Samsung Guru E2152 A low cost Dual SIM phone

Samsung has extended its “Guru” range of low-cost cell phones in India with the launch of its latest model, the Guru E2152.
The E2152, like most other Guru branded handsets, is a budget device which is targeted at first time phone buyers and at people who are on the look out for a basic phone on a shoe string budget.

The E2152 is a dual SIM device and is the latest addition to Samsung’s already strong line up of dual SIM phones in the country.  As for the features on the device, it boasts of a 2-inch 128 160 display, a very basic VGA camera and support for FM radio. The phone also has a capable MP3 player and supports microSD cards for memory expansion. A 100mAH battery powers the phone and promises a long 11 hours of talk time. Other interesting bits include a dedicated music button and support for 9 regional languages.
The Guru E2152 is priced at Rs. 3,550, and is now available across the country.

Samsung Monte S5620

Full Review

The Samsung Monte S5620 might not be as exciting a phone as the latest iPhone or the latest Android super-phones but it’s an exciting phone nonetheless. After all, it’s extremely rare for a phone to boast of all the features of smartphones and still be priced low. The Monte falls into this category.
Features
Like I mentioned above, the Monte offers a full fledged suite of connectivity options including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G and even GPS. I can’t emphasize on how great it is to finally see a mobile phone that doesn’t break the Rs. 10K price barrier but still doesn’t compromise on features. To put it in perspective even great phones that fall within this price bracket like the Nokia E63 and the Nokia 5233 or the LG Cookie Pep leave out some of the features mentioned above.
The Monte uses Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz UI and OS. The OS allows for three homescreens and you can customize each screen with a bunch of widgets and shortcuts. The Monte has a 3-inch screen with a resolution of 240x400 and a color output of 256K. The Monte also has a 3.15MP camera but with no auto-focus and flash. The Monte comes with 200MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 16GB.
Design & Usability
The Samsung Monte has a curvy body that’s quite slim. The review unit I received had orange stripes on the sides and a black glossy body. Overall, the look is aimed to please everybody and the phone won’t look out of place in the hands of either an executive or a college student. The phone is however a big, big fingerprint magnet and you will find yourself cleaning the body every so often. In spite of its entirely plastic body, I didn’t find the Samsung Monte’s build quality wanting.
The Samsung’s 3-inch screen is colorful and sharp. The only issue was that visibility dropped by a considerable amount under direct sunlight. The TouchWiz UI is responsive, accurate and relatively fast. There is however some sluggishness when scrolling through lists and it feels less organic than on the iPhone or even the Nokia 5233. Unfortunately, in spite of the 3 inch screen, Samsung felt that the Monte didn’t need a virtual QWERTY keyboard. The virtual alpha-numeric keypad works well but it seems like a wasted opportunity to not add a QWERTY keyboard.
Browsing, Multimedia etc.
The Samsung Monte’s default browser is quite fast and suited to browse websites designed for mobile phones. It also lets you manage bookmarks but can’t render full web-pages very well.
The S5620’s 3.15MP camera is disappointingly poor. Images that I shot came out with plenty of noise but very less details. No autofocus means that shooting close-ups are going to be a frustrating experience. The upside is that the camera gives you plenty of options to tweak the camera settings and also lets you shoot images in panorama mode.
The Monte’s music playback capabilities are very good. Music from the Samsung sounds very good with good mids and an overall rich sound. The bass is slightly loose and could have been punchier. Overall, the Monte is ideal for listening to guitar driven rock music. The external speaker is also quite loud. Video playback is also fine although videos don’t look exceptional on the Samsung’s screen. Videos can be encoded and transferred quite easily using Samsung’s Kies application.
The Monte has a powerful FM receiver complemented by a very good interface. Auto-scanning for stations happened very quickly and the phone manages to hold on to FM reception well. To top it off, the radio’s interface is easy to navigate and manipulate.
The Monte doesn’t come with any pre-installed games, which is somewhat disappointing. However, Samsung does provide a Web shortcut using which you can download plenty of free Java games.
The Samsung Monte has an exceptionally powerful battery and it lasted me close to three days without a single charge. Call quality on the S5620 is also quite clear, although at times static was audible.

Bottom Line

The Samsung Monte S5620 is priced at Rs. 9,300. Keeping in mind its connectivity features, one point of view would term it as an excellent product that has the right amounts of performance, features, looks and price in the perfect ratio. However, under the 10K barrier, an extra Rs. 1,000 also means a lot and the Rs. 3,000 difference between the Monte and the other phones like the Nokia 5233 and the LG Cookie Pep could mean a lot to plenty of readers. Therefore, if you are looking for a full-featured phone and don’t mind paying close to Rs. 10,000, then the Monte is an absolute deal. However, if you are looking for a phone close to the Rs. 5,000 mark then also consider the Nokia 5233, the Nokia 6303 Classic and the LG Cookie Pep.






Samsung Monte S5620 Full specifications

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
	Announced	2010, February
	Status	Available. Released 2010, March

Size	Dimensions	108.8 x 53.7 x 12.4 mm
	Weight	92 g

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 400 pixels, 3.0 inches
		- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate - TouchWiz UI 2.0 Plus - Turn to mute - Smart unlock

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Speakerphone	Yes
		- 3.5 mm audio jack - DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine)

Memory	Phonebook	2000 contacts, Photocall
	Call records	Yes
	Internal	200 MB
	Card slot	microSD, up to 16GB, buy memory

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels
	Features	Geo-tagging, smile detection
	Video	Yes, QVGA@15fps
	Secondary	Yes, CIF

Features	Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, Palringo IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM recording
	Games	Yes + downloadable
	Colors	Black
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
		- Social networking integration with live updates - Google Maps 3.0 - Image editor - MP3/WMA/eAAC+ player - MP4/H.263/H.264 player - Organizer - Voice memo - T9

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 760 h (2G) / Up to 450 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 9 h 40 min (2G) / Up to 4 h 50 min (3G)

Misc	SAR EU	1.02 W/kg (head)
	Price group	Rs. 8,500/- to 9,300/-

Summary

The Samsung Monte S5620 is a feature-rich phone with an affordable price-tag.

Pros:

• Wi-Fi, 3G & GPS Support
• Swift, Responsive UI
• Ultra-powerful Battery
• FM Radio Works Well

Cons:

• No Virtual QWERTY keyboard
• Plastic Body Attracts Plenty of Fingerprints

Full Performance:

Call Reception Quality	Very Good
Messaging	Good
FM Quality	Superior
Imaging	Poor
Audio/Video playback	Very Good/Good
Gaming	Fair
Battery Life	Superior
Screen Quality	Very Good

Samsung Galaxy Tab in India Soon!!

 

The just launched Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet is no doubt one the most desirable gadgets money could buy - this side of the Sun. For those of you who are in India and are wondering whether Samsung will officially bring it to India or not, here's some heartening news for you all.

According to tech blog Samsung Hub, NDTV has claimed that Samsung would be bringing the Galaxy Tab to India in about a month's time to India. The device would be priced somewhere between the Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 40,000 (that's a large price bracket!) range.

The Galaxy Tab was first showcased at the IFA in Berlin and  features Google's Android Froyo 2.2 operating system, this 7-inch touchscreen display bearing Galaxy Tab GT-P1000 although smaller than the Apple iPad is a worthy competitor to the latter.

The Galaxy Tab supports HD video playback and also boasts of full Flash support for PC like web browsing. It would be available in Europe in two weeks from now and will be launched in U.S., Asia and Korea in the coming months. 

Details:

Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P1000

Price: Between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 40,000 

Operating System: Google's Android Froyo 2.2 operating system

Display: 7-inch touchscreen display

What's Good: supports HD video playback and also boasts of full Flash support for PC like web browsing.

What's Bad: Large price range, Smaller than Apple i-pad