Samsung Galaxy Stellar Review

User Interface:

Similar to the Pantech Marauder, the Samsung Galaxy Stellar comes equipped with a Starter Mode, which is designed for people that are new to Android or may have never used a smartphone before. While in the starter mode, there are new widgets placed on the 7 homescreens that allow quick-access to your favorite contacts, dialpad, favorite apps and settings, though the app drawer remains unchanged and does not populate into specific groups like on the Pantech Marauder’s starter mode. You can also easily change over to the Standard Mode, which basically just replaces the starter widgets with regular Android widgets. Regardless of which mode you are using, you will see nothing of the stock Android Ice Cream Sandwich interface, as Samsung uses their TouchWiz layer on top, but we’re still glad ICS is on board.


One thing that we found missing on the device was any form of haptic (vibration) feedback. Most all Android smartphones have this option, which is most useful when using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard, but for some reason the Galaxy Stellar lacks it.



Processor and Memory:

Even though the Samsung Galaxy Stellar is free with a signed 2-year contract, the device still features a great 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Samsung Galaxy Stellar	4104	5692	59
Pantech Marauder	4882	6601	56,3
Motorola DROID RAZR M	4864	6715	61,3
Samsung Galaxy S III	5022	6745	58,7

Despite the Galaxy Stellar not having quite as high benchmark numbers as the other phones listed above, it still feels plenty quick when moving between the home screens and running apps.

The Galaxy Stellar does come with 4GB of internal memory, but since it is used by preloaded apps, files, and the OS, there is only 1.5GB available to use out of the box. Thankfully, there is a microSD memory card slot that can accommodate cards up to 32GB.


Internet and Connectivity:

Just because the Samsung Galaxy Stellar is a budget phone, doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice data connectivity, as the device supports Verizon’s 4G LTE data network. Even though using the 4” screen can feel a bit cramped while viewing web sites (when compared to larger screens), pages were still properly rendered and we were able to view them and navigate around just fine.


When using the Speedtest.net app, we were able to get download speeds between 5.49-6.83 Mbps and upload speeds between 1.32-2.50 Mbps. Even though this is not as fast as what we’ve seen on other Verizon 4G LTE smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S III and Motorola DROID RAZR M, it is still fast enough for sending and receiving E-Mails and viewing most web sites. The Galaxy Stellar can also use Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n networks at 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies.