Samsung Star II Review

Introduction:

In the tradition of the first Samsung Star, which was great success with its 30 million units sold, the Samsung Star II is a cute and affordable touchscreen feature phone, with a few enhancements over its predecessor where it counts.

The original Star brought a 3.0-inch resistive touchscreen and Samsung's TouchWiz UI in its first version. Fast forward to 2011, and the second Star packs a lot more style in its white body, a 3.0-inch capacitive screen, and the third iteration of the TouchWiz UI. It is also positioned as an entry-level handset and to cut cost Samsung has passed on 3G, but the phone has Wi-Fi (which the original Star didn't) and EDGE. 

Will that be enough to repeat the success of the original Samsung Star in the era of cheap Android phones? Read on to find out...

Design:

The Samsung Star II feels very light in the hand, at 3.32 oz (94g), and has a traditional rectangular shape. It is a bit chubby for the small size, at 0.49” (12.4 mm), but not unpleasantly so. The white body stands out on the background of other, mostly dark handsets, but if white isn't exactly your cup of tea,  the handset is available in other colors as well, like black.



You can compare the Samsung Star II with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

As we said, the Star II comes with a 3.0-inch touchscreen, which is now capacitive in contrast to the resistive one on the original Star. With a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels and 256K colors, the screen is slightly below average, but that's what you get for such a price. The visibility outside and the viewing angles are decent, though. Underneath the display are the call and end buttons, flanking the larger menu key in the center.


The silver sidelining of the Star II houses most of its other buttons. It includes the volume rocker on the left, while on the right are the microSD slot with support for up to 16GB of memory, and the power/lock key. The top part holds a microUSB charging slot with a protective lid, and the 3.5mm audio jack. Pretty standard, the only thing that really caught us is the microSD slot, which is comfortably positioned on the side and easily accessible without the need to remove the battery.


Nothing fancy on the white back cover. It houses the 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera, which lacks flash as well as any kind of protection. The loudspeaker is the final touch to the back of the phone.