| Feature phones or dumbphones remain the most | | | | comes with smile detection, geo tagging and a QVGA |
| widely used mobile phone on the planet. In the US | | | | video recording at 15fps. A secondary CIF camera on |
| alone, they account 72% of all mobile phone sales. | | | | the face for 3G video calls is there which some |
| With features on midrange handsets matching those in | | | | smartphones deliberately miss out. Apart from media |
| smartphones but a lower price point, for most folks | | | | players, mobile entertainment comes with a stereo FM |
| there's no need for smartphones. The Samsung | | | | receiver with RDS and 3.5mm headphone jack. |
| S5620 Monte comes as the latest feature phone | | | | Listening gets enhanced with stereo widening and |
| challenge to smartphones. | | | | simulated surround with its DNSe (Dynamic Natural |
| Redefining the Feature Mobile Phone | | | | Sound engine). |
| Korean phone makers Samsung and LG have been in | | | | Internal memory is a mere 227 MB but you get |
| the forefront redefining feature phones that not only | | | | hot-swappable microSD expandability you up to 16 GB. |
| blur their distinction from smartphones but are steadily | | | | You can have up to 9 hours of talk time and 770 |
| appealing to a market that could have gone for | | | | hours of standby time with a 960 mAh li-ion battery |
| smartphones. The Monte is latest from the world's | | | | when charged to the max. |
| second largest mobile phone producer with TouchWiz | | | | Stiffer Competition |
| 2.0 UI to give it the look and feel of a smartphone and | | | | Getting stiff competition from emerging feature phones |
| a feature set that can shame even budget to | | | | is nothing new. We've seen that emerged with |
| mid-priced smartphones | | | | dumbphones getting smartphone features at a lower |
| The Monte is a 3G phone on the dual band UMTS and | | | | price and smartphones going down in price but giving |
| a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on 2G. It comes with | | | | up on some of the features the market expects. |
| HSDPA at 3.5 MBps, WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with | | | | The Monte is just the latest to mount this challenge |
| A2DP and standard microUSB 2.0. It even has SatNav | | | | and a clear indicator of feature phones for the year. |
| functionality often reserved for smartphones with a | | | | Samsung's own B7300 Omnia LTE matches the |
| GPS receiver using Google Maps 3.0. It goes a step up | | | | Monte feature for feature but with the edge of a |
| with Google Latitude for pinpoint accuracy of your | | | | Windows Mobile OS. But the market seldom considers |
| location. | | | | an OS providing any edge for as long as the features |
| A 3-inch Wide QVGA with 256k colors is already a | | | | work as expected. |
| common feature in affordable full-touchscreen | | | | Availability |
| handsets but the Monte gets better with a capacitive | | | | Samsung announced its new Samsung S5620 Monte |
| touchscreen that can also be rare in many | | | | will start shipping in the 2nd quarter of the year. |
| smartphones. There's the usual accelerometer for | | | | There's only one color - black. It is still too early for any |
| auto rotate viewing and is used for it turn-to-mute | | | | pricing information but with some remarkable feature |
| feature. | | | | set and a promised affordability, this is one feature |
| Other features common with many smartphones | | | | phone we look forward to seeing in the markets soon. |
| include a 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera that | | | | |