Introduction and Key Specifications:
As per our convention we start our Galaxy S Blaze 4G review with an introduction . Galaxy S Blaze 4G is available on T-Mobile at a retail price of $200 with contract ( with a $50 mail in rebate ). This high price will essentially draw comparisons with premium phones like HTC One S and Samsung Galaxy S II. Galaxy S Blaze 4G has a beautiful build quality which surely gives a sense a premium phone in hand. It comes with a dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor and Adreno 22o GPU. These are the same key specifications that power Galaxy S II. It supports T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network which boasts speeds of upto 42 Mbps. It has suppport for HSPA/UMTS frequency bands of 2100/1900/1700/850MHz. It also comes with a legacy support for GSM/EDGE frequency bands of 1900/1800/900/850MHz. The phone has following other important specifications:
- 4-inch Super AMOLED display screen
- 5MP LED flash camera at rear
- Front facing camera of 1.3MP
- A 1,750mAH battery
- 1GB RAM
- 4GB built in storage
- and a microSD card of 4GB comes with it.
- WiFi , blue tooth 3.0 and NFC
- WiFi voice calls
- USB tethering and Mobile hotspot support
During Galaxy S Blaze 4G review tests , it was observed that is is not a very ergonomically designed handset and using in one hand is not easy. It has a thickness of 11mm and weight of around 127g (4.5 ounces).
Display :
The 4 inch Super AMOLED screen is very much a standard and provides beautiful colors and contrast with excellent viewing angles. You can also easily work in sunlight on Galaxy S Blaze 4G. Text sometimes appears subtly blurred due to PenTile matrix which is known to be unsuitable for text. However, with the price tag attached, Samsung should have shipped this phone with Super AMOLED Plus display.
Processing Speed ,Battery and Call Quality:
Our Galaxy S Blaze 4G review now focuses on speed, performance and battery life. In plain terms it is a fast phone. With a Quadrant bechmark score of 3,600 it fared way better than Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II. Apps opened very fast . Animations were trouble free and browser behaved smooth. During Galaxy S Blaze 4G review , it averaged a download speed of 17Mbps and upload speed of 3Mbps.
Battery life is the most impressive quality of Blaze 4G. The battery survived a hefty 52 hours under moderate use. With reasonably heavy usage it still lasted for reasonable 34 hours. This battery life is extremely good in comparison with competing Android phones.
During tests , the phone offered excellent voice quality for incoming as well as outgoing calls. All calls featured no distortion and excellent volume.
Camera:
The 5MP rear camera captures excellent images with satisfying detail and color depth. The camera also shoots 720p quality video which is of the quality expected but the video mode does not offer any focus controls. The closeup videos were not of any good quality.
Software:
The worst part of this Galaxy S Blaze 4G review is the software. The phone comes with Android 2.3.6 alongwith Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz user interface. But huge home screen customizations by T Mobile have made it a bloated software offering. Most of the apps added by T Mobile are a poor attempt to trick users into subscribing to different services. These apps are very annoying and offensive and ruin the original Android experience. The fact that the phone does not come with Ice Cream Sandwich is also a negative point. Though it is heard that an update may come later on.
Pros:
- Super performance
- Excellent battery life
- aesthetically designed
- Excellent call quality
Cons:
- Overpriced
- Annoying and Irritating bundled software
Recommendation:
All in all , our Galaxy S Blaze 4G review concludes that the phone is a super performer with admirable battery life , call quality , network speed and management , and beautiful appearance and make. However, it just does not cross the line to go to the valley of greatness. With the high price tag attached, it deserved a better display and an 8MP camera.
Full detailed specifications can be found here.
