Samsung Lindy (Samsung M5650)

The Samsung Corby (sold in the UK as the "Genio") has been quite a sales success this year, even spawning a couple of spin-offs in the Corby Pro and Corby TXT devices.

Taking things a little but more up-market than the Corby is the Samsung Lindy or Samsung M5650, which takes the same basic approach of being a fun and stylish touchscreen phone, but it adds a lot more features.

The Lindy M5650 is very lightweight for a touchscreen device, coming in at just 98 grams and measuring 106 x 57 x 12mm. Central to the phone is the 2.8" QVGA display, plus a navigation key, call and end key and multimedia controls. Flip the Lindy M5650 over and there's a 3 megapixel camera with video capture capabilities. There's an FM radio in addition to the built-in media player, and all the usual features are here such as Bluetooth, USB connectivity and microSD expandable memory.

The Corby was a GSM-only device, but the Samsung Lindy M5650 is a fully-connected 3.5G handset that supports downloads of up to 7.2 Mbps, and on top of that it is also WiFi capable, which is ideal for households with wireless networking.

There's a pretty comprehensive range of software including a web browser, email client and support for social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and more. The user interface has a "cartoony" look and feel about it, and when combined with the blue or black external styling, then it is very clearly a mobile phone aimed at younger customers.

Samsung have decided to go for a very soft launch with this phone, and it turns out that they have already been selling it in Portugal for a little while at for €159 through a few retailers. Samsung say that it should be available in most markets outside the Americas very soon.

Samsung Lindy M5650 at a glance

Available:
Now / Q1 2010

Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 +
UMTS/WCDMA (bands not specified)

Data:
GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA + WiFi

Screen:
2.8" 320 x 240 pixels, 262k colours

Camera:
3 megapixels

Size:
Compact touchscreen
98 grams / 106 x 57 x 12mm

Bluetooth:
Yes

Memory card:
MicroSD

Infra-red:
No

Polyphonic:
Yes

Java:
Yes

GPS:
No

OS:
Proprietary

Battery life:
3 hours talk / 12 days standby