[This review originally appeared in the December 2011 issue of Gadgets Magazine]
by M.R. Gavin
I am not really a fan of touchscreen phones. For someone who texts every minute of the day, I find it a bit tedious to type my messages. This, until the Samsung Galaxy W came my way and proved me wrong.
My first impression of the Samsung Galaxy W is that it’s light weight and fits perfectly in your hands. Samsung never failed to come up with beautifully designed phones and the Galaxy W is one pretty phone—and along its beautiful design is an equally impressive performance.
My previous Samsung phones all had metal back covers but the Galaxy W has a plastic back cover and a rubbery texture on the sides. On the right side is the Power/Lock button and on the left side are the Volume controls. The top side had three ports for USB, charger and a 3.55mm jack.
Running on Android Gingerbread 2.3, the Galaxy W gives users a fast and pleasant performance. It has a 1.4GHz processor, ready to power-up your applications and games. You also have a flash-enabled browser, giving you instant access to sites that has Flash without having to install plug-ins.
The Galaxy W has a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display that gives you very bright, clear and crisp images. Even when you adjust the brightness, you will still get a good experience whil navigating through your phone. The touchscreen display enables you to tap, pull, swipe and pinch to zoom, giving you choices on how to navigate through your phone.
The good performance of the display however takes toll on your battery life, even when you adjust brightness and other display settings. Even on full charge, I can only use the phone for half a day. The display, Wi-Fi and apps tend to use up battery juice, so you need to carry around that USB cable in case your phone dies on you in the middle of the day.
The Galaxy W comes with the Samsung touchwiz, giving you total control of everything that goes to your home screen. This is ideal for me because I can put notes on my homescreen. It can be separated whether for work, home, business or everything else. It gives me a little planner right on my home screen.
Aside from the Android market, there are exclusive perks for Samsung handset owners. The Samsung W includes a new gaming hub and music hub, where there are 11 million tracks to choose from and to discover what’s best for your smartphone from another 200,000 apps.
I also need a phone that can handle social networking and some serious business. I need to stay online 24/7, I need to check my email, Facebook and Tweeter accounts as often as I can so the Samsung Social Hub helps me do that. I can also view documents with the document editor which can support Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF. It’s like having your own computer inside your phone.
I had a small issue with the Galaxy W, though, as the test unit lags when multi-tasking. It tends to stop for a second before finally responding. I also lose widgets and shortcuts I placed on my homescreen.
Finding a smartphone these days is a hefty business. The Samsung Galaxy W is one phone that stands up from the rest, it lets you have fun and be productive all at the same time.
Specs
Dimensions: 116 x 60 x 11.55mm
Weight: 115g
Display: 3.7 inches AMOLED touchscreen
Band: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Camera: CMOS, 5.0 Megapixel
Memory: microSD (up to 32GB)
Whats Hot?
AMOLED screen
Samsung proprietary hubs
Whats Not?
phone lag when multi-tasking
plastic back cover
Bottomline
If you want a smartphone that can go from personal to business, then the Samsung Galaxy W is your go-to phone. It can help you organize your life with its apps and a personalized homescreens.
Buy meter:
8.2