My new Samsung GALAXY R i9103...

Chida

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This is my first ever review of any kind; probably should call this as my first impression and a very small one as I have just bought the phone a day back.

I am too excited about my new phone :D...just fyi, I have been using Nokia N70 for about 5yrs now, it still does look pretty much new...however my wife felt its high time I should be buying a new mobile.

So after few months of searching in google, reading XYZ reviews on the models, OS etc...it was a confusion for quite sometime now between IOS and ANDROID.

Phones I was considering

  • IPhone 3GS about 19,900
  • Sony Xperia neo V about 17-18K
  • Samsung GALAXY R 21-23K (Slightly above my budget though)

I almost got convinced for buying Xperia neo, but found one of my colleague getting it as a gift a month back (fortunately I should say); I was really impressed by the phone though atleast by the look of it. Things that went against xperia is the low internal memory which only about 360MB or so available for users.

Iphone 3GS no doubt a good phone; but I believe, its a outdated model with only 8GB of space and no scope to increase the capacity; add to it all the iphones looks the same. But I did like the display and touch screen response.

The GALAXY R package contained:
  1. Handset
  2. Battery (1650 mAh battery)
  3. Charger
  4. Headset(earphone)
  5. microUSB cable (helps in charging and data transfer)
  6. Pouch
  7. User guide and warranty card

Samsung GALAXY R is simply one of the most attractive device; feels nice and solid in hands. Its more a downgraded version of the famous S2 model.

  • Processor 1 GHz ARM Cortex A9, Dual Core (Processor 1.2 GHz, Dual Core in GALAXY S2)
  • 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD screen (4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus in GALAXY S2)
  • 5MP camera with LED Flash (8MP in GALAXY S2)
  • 1.3MP secondary camera (2MP in GALAXY S2)

But one things that stands out in GALAXY R (I would say better than GALAXY S2) is the nice metallic finish; I feel GALAXY S2 has a plastic feel. GALAXY R is a pleasure to look at and hold as well.

The 4.2 Inch (480X800 pixels) super clear LCD display is much brighter and color looks pretty natural. I really enjoyed watching some you tube videos. It
runs on Andorid 2.3.5 & TouchWis user interface; touch screen is very responsive, considering this is my first real touch screen mobile and I was not a great fan of touch screen mobiles till sometimes back.

There are seven home screens and when the phone is in Idle mode, we can see the idle screen alsong with devices status and access applications.We can also capture an screenshot (image of a screen) by pressing and holding Home key and the Power/Lock key simultaneously. But I wish they could give a single key like in the tablet.

I found in-call sound quality to be very good and have not faced any call drop issues till now. However i think the speaker volume is not sufficient though.

The music player on the Samsung GALAXY R is pretty good; I believe most of the GALAXY models has the same player. It has all the required features like
support for playlists, grouping by albums/artists, and has some equalizer presets as well. I read somewhere that it can even play the FLAC lossless audio format. Earphone provided is pretty good as well, we can listen in 5.1 when earphone is used, I was not very impressed though.

The 5MP camera is pretty decent, but again I use my digital camera for photography, so did'nt have much of expectations from it.

Eventhough the box had out the internal storage as 8GB; I found only about 3.75GB being available for users, just could not find much information on what happened to the remaining part of it; If someone already has it and have some information on the same, please do let me know...btw the storage can be expanded up to 32GB using Micro SD card.

Overall I believe this is a good smartphone and is a good alternative to the Samsung GALAXY S2. I found it to be costing over 27K a couple of months back, infact the box carries a MRP of about 30K. But IMO at 21K I believe this phone is good value for money. Who know it might just come down by another few thousands by february.
 
Congratulations and thanks for the review. It should have been better if you added some pics of the phone. Does it support video calling?
 
Congratulations and thanks for the review. It should have been better if you added some pics of the phone. Does it support video calling?

Thanks...Yes, it does support video calling have'nt tried one though...will soon try to upload some pictures as well.
 
There is one most annoying issue on Galaxy R. Bottom right half edge of the touch screen has inaccurate touch response (I have to touch slightly towards left for close to the edge cells and slightly higher for not so close to the edge cells - confusing to understand but thats how it is!). I am trying to swap it once before taking a call to keep or return particularly for this issue (Sulekha.com offers 5 days return policy).

@letsrock...I am not having any such issues...what are you trying to access there...I have not downloaded much of applications only few of them, I tired in my home screen and it is responding pretty fine...you can probably post a pic on that...it might help me in understanding better and check on mine as well...

btw do you have any clue on the 8GB memory thing printed on the box?...coz USB storage is only showing about 3.75GB...is the remaining space being used by OS and preloaded apps...
 
@letsrock...I am not having any such issues...what are you trying to access there...I have not downloaded much of applications only few of them, I tired in my home screen and it is responding pretty fine...you can probably post a pic on that...it might help me in understanding better and check on mine as well...

btw do you have any clue on the 8GB memory thing printed on the box?...coz USB storage is only showing about 3.75GB...is the remaining space being used by OS and preloaded apps...

Yes its the remaining space. But one can buy SD card for few bucks :) and expand the storage to 32GB. Its not like IPhone where you get 7.3 GB in 8GB version.
 
But one things that stands out in GALAXY R (I would say better than GALAXY S2) is the nice metallic finish; I feel GALAXY S2 has a plastic feel. GALAXY R is a pleasure to look at and hold as well.

"No... not at all ... nothing is bad in S2....nothing couldn't be bad in S2 " perhaps a wrong statement.... because You are damn correct buddy ..... bum is too plustickyyyyyyyyy :ohyeah: ... Congrats for the great purchase man ... enjoy ....
 
hey... why didn't you try Nexus S? Has good processor (1GHz) and has 16gb built in memory (unexpandable), beautiful 4" display, HD video recording (720p) , 5mp primary cam plus 1.3mp front can for video calling, NFC, and top of it all, this being a nexus device, you get the pure google experience with fastest system upgrades (mine runs on stock ice cream sandwich)

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
 
Ok lets test this. Go to Applications > switch the view to "List" and try clicking on the Alphabet on the right edge. I never get it right on the R and S2 works flawlessly there.

Another test, use swype for typing and try hitting the back button on the right (backspace). It usually hit the button on top of back!

Please test ASAP as I will get it replaced if mine is defective.

Talking of Internal SD, yes its strangely 3.75GB only (like G2). Samsung reserves too much space on Data and Cache partition. Should give us an option to change those partition size to get more usable space.

They reserve about 2.2GB for Data when for me 1GB is more than enough for max apps I use. This despite having an option to install apps on SD (we wont hit any bottleneck as its the same physical internal SD). If we install apps on SD, we hardly need Data partition to be 400MB (like most of the other phones).


Dude, even SGS1 is superior to Nexus S (except for the latest android build, ofcourse).

Comparison with Nexus S:

1. Same Audio hardware, just a matter of time we get Voodoo sound on R which S2 or Note can not get.

2. Bigger 4.2" SC LCD as compared to 4" on Nexus S

3. Faster (though smally 8GB) internal SD. Way faster 1GHz Tegra 2 Dual Core processor (sometimes 4 times faster than Nexus S)

4. Faster Graphics on several apps, better dev support as it comes from nVidia brand name (as against PowerVR).

5. Hopefully better battery life

6. HSPA+ 21mbps Download speeds as compared to 7.2mbps on Nexus S

7. 1GB DDR3 RAM as compared to 512MB DDR1 on Nexus S

I might have erred some here as I never owned Nexus S but have compared with SGS1 which was essentially similar phone with AWESOME SAMOLED screen.


@Letsrock...Thanks for information on the internal SD...

coming to the tests: seems like your phone has some issue, I have tired both the tests and found it to be reponding well and appropriately...

Please do check if it can be replaced and I suggest you to probably go to some mobile store and take a demo on same model and see how it responds there...

I did read somewhere about issues with things purchased from sulekha, not sure whether it was related to delivery or the products itself...will try to provide you with link (If I can find one)...

All the best...
 
"No... not at all ... nothing is bad in S2....nothing couldn't be bad in S2 " perhaps a wrong statement.... because You are damn correct buddy ..... bum is too plustickyyyyyyyyy :ohyeah: ... Congrats for the great purchase man ... enjoy ....

Thanks sanjub22...yep with S2 I believe samsung has hit the right note...hope they do similar work with thier new tablet...which is expected to come out with ICS and retina display...adding to that if rumors are to be believe it would be 11.6'' display...:D
 
11.6 inch retina display??? Thts insane. The resolution should be around 2560*1440 for a 11.6 inch retina. I dont think thats gonna happen anytime soon !!
 
I tested it again and it seems I was trying it differently. As its an LCD screen, the difference between the actual display panel and the glass you touch is about 5mm! That might be the culprit as I was touching while seeing from a side. If I do it right at 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the screen, it seems to be working fine. As I am used to using AMOLED screens with integrated touch sensor (hence hardly any distance between the display and the glass), it might have been happening. Wonder how iPhone fanboys deal with it (I demoed iPhone 4 last year and was disgusted due to similar issue with touch screen).

So Apple fanatics may never know the capability of AMOLED displays (if they ever come across even the term "AMOLED" outside their iWorld) ;)

They did send a resealed box (sticker on top of broken sticker), however other than that, most of my other doubts on the product seems to have gone and I am really loving its audio quality which is miles ahead of SGS2 :(

On a side note, they had promised to pickup the phone by Monday or Tuesday. No news till now!


@letsrock...so its more the way you are doing than problem with the phone itself...:clapping:I did have a doubt yesterday while I was testing...but I thought if a first time touch screen user (like me) can do it, I believe you should be able to handle it as well. So did'nt comment on that.

I agree with on the AQ part of it, I did try some settings for listening to music with the stock earphone and attended few calls as well...the sound quality was truly awesome...except the 5.1 part of it.

btw I never knew when you do online shopping, if someone decides to return or replace, the product is picked by the sender itself. I thought it has to be courier-ed back or something...has never bought anything online till now:sad:
 
Quite offtrack from the ongoing discussion going on here, have any of you guys tried rooting your Android devices?

I have a Samsung Infuse 4G and tried to root it using SuperOneClick software but no success as of now.
 
How would the Galaxy S plus compare to the R. They seem to be in a similar price range. Which is the phone to buy in that sort of price range which has the best camera?
 
How would the Galaxy S plus compare to the R. They seem to be in a similar price range. Which is the phone to buy in that sort of price range which has the best camera?

I don't see much difference in the camera front between S PLUS and R except that the seconday camera in GALAXY S PLUS is 0.3MP and both have LED flash

I believe with Super AMOLED the photos might look a tad better than GALAXY R; but when seen in laptop or TV I believe it should all be the same.

Sony xperia Neo used to come with 8MP camera; however afer the recent earthquake, due to shortage of 8MP cameras they have come out with downgraded (read camera) Xperia Neo V i.e., 5MP camera.

I cannot recall much phones with 8MP camera, the one phone i can recall is Nokia X7 --> AMOLED Capacitive Touchscreen, 16M colors 8MP camera.
 
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I have also got one recently. Its sort of a scaled down version of Galaxy S2 with nVidia Tegra2 processor and graphics. Comparison with GS2:

1. Better Headphone/line out sound quality as compared to Galaxy S2
2. Heavily bluish tint making the images washed out as compared to Super AMOLED Plus display on GS2
3. User available RAM is lower on R (around 723MB) as compared to GS2 (around 834MB)
4. USB On the go is supported, but no HDMI (MHL support)
5. Latest available Stock ROM is a Taiwan/Hongkong 2.3.6 which we could upgrade to manually (gives circular scroll feature on Touchwiz 4, more stable as the Stock Indian ROM kept shutting down, rebooting the phone even during the initial setup!)
6. Can easily be overclocked to 1.3GHz and may perform faster than Galaxy S2 on some applications.

I got it for 19k only from Sulekha.com

hi... i wanted to know about the 5th point[ Latest available Stock ROM is a Taiwan/Hongkong 2.3.6 which we could upgrade to manually (gives circular scroll feature on Touchwiz 4, more stable as the Stock Indian ROM kept shutting down, rebooting the phone even during the initial setup!) ].. i have read on many forums that there is a restarting issue with the galaxy R. and i think u r talking about the same here... can you plz explain this issue and the resolution... cheers...
 
Yes I had random reboot issue right from the time I unboxed the phone. However, after upgrading the ROM to KK5 (2.3.6 GB ROM), they all disappeared and the phone is working perfectly fine.

You could use the below ROM to resolve those issues:
[ROM][DKK5]InfectedRom V1 *RELEASED* De-odexed,Zipaligned,Fast & Sexy! - xda-developers

hi.. thankz for the rep.. actually m a bit new to android... m nt sure i would want to install a custom ROM on my brand new piece. does the issue also disappears by upgrading the android version using Kies...?
 
For excellent sound that won't break the bank, the 5 Star Award Winning Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Bookshelf Speakers is the one to consider!
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