Samsung announced it’s coming out with a second Genio smartphone, hot on the heels of its Genio Touch launched last month. Looking like the Blackberry Lite with a full QWERTY keyboard and a landscape display on a candy bar form, the new Samsung Genio Qwerty or the B3210, gets a more youthful touch than most other Blackberry wanabees out there.
This is, basically targeted to a more vivacious crowd wanting to have a serious looking handset without its back on the fun side of things. That’s where the Blackberry-esque Genio QWERTY with its social networking features come in.
But let there be no mistake. This is no Blackberry. Samsung made it look like one from the front. Its back plate cover comes with interchangeable colors that should appeal to the young. You certainly will never find something as playful as that on a stern-faced Blackberry. Moreover, its feature set is something you’d expect form a budget entry level handset – nothing that would come close to even an entry level Blackberry.
A Toy Blackberry?
It’s easy to conclude it is. But its toyful trait ends with the interchangeable colored back covers. It’s still a serious mobile phone, albeit on the more modest side. Expect this to be a budget entry level model when it arrives in UK markets.
It’s a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on the 2G network. There’s no 3G, so don’t expect any high speed data connectivity except the usual 2G EDGE and GPRS that can often stifle internet access with its painfully slow speeds. There’s also no WiFi so you can’t take advantage of hotspots in the malls.
Samsung has yet to favor its markets with official technical information about the Genio Qwerty but product leaks on the net shows that Blackberry look-alike to sport a smallish 2.2-inch TFT LCD display with QVGA resolution.
There’s a camera with a modest 2.0 megapixel resolution. Video recording is supported but details are still lacking. Internal memory is 37MB but a microSD memory expansion should give you up to 8GB of data storage. The multimedia experience kicks off with a capable set of media players that can play just about all the popular audio and video files out there. There’s also a stereo FM radio.
Mobile phone makers are only too keen to meet market demands for a social networking handset to keep them in touch with their friends even while on the road. The Samsung Genio Qwerty is another social networking handset that is more focused on messaging than anything else to give it some edge in its intended markets.
While there’s no 3G and high speed data connectivity support, you still get instant access to the popular Facebook as well as support for a user-friendly email, texting and instant messaging functions. Its full QWERTY keypad does make the handset more suitable for messaging than calling.
Availability
No tariff information is yet available. Samsung has designed a mobile handset that looks upscale from the outside but should fetch budget level prices. Expect this to come free with a minimal contract with carrier Orange this November.
Samsung Genio Qwerty Links:
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