Samsung Tobi (Samsung GT-S3030)
Discontinued 14th November 2008
The Samsung Tobi is a fun phone aimed at "pre-teens
and young adults", according to Samsung. It is
a quite basic but attractive device that weighs only
85 grams, but it comes in a variety of different colours,
and each phone has three different themes and a customisable
back cover.
Before we look at the Samsung Tobi in more detail, we
have to raise this question: is marketing a mobile phone
at children actually a good idea? A recent
report published by The Daily Telegraph
raises questions about the increasing amount of electromagnetic
radiation that children are exposed to, and explains
that they could be more at risk than adults. Professor
Lennart Hardell says that he believes that children
under 12 should be banned from using mobile phones altogether..
and yet, the Samsung Tobi is specifically aimed at that
market. The UK's Department of Health has a leaflet
called Mobile
Phones and Health [PDF - Adobe
Acrobat Reader required] that gives guidance on
mobile phone use for children.
Samsung
are marketing the Tobi as a safety aid though - it has
an "SOS call" and "SOS message"
function plus a "Fake Call" trick that
Samsung haven't fully explained. Samsung have made some
effort in the materials used to remove toxic materials
and potential allergens.
There are three unique animated themes on the Samsung
Tobi: Monster, Snowman and Ocean World. This reminds
us a little of the old Siemens
Emoty handset from a few years back. There is also
a changeable back cover, including a see-through panel
which can be used to display a favorite picture or photograph..
something that we have also seen before in the Nokia
3200. The Samsung Tobi can play back MP3, AAC and
WMA audio files and has two built-in games: Brain Challenge
and Tetris Mania.
The display is a 1.9" panel which Samsung describe
as "QCIF", which is 176 x 144 pixels, which
is unusual. On the back is a 1.3 megapixel camera. The
Samsung Tobi has 15MB of internal memory which can be
expanded up to 8GB using a microSD card. The Tobi has
Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity too.
You can buy the Samsung Tobi in one of six slightly
startling colour variations: Sweet Pink, Bright Orange,
Oasis Blue, Loyal Blue, Apple Green and Snow Silver.
Samsung say that the Tobi / S3030 should launch in November
in the UK and Italy, with other European Countries,
the CIS and China following later. There will even be
a dedicated website at tobi.samsung.com (not yet available)
where new content and games can be downloaded. We don't
know exactly how much the Tobi will cost, but we imagine
that it will be fairly inexpensive.
You can
see more of the Samsung Tobi in the gallery.
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Samsung
Tobi (Samsung GT-S3030)
at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2008
|
Network:
|
GSM
900 / 1800 / 1900
|
Data:
|
Not
specified
|
Screen:
|
176
x 144 pixels
|
Camera:
|
1.3
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Lightweight
slider 95 x 45 x 18mm
/ 85 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Not
specified
|
GPS:
|
No
|
Battery
life:
|
Not
specified
|
|
|