Corby, a new cell phone recently released by Samsung, received spotlight with its cute design and vivid and glamorous color that appeal to the younger generation. With so many full touch screen phones in the market, all the products seem to have more or less similar design(except for iPhone). With the screen taking up a larger portion of the cell phone than ever, GUI is replacing product design as a core part of the handset. Design of the product itself is becoming more and more limited to the frame.(Of course, full touch screen phones converging to a similar design is purely my personal opinion.) Corby’s design clearly stands out from the pack. The most vivid color and cute round design multiplies Corby’s attractiveness.
I would say Corby resembles a cute kid running around in excitement in contrast to existing full touch screen phones with a rigid and unfriendly image. It seems to hide the excitement of fun and appeal ready to pop up when touched. I think the vivid and the wide variety of color choices conveys such an image. The curves at the corners of the product make Corby appear more childlike.(The curve makes it comfortable to grab. Corby has the best grip among the phones I tried out recently.) Well, this doesn’t mean that Corby is for kids. If existing full touch screen phones have been more adult-like, with a classic posture of black or gray, Corby is an out-of-the-box unique product.
The UI is not that different from existing Samsung products. What I find interesting though, is the ‘Smart unlock’ function. If you write the first letter of the menu that you want to use at lock state, you are taken straight to that menu with unlock.
You can also control zooming with one finger. Place your finger on the image and move up and down to shrink or enlarge the size of the image. What I find really convenient is the easy access to most of the social networking sites such as Facebook, flickr and Twitter via Widget. This means that you can spend time with your girlfriend and brag about it to your friends real-time!(Of course, only if you have a girl friend and patient friends who can stand your bragging…) I am more of a Picasa user than a Flickr user. The process of taking a picture and downloading it to the PC to upload it to Picasa was really a pain sometimes, but now with Corby, you can upload it straight from the phone using Picasa Widget. The camera is 2-megapixels, so a bit less than digital cameras in the market, but is still good enough for Blog or Facebook purpose.
What is also quite nice is WEP490, the Bluetooth headset. Because I use the phone a lot while on the move, I use the headset quite often. As soon as I saw WEP490, with identical design as Corby, I threw away(here, throw away means giving it to a friend) the headset that had been working well and bought this one immediately. WEP490 and Corby are like twins with similar design and the same color choices so you can chose the colors to fit your Corby. Actually, that was the major reason I made the unplanned purchase. With more phones supporting Bluetooth, an increasing number of people are starting to used Bluetooth headset. I strongly recommend the product especially to those who drive a significant amount of time. It’s needless to say how dangerous it is to talk on the phone or send text messages while driving. A friend of mine had practically shot a Hollywood action scene when he crossed the center line trying to grab the ringing phone.(I should give him a Bluetooth headset as a Christmas present).
Thinking about getting a full touch screen phone? Looking for a more easy-to-use product? If that is you, I definitely recommend Corby. I also recommend WEP490 as a package. I do have this strange habit of purchasing products that come in a package, but even so, I think this one is a fabulous combo.