Samsung Galaxy Pro review

Samsung has capitalised on the success of its Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 by releasing a slew of phones bearing the Galaxy moniker, but the Pro is the first to include a full QWERTY keyboard. Aimed at business users, it also includes an Office file editor and Social Hub Premium, a social networking tool that aggregates your inboxes, contacts and calendars.

If you were expecting the Pro to exhibit the same build quality and features as the excellent Galaxy S2, you’ll be disappointed. Its 2.8in screen has a lowly 320×240 resolution, it’s powered by an 800MHz single-core processor, and its main camera has a 3.2-megapixel sensor, so this is no S2-with-a-keyboard.

The screen lacks the high resolutions of other small displays we’ve seen. It may be bright and colourful, but everything suffers from pixellation, with rough edges on icons and small text barely legible. The capacitive touchscreen is smooth and responsive, however.

Another important component of any business phone is the QWERTY keyboard. Once again the Pro disappoints. Compared to the best examples, the Pro’s is flimsy and confused. Its dark grey keys are slightly reflective, making the white lettering illegible at some angles, and the layout isn’t as intuitive as its competitors’. In addition, the keys’ surface is slippery and they aren’t raised enough or moulded to compensate. There was a worrying bubble in the centre of our phone’s keyboard where the keys didn’t seem to be firmly anchored in place.

The plastic casing at least keeps the weight down: at just over 100g it’s a real lightweight. Unfortunately, the same adjective can be applied to the phone’s features: the 800MHz processor isn’t particularly fast, and the 3.2-megapixel camera is outdated. While photos were colourful and relatively free of noise, the small sensor simply couldn’t pick up as much detail compared to the 5-megapixel sensors that are now standard on most other budget phones. Videos are captured at a tiny 320×240 resolution, so they aren’t really suitable for anything but throwaway Facebook uploads.

At least the battery life isn’t too bad: in our light-use test it lasted just under 24 hours, so you should be able to get a couple of days use out of it before having to recharge. Samsung claims to have packed the phone with business software, but the only useful addition is a copy of ThinkFree Office that lets you edit Office documents. Even this is offset by the low screen resolution: we wouldn’t want to edit anything using it. Samsung’s Social Hub is a poor attempt at social aggregation: instead of listing all your updates, emails and message in one inbox, it lists them separately, so it’s not much better than using the individual apps.

Most business users are prepared to shell out a bit more to get good build quality and useful business features, so the idea of a budget business phone doesn’t really make much sense. Samsung could have pulled it off if it wasn’t for the awful screen, which makes using the phone a frustrating experience. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Mini Pro has a much better specification and costs slightly more SIM-free, while business users may prefer to opt for a BlackBerry or Windows Phone that ties in better with their corporate IT systems.