I was trying out my friend's new music phone the other day, the Samsung M3510 aka Beat b which is a low-cost music phone that targets the youth market. It's a basic phone with no 3G, and no WiFi. The Beat b is all about music as evidenced by the dedicated music keys. One look at it will remind you of its closest rival, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. The specs sheets of the two phones are uncannily similar.
As a music player it's quite fun to use. The loudspeaker, though not tinny, isn't as dynamic as a music phone's output should be, but it's good enough for a quiet room. Good thing the phone comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack then. It's hard to miss the next track and play/pause buttons that are prominently displayed at the bottom of the screen. And by "hard to miss" I mean that they can be easily pressed by mistake.
Tracks are organized into several categories, and there are several EQ options to suit your musical taste, just as with every other MP3 player. The color themes are vibrant, and the text, though small, is sharp and readable. The screen and the visuals make the M3510's player a joy to use.
As much as the term "music phone" is fast becoming redundant, the M3510 actually does justice to its kind. You can instantly tell that it was designed for a specific demographic, and the phone succeeds at what it tries to do, without trying to be a jack of all trades. For that alone it deserves a thumbs up. The claimed shake to the next track function is a definite plus making this budget music phone a great buy.
Specs at a glance:
2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity
240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches QVGA 262K color display
2 megapixel camera
FM Radio with RDS
20MB user memory
microSD memory card slot
USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity
3.5 mm headphone jack
Stand-by of up to 250 h
Talk time of up to 5 h
Music play up to 19 h 30 min
