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Samsung Galaxy Note. First Look

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First look at Samsung Galaxy FIT GSM/UMTS

Live photos of Samsung Galaxy FIT

Contents:

  1. In the box
  2. Positioning
  3. Design, dimensions and controls
  4. Screen
  5. Battery
  6. Camera
  7. USB, Bluetooth and WiFi
  8. Memory
  9. Software details
  10. Impressions

In the box:

  • Pone
  • 1350 mAh Li-Ion battery
  • 2 GB memory card
  • Headset
  • Charger
  • User guide

Positioning

This handset targets young customers as an interesting solution for people with low demands. To my mind young people are absolutely different and can be quite meticulous while selecting a new mobile phone. On the other hand their parents can be influenced by shop assistants. This is how Samsung sees the issue.

Unfortunately, the phone has a blurred target audience. Young people may be discouraged by a high price, low screen resolution, despite a large size of the latter. This niche product could be interesting in another price range.

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Design, dimensions and controls

Courtesy of the screen size the model looks wide with its dimensions of 110.2х61.2х12.6 mm. It fits a hand well.


Samsung Galaxy FIT vs Sony Ericsson X8:

Samsung Galaxy FIT vs Samsung Star 2:

Traditional Samsung materials are used here – glossy plastic on the front side and usual plastic at the back. The back cover is as thin as they come. It should not cause problems, but you would better not drop it against sharp objects.

On the left side you will find a paired volume control. It is ideally located and convenient to use. Going back to the roots, as now this control can be often found on the right side, is a marked improvement. A microSD memory card slot is placed nearby. The top hosts a microUSB slot protected by a plastic cap connected to the body. Beside you can find a 3.5 mm jack for a headset or headphones. The right side also sports an on/off key responsible for unlocking the screen as well.

The central key is hardware, while Menu and Back buttons are sensor ones. At the back you see a 5 MP camera.

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Screen

The capacitive screen supports multitouch and boasts a size of 3.31″, but the resolution is merely 240х320, which is a minimum for Android. Several apps don't run well with this resolution. Large size helps and unlike in i550 you will not see visual artefacts during scrolling or similar activities.

A TFT screen displays up to 16 million colors. The screen fades away in the sun despite the large size, but it is a feature of the class (Huawei X5 and some ZTE handsets have the same issue). The screen fits up to 10 text lines and several service lines. Fonts are large and nice-looking. In the menu you can select your own fonts variant.

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Battery

The handsets uses a 1350 mAh Li-Ion battery. In standard situations (30-40 minutes talktime daily, 10-15 sent text messages and customized Gmail account with automatic mail check and delivery) our sample gave us one day of operation. Less intensive use may yield around 2-3 days, which is good for Android.

The manufacturer claims up to 8.5 hours of talktime in 2G (7.5 hours in 3G) and up to 541 hours on standby (385 hours in 3G).

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Camera

Here we find a standard 5 MP camera with autofocus. It is still the weakest link of Android phones and in this case you should not expect anything special. The picture quality is medium as you can see from samples below.

Samples of photos:

Video

The manufacturer claims up to 8.5 hours of talktime in 2G (7.5 hours in 3G) and up to 541 hours on standby (385 hours in 3G).

Пример видео (mp4, 1,64 мб) >>>

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USB, Bluetooth and WiFi

The handset can be used in GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and UMTS 900/2100 (HSDPA) networks.

PC synchronization and data transfer require a microUSB cable. USB version is 2.0 HS with two operation modes – KIES and Mass Storage. Bluetooth 2.1 supports the following profiles:

  • Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) – transfer of stereo sound via Bluetooth
  • Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) – music playback control via a cordless headset 
  • Generic Audio/Video Distribution Profile (GAVDP)
  • Generic Access Profile (GAP)
  • Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
  • Headset Profile (HSP)
  • Enhanced Data Rate

Most popular and some multimedia profiles are supported, but you cannot use objects (contacts cards) transfer via Bluetooth or access file systems of other phones. The model worked fine with a stereo headset and the sound quality was medium.

WiFi 802.11 b/g/n showed no issues during the operation.

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Memory

160 MB of inbuilt memory are available to users. Hot swappable microSD cards of up to 32 GB use a side slot. Everything works fine here. A 600 MHz processor offers high speed, especially taking into account the screen size.

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Software details

The model boasts Froyo (2.2) adjusted to TouchWiz3, but you will not find many differences from a classical Android. Standard features are implemented similarly to other phones with Android 2.2, so read an appropriate review. Look at screenshots of all features for you to see how they look on a low-resolution screen.

Full review of Android 2.1 (Eclair)

Office files are edited with the help of fully functional ThinkFree suite.

Task manager has a separate application where you can close down apps or clean the memory completely. This utility is quite convenient and offers better performance than a standard one.

In Accounts you can enter your details on Facebook and Twitter. Don't search for separate apps for these networks as they are not offered. On the other hand in Contacts you find Activities, which displays all events from your social networks. It is not convenient as you can only choose between both feeds or disable one of them at a time. An appropriate Samsung widget does not help either, because the desktop hosts only two messages and you always have to use scrolling.

The keypad has a preinstalled Swype for horizontal and vertical orientations. The input is fast and easy, so the keypad is quite successful here.

Music features are traditional. There is a 5.1 support for headphones to add more volume to the sound. Sadly, equalizers are not customizable. Tracks can be filtered by performers, albums and tracks names. Sound quality is decent. FM initially amazes by finding all available radio stations outside (48 in my case, while Nokia could only offer 16). Reception quality for some stations is too low though. Another disadvantage is the use of the headset as an antenna, which does not provide high reception quality indoors. If the signal is weak you will hear only noise indoors. Whether it is good or bad many users will complain about the quality of radio reception. Other manufacturers simply block the reception of a weak signal. These are two different approaches and you should decide for yourself what you like the most.

During the dialing you can use intellectual name search by first letters. In the list offered you see names and the number of dials to the right. This list can be activated with one touch. A particular contact can be selected any number from the Phonebook, which is a welcome addition to the standard Android.

AllShare is a usual uPnP for transferring files to and from a PC via WiFi, listening or watching as if on the phone (for supported formats only).

The handset has access to Samsung App Market and Android Market.

Google Maps 5.x is the last available. A hardware GPS receiver provides nice service and we have no complaints here.

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Impressions

The ringtones are loud and a dedicated speaker at the back plays sounds well. The vibro is also above average. This typical Samsung product has no problems with speech transfer whatsoever.

The phone will cost around €275-300, which is too much for a model with the QVGA screen. The screen size cannot help here. The handset looks and is expensive. Numerous models cost less than €250 with similar features and better screen. Unfortunately, FIT is even more of a niche offering than Samsung Galaxy ACE, which has many strong points despite its inflated price. The main drawback here is a low-resolution screen. The sales will be similar to those of i550. Galaxy FIT is only a portfolio filling model.

Do you want to talk about this? Please, go to our Forum and let your opinion be known to the author and everybody else.

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Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Twitter    Livejournal
Translated by Maxim Antonenko ([email protected])

Published — 26 January 2010

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