Samsung I5500 Galaxy 5 Review

I have a bad habit of losing my mobile phone, so the thought of spending nearly a thousand dollars on an iPhone has put me off buying one.  I love technology and I am a bit of a geek, but spending so much money on a phone and then having the chance of losing it, is too heart breaking for me.

Lately I have been hearing so much about Google's Android phone and how it can be installed even on inexpensive hardware, I thought I would have a closer look what options were available. After spending some time searching I found an LG model which looked interesting, but the model is not yet available in Indonesia.

The sales staff then showed me the Samsung I5500 Galaxy 5. I had heard of the Galaxy S, but it is priced similarly to an iPhone. I wasn't sure if I would like using a touchscreen or Google's Android, so I thought the Galaxy 5 was a good entry model, priced at 2 million rupiah or around US$200.

The phone is compact in size but packs in many features found in similar smart phones, including. Wifi, bluetooth, GPS, camera and micro SD card (2GB included). The camera is not great, but that is not much of a concern to me.

Smartphones are like mini-computers with a phone built in! The functionality can be improved by installing application's from Google's Marketplace. There are so many free apps and games available like the popular "Angry Birds".

You can plug an ordinary set of headphones into the phone and use it to listen to music or the inbuilt radio. Since it runs Google Android, you can easily set up your Gmail on the phone. Google is improving it map service all of the time and that is also inbuilt into the phone – never get lost again!

Since the screen is quite small it is difficult hitting the right keys on the QWERTY keyboard. There is also a Swipe function, but I haven't gotten used to that. If you want to type a lot on your phone and have big fingers, you might want to look at another phone. The battery life of the phone with its so many features, is not suprisingly, not great. It is best if you are not using Wifi or GPS, it is probably better to switch them off to save battery life.

In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy 5 is a great entry level Android/Smartphone that is not going to break the bank.