Entry-level Samsung Galaxy Ring ain't no thing (pictures)

It isn't fancy, but for $150 off-contract, the Samsung Galaxy Ring is a fairly attractive and compact Android 4.1 Jelly Bean smartphone.

At first glance, the Ring looks alarmingly like a slew of other Samsung phones of this size, down to the compact size, round shape, and shiny surfaces.

Nearing half an inch thick, the Ring can feel a little snug in pockets.

You can really see the Ring's solidness from this vantage point.

Samsung's 5-megapixel camera is typically quite good. That isn't the case with the Ring, which consistently churned out dull-looking shots.

Slower shot-to-shot times aren't a surprise on dual-core phones like this, but it did take longer to open the native camera app with the dedicated convenience key than it was to use the onscreen icon.

The microSD card slot holds up to 64GB in external storage. You'll probably need at least a little: there's only 4GB of total space inside.

One thing going for the Ring, apart from the low price, is the handset's call quality, which was solid in my San Francisco tests.