It was one of the most highly anticipated products this year. Also, a refreshing change amongst all those email pushing, piano playing, picture taking hole-in-your-pocket-mobiles. It is a category that has been crying out loud for attention for a while now.For, a lot of do not live in 24/7 indoor, airconditioned, wall to wall carpeted environment. Neither do our phones. Outside, the world is tough on the lifeline of a gadget we carry wherever we go.The only phones that stood up and worked well in this rough and tumble so far were the simple, no frills, economy phones that cost between Rs 1500-5000 and offered little apart from alarm, basic ringtones and perhaps a half hearted torch.
Marine changed all this. At an MRP of approximately Rs 7000(available at Rs. 5500 in most places), This phone comes loaded with almost all medium level features one expects in a media phone. It has a a reasonably sharp camera(1.3 mp, digital zoom, video recording, multiple editing features etc), an intuitively easy to use media player that plays high compression aac format(lesser memory per song), a strictly functional web browser with push mail capabilities and a super loud speaker that can be used as a music player in a car.It also has a very powerful top mounted torchlight to illuminate those forgotten alleys in the forest or the hidden crevices under your desk.
Now coming to the real juice. This phone is TOUGH. It seems perfect fit for 2 categories of people: one who use their phones outdoors a lot and thus need to protect it from dust, water, sweat, inadvertent falls etc. The other is the adventure oriented, the ones who do river rafting, rock climbing, It is the perfect companion on an adventure weekend.
there are 2 drawbacks, however, to this fantastic package: The keys are hard and a pain to use. Also, the samsung proprietary operating system is fast, but not as intuitive as Nokia and Iphones.
A lot of expensive phones are bought because of their hyped up features and are eventually discarded because they proved too fragile for daily usage conditions like getting caught in a drizzle or sweat on a hot day.The marine is a perfect package of all features given in a super tough built.At this price, it definitely delivers far more than it promises. Highly recommended!