Review of the Samsung Galaxy W : Soul of a Galaxy S Inside the Body of an Ace

During the last quarter of 2011, Samsung rolled out its new naming system for its future line of mobile phones. This shift in naming system marks an important point for the company’s branding and marketing efforts. In contrast to Samsung’s previous naming system for its mobile devices, the new naming convention clearly defines the market and target audience in which a specific phone or line of phones is designed for. Furthermore, it ties up the company’s entire legion of handheld devices that operate on multiple operating systems. So, whether it be the Galaxy line that runs on Google’s Android, the Omnia line that runs on Windows phone 7 or their very own Bada line that runs on a proprietary OS of the same name, will all follow the new naming scheme.

One particular handset that follows this new naming system is the Samsung i8150 also known as the Samsung Galaxy Wonder (or simply the Galaxy W). The Galaxy W is the Android counterpart of the Samsung Omnia W windows phone and sits just right in the middle of the entire Galaxy line. According to Samsung, the Galaxy W is intended to be a high tier mobile phone catering to a specific group of consumers with a specific set of needs and preferences. But the question is, was Samsung successful in creating the perfect phone for their targeted market? Fortunately, I was able to snag one unit of the Samsung Galaxy Wonder, so I was able to test and review it for everyone’s convenience.

What’s in the Box? The box of the Galaxy W differs from the boxes of Samsung devices of yesteryears which are characterized by shallow and rectangular boxes. Instead, the device came with a tall box where the phone as well as the accessories that came with it are crammed, which is nice since it saves a lot of packaging material which in turn is good for the environment. The unit that I received came in a sealed box, and after breaking the seal, I was welcomed by the device itself covered in plastic and seated in a recycled plastic cradle (which shows yet again, Samsung’s devotion to a greener environment). Removing the plastic cradle will reveal the standard accessories that come with the Galaxy W, which include a data sync USB cable, a travel charger, the phone’s battery, a pair of headset and of course the usual bunch of paper work composed of manuals, start-up guide and warranty card.


The Accessories. In typical Samsung fashion, the Galaxy W came with, shall we say, ordinary set of accessories. The travel charger’s power chord for instance is covered in a thin layer of plastic which can easily break and expose the wiring inside (a typical customer complaint by most Samsung phone users). On the other hand, given that the Galaxy W is placed in the upper tier price range for mobile phones, the headset that came with the device is a little below average. Again, just like the travel charger, the wires of the headset is covered by a thin layer of rubber and it’s very easy for a user (especially those users who are a little bit clumsy in using their devices) to damage it. Moreover, the earpiece of the headset is only covered by plastic with small holes in it as opposed to those in-ear headphones that provide a small degree of noise cancellation.

Galaxy W Unboxing

Device Exterior. Upon removing the plastic bag that envelops the Galaxy W, you will see that the device’s screen is covered by another layer of printed film where the android emblem, as well as other notable features of the phone is printed. There are also plastic films that cover the other sensitive parts of the phone including the camera lens, the center home button and the shiny metallic portions of the phone’s body. The battery cover of the phone is made from plastic which if removed is a little bit flimsy, but fits snugly once the battery is in place. On the plus side, the back cover has this grid texture which adds additional grip for users to hold on to.

Galaxy W Exterior

The overall dimensions of the Galaxy W are very similar to the very popular Galaxy Ace, except for the slightly larger screen of the W and its less boxier and edgier body. The button layout of the phone is also similar to the Ace with the right side of the device being occupied by the singular power/lock button. The volume rocker keys are located at the left side of the phone while the headset jack and the USB port is located at the top of the device. The USB port on the phone is now covered by a sliding gate as opposed to previous Galaxy models that have a flip cover. At the back, you can see the 5MP camera with flash and the company’s name embossed at the bottom part of the back cover just above the loudspeaker grille.

The front side of the device is occupied by the 3.7 inch S-LCD display, the phone’s ear piece which sits just above the Samsung branding. The top right corner of the device is where the front-facing VGA camera is located.  Ambient light sensors and proximity sensors are on the left side of the speaker grille. At the bottom of the device is where the lone physical home button is located. If you go further down you will find a small pin hole which is the microphone.

Computing Power. The amount of computing power infused in the Galaxy W looks like it was taken out of the spec sheet of the first generation Galaxy S. For starters, the phone comes with a 1.4 Ghz single core scorpion processor which ensures that users will have enough power when it comes to running applications and games. It also has the typical 512MB of RAM to complement the speedy processor and a Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon chipset. And to top it all, the Galaxy W has a built in HDD of about 1.7 GB to store all those applications, games and multimedia content. The phone also comes with a micro SD card expansion slot in case the 1.7 GB of HDD space is not enough for you. Visuals. When placed side by side to the Samsung Galaxy Spica, it is evident that the W is almost identical when it comes to its overall dimensions. However, it’s good to note that the Galaxy W was able to optimize better on screen real estate as it packs a 3.7 in WVGA screen as opposed to the Spica’s 3.2 inch screen. Its screen resolution is at 480x800 pixels and the pixel density is around 252 pixels per inch with around 16 million colours. In general, the screen of the Galaxy W provides images that are crisp, bright and clear; and for the untrained eye, it wouldn’t be too easy to see the difference between the Galaxy W’s display and those AMOLED or NOVA displays from other models.

Camera App

The Galaxy W features one 5MP camera at the back with autofocus and LED flash and one front facing VGA camera for video calls and taking self-portraits. The camera app is customized by Samsung and features photo effects for photo addicts. Within the camera app, users will be able to choose scenes or settings for portrait mode, landscape, night, sports and even fireworks mode.  Users can also choose three basic photo effects such as negative, grayscale and sepia. Other camera features also include the ability to change the ISO settings, exposure value, timer, resolution, white balance, GPS tagging, enabling and disabling the flash and controlling white balance. And if that’s not enough, the phone also come with a separate more comprehensive photo editing app that features additional photo effects like lens blur, ghost effects, speed line effects, color saturation & contrast, warping, image rotating and cropping. Audio. Call quality is okay with the W. During the first 7 days that I tested the device, I didn’t experience any dropped calls or choppy phone conversations, although pumping the volume up while on a call can decrease sound quality and clarity. The loudspeaker is average, but since it is located at the back of the device, users should turn the phone with the back side up in order to hear the sounds come out properly, otherwise it’s all muffled. If the truth should be told, the Galaxy W is not a multimedia powerhouse in contrast to the HTC Sensation XE that we saw a few weeks back. But the good thing is that it’s not too far behind. Even though it doesn’t have the premium Beats audio headset that the HTC has, it makes up through an audio improvement software. The W sports an audio equalizer with customizable settings as well as a dedicated menu for sound effects that will help enhance a user’s audio experience. The music player also packs a 5.1 channel surround sound feature, although this only works if the headset is connected. It also comes with a radio receiver with RDS if you’re getting bored with your playlist and want to get some fresh music into your ears.


The Standard Android Stuff. The Galaxy W runs the latest version of gingerbread. And as such, it comes with the typical bells and whistles that an android phone has. It has the latest version of the android market, the latest version of Gmail, the android mobile browser, Google Maps, gallery app, Google Talk, Voice search and the most up to date version of Youtube for android. Other than that, everything else is just from Samsung or from third party sources.


User interface. Just like any other major cell phone manufacturer in the industry, Samsung has come up with their flavour on top of the standard vanilla interface by android and it’s called Touchwiz. Since the early years of android, Samsung was one of the first to add a skin overlay to the default android UI, and in recent years, Touchwiz has gone through some major upgrades. It is currently on its fourth reincarnation and adds a few more on the plate other than a custom launcher and a bunch of Samsung branded widgets. For starters, a great number of apps have been skinned and revamped to match the general look and feel of Touchwiz. The calendar app for example took a few hints from the calendar app of iOS. You now can’t use kinetic scrolling to flip through calendar months but instead you use arrows to move through the list. The phonebook and dialler app on the other hand took some features of from Samsung’s own Bada OS with the addition of a few more tabs and the left and right swipe gesture actions for messaging and making calls. Aside from skinned apps, Touchwiz also brings forth specialized apps that are exclusively available to Samsung android phones. These include Samsung’s game hub which is an application that aggregates all available game apps that are compatible with the phone. The game hub is segregated into two different tabs. The first tab displays all social games that are compatible with the Galaxy W while the second tab lists all games that come from major gaming app developers such as Gameloft, EA games, Glu and GMO. There's also a social hub that aggregates all your social feeds into one app. These include all your Facebook and twitter feeds. A task manager is also included that allows users to terminate apps that are resource intensive. There’s even a Samsung market app where you can buy special apps developed by Samsung software engineers and developers. But of all the specialized Touchwiz 4 apps that come preinstalled on the device, the most useful by far would be Kies air. Kies air is a special app that allows for the wireless transfer of files and content through a wi-fi network.

Homescreen, App Drawer and Lock screen

The process of adding desktop widgets was also changed. Widgets are now shown in a horizontal configuration in contrast to a vertical list in most android devices. Moreover, widgets are now represented by icons that move in a wave like manner on a 3D carousel. You can again resize widgets once they are placed on the desktop. Users can also move them around by dragging and dropping the widgets around the screen or across different panels; and just like LG’s Optimus UI, there are markers to tell you the amount of space a particular widget will take on your desktop. The only complain I had about this new widget interface menu is that you won’t be able to see the available widget sizes on a particular app. So, you might have to guess which apps will have widgets with different sizes by doing some trial and error. Users will now also have the option of customizing their lock screen on a slightly higher level than most basic android devices. Users are now allowed to have a different lock screen wallpaper and desktop wallpaper. The W also uses a different unlocking feature than most Samsung droids. Instead of having a sliding tab at the bottom of the screen, or a puzzle piece for device unlocking, users can now just touch the screen and drag the circle in any direction to unlock the device (looks similar to ICS lock screen). This new lock screen is visually pleasing but can sometimes be annoying especially when you’re trying to take your phone out of your pocket and you accidentally touched the screen causing it to unlock prematurely. Lastly, there’s the Samsung keyboard. The W doesn’t have the standard android gingerbread keyboard that comes with the operating system. But rather, it has Samsung’s own keypad app. It looks very similar to the default android keyboard but with extra features. In general, the Samsung keyboard is easy to use but is a little bit smaller than what I had in mind. There’s also no haptic feedback when pressing the keys. There’s also SWYPE keyboard that’s already installed but unless the language that you are using is supported by SWYPE, you would still need to manually add the words that you most frequently use to its dictionary before you can maximize the use of the swipe input method.

Default Keyboards

Software Updates.  The Galaxy W currently runs Android 2.3.6 which is the latest version for gingerbread. As of the moment, Samsung has yet to announce if this device would get a taste of Android 4.0 better known as ice cream sandwich (ICS). Currently, the only Samsung devices that are scheduled to get the update are the Galaxy Nexus, the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tablets. There are, however, alternatives if you’re really desperate on getting those much needed software updates. If you’re feeling brave and don’t mind losing the phone warranty, rooting and installing a custom ROM will allow you to get unofficial software updates from developers. A popular destination for custom firmware downloads would be the XDA developers’ forum. There are already several CFW’s for the Galaxy W available for download on the site which brings about improvements in the overall performance of the device. Some of which are promising reduced memory usage, overclocked CPU’s and improved graphics.

Sample Benchmark scores

Benchmark Tests. Being the capable device that it is, the Galaxy wonder performed well on benchmark tests. For this review, I used quadrant and antutu scores to have some numerical values to represent its processing and graphics rendering prowess. On the average, the Galaxy W scored around 1,420 on quadrant which places it just below the Galaxy Nexus but better than the Nexus S. Antutu scores on the other hand are on the average at 3,603 which is a higher than the Samsung Nexus S but is lower than the HTC Evo 3D.


Final Words. The Samsung i8150 Galaxy W is placed right in the middle of Samsung’s entire Galaxy line. It is positioned as a high tier device above the entry level Galaxy Y and the mid-range Galaxy M; and positioned just below the premium phones of the R and S series. It is intended to cater to advanced smartphone users who are in need of a capable device for their busy and mobile lifestyle. These users need a phone that can act as a substitute for their laptops and tablets, to help them view documents and business files on the go as well as provide them with enough entertainment in terms of music, video and games. With a price tag of around 16,500-18,500PHP, the Galaxy W can be a very good contender for most people. If you’re the kind of user that puts computing and processing power as a top priority, I’m sure you’ll be more than happy with this device.  However, if you’re looking for a more budget friendly phone that offers a slightly slower CPU, you might want to check out offerings from Sony like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray which is around 3000PHP cheaper or the Xperia NEO V which is around 4,000PHP less than the W.


Special thanks to Hardwarezone for the Samsung Galaxy W unit.


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