Review Full marks to Samsung’s marketing folk for the Galaxy Fit’s go-getting name, but it’s actually a fairly low-end Android smart phone with an outdated OS, low resolution screen and less than speedy processor. That said, it has a few good points too, including a surprisingly good 5Mp Camera.
Exercise equipment? Samsung’s Galaxy Fit
Bearing a passing resemblance to the recently released Galaxy Mini (aren’t there an awful lot of Galaxys recently?) the Fit has a similar glossy black fascia surrounded by chrome-look trim on its gently curved edges. What looks like a D-pad beneath the screen is actually the Android home button, flanked by touch sensitive menu and back buttons (there’s no search). Read the rest of this entry »
Review phone manufacturers today are all too keen to tell us their phones aren’t really phones at all, they’re handheld computers with oodles of processing power and capability. Sometimes, however, a basic communications device is just what you need, especially if your life might depend on it.
Hard talk: Samsung’s Solid Immerse
Enter the Samsung Solid Immerse, a non-smart candybar phone, but one that claims to be shock proof, dust proof, water proof and comes with a bunch of outdoorsy features. Even before you take up the inherent watery challenge in the Solid Immerse’s name, it certainly seems to live up to the first part of its moniker. It’s a chunky 121 x 52 x 18mm and 116g, featuring a tough-looking casing made of rubberised plastic with metal trim. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Sometimes the Mark II versions of phones feel like they’ve had little more than a light skim with the update brush. Yet with the Samsung Galaxy S II, this is certainly not the case. While, the original Galaxy S was a fine handset, this latest refit includes dual core processor, stunning AMOLED screen, a fine 8Mp Camera, over-air syncing and more, all packed within one of the slimmest enclosures you’re likely to come across.
Second coming: Samsung Galaxy S II
The handset measures 125 x 66 x 8.5mm, which almost makes it feel more like a stretched out playing card than a top-of-the-range Android smartphone. Not only is it very slim, at 115g it’s very light too, though part of that can be attributed to the rather flimsy plastic back panel. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Apparently, you are nobody today if you aren’t connected to hundreds of other people through a web of social networks. If you aren’t poking, tweeting, linking, posting, chatting, emailing and texting, you’re living in the past.
Samsung’s H1: built for Vodafone 360′s social network centric UI
No wonder, then, that everyone in the communications biz wants a piece of the social network action. Vodafone’s latest attempt to cash in is to launch its own service, Vodafone 360, and to do so with an exclusive handset, Samsung’s H1. The H1 runs a new operating system, sort of. That’s three things for potential buyers to get their heads around, and we aren’t sure they’re going to want to.
The H1 isn’t a bad phone. But we aren’t convinced by Vodafone 360. While it’s easy to use once configured, and has the great pluses of cloud-based backup and a usable web-based service so you can also access your information on a computer, it’s complicated to set up, isn’t sufficiently two-way and ultimately relies on people signing up for 360 itself. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Having scored considerable touchscreen success with its debut Tocco F480, Samsung has been understandably keen to extend its Tocco-branded portfolio – first with the Tocco Ultra Edition GT-S8300 numberpad-packing slider/touchscreen combo, and now with a budget version, the Tocco Lite GT-S5230, also known as the Star in some territories.
Low connectivity diet: Samsung’s Tocco Lite
As its name suggests, the Tocco Lite goes easy on high-end features. It offers a similar TouchWiz user interface as recent Samsung touch phones, but 3G connectivity is absent, relying on quad-band GPRS/EDGE instead. It doesn’t do GPS or Wi-Fi either, and its Camera is a modest 3.2Mp snapper but it does have an accelerometer. Features aside, this Tocco is also light on the pocket, selling for as little as £90 in some pre-pay packages. Its obvious rival is the LG Cookie – another sub-£100 touchscreen handset.
It measures up at 106 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm and weighs a mere 92g. The front is a slab design dominated by a clear and bright 3in, 240 x 400 resolution, resistive touch display. A simple trio of buttons sit under this – Call, End and Back keys. On the sides are a Camera key and a screen lock/unlock button on one side and volume/zoom rockers on the other. A covered slot on the flank hides a regular Samsung multi-connector port for charger, USB cable and earphones. Alas, there’s no standard 3.5mm headphone socket. Read the rest of this entry »
