Discount supermarket chain Aldi is selling a cheap smartphone that sports most of the features of the Samsung Corby S3650 but comes with a real QWERTZ keyboard. The Samsung B3410 is available now at Aldi Nord supermarkets for EUR 129.90 and will be available at Aldi Sued supermarkets on December 17th. This is a very special offer because usually Aldi does not offer smartphones that have just been launched. At Aldi supermarkets the smartphone Samsung B3410, which is suited for mobile messaging services such as SMS, email and instant messaging, is slightly cheaper than at German online stores.

The Samsung B3410 almost looks like the Samsung Corby, except for that it is a sliding smartphone with a real QWERTZ keyboard. Due to neat workmanship the smartphone does not look cheap even though it is made of plastic. The sliding function is pretty smooth with a snap. It features a small 2.4-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 262,144 colors which shows content sharp and contrasty in landscape mode when the slider phone has been opened. On the touchscreen, users can also use a virtual numeric keyboard. When writing messages the slightly rounded keys of the real keyboard are best used with both thumbs like on a Blackberry handheld. Pressure points of the keyboard could be better, though.

The Samsung B3410 runs on a proprietary operating system, the main menu shows nine icons which cannot be altered or substituted by others. Using the phone by touchscreen is sometimes difficult because of small input fields and narrow scroll bars. As on the Omnia smartphones by Samsung, the B3410 features a virtual widget bar on the left side of the touchscreen which can be dragged on the homescreen. Among them are also shortcuts which lead to the mobile web portals of social networking services such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket. For mobile instant messaging users find the Palringo multi messenger client on the phone.

The Samsung B3410 can be used on GSM networks around 850, 900, 1,800 and 1,900 MHz, for mobile data transmissions the smartphone supports GPRS and EDGE – just like the Samsung Corby. And unfortunately, both mobile phones come without WiFi for connecting to the internet at hotspots for free. Samsung says the phone offers up to three hours of speaking time. Users can save up to 300 SMS messages, 1,000 contacts and 1,000 calendar entries.

Samsung B3410, Pictures: GermanPhoneGuy/teltarif.de

Additional features are a 2-megapixel camera, a music player and an FM radio. Photos and songs can be stored on a microSD card with up to 8 GB. However, the Samsung B3410 sold at Aldi supermarkets comes without memory card. Aldi offers a package of two microSD cards with 2 GB storage capacity each for EUR 10.00.

Product Summary of the Samsung B3410:
Operating System: Samsung OS with TouchWiz user interface
GSM Networks: 850, 900, 1,800, 1,900 MHz
Data Transfer: GPRS, EDGE
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB
Screen: 2.4-inch Touchscreen with 240 x 320 pixels resolution and 262,144 colors
Keyboard: QWERTZ
Camera: 1,600 x 1,200 pixels, autofocus
Storage: 8 GB microSD
Size: 102 x 52 x 16 mm
Speaking Time: 3 hrs

Read more about the Samsung B3410 at Aldi at www.teltarif.de (in German).