Samsung Smiley :) Review

Introduction:

Let us present to you the phone with the worst name ever, the Samsung :).  The :)- which we will refer to as Smiley from here on out- thankfully isn’t as bad as its name.  This low-end portrait slider features a decidedly low-end set of specs, but what it does it does well.  It offers a full QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera and microSD expansion.



Design:

The Samsung Smiley is a radical design departure from the T349 it replaces, which was a bar phone with a SureType keyboard.  This time around the Smiley is a well-designed portrait slider with a full keyboard, similar to the Strive and Reclaim.  It is a good size and fits comfortably in the hand, and despite not having a soft-touch coating the back has some texture to it thanks to an embossed pattern.


You can compare the Samsung Smiley :) with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The 2.6” QVGA display has 262K colors that give it a crisp appearance.  Below is a six-key navigation cluster with a 5-way d-pad in the middle.  There is dedicated messaging key that the user can customize for anything in the messaging submenu, be it your inbox, the Social Buzz app, IM or others.  The left side of the phone has the volume rocker near the top and microSD card slot.  On the right is the microUSB charging/data port and a dedicated camera key.  The camera resides on the back of the slide and is only usable when the phone is opened.





Also available when slid open is the QWERTY keyboard.  Samsung does portrait sliders well and the Smiley is no exception.  The keyboard has good feel and despite having small keys we didn’t have any problems typing accurately.  Samsung has used a black and blue color scheme, mixed up with some red accents that are nice and offer a bit of class to the phone.