Samsung Galaxy Fit Android smartphone
Cheap talker, sharp shooter
Review Full marks to Samsung’s marketing folk for the Galaxy Fit’s go-getting name, but it’s actually a fairly low-end Android smart phone with an outdated OS, low resolution screen and less than speedy processor. That said, it has a few good points too, including a surprisingly good 5Mp camera.
Exercise equipment? Samsung's Galaxy Fit
Bearing a passing resemblance to the recently released Galaxy Mini (aren’t there an awful lot of Galaxys recently?) the Fit has a similar glossy black fascia surrounded by chrome-look trim on its gently curved edges. What looks like a D-pad beneath the screen is actually the Android home button, flanked by touch sensitive menu and back buttons (there’s no search).
On the sides are volume buttons, a microSD memory card slot covered by a cheap plastic grommet and a power/sleep button. On top are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microUSB power/sync slot beneath a sliding cover that’s notably better quality than the memory card slot’s flimsy grommet. It measures 110x61x13mm (108g) and as with other recent Galaxys, the back is a very slim, textured sliver of plastic.
The 3.3in screen is a little larger than the Mini’s 3.1in offering, but that means that the already disappointing resolution of 240x320 pixels looks even worse when spread across the larger display.
The 3.3in screen's fairly low resolution leaves room for improvement
The Fit runs the 2.2 Froyo version of Android, which is beginning to look a little long in the tooth now – even if you’ve no need for video calling and the other innovations of 2.3 Gingerbread, you may miss some of those handy bug fixes and ease-of-use apps like ‘Connect to PC’ in the settings menu. It does have Samsung’s Social Hub however, which helps you to keep track of your social messaging updates.
Next page: Fit for purpose?
COMMENTS
Get the SF
The ZTE Blade or Orange San Francisco is much better value and only falls down on the poorer camera quality. I'm running android 2.3 on my SF (thanks Cyanogen mod guys) and it was £100 cheaper than this one.
Gingerbread now available via Kies
The 2.3 upgrade has now been released via Samsung Kies. The Froyo issue is no longer valid, just upgrade it via Samsungs own software. Phones4U are doing this handset at £99 (they call it by Samsungs code - the 5670), what a bargain. It does everything you want from a budget smartphone and is great value. If you turn off 3G and only use 2G and some wifi, battery life is about 5 days, with a few short calls per day. Great phone (for budget use) and great price.
P.S. If you want PAYG - try talkmobile essentials, the cheapest I could find and is fine
Flash <> Streaming Video
Just wanted to point out that handling Flash and handling Streaming Video are two totally different things and reviewers should not confuse the two. Flash is just a bloated, heavy-weight tool that happens to do streaming video. A phone that doesn't support Flash may well support streaming video well, e.g. mine does.
Fit for my purpose
I bought a Fit as a replacement for a lost/stolen Galaxy S and have not been too disappointed with what I got. (I wanted another S but sadly didn’t have the dough …. )
The box contained: Galaxy Fit, ear-buds, charger, 2Gb mini-SD card (I actually use a 16Gb one), USB lead, software mini-DVD and very minimal instruction book. (I am in Australia so “contents of the box may vary” as they say)
I knew that the Fit wouldn’t be as fast or flash as the S but nevertheless it does (more or less) what I need:
Making / taking calls is fine – speaker quality is clear and crisp. Microphone seems to be fine as no-one has complained about the clearness of the sound at their end.
I have found no real issues with the display - but it definitely is duller than the AMOLED of the S!
Small screen, definitely, when compared to the S, iPhone etc but adequate. (When used as a GPS, using Navigate, through the chaos that is Melbourne’s traffic system , the size of the screen was just right for the map displays and the speaker more than adequate for the oddly-accented lady who was telling us where to turn next.
Navigating around the phone was a little confusing at first because some of the usual options are not present, however once you’ve got used to it (as with any phone), it is actually quite easy to use.
I did have an issue moving music from my PC to the Fit initially because I was under the impression that I had to use Kies (bundled with the Fit). However, I discovered that the normal USB connect to PC option was still there – just not obvious – and went back happily to drag and drop.
Music player works just fine and copes with all my varied tastes as well as any other phone music player I have used . (I was supplied with ear-buds when I got my Fit but they were returned to the box after the first use and were replaced with a pair of Sennheisers. If I was going to use the radio, I would probably have to use the Samsungs ear-buds as they work better as an antenna but since I don’t use the radio …..)
Video playback is good using VPlayerPro with the display coping well with whatever is thrown at it. Video recording, on the other hand, is pretty basic - as expected from a low-end machine. Good enough to record my daughters violin concert but not Blu-Ray standard by any means!
The camera is the best bit of this phone – although, as with my S, there is NO flash (Samsung – wake up!!!). I took a couple of hundred photos during a trip from Brisbane to Melbourne recently in a variety of conditions and the results were consistently good. The picture quality was crisp and clear and the overall ease of use was good.
Playing games can be a hassle as noted in the review, as when games get busy, the processor tends to struggle a bit . Angry Birds works, but don’t expect a happy experience as the game will get jerkier the higher the level until it is almost painful to watch.. Simpler games such as Reversi work just fine..
Best attribute? camera – despite lack of a flash
Worst: SD card cover – the card doesn’t fit inside the body of the phone with the SIM, but instead is inserted into a slot on the left-hand side of phone. This would be OK if it wasn’t for the dodgy plastic cover that (sometimes) clips over the slot. Surely Samsung, wouldn’t it have been better to either have the card sitting inside the body of the phone with the SIM or at least put a sliding cover over it like the one used to cover the mini-USB connector???
My overall impression?
If you want the latest and best – go and buy a Galaxy S or S II
If you want a basic smart-phone without too many bells and whistles, the Fit might be just what you want
