Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 Review

At last after months of research, I too became owner of a smart phone. May be for couple of months as it is for my Mom .She feels it too complex to operate Nokia 1100 which she is using now. So not sure how many months she will take to accept the Samsung Galaxy Y S5360.

Anyway I started exploring the features such as Compass ,GPS ,Accelerometer etc...Its worth for the money that spent for it as it has everything needed for the smart phone.I purchased it through eBay.in @ INR 6950.It took 1 week to get the phone into my hands.Ordered on 13th and reached by 20th Feb 2012. I feel its much cheaper than any other shops here at Kochi. If the things are going in this way, I am sure that India will soon turn into online shopping at-least in case of electronics.

Below are my observations till now. May be I will add some more later.

Pros

1. Android Applications
   Huge list of applications and we can find a free app for its paid equivalent. It includes regional language apps such as Malayalam bible which my mom is going to like a lot.
2. 2 GB card
   No need to spent for memory card as it comes with 2GB card which is enough for an entry level smart phone user.
3. Swype keypad
   You can type by drawing a line on the keyboard connecting the characters.
4. There are other features such as GPS,WiFi,Sensors which almost all the smart phones have. Above are the items, I feel as pros.

Cons

1. Battery backup
   Sad to say that if we use GPRS normally the charge will not last more than 1 day. I don't know why we need to buy this if we don't want to explore the smart features which requires internet. For calling and smsing we should have gone for Nokia 1100.
2. Less sound
   Compared to my Nokia 5300.It is obvious.Nokia 5300 is music edition. Now I need to close the car door glasses to hear to the phone music which was not the case with 5300.
3. Button Light
   There are 2 touch buttons which are at the bottom of the phone placed left and right to the physical button. They are easy to operate in light but at night if you are about to sleep with lights off and you want to send something to your secret lover, you will find it hard time to locate those buttons. The higher models of Galaxy have light on those buttons.
4. No secondary camera
   If the phone has the secondary camera too,it would be the perfect phone. I thing manufacture made it knowingly as they don't want to break the "Nothing is perfect" law. Also the primary cam is of 2MP which is not useful as a camera. I think whatever camera you got in mobile that will not come as your normal camera which has optical zoom. So don't look at the cell phone camera.
5. No feeling of security
   Your activities can be tracked as you are registering the phone using gmail id for getting updates. If you are not a criminal and not interested to watch or download sex related stories ,images or videos through phone go with this happily.
6. Keypad
   Little difficult to use by males who have bigger fingers,if the phone is in vertical position.I mean if you hold the phone with the top SAMSUNG label readable you cannot type, otherwise if you can type properly you cannot read the SAMSUNG label. Try the Swype feature before you conclude on the keyboard matter.

Some good apps I have found in the store

• Google sky map : Interesting app which shows you the position of the stars in the sky. Start the app and hold your phone in the direction of star. It uses the sensors and show you the stars towards that direction.
• Micro spirit level + compass : App which shows the compass & the spirit level for leveling needs.
• Laser level : This shows horizontal and vertical lines in the background of your camera capture.So can easily check or fix the position of materials in front of you.
• Go launcher - Enhances the UI for better usability.
• Google apps such as Reader,Blogger etc which people will install without any list.
• Regional apps - Kerala / Malayalam
• POC Bible
• Shabda sagarm : English <-> Malayalam dictionary

Samsung Galaxy Y Tips & Tricks
These are some tips which I spent some time to figure out. Just sharing as you may also want these

• To know the phone information more than what in the settings->about : Dial *#*#INFO#*#* . INFO means the corresponding numeric keys ie 4636
• Put into silent mode : Long press power button and select the silent mode or reduce the volume to lowest possible.
• Changing keyboard to or from Swype mode : Long press on the setting button  in normal keyboard  or anywhere in the typing area to get the input method selection window and select either Swype or normal.
• Setting mp3 as  ring tone. : Just create a folder called "ringtones" in your SD card and copy the mp3 files.Then they start showing in the ring tone selection dialog box.It seems hard coded to the folder :-)