Samsung Corby Review

If being social is something that is important to you and your mobile device needs to be able to keep up with you, then you’re going to enjoy what the Samsung Corby is going to be able to provide. Built for the person who has a certain savvy in technology, this mobile phone is a fresh take on the feature phone experience. It’s an entry-level phone, but it still has a wide range of features that will make it extremely relevant to a certain niche of users.

If you want a touchscreen phone that will suit your connectivity needs and still be soothing on your budget, then this Samsung Corby review is for you. It may just be the perfect phone to meet your needs right now. Here are some specific points to consider with this phone.

9 Specific Points of Consideration For the Samsung Corby

1. It has bold colors that lend to a distinctive style.
The Samsung Corby is about as fresh as a manufacturer can make a cell phone. With colors that are in bold pinks, yellows, and oranges, the back covers are interchangeable so that you can wear your phone like you wear your mood. Three of these “Fashion Jackets” come out-of-the-box with the phone, so you won’t have to spend anything extra to show off your personal style.

2. There is complete social integration.
The Samsung Corby offers users complete integration of Twitter and Facebook into the phone. Photo and video sharing widgets are also included and users can directly upload videos to YouTube if they want. Flickr and Picasa are included with the dozens of widgets, as is Photobucket. This allows users to be able to update their statuses whenever they wish, receive updates from friends that you specify, and notifications pop-up on the phone thanks to a great feature included.

3. The touchscreen is impressive for an entry-level phone.
The Samsung Corby features a 2.8 inch capacitive touchscreen that is remarkably responsive. All users need to do is tap in their texts on the touchscreen keyboard and then send everything for an update with just a tap on the update command. Because of the size of the touchscreen, however, those with larger fingers may find that getting the right buttons for T9 texting to register isn’t always an easy task to complete. The QVGA resolution of the screen and the TouchWiz operating system, overlaid with the Cartoon user interface, make up for some of the issues that some users may find.

4. It only connects to Edge/2G networks.
The Samsung Corby does not offer the capability of connecting to a 3G network. Because of this, data movement on this phone when browsing can be frustratingly slow at times. The overall call quality is pretty good, though at times some conversations can sound like the other person is speaking through a cardboard tube. If you need to access information from Google or other search engines, the data for this phone won’t make that experience very pleasing. Status updates or checking social networks, however, is a pretty decent experience.

5. There isn’t any screen rotation.
This is where nimble-fingered users are going to enjoy using the phone and those with larger digits might want to look elsewhere. There isn’t an accelerometer equipped with the Corby, so users can’t flip the screen to a horizontal perspective to change the size of the texting keys. This means that a finger can easily press one of 5 different buttons on the touchscreen if a user isn’t careful. There are slide phone variations of the Corby for those that prefer a full qwerty keyboard, but those have different model numbers.

6. There is a 2 MP camera that has been equipped with the phone.
Although a 2 MP camera is on the low end of the spectrum for phones today, there are many entry level phones that don’t even have a camera, so the Corby has a leg up on the competition there. The camera isn’t the easiest to use since there isn’t any autofocusing or an LED flash that helps to support better overall images.

7. There is limited onboard storage with the Samsung Corby.
Out-of-the-box, the Corby only comes with 50 MB of internal storage. It does have a mSD card slot available that will give users the ability to expand the phones storage to 8 GB. Most users will find that a lot of the extra memory isn’t really that necessary considering the limited functions of the phone. There are Java-enabled games that can be downloaded and played, while photo and video files that are saved locally can be directly uploaded to a social network. Most users will find that a 4 GB mSD card should provide more than enough space.

8. It has some limited multimedia options available.
The primary form of multimedia that users of the Corby are going to enjoy is the FM radio that has RDS. There’s also a find music recognition service that will help users be able to find new music that they want to hear in a similar style or program specific favorite radio stations that are broadcast locally. You can record videos at 15 frames per second in QVGA resolution from the camera and then watch them back on the phone or download videos to watch if you prefer. The Corby can also play non-DRM MP3 files

9. Some models have specific business features included with the phone.
If the Samsung Corby you’re thinking about purchasing wasn’t introduced in the South Korean market, then you will have access to a few business features as well. The most important of them is the office document viewer, which will allow you to read professional documents sent to the phone via direct download or text message. The South Korean Corby also has an upgrade visual display at WQVGA, but only plays DRM MP3 files and has a downgraded Bluetooth version.

What Are Some of the Pros and Cons of the Samsung Corby?

There are some important points of consideration with the Samsung Corby, but there are also some advantages and disadvantages that will apply to most users of the phone. Here is a look at some of those pros and cons in greater detail.

The Pros of the Samsung Corby
1. The touchscreen is made from Corning’s Gorilla Glass, so even if you do manage to drop your phone and cause the body of it to break, you won’t wind up breaking the touchscreen on a casual drop. The resolution might only be 240×320, but that was top of the line when this phone was initially introduced.

2. The diagonal contour of the phone gives it a slimmer visual appearance and it allows for a better grasp of the phone when you’re holding it during a conversation.

3. The hardware keys on this phone are nice and easy to use so answering or disconnecting a call is a simple chore. Some users may find it a little easy to accidentally press one of the buttons while on a conversation, but otherwise the button placement is a definite advantage with this phone’s design.

4. The exterior controls on the right-hand side of the phone are placed in a comfortable position, allowing users to control the camera or lock the touchscreen with ease. The buttons are a little close together, so pushing the wrong button can happen at times, but otherwise it’s a solid design component.

The Cons of the Samsung Corby
1. The body of this phone is made from all plastic components. This makes the phone very light, coming in at just 92 and 12mm thick, but it does not have a good level of durability. A simple fumble of the phone onto the ground is enough to get it to break.

2. The entire surface of the phone has a glossy finish, which means that it is extremely susceptible to collecting fingerprints over the course of a day.

3. It is difficult to use this phone in direct sunlight because the images get lost within the rays of the sun. Narrow viewing angles have the largest of disadvantages, but indoors the screen is nice and clear.

4. There’s no ambient light sensor by the earpiece, as other phones today have, so the brightness of the phone is at a static level. Users can adjust the brightness level manually to save on battery life, but who is really going to constantly adjust the brightness of their screen in every situation they might find themselves?

Are You a Fan of TouchWiz?

The Samsung proprietary system, TouchWiz, is not always the best user experience for a modern phone, but the Corby is definitely one of the exceptions to this rule. Because this phone is so colorful and lively, the simple swiping mechanisms that the thumb can do with TouchWiz are perfect for this phone. It really does add another level of ease to the use of this particular phone.

As with other TouchWiz phones, the Corby has been given 3 different home screens that can be used for apps/widgets. A simple horizontal swipe of a finger will allow users to access the icons on one of the other pages. You can tell which page you’re on with the standard dot indicators at the bottom of the screen. Instead of three different wallpapers, the Corby provides a single panoramic image that allows users to fill up the screen with as many widgets that are needed.

Moving the widgets to the home screen is also a simple process. They’re initially placed in a tray that runs along the side of the screen like a sidebar. Users just drag the icon for the widget from the side menu onto the home screen. There is also the option to auto-align the widgets just by shaking the phone for a couple of seconds. To remove a widget from the home screen, the process is simply reversed. The widgets are displayed in a standard row set of 3 across and 4 down.

Multitasking Can Happen With the Samsung Corby

Unlike other entry-level phones on the market today, the Samsung Corby offers multitasking support. This means that any Java application that is running can be minimized to stay active in the background while other widget is brought up to be active. There’s no real way to switch between the different widgets that are active, however, so being able to do it is a bit of a moot point unless you have specific widgets that need to run in the background.

The Smart unlock feature is also a nice component of the Samsung Corby. It used to be called Gesture unlock. By drawing a letter on the touchscreen, a user can immediately unlock their phone and have it perform a function. This might be to open a menu item, start a widget, or even dial a specific number. All 26 letters of the English alphabet have been assigned a Smart unlock command and assignments are based on user preferences.

What’s the Verdict on the Samsung Corby

By looking at the specific features, the advantages, and the disadvantages that come with the Samsung Corby, the inescapable conclusion is that this phone is well worth the small investment that would be made into it. Although there are some areas that could ultimately be improved, there is the realization that having a stronger camera or more advanced features would also raise the price of the phone. It is flashy, stylish, and gives a little more than the basics to users who are looking for the ability to share data, but not necessarily consume great amounts of it.

For those who are used to a modern smartphone, the Samsung Corby comes up a bit short in expectations. There is no denying that. For users who are looking for an entry-level smartphone, however, this model has a number of distinctive advantages that will allow it to satisfy the needs of most users today.

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