Review: Samsung S3650 Genio Touch

Overview:
After Samsung’s success with the mid-range Tocco Lite, the company has taken a gamble with an entry-level version aimed at the younger generation of touchscreen aficionados. The Genio Touch packs a smaller screen and a more basic camera, so will it be popular enough to warrant being pulled out of backpacks country-wide? Let’s find out.

Review:
The Samsung S3650 Genio Touch may not look all that ground-breaking, until you look at the price tag. Available from under £60 on pay-as-you-go, or alternatively free on a £10 a month plan, the Genio will leave you with spare pocket money for a Brtiney Concert.

For this small outlay, you will find yourself with a 2.8 inch touchscreen with 240 x 320 resolution. The phone has been described as being “bright”, but that’s not just referring to the screen.

The backcover of the handset comes in a range interchangeable colours, including white, black, yellow and pink, so you can choose your phone based on your outfit.

While you do get to type out sms after sms on a touchscreen, there is unfortunately no QWERTY keyboard to work off, but instead you’ll have to make do with alphanumeric keys. It’s not the end of the world, but does reduce typing time somewhat.

There is also no accelerometer to automatically detect when the phone should display in portrait or landscape, but there is a button you can press just for that purpose.

Entertainment-wise, the Genio has a 2 megapixel camera which is pretty basic, but that defeats the point a little. It has a camera. And a touchscreen. For under £60.

The camera does come with digital zoom, panorama mode and smile detector, ensuring your pearly whites make it to the photo album.

There is an MP3 player and FM radio built in as well for when you need a break from listening to Kanye West on repeat. The Genio also comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can plug in your skullcandy headphones, yo.

What is quite cool is Samsung’s Find Music feature, which records a few seconds of a song you can’t get out of your head but don’t know the name of, and sends it to a server that identifies the track, artist, album and genre for you.

The Genio also has a full HTML web browser, so you can Google to your heart’s content. For the socially-minded, there are also widgets available to Facebook and Twitter, so you’ll never be behind with a status update.

The phone comes with 27 widgets including a YouTube app, with a further 75 more available to download.

If you need to justify a new mobile to mum and dad, the Genio isn’t all fun and games, featuring its own built-in dictionary. This may not exactly be cool, but it could come in handy. What is interesting is that the dictionary supports eight languages, including Ukrainian.

Ov erall, you get a lot for your money with the Samsung Genio. It’s an interesting, intuitive phone packed with features and a nice touch of colour.

The Gaj-It Verdict:
Design: 8/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 8/10
Value: 9/10

We Say:
Samsung has thought about what’s important to kids these days, and it shows in this handset. The Genio is a great start-up phone with a touchscreen, camera, MP3 player and the ability to keep you on Facebook 24/7, all for the price of a week’s worth of Big Mac meals.