Overview

Just a few weeks after LG's Pop landed on our desk, along comes Samsung's S3650 Genio Touch (formerly the Corby).

From the front the Genio Touch looks a lot like the Palm Pre and even a little like the iPhone from the back, but don't let that confuse you - at under £65 on PAYG /  and under £15 on contract, the Genio is actually Samsung's touchscreen offering to the entry level market.

With a rainbow of clip on back covers Samsung appear to be levelling the Genio Touch as a funky customisable handset, much in the same vein as Nokia did once-upon-a-time with the 3210 and more recently HTC and their Tatoo.

We gave the Genio Touch a week long trial to see just how much we could get out of it.

Design & Specification

Out of the box the Genio Touch looks fun - peering back at you is a large touchscreen and it comes with three different coloured snap-on back covers (you can buy more).

Build quality is high, what we've come to expect form Samsung, and with some lovely angulated lines this phone feels snug in your hand. Switch it on however and you are confronted by some seriously horrid default wallpaper, but that's merely cosmetic - of course if it's not to your taste, just switch over.

The Genio's large 2.8" capactive touchscreen is super responsive with lovely haptic feedback and together with the intuitive 'TouchWiz' interface and logical menu layout navigation is a real pleasure. For instance - the Genio allows you to shortcut to letters of the alphabet in much the same way on the iPhone.

Samsung have included a range of gestures too, which makes navigation even more simple - including one-touch zooming and smart unlocking.

Connectivity

Call quality is fantastic on the Genio but with no 3G / No WiFi / or GPS don't get any ideas of this phone taking you to new levels. Sure, this handset comes pre-packed with a host of widgets including Youtube, Facebook and Twitter but beyond firing off a quick stauts update, these offer little else.

Bluetooth is the zippy V2.1 so sharing material with other members of your pack is a synch.

Media

The Genio's 2MP camera isn't amazing, but it does sport smile detection and a multi shot mode which allows you to capture a series of images in quick succesion. Unfortunately, resolution drops to a grainy 320 x 240 pixels and without a flash, best make sure the sun is shining when your having fun.

The Samsung's MP3 player is good- the onboard 50MB can be bolstered up to 8GB via the SD slot SDslot and with a 3.5mm adaptor and decent in-ear headphones, there is clear potential to enjoy this as an mp3 player.

Battery life on the Genio Touch is nothing short of amazing though - we managed nearly 3 days. THREE DAYS. In this day and age that is a lifetime and will appeal to the stop outs and roadtrippers amongst us.

Verdict

The Samsung S3650 Genio Touch is a lovely, well-put together phone handset and a great offering to the entry level market. While this is no smart phone, the prices ARE smart.

Okay, it might not be as sexy as the LG Pop, but with a wider profile, simpler UI and more responsive touchscreen, this is eminently more straight forward to use (within half a day, using it felt like second nature).

Squares out there will probably be turned off by the Samsung Genio Touch's cartoon UI and gaudy pre-loaded decor, but anyone with a sense of fun, who wants to get their hands on a super-quick touchscreen handset at a snip, then the Samsung Genio Touch is for you!