Hands-On: Samsung Galaxy Victory
Sep 20, 2012, 8:47 PM by Eric M. Zeman
Sprint's latest Samsung device is the Galaxy Victory. This $99 Android phone offers a lot for its low price, including 4G LTE, NFC, Google Wallet, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Here are our first impressions.
Sprint wants you to have an LTE 4G smartphone, and the Galaxy Victory from Samsung is its latest offering. The cute little Android smartphone fleshes out Sprint's range of LTE 4G devices, nicely slotting in the middle with its $99 price on a contract.
As with many of Sprint's devices, it is a slab-style device with a glossy finish. The plastics of the Victory feel very much like those of Samsung's Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2 — that is to say, slippery and sleek. Unlike those larger devices, the Victory is a bit on the chubby side. It has a thicker profile, but is shorter and narrower thanks to the 4-inch display.
The fit and finish of the Victory is fairly typical for a Samsung smartphone. It has a reasonably good feel to it, but you know it could be a bit less cheap-feeling and a bit tighter if Samsung hand tried a little harder. Rather than skin the Victory in black, it is mostly gray hues that stand out a bit from the pack.
In addition to the glossy plastics, the edges are rounded and smooth. This means the phone rests comfortably in the palm. It is compact enough that it is easy to grip, and also easy to slip in and out of pockets.
The Victory's display measures 4 inches across the diagonal. It has a fairly standard 800 x 480 pixel configuration, which means it looks pretty good, but falls short of today's best HD displays. I found it to be bright and usable, no doubt; it simply doesn't rate the highest marks possible.
Thankfully the Victory runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It was well matched by the dual-core 1.2GHz processor. Even laden down with a Sprint iD pack, it had no problems switching home screens or running multiple applications. It has a similar look and feel as Samsung's other recent, Android 4.0 devices in terms of the TouchWiz user interface. The icons, text, fonts, and such match the GS3 and GNote II, for example.
Some of the stand-out specs of the Victory are its NFC and compatibility with Google Wallet. Match those with the 5-megapixel camera, S Beam, AllShare, and other features, and the $99 price point starts to sound like a steal.
About the author, Eric M. Zeman:Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.
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