After trying out the Samsung Star (S5233) for over a week, I must say that this entry-level full touchscreen phone from Samsung comes as a contender in that category.
The first time I powered up the phone and saw the UI, it reminded me of the Android OS. Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is fast, responsive and pretty slick.
The screen is a full 3 inches with a resolution of 240×400 pixels. The display is bright and crisp while the haptic feedback of the touchscreen can be adjusted for sensitivity (1 as subtle to 5 as shaky). This gives you the ability to choose how much response/feedback you feel whenever you touch the screen.
While using your fingers to navigate the touchscreen is quite easy, the Samsung Star comes with an aluminum stylus which is retractable to different 3 lengths (much like an umbrella stick). The stylus is primarily for handwriting recognition. There’s an option for alphanumeric, small qwerty and full qwerty as input method while the accelerometer provides automatic re-orientation of the display screen depending on the position of the phone.
The phone runs a number of standard widgets for photos, music, clock, calendar, etc. on the left side of the screen that you can drag and drop into the home screen for easy access. The home screen is also extended to 2 more screens just by swiping your finger sideways (there are 3 small dots that indicates which screen you are in). This is one feature from Android I like since it gives an impression that you have a larger virtual screen to work on (I’m tempted to call it extended desktop).
At the bottom of the screen are 3 physical buttons — two for making/dropping calls and a center button that functions as cancel/back button. While the phone is just 12mm thick, the phone feels thicker than it seems although you get a good hold of it with one hand.
The speakers in the front is loud and crisp at low volume (probably due to the DNSe) but doesn’t have enough bass. The camera at the back is 3.15MP (2048×1536 pixels) but no autofocus so captured images aren’t even decent enough to post here.
If you’re looking for connectivity options, the Samsung Star might not be for you — no WiFi, no 3G (just GPRS/EDGE), no GPS — just Bluetooth with A2DP. This is an entry-level touchscreen phone that retails for Php10,490 (some stores sell it for Php9,999).
I think I like it..
Twitter: ThisIsWHA
says:
nice phone… i envy to own. . .
UI is pretty much same with Omnia minus WiFi, 3G GPS and other features..
its good phone but also not bad, i’ve seen it in store just past few weeks,its too tempting to buy this phone, coz its cheaper + the touch screen thing.. i’ve notice there’s alot of touch screen coming out in the market,is this the end of the keypad era? and will the touch screen phone will be the new generation?
hm…one of my officemates bought one! Pretty nifty device IMHO especially for the price. There is only one caveat – we cannot install games and applications into the unit! I think it was some security thing of some sorts!
sooooooooooo cheap, i mean literally! madaling masira ang samsung, helloooo… ang mahal pa ng pyesa and ang hirap pang humanap. i rather buy nokia 5800 xpressmusic and if anything goes wrong, they have nokia service centers anywhere in the philippines. think about it.
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ya nice mobile am using it yeah enjoyin the features try it…
this must be samsung’s match for lg cookie.the star looks better and sleek though.
Twitter: mparazgmail.com
says:
This phone has a widget engine. How is it?
Are widgets now mainstream?
[...] Check out a review of the Samsung S5233 here. [...]
tell me which fone is bette
e63 or star
+1 to ashkay chadha..
e63 or samsung star or samsung f480?
can u please tell me where can i find facebook widget for samsung star!
go for it……i already owe it….
alin kaya ang mas maganda? lg cookie or samsung star?? both cheap! i like them both , i cnt decyd wich to buy!need help!! plz! tanx! mwah!
LG Cookie plastic ang casing or mukhang plastic. Me and 2 of my friends have samsung star
Beware of Samsung products. Quality is not bad but the worst. Plus the super lousy customer service. I bought many samsung products from Celfones to appliances for my new house,( from LCD TV, Ref, Washing Machines, split type air-con.) I regretted it. All appliances & celfones started breaking down one after another. I called their customer hotline, they gave false promises. Worse is that even their Head (Mr. Cris de Leon) refused to talk to you. They just let you talk to the customers reps who are trained to stay cool and give standard replies like…”we’re doing something it”. But if you ask what? of course they don’t know.Their strategy is that they will let their call agents receive the “punching” until you are tired and you will just give up hope in running after warranties. Furthermore, they outsource their technical group to small business entities with backyard training. Example, for their aircon, they hired Henry’s & Raycon. Both made mistakes in troubleshooting our units. My samsung celfones — (take note plural) I just threw them all. It’s a health hazard to buy Samsung. You’ll certainly lose your cool. My hope is that with this warning, ill be able to warn others not to make the same mistakes I did. CAVEAT EMPTOR !!!
Got the phone samsung s5233 star and it is terrific unlike LG mas malinaw ang kulay at screen niya ,been owning lots of phone from original ,recon to china phones and so far this I enjoyed so much …wi fi is only good for hot spots and knowing business they will not give us free time for wi fi so who needs wi fi phone?(though I have one E65)
Go for star if you would like to see people stare you with envy and wows,it is expensive to see out from the box and come with three diff. colors (black,white and soft pink )mine is soft pink so girly,love it ..lol
ohh..pahabol ko pala you can install games on it i had installed mine…night at the museum2…just browse you gprs and go to gameloft…you can choose more games there to download…
ohh..pahabol ko pala you can install games on it i had installed mine…night at the museum2…just browse you gprs and go to gameloft…you can choose more games there to download…
Ang nokia mas madaling mapasukan ng virus compared to other brand…and mas madaling mahack ng china mobile makers infact you could not identify the original not unless na kalikutin talaga…see you
omg.. Grace Wong’s feedback scared me, oonga konti ln customer service ng samsung and a friend of mine had a samsung phone, ncra nung inupuan nia tapos 3k ung bayad ng pagawa. ung 5800 ng nokia trice ng napagsak nung isa kong friend pero buong buo padn. i just bought samsung star 5 days ago. This is my first time using other brands, since highschool i’ve been using nokia and it was really a tough decision picking samsung instead of 5800 xpress music. i have several reasons for choosing samsung star:
1. it’s thinner and looks more elegant
2. it’s cheaper, super cheap na bnli ko agad xa nung araw na nakita ko xa sa store, im a college student, i dont work yet so how can i have 15k php (for 5800) asap.. i’ve been wanting to buy a new phone since the day i lost my 7610 supernova last marh and it took me 3 months to have 10k T_T
3. i dont need 3g or wifi or a cellphone with dual led flash and louder speakers as nokia 5800 have because i have separate gadgets for those.
-samsung star is a nice phone but nothing beats Nokia series phone when it comes to camera.
-one thing that annoys me is that when you browse your gallery, you should hold the phone straight either horizontally or vertically, kasi kapag nka slant xa ng konti automatic na nagmomove ung mga pictures. idk yet, maybe there’s a setting for it.. and maybe i need to explore more. anyway 4/5 stars for this phone. =)
i bought mine a month ago or maybe 2 mos. ago, when this phone was still a hot gossip in the net that it would be the LG killer, i really was intrigue bout’ that… so after few mos. samsung star was launched in the philippines and ofcourse i bought 1 unit, and i must say if LG was selling like cookies, samsung star shines brighter… why?
1. it looks expensive and all people thought i purchased it around 20k when the fact is it’s original price is 10k
2. user friendly
3. widgets are very cute
4. not too complicated to understand // use
and last…
5. im the star @ our office
after having this phon, i think i acquired the star material…
i bought mine a month ago or maybe 2 mos. ago, when this phone was still a hot gossip in the net that it would be the LG killer, i really was intrigue bout’ that… so after few mos. samsung star was launched in the philippines and ofcourse i bought 1 unit, and i must say if LG was selling like cookies, samsung star shines brighter… why?
1. it looks expensive and all people thought i purchased it around 20k when the fact is it’s original price is 10k
2. user friendly
3. widgets are very cute
4. not too complicated to understand // use
and last…
5. im the star @ our office
after having this phone, i think i acquired the star material…
Wow, Grace Wong, that’s one scary piece of advice. I am getting mine tomorrow and i’m actually having second thoughts of buying it because of Grace Wong’s post…
I am a solid nokia user since the cell phone age and I dont know if this decision would be worth it.