The Samsung S5670 also known as the Galaxy Fit is another one of Samsung’s entry in the plethora of mid-range Android-powered phones. Being in the same “˜Galaxy’ series of phones from Samsung, much is expected from this unit and I’m quite happy that it delivers considering the price point it’s being offered at.
Design
Despite being in the mid-range family of Samsung Android phone, the hardware itself is quite sturdy and doesn’t feel cheap when you hold it in your hand.
The front panel is accented by a chromed plastic lining the edges. The Galaxy Fit has a 3.3 inch capacitive display that packs a resolution of 240X320 pixels. At the bottom center of the screen is the home button which is fashioned after the home button of the other Galaxy series phones. Left of it is the menu button and on its right is the back button.
At the top you will find the micro USB port with the sliding cover beside the 3.55mm audio jack. On the right side of the device lies the power/lock button which at first, I mistook for a dedicated camera button. On the left side, you will find the volume rocker and the micro SD slot which you can take out without opening the back cover.
The battery cover is a corrugated thin plastic, a much welcome deviation from the design of its bigger Galaxy S cousin, although not as visually appealing. The 5 MP autofocus camera lens is also located here.
Display and UI
The Fit runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) with Samsung’s Touchwiz UI 3.0 on top. You can have as much as 7 home screens where you can place your widgets and a lot of panels in the application drawer. What I really liked about the UI is how Samsung allowed you to organize your application icons in the application drawer. A simple but useful feature absent in some custom UI implementation of other phone manufacturers. Aside from that, everything is how you would expect it to be.
The downside of the display here is its low 240 x 320 resolution when other phones with almost the same screen size (like the LG Optimus P500) has a resolution of 320 x 480. The display may not be as sharp as you want it to be but it is still very vibrant thanks to its 16 million colors.
Performance
The Galaxy Fit is a full touch smartphone equipped with a 600Mhz processor and 160 MB of internal memory. In terms of performance, the Galaxy Fit is very responsive considering its not-so-powerful processor. Swiping through home screens and scrolling down long lists of contacts is smooth.
Out of all the mid-ranged Android phones I’ve tried, the Galaxy Fit gives one of the best browsing experience in this category perhaps at par or even surpassing that of HTC’s Wildfire. The browser has support for multi-touch and of course Flash. The only snag here is again, the display size since most online content would be cramped in such a small screen. Aside from that, I was quite happy browsing using this device.
Just like most Android phones from Samsung, the Galaxy Fit also has the Swype text input built-in although it’s not the default setting. Press the message box long enough until you see options for your text input. With Swype, you can just trace the path to each letter of the word you wish to type and the phone will take care of the rest. Very useful on a phone with a cramped keyboard.
It’s also quite pleasing to know that on such a small and budget-friendly device, you can also use the Galaxy Fit to share its mobile internet via tethering or as a mobile AP.
As for battery life, the Galaxy Mini can do a respectable 1.5 days on normal usage before having to charge it again. If you will be using it strictly for calls and text (like in places without connection), you can go for almost three days before charging!
Camera
I was really surprised with the amount of configurable settings in the Galaxy Fit’s 5MP camera. The Galaxy Fit is capable of shooting pictures with up to 2560 X 1920 resolution. But again, high resolution does not translate to high quality pictures. The Galaxy Fit takes decent photos adequate for uploading in photo sharing sites.
It also has a number of shooting modes like smile shot and panoramic shot. Despite this, the lack of flash for the camera renders the Fit unusable in super low light situations.
Check out some sample shots. The colors are a bit washed out and the photos grainy despite setting ISO to Auto.
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It doesn’t have a front-camera for video chatting by the way. The tiny dots at the top of the screen is for the proximity sensor.
Verdict
In summary, I think Samsung has hit the mark in providing an all-around mid-range smartphone for the budget-conscious consumer. The Fit’s price point paired with its less-compromised features and capabilities such as internet sharing and Swype input method is enough to warrant your consideration in acquiring this device. However, if the camera is not much of a big deal for you, little brother Galaxy Mini can save you some cash by sacrificing .20-inch of screen display and a lower megapixel count.
| Samsung Galaxy Fit S5670 Specs: |
|---|
| 600 MHz processor |
| Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo) |
| 3.3″ TFT capacitive touchscreen display (240 x 320) 16M colors |
| Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n |
| HSDPA 7.2 Mbps |
| Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP |
| 5mp autofocus w/o LED Flash, QVGA @ 15fps video recording |
| Swype text input |
| 160MB internal memory with support for microSD (2GB included, up to 32GB) |
| GPS with A-GPS |
| 1350maH Li-On battery |
| 110.2 x 61.2 x 12.6 mm |
| 108 g |
| SRP: Php12,900 |
