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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.
