Think of the Samsung S7330 as the Samsung Soul lite – it’s certainly what the company seems to be doing with this new slider mobile phone. It’s available as a contract mobile phone for a low tariff from 3.

So is there anything that sets the S7330 apart from its big soulful brother? The answer is, not really. The design isn’t quite as sleek, but it’s still a very solid and smooth slider phone that does all the basics very well, packing in a three megapixel camera which takes surprisingly good pictures and includes autofocus, which seems to be virtually standard these days, but is still a good feature, and it can take movies.

Yes, there’s an FM radio, but no 3.5mm headphone jack, so there’s no choice of headphones for the user. But a 3.5G connection allows for quick, smooth uploads and downloads, and a card slot allows users to add up to 8GB of extra memory. That’s good, although this doesn’t seem like the kind of phone where it would be necessary.

Like the Soul, the S7330 boasts that touch sensitive navigation pad, which does a good job. The keypad is well spaced, so texting and calling is easy, with few typos and no cramping.

In other words, it’s all good, but essentially no different from the Samsung Soul. Given that the Soul is widely available on contracts that are quite comparable, it leaves one wondering just what the purpose of the S7330 is? It does the job well enough, but is it necessary?