Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 review

The Samsung Galaxy Mini, also known as The Samsung Tass was born from the Galaxy family with a budget in mind but of above average specs. It was created to cater to people who don’t want to shell out much dough for its older sibling, that is, the Galaxy S.

Is the Galaxy Mini a worthy consideration for your small budget? Let’s find out.

Design

The Galaxy Mini bears some resemblance to the Samsung Corby in terms of the overall form factor but the Mini apparently has a bigger display of 3.14 inches as opposed to the Corby’s 2.8 inch display.

What’s also apparent in our Mini’s design is its lime-colored accents and the mesh-like pattern at the back which would appeal to young consumers. It also comes in white with gray accents by the way.

On the left side is where the volume rocker is located which also functions as a zoom control when taking pictures. On the right, you’ll see the power button and the micro-SD slot which supports up to 32GB. At the top is where you’ll find the micro-USB slot and the power button.

At the back is where the 3.15 MP camera and the speaker grill are located. Below the Mini’s front display, is where you’ll find the home button at the center and the menu and back buttons on each side.

Display

The Galaxy Mini’s display is a mediocre 240 x 320 pixel quality which is to be expected from a low-end smartphone.

Sunlight legibility is pretty much acceptable even though it lacks an ambient light sensor that would automatically adjust the brightness of your display depending on the lighting conditions.

Apart from that, the touchscreen display is very responsive and also supports multi-touch. As to its display colors, 256K colors is the norm for its small display. Even then, the colors come out fine and the contrast is quite good too.

Features

The Galaxy Mini comes with the Android 2.2 Froyo powered by a 600 MHz processor. Just like its other Galaxy siblings, it also features a TouchWiz UI which not only makes the icons look good but also improves the general user experience.

The 600 MHz processor under the hood is capable enough of multitasking and also delivers a smooth performance when cycling through the home screens filled with widgets. Although it comes short when running Android apps especially games which require more processing power (even Angry Birds showed a bit of lag when playing).

It’s also important to note that like most Android phones from Samsung, the Galaxy Mini also comes with the Swype text input method which makes it really easy to compose messages on a small touchscreen.

Multimedia

The Galaxy Mini features a cool 3D Gallery that comes with the Android Froyo. It’s definitely a treat having a 3D gallery with nice transition effects with all your photos and videos neatly placed in an album-like fashion.

The video player can support 3GP and MP4 formats although DivX/XviD is not supported. Playing 720p videos aren’t supported either due to the low resolution but it seems clear that the Galaxy Mini wasn’t intended for viewing at QVGA resolution.

Camera

The 3MP fixed focus camera at the back can take photos at a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 pixels although there’s no flash to aid you in low light conditions.

Image quality wise, the camera can produce good photos with nice color and contrast and with relatively less noise despite taken at low light conditions. Below are some sample shots taken with the Galaxy Mini.

Web Browsing

Web browsing in the Galaxy Mini is a feat thanks to the minimalistic approach of this phone’s browser. Once the page has been loaded, you can only see the URL bar and the bookmark button at the top while the rest shows the web page. This enables the user to fully use the small display the Galaxy Mini can offer. It’s great that Samsung was mindful enough to consider this.

One downside however is that despite the fact that the Galaxy Mini comes with an Android Froyo (which was designed to support Flash), its browser cannot display Flash contents. This is similar to the case of LG Optimus One which makes us conclude that the processor’s performance is incapable of handling Flash content.

Verdict

In a nutshell, the Galaxy Mini inherited most of the features of the Galaxy family but was just packed in a small frame.

To answer the question posted earlier if the Mini is worth the purchase, we’ll then give a definite yes. But of course, it will depend on where you’re coming from. With a very affordable price tag of P9,600 plus unlimited access to tons of free apps available in the Android Market, first time users will definitely feel compelled to grab this phone.

If you want to have most of the Samsung Galaxy experience but you’re on a tight budget, then the Galaxy Mini is for you as it performs basically what an Android phone should be. But keep in mind though that once the limitations of the Galaxy Mini sets in to you, you’ll definitely be wanting for more and a phone upgrade is inevitable.

On the other hand, if you want to save a thousand bucks, the Galaxy 5 has almost the same specs except that it comes with a smaller 2.8-inch screen.

Editor’s note: This post is contributed by Carl Clasio with some slight revisions by the editor. Carl is a contributor here at PTB and loves playing with all sorts of gadgets. He’s also into photography, likes Piña Colada and getting caught in the rain.