When I got the Samsung Genoa (C3510), it reminded me of the playful Samsung Corby. Actually, it’s based on the Corby but with toned down features and without the ability to change the face plate for those who doesn’t care about individuality when it comes to mobile phones.
The Samsung Genoa is an entry-level touch phone that would probably fit a student or teenagers who wants a touchscreen phone without hurting their parents’ pocket.
How does the Genoa differ from the Corby?
The Samsung Genoa has a resistive touchscreen which can’t do multitouch compared to Corby’s capacitive touchscreen. It only offers a 1.3mp camera while the Corby can do 2mp. It has a big 3.5mm audio jack as well and almost a millimeter thick than the Corby.
Fun, easy-to-use phone
With the Samsung Genoa, you would get a music phone (up to 8GB microSD slot) that is also capable of handling your basic social networking needs via EDGE connection (no 3G). In fact, it has a lot of widgets for social media making it easy to connect with your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace buddies.
The display is only 256k colors on a 240 x 320 screen real estate. Don’t expect to view crisp, vibrant photos here. The icons and keys are big so you don’t have to squint or have any problem hitting the right objects.
Interface
How’s the interface you ask? The Samsung Genoa only requires three physical buttons to navigate with the middle one acting as the “œBack” button. You get three homescreens for you to put some widgets and shortcuts and you would need all three since the icons are big.
It’s easy to navigate to do basic tasks such as adding contacts, writing a message or calling someone. However, what I found weird was the placement of the space button. Kinda hard reprogramming your fingers to hit the right side of the keypad to do a spacebar.
Oh yeah, I like how they put the lock key on the right side of phone where your thumb is naturally positioned when holding it.
Conclusion
I’m a sucker for basic phones but I’m not that sold into using touch phones (tried a handful already). However, I find the Samsung Genoa quite pleasant to use. The big responsive icons, the easy-to-navigate menu and the option to have an 8GB microSD makes this a basic phone that is worth your money.
Specs
- Band: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
- Network Data: GRPS/EDGE
- Display: TFT touchscreen, 256K colors (240 x 320 pixels)
- Memory: 30 MB (internal), up to 8GB (external via microSD)
- Features: Social networking integration with live updates, MP3 Player, FM Radio, Organizer, Voice Memo,
- Colors: Black and Pink
SRP: Php6,500