Looking back, only a few may have envisaged the upwards inclining graph of Android’s success in the mobile terrain. As an increasing number of manufacturers have been picking the operating system for their handsets, it has remarkably widened the base of Android users. Samsung unraveled its set of Galaxy phones which brought in something for different segments of the market. One such device, which claims to be a well budget smartphone has entered our review zone. We have inked down an analysis of the Galaxy 551 (i551) to know if it’s really smart.
At a glance, we found the device stylish yet too plasticky, and without the battery it seemed a light, mere display model. The all-plastic look didn’t overshadow its style quotient as it posed in gray attire. The compact device at 117 grams easily slipped into our jeans pocket. Getting back to its packaging, in-box contents that snugly sat beside the unit were a travel adapter, earphones with eartips in small, medium and large sizes, a warranty card, a user manual and a USB cable. The Samsung Galaxy 551 smartphone sports a typical front look with a dominating touchscreen and a row of three buttons affixed below it – home, menu and back. The device isn’t all about touchscreen but hops onto the latest fad of ‘touchscreen – QWERTY’ combination. A full QWERTY smoothly slides out for those who’d like to own a touchscreen but without missing on the messaging comfort delivered by a keypad.
The embedded 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen features a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. The resolution is evidently poor compared to high-end smartphones these days. The upper edge of the smartphone houses the USB port and 3.5mm jack, left edge shows off the volume control while the right one affixes the main power button. The ambient light and proximity sensor take their position above the screen while the rear side of the device has Google and Samsung etched on it alongside camera lens and loudspeaker.
Samsung has stirred Frozen yogurt into the device which is a good move especially looking at this Galaxy’s price point. However, we know most of the tech-enthusiasts have moved their focus on the latest Gingerbread. The 551 is coated with the TouchWiz 3.0 UI. Further, one would see a 667MHz processor with 256MB RAM. Again, the hardware sheet is decent enough for the price tag attached to it.
The aforesaid TouchWiz UI alongside the Android 2.2 let us leaf through seven homescreens which can be personalized with widgets. Press and hold the Home button and you would see a pop up displaying all the recent applications with a Task Manager button. At this point, we could also switch between apps or even close them. The menu button takes you to two pages of icons offering easy access. Reaping the benefits of Android 2.2, the interface is indeed a delightful experience. Although, you may miss lightening up the screen with Live Wallpapers. The lower part of the screen has stationed shortcuts like Phone, Contacts, Messaging and Applications all along the interface. However, one would notice a change in the Applications option on entering the menu. Navigating between homescreens was smooth and we didn’t experience any outright lag whatsoever.
The screen responds well to every touch gesture. The pinch to zoom function worked quite fine, we must mention. On the other hand, the screen fades off when used in sunlight, obstructing readability. One reason why manufacturers have dwelled into touch-QWERTY is to merge the quick touch functionality without reaching a keypad along with the swift typing ability of the QWERTY. The full QWERTY keypad was comfortable to key-in with large buttons. Its backlit ability enabled users to text even in low light conditions. As the touchscreen does not hesitate to act in response, so those who’d prefer touch typing could do it comfortably in the landscape mode. However, typing in the portrait mode leads to accidental presses and inaccuracy, for obvious reasons.
Smartphones have turned into a pocketable entertainment hub and the 551 is no different. We loaded it with our favorite content, thanks to its support for up to 32GB of memory using the microSD card. Besides, it also comes with 160MB of internal storage. This Galaxy’s TouchWiz player emits out fine tunes which are loud enough to fill a small room. With add-ons like equalizer, it supports audio files such as MP3, eAAC+ and WAV. It also plays decent videos in file formats like MP4, DivX, 3GP and WMV.
Most of the manufactures are zeroing on a 5MP sensor or above to quickly capture those candid moments but the Samsung Galaxy 551 has decided to rope in a 3.2MP sensor with auto focus. The images turn out fairly fine but you’d start missing the flash during low light photography. Again, 720p recording has been infused in many smartphones but the Galaxy 551 recording wades through mere 15fps. Thus, showing some of comprises made by the device for sporting such a price tag.
On connectivity front, the handset supports GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with DLNA and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0 and A-GPS. The Webkit browser supports kinetic scrolling and couldn’t load pages quickly. It didn’t let us smoothly run through a website. We also found it a tad slow compared to a few Android devices that we have seen recently. Social networkers can gladly lay their hands rather fingers on Twitter and Facebook apps while the Android Market let us scoop out a few games and apps of our choice. With average usage, the device’s battery life managed to squeeze through a day. Accessing the Android Market and downloading content was quite smooth on the contrary.
All in all, the Samsung Galaxy 551 is a good Android 2.2 device for Rs. 15,390. We don’t say it’s better than the Android 2.2 devices that have reached our abode recently, but for the price tag attached, it does a fairly decent job. Leaving aside a few flaws, the device gives us several reasons to clutch it. On our rating meter, it receives a score of 8 out of 10.
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