Samsung Monte Bar C3200 deals & review

In a word or two

The Samsung Monte Bar C3200 is a practical mobile phone with an affordable price tag.

The Design

An interesting design with a black frame, curved back and orange sides, the Samsung Monte Bar C3200 has a look of its touchscreen older brother, the Monte S5620. The 2 inch screen is framed in black and the keypad beneath has been laid out to support confident typing and navigation. All the keys are individually defined and big enough for quick, accurate presses.

Just like on the Monte Slider, there is a large, angular navigation key on the front of the Samsung Monte Bar C3200 which sits between the selection and call keys. At only 77g, the handset is light and effortless to carry with you – a little thicker but otherwise significantly smaller than the iPhone, as you’d expect considering the vast difference in screen size.

Talking of screens, although the C3200’s is not touch-sensitive and only measures 2 inches, the display is more than reasonable for finding the feature you want. It is also clear enough to enjoy the inbuilt games and look through your fun snaps.

Specifications

The media player is impressive on the Samsung Monte Bar C3200. You can easily transfer your music onto your phone via the USB connection, expanding the 40MB internal storage space with a memory card of up to 8GB. The music recognition function lets you record a moment of a track so your phone can discover the artist, song title and album details for you. This is really useful for those times you are in a shop and hear a song you like but can’t recall its name. For more musical variety, there is an FM radio on the handset with RDS and FM recording. So you can listen to your radio station, read station information, and record songs and programmes too.

The Samsung Monte Bar C3200 has Digital Natural Sound Engine (DNSe) ability to ensure the sound quality is decent. The 3.5mm audio jack allows you to plug your own earphones into the phone and listen as you travel or spend time in quiet places.

The media player also lets you watch any footage you’ve recorded on the 2-megapixel camera. However, although the camera is better than the one on the Monte Slider, the video has the same, basic, ability. It is fine for recording friends and family, though, and for sharing amusing clips via MMS or Bluetooth.

Considerations

There is no Wi-Fi or 3G support on the Samsung Monte Bar C3200, although there is a web browser.

Verdict

The Samsung Monte Bar C3200 is a simple bar phone with a monoblock design, good music player and reasonable price.