Samsung Galaxy Apollo

Editor's Review of the Galaxy Apollo

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo is a quadband mobile phone that may be used on any GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 network. It comes in two colours out of the box - black and white. The handset measures 113.5 millimetres long by 55 millimetres across and is only a little less than 13 millimetres thick. This smart phone is also quite light at only 109.7 grams.

The TFT capacitive touch screen takes up much of the front side, measuring 3.2 inches diagonally. The 240 by 400 pixels display can showcase a rich 16 million colours, allowing you to have a very vivid sensory experience when you watch DivX, WMV, H.263, H.264, and MP4 videos. You can also play back eAAC+, WAV, and MP3 audio files on the Apollo. If you get tired of what you have stored on your phone, you can still get music through this handset’s built-in stereo FM radio (with RDS). With Samsung's proprietary Digital Natural Sound Engine, you are assured of the best sound quality. This sound engine reproduces genuine stereo sound and helps compensate the limitations of speakers and earphones. The DNSe is featured on many of Samsung's products - from DVD players, mobile phones, and TVs.

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo runs on Android 2.1 Eclair, and features Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. The TouchWiz has the capability to show or add widgets or mini-applications to the home screen. Also, having Eclair on board means that the Apollo would surely be able to optimally run Google's whole suite of applications (such as search, maps, Gmail, GTalk, Calendar, and YouTube). The handset also features a built-in Facebook app that lets you logon to Facebook easily.

Unsurprisingly, the Apollo can connect you to the Internet using Class 10 GPRS and Class 10 EDGE networks. High-speed Internet is also available via any HSDPA 3.6 Mbps network, while wireless surfing is also possible. Further connectivity is provided by the microUSB port and Bluetooth v3.0 capability, allowing you to transfer files to and from your handset from and to any computer or other Bluetooth devices.

This handset also sports a 3.15 megapixel camera that is capable of capturing photographs of up to 2048 by 1536 pixels, and QVGA videos at 15 frames per second. It also has auto focus, geo-tagging, and motion and face detection. Messaging features include SMS, MMS, and e-mail. Waiting for a very important e-mail? No problem as the Apollo also has push e-mail allowing you to receive the message as soon as it arrives!

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo has 170 megabytes of internal memory, which is enough for unlimited phone book entries and photo call. For your photos, music files, and videos, you can add up to 32 gigabytes more memory with a microUSB card.

Limitations

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo could have been a perfect smart phone had Samsung put in a better camera and a bigger screen. At 3.15 megapixels, the camera would simply pale in comparison to the 5 megapixels currently seen on similar smart phones like the Samsung M100. The absence of an LED flash also makes the handset useless in low light settings and at night. In addition, 3.2 inches might be a respectable screen size, but in light of the 4 megapixels on Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10, that 3.2 inches might seem cramped. With 16 million colours and a responsive display, it would have been a lot better to have more real estate for its display.

Overall, however, the moderately priced smart phone has a great mix of features that makes use of Samsung's best technologies, including TouchWiz and DNSe. Bundle that with the Android OS, a whole range of exciting features, and a very responsive touch screen, you would have a great smart phone that would certainly be a contender in its range.