Performance and battery life
Samsung
Galaxy S Relay 4G
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Quadrant: 4,430
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Vellamo: 2,734
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SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 1,794
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AnTuTu: 6,707
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GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen (fps): 60
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CF-Bench: 8,845
Samsung
Galaxy S Relay 4G
Motorola
Droid 4
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Quadrant: 2,755
·
Vellamo: N / A
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SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 2,158
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AnTuTu: 6,134
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GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen (fps): N / A
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CF-Bench: N / A
Motorola
Droid 4
Motorola
Photon Q 4G LTE
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Quadrant: 5,036
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Vellamo: 2,347
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SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 1,649
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AnTuTu: 6,942
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GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen (fps): 56
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CF-Bench: 9,562
Motorola
Photon Q 4G LTE
The dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and
1GB of RAM of the Relay 4G allow some speedy smooth performance. Swiping
through home screens, opening apps and scrolling over web pages is flawless,
and the phone is totally compatible with our Riptide GP sessions. The
touchscreen is also significantly responsive; we seldom have to pull out the
keyboard once in a while. Ice Cream Sandwich cold-booting consumes around 28
seconds, and once the phone is up and running it's nearly 100% unaffected by
stuttering and other performance glitches.
Benchmark scores resemble our factual
experience. This phone is able to keep up with other sliders, defeating the
Motorola Droid 4 and the Samsung Captivate Glide with their older internals but
falling a little behind the Photon Q in most tests. The Relay 4G's Vellamo
score of 2,734 is greatly magnificent, and truly the stock Android browser
speed up page loading to almost instantly. In spite of the maximum of eight
tabs opened, websites show up on screen within just 0.93 seconds.
Let’s
take a look at the results.
During the battery rundown test with
continuously playing a locally stored video and the WiFi is on with a few
social network accounts set to send hourly push updates, the removable 1,800mAh
battery of the Relay 4G has survived seven hours and 59 minutes. This is one
aspect where the Relay makes other QWERTY sliders look undesirable: the Photon
Q 4G LTE lasted for only six hours and 18 minutes, while the Motorola Droid 4
could only stay on around seven hours and 15 minutes. In our everyday use,
which involves watching clips, checking email and regular shooting photos, the
battery can support phone performance for about 11 hours, which is just enough
for normal user throughout the work day and night.
The little speakers on the back of the
Relay 4G produce adequate sound, though we can't call it loud or clear. It is
ideal for using the headphones since audio comes through a bit richer. The speakers
are located near the bottom back of the phone, which isn't the most convenient
arrangement for use in either portrait or landscape modes, since your hands
will likely hold on to this edge either way. Regarding audio formats, .amr,
.flac, .m4a. mp3, .ogg, .wav and .wma files are all supported; but it is
impossible to play the files with .aac, .ac3, .aiff, .ape, .au, .m4r, .mka,
.mmf and .npc formats.
During a few test calls on this device, our
friends on the other end of the line told us that they can hear super loud and
crystal clear, and things sounded clean on our side as well. Concerning network
speeds, the slider can reach a peak of 15.04 Mbps downloads and 3.44 Mbps
uploads on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, with results generally ranging 0.7-2 Mbps up
and 14-15 Mbps on the downlink. These figures are not something to brag about,
and throughout New York City the 4G signal remains sufficient. We saw
throughput on the upper end of this range when we took the Relay 4G for a spin
in Southern California.
Comparison and price
If you need a physical keyboard, you're
narrowing your smartphone choices. The Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G price is at
$150 with a mail-in rebate, but still QWERTY fans on T-Mobile have a few other
options to choose from, including the myTouch (free with a two-year contract),
which is a decent device even though it runs the old-fashioned Gingerbread OS.
Moreover, the Relay 4G is just one of various Galaxy S devices on T-Mobile: on
the slightly lower end, there's the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, which has
Gingerbread on a 1.5GHz processor and also comes with a 5-megapixel camera.
Currently, the price only costs $100, it's worth consideration. On the
higher-end side but priced at $150 just like the Relay 4G is the Samsung Galaxy
S III. If the QWERTY layout is at all negotiable, that would be such a much
better choice.
Regarding other QWERTY devices on different
carriers, we are in love with the Photon Q on Sprint, which is for $50 more
expensive than the Relay 4G but can offer a exceptional typing experience. On
Verizon, the $100 Droid 4, which has Ice Cream Sandwich on a 4-inch qHD screen,
also offer a top-notch keyboard.
Conclusion
As
a middle class smartphone running Ice Cream Sandwich, the Samsung Galaxy S
Relay 4G is still competitive.
As a middle class smartphone running Ice
Cream Sandwich, the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G is still competitive. The
Snapdragon S4 enables fluid and speedy performance, and battery life is
qualified as acceptable. Definitely, its 4-inch WVGA screen is not the champion
and the camera is underwhelming, but $150 cannot afford the universe. What it
could offer you is a satisfactory, rationally fast slider that suits your
texting and photo-taking hobbies. If not for a five-row QWERTY keyboard under
the hood, our review would have been much better. But the fact that there is
one naturally leads to some expectations about a better typing experience, and
this device completely fails in that area. If you want the extra set of keys,
you’d better the pick the Proton Q. Additionally, if you only desire for
touchscreen, T-Mobile has a great deal of greater handheld, even within the
Galaxy S lineup.
Info
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Price: $150 (on contract)
Advantages
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Good everyday performance
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Comfortable grip
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Strong battery life
Disadvantages
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Flat and almost unusable keyboard
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Weak camera
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Cheap and many ads
Overview
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The Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G, T-Mobile's newest
QWERTY slider, offers fast performance and good battery life, but the
uncomfortable keyboard is a big minus.
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Specifications
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Dimensions: 118.5x62.3x9.3 mm (4.67x2.45x0.37
inches)
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Display type: OLED (Active, Color)
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Display size: 4.0 inches
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Primary camera: 5 MP
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Camera features: records video, Flash
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Secondary camera: 1.3 MP
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OS: Android (Ice Cream Sandwich [4.0])
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Style: slider
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Input type: Touchscreen (Capacitive [finger]),
QWERTY keyboard (5 rows)
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CPU: 1.5 GHz
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RAM: 1 GB
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Sensors: Ambient light, Proximity
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Talk time: 2G, 3G
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