Samsung S5230 Star review: Hot starlet

Gsmarena have posted a review of the Samsung S5230. Here are the phone's main features, main disadvantages and final impression.

Samsung S5230 main features:
- GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS/EDGE class 12
- Dimensions: 104.0 x 53.0 x 11.9 mm, 93.5 g
- 3" resistive TFT touchscreen, WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels)
- 50MB onboard storage, microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
- 3 megapixel fixed focus camera with smile detection
- Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB v.2.0
- Document viewer
- Smart unlock
- Accelerometer sensor
- FM radio with RDS
- DNSe
- Find Music recognition service
- 1000 mAh battery, up to 800 h of standby

Main disadvantages:
- No 3G
- Proprietary connectivity port
- Slightly more expensive than the LG KP500 Cookie
- No way to directly switch between running apps
- The camera is quite basic - uninspiring picture quality, no autofocus or flash
- Non-hot-swappable microSD slot

A couple of days ago Samsung announced they're selling a million Stars a month and expect sales to reach a total of 10 million units by the end of the year. To some it might sound too ambitious, but considering the nice touchscreen package and the low street price (below 200 euro), those projections are beginning to look more and more achievable.

You're free to feel whatever you like about statistics but users have the last word and that's that. In fact, there really isn't much to complain about at that price point. The design is passable, the screen just fine and the feature pack is good enough. And when it comes to competition, there aren't many devices like this out there (though expect that to change in the near future).

The only direct competitor is the well known LG KP500 Cookie. The compatriot rival sports similar features, looks cooler and costs way lower. However, it's only a matter of time for the price of the Star to drop to that level and for the choice to become hard again.

In a month or two there will be one more handset to try and snatch part of the Star's market share. Of course, we are talking about one of the latest XpressMusic devices - the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. Its price tag is heftier but the extra cash gets you Symbian OS, Wi-Fi support, a 3-megapixel autofocus shooter and solid music pedigree.

To wrap it all up, the Star is cruising towards platinum sales. That it takes a Symbian smartphone to put the brakes is nothing short of a compliment. The price bracket does not imply anything overwhelmingly impressive but as long as that sales meter is ticking the starlet is very well on track.