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Saturday, December 22, 2012

The First Review

Welcome Readers,

It's been a busy week and before it draws to end, I would like to finish it with the very first review of "The Wireless Teens"! The spotlight of this review falls on the Samsung Galaxy S Duos. 

 Video Review:-

Introduction:-

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos was launched on August 2012 as a Low to Mid-Range Dual Sim Android smartphone. It holds the title of Best Dual-Sim Phone of 2012. Based on market availability, there are only two arch-rivals for this phone, the HTC Desire V and HTC Desire VC. This phone follows the Samsung Galaxy S III design language, meaning the phone is quite stylish. It is currently available in White and Black colors, with White being the most common of the two.

Specifications:-

The phone packs decent specs such as a single-core 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 MSM7227A Cortex A-5 SoC with Adreno 200 GPU with aid of 768 MB RAM. It comes with 4 GB Internal memory out of which only 1.8 GB is available to the user but it is expandable upto 32 GB via a MicroSD card. It offers a 5 MP camera along with LED flash and it also offers a VGA front-facing camera for video calls. The display is a TFT-LCD capacitive touchscreen, measuring 4-inches with screen resolution of 400x800 WVGA which leads to a pixel density of 233 ppi. Finally, the phone is fueled by a 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery.

Hardware Layout:-

The front of the device features the dominant display. Above the display is the Samsung Logo along with the front speaker, proximity sensor and front-facing camera. Below the display is the Physical Home button, to the left of which lays a Capacitive Menu button and to the right of which lays a Capacitive Back button. The back of the device consists of the loudspeaker at the left, a Camera to the right of the loudspeaker and the LED flash below the Camera. The Samsung logo is located at the middle of the battery cover. The right side of the device consists of  the Power button at the top and a MicroSD card slot below. There isn't a physical camera shutter button. The left side of the device consists of the Volume Rocker with a small hole which is the GPS antenna. Finally, the bottom of the device houses the micro-USB port at the center with the microphone to the right of it.

Features:-

The main feature of the phone is obviously, the Dual-Sim capability. The active Sim in use can directly be switched from the Notification bar or through the Settings. The phone launches with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with Samsung's Touchwiz Nature UX. Samsung has stated that it will be upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the second or third quarter of 2013. This is a great bit of info for potential buyers to note, though it might be a long wait.

Touchwiz Nature UX(Brief Overview):- 

Touchwiz Nature UX has 7 customizable homescreens which the user can edit to their liking or even remove. The Notification Bar offers a few Quick Toggles and also a Brightness adjustment slider due to the lack of an Ambient light sensor. The Quick Toggle settings are as follows:
  • Wi-Fi
  • GPS
  • Sound
  • Screen Rotation
  • Power Saving Mode
  • Notifications
  • Mobile Data
  • Bluetooth
  • Driving Mode 
  • Auto-Sync
Samsung has optimized Touchwiz to run with minimum to no lag on Android 4.0. The amount of lag depends on the amount of running applications which take up too much of RAM. 

Note: Lag can be reduced to a certain extent by clearing the RAM. This can be done by long-pressing the Physical Home Button and swiping off the running applications. Otherwise Long-press the Physical Home Button and tap on Task Manager. Select the RAM tab and click Clear Memory. 

System UI Screenshots:-






 

Camera Overview:-

The Camera offered on the Galaxy S Duos is 5 MP.  The camera offers decent to good pictures
depending on external factors. There are a variety of modes on offer for the user to choose. They are as follows:
  • Camera Switch
  • Flash Toggle
  • Shooting Mode selection:
  1. Single Shot
  2. Smile Shot
  3. Panorama
  4. Cartoon
  5. Share shot
  • Camera Effect:
  1. No Effect
  2. Negative
  3. Black and White
  4. Sepia
  • Settings:
  1. Edit Shortcuts
  2. Self-Potrait Toggle
  3. Flash Toggle
  4. Shooting Mode
  5. Scene Mode
  6. Exposure Value
  • Photo/Video Toggle
  • Shutter Button
  • Photo Preview

Browser:-

The Samsung stock browser performs very fast. It has a minimalist look but offers an array of different features. The browser's Navigation Toolbar consists of the Refresh button, Address Bar,Tab button and Bookmark button. 

Clicking on the Tab button reveals a separate page displaying the amount of open tabs. The user can decide to open a New Tab or a New Incognito Tab. Click on the Bookmark button and you are taken to a page in which all your Local bookmarks(stored on the device) and Google bookmarks as well. There are tabs for your History and Saved Pages as well. Beyond this, even more options are available after the Menu button is clicked. They are as follows:

  • Forward
  • New Window
  • Add Bookmark
  • Add shortcut to home
  • Share page
  • Find on page
  • Desktop view
  • Save for offline reading 
Gaming Performance:-

Gaming performance is beyond par if the user remembers to clear the RAM before playing. Games that have been tested by me which run lag-free, so far are:
  • Temple Run
  • Angry Birds(All versions)
  • Drag Racing
  • Turbofly 3D as well as Turbofly HD
  • Jetpack Joyride
  • Dead Trigger
  • Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

Battery Life:-

Battery life is decent but varies according to the amount of usage. The user can last a full day with light to moderate use. Heavy use drains the battey within 12 hours. When two Sims are inserted battery drains considerably faster, reaching 0% withing just 6 hours. Charge times are relatively quick within 2 hours. Overall no big surprises in the battery life department.

Verdict:- 

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos is the 2012 version of the original. Minor improvements in the form of the latest Android version, more RAM, Dual-Sim capability and a more unique styling makes this a great choice for first time smartphone user although the price is on the higher side at 16,000 INR. The phone performs really smooth for an outdated single-core processor but now with the introduction of budget dual-core smartphones in this price range it is questionable. Competition in this category is limited with only the Desire V going toe-to-toe. As said earlier, first time smartphone users will really appreciate and so will those who need to use two Sims but cannot compromise on styling.


Hope you have enjoyed reading this article as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Leave your opinions and questions in the comments below.

Until next time!   

This article was contributed by AJ.   
        

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the details..

Unknown said...

Yeah Its our pleasure dear Reader. And we have more posts coming soon. So Keep in touch with us.Your visit mean a lot to us.

Akashtango said...

Liked your views and opinions
Just want one thing!!
I have s duos and it lags a bit in
music player and operating please
tell how to overcome its lag and you will be advertised by me to various sites !!

Unknown said...

It's pretty simple, do what we have recommended in the video. Always clear your apps and also clear the RAM before doing anyother task. Hold the Physical home button and swipe out all the apps and then again hold the Physical home button and click Task Manager and then go to RAM and click Clear Memory. Now your phone will function smoothly!

Unknown said...

Az AJ i liked the way u put up the positive reviews.i was really discouraged when i was abt to buy this s3 lookalike phone.s duos.when i read most of the negative reviews.
as u wrote in the review that..first time smartphone users will really appreciate.Now i know why ppl were giving negative reviews.

as u know s duos now cost just a meager 13k as compared to 16k a month ago

i am seriously looking forward to buy it.
one doubt though still persists that..wil it be wise to purchase this cell when ur getting other android cells in the market with better specs?
i love this s duos cell n i wanted to buy it the day i saw it.
i dnt consider myself a gaming freak moreover its going to b my firt android cell hence i expct myself to b a moderate user of this cell..
what do u think will it b wise to buy it?

just need ur wise opinion
thanks

Anonymous said...

Dear AZ/AJ,

Kudos for a nice and balanced review of s duos. Hope u keep up the quality.

I need to buy a dual sim smartphone (my first smart phone)for seperate home/office use. A dual sim BB Z10 would have been ideal but it doesn't exist.

I need good phone function-signal strength/voice/call recption/quality, fast internet, reliability and premium looks. Not much interested in other apps/games etc.

Undecided between S duoa and htc desire V. Grand duos is too big. HTC looks better but read about unreliability issues, phone hanging, call not being recieved despite full signal etc. Even S Duos has mixed reviews.

Therefore your informed opinion on these aspects will be appreciated and awaited.

Thanks

Unknown said...

@bilal khan
I am really very sorry for the late reply.
If your price range is under 15k then S duos or Micromax Canvas HD is good for you.
And do understand if you want to experience dual and quad core processors then you need to cross 20-25k price range.
S-Duos is a good phone and its my personal favourite to

Unknown said...

@Anonymous
Dear Reader. If you are looking for a dual sim phone then go for S duos itself.
I would recommend HTC desire VC but you said some cons abt the HTC which is very familiar.
Grand has a bigger screen size and also it has very less ppi which means the screen quality is terrible.
S Duos is one of the best dual sim Phone in the market till now.
THanks

Anonymous said...

kudos AJ this is my first visit to ur blog and the review article was pretty cool..read a small article about u in a weekly tamil issue was inspiring

cheers..

tony said...

Hey nanum intha phone tha use panren intha ella detail um ennakum theriyum.enakum matha phone mela romba intrest

Unknown said...

@Tony
Nalla vishayamthan. Ella smartphones pathiyum therinchikunga...
And stay tuned with our blog :-)

My blog for my findings said...

Abdul Jabbor,

I am Samy Software Engr who works for MNC Company, based out of Bangalore. But, basically from Madurai, Tamilnadu :)

Ok... I just read about you by today in Dhinakaran's "Vasantham".

Simply say you are a great and a teen icon for others esp for teens and for sure this post via Dhinakaran.

I went thru your Blog http://wirelessteens.blogspot.in/ on high level which is so practical and helpful. I was expecting this kinda one who is so innovative and definitely your blog would help all of us.

I have lot to share and get some basic idea on mobiles. Hence to be in touch with you, can I have your FB ID? Mine is crazyof2007@gmail.com

By the way, you might get thousands of comments today like I did here... so just go ahead and enjoy your mobile exploration :) however; I would expect some response from you!

Thanks,
Samy.

Unknown said...

@samy
Thanks for your comment and this is Azz Abdul jabbar's brother. AJ is now in Dubai and he will be coming back here by next month or so.
Ill let him know about it cuz he is currently busy with his JOB as a Technical Editor and I am currently responsible for this Blog.
This is his fb account.
ajabhi95@gmail.com
Stay tuned with our blog and we have more articles coming soon.

Unknown said...

Hi,
I would like to know about how install the java files in android os tablet(celkon ct-7).

salesiqtest said...

you can find the solution in www.a2zmobilesolution.blogspot.com there post ur s duos problem they give the answer.

Unknown said...

awesome review.....thanks for the details... :)

Unknown said...

what operating system can change for my htc wildfire s .......

Rohit said...

The price now reduced to 9100, i am thinking of buying this phone. One of the reasons as Azz pointed out that Samsung will be upgrading it officially to Jelly bean. The only worry is about some users saying it pretty slow and the battery timeout...

Ramachandran said...

how can i customize my android mobile without any launchers specially changing user interface