The Samsung Galaxy 551 is something that should have happened a long time ago. This is not to say that the form factor was out of favor with Samsung. But it took a slew of CDMA messengers to finally see a QWERTY side-slider to land in Europe.
Android debuted on a full QWERTY phone, but messengers were never meant to be the dominant species. The Galaxy 551 is pragmatic enough to accept the fact and live with it. Samsung itself knows better than expect the market to embrace more QWERTY messengers the skill and size of the Motorola Milestone or the HTC Desire Z.
Samsung Galaxy 551 official photos
The Galaxy 551 does not look forward to making a big splash, It’s part of a broader effort of giving the Galaxy lineup some depth in the midrange. With Froyo and all-round connectivity the Samsung Galaxy 551 makes perfect sense in the segment of affordable smart messengers.
Key features
- Slide-out full QWERTY keyboard
- Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA support
- 3.2" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WQVGA (240 x 400 pixel) resolution
- Great QWERTY keyboard
- Android OS v2.2 with TouchWiz launcher
- 667MHz processor
- 3.15 MP autofocus camera, QVGA video recording at 15fps
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
- GPS with A-GPS connectivity
- 160 MB internal storage, microSD slot
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Smart dialing
- Access to Android Market and Samsung Apps repository
Main disadvantages
- Glossy plastic is a smudge magnet and scratch-prone
- No dedicated camera key
- No Adobe Flash support
- No live wallpaper support
- No secondary video-call camera
- No DivX/XviD video support out of the box
- No document viewer
Final words
After a number of CDMA QWERTY messengers deployed stateside, Samsung’s intentions are clear – continue to serve an underserved niche. There’s nothing particularly exciting about the Galaxy 551 in terms of styling or features but Samsung’s first QWERTY messenger droid to work on European networks won’t suffer from lack of attention.
An affordable smart messenger will be a great option to consider for many current feature phone users. The Galaxy 551 opens the door to the exciting world of Android and you don’t have to wait to get Froyo. With a complete connectivity package (Wi-Fi N, HSPA, GPS) and a great QWERTY keyboard, it’s a whole new level of performance.
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