Samsung Galaxy Spica review

The Samsung Galaxy was a turning point for Samsung. The Korean manufacturer tried different smartphone platforms including Windows Mobile (Omnia) and Symbian (I8510) before releasing its first Android-based device Samsung Galaxy.

Although, the Samsung Galaxy was a good first attempt on this new Android OS platform, but it still lacked some features available on similar competing devices. The Samsung Galaxy Spica (aka Galaxy Portal), however, is a slimmed down version of the original, both in features and price.

The key features of Galaxy Spica (I5700) include a 3.2 inch HVGA TFT  full touchscreen display, 800 MHz processor and 163MB internal memory up to 32 GB external memory via microSD card.

The device sports a 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera with geo-tagging features. It comes with a multi-format music player with a 3.5 mm audio jack and DivX Video Playback for superb multimedia experience.

Firstly, the internal memory of the Galaxy Spica has been streamlined to only 163MB. Compared to the Galaxy's 8GB of native storage, that's quite a jump. You can bolster both by adding a MicroSD card, but that means removing the back cover to access it - a little bit irritating if you have a number of different cards.

The screen on the Samsung Galaxy Spica has been downgraded. Although it's still 3.2 inches and 320x480 pixels, it's TFT technology rather than OLED. This means colours aren't as bright and it's hard to see in sunlight compared to OLED.

The design of the Galaxy has ben tweaked slightly too - the Spica features a diamond-shaped navigation button, where the original Galaxy uses the more traditional Samsung shape, as seen on older devices such as the Samsung D600.

The Galaxy Spica feels a little hardware button heavy. Compared to other Android devices that only include a single button, trackball or trackpad, the call answer and end buttons feel unnecessary as you can answer or end calls using the touchcreen.

After all, every HTC Android user seems happy with using the touchcreen to control calls. In fact, the Galaxy Spica adds two extra buttons than on the original. There's a home key and a search button. Both are handy, but add extra mess and bulk to the front of the phone.

Speaking of bulk, the Galaxy Spica (aka Galaxy Portal or Galaxy Lite), is slightly larger than its predecessor at 115x57x13.2mm. It's also slightly heavier - strange considering it's less feature-packed.

One area where the Galaxy Spica excels though, is speed. Samsung has bulked up the processor to run at 800MHz instead of the Galaxy's 528MHz. This does certainly make the device more usable, with few time delays - except when you're taking photos that is.

The 3.2 megapixel camera takes an age to focus and to process the photos and save them onto the memory card. Photo quality is also a little sub-standard. Traditionally, Samsung has excelled in its camera technology, but the photos taken on the Galaxy Spica are grainy and just not as vibrant as those taken on rival Android devices.

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