Samsung S5350 Shark Review

Samsung S5350 Shark Handset

The Samsung S5350 Shark is the second of the batch of three recently announced Shark series handsets that we are going to look at in a bit more detail. In terms of specification, the S5350 Shark sits in the middle of the range, so let’s take a look at what it has to offer.

The S5350 is a candybar style device, and slightly heavier than the Shark S3550 3 we previously looked at, weighing in here at 99g. Size wise the handset is in the midrange, measuring up at 115 x 47 x 12mm. The Shark has a 2.2 inch TFT display, with QVGA resolution, supporting up to 256,000 colours. Quad band GSM connectivity means you will be able to use the device pretty much anywhere around the world where a GSM network is available.

As with all the handsets marketed under the Shark name, the emphasis for the phone is on connecting via social networks. On the display standby screen, there are shortcuts to Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and other popular social networks, plus there is a Samsung communities app that allows for easy and quick uploading of photos and videos to sites like Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket and YouTube. With the mobile phone becoming more and more an essential all round communication tool for many people, the more manufacturers do to enable ease of access to such services, the more likely the devices will find favour with the fickle mid to late teen youth market.

The Shark 5350 comes with Google Maps pre-installed, although the device itself does not natively support GPS. Network triangulation will give varying results depending on your location at the time, so to get the best from this it is advisable to invest in a Bluetooth GPS unit. These can conveniently come as a key ring, so you can easily carry the GPS unit around with you. The S5350 supports Bluetooth 2.1 so connecting to a Bluetooth GPS unit should be an easy enough affair. The Bluetooth option on the device also includes A2DP which allows you to stream audio to a stereo Bluetooth headset. With DNSe included on the phone, sound quality from music playback is very good, and the media player supports a wide range of audio and video file formats. There is plenty of space for media storage on the phone, with an internal memory capacity of 100MB, which can be expended with MicroSD memory cards, with the S5350 handling up to 16GB in size.

The camera on the phone is a 3.2 Megapixel device with autofocus. Support is built in for smile detection to help get the best result from portrait shots. The camera is also enabled for video recording, capturing video at 15 fps in QVGA resolution. There is also a front facing video camera so you can make and receive video calls on the handset. The inclusion of a front facing camera is a giveaway sign that the Shark S5350 includes support for 3G data transfer; in fact the Shark supports not only 3G but also HSDPA for high speed downloads at up to 3.6Mbps. This is all backed up by Class 10 GPRS and EDGE, although there is no WiFi support on the phone, which is not too surprising given the low entry price range of the device.

Security is an important point if devices are going to store passwords for your various social networking and email accounts. To cater for this, the S5350 Shark has a strong set of security features that should help prevent people being able to access your personal data. As well as setting a pin code on your SIM, and a security code for changing the SIM card, you can preset the device to send an SMS to a pre-determined number when the SIM card is changed. In addition, it is possible to set an SOS message on the phone, which allows you to discreetly send out for help without attracting too much attention.

Despite being marketed as a level entry device, the S5350 Shark has enough in its bag to do battle with more mid range handsets and hold its own, too. If you are looking for a well featured, low cost handset, then the S5350 Shark could be the phone for you. You won’t have to wait long, either, as the Shark is due for release during the coming weeks.

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