Samsung Corby II deals & review

LG started it all off with the release of the KP500 Cookie which was supposed to provide a cheaper touchscreen device with limited features so that more people could join in with the (then) new touchscreen technology that was doing the rounds. The Cookie went one to become a surprise success selling millions of copies, even outperforming many of the top range phones of its day. The Tocco, Tocco Lite and later Corby/Genio range of phones were Samsung´s effort to capitalise on this growing market for affordable touchscreen phones.

The original Corby was known as the Genio Touch in the UK and spawned a number of close relatives including the Genio Pro and Genio QWERTY. All three of these handsets went on to become immensely successful by offering a fantastic touchscreen experience for mid-range phones. The Corby II features a lot of the same design principles as the original, including the differently coloured front and back casing, while at the same time throwing a number of improvements into the mix.

The Corby II comes with a slightly larger screen at 3.2" which makes it roomier than the original device and more enjoyable for web browsing as well. Web browsing is in fact something that you may find yourself doing a great deal more than compared to the original, as the Corby II now comes with Wi-Fi support. The original Genio/Corby was limited to GPRS and EDGE for its internet connection and so a more modern connection is greatly welcomed here.

Samsung has also done away with its Cartoon UI that was employed on the original and has replaced it with their more famous TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz provides superb social networking integration for websites like Facebook and also comes with Live Widgets. Live Widgets allows you place moveable widgets for things like Facebook on your phone homescreen.

The Corby II comes with some excellent entertainment features including Samsung´s music recognition software and a media player with great music and video playback. There is also a 2 megapixel camera with VGA video support and FM radio, and also over 16GB of storage available with microSD.

The Corby II is a timely update to the original Genio phones, which still occupy a favourable position in the mid-range smartphone market. While the Corby II comes with some excellent multimedia and messaging features the real benefit here is the addition of Wi-Fi, which makes the Corby II much more suitable to online activities than the original Genio phones.