Samsung Galaxy Mini review

Samsung is not backwards about coming forwards with multiple smartphones. While we’ve recently been stunned by the superb quality of the high end Samsung Galaxy S2, we know Samsung has its feet firmly on the ground, and realises there is hay to be made at every section of the Android smartphone market. But we wonder if the Samsung Galaxy Mini is just too hampered by its screen to be a real success.

You see, when you are paying £150 for a smartphone SIM free you can’t expect the earth. But you do have a right to expect a good mix of features. With that in mind, we can live with the fact that the screen measures 3.1 inches. It’s small, sure, and the size makes tapping at the on-screen keyboard tricky if you have lager hands.

But what really lets things down is the resolution. We aren’t convinced that a 320x240 pixel screen really has a place in the mix. An Android smartphone, after all, has multimedia at its core. And this screen resolution makes viewing web pages tricky. Even the text of SMS messages, writ quite large on screen, looks fuzzy thanks to the low resolution.

There’s another thing about the screen too. It is relatively wide, so that flicking into wide format for video viewing or web browsing doesn’t reveal quite as much additional width as we are used to.

And while we are on the negative aspects of the Samsung Galaxy Mini, the other major one is the absence of Flash. The handset runs Android 2.2, so on paper it can cope with Flash. But the processor, at 600MHz, lacks the oomph. So, there’s no streaming video from within web sites, which these days is rather poor form.

The slowish processor also contributed to a somewhat sluggish response to screen presses. This in itself isn’t a deal breaker, but if you’ve used a high end smartphone recently you will notice the difference.

These things, really, are the Samsung Galaxy Mini’s main stumbling blocks and the other compromises are more acceptable. We can live with the 3 megapixel camera, for example.

It lacks a flash and autofocus, and only shoots average quality snaps. But it has a panorama mode, smile shot and a feature called ‘Add me’ which lets you shoot a photo in two separate halves, automatically stitching them together. It can make for some entertaining photos.

We rather like that you start out with three home screens. This is a manageable number suited to a newcomer to smartphones. If you want more, you just pinch inwards on any home screen and you can add them - up to a total of seven.

We also like that Samsung has lightly skinned Android so that four shortcuts remain in a bar along the bottom of every home screen. These give you access to the dialler, contacts, messaging and the main apps menu.

We’re fans of the chassis and build, too. Our review sample was all white with silver edging and a stippled patterning on the backplate. It looks quite attractive, feels robust, and contributes to a mere 106.6g of weight.

Under the screen Samsung has opted for physical rather than touch sensitive buttons for Menu and Back functions, and the Home button is a large central lozenge. This does look as though it ought to be a select button or incorporate a touchpad, but no, it just takes you to the main home screen. And we can live with that.

Memory is a bit short with just 164MB on board. But Samsung gives you a 2GB microSD card on which you can install apps you download from the Market.

This slot is on the right side of the chassis so you can sideload any tunes you want the music player to pick up, or get other data on and off the device without bothering to make a wired connection to your computer. And the slot, like the microUSB slot on the top of the chassis, is protected by a hinged cover.

Of course Wi-Fi and GPS are present, and the HSDPA supports downloads to 7.2Mbps. Samsung doesn’t go overboard with applications to augment the Android basics, but it does include an FM radio, memo app, voice recorder, QuickOffice document viewer and its own Social Hub for Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. There is also Samsung’s own app store, if you feel that you want to bolster the offerings of the Android Market. 

In the end, the Samsung Galaxy Mini doesn’t do anything to distinguish itself particularly from a fairly crowded section of the market, and that low resolution screen and lack of Flash support are both significant turn-offs. Our best advice would be to shop around and see if there’s a combination of specs that gives you a better screen and Flash for a price you can afford.