Samsung has kept the momentum on the low end touchscreen market with regular launches and updates. Be it the Champ Duos to succeed the original Champ or the Corby II and Start II to take forward successful series. Here is a quick review of a recent release from Samsung, the Champ 2 (GT-C3330.)
Largely unnoticed and un-hyped, the Champ 2 has made it to the markets this week with a 2.4″ resistive touch screen (yes it still carries the stylus and a 240×320 resolution) and a somewhat refreshing design when compared to its predecessors. Gone are the rounded design, instead the design is now much more inspired by the Star and Wave series handsets. The silver finish on the front give a meta free, however the built is completely plastic.
The Device
In the box you would find a the handset, battery, a headset , power charger and the user guide. However you would notice that no memory card is bundled with this device, not even a USB cable. Users might find themselves spending a few extra bucks buying these two, given the fact that none of the media features or file transfer would be effective without a data-cable / memory card duo. The device has only 20MB of internal storage.
The three buttons on the front remain standard, Yes (call attend), Back (on the Champ 2 it is not labelled as a back key, thus confusing to begin with) and the No (call end / Power). On the right you have a keypad lock button and a dedicated camera button. The micro USB slot is on the top alongside the 3.5mm audio jack, behind the back cover you have a 1000 mAh battery, the SIM and Micro SD card slot.
The stylus fits in behind the device (top right corner.) Samsung has a slight refresh in the menu layout, but largely it is the same as the original Champ. The Champ 2 still uses a T9 keyboard on screen and despite the resistive screen, we saw no use for a stylus when operating the device. You would see that in the video review below.
Camera Samples (Photo / Video)
The camera on the Champ 2 is upgraded to 2 megapixels and also shoots video. While the image quality is much better than the original Champ, we would let you judge the quality with the output below. The video output from the device is far from impressive, a 176 × 144 .mp4 output.
From Champ to Champ 2
Almost nothing has evolved in the Champ 2 apart from the somewhat refreshing design and the slight bump to the camera. The camera remains 2MP (no Flash), loading the OnlyGizmos homepage over EDGE threw and error (Page size too big) and the touchscreen is sluggish given its resistive nature. Costing Rs 3900, the expectations from the Champ 2 were never very high, but we are appalled to see no evolution on the specs / usability front even more than a year after the original Champ came out. As much as the Galaxy Y impressed us by outperforming the price segment it launched in, the Champ 2 makes us look at what Motorola did with the EX119 or even the low cost Idea Android phone out there.
Video Review
