Samsung Genio Pro B5310

The Genio Pro B5310 has a 2.8-inch resistive touch-screen, a full slide-out keyboard and 3G/3G+ connectivity. So does that make typing comfortable and effective, and allow quick and easy navigation through social networking sites? Let's find out.

Just like the Genio Touch, whose basic design it maintains, the Genio Pro has all the ingredients of a mobile designed for younger users looking for a light, fun kind of phone (the Pro also has interchangeable covers) for mobile access to social networking sites.

The Pro is just as responsive as the original model: applications open quickly and the touch-screen performs fairly accurately.

The Pro, however, has better features than the entry-level Genio. Apart from boosted connectivity (see inset), the most noticeable new addition is a slide-out keyboard. It's well finished, and there's no gap or wobble between the keyboard and the screen. Compared with the Genio Touch's virtual alphanumeric keypad, the Pro is certainly more comfortable to use. So unless you're a dab hand with the predictive text function, the Genio Pro's physical keyboard is certainly more practical. In fact, even though the keys have been a bit squashed together to keep down the phone's size, text entry is still much quicker. We tested it out typing a few messages, and you get used to it in no time. Plus, the four rows of buttons allow direct access to numbers and special characters like @ and % so you can access favourite websites or your e-mail inbox even more quickly.

The Genio Pro has a built-in camera with a 3-Megapixel sensor, compared with 2-Megapixels for the Genio Touch. It's fine for taking the odd snap now and again to post on Facebook, so long as the lighting conditions are good. The battery life isn't quite as good as the Genio Touch, probably due to the boosted connectivity, but it'll still last a couple of days between charges.