It’s taken a year, but the Samsung Galaxy i7500, Sammy’s first bash at an Android smartphone, is finally here, and we’ve snagged one of our very own to try out. Is this Google fuelled phone out of this world, or will it just drive you out of your mind? Read on for our full Samsung Galaxy i7500 review and find out.
We were over the moon when we first found out that Samsung was signed up to churn out an Android blower: the South Korean tech giant’s known for cramming its phones full of all the latest cutting edge gear, then forgetting to put useable software down over the top of them. With Google looking after the operating system on the Samsung Galaxy i7500 though, we had fingers, head, shoulders, knees and toes crossed we’d have one of the world’s best smartphones on our hands. Do we?
Yes and no. On the one hand, the Samsung Galaxy i7500 has specs to stomp all over the iPhone. Both go toe to toe with 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS, but the Galaxy packs a 5 megapixel camera you’d be more used to finding on one of its feature phones, and one nuke of a secret weapon: an AMOLED screen.
Compared to plain old LED screens, AMOLED displays are unquestionably better. The Samsung Galaxy i7500’s screen is brighter than a MENSA member in a neon shellsuit, and makes pictures seriously ogglable. It’s certainly the best we’ve ever peeped on an Android phone, and only topped by the sharper panel on the Samsung Jet.
In fact, calling it the Android Jet wouldn’t be a bad description: both look extremely similar, decked out it in a black medal body that feels much classier than anything HTC, LG or Huawei boast in their lineups. That does mean one drawback too, mind: the keyboard on the Samsung Galaxy i7500 is ugly, and poorly laid out when it comes to switching between letters and numerals.
Speaking of software issues, Samsung’s late to the party with the Samsung Galaxy i7500: we’ve now reached the point where plain Android doesn’t cut it anymore. We expect jaw dropping skins draped over the top like the social network tooled HTC Hero has with Sense, and going back to that instantly recognisable blue screen feels a bit, well, boring now.
If you’re used to Samsung’s phones already, you’ll love the extra IQ points Android gives the Samsung Galaxy i7500. Is it the best specced, best looking Android phone yet? Unquestionably. But it doesn’t beat the HTC Hero: Samsung’s still neglecting the software, and until it realises this, upstart Turks like HTC will have the edge.
