Samsung i7500 Galaxy Preview

It’s the latest thing in smart phones. It is fun, it is fresh, and it is exciting. Easy to use, logically laid out and offers excellent integration with online services. What we’re describing here is the Android operating system, which is the OS used by the Samsung i7500, also known as the Samsung Galaxy. Samsung become the first manufacturer of the leading three mobile producers to release an Android powered device, which isn’t a surprise, really. Samsung have a well established policy of supporting all the major mobile phone operating systems, with handsets also running on Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian and their own proprietary operating system.

We’ll take a look specifically at the Android OS in another article; here we are going to mainly focus on the i7500 and the features it has to offer. With many handsets on the market already that offer touch screen functionality, Samsung are quickly moving into market leadership with top notch touch screen mobile devices. Where other manufacturers offer one or two devices, Samsung seemed to have embraced touch, and a quick internet search shows just how prolific Samsung have been, with easily over 30 different devices to date. The Galaxy touch screen is a responsive AMOLED capacitive touch screen, supporting up to 16 million colours. Measuring 3.2 inches, the display has a resolution of 320 x 480. Samsung are starting to use AMOLED displays more frequently in their devices, and we hope that other manufacturers follow suit. Using less power than standard TFT displays, which is better for the battery of course, AMOLED displays offer brighter colour definition and placed side by side with another device, really does stand out.

Android devices are still few and far between, although a good number of devices running this operating system are expected to be launched in the coming months. By taking the lead in releasing an Android powered device, Samsung have given themselves the opportunity to really lay down the marker against their rivals, and deliver a high powered device, ready to lead the market. And by and large, that is exactly what they have done. Now, there are areas, as we will see, that can be improved upon, and probably will be over time by subsequent devices, but the Galaxy device is probably one of the most well featured Android devices on the market right now.

As Android relies so much on web integration, particularly with Google services, connectivity options need to be well catered for. The i7500 doesn’t disappoint in this regard, offering 3.5G HSDPA Mobile Broadband download speeds at up to 7.2Mbps, alongside HSUPA for high speed uploads at up to 5.76Mbps. The usual back up options are available for those times when you are not in 3G coverage, with GPRS and EDGE Class 10, plus HSCSD all included. We also find WiFi too, which can be used for net browsing at cafes, libraries, etc. The Galaxy includes Bluetooth 2.0 for stereo wireless audio streaming, although as with other Android devices only headset support is included. For some reason file transfer via Bluetooth is not supported with the out-of-the-box set up.

The Galaxy has a well featured media player, with support for MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA and RA audio files, plus WMV, MPEG$ and 3gp video files. There currently is no support for DivX or XviD, although I don’t doubt that sometime soon there will be a third party application available that will allow viewing of these file types. Unfortunately, there is no FM radio included here. Memory capacity internally on the device is an accommodating 8GB, which can be expanded by using MicroSD memory cards.

Of all the Android based handsets, the camera on the Galaxy is probably one of the better set ups, with a 5.0 Megapixel camera included, with autofocus and an LED flash. Other such options that we have come to expect on mainstream devices, such as image stabilisation, Face and smile detection, etc, are not included, we can only hope these features will be added on later devices, but we do find the built in GPS receiver being put to good use here to allow geotagging of images captured on the phone.

It wouldn’t be right to end this preview of the i7500 without at least a quick heads up for the Android market. For the few who may not know, all Android devices are based on an open source system, allowing for easy download and installation of third party applications, and there are many to choose from in the Android market place. A lot of them are free, and for those that need to be paid for the majority of apps average between £1 to £2, with a few applications costing a little bit more. It is through the Android market place that the system can come alive and really be customised to your own tastes, with many applications offering unique content and functionality. Look out for our review of the Android market place, which is coming soon.

So, overall, it is easy to see that the Samsung i7500 Galaxy is a top class smartphone, with a smart user interface accessed by a smooth touch screen. Well featured and with a smart look, the i7500 is set to be a top seller. No official release date from Samsung as yet, rumours suggest Q4 2009.

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