I don't know if Android is a popular OS here in the Philippines, I know of a Pinoy Mac forums wherein iPhone users gather to share info, I know of a Pinoy Windows Mobile forums that supBy ports Windows Mobile users in the Philippines but I have yet to find a dedicated Android forum. Anyways, with that said, there's not a lot of Android handsets in the market. It's only HTC with their HTC Hero but price for the Hero is around 25k for a brand new unit so it's not cheap. Then along comes Samsung and introduced their Galaxy Spica which is the cheapest Android handset we'll see in the Philippine market today. PHP15,000 for a brand new unit is not bad considering that most smartphones retail at around 20k and above.
Design
By looking at the Samsung Galaxy Spica alone, you wouldn't think that this is a smartphone especially the white one which is a bit cutesy and looks a bit like a toy because everything is made of plastic. On one hand, the white unit prevents fingerprint smudges all over the phone so that's a good thing and white handsets tend to turn heads so its another plus for those looking for fashion phones. I hate the fact that the battery cover needs to be pried open rather than the usual way which is to slide it open. The screen is 3.2 inches in size and is an AMOLED screen so expect colors to be vibrant but also expect visibility to suffer in direct sunlight.
Features
Like I've mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy Spica is a smartphone as it runs Android 1.5. Of course, it's not the latest built of Android since the Hero is running 1.6 and the Motorola Milestone is running 2.0 but there's word going around that the Galaxy Spica is due for an Android 2.1 update this coming March. Let's hope that that update reaches Asia.
The Samsung Galaxy Spica has an 800Mhz processor, it's the 2nd fastest processor on an Android device, the first being on the Google Nexus One. The UI is pretty snappy thanks to the capacitive screen. Navigating the handset is almost comparable to the iPhone 3G. I'd recommend downloading a task switcher at the marketplace to kill background apps to make this phone running smoothly. Opening a lot of applications at the same time would bogged down the system.
The onscreen keyboard is similar to that found on the Motorola Milestone, typing is okay and you can make use of the directional pad in case you need to go back and erase typographical errors. The Samsung Galaxy Spica has threaded messaging though since this is an early build of Android, your contacts picture doesn't show in the inbox and your conversations panel. You can import your contacts from your simcard or if you already have contacts in your Google account, you can simply input your Google username and password and sync your contacts and calendar.
Audio quality is good although the speakers can be found at the back so you have to turn your phone over so as to not muffle any sounds. There's a 3.5mm headset jack on top of the phone and Samsung included a cute white headset similar to the iPhone's. Audio quality through the headset is good too.
The Samsung Galaxy Spica supports DivX videos, and this is a first for Android handsets. I was actually looking for DivX player for the Motorola Milestone and I was disappointed to find out that there's no player for Android. The bad news is that the DivX video needs to be the same resolution as the handset resolution in order for the player to play it smoothly. You also can't play your DivX videos directly from the gallery so you need to download a file explorer in order to search for your videos on your microSD card.
The web browser is another thing to love about the Samsung Galaxy Spica. It's not as fast as the one on the Milestone or the iPhone but its faster than the ones on Symbian or windows mobile phones. BTW, there's no multi touch support on the Galaxy Spica but again, let's hope that the Android 2.1 firmware update will resolve that.
The camera is one of the things I hate on the Samsung Galaxy Spica. I mean three options?! Really Samsung, that's all you can do? However, even though camera options are limited, there's autofocus, just half press on the camera button to focus and then full press to take a shot. Image quality is good in sunlit conditions.
The Samsung Galaxy Spica has 3G HSDPA for faster internet connection, WiFi, Bluetooth with A2DP, and GPS. Like the iPhone, Bluetooth file transfer doesn't really work on Android, only stereo Bluetooth pairing with the headset. There's no dedicated GPS application which is really too bad. I miss having the Garmin application or MapAsia to get turn by turn directions here in Metro Manila. You can make use of the GPS for geo-tagging or using Google Maps.
Final Word
15,000 for a smartphone and Android at that? You can't go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy Spica. Of course, the camera is a big disappointment so those looking to be amateur photographers with their mobile phones should stay away from this handset. But come on! Again, 15k for an Android handset? (14k if you look hard enough), this is a bargain and the promise of Android 2.1 in the future, I'd say someone better put up a dedicated Pinoy Android forums soon.
