Samsung I9070 Galaxy S Advance review: While-u-wait

Final Words

The Galaxy S Plus, Galaxy SL and the Galaxy R must be anxiously looking at each other wondering which one will need to move aside to make room for the newcomer. We don't think any of them needs to worry too much. It's the original Galaxy S that should be ready to pack up and call it a day. Good going.

Samsung I9001 Galaxy S Plus • Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL • Samsung I9103 Galaxy R • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S

With the Galaxy Nexus and the Note doing their best to keep Samsung in the spotlight, the Koreans are filling in some blanks in the upper midrange and keeping the troops sharp and focused for the arrival of the new flagship. The Galaxy S III will wait a bit more, perhaps letting the Galaxy S II enjoy a full year at the helm.

The Galaxy S Advance will probably be little affected by the turmoil at the top. This is a phone that brings nothing new to the table, but it may actually have found itself a niche. Crowded as the Android playground may seem, there's almost no competition matching the exact Galaxy S Advance skillset. The supply of any 4" AMOLED dual-core smartphone alternatives is almost non-existent. Now, we can only hope Samsung did their research and found out there's actually demand.

The competition is a rather loose assortment of powerful smartphones, some long past their prime. The LG Optimus 2X was the first dual-core droid we tested a year ago. It's an absolute steal now, and it's still an impressive all-round performer.

LG Optimus 2X

The Motorola Atrix 2 has been offering the same level of equipment as the Galaxy S Advance for a few months now - save for the AMOLED display. It goes on to top it though with a 4.3" qHD screen and an 8MP camera with full-HD video. And that costs a lot less than the Galaxy S Advance.

Motorola ATRIX 2

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance costs almost as much as the Galaxy S II, and that pretty much sums it all up. This is not the best position to be in. Right now Samsung can say they're releasing a brand new midrange phone instead of waiting for yesterday's high-end to slide down the ranks. But with the competition offering better equipped phones for less, they don't make much of a point.

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II

On the other hand, the Galaxy S Advance must've cost Samsung nothing to build. It's a mix and match of designs and features. In fact, it's the same package as the latest projector-phone by Samsung. And we mean exactly the same.

The Samsung Galaxy Beam is the kind of phone to show to the press at venues like the MWC. The Samsung Galaxy S Advance is for customers who wouldn't care to check what the competition has to offer. Good looking and reasonably powered, the Samsung Galaxy S Advance is for people who don't actually care about how many cores and which version of Android there is inside.