Samsung Monte

While the world may be going absolutely potty for the new iPhone 4, HTC Evo 4G, and Samsung Wave handsets, there’s still room for more modest challengers in the rapidly crowding smartphone arena, and the likeable Samsung Monte is proof of that.

While it’s not as accomplished as its highly esteemed cousin the Wave, this smartphone lite manages to pull together a vast array of essential options for a budget price. Yes, we said the 'B' word - expect to pay about £100-£120 on the high street.

Not that you’d know this at first glance: the design is near-faultless, with attractive curves, glossy surfaces, and tasteful silver accents. The illusion is only shattered when you actually scoop it up - at just 92 grams, the Monte feels a little lightweight and cheap.

Like previous Samsung handsets, this blower sports the company’s TouchWiz interface complete with numerous widgets, three customisable home screens, and iPhone-like app menus. YouTube and BBC iPlayer home screen widgets are supported, as are Facebook and Twitter.

Indeed, Samsung is keen to push the social networking element of the phone and the ability to have updates beamed directly to your homescreen is a wonderful touch, albeit one which Android users have been enjoying for quite some time now.

This functionality allows Monte owners to boast bragging rights over their widget-less iPhone-owning pals, but the effectiveness of these elements is lessened slightly by the occasionally awkward TouchWiz OS, which we imagine is on borrowed time now that Samsung is putting its weight behind its much-hyped bada software.

Despite possessing a 3-inch capacitive display Samsung’s propriety software feels curiously unresponsive at times, often requiring multiple taps to register an input or even displaying hopelessly delayed reactions to your swipes. There’s also no multi-touch to speak of.

Over time, it’s easy to adapt to these foibles, although it has to be said that navigating your away around the Monte is anything but instinctive. Items are secreted in menus where they really don’t belong and the use of the middle button of the phone to take you back a step is entirely counter-intuitive.

Again, these are things that you can become accustomed to rather than genuine deal-breakers.

In terms of specifications, the Monte manages to cram in wi-fi, a 3.2 megapixel snapper (sans Flash, sadly) and a MicroSD card slot. You’re also able to enjoy Google Maps and GPS tech to go along with it.

Games are limited to the usual accelerometer-controlled tilt efforts we’re so used to seeing on entry-level touchscreen phones these days, although for the casual user they’re likely to be perfect acceptable. The unit we reviewed came curiously under-stocked in terms of interactive entertainment but grabbing new games isn’t too much of a pain.

As smartphones become the norm rather than the exception it’s likely that we’ll be seeing a lot more devices in the same mould as the Monte. Entry-level and budget smartphones are progressing nicely when it comes to features, but naturally they’re never going to impress existing iPhone or Android converts.

The intended market is clearly people who have never picked up such a handset before, and as an introduction to the world of the smartphone the Monte is a perfectly acceptable starting point.