The Samsung Corby Pro (B5310) Excites Me

Posted on December 14th, 2009. Written by Rico.

The Samsung B5310—marketed as the CorbyPRO—looks like an attractive budget option for Filipinos looking to buy a phone come January 2010. Here’s why.

The official launch price of the CorbyPRO will be P11,990. That price gets buyers the following features:

• 2.8″ QVGA (320 x 240) touch-display
• Slide-out QWERTY thumb board (slide-out)
• Wi-Fi
• 3.5mm earphone jack
• 3.2 megapixel camera with 2x zoom (not clear if that’s digital or real-deal optical zoom)
• Bluetooth
• microSD slot (up to 16GB supported)
• HSDPA 7.2 mbps capability

Unless competitors come out with anything new over the next few weeks, the B5310 will be the cheapest phone on the Philippine market with a touch screen, QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, and HSDPA. No WiFi or HSDPA dilemma here.

Such a feature set promises easy typing, and quick access to the internet through cell phone networks or the nearest hotspot. Maybe that’s why Samsung’s marketese promises that the CorbyPRO (and it’s cheaper siblings, the P6,990 CorbyTXT and the P7,590 B3410) will make easy work of managing multiple IM and social networking accounts. “You can use this very affordable phone to chat on YM and upload pics to your Facebook, at the very least!” the PR seems to scream.

The question remains: how does the CorbyPRO perform under everyday conditions? Expected launch date as mentioned above is the first month of 2010, but hopefully we can secure a review unit soon, for yours truly to put through its paces.

If you’re wondering about the Samsung CorbyTXT (B3210) and the B3410—available on the market as you read this—check out their specs below:

All three phones mentioned above come in four different colors, all bright and “kid-friendly”: white, pink, yellow, and blue.

CorbyTXT (B3210) QWERTY thumb board (integrated) 3.5mm earphone jack 2 megapixel camera with smile, panorama, and continuous shot Bluetooth microSD slot (up to 8GB cards supported) EDGE capability P6,990

B4310 2.6″ QVGA touch screen QWERTY thumb board (slide-out) 3.5mm earphone jack 2 megapixel camera with single, multiple, mosaic, and panorama shot Bluetooth microSD slot (up to 8GB cards supported) EDGE capability P7,590