Samsung Dart Review
By Rob Webber on October 27th, 2011
The design of the phone takes a rather diminutive form over the high-end smartphones on the market. As previously suggested, the design of the phone is aligned with its affordability. The design is similar to that seen on other Samsung smartphones but with a reduced screen size.
The phone measures 4.09 inches in height, 2.39 inches in width and is 0.48 inch deep. It weighs a total of 3.8 ounces. Its low weight reflects its plastic construction. This does give it a cheap feel, but is helped slightly by the matte textured surface. It is easy to hold and is compact enough to be comfortable when carrying and handling the phone.
If the phone’s sacrifices for affordability can be felt anywhere, it is with its relatively small 3.14 inch display. It also only supports a QVGA resolution of 240x320. This reduces the displays overall level of sharpness and clarity. Colors appear washed out in a lot of areas, lacking the added flair of other higher resolution smartphones. Still, the user will have no problems reading text or performing standard tasks. Simply put, it does enough to meet basic needs but lacks any other added attraction. With the screen being so small there is also an issue with the virtual keyboard taking up a large proportion of it, approximately half the screen.
The phone ships with Android 2.2 and the latest version of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz acts much like any other interface overlay, giving the phone a needed difference over phones that use Android’s stock interface. Luckily the TouchWiz interface is not that intrusive to your experience, allowing you to opt for which of its components you want to use.
As an Android phone it also comes with all of Google’s notable applications. This includes services for Gmail, Google Talk and Google voice control. In addition to Gmail for e-mail accessibility, the user has the option to retrieve Microsoft Exchange e-mails.
For connection options the phone comes capable of Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile hot spot support for up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices. The Dart is also capable of making calls over Wi-Fi with a Wi-Fi calling app. This doesn’t affect the minutes on your plan, making it a great way to make calls for those who spend a lot of time within Wi-Fi ready locations.
Powering the phone is a 600MHz processor. This delivers generally consistent performance, but can suffer delay when handling the more strenuous applications. Generally though, for a processor of its calibre it performs incredibly well. Mounted within the phone is a 3-megapixel camera. The camera sadly lacks LED flash but does produce images of an average to good quality.
