As its name suggests, the Samsung Genio QWERTY has a full keyboard – but it’s no business phone. It’s firmly aimed at younger users who want their phones for texting and email, with a price to match – Orange is selling it on prepay for £59.

Style and handling on the Samsung Genio QWERTY

Despite its price, and the light weight, it doesn’t feel or look cheap. It’s no high-end star – you don’t get GPS or Wi-Fi – but does feel like good value for money.

It has a good-looking orangey-yellow back, which you can replace with a startlingly bright orange version or, if you prefer, a more modest black version. We suspect, though, that if you would prefer the black option, then this phone may not be for you.

Even if you did go for the demure black back, you can’t escape the colour on the inside. We particularly enjoyed the funky little cartoon screen: it’s designed to look as if you are looking down at your watch while you’re walking along, complete with trainers appearing and a gently rocking watch. The 2.2-inch screen is necessarily small to give that QWERTY keyboard enough space.

User friendliness on the Samsung Genio QWERTY

The keyboard itself is nowhere near as good as that on the BlackBerry Curve, for example. You need to be very careful when you hit the keys, especially as there are no error correction tools to help you along. It’s not ideal for whipping out long messages, which is a shame for such a youth-orientated phone.

The D-pad is reliable, although rather on the small side. It’s best to use your fingernails to avoid pressing one of the soft keys that sit on either side. These soft keys are blow the screen, but the labels corresponding for them are on the screen. Most other phones have labels over the call and call end keys, so this arrangement can be confusing.

Messaging and media on the Samsung Genio QWERTY

Possibly hoping to pick up on BlackBerry’s success with Instant Messaging, the Genio QWERTY has Orange Messenger, which should appeal to the young target audience.  A ‘social life’ icon links you to Facebook Twitter, Bebo and MySpace, so you never need to be out of the social loop.

The music player is straightforward to operate, and sound quality through the back speaker is average, and angled so that you hear the sound clearly even when the phone’s lying on its back. That should please fellow bus passengers no end. Luckily, there’s a 3.5mm audio port, which gives much better sound quality – and it’s a big bonus on a phone at this price.

The two-megapixel camera has no flash but does the job if you just want quick snaps to send via text or email. A video application sits buried in the camera shortcuts.

The verdict on the Samsung Genio QWERTY

This is hardly an alternative to the iPhone, with its basic features, small screen and bright design, but as a budget handset for messaging, social networking youngsters, it’s funky and fits the bill perfectly.