Samsung has so many variations of their models that sometimes its hard to say when one model stops and another begins. Take the Samsung I9103 Galaxy R, positioned somewhere between the Galaxy S II flagship droid and the mid-range Galaxy W.
Not that were complaining - having more options available is always a good thing and all dual-core droids from Samsung were only top of the line so far (S II and its variations, the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note phoneblet).
This is where the I9103 Galaxy R steps in in - it offers tangibly better specs than the Galaxy W, while staying a step below the top dogs in specs and price. Heres a summary of what you get with the Galaxy R and some downsides.
Key features
Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4.2" 16M-color SC-LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution; Scratch-resistant glass
Android OS v2.3.3 with TouchWiz 4 launcher
1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, ULP GeForce GPU, NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, 1GB of RAM
5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection
720p HD video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct support
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
8GB internal storage, microSD slot
Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port
Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
FM radio with RDS
Great audio quality
1.3MP secondary video-call camera
Document editor
File manager comes preinstalled
Main disadvantages
SC-LCD has poor black levels
Tegra 2 falls slightly behind Exynos in CPU and GPU performance
No dedicated camera key
Non-hot-swappable microSD card
Depending on how you look at it, going from the Galaxy W to the Galaxy R means getting a better CPU and GPU, a bigger screen and extra built-in storage, or trading in several of the highlights of the Galaxy S II in exchange for a smaller total at the cash register.
Anyway, if you pull the Galaxy R away from the S IIs shadow, youll notice it stands pretty well on its own. Tegra 2 is at the heart of several popular dual-core droids and quite a few tablets too. And a 4.2" WVGA screen doesn’t sound too bad, even if it is an SC-LCD (well how it does in our tests though).
The camera could have been better - 5MP and 720p is nothing to brag about.
