Samsung S5260 Star II review: In the making

Introduction

You must remember this one – maybe not by face but certainly by name. The Samsung S5260 Star II has some big shoes to fill: over 10 million units sold propelled the predecessor to Stardom. The original Samsung Star was one of the most popular handsets in the early days of affordable touch phones. For the sequel, the count-up to 10 million has begun but this time around customers are harder to please.

Samsung S5260 Star II official photos

Maybe this is part of the reason why it took Samsung over two years to release the Star II. An upgrade is certainly in order and it’d better be worth it. Here’s what the Star II is bringing to the table in short:

Key features

• GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS/EDGE class 12
• Dimensions: 107.5 x 54 x 12.4 mm, 94 g
• 3" capacitive TFT touchscreen, WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels)
• TouchWiz 3.0 UI
• 30MB onboard storage
• Hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 3 megapixel fixed focus camera with smile detection
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
• microUSB v2.0
• Document viewer
• Smart unlock
• Smart dialing
• Accelerometer sensor
• FM radio with RDS
• DNSe
• SNS integration
• Find Music recognition service
• Great battery life
• SMS spam filtering
• Decent audio quality

Main disadvantages

• No 3G
• Low-res display
• Basic fixed-focus camera with no flash
• Poor video recording – QVGA@15fps
• Poor web browser
• Laggy user interface

The changes aren’t too many but they should be significant enough for an entry-level handset. Does anyone really expect miracles from a €100 phone – 1080p video recording and big AMOLED screens are reserved for the expensive devices.

The Samsung S5260 Star II at ours

What the Samsung S5260 Star II should try and deliver is decent telephony, sleek design, long-lasting battery and the occasional bonus feature. A game or two would also be nice, but probably not mandatory – gaming has long since become a smartphone territory.

So let’s see how the new Star fits the bill. Join us after the break.