Samsung Galaxy Pocket S5300 Review and Specifications

Samsung are back to basics and they say there’s always room for one more in the low end. Especially one that doesn’t take too much space. The Galaxy Pocket makes the Galaxy Mini look like it’s on steroids and the Y series like a bunch of semi pros. Life at the bottom of the food chain is far from enjoyable but it can be pretty exciting, and some creatures have figured out how to adapt. They’re usually small, fast and good at mimicry. The Galaxy Pocket meets the size requirement, but we’ll have to check about the speed. And no, no one will mistake it for a trimmed down S III but some feature phones may be fooled into getting too close.

byPC Tech

July 22, 2012

In the realm of aptly named products, Samsung’s Galaxy Pocket fits right in. With its tiny form and sporting Google’s smartphone OS, the Pocket is aiming at capturing the throne in the lower budget smartphone segment. Of course in doing so, it will have to outperform the likes of the Spice Mi-280 and 350n and their own Galaxy Y S 5630. While there are a few differences, especially in the price tag, here’s a closer look at the Galaxy Pocket to help you decide if it’s worth your money.

Form Factor

The Pocket is a neat little handset that’s easy to hold in the palm of your hand, making it extremely portable. Like most Samsung smartphones, the rectangular Home button is placed front and centre, below the 2.8-inch capacitive display (240 x 320 pixels). Viewing angles aren’t the best when in broad daylight and the auto brightness option won’t make too much of a difference.

The volume rocker is on the left and the power/sleep button is on the right. A 3.5mm handsfree socket is placed at the top, beside a dual function micro USB port that’s neatly covered with a flap. The Pocket comes with 3GB of internal storage and also supports microSD cards up to 32GB, making it one of the very few devices to come with this much internal memory in this price range.

Interface

With an 830MHz processor powering the Galaxy Pocket that’s running on Android Gingerbread (v2.3.6) Overall functionality is quite seamless and while TouchWiz UX UI has its good points, you do have the choice of multiple free launchers off the Google Play store(not yet Launched in many African Countries) as well. But features, like left and right swiping over messages or names for dialing or messaging contacts does make for quick access when required. The drop-down menu also gives you access to networking toggle switches reducing the need for the Power Control widget that could take up unnecessary space on the small screen.

Media

This little handset is capable of dishing out some very decent audio. Samsung included a few EQ presets that make a difference for those looking for a lightly customized experience. There’s also an option for a virtual 5.1surround experience. The onboard FM radio also proved to be quite an asset. The native video player features codecs for the basic video formats, like 3GP and MP4 (H.264/H.263) and supports resolutions of up to 640 x 480. With third part players, like RockPlayer you’re allowed a wider range of formats

Connectivity

As far as connectivity goes, the Galaxy Pocket features all the basics, like 3G, Wi-Fi (with Hot Spot) , tethering, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and of course USB 2.0 via micro connector. The Pocket also comes with GPS and A-GPS support for Google Maps and the corresponding apps, like Latitude, Local and Navigation. Aside from the Google Play store, Samsung Apps, the company’s own app store also has a few preselected apps for the handset that will help enhance the device’s functionality. Google’s array of apps that include Google Talk, Google Voice search, Google+ and its messenger app and YouTube are also included, of course. You can also access your Picasa gallery via the handset’s Gallery app. A News and Weather app has also been provided. Samsung has thrown in their Social Hub app as well to consolidate all your accounts into one space for easy access.

Table of Specifications

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
	Announced	2012, February
	Status	Available. Released 2012, April

Body	Dimensions	103.7 x 57.5 x 12 mm
	Weight	97 g
		– Touch-sensitive controls

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches (~143 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
		– TouchWiz UX UI

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32 GB
Memory	Internal	3 GB

Data	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps; HSUPA
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels
	Features	Geo-tagging
	Video	Yes, QVGA@15fps
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
	CPU	832 MHz ARM 11
	Sensors	Accelerometer, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
	Browser	HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black
		– SNS integration – MP4/H.264/H.263 player – MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player – Organizer – Image/video editor – Document viewer – Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration – Voice memo/dial – Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 800 h (2G) / Up to 500 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 17 h (2G) / Up to 5 h 40 min (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.86 W/kg (head) 0.38 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.79 W/kg (head)
	Price group

Tests	Display	Contrast ratio: 753:1 (nominal) / 1.180:1 (sunlight)
	Loudspeaker	Voice 65dB / Noise 65dB / Ring 67dB
	Audio quality	Noise -87.6dB / Crosstalk -85.6dB
	Battery life	Endurance rating 34h