Review: Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE for Sprint
Menus
The Victory runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz. It's also compatible with Sprint iD, which lets owners download bundles of apps, wallpapers, widgets, and ringtones that are tied to a specific theme.
The lock screen offers shortcuts to the camera, phone, and messaging apps. These cannot be customized.
There are five home screen panels for customization. Keep in mind that the Sprint iD packs install their own widgets, shortcuts, and such. You can customize each iD pack individually, but not until after you've installed them.
The main app menu is a standard grid and cannot be customized in any way, not even set to list view. The device settings look and behave as most other Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones. Simple tweaks, such as the wallpapers and ringtones, are a cinch to make — but they'll be negated when you install a fresh iD pack.
I was not impressed with the Victory's performance. I saw a lot of stuttering when transitioning between screens. It paused overlong when switching apps, and opening fresh apps often took several seconds more than I expected them to.
Calls/Contacts
The Victory uses the stock Android phone and contact applications. They behave as they do on many other Android smartphones. What I found most disappointing is that there aren't any pre-installed contact widgets. There are direct dial shortcuts, but no fancy widgets for your favorites or groups. C'mon, Samsung.
Messaging
Again, the Victory doesn't stray far from the stock Android 4.0 tools. Gmail, email, Google+, G+ Messenger, Talk, and the text messaging apps are all present and accounted for. I didn't encounter any surprises in using them. They are solid, well-established applications.
Aside from Google+, you're completely on your own for social networking. Neither the Twitter nor Facebook apps are pre-installed, and there is no support for AIM, Windows Live, or Yahoo IM on board. To use any of these services, you'll have to download them yourself from the Google Play Store.