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Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G: A closer look (photos)

MetroPCS' first LTE phone in some time, the Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G Android smartphone offers a very decent set of features for a manageable price.

Jessica Dolcourt
Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
Jessica Dolcourt
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1 of 11 Josh Miller/CNET

Easy to Attain

The Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G, available in the next few weeks from MetroPCS, is a midrange Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone that manages to offer satisfying features while keeping costs at a reasonable $200 off-contract. Did I mention the Attain runs on the carrier's LTE network?
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2 of 11 Josh Miller/CNET

Pushing some buttons

The Galaxy Attain 4G has a nice, silvery design with something we haven't seen for a while--a quartet of physical navigation buttons below the display.
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3 of 11 Josh Miller/CNET

Cameras

The 3.2-megapixel rear-facing camera was surprisingly good outdoors, with autofocus and a flash as well. The front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera also did OK. Stick with this slideshow for test shots from the phone's camera.
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4 of 11 Josh Miller/CNET

Bottom view

The Micro-USB charger is on the bottom of the phone.
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5 of 11 Josh Miller/CNET

Snake eyes!

The power button (left) looks quite a lot like the 3.5mm headset jack (right).
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6 of 11 Josh Miller/CNET

Studio sesh

The Galaxy Attain's camera took a pretty blah shot of our studio scene. (All these camera photos have been resized, but are otherwise untouched.)
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7 of 11 Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

The lovely Lynn La

Ditto CNET's Miss Lynn La, whose skin tones are grayed out. The photo could also be more detailed (she did comment that the flash is extremely bright.)
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8 of 11 Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Outdoors win

The camera did much better outside in even lighting.
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9 of 11 Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Close up

Here's a close-up of a mural I shot with the Attain 4G.
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10 of 11 Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

People!

The details could pop more, but the skin tones are right in this outdoor shot.
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11 of 11 Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Colors

The camera phone did a good job of capturing color in this outdoor photo.

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