While the majority of today's mobile phones go for sleek black and metal to give a refined minimalist look, the Genio Touch is available in a whole range of day-glo shades.
This entry-level range is clearly aimed at today's always-connected consumers, and Samsung is pitching the Genio Touch as the ideal tool to stay in constant contact with your social networks or make chatting online easier. Although its specs don't make it a top quality phone, it has plenty of strengths that could leave it glued to the hands of any 12-15 year-olds you know.
The flashy Genio Touch collection
For today's youngsters, a mobile phone is a constant companion, which means that making sure it's stylish is very important. Given the lucrative market for phone accessories, then we're sure that the different versions of the Genio Touch--each with three different cases--will be an attractive option for young users. It's a lightweight phone that's a treat to use, and Genio Touch even manages to win over more mature thirtysomethings with its style.
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We tried the yellow version with these three cases, but black, white and pink packs are also available
Fast, responsive touchscreen
The widget bar runs down the left of the screen
No full-size virtual keyboard
That's one of the Genio Touch's biggest weaknesses: it doesn't have a full onscreen QWERTY keyboard. Then again, if the Genio Touch had a target audience in mind for this phone, then it's definitely people with a lot of text messages to write.
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Instead, you have to type with an old-fashioned numeric keypad and T9, which is a system that youngsters are perfectly comfortable with. Still, it would have been a good idea to include the two systems.
Direct access to social networking sites
The Genio Touch is no heavyweight, and it doesn't pretend to be a high-end touchscreen phone that can do anything and everything. Instead, it cuts straight to the chase, which might well be its main quality. Not everybody needs to have a handset brimming over with advanced features--most of which they don't even use anyway. In short, not everybody needs a smartphone--and nor do they want to pay for an expensive data plan to go with it either.
That's why the Genio Touch, like other phones aimed at this part of the market, goes against the current trend for smartphones. It's not the most powerful phone ever, and it doesn't pretend to be either. Instead, it knows exactly who its target audience is, and provides the features that these young, ultra-mobile, super-connected users want. They're a generation that manufacturers keep a very close eye on, after all.
Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are all available as widgets. All you need to do to update your Facebook status, for instance, is drop the Facebook application onto your homescreen and log in--you don't even have to connect to the site itself. To go further and look at your friend's profiles, though, you do need to open the website.
Minimal multimedia
As you might have guessed, the Genio Touch doesn't have any particularly high-end photo or video features--it's hard to work miracles with a 2 Megapixel sensor. Taking photos at night is out as there's no flash, as is printing the photos you've taken. That said, you can probably get away with posting a few small images on Facebook. Once again though, Samsung has got younger users in mind with some fun filters to morph photos of your friends.
The Genio Touch also includes an audio player which is of pretty average quality and an FM radio. With such a small screen and basic features, it can go for almost three days without needing recharging.
This entry-level range is clearly aimed at today's always-connected consumers, and Samsung is pitching the Genio Touch as the ideal tool to stay in constant contact with your social networks or make chatting online easier. Although its specs don't make it a top quality phone, it has plenty of strengths that could leave it glued to the hands of any 12-15 year-olds you know.
For today's youngsters, a mobile phone is a constant companion, which means that making sure it's stylish is very important. Given the lucrative market for phone accessories, then we're sure that the different versions of the Genio Touch--each with three different cases--will be an attractive option for young users. It's a lightweight phone that's a treat to use, and Genio Touch even manages to win over more mature thirtysomethings with its style.
We tried the yellow version with these three cases, but black, white and pink packs are also available
Fast, responsive touchscreen
Once you've switched it on, there are three customisable homescreens that you can fill with a wide choice of widgets from the bar along the left of the screen. This TouchWiz interface that's found on many of Samsung's mobiles works even better on this very responsive touchscreen. Everything you need to do works immediately so there's no infuriating repeated taps. The touch-sensitive screen is very accurate overall and works with just a gentle skim of the finger.
The widget bar runs down the left of the screen
No full-size virtual keyboard
That's one of the Genio Touch's biggest weaknesses: it doesn't have a full onscreen QWERTY keyboard. Then again, if the Genio Touch had a target audience in mind for this phone, then it's definitely people with a lot of text messages to write.
Direct access to social networking sites
The Genio Touch is no heavyweight, and it doesn't pretend to be a high-end touchscreen phone that can do anything and everything. Instead, it cuts straight to the chase, which might well be its main quality. Not everybody needs to have a handset brimming over with advanced features--most of which they don't even use anyway. In short, not everybody needs a smartphone--and nor do they want to pay for an expensive data plan to go with it either.
That's why the Genio Touch, like other phones aimed at this part of the market, goes against the current trend for smartphones. It's not the most powerful phone ever, and it doesn't pretend to be either. Instead, it knows exactly who its target audience is, and provides the features that these young, ultra-mobile, super-connected users want. They're a generation that manufacturers keep a very close eye on, after all.
Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are all available as widgets. All you need to do to update your Facebook status, for instance, is drop the Facebook application onto your homescreen and log in--you don't even have to connect to the site itself. To go further and look at your friend's profiles, though, you do need to open the website.
Minimal multimedia
As you might have guessed, the Genio Touch doesn't have any particularly high-end photo or video features--it's hard to work miracles with a 2 Megapixel sensor. Taking photos at night is out as there's no flash, as is printing the photos you've taken. That said, you can probably get away with posting a few small images on Facebook. Once again though, Samsung has got younger users in mind with some fun filters to morph photos of your friends.
The Genio Touch also includes an audio player which is of pretty average quality and an FM radio. With such a small screen and basic features, it can go for almost three days without needing recharging.
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Pros
- Style, handling and lightweight construction
- Social networking right from the homescreen
- Sensitive touchscreen, responsive interface
- Easy to use
- Good battery life
Cons
- No complete virtual keyboard
- One single proprietary connector for everything
- Weak multimedia features
- Impossible to activate sounds when you press a key
- Not much internal memory
Conclusion
The Genio Touch certainly isn't the greatest mobile we've ever seen, but it's got enough going for it to win over its target audience. Easy to use, fast and fun, it makes keeping in touch with your friends a piece of cake. And as a bonus, it has a great battery life.
OUR SCORE
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