Expected Q1 2012
19th January 2012

It seems that the feature phone isn't quite dead yet, with the launch of the latest "Star" touchscreen phones, the Samsung Star 3 and Samsung Star 3 DUOS.

The Star 3 is not a million miles away from last year's Star II or Galaxy Y in terms of features. It's worth pointing out that the Star II though that currently retails for about €80 SIM-free, a lot cheaper than the €120 the Galaxy Y goes for, so we can expect the Star 3 to be under €100 too.

The display is a 3" 240 x 320 pixel panel, on the back is a basic 3.2 megapixel camera. The Star 3 lacks 3G support, but it does come with WiFi and EDGE data instead. There's no GPS and the Star 3 isn't a smartphone, although it does support a range of social media and internet applications.

The DUOS version adds dual-SIM support, but we'd recommend stretching to the more capable Galaxy Y DUOS if you can.

At just 95 grams, the Star 3 is pretty lightweight. The Star 3 measures 102 x 58 x 12mm, has a 1000 mAh battery, and also supports Bluetooth and microSD expandable memory.

The selling point with the Star 3 is likely to be cost - because it doesn't have GPS or 3G support then it is much cheaper than a low-end smartphone would be. However, we suspect that most customers would prefer either an Android or Bada device instead.

The Star 3 should be available in Russia this month, followed by the most of the rest of the world shortly afterwards.