The story with Android has been quite similar these last few years: manufacturers seem to always be on the run to deliver bigger, faster, better, devices with more specs inside than anyone can humanly memorize. Dual-Core processors, 4.3″ screens, 3D displays, HD video recording… are all interesting, except they target what? maybe 5-10% of the users. The rest, well, they get very confused and somewhat overwhelmed with these features. They want a phone, that’s it. Maybe they want Facebook in there, a camera of sorts, and email would be a nice plus. For those, the Samsung Galaxy 5 is perfect.
The Galaxy 5 is the smartphone brother of the iconic Samsung Corby, a device with a simple design, dedicated keys for calls, quite limited features in terms of camera and other hardware, but it packs Android Eclair 2.1 instead of Samsung’s dumbphone OS. But the question is does this mix work?
In a word, yes. The Galaxy 5 has everything in it to take the average Joe phone user, seduce him, and introduce him to Android and smartphones. Below is a list of 5 things to love about the Galaxy 5.
1. It runs Android Eclair 2.1: while being a bit old, Eclair is miles ahead of Donut 1.6. Some markets, specifically in South America, have shipped Froyo 2.2 for the Galaxy 5, making it quite a modern offer in terms of software. And despite all the hardware limitations, the software is the full Android version, with the Samsung TouchWiz UI on top.
2. Samsung TouchWiz: although many people prefer the vanilla experience of Android, TouchWiz can easily get out of the way, letting you enjoy an almost plain experience. Yes, there is a set of Samsung-specific widgets, like Accuweather, Buddies, Feeds and Updates, but you can opt out of these and customize the homescreen as you prefer. The application menu is divided into pages of 16 applications each scrollable horizontally, which fits more on a small screen like this. The TouchWiz Gallery and Camera UI are really great to look at and use. Also included are many of Samsung’s specific applications like Type and Go, Files, but the notable ones are Layar and Swype. Swype specifically makes a nice difference as that keyboard is a lot easier and more convenient to use than the default Samsung keyboard, in both portrait and landscape.
3. D-Pad: when you have a screen as small as the 2.8″ one on the Galaxy 5, finger selection gets a bit complicated, no matter how small your fingers are. In the browser, while typing text, in selection windows, basically all over the phone, precise selection is quite difficult at least at first, so the D-Pad helps a ton with that. You can scroll through lists and text, select the items you want, move easily around the browser, point to and click a link, without a lot of trouble.
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