Review: Odyssey Ativ Samsung Windows Phone 8 is on a budget
Samsung Ativ Odyssey, a new mid-range phone with Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is not entirely free-with-contract, but as of this writing, you can buy a two-year Verizon Wireless for only 9 $ 99 Obviously, the things compared with more high-end Windows phones like HTC 8X Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung or own Ativ given S, but cheap for those who enter the smartphone (or Windows Phone). How does game stack up?
Body and building quality
The build quality of the Odyssey is not bad, but certainly not premium, like many other Samsung phones, the body is all plastic, and plastic with chrome trim and a dark gray back, stroked imitation metal. If you are accustomed with the Galaxy line of the company, the phone is much smaller than the S II or III of the note, but is instantly recognizable as a parent of two phones.The flexible plastic is a phone that slides around easily, in contrast to the texture of lightly adhering phones like the HTC Windows Phone 8X or Z10 or own BlackBerry phones latest Samsung Galaxy Nexus certainly feel a little more stable in the hand. Bent back, 0.43 "thick and 4.4 ounces weight added to a phone that feels keeping your small screen 4" almost feels like next size ball remember higher and higher end Android phones, but it is very convenient to use with one hand, even those who have small hands, you should not bother, without any part of the screen with your finger effort.
Select button and port is the same as in other Windows Phone 8 handsets we have seen, although the design is a little different, there is a headphone jack on the top, a micro-USB port (for syncing with a computer and load) in the background, a volume control on the left side of the phone, and power buttons and the camera on the right side. Capacitive feedback, Windows and Search buttons below the display lighting and trigger buttons haptic feedback when it is pressed.
AT A GLANCE: ODYSSEY SAMSUNG Ativ
SCREEN 800x480 4.0 "(233 ppi) Super AMOLED touchscreen
OS Windows Phone 8
CPU 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 more
1 GB of RAM
Qualcomm Adreno 225 GPU
8 GB NAND flash memory, expandable via microSD
NETWORKS 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE
PORT Micro USB, Headphone
CAMERA 5.0MP camera, 1.2MP front camera
SIZE 4.82 "x 2.51" x 0.43 "(122.43 mm x 63.75 x 10.92)
Weight 0.28 lbs (125g)
BATTERY 2100 mAh
Price $ 9.99 with a two-year contract, $ 479.99 without
One thing that Odyssey offers competitive phones is not a microSD card slot under a cover on the left side of the phone. If you wear a lot of music or video files on your phone, this slot will be useful, fast, the phone only has 8GB of internal memory name. Remove the plastic rear panel also provides access to the microSIM card slot and removable battery phone 5-megapixel camera and LED flash are on the back of the phone. In the bottom of the grid is the speaker, which is almost as good as expected, which is good enough and high enough for basic games and things like YouTube videos, but if the headphone audio quality packaging something that interests.
The screen of Samsung ATIV Odyssey
The build quality is not that what we consider high-end or high-end, but it's good for what it is: a solid mid-range phone, handle feels like it was dropped several times with no adverse effect at once.We have some problems with the screen 4 ", which is probably one of the weakest aspects of the phone. 800x480 resolution is less than what we are accustomed to high-end phones, but that is not the problem is basically in competition with other mobile phones in the price bracket, and Windows Phone tile big, bold and symbols tend to be fairly well even in less dense screens. a Super AMOLED Samsung uses, however, and is very sensitive to the weaknesses in the technology.
It's been a while since we've seen a Super AMOLED phone, so let's talk briefly about what that means is traditionally an LCD pixel consists of three subpixels, one red stripe, green stripe and a blue stripe all the same size. AMOLED screens use an alternate model sub-pixels (depending on the type of screen you will see), and this particular display uses PenTile-called sub-pixel is in red, then green, then blue, then green. This system uses the sensitivity of human eyes to green, which can offer us Samsung panels that use a third less sub-pixel resolution and at the same apparent brightness and color more or less similar displays energy consumption and cost savings.
In practice this is often sub-pixel screens that always be so easy. Colour and white balance are often the most obvious victims tend, the colors look a bit too saturated, and the screens are usually bluish or greenish vague, not surprising given the relative subpixel green to red and blue subpixels. You will notice these two properties in the Odyssey, and is exacerbated by the use of vivid, solid Windows Phone.
The problem and that is most evident in the low-resolution panels called "Text blur." Due to the unique layout of a sub-pixel AMOLED display, sometimes you see individual subpixels, especially around the finer details. White text on black background, makes a common phenomenon in the case of default theming Windows Phone is very easy to see.
Not lower pixel density and a Super AMOLED is far from exclusive. Ativ for Odyssey, but for this review, we spend a little more time to highlight the differences We will show two pairs of photos here, comparing the Odyssey 8X HTC. The first two screenshots to demonstrate the allegedly Windows Phone 8 user interface elements in both the resolution of 1280x720 8x and a resolution of 800x480 Odyssey were two to 640 pixels wide to manage the loss transported further details with respect to high-end phone. The second set is magnified images of two screens, showing the weaknesses added Super AMOLED screen of the Odyssey compared to 8x IPS group.
Although the screens were otherwise identical, would lose some of the details by the loss of pixel density in the Odyssey, you will find that more notice on the website, where you can usually get a little more often for small readable text. Now we can add the additional problems introduced by examining the Super AMOLED, click on it to enlarge and get the full effect.
The camera
The phone retrospect, 5-megapixel camera is not anything special, which produces excellent outdoor shots, used for-Facebook-but-loud awful indoors in low light shots. For purposes of comparison, I snapped a few quick pictures of my junk colorful interior lighting console with Odyssey, the HTC 8X, and my trusty iPhone 4S.
Software
Not much to the software that runs on the Odyssey say, Microsoft did not allow carriers or OEMs to radical changes in Windows Phone 8, and the software is the same as we discussed in November without any significant omissions. Windows Phone has 8 in the Odyssey, the same strengths and weaknesses of Windows Phone 8 on any platform, access productivity tools has emerged as Office and OneNote good right out of the box, continue at no cost, but the actions of third-party applications (if also to improve slowly and steadily) still can not hold a candle or iOS or Android.
Samsung and Verizon a few small additions to the operating system with a reference standard: Verizon offers its own "VZ Navigator" app, Windows Phone app more integrated maps, turn-by-turn navigation is available only for the payment ($ 0.99 for ) a day option, or $ 4.99 per month. A photo editing application provides basic cultures and image settings from the app in the pictures. Application as "now" pull-down. Local weather, news and business information Styling Samsung Evernote application called "Mini Journal" allows the taking of notes, which can be updated with pictures or voice clips. Finally, an application called "Live Wallpaper" in the periodic images of the lock screen of the phone used to change.
None of these additions are on the phone, most of them do not duplicate existing functionality or can be replaced by third parties out of the window of the shop for the best applications, but all are worth mentioning.
Internal performance
While the body, build quality, screen, camera and all the Odyssey peg as a low-end phone for Windows, inside which actually. Shares much in common with the top models from Nokia, HTC, Samsung and others You are by what is essentially the same dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 system-on-a-chip and 1 GB of RAM and the Adreno 225 GPU fed S4 accompaniment. The SoC also offers wireless interfaces for a high-end phone on the Verizon Wireless LTE network, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 adjusted.
Windows Phone is designed to operate in a variety of hardware and performance in the Odyssey is smooth and soft. No problem playing videos, browsing the Internet or playing games in a shop window, and I suspect that it is. A little more problematic is the Odyssey is insignificant 8GB of internal memory, which we mentioned above, this is to be mitigated, at least partially by the presence of a microSD card slot used to. Up to to 32 GB of memory in the phone, if necessary
We are still waiting on a broad reference tool to achieve the Windows Phone platform, for the moment, we have our criteria remain browser if to show limited, as their more expensive counterparts Odyssey batteries. In addition, we also have a number for the iPhone 4, another prominent distributed free with contract offer.
Battery
We saved the best for last Odyssey. If you play videos on HTC brightness 8X half, we have only 5.6 hours of battery life. Do the same with the Odyssey, we are huge 11 hours and 37 minutes of battery are interchangeable 7.98 Wh phone. It was a pleasant surprise, and most users should not be a problem to go for a few days between charges, a relative shortage of high-end phones, which often have to be plugged in and recharged every night (or more often).
Conclusions
Good
Low cost of entry
Excellent battery life
Good performance on the two high-end phones and Windows-free contract phones with other ecosystems to
MicroSD card slot allows you to compensate for the meager 8GB of internal memory
Phone offers full Windows 8 Experience
Bad
The body, while solid, is a little thick and plasticky
House is "good for the price" best
Verizon only
It costs only $ 100 in advance to get into a compelling smartphone
Windows Phone still lacks a kind of third-party support, compared to other platforms
The Ugly
AMOLED displays some have found a way found to overcome the limitations of the technology ... but not the latter.
