Super Clear! (Samsung Galaxy SL i9003 late review)

It's simply the tone downed version of the Samsung Galaxy S.

More than a year ago, Samsung released the Galaxy SL i9003 Super Clear LCD. It looks identical with the original Galaxy S, the difference is barely noticeable.

The Galaxy SL is just a little bit thicker than the Galaxy S. It retains the major aesthetics of what Apple claims to be an "iPhone-ish" design of the Galaxy S and yes, its body can be messy at times because it's fingerprint magnet.

The hardware of i9003 is where a different story can be told. It runs on a less powerful 1 GHz Cortex-A8, TI OMAP 3630 chipset with a PowerVR SGX530 GPU. On a day-to-day basis, the performance of its 1ghz CPU is almost the same with what other CPUs at the same clock speed can offer.

The 4-inch display was retained save for the Super Clear LCD (SLCD) technology which is somehow inferior to the Super Amoled of the Galaxy S. Some may disagree and would prefer SLCD over Super Amoled and vice versa, so it's also a matter of preference. But having gone both SLCD and Super Amoled, I would choose Super Amoled anytime.

i9003 has a 5 Megapixel rear camera with autofocus (unfortunately without LED flash) and shoots video up to 720p and a VGA front camera. It can take fantastic quality photos with natural lighting and can record a pretty good HD video.

The 1650 mAh battery of the Galaxy SL can certainly deliver. 4GB of internal storage is available while it can be expanded up to 32GB via MicroSD card slot.

The Android experience on Galaxy SL is nothing to write home about. Its last official firmware release is Gingerbread 2.3.6, but that doesn't  mean it lacks the good stuff that Android brings on the table. Its stock UI runs on TouchWiz Launcher that can still be heavily customized using other launchers, apps and widgets. Most applications available on Google Play are compatible with this device while Gingerbread is still one of the most rock stable and reliable Android version out there.

There are custom roms available for this device for those who want to experience Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or even 4.1 Jelly Bean. Custom roms usually come with bugs but it won't spoil the fun.

Samsung Galaxy SL i9003 is still available for brandnew and second hand purchases online.





Alternatives: LG Optimus Black, Samsung Galaxy S, Google Nexus S, Sony Xperia Neo L, HTC Desire C 




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