Galaxy Discover leaps to Cricket (hands-on)
Though already available through other prepaid retailers, the Samsung Galaxy Discover makes its way onto Cricket Wireless.
LAS VEGAS -- Although already available through other carriers like Net10 and Straight Talk, the Samsung Galaxy Discover will be available on Cricket Wireless starting this summer.
The news was made official during a press conference today during CTIA. The carrier also announced that it will release the Samsung Admire 2 in the summer, as well as the Galaxy S4 on June 7.
Though Cricket did not release final pricing, the Galaxy Discover currently retails for about $100.
Design
Compact and sturdy at 4.4 ounces, the 3.5-inch Galaxy Discover is a small entry-level device that measures 4.59 inches tall, 2.42 inches wide, and 0.45 inch thick. Its HVGA display has a 320x480-pixel resolution, and below it are three keys for menu, home, and back.
Its bezel is all black and it has a deep chin, but the battery door is stylized with a brushed metallic look that gives the Discover a slight aesthetic edge over other low-end handsets from Cricket.
Though there is no front-facing camera, you'll find a 3-megapixel camera on the back. Unfortunately, there is no flash for taking photos in dim settings. To the right of the lens are two small slits for the speaker.
Features
The smartphone is powered by an 800MHz single-core processor, which isn't very powerful, but will most likely provide enough of what you need to carry out various handset tasks. Users will also get a 1,300mAh battery, which has a reported talk time of 8.5 hours and a stand-by time of 11 days.
As for software, the Discover ships with a rather untouched version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (good news for those who don't like Samsung's TouchWiz UI). A few Cricket applications include its own brand of navigation and Muve Music, the carrier's music subscription service.
Additional features include Bluetooth, 4GB of internal memory, 512MB of RAM, and a storage capacity expandable up to 32GB.
Outlook
While the Galaxy Discover seemed like a decent phone during my brief time with it, Cricket's recent announcement that it will also carry the Admire 2 is way more exciting. Anticipating that there will be about a $50 price difference between the two, users who are interested in a starter Samsung handset on Cricket should be more interested in the Admire 2. Not only does it boast better specs (a 5-megapixel camera and bigger screen, for example), it also runs the more recent Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS.
Check back with CNET for all the news unfolding from this week's CTIA 2013 show.