Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro: The power of four

Pros

* Attractively priced

* Dual-SIM

* Powerful processor

* Decent battery life

Cons

* Poor front camera (VGA)

* Mediocre rear camera (5-MP)

* No HD video recording

* Slight lag during wake up

In Italian,“quattro” means “four”. The word has been made famous globally by Audi,the German luxury car-maker,which uses the name to indicate its all-wheel drive technology. So,when I got a “quattro” phone for review,I was curious what might be the connection with “four”.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro has a 4.7-inch

capacitive touch-screen display at a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and 198-ppi (pixels per inch) density. Dimensions of 133.3 mm (height),70.7 mm (width) and 9.65 mm (thickness) mean the phone is good to hold and can be operated without using both hands,unlike many other smartphones in the market where,while holding the phone in your right hand,your thumb doesn’t always reach all the touch-points on the phone. A weight of 143.9 gm means that it is quite light too. Almost similar in design to the Galaxy series,the Quattro has curved corners and chrome finish. What differentiates Quattro from many other Samsung phones is that it runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 8652Q processor (1.2 GHz Quad-Core),which gives the Quattro better performance than many other smartphones in this category.

A dual-SIM phone that features micro-SIM slots,a point which needs mention is that,on the Quattro,you don’t need

to reboot when switching

between SIM cards—in fact,you can even surf on one SIM while still receive phone calls on the other SIM.

As far as camera is concerned,while on the front you have a VGA camera,there is a 5-megapixel camera at the rear. Although you get to enjoy features such as “continuous shot”,“best photo”,“colour effect” and “scene mode” for enhanced photo-taking on the 5-MP camera,the results are not really encouraging,at least when compared to a few other phones in the segment. As far as videos are concerned,while the 198-ppi screen gives you decent visuals,it is the earphones with earbuds that work towards reducing external noise,thereby enhancing your video-watching experience.

The Quattro comes with a 2,000 mAh battery that lasts for more than a day even after

you have used the camera,seen a movie,listened to music,

taken more than a dozen calls and browsed a little. Then you also have a power saving mode that improves the battery life to an extent. At R16,900,the Quattro is a nice dual-SIM offering from Samsung.