A few months ago, I decided I needed a change in my cell carrier. I switched from one of the major carriers to a smaller one called Metro PCS. Since I was changing carriers, I decided it was time to upgrade my phone as well and ended up picking their newest Android offering, the Samsung Galaxy Indulge. Now, a full 60 days later, I feel I’ve gotten acquainted well enough with it to give an in depth opinion.
In short, I love my phone.
First off, let’s start with the screen. It’s screen is slightly bigger than most other phones at 3.5 inches, and the extra space is a godsend when reading web pages or e-books. It’s high-def display is nice and bright without being a battery hog, even though it isn’t the AMOLED variety found in some of the newer Samsung offerings. I find the touchscreen is extremely responsive, even with my chubby digits.
The Indulge also comes equipped with a full slide-out back-lit qwerty keyboard, which is MUCH easier to use than the smaller on-screen keypads. The four navigation keys on the face of the phone are also well placed and easy to differentiate by touch. My only quibble about those is that they aren’t also back-lit.
The Indulge comes equipped with the Android 2.2 OS, which allows it to run all the newest Android apps, and it’s quite stable. I’ve only had the system lockup on me twice, and the thing is almost never turned off. The browser easily connects to wi-fi networks, and even when not on wi-fi downloads web pages, apps, and files with impressive 4G speeds. It made my 3G blackberry look like molasses by comparison. Add in ridiculously easy voice commands which allow me to search the web by speaking to my phone, and I feel like I’ve got a web power-house.
The battery life is also better than I expected after hearing horror stories about the battery life of other phones. Standby time is 2-3 days, and I easily have 5-8 hours of talk time or app use. It’s really easy to turn off or tweak some of the more power hungry features, such as turning off the GPS or dimming the screen. If I find I want to pull a marathon session with my favorite e-book and don’t have a power outlet handy, turning on airplane mode (which disables access to the cellular and GPS networks) substantially increases battery life also.
The one thing I would change about this phone though is the camera. I dig digital photography, and was excited about having a high-def camera built into my phone. For the most part, it’s been great, except for one thing. It doesn’t have a flash. I assume this was for power saving reasons, but this definitely isn’t the phone for serious camera nerds.
Last but not least, the phone came with a 4GB SD memory card installed which came preloaded with Ironman 2. I bought a second one, but with my habit of transferring my photos to my PC via the provided USB cable, I haven’t needed the extra space.
All in all, I am quite content with both my phone and my new carrier. The Samsung Galaxy Indulge isn’t perfect, but it’s earned my admiration none the less, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone in need of an upgrade.