This review is from: Unlocked Samsung S5570 Galaxy Mini Touchscreen, Wi-Fi, 3G, Android International Smart Phone in Steel Gray (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I bought this exact model (but with a green back cover) in China in October 2011. I needed something cheap, and I needed it fast. I didn’t want to spend too much money, because I wouldn’t be there for more than a few months. My only reason for purchasing it was to call people, send texts, use Google Translate, and use Baidu maps to get around. Fortunately, I was also able to tether right out of the box as well — and connect my laptop when I was in rural China.
If you’re a frequent traveler, global roaming is a giant money scam. I suggest buying yourself an unlocked phone, and just switching in SIM cards in the country of your choice… if they support them. Many places will let you pay month-to-month. For example, in China, I’ll pay about $10.50 per month for a pretty decent package. Compared to the global roaming packages, this is a steal.
You need to ask yourself: what do you want, and how much are you willing to pay for it? If you want an awesome smartphone, go buy something else. But if you need a smartphone which allows you to do the basic things such as texting, calling, tethering, and web surfing, then this is actually pretty good… if you can deal with the small resolution.
The Camera is actually pretty decent as well. It was much better than I anticipated.
Make sure you get a MicroSD card (up to 16GB) if one doesn’t come with this. Use that to install applications on, rather than the paltry 160MB of built-in storage.
Cons: - Terrible screen resolution (240×320) - Low built-in storage space - Low amount of ram - Terrible battery, but I kept it plugged in most of the time. - Performance isn’t perfect.
Pros: - It actually works very well, and it’s extremely stable. - Upgrades to Gingerbread easily. Google the instructions. This requires root. - After upgrading to Gingerbread, you can install Cyanogen Mod, etc… - Most of the time, it runs pretty good. - The camera is actually pretty decent.
You may also need to download and install the Google apps package if it doesn’t come with the phone (mine didn’t). Again, Google this for more information.
Remember, you get what you pay for. For this price range, the phone is actually pretty good. However — as of this post — there may be much better phones for the same price, or a few dollars more. It might be worth it to skip this phone entirely and find something else. If you can afford it, try to go for something with a bigger screen, and better everything else. Otherwise, this phone is solid, but probably isn’t for people with bad eyesight.
I’ll be using this phone often on my international travels, at least until I break down and buy the Note. It satisfies all of my basic requirements, and then some. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done.
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This review is from: Unlocked Samsung S5570 Galaxy Mini Touchscreen, Wi-Fi, 3G, Android International Smart Phone in Steel Gray (Wireless Phone Accessory)
A friend owns the same phone and I was able to test it out before purchasing one. As other reviewers have brought out, the battery life is quite bad. Be prepared to charge your phone every night if you run a lot of apps. I’ll be looking into getting a new battery with higher capacity. The Qwerty keyboard while texting can be a tad small, easily fixed by turning the phone on the vertical, buttons are slightly larger then. The other ‘complaint’ about this was that it came without an ear-piece, easily rectified by getting one cheap online. As for it being truly unlocked, I haven’t been able to test that function out yet. We travel frequently to Asia and I hope it works there. All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase, esp for the price paid. Update 10/14/11: Wanted to note too, the adapter that is provided for N. America customers is totally worthless as the charger comes with the 3 rectangular prongs. The adapter provided will not fit, so be prepared to buy your own adapter. Apart from that, the phone works just fine.
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This review is from: Unlocked Samsung S5570 Galaxy Mini Touchscreen, Wi-Fi, 3G, Android International Smart Phone in Steel Gray (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I received the phone on time, but the phone has a manual in French without any English. And the phone’s default set up is in French too. It took me two hours to figure out how to set it up to English. After everything is all set up as English, there are still 2 French apps left on the phone. I guess one is a French emergency service(like ours 911) and another one is the manual on the phone, which are pretty annoying. I tried to update the system, the two Frenc apps are still there.
Another problem is that it does not work unless you know how to set up the mobile network service. It pop up 2 networks, one is ATT PHONE, another one is Wap/cingular. If you use ATT, you need to chose wap/cingular. The ATT Phone one is not working. And after I chose the wrong one, it does not let me choose another one. I have to hand type in the Wap/cingular setting in the ATT phone setting to make it work.
But in the end it works. And it works fine. I enjoy it so far. If the manual and language are all good and correct, I would give this a better rating. I am not sure if these are general problem or it is the problem from the specific seller’s product.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
It’s a great phone for the price range.,
I bought this exact model (but with a green back cover) in China in October 2011. I needed something cheap, and I needed it fast. I didn’t want to spend too much money, because I wouldn’t be there for more than a few months. My only reason for purchasing it was to call people, send texts, use Google Translate, and use Baidu maps to get around. Fortunately, I was also able to tether right out of the box as well — and connect my laptop when I was in rural China.
If you’re a frequent traveler, global roaming is a giant money scam. I suggest buying yourself an unlocked phone, and just switching in SIM cards in the country of your choice… if they support them. Many places will let you pay month-to-month. For example, in China, I’ll pay about $10.50 per month for a pretty decent package. Compared to the global roaming packages, this is a steal.
You need to ask yourself: what do you want, and how much are you willing to pay for it? If you want an awesome smartphone, go buy something else. But if you need a smartphone which allows you to do the basic things such as texting, calling, tethering, and web surfing, then this is actually pretty good… if you can deal with the small resolution.
The Camera is actually pretty decent as well. It was much better than I anticipated.
Make sure you get a MicroSD card (up to 16GB) if one doesn’t come with this. Use that to install applications on, rather than the paltry 160MB of built-in storage.
Cons:
- Terrible screen resolution (240×320)
- Low built-in storage space
- Low amount of ram
- Terrible battery, but I kept it plugged in most of the time.
- Performance isn’t perfect.
Pros:
- It actually works very well, and it’s extremely stable.
- Upgrades to Gingerbread easily. Google the instructions. This requires root.
- After upgrading to Gingerbread, you can install Cyanogen Mod, etc…
- Most of the time, it runs pretty good.
- The camera is actually pretty decent.
You may also need to download and install the Google apps package if it doesn’t come with the phone (mine didn’t). Again, Google this for more information.
Remember, you get what you pay for. For this price range, the phone is actually pretty good. However — as of this post — there may be much better phones for the same price, or a few dollars more. It might be worth it to skip this phone entirely and find something else. If you can afford it, try to go for something with a bigger screen, and better everything else. Otherwise, this phone is solid, but probably isn’t for people with bad eyesight.
I’ll be using this phone often on my international travels, at least until I break down and buy the Note. It satisfies all of my basic requirements, and then some. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done.
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|Small, compact and great for a starter Smartphone,
A friend owns the same phone and I was able to test it out before purchasing one. As other reviewers have brought out, the battery life is quite bad. Be prepared to charge your phone every night if you run a lot of apps. I’ll be looking into getting a new battery with higher capacity. The Qwerty keyboard while texting can be a tad small, easily fixed by turning the phone on the vertical, buttons are slightly larger then. The other ‘complaint’ about this was that it came without an ear-piece, easily rectified by getting one cheap online. As for it being truly unlocked, I haven’t been able to test that function out yet. We travel frequently to Asia and I hope it works there. All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase, esp for the price paid.
Update 10/14/11: Wanted to note too, the adapter that is provided for N. America customers is totally worthless as the charger comes with the 3 rectangular prongs. The adapter provided will not fit, so be prepared to buy your own adapter. Apart from that, the phone works just fine.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Manual is not in English,
I received the phone on time, but the phone has a manual in French without any English. And the phone’s default set up is in French too. It took me two hours to figure out how to set it up to English. After everything is all set up as English, there are still 2 French apps left on the phone. I guess one is a French emergency service(like ours 911) and another one is the manual on the phone, which are pretty annoying. I tried to update the system, the two Frenc apps are still there.
Another problem is that it does not work unless you know how to set up the mobile network service. It pop up 2 networks, one is ATT PHONE, another one is Wap/cingular. If you use ATT, you need to chose wap/cingular. The ATT Phone one is not working. And after I chose the wrong one, it does not let me choose another one. I have to hand type in the Wap/cingular setting in the ATT phone setting to make it work.
But in the end it works. And it works fine. I enjoy it so far. If the manual and language are all good and correct, I would give this a better rating. I am not sure if these are general problem or it is the problem from the specific seller’s product.
Was this review helpful to you?
|