Samsung Galaxy Young Duos Review

Introduction:

The Samsung Galaxy Young Duos is at the bottom low end of the Android spectrum - an extremely affordable device that offers the functionality of a smartphone without such bells and whistles like a premium display, good camera and ultra-fast processor.

Now that we know all the things it’s not, it’s worth pointing out what the Galaxy Young comes with, and that’s a 3.3-inch screen, a 1GHz processor and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It’s also much more compact than the current crop of high-end devices, and comes with the benefit of dual SIM card support to lower your monthly bill.

But how does it stack up against the rampant competition on Android and other smartphones? We’re about to find out.

Design:

The Galaxy Young is a compact little youngster. A typical Samsung device, it’s of course made of plastic. It fits comfortably in the hand with its rounded edges and has a surprisingly solid build and feel given its light weight of just 4 ounces (112 g). It’s a chubby little thing measuring 0.49 inches (12.5mm) but while that would be a huge disadvantage for a larger device, for the compact Galaxy Young it’s not much of a drawback. The handset comes in three colors. There is a white, metallic silver, wine red and a deep blue version.

Interface and Functionality:

Good news is the Samsung Galaxy Young features a fresh flavor of Android and that is 4.1 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz Nature UX on top. The TouchWiz Nature UX is a smooth and functional skin adding more usability to stock Android. Little things like creating folders in the app drawer and attaching your location in text messages are just two of the novel features in Samsung’s new skin.

When it comes to the contacts book and basic functionality with the TouchWiz UI you can just swipe a contact’s name to the right to directly call, or swipe to the left to send a text message, which is convenient.

Dual-SIM card support on this device allows you to easily lower your monthly bill by using two SIM cards for data and calls and with Android you can select which card to use as the default for say data usage and calls.

Functionality is also boosted by the presence of Google Now, with all blows and whistles of the smart card-based notification system like automatically notifying you about the route home, recent games of your favorite sports team and so on.

Processor and Storage:

With a single-core 1GHz Cortex A5 processor and 768MB of RAM, the Galaxy Young can hardly impress anyone, but what it can achieve is a mostly smooth performance. We’re saying mostly because the experience is not flawless - there is a stutter every now and then.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu
Samsung Galaxy Young Duos	2119	4749
Samsung Galaxy Fame	2045	4810
Samsung Galaxy Express	5047	10686
Samsung Galaxy Music	2050	3787

Internal storage is set at 4GB of which less than 2GB are available to the user. Luckily, you can expand storage via microSD cards of up to 64 gigs.



Camera:

The 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera on the back of the Galaxy Young is very basic and it does not even have flash. You certainly can use it in situations where light is abundant, but pictures simply lack in detail and dynamic range is sub-par, colors also often appear burned.

Having a fixed-focus camera comes with some limitations. While snapping shots is quick and easy since there is no need to focus, the camera is simply incapable of macro shots. Objects at around half a foot of a distance will appear blurred.


The handset is capable of recording 480p videos at 24fps but the lack of detail there is definitely noticeable and skipped frames were also an issue.



Multimedia:

The 3.3-inch screen is not exactly ideal for watching movies on, but you can definitely use this handset to watch a short video every once in a while. The device plays back MPEG-4 and H.264 encoded videos at around its native 480 x 320 pixel resolution with ease, but there is no DivX/Xvid support out of the gate. Playing back high-definition videos (720p or more) is also out of the question.

Sound via the speakerphone is loud but lacks depth, something that is typical for most smartphones. The device comes with two music players - one that is standard for Android and Samsung’s own solution. Both are good but we do prefer the Samsung one for its more extensive feature set including support for folders.

Call Quality:

Call quality is of paramount importance for any phone, but even more so for such a basic device like the Galaxy Young, and we were happy to have our callers say our voice sounded natural, clear and sufficiently. On our side of things voice was a tiny bit muffled, but overall we were quite satisfied with the loudness and clarity of this handset.

Battery life:

A 1300mAh battery for such a compact handset is enough of an asset to easily get it through a day, and we even got two days of use with some juice remaining.

Conclusion:

The Galaxy Young brings a gradual improvement in the Android low end with a 3.3-inch display that is slightly larger than on the preceding Galaxy Y, a bump up in the camera department and a slightly more capable battery, but what has changed even quicker is the face of competition.

At its affordable off contract price of around $150, the Galaxy Young meets the fierce rivalry of larger and more capable phones from Chinese vendors. You can even get a device with a quad-core MediaTek chip from China for almost the same price.

And if you are not particularly keen on the dual-SIM functionality and are willing to pay a bit more, Nokia’s Lumia 520 is one offer from a known manufacturer that is better in every single way - from screen size and quality, to processor and camera. It runs on Windows Phone, though.

The Galaxy Young would be a good choice for those who value compact devices from a well established brand like Samsung and the presence of dual-SIM functionality and the contemporary Jelly Bean with the TouchWiz skin are all a plus.