Low-end smartphone by Samsung
The
Samsung Galaxy Star
is a low-end
smartphone
manufactured by
Samsung Electronics
. It is running on Android 4.1.2(Jelly Bean). It has unofficial
Android 4.4
,
5.1
,
6.0.1
and
7.1
roms. It was announced in April 2013, it was subsequently released in May 2013.
[2]
[6]
It is the cheapest smartphone in the
Samsung Galaxy series
.
[7]
Like all other Samsung Galaxy smartphones, the Galaxy Star runs on the
Android mobile operating system
.
[1]
The phone is available in 2 versions: a single SIM version (GT-S5280) and a
dual SIM
version (GT-S5282).
[2]
The phone competes with other low-cost smartphones such as the smartphones from the
Nokia Asha series
as well as low-cost smartphones manufactured by Indian manufacturers such as
Micromax
,
Karbonn
,
Spice Digital
, Lava International and
Celkon
.
[2]
It is available in certain Asian countries such as
India
,
Pakistan
,
Sri Lanka
,
Nepal
,
Bangladesh
,
Myanmar
,
Philippines
,
Indonesia
etc. where low-cost smartphones are very popular as well as in Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Portugal, France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
Brazilian version is also released, dubbed GT-S5283B.
Specifications
[
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]
Hardware
[
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]
The Galaxy Star follows the candybar
form factor
for smartphones, and features a plastic exterior.
[8]
The phone features a 1
GHz
single-core
ARM Cortex-A5
processor and a
Mali-300
graphics processor, and comes equipped with 512
MB
of
RAM
and 4
GB
of
internal storage
, of which 2 GB is available to the user. The internal storage can be upgraded to 32 GB through the use of a
microSD card
.
[1]
[3]
[4]
The device features an
accelerometer
intended to translate natural gestures into commands on the phone; for example, if the phone is ringing and the user turns it face down, it will stop ringing, or if the user wishes to establish a
Bluetooth
or
wireless internet connection
, they can shake the device and it will automatically connect.
[9]
However, users have found that these gestures are often poorly recognised, resulting in the device performing unwanted tasks. It is not the first device to have these features; the
HTC Desire Z
introduced these features in 2010.
[10]
It features a capacitive
QVGA
LCD
touchscreen display which measures 3 inches with a resolution of 240x320
px
at 133
ppi
with multitouch support.
[3]
It also provides a 2
MP
rear camera with 2x optical zoom and QVGA video recording; however there is no front-end camera provided.
[3]
The device requires the use of
microSIM
cards.
[3]
The phone runs on a 1200
mAh
lithium-ion battery
. The Galaxy Star's battery drains quickly, but with moderate use on a single SIM, it can last up to 2 days.
[8]
Galaxy Star GT-S5282
[
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]
The Galaxy Star GT-S5280 and the Galaxy Star GT-S5282 are almost the same, with the only difference between them being that the latter is a dual-SIM phone, having another SIM card slot. Only one SIM is used at a time; a SIM card manager in the device is used to switch between them.
Connectivity
[
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]
Unlike most other smartphones, the Galaxy Star runs on
EDGE
networks alone, and doesn't support
3G
connectivity.
[3]
It also does not provide a
Global Positioning System
(GPS). However it provides support for
WiFi
connectivity and
Bluetooth 4.0
.
[5]
Software
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]
Like all other Samsung Galaxy smartphones, the Galaxy Star runs on the
Android
mobile operating system
. It runs on a modified version of
Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
.
[9]
Because of this, Samsung has stated that CPU usage is conducted in a more efficient way to ensure longer battery life.
[9]
Again, as with other Samsung smartphones, the device also uses Samsung's
TouchWiz
UX Nature user interface as the default user interface, though it is also possible to use other third-party user interfaces. By default, as in other Android smartphones, Google's products such as
Google Chrome
,
Gmail
,
Google+
,
Google Hangouts
etc. are provided in the phone. The device also has access to the
Google Play
store, but being a low-end smartphone, new applications as well as applications requiring a large amount of processing power and memory cannot be installed on the device.
[7]
Samsung's applications such as
ChatON
and
Samsung Apps
are also preinstalled, as in other Samsung smartphones. However games like Dead Trigger, Temple Run, Temple Run 2, Temple Run oz, Angry Birds, Jetpack Joyride works with ease.
Reception
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The Samsung Galaxy Star has received mixed reviews upon its release. While it has been praised for its price, user experience and battery life, it has also been criticised for its small screen, lack of features and performance. Many users have found that the device's capabilities are basic, seeing it as a low-end smartphone.
According to
The Times of India
, the Galaxy Star looks "cute", has a decent screen, has a decent battery life and provides a good user experience, but has its drawbacks, with a small screen, low resolution and an underwhelming performance.
[7]
ReviewGuidelines.com
has praised the phone's memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, touchscreen display and design, while criticising the lack of features and functionality. According to
Techpinas.com
, the Samsung Galaxy Star is a decent device capable of providing users with an adequate mobile experience. The screen is bare basic, yet this is understandable considering the device is a low-end smartphone. Furthermore, it excels in terms of basic functions such as web browsing and communications.
[11]
Many individual reviewers in the
Internet
have criticized the device due to its lack of a GPS, which has become the norm for modern day smartphones.
[8]
Reviewers have agreed that the phone excels in terms of battery life, which is a result of Samsung modifying the operating system to control battery drainage.
[8]
Despite the fact that the device has a 2MP fixed focus back camera, reviewers have found that the camera is capable of taking clear pictures with adequate picture quality.
[8]
References
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External links
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