Samsung S5560 preview: First look

Ah, the futuristic appeal of touchscreens - consumers can't get enough of them. Enter the Samsung S5560. With a 5MP camera and Wi-Fi, it's two widgets ahead of the competition. The rest mostly follows the recipe for success from the S5230 Star cookbook, with a few tweaks to bring it up to speed.

Samsung S5560 official photos

The Samsung S5560 lacks 3G connectivity but comes with Wi-Fi connectivity. It's hardly the solution that most carriers opt for (and carriers ARE the biggest cellphone contractors), but we guess Samsung have gone for pleasing the end client this time. In an effort to keep the price down, trading 3G for Wi-Fi is a compromise many users would make.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, check out the rundown of the Samsung S5560 features:

Samsung S5560 (a.k.a Marvel) at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 107.5 x 52 x 13.2 mm, 95g
• Display: 3.0 inch WQVGA TFT resistive touchscreen, 240 x 400 pixels
• Platform: Latest TouchWiz 2.0 UI, Smart Unlock
• Memory: 78MB integrated memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash, image stabilization, WDR, face detection, Smile Shot, blink detection and QVGA video recording at 15 fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate and turn-to-mute, FM radio with RDS
• Battery: 960 mAh battery

Samsung S5560 in our office

This phone is clearly a Samsung Jet wannabe - the styling, the camera, the Wi-Fi connectivity all make it a cheaper alternative to the Jet. Sure, tradeoffs have been made for the sake of a lower price, but if you've never owned a touch phone before, the S5560 makes a great introduction.

The timer on non-touch operated phones seems to be running down - touch phones seem to get the best features and the most hype. This makes it harder and harder to say no, especially now that their price is no longer prohibitive.

On the next page we do our Sherlock Holmes impersonation and take a close look at the exterior of the Samsung S5560.