Overview- If you are in the market for an inexpensive Android device, you might want to check out the Samsung Galaxy Prevail. The Samsung Galaxy Prevail is only $180 on Boost Mobile. The Prevail offers an 800 MHz processor, 384 MB ram, 3.2” screen, 1500 mAh battery, and a 2 megapixel camera. The Prevail falls into the “Mid-Range Android Device” category, so before reading this review, do not expect too much from this phone. Last, when purchasing this phone, Boost Mobile will require you to have a data plan. You can grab an unlimited everything (voice, text, and data) plan for only $50 per month, which drops $5 every six months (that do not need to be consecutive) until you are only paying $35 per month, sounds like a good deal to me.

Unboxing Video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbo6xCNazQA&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

Hardware-

The Samsung Galaxy Prevail is a very light phone, weighing in at only 3.8 oz. The weight of the phone is a pro and a con, the weight makes it comfortable to hold although gives it a cheap plastic feeling. The design of the phone is all black plastic with a metal band that wraps around the phone. The Prevail has a 3.2” screen with a resolution of 320×480, as you could guess, the screen is a depressing point to the phone because text and pictures do not come out as clear as you would want. As far as buttons go, the Prevail has the standard sleep/wake button on top and a dedicated camera button on the side. The added camera button was a great addition in my opinion, when you press the button its opens the camera, then you can press the button again to take a picture. The fact that they added a camera button is a bit odd because the Prevail only has a 2 megapixel camera. Last, on the front of the device, there are four capacitive buttons on the front which provide decent haptic feedback and they are backlit.

Software-

If there is one thing I dislike, it’s overlays on top of Android (HTC Sense, Motorola Motoblur, and Samsung Touchwiz). One great benefit to the Prevail is stock Android 2.2.2 (Froyo). Since the Samsung Galaxy Prevail only has an 800 MHz processor and 384 MB of ram, stock Android does a good job at not making the phone bog down. Though the Prevail comes with “Stock” Android, there are some features that showed up which are part of Touchwiz (Samsung’s Android overlay). The features were the “Email” icon, the “Calendar” application (not exactly the Touchwiz calendar but definitely not the stock calendar), and the touch tones that the phone makes.

Before I move onto the next topic, I want to talk about one of the largest software issues, the keyboard. Before I bash the keyboard, I would like to say that the Prevail does come with Swype. I am not a personal fan of Swype, but using it on the phone was decent, it had its little jitters, but for the most part, Swype was pretty solid.

Now like I just said, I am not a fan of Swype so my first response when getting this phone was to use the stock Android keyboard, big mistake. I would really like to say there is something good about the stock keyboard, but there is almost nothing good to talk about it. When you type, the phone often recognized one tap as two. For example, if you try to type the word “Hey”, you end up with “Hheeyy”, if you are lucky. Most of the time if you type and it starts to do the “double tap” thing; spell correction will just in and start ruining your words even more. So instead of just each letter doubled, you start getting words like “Hatter”, instead of “Hat”. Besides the words getting all messed up, I am a huge fan of haptic feedback, but turn it on with this phone and you are just asking for trouble.

If you have ever used a phone with a 1 GHz + processor, you know that haptic feedback is great and it keeps up with each letter you press. With the Prevail, you type the word “Hello”, which should respond with five vibrations, you get like fifteen vibrations that are not even synced with the letters you are typing. I have even found the vibrations continue even when you stop typing because the phone is trying to catch up. The final note I have to make about the keyboard is how crammed it is, since there is only a 3.2” screen on the Prevail, the keyboard feels tiny. Having a phone that relies on a software keyboard that sucks doesn’t make the phone a pleasant experience.

Performance-

I went into reviewing this phone very closed minded, that the phone would be slow and act like the other mid-range Android phones. I was actually shocked when I found the phone performing quite fast and pretty snappy. Now before you compare this to an HTC Sensation, it’s not “that” fast, it’s fast for a mid-range Android phone.

When jumping between screens, there is a slight lag but it’s very subtle and almost not even noticeable. And before you start to ask, Angry Birds works great on this device. Most applications would open 1 to 2 sentences after tapped and when you tap the “Home” button, (for the most part) you would be instantly taken home. If you are used to using an Android device with a 1 GHz + processor, you will notice obvious speed differences and lag, but if you are coming from a “Dumb-phone” or “Low-end” Android device, you will feel a bit of a speed bump.

If you are coming from a Blackberry, for the most part, you will feel increased speed, less lag, and less glitching (based on Blackberry Curve 3G). Last, if you are switching from an iPhone (4 or 3GS), for will feel a noticeable speed drop, more lag, and more glitching.

Battery-

The Samsung Galaxy Prevail pairs a 1500 mAh battery with a low-speed processor and minimal ram. With this combination you would expect outstanding battery life, but all you get is a dead phone, literally. While using the Samsung Galaxy Prevail, i received about 12 hours of little to no use and about 5 to 6 hours with heavy constant use. Although this is normal battery life for phone like the Droid X and Droid Incredible, the Droid X/Inc are powering more ram and more processor speed. Samsung must have done something wrong when adjusting the battery usage. Also, the Prevail only has a 3.2” screen, which shouldn’t be taking up battery, but it does. All I have to say for this phone, and (almost) any other Android phone is keep a charger with you at all times.

Camera/ Video Quality-

This is a topic I debated on adding though realized a lot of people would like to know this. The Samsung Galaxy Prevail has a 2 megapixel camera so you can already expect your photos to be pretty low-end quality. The Prevail has a fixed focus so you cannot focus on objects or people; there is also no face detection. Though these are all signs of horrible quality, I have to say the quality was somewhat passable.

If you take a look at the sample pictures below, they aren’t terrible, but they also aren’t the best. If you want to photos to look decent, you have to take some time, find good angles, and have lots of lighting. Trying to snap of a quick picture is where your quality will drop, which is unfortunate because that’s how most mobile phone pictures are taken. Overall, if you take your time with the pictures, they will come out decent, but if you try to snag a quick pic, well, good luck with that.

Next, the video camera quality was, well, bad. I have nothing to say about trying to defend the camera or how to get decent video quality because it’s virtually unobtainable with this camera. It is not HD quality and the quality it gives you is about as useful as not having the video at all.

Video Quality Video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT6R5RtqqYI&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

Conclusion- The Samsung Galaxy Prevail is great for the price-point, $180. The Prevail shines in overall speed, hardware, and software (minus the keyboard). The Prevail is great for a new Android user, Teen, or the Mom/ Dad that wants a phone for calling and some extra features. The Prevail falls short with the camera/video quality, battery life, and the HORRIBLE keyboard. The Prevail is NOT for power users, long-time Android users, heavy texters, or x-iPhone users. Last, don’t forget to check out the video review after the break.

Review Video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNgt_WNS0-4&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

Do you agree or disagree with our review? Leave your comments below or on our Facebook wall and we will be glad to read them.

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75 COMMENTS

    • I have had this phone a few weeks now and dont really have issue with anything other then the battery life stinks to high heaven. I can set it on my desk, not use it at all other then maybe checking to see if i have any email every few hours, and its almost drained in 8 hours. with everything basically disabled i might add.

      Have never had it freeze or lock up… nothing..

      • I do however connect to my wireless hot spot…  does this phone communicate constantly like a PC would?  that might explain the battery issue.

  4. I got this phone just less than a month ago and love it!  I understood when I bought it that it wasn’t a top of the line phone, but it does everything I wanted it to do (though I would prefer a better camera….it’s still “ok”).  I have heard from numerous people that Android phones suck batteries dry.  I have a high security job where we cannot have phones at work, so I didn’t want a $100/month bill.  Boost’s coverage isn’t as good as my old AT&T coverage, but it’s fine….and I’ll be loving life when my bill gets down to $35/month for unlimited everything on a smartphone. :-) I love the size of the phone as I think many of the new 4G phones are way too huge.

  6. Actually, I have a question… I would like to use the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for my laptop…can it do this and what’s the speed like there? Will I be disappointed?

    Thanks!

  10. I have had the phone for a week now.  The battery life sucks, however; overall its a good phone.  I have found that every so often the phone freezes and I have to remove the battery to unfreeze it.  Is this normal for this phone or should I request a replacement.

    • I am glad I came across this site, and saw your comment.  My screen went totally blank this morning while I was talking with someone.  When I ended the call, the screen was still blank–I could not get it to come back on.  I have only had the phone for 5 days…..Anyway, I removed the battery as you mentioned, waited 20 seconds or so, and put it back in.  It worked, so you saved me a trip to the Boost Mobile store–thank you! 

  12. I agree with the review.  Additional comments:  Terminating a call after checking  voicemail is complicated.  It requires tapping the * key and then sliding the keypad up and then sliding a red icon to the left.  If you simply tap the home key, the voicemail recording continues, and getting back to it to turn it off is even more complicated.  There are other needlessly complicated “features” which make the phone un-friendly.

  13. i’ve had the phone for a week now and it already slows down and crashes on me sometimes, i open an app and it heats up and freezes for 10-15 minutes, im tempted to throw it at a wall, does anyone know how to boost the speed of the CPU? in my opinion, the phone sucks, but it’s the best i got.

  19. Horrible phone! I switched from Blackberry Curve to this and having been hating it since day one! I’m aware it’s an entry level Android but it still sucks, battery life is terrible, if I download apps it freezes all the time, and even with no apps it still freezes, when I want to hang up from a call the screen freezes and I have to wait a few minutes for it to work by this time if the call has gone through someone’s voicemail the other person is already getting a message from me and all they can hear is me trying to tap on the stupid screen to hang up >:| , they keyboard is terrible! you keep hitting two letters at the same and I don’t even have big fingers lol, anyway, all in all I DO not recommend this phone, the only good thing is that it’s cute and sleek other than that, skip it!

  20. I love my phone, ive had it for 2 weeks… Problem im trying to find a answer to is “Why does it drop my calls? and why does the service just drop in the middle of a convo. I get great service where i live. But at random moments the phone just says fuck it, get off me. and i lose service and cant get it back” only really problem im having.. can any one help?

    • i had that problem and it turned out to be a tower interference because someone in the area was using a certain frequency i had to call boost and they sent a specifice frequency block update to my phone, might try that, hope it helps i just got this phone yesterday no issues yet way better than a ghetto ass timer of death on my old boost blackberry curve

  22. I read great reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Prevail but this is a terrible phone, I’ve had it for a little over a month (bought mid-August and now it’s late September) and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to take the battery out to reboot it because none of the buttons would respond.  Last night, it kept showing me that it was charging even though it was in my pocket at work.  Now today, I rebooted it to see if it’d help and it wouldn’t turn back on (twice)!  All it would do is show me a charging battery screen even though it wasn’t hooked up!  I only could get it to finally turn on by actually hooking it up to the charger. I know this is a lower end model of an android phone but I can’t believe that I still spent $200 on this piece of crap!  My worst move besides buying this phone – I didn’t add insurance to my plan.

  23. I read great reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Prevail but this is a
    terrible phone, I’ve had it for a little over a month (bought mid-August
    and now it’s late September) and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
    had to take the battery out to reboot it because none of the buttons
    would respond.  Last night, it kept showing me that it was charging even
    though it was in my pocket at work.  Now today, I rebooted it to see if
    it’d help and it wouldn’t turn back on (twice)!  All it would do is
    show me a charging battery screen even though it wasn’t hooked up!  I
    only could get it to finally turn on by actually hooking it up to the
    charger. I know this is a lower end model of an android phone but I can’t believe that I still spent $200 on this piece of crap!  My worst move besides buying this phone – I didn’t add insurance to my plan.

  24. I have had this phone for a while now, and I have had no problems! I am not constantly on the phone, so for me the battery is good about 2days. Which is way more than any other phone ive ever had. The camera is ehh, Never tried to take any video… Love the kindle app i downloaded. works great. I have heard that it freezes but I have never had this problem. I think that people need to learn to end there tasks, in the task manager. (which will also save battery life)

  25. Nothing but a piece of junk phone worst cellphone I have ever had. I’ve had less expensive phones that work 10 * better than this. This stupid thing freezes up constantly. I have to take the battery out every single day sometimes several times a day! Can’t believe how much I paid for this piece of crap!!

  27. The Phone sucks… freezes every ten min … go buy a cheap 10$ phone it would work much better!!! Worst $180 ever spent on a phone… Samsung fix this shit!!!!

  28. this phone sucks, the first week I had it, no problrms, now it has nothing but problems, it turns off all the time and the only way u can turn it back on is on a charger in which only works to charge it half the time. It freezes and wont let u use it, texts people the wrong texts and occasionaly calls people without saying so on your phone and leaves voicemails. This is not a smart phone they sho uy ld have left it in the trash and if you buy this phone your better off buying a ticket on a smart bus

  29. Love the phone. But just one thing it. Came with preinasalled apps that I have no use for. How do I uninstall them and where do I go to do it. That’s if it can be done.

  31. I think its funny how some people say the phone sucks and other say its awesome. For those who say the phone sucks… Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe you got a bad apple? Seems logical right?

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  35. Thanks especially for the video sample clip and photos. The quality isnt as nasty as some reviewers made it sound. I feel it’s good enough for casual use. I’ve researched this phone for a few hours now and I’m definitely buying one! Thanks for the help !!

  36. The video narrator Phil Esposito i dont thinks his balls have dropped yet he still has the voice of an 13 year ols lil bitch 

    •  Just because your balls haven’t dropped yet and a sixteen year old can make six figures more than your faggot a$$, doesn’t mean you are cool. Grow the fu** up and give the kid some credit.

  37. Please keep on posting such articles as this is a rare thing to find these days. I am always searching online for articles that can help me.

  39. Why does no one here have a rooted phone? Root your phone/Linux Computer people!!! Unless you live under a rock.lol I have the Prevail, Rooted, Custom ROM, and I have 899MB of internal storage. the updated EJ06 base band fixes the dropped call bug. Flash a recovery Thanks to Hrork in Android Forums called Clock Work Mod 5.0.2.7. All Root Does OS unlock administrative privileges. You just need to spend a second to look at the awesome piece of tech in your hands.

  40. Why does no one here have a rooted phone? Root your phone/Linux Computer people!!! Unless you live under a rock.lol I have the Prevail, Rooted, Custom ROM, and I have 899MB of internal storage. the updated EJ06 base band fixes the dropped call bug. Flash a recovery Thanks to Hrork in Android Forums called Clock Work Mod 5.0.2.7. All Root Does OS unlock administrative privileges. You just need to spend a second to look at the awesome piece of tech in your hands.

  42. I’ve had a couple problems with mine, it freezes or it won’t open any apps, lately the most trouble i’ve been having is that it won’t receive any messages, i have to restart my phone any then i have to wait like 20 minutes to receive all my messages from throughout the day that i never got or sometimes it won’t even receive them. Has anyone else have these problems???

    • Yes mine did that for a couple days. I had to go to the manage apps and clear the messenger. It seem to work fine after that and it won’t erase any of you messages or anything.

  45. I’ve had this phone for over a year and HATE it! You get what you pay for. I don’t recommend this phone unless you like smashing new phone with hammers! Do yourself a favor and go buy and expensive overpriced contract phone and forget the Samsung Galaxy Prevail even exists! :) Have a great day!!!!!!!

  46. I havn’t really had much problem with the key board. Other than it being squished togeter. (but they may have updated it and fixed it since then.) And the haptic feedback is great! I’ve never had a problem with it. I’ve had this phone for about a year. There is one thing you didn’t mention that i have some problems with though. Some times when i’m on the phone the tuch screen just stops working. (which means if you want to end the call you can’t among doing anything else while in a call) it happens mabye 1 out of every 15 calls. And after locking and unlocking the screen a few times or jaring it slightly on your hand seems to solve the problem.

  47. I’ve read on here that a lot of people take the batteries out to reboot them. Thats not a good thing to do. If you just hold the volume up button and the screen lock button at the same time for 8 sec. it will restart the phone for you.

  48. I’ve had this phone since about april 2011 and above all i would say it’s durability is it best feature. Its been run over by a 1979 gmc 4×4 and dropped out of my lap onto concrete at least once a week for over a year and it still works. My I phone friends are jealous with their broken screens.

  49. This phone sucks I bought it when it first came out the worst phone samsung made one word garbage…….

  50. Hey Ive been trying to find a reliable way to root my Prevail..Is there anyway you can show me the website or lead me in the right direction?? After putting the adobe flash on it I have no room left of internal storage…Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated…

  51. Daius hey I left u a message about rooting my Prevail…If you have a chance to get back to me id greatly appreciate it….899 mb of internal storage sounds impossible!!!

  52. When my original phone went bad on me…i Had to get something quick but nice. When I purchased this phone about four days ago, I swear it was a nightmair. Although I truly feel I got a internally bad phone…. no one could do anything to help, so I returned it and put out a little bit more money to get what I really wanted. This definitely showed me the the meaning of quality over quantity. I’m not the one to spend hundreds of dollars on phones, I just like those specific features that satisfy me, which now a days are not too hard to find. Well concluding… the phone had small little things about it I thought was cute but over all… THE PHONE SUCKS.

  53. Well issues u gave are really non issues for me .. rooted with a custom rom nexus 3.0 .. i pick up $30 used prevails slap the rom oñ internal men probably is fixed.. 1 gig internal mem now using 8 gig a SD card. Loooove. It. Ecomobile for service i pay $¹0 month with internet when i need

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