Samsung Galaxy Pro

Editor's Review of the Galaxy Pro

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Pro, the first Android smartphone to combine a touchscreen and a portrait QWERTY keypad. Described by Samsung as "the perfect business partner" could this finally be the handset to sway the Blackberry faithful?

Design & Build

The Galaxy Pro may not exude the style and class of its advanced, albeit more expensive, Galaxy siblings, but it does offer an interesting alternative for business folk and social networkers. In comparison to the incoming wave of low-end QWERTY handsets, Samsung's latest effort offers a much sleeker appearance, and it's Samsung Galaxy Ace-style mesh-like battery panel adds a high-end look to the mid-range smartphone.

Within its cool metallic casing sits an extremely responsive 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen, boasting a lowly 320 x 240 pixel resolution. While it's washed-out display is certainly not a highlight, its physical keys on the other hand, are. The handset sports a four-row portrait QWERTY, made up of tactile, domed keys. The buttons are well spaced, and large enough to make for speedy messaging with no silly mistakes and for even the chunkiest of digits. The keypad is paired with four capacitive keys, which are equally as likeable. The raised buttons offer instant access to Menu, Home, Back and Search
Under the hood of the Samsung Galaxy Pro sits an 800MHz processor, which is perfectly whizzy enough to power this compact smartphone.

OS & Interface

It may not be the latest version of Google's OS, but the Samsung Galaxy Pro arrives running Android 2.2 (Froyo), bringing 3G Mobile Hot Spot and Adobe Flash 10.1 to the business-focussed blower. The screen is dressed with Samsung's TouchWiz UI, which has been re-jigged to fit the handset's obscure landscape view. Offering much more functionality than Blackberry OS, Samsung's custom UI offers multiple customisable home screens, pre-loaded Google widgets and access to over 150,000 downloadable apps from the Android Market.

Samsung has also chucked in its Social Hub Premium for good measure, which integrates email, social networking and instant messaging accounts. We found it extremely easy to get to grips with, and it even saves on battery life.

Multimedia & Storage

With Samsung's focus being on social networking and business tools, it's fair to say, the Galaxy Pro is lacking when it comes to media.

On its rear, there's a 3.15 autofocus megapixel camera, which due to its lack of flash, struggles to produce great quality snaps in poorly lit surroundings. It's also capable of recording QVGA footage at 30 frames per second, which proved equally disappointing and lacking in detail. Still, if you're not such a budding-photographer, the included media player and FM radio are great for on-the-go entertainment.

The Samsung Galaxy Pro also arrives with just 512MB of built-in storage, but this can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card. There's also a 2GB chucked in the box, which can store around 500 tunes.

Everything Else

It may be a "mid-range" handset, but the Samsung Galaxy Pro arrives equipped with both HSDPA and WiFi connectivity for speedy browsing. The onboard browser copes well with the speeds, and renders pages well on the 2.8-inch screen - much to our surprise. However, the lack of multitouch gestures were a little frustrating, and made for a lot of squinting at the tiny onscreen text.

Adding to its array of business-suited specs, the Galaxy Pro can also be hooked u to your laptop or PC using its 3G Mobile Hot Spot functionality, proving the ultimate companion for busy professionals.

When it comes to battery life, the Galaxy Pro doesn't disappoint. It may be a small handset, but it packs a hefty 1350mAh juice-box under the hood, promising up to 11 hours of talk time and 610 hours on standby. Woah, that's a lot of Facebooking.

Conclusion

It may not be the prettiest, or most feature packed handset on the market, but the Samsung Galaxy Pro has won us over with its tactile keys and social-focussed features. It may not look as sleek as the Blackberry Curve 8520 for example, but Samsung is right - the Galaxy Pro is the "perfect business partner" with its onboard QWERTY and integrated Social Hub. Could it be time to ditch the Blackberry for an Android alternative? We certainly think so.