samsung galaxy apollo deals

Samsung Galaxy Apollo The Best of Android Touchscreen Magic at Affordable Prices!

According to many mobile phone industry experts, the Samsung Galaxy S is the best smartphone to be selling in the market place (though now its successor, the Samsung Galaxy SII has taken over the mantle). But the prices of the flagship galactic phone is prohibitively high. This means a whole lot of otherwise would be buyers have been left out. It is precisely to retain this particular segment that the Samsung Galaxy Apollo has been released into the UK mobile phone market place.

And we must say it is indeed a great smartphone to have as it has, by and large, all that the original Galaxy offers, though in a toned down fashion and comes at far cheaper prices. The South Korean mobile phone giant has done a rather intelligent job of mixing up the features and ensuring that only the essential gets through from the Galaxy S while letting go of the not so vital features. The prices, because of this, has come down drastically and hence the Samsung Galaxy Apollo is a smartphone now that is very much in the purview of a substantial number of potential buyers.

As mentioned above, it is a great smartphone to have. But before we go in depth in to each individual feature or specification, it is important to have an overview of the technical specifications. This has been provided in tabular form for the benefit of our readers and is given below. As you can see, several of the features of the Samsung Galaxy S has remained with the Apollo with only some minor misses. But that is perfectly alright. After all, pricing is an issue.

Talking about the name of the smartphone itself, you would have noticed that we have not given any code number after the name of the phone device in the title Well, this bit has been done with a purpose. You see, in the UK you have either the Samsung Galaxy Apollo i5800 which is the more regular model here and the Samsung Galaxy Apollo i5801. The latter mentioned is exclusive to the network service provider, Orange. Except for the silver bezel that the i5801 model sports, they are practically the same inside out.

If we look at the individual features of the smartphone handset, the first thing that strikes us is that the Galaxy Apollo is backed by a sound operating software and a reasonably beefy processor. Here we go –

Robust Android and Equally Reasonably Powerful Central Processing Unit

Samsung has given the Samsung Galaxy Apollo, the Android 2.1 Eclair version of the operating system that was there in the original Galaxy S. This, we say, is very good indeed. As, though Samsung has not said this so in so many words, but an upgrade to either the Froyo or the Gingerbread is always a possibility. Though as it is the Eclair is fine and along with the User Interface TouchWiz of Samsung, is able to lend a slickness and clinical efficiency to the various tasks and functions that you will have literally nothing to complain about. The 667 Mhz processor is also able to do its bit and keep the different tasks including the net, E-mailing and other activities carried out with minimum of fuzz and time.

Design and Form Factor is a Mixed Bag

Any one would be thoroughly delighted to see the ultra slick front of the phone handset which is actually made of a single block of glass. The glass covering breaks only to accommodate the Home button, otherwise it is one clean and shiny piece. But this is not all. The shocker comes when you look at the back. Really , there is absolutely no reason why Samsung could not have given the Galaxy Apollo at least a more passable rear than the present utterly depressing and inexplicably below par black plastic back. This is something that Samsung should look into and we are sure it is not asking for much. It is almost as if Samsung had an after thought and left the job mid way when it came to the rear. This renders the form factor of the phone into something like, it is actually two halves we are talking about and not one single smartphone device.

The other minus is that the Home button does not serve as an optical track ball and there is simply no tracker options given here. Samsung, here could take a leaf or two from competition smartphones like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini and Pro.

Supposing you have to reach in between somewhere in a text and correct typographical errors, then you have to rely on the ultra sensitive placement option on the touchscreen.

The touchscreen magic is at its best!

This is unarguably the finest piece of multi touch screen you can see or experience anywhere. And this includes the likes of the Apple iPhone 4.0. Believe us, the Samsung Galaxy Apollo offers incredibly silken smooth and magically buttery soft touchscreen magic that is hard to come by anywhere. At least, not at this cost. The touchscreen simply whizzes past options, menus, images and everything else on view with hardly so much as the slightest of your fingertip touches.

Samsung can take full credit for this accomplishment.

Calling, Contacts and Messaging

The quality of phone calls made and received is great with no attended irritants like call dropping , etc bothering you. The speaker also works fine.

As for contacts, the Android pops up a default contact list which is long and with no segregation done. But you do have the option of grouping them under Friends, Family, or Business, which is alright.

The messaging is done so on a more efficient way with threaded messages appearing. This, indeed is a welcome value addition.

Battery Life

The battery life extended is also great what with the guarantee of a minimum of 24 hours doing a bit of everything – internet browsing, E-mailing, making calls, and playing an hour or two of games, etc. – without charging.

Internet and Connectivity

There has been an update on the regular Android 2.1 over earlier web kit browsers. This is actually saying much as even the past web kit browsers were not at all bad to begin with. Now there are more tweaks and updates and this immediately shows in the manner in which the usability has increased manifold.

The screen lay out itself is a treat to the eyes what with all the other options beside the address bar and the history being moved out nicely to be orderly placed in the Menu folder. Now, it is a sparkling clean web page that you will see that is free from all clutter. There is the provision for bookmarks and RSS feeds as well.

The other major update has been with the Copy and Paste option. Unlike what was the situation earlier, you can copy and paste on to the clip board without much fuzz.

Camera

Though it is only a three mega pixel snapper that we are talking about, the positive factor is that practically the entire options including digital zoom, video recording, flash, auto focus, etc are all there This is similar to what once comes across in the Galaxy S smartphone device. And the quality of the still images taken also does not disappoint. You also have the various situations modes to choose from and opt for.

Only there is no high definition video recording. Though, we found the quality of the video clips taken with this camera quite up to the mark with the footage coming out rather nicely with the right brightness and colour registration.

Media Player

Here again, the Samsung Galaxy Apollo does not disappoint as to begin with it has practically everything that the Galaxy S has. Indeed. You have the more advanced TouchWiz player instead of the Android player and this shows in not only the sonic and visual quality of the numbers and videos but also in the way the entire system can be used – for playing as well for recording.

You do have the fully DivX-compatible player that does extend a stunning visual treat. Try watching your favourite Beyonce clip and we promise you, the experience will be thrilling to say the least.

Prices are the best anywhere!

Can you imagine T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2 are offering quite a few Samsung Galaxy Apollo contracts that require you to pay monthly less than £ 10 before giving you the smartphone for free. Well, there are numerous other contract plans in the range of £ 10 to £ 25 per month that also offer the handset for free. The SIM free prices of the Galaxy Apollo begins at around £ 182.

Conclusion

We actually needn't recommend the Samsung Galaxy Apollo, neither does anyone else It is such a fabulous work of mobile phone technology that it will automatically sell itself. In the Galaxy Apollo, you are actually getting the best of Android touchscreen smartphone at dirt cheap prices.