X

Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo brings budget Jelly Bean in May

Two new entry-level phones won't leave your wallet looking for an exit: the Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo and Samsung Galaxy Star.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Samsung has taken the wraps off two new low-end phones that won't leave your wallet looking for an exit: the Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo and the Samsung Galaxy Star.

Both phones sport a 3-inch screen with 320x240-pixel resolution, backed by a 1,200mAh battery. They both have a 2-megapixel camera and 4GB of storage to store your photos, music and movies. Like many Samsung entry-level phones -- such as the identical Galaxy Fame and Galaxy Young -- they're virtually indistinguishable to look at. The Neo is a millimetre smaller all around, if the tightness of your trousers is the thing that dictates which cheap Android phone you want.

They both pack Android 4.1 Jelly Bean software, which is close enough to being the latest version of Google's software for mobile phones and tablets. That means you can personalise the phones with your own choices of apps and games, although at this price you're not buying a huge amount of oomph to get behind more intense games, apps and videos.

On that subject, the Star has a 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM. The chips are the main difference between the two phones: the Neo may be the one, but with a 850MHz processor and 512MB of RAM, it hasn't exactly got guns, never mind lots of guns.

The two phones also sport dual-SIM slots so they can have two numbers in one phones -- one for work and one for personal, perhaps, or one for the wife and one for the mistress. Dual-SIM is bigger in the developing world and rare over here, so we may not see two-SIM versions in the UK.

Update: The Pocket Neo is coming to the UK in mid-May. Price is yet to be confirmed. There's no word on the Star coming here though. 

Are you impressed by the Star and Pocket Neo? Has Samsung got the budget Android market sewn up? Tell us in the comments or on our Facebook page.

This story was updated on 11 April with UK availability.