Samsung I9070 Galaxy S Advance review

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

Here's one to keep you busy while you wait for the Galaxy S III. One that may help the
original Galaxy S finally take the hint and hang up its boots. The Galaxy S Advance is
the next in a string of sequels looking to get the best afterburn out of Samsung's top-
selling Android flagships.


Samsung I9070 Galaxy S Advance

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance could be spotted at this year's MWC along with other
space-fillers like the Wave 3 and the Omnia W. Nothing wrong with either of those but
the actual stars of the show were a couple of tablets and a new projector phone. Samsung
had a rather underwhelming showing and used the venue to promote the hell out of their
Galaxy Note.

Phoneblets and tablets must be higher on Samsung's agenda these days. Or they may've
been asked to kindly abstain from major launches to give the Galaxy Nexus a good free
run. Whatever the reason, the Galaxy S Advance comes at a dry time for the company in
terms of major phone headlines.
Key features

   Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
   14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
   4.0" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel)
resolution; Scratch-resistant coating
   Android OS v2.3.6 with TouchWiz 4 launcher
   1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400 MP GPU, 768MB of RAM
   5 MP autofocus camera with a powerful LED flash, face and smile detection
   720p HD video recording at 30fps
   Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
   GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
   8/16GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
   Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
   Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
   microUSB port
   Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
   FM radio with RDS
   Gorilla Glass
   1.3MP secondary camera
   Document editor
   File manager comes preinstalled

Main disadvantages

  No 1080p video recording
  No Super AMOLED Plus, pentile matrix display suffers pixelation
  No dedicated camera key
  microSD card under the battery cover
  Launches with Gingerbread

OK, life is a series of peaks and troughs and the S Advance finds itself at the low end of
the oscillation. But it's by no means in need of being comforted and reassured. This is a
rather solid package we're looking at, considering it'll be competing in the midrange. The
combination of dual-core and Super AMOLED puts it in the elite company of the Note,
the Nexus and the Galaxy S II.

Of course there's fine print in just about every deal. The AMOLED screen of the Galaxy
S Advance is the PenTile variety and the WVGA resolution isn't the best there is. The
NovaThor U8500 chipset is still to prove its worth and there's no commitment to ICS
upgradability as yet.
Samsung are known for trying to rule any price segment by sheer numbers and the
Galaxy S Advance gives them extra penetration in the upper midrange. What we're not
sure about is whether they need all that depth. Having already seen the Galaxy R at work,
it seems the S Advance doesn't offer that much more.