Samsung Galaxy Y Duos GT-S6102 Review

Samsung galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y pro Duos were released at the same time as Samsung’s first dual-sim Android phones to quench the thirst that was a mid-range smartphone without compromising quality. And deliver they did. From when it was merely a rumour, Samsung Galaxy Y Duos was one of the most searched items in the blogs. Well, it’s been in the market for sometime now, and the scramble to get a dual sim android running Ice Cream Sandwich has slowed down.

As usual, a quick walk-through of the specifications:

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread with Samsung TouchWIZ skin
• 3.14 inch screen (QVGA, 240×320)
• Video recording of QVGA @24fps
• 3mp rear camera, fixed focus
• Dual sim, Dual standby
• Data 7.2Mbps HSDPA
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• USB 2.0
• Accelerometer
• 160Mb User Memory and a 2GB memory card(supports upto 32GB)
• Dimensions: 109x60x11.9 and weights 109 grams
• Battery is 1300mAh Li-Ion

The Galaxy Y Duos is a dual sim dual standby android phone that has features almost similar to the galaxy Y Pro Duos, save for the absence of the QWERTY keyboard, front camera, sim manager icon at the notifications icon, lesser spec rear camera(3 against 3.15), battery, (1300 vs 1350), screen size, (3.14″vs 2.6″) and the weight (109 vs 112g). Most of the review elements work for both phones. See Galaxy Y Pro Duos review. Thought I push in that link there to avoid talking much about the Galaxy Y Pro duos, you know it stole the show for the Galaxy Y Duos, because of the qwerty and type advantage.

Galaxy Y Duos has a nice edge to it in that you get a slightly bigger screen that most entry level Android smartphones, almost as good as what Apple offers with the 3.5 inch iphones, or the Galaxy Ace. That plus some good screen resolution. The phone does not feel pixelated, and you can actually enjoy pictures taken off the 3mp shooter at the back when done in good lighting. We know that it doesn’t have a flash, right?

The dual sim dual standby

This works fine to ensure you are always connected on the two sims. Just like the sister, your two lines will be always on, save for the time when you are on call when you will get a missed call. No, you wont miss the call though. The sim management menu is in the phone settings as the first option. Gives you an option to select what sim to use for data by default. Something that many of us in Kenya can easily associate with.

Android 2.3.6

I have been saying this time and time again, it should now be declared illegal to release a phone to the market running anything older than Gingerbread. Since we have already seen very many entry level devices running smoothly on Gingerbread, there is no reason to do that to your customers. So Samsung has taken heed to that and has been releasing all it’s devices with that into consideration. As always, the skinning that Samsung adds to Android is snazzy and adds more usability and makes device management easier.

Display

This is not as clear as what we have on the Galaxy y pro duos, but it’s quite clear compared to many in this range, like the first Galaxy mini or the LG L3

Camera

In good lighting you will get nice images, some having quite good image definition, that wouldnt be said of low lighting shot images. But comparing it with many others in this range, it still outperforms them, plus the camera software does the phone some good.

Data and speed

That 7.2 Mbps HSDPA is quite the performer, if you are not tied with slow network operator speeds you have a fat chance to experience good 3G speeds. In this day and age I could almost say the data dongle is overrrated. You can tether your smartphone either via Wi-Fi or USB and have quite a party.

Most of the times you will find yourself evaluating the speed of the phone with how fast it allows you to access data that is on-line, be it web access or on-line mobile applications. Not many highly graphical games and applications can be found for this size of screens and resolutions. So that factor in consideration, the device will stand the test of time, and not even one single time have I had it hang for the period that I have used it.

Storage

160MB is not something to write home about, but I have good news for any prospective buyer, this phone comes with a 2GB memory card, and you are able to install applications to SD card. So all hope is not lost. It’s capable of holding a 32GB memory card, although that is better used for storage, installing apps that consume that much space might render the phone the most inefficient this side of the galaxy.

Battery life

This is one very important item since the inception of the smartphone. How long can it hold on? Well, there is some good news here, if you use it optimally, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth once in a while, data access, some camera and calls, you could go all day. Tethering the device can reduce that to even 2 hours, and that happens to most phones anyway.

So bottom line is that this phone is quite usable, gives some or all of the most important features on a smartphone, while make you get the service of two. Fact that it has two sims on standby does not make it a non-performer. It’s one you can use on a day-to- day basis, I found myself getting used to it. Although I would be lying if I say I can take it as my main one, after having used bigger screens (Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note) for a many months. The screen is quite responsive, with the touch sensitive menus giving the value they are meant to. Plus once you get it online and synced with your gmail account it has a minor upgrade that makes the lock screen have the circle and drag to unlock unlike in other Samsung devices where you drag an image set as screen lock. The phone is light, for those of who who feel that it matters, and the dent on the pocket is minimal. Price is Kes 16,000 (around USD 190) and is available widely at the retailers.