Samsung Galaxy S Duos Preview

Samsung is anything but a stranger to dual-SIM cell phones. In 2007, it was the first well-known manufacturer to release such a handset – the SGH-D880 Duos, which paved the way for a long list of successors to follow. Fast forward five years into the future and the company's dual-SIM lineup now includes both smartphones and feature phones, with the Samsung Galaxy S Duos being the latest Android-powered addition to the party.

As the name suggests, the Galaxy S Duos is an Android device. In fact, it is the most capable dual-SIM handset that the company has ever unveiled; it has what it takes to step into the mid-range smartphone category, unlike previous Duos cell phones, which were clearly leaning towards the budget-friendly side of things.. Inside it hums a 1GHz processor, 4-inch WVGA display graces its front, and a 5-megapixel camera has been slapped on its back. But in reality, is the smartphone any good? Well, we cannot be entirely sure as the unit we are previewing today is just a prototype, but let us take a close look at it anyway and see what the Samsung Galaxy S Duos is shaping up to be.

Design:

Plastic, lots and lots of plastic – that is what the Samsung Galaxy S Duos is made out of, and our fingers can easily sense the smartphone's predominant cheapo feel. In all honesty, we aren't surprised as it has been a while since Samsung launched a non-plasticky smartphone for the last time. But on the other hand, the device actually looks quite good, mostly thanks to the milky-white paint job it has been treated to. After all, white phones tend to stand out in the sea of black, conservative slabs. Moreover, the matte finish on its back cover may be plain and boring, but it is virtually immune to visible fingerprints.




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

The buttons have been arranged in a manner quite typical for Samsung smartphones – with a 2-button volume rocker on the left, a lock key on the right, physical home button underneath the screen, and two capacitive keys for the “Menu” and “Back” functions. Overall, we find them well-positioned and easy to reach.

If you are one of those people who prefer using a smartphone with a single hand, then you'd be happy with the Samsung Galaxy S Duos. Our thumbs have no troubles reaching the top edge of its screen or the furthest icon on the bottom row in the app drawer.


Display:

Considering the smartphone class that the Samsung Galaxy S Duos belongs to, a 4-inch screen with a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels is quite sufficient. At 233ppi, individual pixels are not that easy to spot, and small text can be read without having to zoom in much. It is capable of delivering accurate colors that do not get distorted too much when viewed at an angle.

Interface:

Two thumbs up to Samsung for pre-installing Android 4.0 on the Galaxy S Duos. After all, software updates from Samsung tend to take a while before they are released, and waiting is something that customers aren't too fond of. The latest version of the TouchWiz user interface has been added on top, which explains why the S Duos is so reminiscent of the Galaxy S III. There is a ton of widgets to pick from, a multitude of toggle buttons are accessible from the drop-down menu, and four app shortcuts can be put on the lock screen.



Processor and memory:

The smartphone's weakest link appears to be its 1GHz single-core processor, which probably won't be capable of delivering the smooth experience we've come to expect from modern handsets. The SoC used is a first-gen Snapdragon, namely the MSM7227A paired with 512MB of RAM, which may seem like a lot when compared to what other dual-SIM smartphones have to offer, but it's actually quite modest for a contemporary smartphone. Nevertheless, we'll give it our final verdict once we see how a finalized unit performs.

There are only 4 gigs of on-board storage on the Samsung Galaxy S Duos, and the actual user-available memory will surely be even less. Thankfully, its storage can be expanded by popping in a microSD card of up to 32GB.

Web Browser:

The stock web browser on Android 4.0 is pretty functional, so chances are that you won't need to go looking for an alternative. It allows you to save web pages for offline use, to add shortcut to web pages on your home screen, and to have multiple windows open at the same time. Just don't expect seeing any Adobe Flash content right away as the plug-in doesn't come pre-installed, although you are free to add it manually.



Camera:

After launching the camera app on the Samsung Galaxy S Duos we are greeted by the familiar TouchWiz camera interface. There are several shooting modes that might come in handy, such as smile shot, panorama mode, and the handful of scene presets.



We took our sample shots with our prototype handset, so feel free to check them out, yet keep in mind that photo quality might be slightly different on a retail unit. Something that we find quite disappointing is that the maximum resolution, at which video can be taken, is VGA (640 by 480 pixels), while 720p has long become the norm for smartphones nowadays.




Expectations:

Let's be realistic here, folks. The Samsung Galaxy S Duos may not be anything extraordinary when compared to other smartphones on the market, but in the dual-SIM arena, there are not many devices that can offer similar contemporary design in combination with such set of features. Having that in mind, consumers that must have the dual-SIM funcitonality at any cost, but do not want that to be at the expense of what their handset can do, might have a worthy pick to consider once the Galaxy S Duos is released. The only true Galaxy S Duos rival is the recently launched HTC Desire V, which looks even better, yet leaves something to be desired when it comes to performance. Perhaps if the S Duos performs better, it will be the ultimate dual-SIM Android smartphone to go with, but whether that will be the case or not will be known once we give it a thorough review.

Samsung Galaxy S Duos Video Preview: