Samsung S5560 Marvel

The Samsung S5560 is a well balanced all-rounder of a phone. Priced at around the £15 per month level on contract, the S5560 is not a ground breaking phone in any way. It takes a well established platform - Samsung's Touch Wiz 1.0 user interface - with its ease of use and its friendly widgets, puts it into a fairly compact body, and adds in the features that most people want from a phone. If you crave the latest iPhone or Android smartphone, this isn't the kind of phone you'll be interested in, but the S5560 costs a fraction of the money and still has the apps that most people will use every day.

The phone feels good in the hand. It's not large, but it's not superslim either. It's somewhere in between. The screen is a very good size at 3 inches across, and with an adequate resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. That makes it easy to see, and helps make the touch interface easier to use. We've commented many times before on Samsung's Touch Wiz interface, and we'll say again that it does the job well, is simple and includes helpful widgets like clocks, facebook, MySpace links, etc that make everyday tasks a breeze.

Entertainment-wise, the S5560 has a good camera (5 megapixels, autofocus, smile detection, flash), a music player and an FM radio with RDS. There's a 3.5mm audio jack too, so you'll be able to use any standard-fit headphones. The 50MB of built-in memory won't get you far, so you'll probably want to add a microSD memory card, which will let you store plenty of music and/or videos.

Samsung haven't made the S5560 3G compatible, but they have provided WiFi, so if you want to access facebook or surf the web, you'll want to ensure you have regular WiFi access, otherwise you'll be relying on a slow EDGE connection. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth and USB.

Battery life seems to be good.

The S5560 is a good all-rounder, and offers excellent value for money. If you want GPS, 3G or an App Store, you'll need to spend a lot more cash. But if you want something that's a step-up from the Tocco Lite, then the S5560 could be your phone. Consider also the Samsung Jet or Samsung Galaxy Apollo, which have the benefits of GPS, 3G and other enhancements.