Normally phones are announced at a fancy press event or at least a PR release, then we wait a bit, then the device goes on sale. With the Samsung Galaxy Express, it’s all gone a bit backwards.
The phone was originally offered for sale in the US on the AT&T network in November last year, but it isn’t until today that the phone has been officially announced. And even with the press release provided by Samsung, there are no further details on worldwide pricing and availability.
The phone costs $99 on contract and is roughly the same specifications of a Samsung Galaxy S II, but in the body of a Samsung Galaxy S III. That includes a 4.5″ WVGA display, a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage augemented via micro SD. There are two cameras (5-megapixel on the rear, 1.3-megapixel on the front) and the normal host of connectivity options, including LTE, NFC, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi N. All of this will be powered by a 2000 mAh battery and fits inside a 9.3 mm chassis – not too bad.
On the software front, we’ve got Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and the normal suite of Samsung centric features and the Nature UX user interface.
All in all, a decent budget LTE option but probably not one that will appeal to a lot of people given its woeful pixel density (4.5″ and 480 x 800 – ouch!) and uninspired design. After all, why go in for half measures instead of choosing the much stronger option – as is the case of the Samsung Galaxy S3 or HTC One X+?
If the phone’s release saga continues in the same backwards order, hopefully we’ll see leaks of the phone’s hardware from Chinese suppliers and then we’ll forget it exists.
Article By Will Judd
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