Samsung CorbyPro: What I think of it

The Samsung CorbyPro (B5310) is a touch-screen cum slider QWERTY keypad phone. It is 3G capable, with Wi-Fi capabilities and a host of other features. You can find a complete spec sheet here.

Anyway, I've been using it for just over a month now and my earnest opinion of the gadget: 3 out of 5 stars. This post is about my experience with the phone, as an end user.

History: Before I switched to this phone, I was a Nokia E63 user. I was very happy with that phone given that it could do just about everything that I wanted it to. But when my Labrador, Muffin, decided to munch on it for breakfast, well, let's just say that I had to begin looking a new phone all over again.

Search Conditions: Having never owned a touch screen phone before, I figured this time I should look for one of those types. A lot of time was spent on selecting the phone, as usual. I even considered the cheaper of the Blackberry Curve series (8320, although not a touch phone, really caught my eye but had to skip it as it was no longer in production). Again, my conditions were simple. A budget of about 15k, Wi-fi, QWERTY, Email capabilities, and of course, touch screen. The Nokia N97 mini was above my budget, so I had to skip it too. Finally, I zeroed in on the Samsung CorbyPro, and it seemed to have everything I was looking for. At least on paper.

Buying: After having decided on the phone, one Sunday I set off to purchase it. And trust me, it was no mean task. I literally spent an entire day looking for an available piece of this phone. I tried Croma, Univercell, Mobile Store - different branches spread over the city of Bangalore - but nobody seemed to have any piece available. Finally, after battling the rains and the city traffic, I reached Croma at Kamannahalli. There, the salesperson offered us the piece that was on display (that's the best part about Croma - you will find working phone pieces there unlike other stores who will hand you a plastic mimic of the real thing. I mean, how can you decide on a phone by looking at that!) Anyway, at Croma the salesperson convinced me that the piece was new (it was), and also offered a deal: a Samsung bluetooth handsfree set worth about INR 1600/- free with the purchase. After having gone through the entire day looking for the phone, and also because my E63 was almost unusable, I accepted the offer. The Samsung CorbyPro was purchased for INR 11,200/-.

Experience: Most of my experience is already summed up by Ranjan in this article of his. If you're planning on buying the CorbyPro, I highly recommend that you go through that.

• I installed Opera Mini5 on my phone following Ranjan's instructions given in his article. That browser should come by default on every internet capable phone is what I feel.
• The keypad is good, its quite good in fact. Unlike the Corby Plus, the Pro's keypad feels softer and there's no 'tick-tick' sound when you're using it. The downside - there's just no option to copy/paste anything, anywhere. That really sucks. Especially when you're typing emails.
• The 2.8inch touch screen lights up well, is colorful, bright and responsive. I think its better than the Nokia 5800 touch screen where I really had to apply pressure on the screen. Wi-fi is good, and I'm connected to the internet almost 24/7 through it :-)
• One of the biggest disappointments for me, however, has been the Exchange email. I just couldn't configure it for my corporate mailbox. I tried over my GPRS and also over my Wi-Fi connections maybe like a thousand times, but it just didn't go through. "Timeout" was what the phone responded back. And in the E63, it was a breeze setting it up. However, having said that, I instead configured it to point to my Gmail and there it just works like a charm! I don't know, maybe its an issue with my office setup, but personally, that was a big disappointment.
• Push email rocks :-) Given that this phone has this capability is super cool and it works really well too.
• The Pro does the basic function of making and receiving calls very well. The clarity is excellent, and so is the reception. I've never had any problems with that.
• The Pro has some little features which make it quite useful. Like the "etiquette" function. When you get an incoming call which you don't want to answer, then basically you just lift and place the phone face down. The ringtone and vibration are silenced. Quite useful! You can also lock your folders inside the phone. Its quite useful when you have personal photos that you don't want your nosey friends looking at, and this is just the solution. I'm using it by the way lol.
• Camera is a no-brainer. It's a 3.2MP camera, but without autofocus or even flash for that matter, I'll only say that its not very handy. However, the inbuilt editing features are good. Take a look at this photo, it was taken and edited using the Pro. That's me and my friend in the pic, by the way.
• Music player is just about decent. I haven't used the earphones that came with the phone. But I've tried with my iPod earpiece and also with my Dell Studio earpiece on this phone, and both times I felt like the sound was getting lost somewhere. It was like the music wasn't complete, you know. But overall, just decent.
• Video playback quality is good. And it helps that there's auto rotation when watching videos.
• Battery life is decent. I get about a day and a half with this phone on a full charge. And that's with Push email on all the time. For those of us who like to talk a lot, I think the battery life would be significantly lesser.
• As a bonus, Samsung also gives you two 'panels' with this phone. They are supposed to make your phone look trendier, and maybe the younger crowd will agree to that. I have it on black (front and back) and as far as I'm concerned, that's how its gonna be for my phone!

Summary: So, that's my two cents about this phone. In summary, I'd say that this typically a budget phone which, although has tremendous appeal on paper, doesn't sizzle as much in reality.