Samsung S5230 Review- A Slim Touch Screen Phone

By Author: Jerry Smith
Total Articles: 224
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Samsung S5230 aka Toco Lite Star is a direct rival to the LG Cookie. It is loaded with features and right mix of ingredients along with the touch screen, the S5230 is definitely an adorable phone. The TouchWiz interface adds beauty, making the phone more usable and it is not a surprise that the Samsung S5230 is one of the best sellers of Samsung. The size of this phone is 104 x 53 x 11.9mm and it weighs 93.5g. The design of the Samsung S5230 is compact and it resembles some of the older Samsung phones.

The 3 inches TFT resistive touch screen is the major attraction for Samsung S5230. The resolution of the screen is 240 x 400 and it promises good image quality. To register a click, you have to press the screen slightly harder or use the stylus with style. There is no ambient light sensor which limits readability in sunlight.

The TouchWiz interface makes the Samsung S5230, a winner. Besides remaining all the features available with the ...
... touch predecessors from Samsung, this phone also introduces a few interesting new features. It adds non scrollable home screens with sideway sweeps. And you can customize the home screen and add many widgets you like. Multitasking allows you to run other java applications in the background. Smart unlock feature lets you assign any letter gesture to unlock the phone. Gestures can be used to activate apps too.

The phonebook is pretty basic and simple. Caller image and video can be set. Smart dialing feature is absent, however, you can use photo contact features to customize your phone book. In terms of telephony, Samsung always does its best to satisfy users and the S5230 proves it again. The messaging feature is absolutely flawless. You can send MMS and SMS using the same editor. Emails can be composed and sent easily using a dedicated email editor. The touch screen QWERTY keyboard is fully functional.

The 3MP camera is at the back of the phone with a self portrait mirror. There is no auto focus or flash associated with the camera. The smile shot feature takes pictures automatically when the person follows the frame smiles. The video recording feature is disappointing with the S5230. The music player allows you to organize music in your own way. You can run the music player in the background, thanks to multitasking. Fast forward and rewind are all touch-optimized, making it one of the best Samsung music players. FM radio with RDS support lets you enjoy entertainment on the go. The video player supports different file types including the latest MPEG4.

Connectivity is through Bluetooth and A2DP support. There is no microUSB port, but it has a proprietary port. The internal memory is 50MB, but it can be extended up to 16GB using the microSD slot. The Dolfin browser, an application developed by Samsung can be used to surf the internet. One finger zooming feature makes it a pleasure to browse using the browser. Five pages can be opened at the same time and multiple downloads can be done. The browser provides flash and java support along with kinetic scrolling and full screen mode. There is a dedicated widget that connects to YouTube.

Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi support is absent which undoubtedly limits you from using the superb browser frequently. Organizer functions are basic and the S5230 has an office document viewer that lets you view multiple types of documents. There is no GPS receiver, but you can use Google Maps.

Samsung promises appreciable battery life with the Li-lon 1000mAh battery that can guarantee 10 hours of talk time and 800 hours of standby time. With more and more budget phones available with 3G support, the lack of 3G support with Samsung S5230 is disappointing. Multitasking is not so useful without a hardware key to switch between tasks.
Jerry Smith, the editor of http://www.mobilephoneonly.co.uk. An expert on mobile phone and an observer of UK telecommunication market. He writes reviews on latest mobile phones, and also suggests promotional deals and special offers from mobile phone retailers in UK.