Samsung i5500 Corby Galaxy 5 Android Smartphone with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Touch Screen – No Warranty – Black - Official New Excellent Gadgets, Tools & Accesories

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Sean Crago “Sean Crago” (Santiago, Chile) –

  

Long time Linux user, first time Android user’s perspective: I picked up one of these and bought my wife a Google Nexus S in January of 2011. The screen is roughly half the size on this one & there is a very noticeable difference while trying to run games or failing to run 480p+ video content, but it works just fine for me. Bought it as a Sansa Clip+ replacement, and I’m extremely happy with it. No comments on voice quality, 3G/EDGE or GSM connection quality – I have yet to test the device with a SIM card, and am using it solely as a personal media player. (I.e. I got tired of waiting for a market enabled iPod Touch competitor)

What it can do:
* Angry Birds – Some lagginess when a media player is cranking MP3s out in the background, but no major issues. Occasionally hangs up & has to be killed in lengthy sessions.
* Voice search – Requires installing the speech-to-text synthesizer, but impressive accuracy & works fine on this limited hardware.
* Froyo – The Latin America firmware seems to work. Not accessible through Samsung’s provided Keis software, but available from third parties.
* Speaker – Respectable music playback & spoken word playback for its price range
* Camera – Take decent stills for its price range.
* Unplug/Plug-in pause/resume – Addictive feature, but likely common to many Android devices.
* Decent battery life – I’ve been charging it every two days or so, with regular use of the Wi-Fi in the evening and 3-4 hours of daily use as a media player with the screen turned off. Otherwise always kept in standby. (Again, this is SIM-free, no GSM radio usage.)
* Wi-Fi – WPA2 Wi-Fi support. Tethering seems to be an option in the Froyo firmware. Didn’t check the stock.
* MicroSDHC – No issues & good solid seating for my 16gb MicroSDHC card. Located behind the snap-on/snap-off battery cover, but the battery does not have to be removed to get to it. A 1 or 2GB card was included with the phone.
* Video – Converting to a lower bitrate seems to be necessary for most of my videos, but no complaints. Small enough screen that there’s nothing to be gained from sticking with higher resolutions.

What it does poorly:
* Wi-Fi disconnections – With both with stock firmware and the official Froyo build, my experience has shown the device to be prone to dropping the Wi-Fi connection when in use by certain apps, or more commonly when leaving.
* Volume levels – I frequently find myself wishing there was some sort of equalizer or system-level volume boosting functions I could use to compensate for low volume levels in certain audio tracks. Fine for normal music, but often inadequate with soft-spoken announcers in audio books and podcasts with heavy traffic noise. I will definitely have to buy amplified headphones prior to taking flying with this device.
* VPN connections – The Froyo VPN tool looks nice enough, but is extremely finnicky.
* FM Radio – Depends on a wired set of headphones for the FM antenna. A common problem, but slightly annoying.
* Apps-to-SD – This Froyo feature seems to be somewhat overrated. Frequent problems with apps that say they support the move, but then disappear from the application menu afterwards. Still, even after giving up, with some 30 apps installed, I have 30.8Mb of the 170Mb of internal flash available. Apparently this just isn’t that big a deal.

What it won’t do:
* Multitouch – Unfortunate, but made up for in large part by the numerous buttons & the D-pad.
* Flash (bulb) – It doesn’t have one, not that many do in this price range.
* Flash (Adobe) – The processor seems to be incompatible with the current builds of Adobe Flash. Haven’t personally tested it, but it’s not all that likely to work. There may be other workarounds.

Notes for battery hoardin’ folks:
* Uses MicroUSB chargers – Tested with BlackBerry charger & a solar charger without problems.
* 3.7v, 4.44wh, 1200mAh li-ion battery. M/N: AB474350BU

A few quick 5500-tested App recommendations: MortPlayer Audiobooks/Music, BeyondPod, Pulse, Aldiko, Comixology, Droid Comic Viewer, Angry Birds, and File Expert (That last gives integrated FTP & HTTP file management – I basically never use a USB connection for data transfers.)

Market glitches from use overseas, in Chile (not yet in the paid-app country white-list):
* I don’t know whether this is because of the firmware or my physical location, but it was impossible to obtain numerous free apps and ANY paid apps out of the box or after updating to Froyo. Using the new web-based app market, I can see paid apps, but none will allow me to install and many apps that ARE available through the normal market refuse to install due to “carrier restrictions” on this unlocked, SIM-free phone.
* Free apps I was unable to install included: Amazon’s Kindle & MP3 stores,…

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This is a great little phone, with many android capabilities. I’ve decided on it, to give a try to the android phone interface, compared to my long experience with windows mobile smart phones. It is generally a nice cellphone, with v. good price for a smart phone. Just be prepared to do some deciphering to change the default menu from an Eastern European language to English. Once done, most of things go fairly well after that.
I’d list here my overall impressions after using it for about a week:
1- Well built & light handset, with small screen, decent resolution (don’t expect AMOLED sharp, but it is good)
2- Responsive capacitive, single point touch screen (so no pinching or any other two-touch gestures).
3- This is essentially the i5500 Europa, which has the android 2.1, and android market access.
4- The camera is OK, but poor focus with mediocre images, so take it as it is, a phone camera.
5- Registering into the android market was a little slow, but I did it through registering my gmail account via wifi only, then things started to work well after that ( I use them mainly with wifi, without issues)
6- I’m trying to get the navigator to work with offline maps, but it seems tricky, I’ll give update if I get it to work.
7- Using the supplied Keis software on win 7, I was able to sync with my outlook directly for calendar & contacts, in addition to Google sync too.
8- Finally, downloading the android app killer app is a must, so you can keep your phone running smoothly.
All in all, a great smart phone, with good and peppy operating system that you can try with pleasure, without being forced to commit to the obscene mandatory data charges & 2Y contract extension with your service carrier.

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By 

Tay Arreaza Ch –

  

ME PARECE UN BUEN TELEFONO PERO LA PANTALLA ES MUY PEQUEÑA PARA MIS DEDOS. LA PRESENTACION PESO Y TAMAÑO DEL TELEFONO SON UNA DE LAS MEJORES QUE HE VISTO PARA UN TELEFONO DE ANDROID 2.1

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