Samsung Galaxy W I8150 review: S Plus Lite

S Plus Lite

GSMArena team, 8 December 2011.

Introduction

The Galaxy S line gets all the attention, but troopers like the Samsung Galaxy W I8150 will see plenty of action too. With a 3.7" screen, it's more compact than the original Galaxy S, but it uses the same souped-up chipset that ticks inside the S Plus.

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Samsung Galaxy W official photos

If you’re after SuperAMOLED, the Galaxy S and S Plus are the phones to go to. The LCD screen of the Samsung Galaxy W I8150 has the same WVGA resolution as the S-line, which means higher pixel density (252ppi vs. 233ppi). And, we're talking proper RGB pixels here, rather than PenTile.

The Galaxy W uses the Qualcomm MSM8255T chipset (1.4GHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU), which has been used in several upgrades of popular phones - the Galaxy S Plus, obviously, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S too.

The Galaxy W is pretty high up Samsung's ladder, but unlike the S and R premium lines, the emphasis here is on value for money. And you do get quite a bit of features - here's the summary.

Key Features

  • Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
  • 14.4 Mbps HSDPA; 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
  • 1.4GHz Snapdragon CPU; Adreno 205 GPU; Qualcomm MSM 8255Т chipset; 512MB RAM; 1GB ROM
  • 2GB storage (1.7GB user accessible), microSD card support (up to 32GB)
  • 3.7” LCD display of WVGA (800 x 480) resolution; 252ppi pixel density
  • 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; HD (720p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash
  • Front-facing VGA camera for video calls
  • Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 launcher
  • Rich video format support out of the box
  • Wi-Fi b/g/n; Hot-spot and DLNA connectivity
  • Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
  • GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
  • Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
  • Accelerometer and proximity sensor
  • Stereo FM radio
  • DivX/XviD/X264 video support
  • Office document viewer/editor
  • Web browser with Adobe Flash 11 support

Main disadvantages

  • All plastic construction
  • Display image quality worse than Galaxy S Plus
  • No memory card enclosed and only 2GB of built-in storage
  • No shutter key

We know what you're thinking - isn't this the Samsung Exhibit II 4G that was just recently reviewed? Close, but not quite. The Galaxy W is a worldwide phone and beats the US T-Mo’s Exhibit in terms of chipset and imaging. The two phones have the same data speeds: what T-Mobile USA misguidedly calls 4G is actually HSPA+.

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Samsung Galaxy W live pictures

So, shake off that deja vu feeling and proceed to the next page to see what's in the box and what the phone's hardware is like.

Reader comments

  • Anonymous
  • 29 Dec 2013
  • tue

give me networ speed

  • vasantharaja
  • 05 Dec 2012
  • 3xJ

i think next week purchace this currect or not plz comment wi80150

  • AnonD-63234
  • 25 Nov 2012
  • uEB

i've just read this.. hahaha. well what kind of browsing? i mean, if you load a heavy page like facebook and show all contents like web browser not mobile, yes it would cause battery to hot, but i think not that hot.. i use this device for games exam...