Samsung Galaxy Fame review

The more expensive of the two handsets at the bottom of Samsung's Galaxy range comes with a mix of low and midrange Android features, but there isn't a clear differentiation between the Fame and its rival, the Galaxy Young.

It's on sale now for around £150.

Design
At first glance both the Fame and the Young look very similar, but the Fame is the slightly bigger of the two, with a 3.5-inch rather than 3.3-inch screen. Both have the distinctive Samsung hard home button beneath the screen but while the Young has marked buttons for back and menu, the Fame has illuminated versions of the same, which light up only when the screen is in use

the same, which light up only when the screen is in use.
The cheap-feeling plastic casing is similar to the Galaxy Young and indeed virtually all other Galaxy handsets, including the top-end S4. There's a metal strip around the sides and the rear is very thin plastic. That might help keep the weight down but when you press on it you can see an indentation on the screen, which doesn't inspire confidence.
The 3.5-inch TFT LED display has none of the Amoled technology you'll find on more expensive Samsungs, and it has the same resolution, 320x480 pixels, as you'll find on the Galaxy Young. But the bigger screen means it's actually slightly less sharp than its cousin, with 165 pixels-per-inch as opposed to the Young's 176.

Like the Young there's 4GB of memory on board and you can add more via microSD card. The Galaxy Young will let you add up to 64GB, the Fame can only handle 32GB, so if you've got a lot of media, that could be important to you.
Performance
It has a 1GHz processor, similar to the Young's. But while the cheaper phone has 1GB RAM to help with processing, the Fame has only 512MB. It's a shame, since the extra RAM would have improved performance and made it easier to differentiate between the two. As it is, while neither is particularly fast (or painfully slow), the Young seems to have the edge in handling day-to-day tasks like displaying busy web pages.
The 1GHz processor is backed by 512MB RAM, which is quite a drop down from the cheaper Galaxy Young. It's packing a Cortex A9 processor as opposed to the Young's A5, which helped it nudge ahead of the Young in our AnTuTu benchmark tests, but only just (the Fame scored 4,909; the Young, 4,638), and in practise there was no clear winner -- the Young outclassed the Fame when displaying busy web pages and opening apps, and in the 3D graphics processing tests, the Young actually came out in front.

 The five-megapixel camera is several steps up from the Young's three-megapixel model though. It has autofocus rather than fixed-focus and there's an LED flash too. Features are fairly basic, but the quality of photos is considerably better. It has a VGA front-facing camera too, which means you can make video calls, unlike the Young.

 GPS is on board, as you'd expect, but it also has NFC for mobile payments and there's an FM radio too. As with the Young, Samsung hasn't seen fit to supply any headphones. The 1,300mAh battery is the same as on the Young and it delivered a similar performance: about a day-and-a-half's use.

 Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Fame comes out just ahead of its nearest rival the Galaxy Young because of its superior camera. But while its processor appeared better on paper, in practise the lack of RAM held it back and the larger screen actually has a slightly lower pixel count. It's a pretty good budget Android, but if you're not fussed about the camera, you might be better to save a few quid and plump for the Young.