Samsung Galaxy Young review
Review: June 2013 | ||
![]() Last updated January 2015 Rating: In a nutshell: The Samsung Galaxy Young is an entry-level smartphone running Android Jelly Bean. It's compact and cheap, but with very basic features. Today's best buy: Samsung G130 Galaxy Young 2 ... from Amazon (£89.99) |
A pocket smartphone
This really is one for people who like small phones. It's dinky in size, although quite thick, but it's really a nice shape if you want something you can easily hold and use in one hand. It looks nice too, and comes in a range of colours - White, Metallic Silver, Wine Red and Deep Blue.
Of course, if you shrink a phone this small you end up with a tiny screen. The screen here measures just 3.27 inches diagonally, which is starting to feel cramped. Pixel density isn't bad, with a 320 x 480 resolution, but it isn't the brightest display available, and isn't that easy to read outdoors.
Android Jelly Bean
The Young comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean installed, which is quite a dated version of Android now. There are now something like a million apps available on Google Play - many of them free - and the Galaxy Young is a great first smartphone to start exploring these.
For first-time users, Easy Mode helps you access key functions like contacts and apps.
Budget specs
The hardware inside the Galaxy Young is extremely basic. The 1GHz processor is pretty much the slowest processor we'd consider for a smartphone. There's not a lot of RAM available for apps, and you'll need to limit your apps to the more basic ones to avoid clogging up the system entirely.
On the positive side, the built-in storage of 4GB can be increased very cheaply with a microSD memory card, adding up to 32GB extra memory. This gives you enough space for music, photos and videos.
The camera on the Galaxy Young is as basic as they come. With a 3 megapixel sensor, no flash and no autofocus, it's literally a point & shoot, and gives you pretty poor results, even when compared with other entry-level smartphones.
Connectivity
The Galaxy Young is a 3G-capable phone with HSPA giving download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, and can also run on a 2G network with quadband compatibility. Wi-Fi gives even faster data access than 3G, and the phone supports Wi-Fi Direct.
You'll also find Bluetooth and a micro-USB connector, plus a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones.
Battery life
The Galaxy Young has a 1300mAh battery, which is quite small. Android phones have a nasty habit of eating battery power, and even though the small screen and slow processor have lower power demands than most, the battery life of this phone isn't going to be very long for most users. If you watch a youtube video, send some texts and keep up to date on facebook and twitter, you'll probably be charging every night.
Conclusion - not the best budget phone
The Samsung Galaxy Young is a very compact entry-level Android phone positioned below the more powerful Galaxy Fame in terms of features. It costs less than £100, but somehow it still manages to feel over-priced. It's not that it's a bad phone. It just needs to be priced closer to £50 than £100 if it's going to get more than a 2 star rating from us. The newer Galaxy Young 2 is the replacement for the Young.
Samsung Galaxy Young features include:
- Operating system: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 3 megapixel camera, fixed focus
- Display: TFT, 262k colours, 320 x 480 pixels (3.27 inches) capacitive touchscreen
- Music player
- Integrated handsfree speaker
- AGPS with Google Maps
- Messaging: SMS, MMS, instant messaging, email
- Personal organiser functions
- Processor: 1GHz single core
- Memory: 4GB plus microSD memory card slot (up to 32GB)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
- Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900), 3G HSDPA 7.2, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
- Size: 109 x 59 x 12.5 mm
- Weight: 112g
- Battery: 1300mAh battery




















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Samsung Galaxy Young user reviews
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Average rating from 7 reviews:
Reviewed by Niall Finnegan
from Ireland
on 22nd Sep 2015
Cheap phone but absolutely RUBBISH!
.Battery struggles to
reach one day
.Screen is SO small that you'd nearly need a
microscope to see it
.Onboard storage allows for about 2-3
downloaded apps
.Thick as a brick
.Has no style
.Extremely outdated software
.Keyboard is impossible
.Slow
as a snail
I find that the easiest way to use this phone
is, To not use it at all because its so hard to use due to the screen
size, so slow and just so bad!!!!
As a result I give it
1/5
BEWARE!!! DO NOT BUY EVER! THE PRICE MAY ATTRACT YOU
BUT ITS SO BAD YOU WILL HAVE BOUGHT A NEW PHONE WITHIN 5 MINUTES!
Rating:
Reviewed by Alex
from Norway
on 1st Apr 2015
This is a phone for kids, and i even do not recomended to give if to
your kids, because they not gone like it. Yes it is cheap, but it is
also rubbish. there are far better phones out there in that price
range.
Rating:
Reviewed by Pat
from England
on 17th Dec 2014
I dislike this phone intensely - A major problem is that the phone
locks when put to the ear & can only be unlocked when laid down!
Answering the phone with the swipe button is impossible with cold
fingers - It is not easy to use the keyboard, easy to touch a
neighbouring key - After two months I am off to get a new phone -
definelty not a samsung
Rating:
Reviewed by Rohan
from England
on 1st Jun 2014
I hate Samsung galaxy young it's not good for apps small screen slow
and it was a don't buy from Which magazines I do not recommend this
phone I'm getting a new phone soon.
Rating:
Reviewed by Emily
from UK
on 5th May 2014
i previously had the Samsung galaxy ace then that died after having it
for about 4 years so to replace it i got this the Samsung galaxy
young. i've currently still got it and i have had so many battery
problems as i plug it in and it says 'battery fully charged, unplug
charger' with 5 minutes of it being plugged in then about 1 minute
later its dead again. i have tried all types of methods to change this
from happening but nothing seems to work. it also cuts off phone calls
and crashes very often and turns off at any time. i am currently
looking at different phones to replace this with i would not recommend
this phone.
Rating:
Reviewed by ahmed
from india
on 10th Dec 2013
It is good to use and handy. I love this mobile. Rating I can give
4.
Regards,
Ahmed.
Rating:
Reviewed by VISAKH M from india on 28th Jul 2013
Iam now using galaxy young. It is a good android phone in price 8k. The battary
backup is low in this phone.
Other feachers are good.
Rating: