Review: Samsung Galaxy Admire 2 for Cricket
Screen
The Admire 2 has a 4-inch screen with 800 x 480 pixels. It would fit right in with the big boys if this were 2011. Samsung typically uses OLED panels in its devices, but the Admire 2 uses an LCD screen instead. Though it has a limited number of pixels, it still manages to look fairly good. Individual pixels can only be spotted if you hold the phone close and look for them on purpose. Most elements looks clean and sharp. It's very bright when cranked all the way up, which I found to be necessary in order to see it outdoors. Colors look more natural on this screen than on Samsung's OLED screens.
Signal
The Admire 2 performed fairly well on Cricket's network. The company has fairly good coverage in New Jersey. I was able to latch onto Cricket's network most places I took the Admire 2 in the metro New York City area, but I was unable to test it on LTE 4G, which the Admire 2 supports. I was always able to connect calls on Cricket's network no matter what the signal meter read, but CDMA data slowed to a crawl in weak coverage areas. Data speeds picked up when CDMA coverage was stronger. The Admire 2 managed to drop a few calls during my review period.
Sound
Call quality was quite impressive. Voices coming through the earpiece were incredibly clear, and the earpiece produces an incredible amount of volume. I had no trouble conducting phone calls even with noisy construction outside my office. The Admire 2 is good at making sure you can hear your callers. The speakerphone loses just a bit of the good quality, but is also impressively loud. The speakerphone worked well for me as an office assistant, and could also be heard above the noise in a moving car. People who I spoke to through the Admire 2 said I sounded loud and clear. Ringers and alert tones are plenty loud, and the vibrate alert got my attention most of the time.
Battery
The Admire 2 packs a 2,100mAh battery. That's a large power source for a phone this size, and is likely meant to help boost battery life when used on 4G LTE. When used on Cricket's 3G CDMA network, the Admire 2 lasted well more than a day on a single charge. I was able to surf the web, check social networks, send email, listen to music, watch YouTube, and shoot pictures with no problem. It often had 30% or more power remaining by the time I called it a day. Most people will want to charge the Admire 2 each night.
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