Critiques About Samsung Galaxy Y

More compact and in some cases less expensive than the Galaxy Mini 2, the Samsung Galaxy Y is one of an extremely couple of Android (2.3) handsets that can be picked up for beneath £100 SIM-free. It really is typically no cost with a contract and will set you back around £70 on PAYG. But is it definitely such a bargain buy? Answers in our critique.

Style & Handling:

By trimming this smartphone down to a new level of smallness, Samsung has reached a limit that could potentially have been pushed back with a better-quality screen. But, unfortunately, The Galaxy Y comes loaded having a 3" TN display with 320 x 240-pixel resolution that practically stings the eyes. Plus, the onscreen keyboard is simply minuscule. You'll need tiny fingers to use it in portrait mode, otherwise you have no choice but to switch to landscape. You also need to make sure the phone is lined up in front of your eyes, as from one direction the screen's viewing angle is pretty much blind. As it stands, the Galaxy Mini 2 does a much better job with its 3.3" screen and 480 x 320 pixels.

Screen:

The Galaxy Y has a TN screen having a very low resolution (320 x 240 pixels). Plus, it really is very glossy, and our tests showed that it really is not pretty well calibrated either. We measured the Delta E at around 12 when this should be beneath 3 for colours to be considered accurate. Contrast is very low too, at 470:1. Here, the Mini 2 barely does any better, but it still manages to trump the Galaxy Y. The simple truth is that out of the 40 smartphones that we've reviewed over the last handful of months, the results from our lab tests place the Galaxy Y in next-to-last place on screen quality.

But in terms of how it actually looks, we reckon it should be in last place, as the excessive shininess of the screen adds a kind of false sense of depth to the display. This makes for a typically quite troubling effect on the eyes that several guinea pigs in our office found hard to adjust to.

Multimedia:

So in spite of Samsung's promise of "great performances," the Galaxy Y's feeble processing power rules out use with power-hungry apps-in fact, you won't even be able to install them. You'll be able to play Angry Birds just fine, but you can forget about the likes of Shadow Gun!

It's the same story with videos too, as watching a film can prove a bit problematic on this phone. The handset tends to keep cutting out the sound for a split second at a time, which soon becomes annoying.

The camera isn't much better either. We have to say that we feared the worst from this 2-Megapixel camera, so it really is no surprise to see mediocre results. Still, it sometimes does a better job than the Mini 2, especially in good light conditions. It's not up to much in low light, though.

Samsung galaxy y overview - battery

Battery life isn't going to save the day for the Samsung Galaxy Y S5360, as, here too, cuts have been made compared with the Mini 2. But unless you spend the whole day playing with your phone-which isn't likely given the fact the tiny screen makes the whole experience quite uncomfortable-the battery is sufficiently powerful for this handset. In fact, a a lot more powerful battery (here it is 1200 mAh) would have pushed up the price.

In our tests, the Galaxy Y held out for six hours of continuous use in video mode (Wi-Fi off), which is sufficient. You should therefore be able to stretch a couple of days' use out of this mobile before you need to recharge. At least that small screen has one advantage-it doesn't use much power!