone are:

• Display: 3.2” QVGA (240 x 320) Capacitive Touch TFT Screen
• OS: TouchWiz with Multitasking
• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• GPRS/Edge: Class 12
• Networking: WiFi b, g and n
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 3.0 (A2DP)
• Memory: 26 MB
• Camera: 2 Megapixel Fixed Focus
• Video Recording: QVGA at 15 Frames per Second
• microSD: up to 16 GB
• microUSB: 2.0
• Audio Jack: Standard 3.5 mm
• Radio: FM with RDS

Features

The phone comes with Facebook and Twitter integration to support social networking; this is a big attraction for the younger generation who really are more interested in their social network. However, features like 3G would have been desirable but Corby II comes with Wi-Fi, similarly a higher resolution camera would have been better, but, the 2-Megapixel camera is not too bad. The TouchWiz UI is similar to the TouchWiz interface enhancements package that comes with the Samsung Android powered phones. It introduced Home Screens, Notification Area and Widgets to the non-Android and Bada OS. The TouchWiz is designed so close to the TouchWiz for Android that only a heavy user of apps will recognize the differences and well the lack of the Android market. The bottom of the home screen and menu are three non-configurable buttons for Dialer, Contacts and Messages. The main menu stretches over a number of screens that can be swipe scrolled horizontally. The pseudo-android notification area for the TouchWiz holds toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and silent mode. When using the music player or radio in the back ground, the controls for these also show up here. The file browser comes with the list and thumbnail mode, and is designed to be used for sifting through files using the list mode, and images using the thumbnail mode. The music player on the Corby II is respectable with DNSe technology and quite extensive music management features.

Samsung S3850 Corby II

Verdict

The Samsung Corby II S3850 is a tempting phone that Samsung put together by borrowing features and tech from its big brother smart phones. The phone comes with messaging, SNS (Social Network Service) integration, document reader and management to cover most users’ daily needs. The main question that you need to answer for yourself is whether you want a smartphone or something that could pass for one. There is the Galaxy Mini S5570 from Samsung that the Corby II could be mistaken for, but it runs on Android. The Corby II is fully capable of handling Exchange accounts, Facebook and Twitter and most of the document access features. The Preloaded applications are good enough to cover almost all your needs. Android would be a recommendation for those who have an insatiable desire is not quenched by the preloaded set.

Price

The Samsung Corby II is not a full smartphone and does not pretend to be. It is more interested in filling the high popularity affordable touch phone niche. At a very good feature to price ratio, it lands itself smack at the top of the bargain phone ranking.