Samsung S5300 Galaxy Pocket Review

Misc. Features

Aside from the basics, like the Calendar and the calculator, Samsung has included a few extras. Apps like Memo for taking notes that could also be emailed, sent via Bluetooth or Whatsapp or even posted to your Google+ account. A file manager and Task Manger are also provided along with Polaris document viewer and a Voice Recorder. 

A few extras thrown in

Camera

Strapped with a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera with QVGA (320 x 240) video recording, don’t expect the very greatest in image quality. That being said however, the Galaxy Pocket’s camera actually fares quite well for a low-res camera phone. Image quality isn’t the sharpest, but as far as 2MP cameras go, it’s up there with the best of them. With features, like Smile Shot, auto-stitch panorama mode (up to 8 pictures) and variety of scene modes and settings, like exposure adjustment, White Balance, timer, and Geotagging, the Pocket’s camera is quite well equipped to handle the competition.  

Decent for a 2MP camera

Battery

The Galaxy Pocket features a 1200mAh battery that is a definite asset to the handset’s overall performance. In our video drain test, the Pocket ran for 5 hours and 40 minutes nonstop with W-Fi running in the background downloading mails, Gtalk and Whatsapp Messages etc. It also fared well in our tech2 battery Loop Tests - it ran through one loop that consisted of two hours of video, two hours of audio, two hours audio streaming and one hour of talk time and still had about 30 percent of battery left. With that 30 percent, the Pocket still managed to start the second loop (1 hour video, 1 hour audio, 1 hour streaming and 1 hour of talk time) and ran for about 70 minutes. That included one hour of video and a little music after. In all, the Pocket gave us a total of 8 hours and 25 minutes, which is quite remarkable, especially since Wi-Fi was again constantly running in the background. 

Slim and lightweight

The Bottom Line

The Galaxy Pocket comes with a price tag of  6,990 (Best Price - will vary depending on location and stores). Spice’s Mi-280 is the Pocket’s closest competitor and while priced a little lower, does not come with 3GB of onboard storage, plus MicroSD support, putting Samsung’s offering quite a bit ahead. However if you’re looking for a device in the same range with a slightly larger display, then Samsung’s own Galaxy Y (minus the 3GB of storage) is also available. Nevertheless, the Galaxy Pocket comes off as a great piece of smartphone hardware and fits well in a low-budget and your pocket.

Specifications

Display Size and resolution – 2.8-inches, 240x 320

Display Type  - TFT Capacitive touchscreen

Processor – 830MHz ARM 11

OS version out of the box - Android OS, v2.3 

On-Board Memory - 3GB. microSD support for up to 32GB more

Net connectivity options - 3G, EDGE, GPRS, Wi-Fi

USB Connectivity - Yes (Standard micro USB)

GPS - Yes, with A-GPS support 

Bluetooth - Yes, v3.0

NFC Support - No

Camera Resolution - 2 MP, fixed focus

Secondary Camera - No

Video Recording - Yes, QVGA

FM Radio - Yes

AV Out Option - Audio Out via 3.5mm socket

Noise Cancellation - No

Price -  6,990 (MOP, Best Buy)