A new series of handsets have been announced by Samsung, which will bring a range of handsets to market that focus on the additional ways people communicate these days, particularly social networking. The range of handsets will be branded under the name Shark, and three handsets have already been announced by Samsung under this label, which should all become available during January and February. We are going to look at the main features of all three of these handsets, starting with the baby of the family, the S3550 Shark 3.
Whilst pricing on all models have yet to be confirmed, the Shark 3 will surely be the lowest priced, based on features the device offers, and is most likely to be aimed at the emerging markets, as well as prepay in developed countries, and on the amazing cashback and special offer gift deals that are available these days. The Shark 3 is very lightweight, weighing in at just 79g, and measuring 96 x 46 x 14mm. The Shark 3 S3550 marks a return to the traditional styled Samsung device, coming in a comfortable slide style, as opposed to the recent run of touchscreen devices Samsung have been producing. The display on the phone is a tad small, measuring 2.0 inches across, with a QVGA (240 x 320) resolution. The TFT display supports up to 256,000 colours, and looks good when in use.
The S3550 isn’t the best connected device available, which does help keep costs to a minimum, so there is no WiFi, nor HSDPA, nor even 3G. All data transfer on the handset is handled either on EDGE or GPRS, with the Shark 3 supporting class 10 in both protocols. For local connectivity the handset is enabled with a USB connector to connect to a PC with a data cable, as well as offering the latest version of Bluetooth, 2.1. This version allows for easier pairing with other compatible Bluetooth devices, removing some of the frustration users experience when trying to pair handsets with other phones, and Bluetooth headsets. The Bluetooth option also includes A2DP for stereo audio connectivity, which offers the option of being able to listen to music on the phone wirelessly, in stereo quality.
There isn’t too much internal memory on the phone, just 35MB, but this is expandable by the addition of a microSD memory card, with the Shark 3 able to handle cards up to 8GB in size, which is ample memory for music, as well as games and images. The phone is compatible with Java 2.0 which means that there is a wide selection of games and apps that can be installed on the phone, such as apps from Google, and Opera. One app from Google that comes pre-installed is Google Maps. The S3550 does not include GPS support, so all location information will be gathered using network triangulation, which works well in built up areas, but less so in wide open countryside locations.
We’ve already mentioned about playing music on the handset, and as well as the capable media player the phone also comes with a built in Stereo FM radio, with RDS support. To further enhance the music playing credentials of the phone, the Shark 3 is endowed with DNSe, as with other recent Samsung devices, which serves to improve the playback quality on the phone.
A nice feature on the Shark 3 and something that it will hold in common with all Shark series devices, is the tight integration with social networks. Social networks have really revolutionised the way we communicate with our friends and families, and whilst text messaging is as popular as ever, social networking does a lot to help us keep in touch on the move. The major manufacturers have all taken notice of this trend, and quickly brought devices to market that offer a range of ways of interacting with these services, much more so than was ever done for accessing Instant Messaging by mobile. On the standby screen, there are shortcut icons to Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo among others, and there is also a Samsung Communities app which makes it easy to upload content such as photos and videos to services like Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket and YouTube. Security also gets a look in on the Shark range, with a mobile tracker feature available, plus the phone can be set to send an SMS to a pre-defined number if the SIM card is removed. It is also possible to program the phone to send a distress alert to a pre-selected emergency contact, a quick and discreet way of sending a request for assistance should the need arise.
For a budget phone, the Samsung S3550 Shark 3 has a lot to offer, and should appeal to the younger generation, most likely people looking at their first mobile phone, as well as the price conscious consumer.
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