Samsung B3210 Genio Qwerty

With the explosion of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, it seems even those on the tightest of budgets want a phone that can keep up with their frenzied messaging. As such we're starting to see more and more budget phones with full-size keyboards hitting the market. The latest to come our way is the Samsung Genio Qwerty, which is available for just £119.99 SIM free.

There's no mistaking this is a phone aimed squarely at the consumer market as opposed to the professional. With its predominance of glossy plastic and bright yellow backplate and buttons, this phone certainly isn't a shrinking violet. Thankfully, if swirling bright yellow isn't for you, there's a choice of backplates including a relatively plain black one. You'll still be stuck with the yellow buttons, though. That said, we're looking at the Orange branded version whereas the Virgin Media version has white highlights and backplate.

While the looks of this phone may be divisive, its ergonomics should have broader appeal. The back is curved in just such a way that the phone fits really snugly in the hand and feels well balanced. All the main navigation and typing buttons also fall within easy reach and are simple to navigate, though the D-pad is a little small. The volume rocker on the left and camera button on the right are also conveniently positioned, though considering the orientation of the screen, we think it more likely you'll use the central D-pad button to take shots rather than the side mounted one.

After reviewing the Samsung Genio Touch, here comes another Genio mobile phone from Samsung: the Samsung Genio QWERTY. The Samsung Genio QWERTY retained the colorful back cover of its sibling, the Genio Touch but has foregone the touchscreen for a Blackberry-like QWERTY keypad. Well, let's check out the Samsung Genio QWERTY.

Design

The Samsung Genio QWERTY is somewhat similar to the Samsung B7330 OmniaPro I've previously reviewed. Supposedly, the Samsung Genio QWERTY will have interchangeable back panels. That's cool except that Samsung made the colors of the QWERTY keyboard and the directional keypad match the back cover so I don't know what this mobile phone would look like having a pink back panel and a yellow keyboard.

The keyboard is a bit cramped so those with big fingers would take a while to get used to the Samsung B3210. The screen is bit small for me and I don't know if I have just gotten used to AMOLED screens but the colors of the Genio QWERTY screen is a bit washed out for me.

On the right is the dedicated camera button, on the left, the volume rocker, and on top, something which I'm not used to seeing on mobile phones below 100 quid, is a 3.5mm headset jack, beside it is the microUSB port.

I had a hard time taking out and putting back the back cover. I'm used to sliding the back cover but it seems that on the Samsung B3210, you have to pop open the back panel. Putting back the back panel is a bit of a hassle and there are times when the back panel's not completely put in place.

Anyhow, the design of the Samsung Genio QWERTY is pretty much solid. The materials used doesn't look cheap and the back panel's sturdy.

User Interface

The Samsung Genio QWERTY's homescreen gives you some sort of sliding widgets. There are shortcuts arrange horizontally at the bottom of the screen and you can browse through it using the directional keypad. There's a Myspace and Facebook shortcut on the homescreen sliding widget too. The menu screen reminds me of the Samsung Lucido's interface. Menu's are limited to just one screen. There's a calendar app, messaging, phonebook, settings, settings, clock, music player, file explorer, fm radio, and a web browser.

Messaging, Music, applications, web browser

Messaging is the same as with Samsung's non-touchscreen mobile phones. I have pretty much big fingers so it wasn't easy getting used to the keyboard of the Samsung Genio QWERTY but after a while, you get the hang of it.

The music player is not that pretty but it plays MP3s, AAC, and WMA music file formats. The music player can show your album art and can also run on the background, replacing your homescren sliding widgets with just the music player. Audio quality is okay, audio through speakers is so-so but the 3.5mm onboard headset jack is definitely a plus for the Samsung Genio QWERTY.

I was expecting to see trial versions of games again on the Samsung B3210 but thankfully, the ones on my unit are full versions. I like the typing test game and this game would be really useful for those who are first time QWERTY users.

I actually didn't bother with the web browser. With no 3G and WiFi and only the Access Netfront browser, I wish you luck trying to browse web pages. However, if you do download the fabulous Opera Mini browser, even EDGE would do thanks to Opera Mini's server side processing, web pages actually render a bit faster.

Camera

The Samsung B3210 Genio QWERTY only has a 2 megapixel camera but like the Samsung Genio Touch, it actually produces decent images even without autofocus. Here are some sample shots below.

Conclusion

Blackberry's are still a hit to teeners but come on, like the iPhone, not many tweeners could afford one. The Samsung Genio QWERTY offers a cheap alternative. The colorful back covers, decent camera and audio quality would make the Samsung B3210 Genio QWERTY worth your 100 quid.