The new Samsung S5620 Monte is, on first examining, an extremely good device for those heavily into social networking, and seems to be a natural progression from the company’s earlier Genio incarnations. Similarly to these earlier devices Samsung’s Monte is bright and vibrant, which is certain to appeal to younger, trendier users looking for a flashing piece of tech and affords rapid, pain-free access to all of the most popular social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo. To further mark the Monte’s progression from the earlier Genio range it now comes complete with Wi-Fi support, affording the user even more online connectivity to friends and networks.
The screen itself is an excellent combination of easy navigation and sharp, vibrant colours packaged into a 3-inch TFT display. The 240X400 WQVGA resolution is extremely detailed and displays 246k colours. The touchscreen itself is also powered by TouchWiz 2.0 Plus, Samsung’s up-to-date version of their touchscreen operating system, though the most recent models are enhanced from their previous incarnations. The screen itself is very responsive and the high resolution and 16:9 ratio makes it an excellent device on which to watch widescreen videos. The integral accelerometer as well allows the user to turn the phone from landscape to portrait mode rapidly with no problems.
The Monte’s media player supports all of the leading video and music formats and comes complete with a stereo FM radio with RDS. It also features a 3.5mm jack where the user can plug their own headphones into the device and a YouTube application for easy viewing in addition to being able to stream video content from various other online sources. The useful 227MB of storage space is handy for saving your music, though you may want to upgrade to 16 GB using a microSD card (highly recommend if you’re into a lot of stored media). The phone also has an integral 3.2 megapixel camera with several useful features, although unfortunately, it does not feature a flash and this minor oversight will certainly limit those photo-ops to daylight hours. It does, however, come with face and smile detection, and can also record QVGA video. There is also a great secondary camera on the front of the device which can be used for video calling – a great feature for those who enjoy utilising this 3G feature.
Due to the fact that the Monte is hardwired for social networking it is a joy to seamlessly upload pictures and videos to your main online sites in order to rapidly share them with friends and family. The phone’s integral apps afford quick access to such sites as Twitter and Facebook. Your social networking information can also be conveniently synchronised and attached to the contacts in your phone address book, too, saving tedious manual work and time.
The device is fully supported for MMS and SMS, as well as instant messaging. It utilises Parlingo IM, a very useful tool that is able to find your contacts across a variety of IM services making synchronised access and usage easy. The Monte also has excellent e-mail support, utilising push e-mail which, very conveniently, lets you know on your homescreen when your e-mail account receives a new e-mail – excellent for those needed to be kept constantly in the social and professional loop.
Overall the Samsung Monte is a really outstanding device for those who require to be linked at the hip to all things social networking. Its bright and dynamic colours and sharp design with further enhance its appeal to a young and e-savvy generation always on the cyber-go. Connectivity is excellent, and the extremely user-friendly handset allows fast and pain-free access to all applications. The inclusion of Wi-Fi is another excellent benefit for those demanding fully coverage and access.
