Bought an Android powered Samsung Spica

I’ve finally decided on buying a mobile phone based on the Android open mobile platform. There are currently two mobile phone manufacturers that offer Android based mobile phone in the Philippines (Samsung and HTC). I bought the Samsung GT-I5700 aka Galaxy Spica from a local cellphone store. Besides the big price difference (more than twice) between the Samsung Spica and the HTC Hero, the Samsung Spica uses a much faster 800Mhz CPU.

But the deciding factor was mostly the price of only about USD 300 for the Spica while the HTC Hero costs almost USD 800. Since I’d be using the Android phone mostly for development and some hacking, I opted for the Spica which is a bit light on the pocket in case I brick the phone. Samsung has also announced that it is updating it’s Android based Spica from the current version 1.5 software to version 2.1.

I’ve been using the Android based Samsung Spica for a couple of weeks now. I’ve downloaded some apps to start off. So far I’m impressed with it’s responsiveness / speed compared to my meager Nokia 5800 mobile phone which runs at 400+Mhz. I’ll be using the Samsung Spica for a couple more weeks before I post my personal review / experience with the Android phone. It’s several firsts for me. It’s the first time I am using a mobile phone from Samsung. It’s also my first Android based mobile phone.

I’ll post some unboxing pictures of the Samsung Spica later before posting my full review of the mobile phone. Which also reminds me to post my experiences to using the Nokia 5800 mobile phone and compare the two mobile phone platforms from a user perspective. More of them later.