Mobile Phone Reviews - GSM MAG

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics has officially introduced its new line of low-to-mid eye catching range of Shark handsets. Three sleek, tactile and powerful mobile phones are included in the lineup: the candybar S5350 and two sliders, S5550 and S3550.

The new devices specially target the social networking groups and thus provide one touch access to social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, GoogleTalk, Bebo and many other popular networks. According to the company, all three devices were mainly developed to meet the needs of multimedia enthusiasts, while also including a wide range of connectivity options: “The Shark Series is designed to meet the needs of active, style-conscious users who demand constant connection with their peers.The Shark Series will not only keep these users up-to-date with the latest news and information important to them, but also allows them to express their own style and distinctive personal taste.” said Younghee Lee, vice president of Mobile Marketing, Samsung Electronics.

Of only 11.9mm frame, the first phone, Shark S5350 will offer its users the chance to take good pictures thanks to the 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording. It also comes packed with a 2.2-inch QVGA display and HSDPA connectivity up to 3.6Mbps, 100MB of built in memory, microSD expansion, Bluetooth 2.1 functions and a 900mAH battery. On 3G networks the battery can provide a talktime of three hours and 10 hours on 2G networks. Other features include GPRS, EDGE, FM radio with RDS, Document viewer and video editor. It has also updated GUI designs, multi-instant messenger (GTalk, Palringo Chat, AIM) and Music Player with DNSe v1.0.

The second phone, Shark S5550 comes with a 2.2-inch AM-OLED QVGA screen, 5-megapixel autofocus snapper with Face Detection, Smile Shot, and video recording (QVGA at 30fps), and the same 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity as the 5350. Dual-band 3G is also on board with quad-band GSM which allows worldwide roaming. It has a limited internal memory of 110MB that can be expanded through the built-in microSD memory card slot (up to 8GB); it has a 2.0 USB and the same version of Bluetooth as S5350. It measures 48.7 x 101.8 x 14.8 mm and weighs 99g.

The third phone, S3550 is one of the best slider phones in the market right now. At least this is what the company says after a study on simplicity and style. Its spec list includes a 2-inch 262K QVGA screen, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, 40MB of built-in memory, microSD expansion for up to 8GB of additional storage space and USB 2.0 for local connectivity. A new innovative UI is also there, along with intuitive navigation, and fast connectivity to social networks.

All three phones are equipped with Mobile Tracker, through which one can recover a lost or stolen device, but unfortunately they have no support for Wi-Fi. There is no information about the availability or the pricing of any of the Samsung Shark handsets but they are expected to become available for purchase during January.