Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus G350E is a

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

manufactured by

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...

that runs on the open source

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

operating system. Announced by

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

in early August 2014. It has additional software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique from its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Star 2.

Specifications

Connectivity

Galaxy Star does not support 3G connectivity, instead running on EDGE networks alone. It also does not provide a

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

(GPS). However it provides support for WiFi connectivity and

Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus uses a refined version of the hardware design, with a rounded,

plastic leather Artificial leather, also called synthetic leather, is a material intended to substitute for leather in upholstery, clothing, footwear, and other uses where a leather-like finish is desired but the actual material is cost prohibitive or unsuitab ...

and a removable rear cover. It is slightly lighter and narrower than the Samsung Galaxy Star, with a length of 129.7 mm (5.11 in), a width of 69.9 mm (2.59 in), and a thickness of 9.4 mm (0.37 in). At the bottom of the device is a microphone and a

microUSB The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of t ...

port for data connections and charging. A headphone jack is located at the top. The Star 2 Plus is widely available in black and white color finishes. The Star 2 Plus comes with 4 GB of internal storage, which can be supplemented with up to an additional 32 GB with a microSD card slot. The Star 2 Plus contains an 1800 mAh battery.

Software

The Star 2 Plus is powered by

, a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based, open source mobile operating system developed by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and introduced commercially in 2008. Among other features, the software allows users to maintain customized home screens which can contain shortcuts to applications and widgets for displaying information. Three shortcuts to frequently used applications can be stored on a dock at the bottom of the screen; the button in the right of the dock opens the application drawer, which displays a menu containing all of the apps installed on the device. A tray accessed by dragging from the top of the screen allows users to view notifications received from other apps, and contains toggle switches for commonly used functions. Pre-loaded apps also provide access to Google's various services. The Star 2 Plus uses Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz graphical user interface (GUI). The Galaxy Star 2 Plus ships with Android 4.4.2 "Kit Kat". Unofficially there are two CyanogenMod custom ROMs built by developers called Hicham03 and ahtesham01: CyanogenMod 13 (based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow) CyanogenMod 12.1 (based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop) and CyanogenMod 11 (based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat).

Reception

The Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised the design, but criticized the non 3G connectivity and individual reviewers in the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

have criticized the device due to its lack of a GPS.

References