Samsung B5310 CorbyPRO and B3210 CorbyTXT preview: First look

Introduction

When the Samsung S3650 Corby was announced hardly anyone saw it as something more than a nice looking handset that comes on a really attractive price. As it turns out though that event was the birth of a whole new family that promises to change the way we look at touchscreen handsets.

So several weeks later we made sure that we won't repeat the same mistake and paid all the due attention to the second wave of Corbys announced. Luckily, we were able to attend the official announcement event held in Milan and got a chance to see the new devices live right after their official announcement.

The Samsung Corby event, held in Milan

Quite as the rumors suggested, what we saw was the first public appearance of two new Corby handsets. The Samsung B3210 CorbyTXT and Samsung B5310 CorbyPRO have quite similar design to their brother, but their designation is completely different. They are also placed either side of the original Corby in the ranking of the company's mobile phone portfolio.

Samsung B5310 CorbyPRO

The Samsung B3210 CorbyTXT will address the needs of heavy texters on a very tight budget while the B5310 CorbyPRO will hardly come as cheap but introduces a lot of high-end features to the family, while still retaining the signature colorful and youthful appearance.

Samsung B3210 CorbyTXT

The distinct youthful appeal is what unites the Corby family but each of its members has plenty of character of its own. That last two additions show that Samsung see enough space available on the market for budget QWERTY handsets to justify their development. Judging by the popularity of the LG KS360 they might be quite right.

The larger of the two Korean manufacturers is playing catch-up this time, but that doesn't mean that they aren't going for the win. The Corby family new members have a lot of potential and LG will have a hard time retaining its market supremacy against them.

So now that you know what to expect you can join us on the next page to see what kind of first impression the Samsung B5310 CorbyPRO makes. It looked pretty nice on that official presentation at least.