Samsung S5690 Galaxy Xcover preview: First look
The Samsung S5690 Galaxy Xcover brings a touch of class and authority to a lineup of durable dumb phones for the outdoor enthusiasts. It’s arguable whether it can take as much bashing as its less sophisticated siblings, but this rugged smartphone is trying to combine the best of both worlds.
The Galaxy Xcover is Samsung’s response to Motorola, who are building their own squad of tough droids, with a 1GHz Gingerbread-powered update of their Defy due for imminent release. The Defy+ could be too strong a rival, but the rugged credentials will certainly help the Galaxy Xcover stand out in the crowded smartphone midrange.
It's an IP67 certified droid, meaning it can be immersed in one meter of water and last there half an hour, on top of being dust-proof an shock-resistant. Ruggedness aside, it offers a 3.2" HVGA display with tempered Gorilla Glass for maximum protection and durability. It does well to meet, and exceed, the minimum smartphone requirements with solid connectivity, the latest of Android and reasonably fast processing.
Samsung S5690 Galaxy Xcover at a glance:
- General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
- Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
- Dimensions: 122 x 66 x 12 mm, 116 g
- Display: 3.65" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass scratch-resistant display, 320 x 480 pixels resolution
- CPU: Marvell MG2 800 MHz processor, 512MB RAM
- Memory: 150MB storage, microSD card slot
- OS: Android OS, v2.3.4 Gingerbread
- Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with geotagging; VGA video recording
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, stereo Bluetooth 3.0, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
- Misc: TouchWiz 3.0 UI, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, Swype input, IP67 certified: dust and water resistant
The Samsung S5690 Galaxy Xcover runs Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, with the home-baked TouchWiz skin on top. It does look the rugged phone part, ribbed sides and grippy rear with a massive lock screw to keep the battery cover in place.
It's the perfect fit if you want to buy a smartphone with a distinct outdoorsy feel. It's no Galaxy S II and it shows. The display isn't as crisp and the hardware just knows it should keep out of the fast lane with dual-cores in the rear-view mirror. At least it’s a phone that doesn’t mind a bumpy ride down the dirt road.Design and construction
A 3.7-incher of reinforced exterior, the Galaxy Xcover is by no means a compact handset at 122 x 66 x 12 mm. It’s reasonably slim and weighs only 116 g, thanks to its body being all-plastic body.
The Galaxy Xcover has a traditional touchscreen bar design and offers good grip due to the special cuts at the sides and the rubbery finish.
The 3.65" HVGA (320x480) 16M-color capacitive touchscreen is multi-touch enabled and has a toughened Gorilla Glass up front for maximum scratch-resistance. The screen quality is questionable, with a dim and watery look. Brightness is below par and colors look dull and washed out. It's very responsive though.
Above the display, there’s a proximity sensor to disable the screen during calls and what appears to be an ambient light sensor. Our unit didn't have auto screen brightness enabled but that could be due to its pre-market status. We can't confirm or deny an ambient light sensor at this point.
Below the display there are three hardware buttons:- Menu, Home and Back. They are slightly raised and should be specially designed to be water tight.
The right side of the phone has those grip-enhancing cuts in the rubberized plastic. There is a single control on this side: the power/lock button. It is reasonably big and has a good press.The left side of the phone is where the volume rocker is. There's an etched flashlight icon suggesting you can use the LED flash at the back as a torch but our unit didn’t have this feature enabled. This side of the phone is ribbed too.
The top of the device is where the 3.5mm headphone jack is. It's covered by a plastic lid, which however doesn't seem to fit tight enough, raising doubts about the level of waterproofing. But we guess that will only be an issue with this pre-production unit.
The MicroUSB port is placed at the bottom of the Galaxy Xcover and is too covered with a plastic lid.The patterned back panel has a special lock at the bottom to keep it tightly in place. The rough texture gives a good grip. There are four tiny cushions in each corner on which the phone rests when placed flat on its back. The camera lens and LED flash are located at the top of the panel and there's the grill of a very powerful loudspeaker on the right.
Removing the back cover is no easy task (and it shouldn’t be). Afte you manage the task, you get to the 1500mAh Li-Ion battery, the MicroSD card slot and the SIM compartment. We couldn't do a dedicated battery test, which was going to be inconclusive anyway with a pre-release unit. Details on the battery life will have to wait for a proper review of the Galaxy Xcover.
The Galaxy Xcover has good sturdy build and feels very comfortable in the hand. The rubberized finish on the sides of the phone minimizes the plastic feel and enhances the grip. And you won't have to worry about fingerprints, except on the screen, as there are no glossy bits. The Gorilla Glass display also inspires confidence and you won’t probably need additional protection.
We did set out to do some stress testing on the Galaxy Xcover as we were eager to check out the level of proofing it offers. Sadly, our tests ended very shortly. Our pre-market sample wasn't obviously fully prepared to take more than a couple of hits.
Drops from half a meter onto solid ground didn’t scare it at all, but a dip in a glass of water was the end of it. So, at this point the whole IP67 certification doesn’t hold water. The Galaxy Xcover does, but well… in the wrong way. Let’s hope the final release version of the phone will have better luck.
Anyway, let’s see what the smartphone has to offer.
The Xcover runs Android just fine
Our Samsung Galaxy Xcover is a pre-release unit and some of its features were a no-show. Good for us we did all the testing before we drowned the phone.
The Galaxy Xcover runs on Android 2.3.4 and has the customized Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 UI. There’s nothing really new on the Galaxy Xcover compared to other Galaxy smartphones. We were at least expecting some relevant apps like an altimeter or a compass but there’s nothing of the sort at this point.
The homescreen fits up to 7 panes, which can be managed quite easily. A pinch zoom on screen takes you to edit mode where you can add, remove and rearrange the panes as you see fit. The notification area has quick settings for Wi-Fi, auto screen rotation and more.
The main menu holds no surprises either. It’s side-scrollable, with a 4 x 4 grid of icons on each page, the four docked icons at the bottom visible at all times. You can also opt for a list view. Rearranging apps is very easy too – in edit mode just drag an icon where you want it placed.
The whole UI feels responsive and is made for comfortable use. Everything you’d need is conveniently placed where it should logically be and you won’t have much trouble getting used to Android even if you’re a novice user.
Image gallery
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover uses the standard Android image gallery. It has good functionality, cool 3D looks and nice transition effects, but only shows a downsized version of your images.
Images and videos placed in different folders appear in different sub-galleries that automatically get the name of the folder, which is very convenient - just like a file manager.
The different albums appear as piles of photos, which fall in neat grids once selected. If you have online albums over at Picasa those show up as separate stacks as well.
Alternatively, you can organize photos by date with the help of a button in the top right corner, which switches between grid and timeline view.
In grid view, there’s a date scrubber, which can also be used to find photos taken on a certain date.
If you are checking out a photo, you can use the tabs at the top of the screen to jump back to the main gallery screen, without having to go several folders back.
Music & video players
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover uses the TouchWiz music player, which is great. The interface consists of several tabs for the sorting options: current playlist, all tracks, playlists and albums, artists and composers. You are free to remove the unneeded ones to make the interface easier to navigate.
In addition, equalizer presets are enabled, along with Samsung’s DNSe technology.
You can quickly look up a song on YouTube or via Google search too. The handset prompts you to choose whether to look up the artist, the song title or the album. What’s even better, the YouTube search results are loaded straight into the YouTube client.
Camera is only 3MP
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, for maximum image resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. This is not a camera-centric phone and it shows in the samples below. It produces images with very low detail and poor contrast.
The camera features are limited to geotagging and the added LED flash so you could take an occasional night snapshot.
Here are the samples we were able to take with the pre-release Xcover. Mind you, Samsung could improve on its performance once the final unit is out.
As far as video recording is concerned, the Galaxy Xcover is a typical mid-range device. It will only do videos up to VGA resolution and there’s nothing much to brag about.
And here's an untouched VGA video sample for direct download. The video quality isn't impressive - colors are washed out, with very low amount of fine detail and videos don’t run smooth enough.
Connectivity
The Galaxy Xcover takes connectivity a lot more seriously. It’s a worldwide ready phone with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSPA with download rates of up to 7.2 Mbps and 5.76 Mbps of upload.
It additionally offers Wi-Fi (b/g/n), stereo Bluetooth v3.0 and USB v2.0. The USB interface is standard microUSB, which makes finding a suitable cable a lot easier.
The amount of in-built storage memory is a measly 150MB but combined with the added support for microSD cards of up to 32GB you’re all covered. The slot is under the battery cover however.
A standard 3.5mm headphone jack completes the tally. You can keep your favorite headphones and use them with the Galaxy Xcover hassle-free.
Web browser
The important thing to mention here is that the Galaxy Xcover lacks Adobe Flash support but this could change before the phone is released. Still, we’re not really sure its exotic CPU is on the Adobe Flash support list.
With a page fully loaded, all you see is the URL bar and the bookmark button on a line at the top of the screen. Once you zoom in and pan around even that line disappears (scroll to the top or press menu to bring it back).
The minimalist UI is quite powerful – hit the menu key and six keys pop up. You can open a new tab, switch tabs, refresh the page, go forward, and open bookmarks. The final button reveals even more options (text copying, find on page, etc.).
The bookmark list shows a thumbnail of the bookmarked page and you also get a “most visited” list in addition to the history.
We have to admit that surfing the mobile web on the Galaxy Xcover isn’t the best thing. Yes, it has a big enough screen but just not crisp enough.
Apps
The lack of relevant outdoor apps aside, the Galaxy Xcover offers the must-have apps to spare you a visit to the Android Market.
Naturally, there’s the calendar, calculator and more basic apps. But you also get a file manager, courtesy of Samsung, which works great and is very simple to use. You can also find the well-familiar by now Notes application, which is a part of the TouchWiz experience.
First impressions
The combination of rugged exterior and smartphone prowess is not unheard of. It can be traced all the way back to the glory days of Nokia and Symbian. But putting contemporary skill and features in a rugged touchscreen shell is an entirely different story. The Samsung Galaxy Xcover is trying to fill vastly different shoes and pays the price.
The Galaxy Xcover is a phone based on compromise. The display loses quality points because it's durable, the camera is poor to keep the price down, the design has its ups and downs too. To make it worse, the major competition is closing a lap on it with not one but two rugged droids offering superior features.
With the Motorola Defy pair in mind, Samsung will probably position the Galaxy Xcover at the lower end of the midrange. That’s where compromises are easier to live with. And what it has in its favor is the solid connectivity set and good all-round user experience with the latest version of Android and TouchWiz.
We'll be waiting for a final version to be able to cover more ground in detail. And we certainly hope this rugged droid will come good. This is still a pre-release unit and many things didn't work properly, not to mention our stress test was a bust. We'll keep you posted.
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