If you look at definitive pictures of bygone eras, you will usually see some kind of object, product or gadget that is used as a social barometer. The last two decades could easily be identified by the presence of mobile phones plastered to every ear, but someone with an eye for technology would be able to guess the period more accurate based on the design of the mobile phones that are being used. This is particularly true of the last decade, in which mobiles were no longer constrained by bulky batteries and protruding antennae and designers were allowed to go a little crazy. For a while miniaturisation was the in thing. But in the era of the ubiquitous smartphone, the standard design has been redrawn once more and the Samsung Tocco Lite design is a perfect example of this contemporary styling that should surely be preserved in writing for posterity.

Firstly the Samsung Tocco Lite design is based entirely around a simple rectangular body. Some refer to this as the candybar shape, others the monoblock and some go for plain old bar. Any way you look at it, this style is almost universally recognisable as a mobile phone and its simplicity works to its advantage. Audacious and opulent looking fashion phones have come and gone, but the Samsung Tocco Lite design sticks with the one constant within the industry.

The next noteworthy design feature of the Tocco Lite is its touch screen interface coupled with 3 physical buttons below. The earliest touch screen smartphones had 3 physical keys to supplement the touch interface and until touch screen technology and the software that powers it has come up with a reliable way of replacing this array of keys, they are likely to remain a fixture. From the side you will notice two other common features: the volume rocker and the proprietary input for headphones and charging. Nowadays the higher-end smartphones and dedicated music devices ditch this all-in-one solution in favour of a separate 3.5mm headphone socket, but here the Tocco Lite is able to benefit from a dust cover that keeps its sockets free from pocket lint and most importantly allows for a uniformity to the exterior that can be disrupted by a full sized headphone socket. On the opposite side you get two more physical keys, with the first activating the camera and the second locking or unlocking the touch screen to make sure that you do not accidentally enter anything whilst the Tocco Lite is in your pocket.

The Samsung Tocco Lite design may be easily described as minimalist, but in this instance this does not become synonymous with words like ’stark’ or ‘dour’. In fact with its rounded corners and chrome highlights, the Tocco Lite is easy to slip in and out of your pocket and is also marked out from the crowd with its mix of materials and tones. If you shop around you can find the Tocco Lite available in bright white or provocative pink and whilst these are not likely to appeal to all consumers, they do give those who dislike the predominantly black finish of the main handset an alternative choice.

A phone’s external looks are important, but the feel of the device in your hand is just as significant a consideration to make. The Tocco Lite really lives up to its name, weighing in at just 92 grams. That is a lot lighter than some of its ’smarter’ competitors, but Samsung has not made the phone feel flimsy or compromised on its overall size. Smaller phones can be dwarfed in the hands of some adults, but the Tocco Lite is suitably proportioned to look good under the gentle play of slender fingers or the jabbing of large thumbs.

The best selling mobile phone in the world is also one of the most basic. Nokia’s 1100 has been going strong for nearly 7 years and its modest hardware and capabilities are almost irrelevant because it has one major strong point: durability. Its completely dustproof design meant that it was suitable to be used in every country of the world, regardless of climate and as such it has sold over 200 million to date. An 1100 purchased in Nigeria also became the billionth phone sold by Nokia. If you are in the market for a rugged phone that is a little more up to date than the 1100, then the Samsung E1130 is sure to catch your eye. Since most people in the UK will find that the closest thing to a desert near their homes will be a sandpit in the garden, durability may not be a daily concern. However, if you are a big fan of the outdoor lifestyle and getting back to nature and are worried that the average mobile will take a battering and give up the ghost on a hike or a bike ride, then the Samsung E1130 durability will meet your needs.

First on the list of durability is water resistance and dustproofing, which the E1130 possesses. With resistance to splashes and showers, the E1130 will be the perfect companion to take with you when you are venturing into the wilderness, as the elements will typically play havoc with any electrical item that is not properly protected. You could keep your mobile in a sandwich bag to keep off the rain, but the E113 will not require such makeshift protection. Being dustproof is also useful on a day to day basis, as many people will have experienced the irritation of seeing a steady build up of household dust and pocket lint beneath the screen of their phone. Since you cannot realistically remove the screen and give it a clean yourself, you are often stuck with it. But the Samsung E1130 durability features come into play here as well, keeping the innards of your phone free from dust and dirt wherever you may roam. Part of this design is made possible because the numeric keypad and other physical buttons are crafted from rubber. This keeps things nice and tight and also means that the E1130 can be dropped for short distances without having its keys smashed out or its construction compromised.

Although physical elements of a phone are important in terms of its operation in all environments, there are other considerations that are important for people with an adventurous spirit. One is battery life and a majority of modern mobiles are becoming increasingly energy-hungry as communication hardware overtakes the capabilities of basic batteries. However, the E1130 has an impressive set of statistics on offer when it comes to durable battery life. If you do not use the E1130 but leave it on and ready for use, it will keep on trucking for 28 days. As such you could take it on a month-long trip throughout the month of February and return home before the E1130 finally runs out of juice. When you do talk on the E1130, you will be able to keep up a constant conversation for up to 10 hours in a row. With most phones offering less than half this level of communicative endurance, the E1130 is recommended to people who need to stay on the phone for extended periods.

So the Samsung E1130 durability credentials are far more impressive than many of its low cost rivals and it will withstand adverse conditions with ease. If you want to do more with your mobile phone at your side, then the E1130 will last the distance.

Over the years the mobile phone market and the fashion industry have gone through various stages of flux, with some periods in which fashion and phones are inextricably entwined, whilst other times have seen mobiles move away towards the functional rather than the fashionable. At the moment the relationship exists somewhere in the grey area between the two; smartphones have made software and functionality essential and designers are sticking to blacks and greys plastered on bland, rectangular bodies. But if you look at the Samsung Diva design, you would think that the fashion phone was alive and well and that perhaps aesthetic extravagance is overdue for a resurgence, with the Diva flying its fashion flag proudly at the forefront of the new movement.

The Samsung Diva design seems oddly to be based around a quilt or a throw cushion mixed in with a pearl necklace. Bizarre as this combination might sound, in this case it actually works and since the Diva is wearing its heart on its sleeve by privileging fashionable good looks above all else, this can only be a good thing. It is necessary to dissect the individual elements of the Samsung Diva design first before talking about the look of the device as a whole, so we shall start with the front.

The Diva has a 2.8 inch touch screen interface and whilst this is a few fractions of an inch smaller than some other smartphones, it does mean that the phone does not have to be entirely dedicated or dominated by the screen. Many mobiles expect you to be dazzled by the screen and hopefully distracted enough to ignore the dull design. The Diva is aiming to do the opposite. The Diva’s screen is fully touch sensitive and it uses capacitive technology. That means that unlike some of its rivals it is responsive to the touch and will not leave you frustrated as you type. Below the screen are three physical keys. The call answer and end buttons are par for the course, but the central menu button is the most eye-catching of virtually any phone. It is shaped like a diamond and finished in silver to give the impression that it is indeed a precious stone of some kind. The front of the Diva is encircled by a silver bezel, which offsets the predominantly white plastic nicely.

If you turn the Diva over to check out the back, you will notice that Samsung has done something very unusual. The rear takes on a textured look and feel that carries over the white colouring from the front. This design could easily allow the Diva to moonlight as a small purse or a dinky pillow and this must surely have been its designer’s intention. The Diva can become a true chameleon in the right environment. The only signs that it is in fact an electronic device are the telltale digital camera and the small perforations which indicate the presence of a speaker hidden beneath its shell. You might argue that the textured plastic on the rear of the Diva had the practical purpose of preventing the phone from accidentally flying from your hands whilst in use, but in reality this is a by-product of the design rather than its main intent.

The word ‘white’ has cropped up frequently so far, but ‘pearly white’ is a more accurate description of the colour that is used liberally throughout the Samsung Diva design. It does make the phone look alluring, but could narrow its demographic down to those who are fans of pearly patinas. It would not be a shock to see other editions of the Diva making an appearance in a range of different plastic frocks and this would be sensible for Samsung if it wants to appeal to wider tastes.

The Samsung C3510, which is also known as the Genoa, is an appealing touch screen mobile phone that has all of the features and functions that you would expect at a price that will make it accessible to the widest possible audience. It is fairly similar to the Genio Touch and its siblings in styling and capabilities, but the Samsung C3510 touch screen has been tweaked with some unique features that will make it an appealing potential purchase to customers looking for low cost touch sensitive fun.

The Samsung C3510 display is 2.8 inches in size and although there are larger screens out there, this is perhaps the sweet spot if you want to have a touch screen interface that is not going to compromise the pocket-friendliness of the phone in question. Samsung has a global reputation for producing high quality displays and the C3510 has a rich colour pallet to draw from and a sharp resolution that is perfectly adapted to the screen sizes on offer.

The Samsung S3510 display is the portal through which you will view and interact with all of the elements and features that the phone has to offer. First up is the home screen system, which like more advanced mobiles comes complete with three fully customisable screens which you can switch between by dragging your finger across the display from left to right. Each screen can be filled with widgets of your choice and there are social networking links to sites like Facebook built in to the extensive widget selection. You can even customise the Samsung C3510 home screens to suit your mood and environment, with one holding all of your social networking sites and media apps for when you are out with friends, whilst another could be filled with time keeping and organisational widgets for when you have got your worker head screwed on tight. You can alter each home screen with a unique background image, so it is like having three different phones rolled into one.

The Samsung C3510 display is great for media playback. Whether you are listening to your favourite songs or watching a video clip, the screen provides a vibrant, bright arena to make it all possible. Because the C3510 can be held sideways, the screen can make use of widescreen videos in a landscape display mode, which fills the display with even more of the video in question and reduces the need for stretching or cropping of the onscreen image.

Although multimedia playback is excellent, the Samsung C3510 display is also suitable for web browsing, whether you want to perform a quick search or check out the latest tweets arriving from the people you follow on Twitter. Messaging also looks good and is intelligently laid out on the screen. Instant messaging can be used across a selection of popular platforms and best of all your conversations which transcend and shift between mediums are all pulled together into the same thread, meaning that you can chat to friends wherever they are and whatever medium they are using and still have the conversation laid out logically onscreen.

With a 1.3 megapixel camera built in, the C3510 is not the most capable of photography tools, however, the large screen makes an excellent viewfinder and you can capture pictures with a good amount of detail and the correct framing thanks to its size. Although software is frequently privileged over hardware when the average consumer picks up a mobile phone in the modern market, the window onto the mobile world is always an important consideration. Here, the Samsung C3510 display is capable and big enough to make the smartphones of yesteryear look seriously ancient.

The original Samsung Genio, which is sometimes accompanied by the ‘Touch’ suffix, was a great entry level touch screen mobile phone for teens, but the one thing that it lacked was a decent enough interface to make messaging fast. And given that texts are sent in their billions each year in the UK, the addition of a full QWERTY keypad would make a whole lot of sense. With that in mind, the arrival of the Samsung Genio Slide does make a whole lot of sense. Not to be confused with the Genio QWERTY, which went for the monoblock design that aped BlackBerry smartphones with a slightly cramped keypad, the Samsung Genio Slide keypad is housed beneath the touch screen, out of sight until it is needed.

Samsung has done a good job of making the Genio Slide as similar to its touch-only cousin and very little weight or thickness is added to the package by the presence of the full QWERTY keypad. In fact the Genio Slide manages to be considerably thinner than other rival handsets that offer similar functionality. Messaging phones with large keypad and low prices are not particularly revolutionary, but the Genio Slide does prove itself to be the next step in the natural evolution of the technology.

The Samsung Genio Slide keypad has a total of four rows of physical buttons to get your fingers around. The letters of the alphabet are doubled up with symbols and numbers as secondary inputs and the shift key that activates these additional entries is located conveniently beneath the left thumb of the user, just as you would expect to find it on a full computer keyboard. You also get a backspace key, arrow keys for navigation and a couple of hotkeys that open up the messaging and browser functions quickly.

In terms of layout, the Samsung Genio Slide keypad offers all of the keys you would expect and a couple of extras thrown in. The next consideration is how easy it is to type on the keypad. Because Samsung has not been left with a whole lot of room for the keys in order to stick to the same basic design as the Genio Touch, you do not get kind of offset layout that you would on a full sized keyboard. Some larger full QWERTY phones do offer this, but in this price bracket and for a phone this size this is an acceptable limitation. Samsung has given each key as much area to work with as possible and as with all full QWERTY handsets you will need to take a while to familiarise yourself with the keypad before you get your typing up to speed. Once you are into the zone, the keypad will let you type far quicker than predictive text or an onscreen keypad could afford. An important facet of any keypad is the feel of the keys whilst you type and the action of the Samsung Genio Slide keypad is pleasingly chunky, for want of a better word. This does not mean that it is difficult to get your fingers round, but rather that each button is firm without needing force and supple without being flimsy. Considering that this is an entry level phone, the keypad feels decidedly premium in quality.

The question you may be asking is ‘why should I bother with a full QWERTY mobile when it has a touch screen anyway?’ This is a perfectly valid concern, but in reality the touch screen technology, particularly in entry level phones, is not quite up to the task of constant messaging yet. Even high end mobiles like the Nokia N900 and the Motorola Milestone have stuck with full QWERTY keypads to add to the touch screens they also sport. So for the Genio Slide, the addition of a keypad should be welcomed with open arms.

Samsung has been attempting to fill every conceivable niche in the market with a new phone over the past few months and the arrival of the Monte is further indication of this. With a design that is reminiscent of many recent touch screen smartphones from the South Korean manufacturing giant, the Monte manages to stand out slightly thanks to some subtle curves and a piano black finish that looks like it will be a magnet for finger prints. However, as most consumers will know the current trends in mobile phones have moved away from good looks and high specification hardware towards a software-driven market and the Samsung Monte uses an updated version of the TouchWIZ user interface which has been developed internally by Samsung.

Connectivity looks set to be the Monte’s strong point. It will sport Wi-Fi, GPS and 3.5G networking, allowing for up to 3.6Mbps download speeds for anywhere with a good slice of coverage on offer. With a 3 inch screen web browsing should be fairly comfortable and although the screen itself does not offer earth-shattering advances in technology, it has a competitive native resolution of 240×400, which benefits from landscape viewing and text entry. On the rear the 3.2 megapixel camera is mounted centrally and protrudes slightly in a mild bulge, which almost makes it look like the Samsung Monte has been working out. If you have a propensity for personifying your mobile, then you will find the Monte to be thoroughly masculine.

Navigation is set to be one of the key selling points of the Monte. Having GPS on board is nothing revolutionary, but it does integrate the latest version of Google Maps, along with a service called Google Latitude. This offers you the chance to check out where your friends and relatives are located at any given time. Google Latitude is becoming more widely integrated into other mobile phones, so you are likely to find that at least one of your mates has a compatible mobile. As such it is a great way to keep yourself in tune with the movements of buddies. It is of course easy to turn off Google Latitude if you are worried about revealing your whereabouts for whatever reason, but it does mean that any surveillance that is performed is entirely self-activated and inflicted.

As with all good smartphones the Samsung Monte looks set to offer a wide selection of media playback and if you have a set of Bluetooth headphones you can enjoy your tunes without the restrictions of wires. Of course the 3.5mm headphone socket also means that you do not need to rely on tinny, cheap headphones that other manufacturers include, allowing you to slot in your own high quality earpieces without needing an adaptor of any kind. All of the most common video and audio formats are supported, although as Windows Media video is not listed on the line up it looks like Microsoft fans will have to get encoding if they want to transfer over their library.

Whilst this mobile will probably be arriving in the UK with the Monte moniker, it is likely that in other EU destinations it will turn up as the Onix or the Onyx, depending on the local language. Samsung has yet to announce which networks will be supporting the Monte on its launch, but like the Jet it is being backed by a significant advertising investment, so expect to see some adverts coming to a television set near you as its April release date draws closer. Although the Monte is not immediately inviting, it does make its case fairly strongly if you get down to the basics.

When the Samsung Tocco first arrived on the market back in 2008 it was very impressive in every way. Obvious comparisons between it and the first generation iPhone were sought and although the interface was not quite as user friendly and the screen was not quite as big, the Tocco had several killer features that made it stand out from the crowd. At the time it sported one of the most advanced digital camera units and software packages to ever have arrived on a smartphone and it is the Samsung Tocco camera that we will be focusing on here. It is telling that nearly two years after its release, the Samsung Tocco camera is still superior to that of the latest iPhone.

As with all modern mobiles the Samsung Tocco camera is located on the back of the phone and it is best used when the phone is being held in a landscape orientation. There is a dedicated shutter button on one side of the phone to let you know which way you should be holding it and also to allow you to take pictures in the traditional way using the index finger of your right hand. The camera itself has a 5 megapixel sensor, which produces high resolution images that look great. You will be able to alter the capturing resolution to suit your needs, so you are not stuck with 5 megapixel pictures for all occasions if you do not want to be. Backing up the camera for diverse shooting conditions is an LED photolight. Whilst there are many phones now with dual LED solutions, the Tocco has a single powerful unit that copes well with dark bars and dense night scenes.

The Tocco was the first phone in the world to feature smile and face detection built into its photography software and although Samsung and other manufacturers have now implemented these features in multiple handsets, it was fairly revolutionary at the time and is still impressive today. Face detection is essentially an aid to the autofocus mechanic. The camera is able to identify whenever there is a human face present in the shot and adjust the focus so that the face in question is brought into sharp focus. Since you may well be using the Tocco to take multiple snaps of your mates, making sure that the phone can identify their faces and create memorable pictures every time without any blur is a sensible step.

In addition to smile and face detection, the Samsung Tocco camera benefits from dedicated image stabilisation. This again is something that you would usually expect to see in standalone cameras, but not in a multifunctional smartphone. Image stabilisation is obviously useful when you are looking to shoot quickly and without time to steady your hand. It is also applicable when lighting levels are less than perfect, but you do not want to use the flash.

Once you have snapped a picture using the Samsung Tocco camera, as with standalone cameras you will be presented with a quick preview of the photo you have just taken. You can then choose to hang onto it and store it to the memory card, or discard it if you are unsatisfied with the results. Some phone cameras suffer from excessive shutter lag, when the phone takes a few seconds to capture the image after you press the shutter button and others can take ages to load previews, or do not give you this option at all. However, the Tocco suffers from neither of these afflictions and its camera can hold its own amongst today’s top smartphones, many of which do not provide anywhere near as comprehensive a photography experience as the Tocco.

Samsung has been working with touch screen smartphones for some time now and the Jet presents itself via one of the latest evolutions of Samsung’s touch screen interface software systems: TouchWIZ 2.0. Since you will be using the Samsung Jet interface to unlock virtually every feature that the phone has to offer, it is worth looking at how it all works in depth and hopefully deciding whether it gets two slender thumbs up, or an unwieldy digit down.

The Samsung Jet interface is built upon the foundation of three different home screens. Because this uses the TouchWIZ user interface (UI) you get to have complete control over the kinds of things that you place on the homescreens and over the general look and feel of each. You can add your own backgrounds and you can use three different images if you want to set up very distinct operating areas. The TouchWIZ UI also has a strong focus on the use of widgets. These are essentially miniature programmes that run in the background, or in their most basic form hotlinks that can jump you straight into the main application that you are looking for without delay.

Some smartphones offer widgets and multiple home screens, but these superficially separate screens can sometimes become restrictive depending on the kind of elements that you add to each. This was true of previous Samsung smartphones which used the TouchWIZ UI, but the Samsung Jet interface does not get bogged down by the same issues. For example, if you want to modify one of the home screens for use whilst you are at work and one for when you are chilling out at home, you may well want to add the music player widget to both. In the past this would not have been possible, but the Jet has a separate set of widgets available for each home screen, allowing you to add duplicate widgets to different screens without causing a conflict.

The Samsung Jet interface is not limited only to the home screens and the main menu is an equally important consideration. Whilst the basic menu is fine and filled with all the standard icons that you would expect including settings and the calendar for organisation, the Jet has another trick up its sleeve. That trick comes in the form of a full 3D rotating cube, to which various menu items and media files are attached. The cube interface is not always active, but is instead activated by a dedicated hotkey located on the side of the device next to the camera shutter button. You can spin the cube around with your finger and select the menu or app that you want to access.

Spinning through icons at speed is also applied elsewhere in the Samsung Jet interface. When you are checking out your music collection, you can view all of your stored albums with the cover art visible. With a flick of your finger you can switch to the next artist to pick out the one you want to listen to. Although the Jet benefits from a powerful processor, this visual wizardry can all get a little too much for it at times, causing some less than slick transitions on occasion. However, overall the experience of switching between its advanced graphical elements is performed admirably and certainly makes using the Jet feel modern and refreshing.

The final noteworthy aspect of the Samsung Jet interface is something called MotionGate. This is an app launching technology that is based on a built in motion sensor. Basically, you can choose to set MotionGate up with a couple of your most frequently visited applications, such as the camera or web browser. Then, when you press the MotionGate button, you can shake the Jet to the left or the right to access the app of your choice. A little gimmicky perhaps, but MotionGate is an imaginative interface choice.

The Samsung Diva, which will also go by S7070, is a fashionable little smartphone that offers itself as a more feminine alternative to other midrange mobiles such as the Genio or the LG Pop. Its distinctive styling and impressive touch screen interface makes it much more interesting than rival handsets and it has enough functionality to keep you connected and entertained.

The Diva has one particularly important asset that few other midrange smartphones offer and that is a capacitive touch screen. Typically you will find that touch screen handsets in this price bracket will use resistive touch technology and whilst this is fine if you are not fussed about accuracy and ease of use, it just does not provide the kind of interactivity that true touch fans covet. By giving the Diva a 2.8 inch capacitive touch screen, Samsung have been able to remove the need for the use of a stylus and have coupled this with a software package that is easy to use for fingers of all sizes. The gentlest of presses will be registered each and every time and you will find that selecting text and typing using the onscreen keypad is accurate and fast.

So far the design of the Samsung Diva has not been addressed and this is one of its more striking features. Whilst a majority of touch screen candybar mobiles are available in any colour as long as it is black, the Diva takes the rulebook and throws it out the window, before flouncing off to put on its own extraordinary casing. White is the predominant hue and it has a curved, almost cornerless shape and a slim build. The back of the Diva has a unique quilted look, with soft diamond-shaped protrusions making it look like it is covered in the lining of an expensive coat. Whether this is to your taste or not is another matter entirely, but with the vast majority of mobile phones looking bland and interchangeable, the Diva certainly makes its presence felt in a unique way.

Samsung has taken the fashion and beauty elements of the Diva’s external design and carried it over into the selection of applications on board. Along with social networking courtesy of Facebook and its peers, you also get an app called the Wish List. This is basically a way for you to organise the next items that you consider to be must-have purchases, although it is slightly more useful than a shopping list. The 3 megapixel camera is also a fashion conscious item, as it has a touch up filter called Beauty Effect. This is essentially a way to quickly eliminate any obvious imperfections in the pictures that you take and whilst it is not as comprehensive or deceitful as a thorough digital airbrushing session, it is a nice touch.

One area in which the Diva stumbles slightly is connectivity. For some reason Samsung has missed out 3G connectivity, which is difficult to understand since it has added in fairly impressive software and hardware in other areas. Wi-Fi is off the list of options as well and GPS is nowhere to be found. Of course the user base for these kinds of connectivity is relatively small and the mainstream market at which the Diva is aimed will not be overly familiar with the trappings of high end smartphone functionality. However, it would have been nice to see some speedy connectivity of any kind on offer as social networking can really benefit from faster access.

The Samsung Diva should appear at some point in the spring of 2010, with SIM free versions available to pre-order online right now if you have become enamoured with its classy looks and touch screen allure.

The Samsung Shark 3, which is also known as the S3550, is one of three new mobile phones announced by the South Korean manufacturer, although in contradiction of standard numbering traditions the third in the series is actually the most basic. It uses the slider design that Samsung has become famous for and its light construction and pleasing overall styling mean that its looks belie its rather modest components and software.

The screen is just 2 inches across, but Samsung has used a bright, colourful display that never suffers from inadequate performance no matter what conditions you choose to use it in. The resolution is also decent at 240×320, making text look sharp and producing still images and video that is easy to view despite the screen’s relatively diminutive design. The navigation buttons and the softkeys are all where you would expect to find them and the design borrows heavily from Samsung’s smartphone range without dragging the price along with it. Even with the battery installed the Samsung Shark 3 only weighs 79 grams, which makes it excellent purse and pocket fodder for everyone.

What the Samsung Shark 3 does well is social networking and with teens and young adults likely to be the main demographic for this mobile, the inclusion of apps for Facebook and Twitter is sensible. Although the homescreen system is fairly basic, you can scroll through hotlinks to these social networking sites and access them at the press of a button without booting up the main menu. You do not get any live updates or customisable widgets, but then in this price bracket that would be asking a lot. The Shark 3 is only compatible with 2G networks, there is no Wi-Fi on board and if you were expecting GPS, you will be disappointed. However, with none of this functionality bolted on the battery life is obviously extended and you will not have to scan every room for plug sockets as you enter in case you suddenly run out of juice. The lack of speedy connectivity does mean that the Shark 3 will chug along if you try to get online, but if you are not in a particular rush and you are not a big mobile internet user anyway then this should not be too troubling.

Media playback is handled adequately and it is nice to see that the Samsung Shark 3 supports Bluetooth 2.1. This is the latest short range wireless standard and if you have a set of Bluetooth headphones or a Bluetooth compatible hi-fi then you can stream your audio from the Shark 3 and get stereo sound at the other end. The inclusion of a microSD memory card slot makes a lot of difference in this respect, as sometimes low cost handsets skip this out and leave you scuppered with a paltry amount of onboard memory.

The Shark 3 is likely to make more of an impact in developing mobile marketplaces in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as its low price and fairly comprehensive feature set will make it appropriate for those looking to embark upon the adventure that is mobile ownership. In the UK it will not be necessarily picked up by people based on its vital statistics alone. However, this does not mean that it will not find its niche in the market. Many will find that the Shark 3 makes the perfect addition to a mobile phone bundle that includes an impressive free gift and if you are looking for a functional but wallet-friendly phone then you could find your perfect match when the Shark 3 arrives.