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Samsung Galaxy S Duos GT-S7562 (Mobile phone)

Samsung Galaxy S Duos GT-S7562 is a mobile phone released in September 2012. Currently it is a cheap Android based mobile phone. As at September 2013, the price is 329 BGN without any contract (168.22 EUR). The device, being quite affordable, is a nice entry level phone for people who want to use current technology, although little slower, with lesser quality. As I already have experience with dual SIM-card phones, like the Toshibo V9+i, the Samsung Galaxy S Duos is a logic upgrade for me.

Package


The phone comes in a shiny small white box, very lightweight, with dimensions - 7.3 x 13 x 5 cm. On the front of the box is a picture of the phone with usual Samsung Galaxy wallpaper and the most used icons - ChatOn, Camera, Samsung Apps, Google Play, Phone, Contacts, Messaging, Internet and Apps.
On the right side of the box are written the specifics of the phone with icons:

  • HSDPA HSDPA7.2 (900/2100Mhz)
  • Quad-band Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
  • 1GHz 1GHz CPU
  • Screen 100.8 mm (4.0") WVGA TFT LCD
  • Camera 5MP AF w/FL + VGA
  • TouchWiz TouchWiz for Android
  • Navigation GPS/Geo-tagging
  • Android Android technology
  • Wi-Fi Wi-Fi certified
  • DUOS Dual SIM
Samsung Galaxy S Core Duos - box contents. On the bottom of the box is a QR Code with the batch number GH69-15986A 3 and GT-S7562 text. The color of my phone is Pure White. Inside the box are the phone with a relatively big battery under it, both placed in a paper bed. Under the paper bed are Short manual, power adaptor and USB cable. No headphones, no pouch and no booklet with the standard accessories. Of course, at the mobile phones store where I was, it is possible to buy a great deal of accessories for additional money spent for the device. The positive of the separately sold accessories is the possibility to choose a look that fits your style. The negative is the extra money needed to pay, which makes the phone little more expensive than what's seen at first sight.

Installation

The phone is ready for use almost straight out of the box. To use it for first time, before trying to charge it, the user must place the battery in the phone and eventually a SIM card or two SIM cards for phone calls, but the SIM card is not mandatory for operation. Unlike the experience with HTC Wildfire, opening of the back cover and placing the battery is very easy. Putting one or two SIM cards is easy as well. Unlike the Toshibo and the Nokia dual SIM card phones I used, the Samsung Galaxy S Duos beds for SIM cards are one under another, not side by side. This saves space, but makes it harder to see which SIM card is installed in which slot. After closing the back cover, no other complicated installation procedure is necessary. The phone is ready to use. Just start it.

Usage

Samsung Core Duos phone showing locked screen. After the phone is turned on, by pressing the button on right side of the phone on the top for three seconds, the boot sequence shows the low-end nature of the processor and the memory. It takes around 45 seconds to boot into fully functional device. After selecting the SIM card to be active - first or second (depending on which you need at the time), the phone is ready for use. The locked device screen of the phone shows the current time and date on the top and instruction for unlocking on the bottom (slide the screen), along with four icons - Phone, ChatOn, Internet and Camera. The phone is very light-weight and for basic functionality, it's relatively fast and easy to use. The USB cable is easy to plug to the jack on the bottom of the device. Once inserted to another device via USB or power adapter, it automatically starts to charge the battery. Connecting it to computer shows it as Removable Disk, and also as GT-S7562 with a phone icon. Accessing the phone directory structure shows folders for Alarms, Android, DCIM, Download, Movies, Music, Notifications, Pictures, Podcasts, Ringtones and samsungapps. There are no free albums for ringtones, but music is easy to obtain or record nowadays. The phone is shown with 1,49 GB free out of 1,68 GB. Inserting additional MicroSD card is very easy and doesn't require opening of the back cover. There is a MicroSD card slot on the bottom right side of the phone, protected by removable cover. It's easy to recognize by the picture of a card and the MicroSD text.

Applications

Samsung Core Duos phone showing Android applications icons. Factory installed in the mobile phone is Android 4.0.4 - Ice Cream Sandwich, base part version S7562XXLJ3, core version 3.0.8-1102401 dpi@DELL138 #1 (Tue Oct 16 11:19 12 KST 2012), compilation number IMM76I.S7562XXALJ4. Pressing the icon on the bottom-right of the main screen, brings the applications menu, consisting of 4X5 icons grid. The most important application for me in any device used to be the Internet browser, but after the trend of many websites creating their own applications for Android, IOS and Windows, this is not the same case anymore. For Samsung's installed Android the Internet browser is on the bottom right of the screen, but there are also YouTube, Gmail, Google+ and Google Play Store icons. There is also Samsung Apps icon for an application that took around 10 minutes to install. Another very useful software, fully utilizing the phone capabilities is the Google Maps application, that can save purchase of a GPS navigation device. The navigation is updated in real time, showing my movements and rotations with very high precision. As usual, most of these applications require working Internet connection (through Wi-Fi or the mobile network operator) and working Google Account (Free to create).

Cameras

Samsung Galaxy S Core Duos - shot picture with the 5.0 megapixel rear camera in indoor light conditions, without flash. The phone features 5.0 megapixel camera on the rear side and another 5.0 megapixel camera on the front side, with lesser quality. In my tests, I was able to make some very decent pictures with the rear camera, when there is a good ambient light. With artificial light, the pictures are not that good as seen on the right. The size of the taken pictures is 2560x1920 pixels. The front camera pictures are of lesser quality and not recommended to make, especially when there is a better option available with just a flip of the phone. The zooming as usual for most of the mobile phones is done digitally. The flash of the rear camera, situated under the lenses helps a lot for close objects. If there is a need for editing the pictures, there are many applications available for Android for all kind of alteration, including enhancement. When making movies in best quality there is no zoom option. The movies are saved in mp4 format, sized 640x480 pixels, frame rate of 30 frames/second, 3065 kbps data rate for the rear camera and 24 frames/second, 2567 kbps data rate for the front camera. The shot movies are ready for upload to YouTube without any additional processing.

Games

Built-in the phone I found no games. Additional downloads of games is required. There are thousands of games on the Google Play Store. Just download and install some games and enjoy them on your phone. Another option with games is the Samsung Apps. If you have hard time choosing what to play, there are ratings, editor's picks and trends to follow for hot titles.

Other utilities

Just like any other Android device - there are thousands of applications on the Google Play store available for the phone for free or paid. On top of the Google Play Store there is also the Samsung Apps, where more applications and games are available. It takes only some hours to install tens or even hundreds of applications for use. Of course with the low memory and the relatively slow processor, the user has to be very cautious what he installs. There is a risk of having sluggish device, that is crash prone and no fun to use at the end.

Conclusion

For the price, the Samsung Core S Duos is very decent phone and more importantly in todays networked world - Android device, that is easy and fun to use. As Android is already the most popular mobile phones operating system, the device is ready for the future and can be used for many years as main phone and even as a little computing tool. The option for two SIM cards removes the need for additional phone if you use two mobile operators - saving money, time and resources.


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