Mood - Smiley

As promised, a review on the Samsung S5233W, also known as –  Samsung Star. \<ˆεˆ>/~☆

In this entry, you’ll find out its highlighted features, camera and video functions and quality, miscellaneous functions and more.

NB: This version of Samsung Star that I’m reviewing HAS NO 3G.

<`A´>/

It has been a week now since I bought this phone and by far, no technical problem has occurred — thankfully.

The External Parts of Samsung Star

↓

There are 3 colors available for Samsung Star: White, black and metallic pink.

The screen size is 400 x 240 pixels. Compare its full body size to an iPhone, it’s slimmer and less broader. So take note, you CAN’T use an iPhone cover for Samsung Star because the size don’t complement. Bummer…I know. (Laughs nervously)

The phone is solid, nonetheless. No plastic feeling. <^-^>lll

About the interface…

(Laughs) For somebody who has been using phones with solid buttons, I somehow managed to adjust myself with the touch screen interface.

Yup! Samsung Star is a full touch screen phone~☆. ↓

The sensitivity of the touch censor is just nice, not highly sensitive to a touch neither do you have to tap so hard. There are of course, some useful solid buttons to make navigation easier and faster.

At the bottom, there are 3 buttons being: The ‘Call’ Button, The ‘Back’ Button, and The ‘Cancel’ button which is also the switch off button.

And then at the left side, there’s the volume and zoom button. The battery charger and earphone outlet can also be found on the left side of the phone. ↓

It opens like a latch, which is similar to the LG KF350 Ice-cream phone. ↓

Be careful when leaving the latch open. Don’t brush against it roughly or it might just break off seeing it’s quite loosely intact. >_<

Now on the right side of the phone, there’s the ‘LOCK’ button and ‘Camera’ button. ↑

Having the camera button by the side makes it even more convenient to snap pictures as well as being a quick button to the camera function.

This is how the back of the phone looks like, by the way. ↓

As you can see, there is no flash embedded to the camera. I’ll give you more details on the camera’s usability and quality later in this entry.

But first, we go through the external parts of the phone.

On its top right, a stylus can be pulled out from there. ↓

That goes to say, big thumbs— there’s a stylus to make input easier for you, especially when it comes to ticking small boxes!

Moving on to —

Interacting with the Samsung Star

Let’s begin with the desktop screen. ↓

Samsung Star has a widget sidebar, consisting of shortcuts to files and other applications.

In addition, you can drag out the thumbnail of your choice and leave it on your desktop as shown below. ↓

I dragged out the ‘Games’ shortcut. You can situate it anywhere on the screen. You can drag it back into the sidebar widget as well.

If the screen is too crowded, don’t worry. You have 2 extra desktops. ↓

You can simply swap to the right and left screens, which function as your alternate desktops.

However, changing the front’s wallpaper isn’t going to be very convenient, especially when you want to have different pictures for each slides.

Changing/Customizing the Background

Maybe I haven’t figure out an easy way yet but for the time being, here’s what I do:

Create a new canvas of 720 x 400 pixels, using Adobe Photoshop or any program that allows you to edit pictures. For the 3 different pictures of your choice, you have to make sure they are exactly 240 x 400 pixels. That means you have to crop out any excessive parts.

After you have cropped them out nicely, drag them to the 720 x 400 pixels canvas and arrange them to the order of your choice, like which do you want to be set in the middle and so on.

Example:

Troublesome…Yea… <_  _>lll

As for themes, sadly there are only 2 themes available: Red and Green. ↓

Though, you can change the background of the Menu to your liking. But the black opacity remains.

Note: There are 2 tabs on the top: Main Menu and the Shortcut Tab which will take you to Communications and to other applications.

For more customization, Samsung Star allows you to select your choice of Font Type. ↑

Methods of Inputting Text

The good thing about Samsung Star’s text input is that there are 3 ways to do so.

First being the standard method of keying in the text. ↓

The virtual buttons are reasonably big, so it’s like tapping on a solid button thus easy to adjust your reflexes.

If you prefer using the QWERTY keypad, tilt the phone horizontally and it will activate the QWERTY keypad function. ↓

It’s easier to switch to symbol and number mode however, the keys are much smaller. With that, perhaps the stylus might be favorable to you.

And if you’re not down with that — The Handwriting function is at your disposal. <o_o>

Therefore, there are alternatives to make texting easier and more convenient. <^-^>b

Wi – Fi Feature

Samsung Star’s Wi-Fi feature is very simple to use. Click on the application and it will lead you to the screen above. Tap on the round Wi-Fi button and it’s activated. Next thing to do is tap the ‘Search’ virtual button and it will search for Wi-Fi networks within the area. Samsung Star’s Bluetooth works the same way too.

Speaking of connecting to the Internet, the browser program quite standardize. You can view it in landscape mode just by tilting the screen.

About installing another browser, namely Opera Mini — please scroll down to the Nifty-Gritty section. <^v^>/

Camera and Video Quality

Samsung Star is equipped with a 3.2 mega pixel camera — NO flash and NO auto-focus feature. The quality is quite satisfying but taking photos indoors and dim-lighted places might be a disappointment.

So if you want to enhance the photos, you can toggle the scene mode; Sun light, cloudy, fluorescent — to whichever is appropriate. Plus, you can adjust the brightness. There are also other features such as the Smile Shot, Burst Shots and so on.

Anyway, here are some photos that I took using the Samsung Star phone. ↓

[Sorry, I don't have anything nice to take photos of. Been staying indoors most of the time. (Laughs nervously)]

Taken in a room, lighting ain’t that good so…. ↑

So is the quality up to your satisfaction? You think about it yourself. (Laughs)

But I must admit, the quality isn’t so sharp and crispy. The colors aren’t too vibrant either. <T_T>

Editing and Enhancing the Photos

Editing a picture using the Samsung Star can be rather fun for you can add a memo, text, emoticons and clip art on the screen.

My favorite is the ability to scribble some stuffs on the picture, with the help of the stylus. (Laughs)

I made a mess out of Auwlithe’s face… (Laughs nervously) ↑ <^-^>lll

Video Quality

The video below is a sample video that was recorded using the Samsung Star. See for yourself…

… I know…Sheep is not a good and fluent speaker. <;__;> (Tears)

Other Nifty-Gritty

Battery Life

Life span of the battery is a let down. With minimum use, it can last up to maybe 3 days. It really depends on how much you use your phone. It can drop a bar in one or more in one day.

Therefore to really conserve its energy, I suggest you switch off the Vibration Feedback. The vibration will response whenever you tap on an icon or so thus, unnecessary battery drainage.

Switch it off, including key tones if you are alright with that.

Try to minimize the unneccessaries and Samsung Star should be able to keep up with you. <^v^>/

Memory Card

According to the manual, Samsung Star can accept an 8GB MicroSD card. As for its phone memory, baa — Not sure. <_  _>lll

Gmail

(Laughs nervously)

Sorry, sheep can’t help you here. Sheep is also facing difficulties in setting up her Gmail account. I keep getting the DNS error. <≥A≤>/

I also tried for Hotmail but the settings were to no avail.

Suppose I manage to figure this out, I update this entry.

Opera Mini

For a few days, I had problems installing Opera Mini 4.2 into the Samsung Star. For a start, it appears that there isn’t a version meant for Samsung Star. I tried downloading versions that were meant for other Samsung Stars but it was futile.

Finally, I found another way!

Sheep downloaded the Opera Mini ver.4.2 for Nokia N79 and installed into Samsung Star — Successfully! <OAO>!

You can download it here: Click

Select version for N79.

And voila~

If it doesn’t work, then the problem probably lies in your browser profile or network setting. This, sheep can’t help you. <_  _>lll

Misc.

Other tools include:

• Voice recorder
• Loud speaker (when on call)
• Memo (can lock it with a pin number for privacy)
• Stop watch
• World clock
• Converter (length, height, currency etc)
• Alarm
• Calculator

!! Finale !!

All in all, personally Samsung Star is quite an ok phone. I have no complaints…Other than it keeps reverting to phone memory as default storage after I plug it in the comp to make transfers. <_  _>lll

At this moment, everything seems fine and dandy. No technical problems and not much difficulties in interacting with the phone.

To this end, may my review be of help~! <^-^>/

Ms Aya the sheep, making a run now. 

Baa-bai~♥!

↓ UPDATE! ↓

Using Wi-Fi for Samsung Star’s Opera Mini

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