The engineers at Samsung seem to have been locked up with the condition for release set at one top quality phone per month. As if the phenomenal success enjoyed by the Star and the Omnia was not enough, Samsung is back with the Galaxy. There is another specialty to the Galaxy. It happens to be Samsung’s first Android powered phone. Powered by the latest version 1.5 of Google’s mobile OS, the phone features some breath taking graphics and widgets. Boosted hardware, a 5 MP camera and an excellent AMOLED touch screen make this phone a hot contender in the war of the PDA phones.

Design and Display:
It is light and it is slim but otherwise there is nothing that could be very praiseworthy about the design. The Galaxy comes packed in a curvy black matt finish body with the regular. At just 119 Gms, the phone is not one of the lightest but without doubt is the slimmest around. The 3.2 inch screen occupies most of the front of the phone with the familiar Samsung buttons below it. Navigation is through an old school D pad which might not be as comfortable as the trackball but serves its purpose wonderfully. Surrounding it is the home key, the back key and the menu key. The send and end keys are placed below them. The phone is mostly bare on the sides with the left side housing the volume rocker and the right side the shutter key and the hold key.

The phone’s display complements the Android’s UI and is very comfortable at 3.2 inches. The AMOLED capacitive touch screen responds very well to the fingers and supports 16 M colors. The Android has improved vastly since the last release on the G1 and now comes with a virtual QWERTY keypad, an improved widget and graphics and live folders. “Live folders” is a concept unique to the Android wherein the content of particular folders can be set to update automatically. Live folders are especially useful for filling in RSS, contacts or any other information that is regularly updated.

Camera and Multimedia:
Samsung has been a pioneer in fitting high resolution cameras into mobile phones and in this version you will find a 5 MP camera fit in. The camera is as good as a professional one with a LED flash, auto focus and digital zoom. The picture quality is simply fabulous and the flash ensures a similar quality even in dim light.

The Android interface helps a great deal in capturing great quality video with the screen acting as the viewfinder.

The music player can be accessed directly or through the desktop widget. A widget though does not come with complete features and can be tapped to go straight to the player. The player offers search and play list facilities with support for all popular music formats.

The video player is pretty basic but then the Android is still being built and much more can be expected in the upcoming releases.

Organizer and email:
Android’s calendar and clock are exceptional and can be used effectively to plan the upcoming days to perfection. Complete with alarms, reminders and to do lists the organizer is probably the best of the lot.

What’s a Google product without Gmail integration? The galaxy features integrated Gmail while still keeping the enterprise email facility expected of PDA phones.

Specifications:

Display: 3.2 inch HVGA AMOLED capacitive touch screen with support for 16M colors.
Dimensions: 115 x 56 x 11.9 mm.
Weight: 119 Gms.
Camera: Main camera – 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, auto focus, LED flash and video recording.
Secondary camera – No.
Audio: Music player with support for MP3/ e-AAC+/ WMA/ RA player.
Video: Video player with support for MP4/ H.263/ H.264/ WMV.
Messaging: SMS, MMS, and Email including Gmail and Instant Messaging with gTalk.
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, mini USB, Wi-Fi.
Internet: EDGE, GPRS, 3G HSDPA, HSUPA, HSDSC, built in browser with flash support.
Games: Built-in and downloadable.
Memory: 8 GB internal with support for microSD up to 16 GB.
Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1440 mAh with stand-by time up to 450 hours and talk time up to 6.5 hours.
Extras:
* Android OS v1.5 Cupcake.
* Accelerometer for auto rotation of the screen.
* Multi touch input.
* Search key.
* GPS with A-GPS support and Google Maps.
* Digital Compass.
* Widget support.
* Organizer.
* YouTube integration.
* Picassa integration.
* Geo tagging.
* Quick Office for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF.
* Spare Parts. This application lets you configure the hardware End key to suit your needs.