Samsung has come up with a smashing device the Samsung S5690 Galaxy Xcover which is considered to be the good combination looks and specs in the collection of Samsung and a strong answer to the Motorola Defy+. Though the Motorola Defy+ will be a tough contender to face but the Xcover will stand at its own in the midrange Smartphones.

The device is made shock resistant and dust proof. It is certified by IP67. This means it can be immersed under one meter of water and can retain it for half an hour. To provide extreme protection and stability, it is equipped with Gorilla glass and has got a 3.65" HVGA display. It qualifies all the criteria of a smartphone including solid connectivity, quick processing and fresh essence of Android.

DESIGN

Discussing the design in detail, there is a proximity sensor above the display to disable the screen during calls. Below it are the three hardware buttons namely Menu, Home and Back. The right side of the phone has got a rubberized plastic to have a strong grip. This side of the phone has got a power lock button as well. The left of the phone contains a volume rocker. The flashlight icon is carved at the back which suggests using the LED flash as a torch. The top of the device carries a 3.5mm headphone jack which is covered with a lid. The backside is designed with a rough patterned panel to give the phone a unique look and a strong grip. The phone stays on four tiny cushions at the corners on the back side. On the top of the panel lies the camera lens and LED flash and a magnificent loudspeaker is located on the right. The 1500mAh Li-Ion battery, the MicroSD card slot and the SIM compartment are veiled under the cover which is hard to remove like other good phones. The complete information about the battery life is still not confirmed.

The device runs on Android 2.3.4 and is modified with Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 UI for a cozy use. The homescreen is controlled very easily by 7 panes which can be added, removed or even rearranged according to your choice.  The area for notification has got many settings including Wi-Fi and auto screen rotation. The menu is side scrollable with 4x4 clusters of icons on each page.

IMAGEs AND VIDEO

The standard Android image gallery is exercised by the Samsung Galaxy Xcover. It is enhanced with 3D looks and transition effects but it captures a trim version of the images. For better convenience of users, Images and videos can be placed in separate folders of different sub galleries. If you wish to find images of a certain date, a date scrubber is there for your ease. You can jump to the main screen directly by using a tab without going through many folders.

MUSIC

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover is tailored with the superb TouchWiz music player. The interface is comprised with many arrangement options in the form of tabs, which includes artists and composers, playlists and albums, current playlist and all tracks. These options can be edited as per your feasibility. Samsung’s DNSe technology is also enabled along with equalizer presets. The quick search for a song, artist or album is now possible through YouTube or Google search. The advancement tin this section is that the search results loaded by the YouTube can be loaded directly to YouTube client.

CAMERA

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover has got a 3.2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, for utmost image resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The LED flash is added to enable the night shots. The Galaxy Xcover is a classic mid-range device as the video recording is concerned. It will capture videos up to VGA resolution only.

CONNECTIVITY

Samsung Galaxy Xcover is a phone with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSPA with download speed up to 7.2 Mbps and uploads up to 5.76 Mbps. It contains a stereo Bluetooth v3.0, USB v2.0 and a Wi-Fi (b/g/n).

The Galaxy Xcover lacks support of Adobe Flash support but this can be amended before released. The bookmark button and URL bar can be seen on the top of the screen in a line.

It is obvious to have other basic applications including a calendar, calculator. It also contains a file manager which is very easy to use.

CONCLUSION

Like every other thing in this world the device has got its plus and negative points. Its solid connectivity set and good all-round user experience with the latest version of Android and TouchWiz, all pushes it forward in the competition but its display, camera and design hinder its way ahead.  Samsung can range this device towards the lower end of midrange. We hope and wish Galaxy Xcover to make good business for Samsung.