Samsung Galaxy Pocket S5300 review: Happy meal

Final words

No smartphones beyond this point. Lost so far in no-man's land between Symbian and Android, the point in question has been flagged on the map. Welcome to checkpoint Pocket.

The Samsung Galaxy Pocket is a beginner's package. Be it screen resolution and size, processing power or imaging, smartphone specs don't get any more basic than that. To be fair though, smartphones almost never cost as little either.

Even though the low-end of the smartphone market is brimming with Android devices, you're still going to have a hard time finding one as affordable as the Galaxy Pocket.

The HTC Explorer is one of the few that will try and match the Pocket price tag. The compact smartphone with plenty of youth appeal offers a 3.2" HVGA display, a 3.15 MP camera with superior video recording and the Sense UI experience.

HTC Explorer

Among the devices to come to the market more recently, the LG Optimus L3 E400 is an almost exact match for the Galaxy Pocket. It has roughly the same size but offers a bigger 3.2" screen of the same QVGA resolution. It goes for a 3.15 MP camera and definitely looks better, which may as well justify the slightly higher asking price.

LG Optimus L3 E400

In a way, the Galaxy Pocket isn't supposed to be compared to other smartphones. It's hardly a surprise that it gets beaten every time. On the other hand, feature phones can be a tough competition too. And we don't mean the feature-rich dumbphones. The old-fashioned buttoned sets are a major threat because proper texting still rates high in the Pocket's price range and demographic.

That makes the Asha 302 a potential rival but Nokia obviously look beyond QWERTY messengers and Touch-and-Type phones as their line of defense against the invasion of cheap smartphones. The Asha 311 of the newly-announced Asha Touch series might lure a few customers away from the Pocket, too.

Nokia Asha 302 • Nokia Asha 311

The Galaxy Pocket will lose more battles than it will win. But it doesn't have to be a fighter to be a winner. The whole point of entry-level smartphones is a gentle learning curve and a very sharp addiction curve that peaks in the Galaxy S III, or whatever the next super droid is called.