Our Samsung Galaxy Portal Review

The Galaxy Design

After the success of the Samsung Galaxy, Samsung has released their second handset which uses the Google Android operating system. The Galaxy Portal could be called a cheaper version of the Galaxy as it has fewer features, but this is reflected in the price and offers excellent value for money.

Just looking at the phone you can see that Samsung, when designing the Galaxy Portal, was thinking more about function rather than design. Whilst everything is where it should be, it is not exactly the prettiest handset out there. However, it is not ugly by any means and it does serve its function well. The phone can be best described as having a blocky design which makes it look much larger than it actually is.

One thing that we do not like about this mobile phone is the way the buttons are arranged below the screen. There are just too many buttons - it reminds us of the handsets which used to come 3-4 years ago as the mobile phones nowadays are becoming more and more sleek. It could have used some work as some better button arrangement would have done wonders for this mobile phone.

The screen on the other hand is rather surprisingly good. For a phone in the budget category, the Galaxy Portal's screen displays absolutely beautiful colours. The resolution is also very good, at 320x480 pixels you will not have to zoom much as the sharp display will make things clear even when they are zoomed out.

The hardware

Another very surprising thing about this mobile phone is that it actually has a faster processor than the Galaxy. The Samsung Galaxy had a processor of 528MHz while the Galaxy portal has a processor of 800MHz. This difference can easily be observed when you are using the handset as everything happens very fast. This makes the phone feel really responsive and snappy and a joy to use.

The Operating System

One more thing which we have a problem with is the fact that Samsung opted to put in Android 1.5 and not a newer version. This has us puzzled because the processor is very capable of running the newer versions of the operating system so this does not really make sense. However the operating system is run by the mobile phone like a champ.

Using the internet is absolutely fantastic on the Samsung Galaxy Portal. There are two reasons for this: The screen and the processor. The screen has precise and accurate touch capabilities and the processor is very fast. This means that the pages are loaded very quickly by the processor and you do not have to bear any stutter. And the accurate screen allows you to select text on the screen without any problems whatsoever.

The camera also works well, capturing photos with good colour at 3.2 megapixels.

What We Liked

The lightning fast processor. Internet browsing is fantastic.

What We Disliked

Android 1.5 – not the latest version. Button arrangement could have been better.

Our Final Verdict

Great performance at the price level, could have done better with a software update.

Compare Handsets

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	Samsung Galaxy Portal
General
Form Factor	Candybar
Dimensions	115 x 57 x 13.2 (mm)
Talk Time	577 mins
Standby Time	448 hours
Weight	124 g
Quad Band	Yes
Photo and Video
Integrated Camera	Yes
Camera	3.20 megapixels
Video Player	Yes
Phone
Polyphonic Ringtones	Yes
Internal Memory	1GB
Memory Card Type	MicroSD (max 32GB)
Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)	Yes
Screen
Colour Screen	Yes
Screen Resolution	320x480 pixels
Connectivity
3G	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
WAP	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
Music and Radio
MP3 Player	Yes
Additional Content
Downloadable Content	Yes
Downloadable Games	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes

Samsung Galaxy Portal Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Phone

Messaging

Screen

Connectivity

Music and Radio

Additional Content