Amidst all the high profile flamboyancy and technological shenanigans at this year’s Mobile World Congress are the phones that don’t quite get as much attention, and undeservedly so as they are the phones that most people will probably end up going for. While delighting in showing off their Ch@t, their Beam and their Wave, Samsung also had a few more affordable handsets on show this week in Barcelona. With an affordable budget candybar phone, Samsung also unveiled two new budget handsets that take their design cues from their recent Monte S5620.
First of all, there is the E2370. This modest candybar phone does not appear to be up to much on the surface but is very similar to the B2100 that was a surprise hit last year. The E2370 comes with a VGA camera that also records VGA video, and a novel flashlight on the top of the handset. This feature can be really handy to have if you lose something in the dark, like your car keys or your phone.
For entertainment there is an excellent media player that plays a wide range of music and video, and also an FM radio with RDS so that you can tune into your favourite station to listen to the latest chart hits. The E2370 also allows you to record from the FM radio, so you can record your favourite DJ and listen to them later on. One of the noticeable design features of the E2370 is that it is highly durable, being shock, splash and dust resistant.
Samsung also had two more affordable handsets on show, the Monte Bar C3200 and the Monte Slider E2550. These two handsets adopt the same name as the illustrious S5620 Monte but do not come with the same feature-filled touchscreen form. While the Monte Bar follows the same candybar design as the E2370, the Monte Slider, as the name would suggest, operates on a sliding mechanism. This is not the only difference between the two handsets however, as we shall now see.
The Monte Slider comes with a 2″ TFT screen and employs Samsung’s Digital Natural Sound Engine (DNSe) to enhance call quality. The Monte Slider also includes a 1.3 megapixel camera that can record QCIF video at 15fps, and with microSD cards you hold around 8GB of your home videos to enjoy later. You can also record directly from the stereo FM radio included (which also includes RDS). You can listen back to your recorded radio broadcasts or watch your recorded videos though the Monte Slider’s fantastic media player. With this you can also watch a large range of other videos and listen to your own music.
The Monte Bar has a sexy physical design to it that very much resembles the bigger Monte touchscreen, and is arguably the best looking of the three handsets. The Monte Bar is a slight step up from the Slider with a lot more features on board. Although it also has a 2″ TFT display this comes with a higher QVGA resolution, making the picture quality better for the Monte Bar. The camera has more to offer on the Bar as well with 2 megapixels, but records video to the same level of quality with 15fps QCIF. The Monte Bar also comes with stereo FM radio that can be recorded to listen to later.
The Monte Bar features the same degree of music and video playback as the Monte Slider due to the same media player being present, and can also support up to 8GB through microSD (although it has 40MB internal compared to the Slider’s 12MB). While both phones feature microUSB and Bluetooth (with A2DP), the Monte Bar has the pleasure of coming with GPRS and EDGE support.
Unfortunately none of the three phones comes with Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity, but this is hardly surprising due to the nature of the phones. For many people these phones do exactly what they want them to, make phone calls and handle messages. You can listen to music and watch videos, and while they may not be HD videos like some new phones are offering, it is a nice feature to have on an entry-level phone nonetheless. Another additional highlight is the ability to record from FM radio to playback later, a feature all three phones enjoy, and the E2370 comes with a novel flashlight feature that will come in handy more than you would at first think. How many times have you tried to use your phone’s backlight as a torch, only to have it automatically deactivate after a few seconds?
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