Samsung India launches sub-Rs.10K touchscreen phone, the S3650 Corby

Posted on 01-10-2009

When Nokia launched the XpressMusic 5230 with a price tag under Rs. 10,000, we were all floored. A brief hands-on experience, though, showed that the resistive touchscreen did prove a bit of a problem with the phone. Now, Samsung is seeking to fix that with its own sub-Rs.10K touchscreen handset, the S3650 Corby.

The Corby goes for better pressure sensitivity with a capacitive touchscreen (more apt for thumb-based input than a stylus). The 2.8-inch TFT will display 256K colours at a resolution of 240x320 pixels, and comes with a smart lock feature. However, the lack of an accelerometer to auto-rotate the screen won’t go down will with most people!

“As a company that leads in innovation, Samsung Corby is another example of our commitment to developing new products and technologies designed for specific audiences in keeping with their needs,” said B. D. Park, Director-Telecom, Samsung India. "Samsung has its target audiences at the heart of its business strategy and the design and functionality of Samsung Corby meets the needs of a highly connected and style-conscious youth audience"

The multimedia options on board the Corby are not particularly impressive. While it does have a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with smile detection, the lack of an LED flash will make those low-light shots come out very blurry indeed. And QVGA video recording at 15 frames per second? It might as well not have been included…

The phone does support all the popular multimedia formats for both audio and video files, and comes with a player for the same; but the lack of a 3.5mm audio jack puts a question mark over its music capabilities and the output you would get from the stereo FM radio (with RDS).

As expected, connectivity options are also sparse on this low-end phone, with no Wi-Fi or 3G support to connect to the Internet. So then it’s a bit surprising that the Corby is loaded with various Web apps, such as Facebook, YouTube, Gmail, etc. on its TouchWiz UI. Users will have to rely on EDGE for Web access and Bluetooth (with A2DP) for any wireless needs. And no, there is no support for GPS or A-GPS either.

The Samsung S3650 Corby is available in five colours and doesn’t offer a whole lot of features. But if you have been on the lookout for a low-cost touchscreen phone, it doesn’t get lower than a price tag of Rs. 9,600.

Note: The Samsung S3650 Corby is called the Genio Touch in the UK, so Google searches for the phone might give up better results with the latter title.

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