We review the Samsung Galaxy Fit, the latest sub-£100 addition to Samsung’s ever-growing fleet of Galaxy-branded Android smartphones
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| Samsung Galaxy Fit |
The bizarrely named Samsung Galaxy Fit is a sub-£100 budget Android 2.2-powered smartphone. It’s part of Samsung’s ever-expanding Galaxy-brand, joining the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy S and Galaxy Mini.
The point of the Galaxy Fit is that it’s affordable. It costs less than £100 on some pre-pay tariffs, which is about as affordable as it gets. But does this low price tag mean Samsung has been cutting some corners? We find out.
Looks wise, the Galaxy Fit is a pretty attractive handset. It’s very compact and lightweight as well, measuring in at 110.2 x 61.2 x 12.6 mm and weighing just 108g. Being a Samsung device, it’s pretty plasticky, but this doesn’t really detract from the initial good impression the Fit makes the first time you clap eyes on it.
But it’s not all plastic. There’s an attractive faux-metallic edging running around the entire device, which ties the Fit in, looks-wise at least, with the Samsung Galaxy S. There’s also an interesting ripple effect on the slide-out back panel that was no doubt implemented to aid grip - handy for avoiding those accidental drops.
The Galaxy Fit is no Galaxy S2, nor will it win any design competitions but if you’re after a straight-shooting no-nonsense handset this could very well be the phone for you. We also liked the fact that it doesn’t really look like a budget device – the Fit has an air of premium quality about it.
One major disappointment though is the 3.3-inch display, which at 240 x 320 pixels is pretty bad. So if you’re a big web browser or enjoy watching lots of videos this could spell problems. Definition on images, text and video (basically everything) is poor, which makes reading text on a web page difficult without zooming in, and the less said about how video looks the better.
But for under £100 this is to be expected. What’s not expected for under £100 though is just how nippy this little phone is – and that’s running Samsung’s TouchWiz UI as well.
Of course TouchWiz is no way near the GPU-clogging monster that HTC’s Sense UI is, but the fact that you can switch between apps, homescreens and features on the phone without a hint of lag is impressive.
There are some omissions though and the UI present is missing some of the apps, such as the Kies Air application, that you’ll find on higher end Samsung devices like the Galaxy S2. There’s still plenty aboard though including Task Killer, Music, Social Hub and Quick Office, as well as all the standard Google ones (Maps, Gmail, Latitude etc).
The Fit is powered by a pretty paltry 600 MHz processor CPU and runs Android 2.2, which, again, makes its speed and fluidity all the more astounding. However, it doesn’t take long to exhaust the CPU and once you’ve got more than a few applications open and running, things do start to slow down.
It’s a similar story with the internal storage, which at 160 MB is pretty low – even for budget handset standards. It also doesn’t leave much room for applications. So if you do get this phone, make sure you get an SDcard – the Galaxy Fit ships with a 2GB one – and save all your applications to that. This will ensure your device remains speedy.
In terms of connectivity, you’ve got Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS and the ability to create Wi-Fi hotspots for tethering. Bluetooth is also present, as is a native radio application, and the device ships with a USB charging cable that allows you to share content between your handset and PC.
The Galaxy Fit features a 5-megapixel camera, which shoots images at 2592Ñ…1944 pixels, and features geo-tagging and smile detection. Image quality is decent once ported to a PC, but looks pretty shoddy when displayed on the Galaxy Fit’s low-resolution display. Video capture is QVGA quality at 15fps – so pretty rubbish – and there’s no front-facing camera for video-calling either.
Yet despite this we really like the Samsung Galaxy Fit. Sure there’s better devices out there, the Galaxy S2, for instance. But if you want serious high-end performance you’ll have to pay for it – and it 'don’t come cheap'.
So for less than £100, the Galaxy Fit can’t really do any wrong. For one it’s extremely nippy and has great connectivity (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n), then there’s its call quality, which is decent, microSD support, a great battery life and an extremely responsive touchscreen.
All in all the Galaxy Fit, despite its shortcomings, is a brilliant little budget device – providing you’re not expecting Galaxy S2-like performance and features.
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