|
Overview/Intro
The Android market has grown exponential over the past year and this onslaught has been much attributed to the barrage of gimmicks from hardware marketers worldwide. Samsung has secured itself as one of the major players in the Android device market, battling head on with smartphone giants HTC and Motorola. With a slew of impressive premium mobile productions underneath it is belt that include the high-end Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and the 7-inch tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Korean electronics monolith crashes the low-end Android party with a new entry-level touchscreen smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy 5. This little Galaxy 5 runs Android OS v2.1 (Eclair). Shame that it isn’t the much-anticipated Froyo yet but unquestionably a step up from v1.6 (Donut) being offered by some out there in the market. This pits it head-on with the Motorola Citrus, Sony XPERIA X8/X10, LG GT540 Optimus and HTC Tattoo. For a sub-USD200 (SRP: RM699) device, it packs rather a buffet of features. Which begs the question – is there such a thing as “cheap and cheerful”? Read on.
At primary glance, the Galaxy 5 looks strikingly similar to Samsung’s own Corby, except for the further and added four hardware shortcut buttons at the bottom. It’s tiny sufficient to fit in the palm of your hand and at a scant 102g, very light, too. The exterior is shiny plastic and overall the phone does feel cheap. Having said that, it’s finelooking nice and comfortable to hold and carry around. A 3.5mm audio jack is integrated at the top as standard, and the side left holds hardware volume buttons and a miniUSB port. At the back is a 2MP camera lens sans flash.
To access the microSD slot, you’ll need to remove the back cover. Be careful not to break your fingernails. A 2GB microSD card is included as standard (upgradeable to 16GB).
Display
The screen is a 2.8″ QVGA TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen display supplying 240 x 320 resolution. Possibly the smallest screen on an Android phone, like the Sony XPERIA X10 mini. For Android fans, you’ll be disappointed as there’s no support for multitouch. However it does come with Samsung’s Live wallpapers out of the box. Boo. Quality of the screen isn’t much to shout when it comes to altho it is decently sharp and bright enough, and for the price, a step up from resistive touchscreens on a lot of competing products.
Having a little screen on a touch device may be annoying specially when it comes to typing on the touchscreen keyboard. In portrait mode, the keyboard feels genuinely cramped. Typing the QWERTY in portrait may be error-laden (perhaps due to my fat fingers). This may be remedied in landscape mode, thankfully, where the keys are better spaced out. Users have an option to use Swype for text entry which is pretty innovative or the 3×4 keyboard. I find the touchscreen responsive, if error-ridden with accidental touches. This isn’t the fault of the phone per se, more so due to numerous UI quirks of the Android OS.
Features
Whether it’s building cars or electronics, the Koreans surely know how to play the value game. The Galaxy 5 is no dissimilar and is plainly packed with features. Everything you need in a phone is gorgeous much served on the plate. A zippy 600MHz processor powers the device. You get high speed 2.5G (850/900/1800/1900 Mhz) & 3G access with HSDPA (up to 7.2Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth v2.1, accelerometer, 2MP fixed focus camera which supports video recording, FM radio, 170MB internal memory with 2GB microSD (up to 16GB supported) and A-GPS.
The phone comes bundled with Samsung’s very own TouchWIZ interface and Swype (Samsung’s ultrafast text input function), not forgetting Samsung’s Social Hub application firstborn seen on it is larger brother the Galaxy S. It’s likewise armed with a HTML5 browser, an augmented reality app from Layar, support for MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 video formats, and Samsung’s AllShare platform which allows for easy sharing of media throughout a full range of DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-certified Samsung widgets like notebooks and TVs. You may even use the Galaxy 5 as a remote for your Samsung TV or laptop. Nifty.
Performance
Before I even got the phone, I backed up my contacts/calendars from my former phone and Mac, then synced to Google. I installed the free doubleTwist desktop app to handle all media syncing on my Mac. doubleTwist is very much like iTunes, and even connects to the Android Market. Pay a $1.99 premium and you likewise get wireless syncing by way of something called AirSync. You’ll be competent to not only download free and paid apps, but likewise podcasts (limited, but still) and buy music from AmazonMP3. Syncing is breathtakingly trouble-free with doubleTwist and it even recognizes iTunes playlists. One of the primary things I did when I got the phone was install some of my favored apps – Twitter, Tweetdeck, Facebook, Opera Mini, WhatsApp, Foursquare and Angry Birds thru the bundled Android Market app. I also installed Advanced Task Killer to free up memory manually, as I envisioned the inadequacies of the 170MB base memory. Downloading and installation is seamless and hassle-free.
Having employed it as my primary phone for the past 4 days, I’ve found the phone in general pleasant and intuitive to use, if a little slow. The 600Mhz processor copes pretty well in general. It’s no sprint queen for sure, and may now and then choke and lag when switching and running multiple apps. Typing does have a noticeable lag and scrolling through a long contact list may take a while too. There were instances where the screen is just pitch black for 15-20 seconds while the processor tries to cope with the load of switching in amongst apps. Without a consecrated GPU, it also struggles with a lot of games including Angry Birds.
One major rant would have to be battery life. While scouring Android forums I read of users getting 2-3 days battery life. Very bold, ambitious claims. No such luck with mine. With 3G on and everything else gorgeous much off, the Galaxy’s good for 6-7 hours tops before I need to plug in. I perpetually have a cable with me just in case. I’m not sure if this is fixed to my review unit, but I’m far from impressed. Turning off 3G and running only on EDGE gave me somewhat more mileage. I’ve kept running apps to a minimum and even tweaked screen brightness, background selective information (syncing) and notifications. Tasks include minimal voice calls, tweeting, SMS-ing and messaging by way of WhatsApp and occasional check on Facebook. A penalty for multitasking? Something to think about.
Apps-wise, everything you need to get started is already pre-installed – Messaging, Calendar, Write and Go (text editor), Maps, Browser, Clock, Email, Music, Gmail, YouTube, Talk (IM), Calculator, Camera and Market. Setting up domain email and Gmail accounts was rather painless. Being a very ‘social’ phone, contacts lists are merged with your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and whatsoever not you’ve authorized it to sync to. I do be grateful for the unified-sync-to-the-cloud-type-thing, and the capacity to show/not show contacts based on your preference.
The 2MP camera isn’t anything to shout about. No autofocus, no flash. Teleports me back to old feature phone days. It’s a decent camera, though, just don’t suppose award-winning photos. Forget when it comes to shooting in low light conditions, as with most if not all cameras with similar spec, prone to major noise and distortion.
Audio quality is above average, and reassuringly loud. No complaints regarding call quality and reception.
Summary
All in all, the Galaxy 5 is a small, lightweight and cheap entry-level Android smartphone. If you may get pass the small, restrictive screen and somewhat sluggish performance, it’s rather a good introduction to Android, specially if you’re upgrading from a feature phone. It’s one of the most inexpensive Android phones out there, feature-packed and offers tremendous bang-for-buck. Telcos could effortlessly give this phone away for free, bundled with a contract. Does “cheap and cheerful” exist? Personally, I’d spend a little more (ok, a lot more) for a higher spec-ed Android device, because I tend to equate cheap to crap; which I feel, ultimately, dilutes the Android experience and brand. Am still not totally convinced that cheap is the way to go, and I’ll leave that debate for another day. For now, the Galaxy 5 could be the nearest to “cheap and cheerful” as you may get.
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900
GALAXY Ace takes a minimal approach in it is design, resulting in a sophisticated mobile that will allure. The smooth rounded edges and slim, compact size are a pleasure to wrap your fingers around, just as the big 3.5″ HVGA screen is a delight to watch. With approximately 100,000 apps available on the Android Market, there s no end to what your mobile may do. Enjoy innumerable games, utilities, news, health and finance apps with more being added each day. The scope of what GALAXY Ace may do is almost unlimited! GALAXY Ace offers a wholly integrated one-page layout of your phone book, IM, email, and SNS. You may also coordinate and view your contacts according to four discerned formats Info, History, Activity and Media-so you may custommake your layout just the way you want it. GALAXY Ace comes to a complete degree loaded with all I need for smooth web browsing, downloading and more. Equipped with a strong 800MHz processor and Wi-Fi, I may surf the web, download apps quickly, and share content with friends. Multitasking is a breeze, so we may have fun in all sorts of ways. GALAXY Ace features Quicktype by SWYPE, an intellectual interface that connects the dots made by your finger to figure out what you are attempting to write. By moving your finger throughout the keypad from letter to letter in one liquid motion, the mobile senses incisively what you want to say!
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900 Picture
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900 Pic
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900 Pic
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900 Picture
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900 Picture
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 Us 3g 850 1900 Picture
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Excelente compra. By Luis Más que teléfono lo considero una pequeña computadora de bolsillo. Se interactúa perfectamente com mi laptop a través del programa Samsung Kies, una maravilla. Posee un adecuado tamaño que permite llevarlo comodamente en el bolsillo del pantalón y esto para mi es importante. Pantalla con buena resolución, procesador veloz que permite abrir las aplicaciones con rapidéz. Al principio se aprecia que la batería tiene corta duración sin embargo esto se va rectificando con el uso. Tengo 25 días de tenerlo y estoy muy satisfecho con la adquisición, me permito recomendarlo, principalmente para aquellos paises que tienen señal 3 G a 850 Mh, como Costa Rica y de muchos en America Latina. Como siempre Amazon.com con su excelente servicio de seguimiento de la compra y excelentes condiciones en que llegó el teléfono a mis manos.
See all 1 customer reviews…
|