Samsung Galaxy Fame review: In the spotlight

Well connected

The Samsung Galaxy Fame has a long list of connectivity features. Let's start off with the basics - quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band 3G (AWS is missing though). The 3G connectivity is backed by HSPA (7.2Mbps downlink, 5.76Mbps uplink).

The Wi-Fi support covers b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct also part of the package.

There's also Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP as well.

In some regions, the Fame has NFC connectivity. It lets you share all sorts of media via NFC by simply touching the devices back-to-back. You'd need two S Beam-enabled devices to get this to work - while not many models support it, there are plenty of later generation Galaxy's around.

You can share with other NFC devices as well, but the functionality is limited to what is provided by Android Beam - Android's stock NFC tool.

Tweaked Jelly Bean browser

The Samsung Galaxy Fame has a tweaked version of the Jelly Bean Android browser, but Chrome also comes pre-installed, if that's what you prefer.

The Android browser

Anyway, the default browser supports both double tap and pinch zooming along with the two-finger tilt zoom. There are niceties such as multiple tabs, text reflow, find on page and so on. A neat trick is to pinch zoom out beyond the minimum - that opens up the tabs view.

The Web browser comes with Incognito mode, which lets you surf the web without the browser keeping track of your history or storing cookies. You can also switch to a more minimalist UI, which currently is in a Lab stage. It disables most of the browser's user interface and gives you a quick five-button layout to access the basics.

Tabs view • Incognito mode • Quick controls