Samsung Galaxy Music Review

Introduction:

Have you ever cursed that your smartphone is not really suited to be a music player in your pocket, as you have to unlock the screen to control the player?

Well, the Samsung Galaxy Music is here to remedy the situation with a dedicated play/pause button plus stereo speakers, and it won’t break the bank either, as it should be with a phone targeted squarely at teens.

The specs are ho-hum, but the phone promises some extras for music aficionados, so is it likely to win their hearts and minds the way it is? Read on our review to find out...

Design:

As is customary for teen-oriented phones, we have a design with flashy color, and a lot of chrome-like rim supplied. In the case of the Galaxy Music, however, we also have metal grills over the two speakers on the front - a material Samsung doesn’t use very often in its phones.



You can compare the Samsung Galaxy Music with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The tiny handset is very easy to hold and operate with one hand, fitting comfortably in your palm with its rounded corners and tapered edges. It is on the chubby side, but nothing too grand and unbearable, while the weight is kept in check.

The Galaxy Music scores points for the regular SIM card slot and the easily accessible microSD one on the left - a must if you need to hot-swap cards with your vast music collection. The memory card slot, as well as the microUSB port at the top are covered with protective flaps, that are easy to pry open or snap back into place.

Looking around the sides we find a dedicated play/pause key down right, which works while the phone is locked for easily managing your music playback on the go. If you hold it, the phone goes directly into the music player, even in a locked state, so you can manage your tunes quicker.


Display:

A basic 3” LCD screen with 240x320 pixels of resolution is what Samsung decided to outfit the Galaxy Music with, and it is as bad as it sounds. Washed-out colors, very weak viewing angles and low pixel density is what awaits you, so you are unlikely to spend hours browsing or watching videos on this one.

The one bright spot is sunlight visibility, as the screen performs decently outside, and the interface elements remain visible enough for comfortable operation - there is no light sensor, though, so you’d have to pump up the brightness to the max manually with the slider that Samsung has provided in the notification bar.

Interface and functionality:

The phone runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which is covered with Samsung’s own TouchWiz UI on top. It offers no surprises, with the typical Samsung set of widgets, and an abundance of connectivity toggles in the notification bar.

There is a pretty spare use of transparencies and transitional animations compared to the large caliber Galaxies, as the processor is not very powerful to support those freely. Apart from its own apps and media Hubs, Samsung has only preloaded Quickoffice for opening MS Office and PDF files.

As you can easily guess, typing on the smallish display is not very easy, especially with bigger hands, and the fact that the keyboard doesn’t turn in landscape mode isn’t helping either.



Processor and memory:

The 850 MHz processor is single-core, but with a Cortex-A9 architecture, so it has enough power to pull through your daily tasks and interface navigation, but often has hiccups while loading apps, or running more demanding ones.

The Galaxy Music has 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB of internal memory, of which 1.7 GB are user-available, but it also offers a microSD card slot on the left for storage expansion with up to 32 GB cards.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Samsung Galaxy Music	2050	3787	28.5
LG Optimus L3	1271	2559	13.2
HTC Desire V	1807	2866	19.7

Internet and connectivity:

The browser on the Galaxy Music is a basic ICS version, with no Adobe Flash support, and somewhat choppy panning and scrolling thanks to the comparatively slow processor. The low pixel density is a bummer, too, but you are unlikely to use it on such a tiny screen for hours on end anyway.

The handset sports the basic connectivity options - 7.2 Mbps HSDPA downloads, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and FM radio.

Camera:

The 3 MP camera on the back of the phone doesn’t have a flash, and the interface is pretty basic, hinting at the limited functionality of the unit. Still, you get a few shooting modes, including Panorama, and a few scene presets, as well as some standard color effects.

Going into the Camera app is pretty quick directly from the lock screen, and focusing and taking a shot is very fast, too, with minimal shutter lag.


The pictures themselves exhibit more than enough detail for the resolution, but the colors look somewhat bland compared to reality, and the white balance is off at times. The phone records 320x240 video, which is only good for watching on the handset’s mediocre screen.



Multimedia:

Despite its Music designation, the phone doesn’t offer anything extra in the already pretty rich TouchWiz tunes player. The usual song categorization options are present, along with the Music Square mood matrix. The player interface is easy to operate, with sound effects and equalizers directly accessible while the song is playing with the tap of a button.


There are two stereo speakers, top and bottom at the front, and the supplied Sound Alive and SRS Surround Sound modes do make the music more intense, yet overall the speakers are nothing to write home about, not so much in terms of strength, which is fine, but in terms of sound quality, which is about average, read nothing impressive when it comes to clarity and fullness.

The handset plays DivX/Xvid video files out of the box, up to 800x480 definition, but you have to turn them manually in landscape mode with a dedicated button in the video player interface.

Call quality:

Since the Galaxy Music uses its top speaker as an earpiece, the sound is pretty loud, although not entirely clean. On the receiving end the voice strength is not as impressive, but you can still hold a pretty decent conversation with the other party in terms of clarity. There is no second mic for noise-cancellation, so ambient sounds will be an issue in a noisier environment.

Battery:

The 1,300 mAh battery unit in the Samsung Galaxy Music is not yet rated by Samsung in terms of talk times, but with this processor and screen size/resolution, it should be enough to get you through the day.

Conclusion:

Depending on the way it is priced, the Samsung Galaxy Music could turn out one unpretentious hottie amongst teens, as it has the prerequisite colored looks, with chrome-like blingery and extra music features thrown in. The dedicated play/pause/music player access key on the side is the only thing that makes it stand out as a music player, though, since the two stereo speakers are of pretty average quality.

There are no major gripes with the handset but the smallish screen and the low pixel density, as well as the lack of some sensors. The Galaxy Music sports a a hot-swappable microSD slot and a regular SIM card one, which are a plus nowadays, and it also offers a pretty good call quality, making it a versatile affordable device for music aficionados.

If you want an alternative Android phone with emphasis on music but a bigger display, you can have a look at the HTC One V, which sports Beats Audio and a larger, 3.7” display, but is more expensive. The cheap Sony Xperia tipo is also a good bet, with a slightly larger screen and a decent loudspeaker, but the Galaxy Music still stands out with its dedicated music player key and stereo speakers.

Software version: IMM76D.S6010XXALI2

Samsung Galaxy Music Video Review: