Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 Detailed Review : Budget Android Smartphone

Samsung has captivated the High end Android market with galaxy S2 & more recently Galaxy Note. It has dominated the mid-segment with Galaxy ace & s1 and is going to release Galaxy Ace plus soon and now it has turned its focus on the entry level buyer. The absolute beginners to the world of Android & if you haven’t entered into the world of Smartphone’s then Samsung intends to convert you from a normal Symbian or java ,express music or Walkman phone user into this whole world of Smartphone’s & introduce you to Android where anything & everything is possible at the tip of your fingers ! And I promise you once you have experienced this you will never go back. Welcome ladies & gentleman to Samsung galaxy Y.

Samsung has priced this phone so well especially for the features that they are offering it feels like the deal of the season. It leaves its competitors in the dust. Any person who would generally have to shell out much more for a descent android phone will be totally bowled over to enter the Android world with such a cheap ticket !

Lets have a look at its specifications briefly.

• GSM Quad band 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 & 3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100

• Dimension : 104 x 58 x 11.5 mm, Weight : 97.5 g

• Display : TFT capacitive Touchscreen, 256K colors, 240 x 320 pixels, 3.0 inches (~133 ppi pixel density)

• Sensors : Accelerometer, Touch-sensitive controls

• OS : Android OS v2.3.5 (gingerbread).

• Processor : 830 MHz ARMv6

• Memory : 180 MB, 290 MB user available RAM, microSD up to 32GB,2GB included.

• Battery : Li-Ion 1200 mAh, Stand by: 400Hrs, Talktime: 8Hrs

• Camera : 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, Fixed focus, QVGA video recording

• Connectivity : GPRS/EDGE/3G, WLAN - Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth – v3.0, USB – 2.1, microUSB, TouchWiz v3.0 UI,Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, 3.5mm jack, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Picasa integration, Google Talk, Voice memo/dial, Predictive text input (Swype), Geo-tagging, Quickoffice document viewer, Stereo FM radio with RDS

Design

Samsung has not made any striking changes in its design and stuck to its traditional Galaxy series design but has minimized the dimensions. It definitely looks like the smaller version of ace with little more rounded edges. Ace’s younger brother you can say. It’s got the same curvy edges. It looks simple & nice and feels very handy & comfortable in the hand. Like all the galaxy series phone it has a single hard home button in the center & two feather touch back and menu button which are invisible when the back display is off. It’s got the same textured back panel as the Ace giving the phone good grip & feel. It has the volume and power button on the sides. USb slot and 3.5 mm jack is on the top. The loudspeaker is placed at the back next to the camera.

Touch screen & Display

Samsung has provided Y with a 3 inch capacitive touch screen. The touch screen responds well. The screen resolution however is well below the mark with a poor HVGA resolution 240 x 320 pixels. The screen resolution is the same as the HTC wildfire which again was hugely criticized for its poor & lackluster screen. This may well be the Achilles heel in Samsung's bid to take over the entry level market.

Operation

The powerhouse of this phone is a 830MHz ARM6 processor. Its runs the latest Android 2.3.5 gingerbread which is good news. Don’t expect ice cream sandwich for this phone though. It comes pre-installed with Samsung Touchwiz interface and from here on provides most of the features that any phone running on Android gingerbread provides. You can increase the number of home screens upto 7 and add icons, widgets on the home screens etc as in any phone running Android OS. The processor churns out enough power to keep this phone up n running fast & smooth this maybe because of the low display. But when many applications are open the phone does slow down a bit owing to the low 290MB RAM. But the phone still manages to give a decent if not remarkable performance.

Camera

Samsung has pulled out all the stops to keep the price low and has provided this phone with just a 2MP camera with fixed-focus that can capture photos in 1600 x 1200 resolution. It does not have a flash .The picture quality I am afraid is quite poor. They should have provided atleast a 3MP camera but unfortunately they haven’t and this is a bit disappointing. And of course even Video recording is very poor owing to the below par camera.

Multimedia & Internet browsing

Internet browsing capabilities is reduced due to the small screen size. It is difficult to read big articles but it serves its function and holds all the functions of the Android browser. You can pinch zoom or double tap the screen to zoom in. But as in Galaxy Ace it does not support flash. So you will have to use your You tube App to watch few videos. It has the Touch wiz music player same as the ones in other Galaxy phones & the audio output is fairly good compared to other phones in its range The inbuilt video player does not support DivX or XviD videos but will play 3GP and MP4 videos.

Memory & Expansion capabilities

It has an internal memory of 180 MB which is kind of less but it comes with a 2GB memory card extendable upto 32 GB. It has 290 MB of user available RAM.

Battery performance

Battery performance of this is phone is descent thanks to its 1200 mAh Li-ion battery and is aided by the low display capabilities. But on continuous browsing the battery tends to drain pretty fast. On the whole it is battery backup is reasonable.

Pro’s

• Quad-Band GSM and dual-band 3G support

• ARMv6 830MHz processor

• Android OS v2.3.5 (Gingerbread)

• Samsung TouchWiz UI

• 180MB of internal storage, 2GB microSD card included

• GPS receiver with A-GPS

• Stereo FM radio with RDS

• 3.5mm audio jack

• Accelerometer and proximity sensor

• Social network integration

• Swype text input

• Document viewer

Con’s

• Small 3” 256K-color QVGA TFT touchscreen

• Low screen resolution

• Only 290MB user available RAM

• 2MP fixed-focus camera

• No camera flash

• No shutter key for the camera

Conclusions:

Samsung is trying very hard to expand their horizon. They have some of the best phones in the top Android phones range and now they are targeting the exact opposite end of the curve the low end Android range. They intend to give you complete android experience for a normal dumb phone user and show you what Smartphone’s have to offer at a staggeringly low price. This is may not be the best phone for your first Android experience. I would have liked a slightly bigger screen and better screen resolution. A better camera, better sound quality, better battery & memory (RAM) to play all the addictive Android games all day. If you want all this, then this phone is not for you. And you will have to dig a little deeper into your pockets to get a better phone. Well that’s the beauty of this device. It’s price. It’s unbelievable. What Samsung Y is offering you for its price is, I have to admit a great deal. Of course you will have to make few sacrifices but you can save some experiences for your next phone. This is a great phone to start off. It’s meant for the absolute beginners to the Smartphone world. But as you start exploring, within no time you will be dying for more.