Samsung Lindy M5650 deals & review

In a word or two

The Samsung Lindy M5650 is a fun and feature-packed affordable touchscreen smartphone.

The Design

At first glance, you may think the Samsung Lindy M5650 is the Samsung Genio S3650 as the phone is only marginally bigger than the Genio and weighs the same (98g). The design is the same except the Lindy has dedicated music keys beneath the call and navigation keys, nicely separated in blue.

The shape of the Samsung Lindy M5650 is curved and the back is rounded so the mobile feels secure in your hand – and you can comfortably hold the lightweight smartphone is the palm of your hand as you swipe and tap your commands on the responsive touch-sensitive screen. The case is made from glossy plastic like its younger brother, the Genio, but the Lindy is the upgraded version and houses a number of advanced features which you may not expect given its fun appearance.

Specifications

The camera on the Samsung Lindy M5650 is a 3-megapixel one – an improvement on the 2-megapixels of the Genio and on a par with the Samsung S5230 and LG GD510 Pop. The camera comes with autofocus and smile detection which will capture the moment, as soon as your subjects smile. There is a secondary camera which you can use to make video calls on your mobile.

If you are proud of your music collection, you will enjoy listening to your songs on your Samsung Lindy M5650. The music player lets you manage your collection, sorting into artist, genre etc, after you have transferred your tunes from your compatible PC using the USB connection. The sound quality is good too thanks to the DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine). As well as an FM radio, the Lindy also features Find Music which recognises a song and tells you the details just from a short recording of the song.

You can manage your personal and work life on the Samsung Lindy M5650 as it supports a wide range of communication options including MMS, instant messaging and email. The document viewer enables you to open attachments on email also so any Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDFs you are sent can be checked on the move.

To ensure the Samsung Lindy M5650 is a joy to use, it comes with the TouchWiz interface. This interface makes navigating the mobile easy and fun, and includes the one finger zoom function which is great for when you are browsing the internet. The three home screens on the Lindy can be customised with the icons you like best. Also, like on the Samsung S8000 Jet, you can arrange the icons by simply dragging the ones you want from the icon tray onto the screen or from the screen back into the tray. Icons include those for directly accessing the social networks Bebo, Twitter and Facebook – and similar to the layout on the iPhone 3G S, you can scroll between the screens of icons to find the one you want.

Considerations

The music keys on the Samsung Lindy M5650 are a great addition but it is a shame you have to be in the home screen for them to work when the music player is running in the background. For example, you can listen to music and write your emails – but you have to exit emails and go to the home screen if you want to change a track.

Verdict

The design of the Samsung Lindy M5650 is simple and the price is reasonable – and the handset houses some appealing features alongside its friendly appearance and interface.