When my entire family (Mom & Dad included) shifted to Androids recently, I found my pet mobiles, the E52 and the Blackberry 9700 being increasingly looked down upon with disdain. And sometimes
for good reasons too. Nokia’s stubbornness in offering Android on its phones and Blackberry’s obsession with the 2.4 inch screen size and out of sync pricing (the Dakota wont retail for less than 30K when it does) have made upgrades difficult for Nokia/Blackberry fanboys like me.
So with a heavy heart, I decided to give Androids a try. Whats more a "Samsung" Android ! Didnt want to spare more than 10K on a new OS and research suggested Galaxy Pro (GP) as a good alternative.
For the reader who’s looking for quick core specs, GP is a 800Mhz candybar machine with a 2.8 inch capacitative touchscreen, full qwerty keypad, upto 32 GB of card support, 3G, Wifi (b/g/n), 3.2
Mp camera and Android 2.2 as the stock OS driving the machine. But as many of us have learnt the hard way, core specs are of little use if they arent optimised (something Apple & Blackberry do
very well ). So for a more practical peek, read on.
The first things that scares you about androids is over 40-50 icons on the menu, most of them redundant or of little use. I dont see any reason why every application should have an icon/shortcut
pinned to the menu table. Of course you may sort/club/remove them but why waste the time ? With this kinda background, the Samsung user interface looks more like a cheap iPhone ripoff than anything else. It lacks the ’slickness’/organised look of a Blackberry or a Sony or even a Nokia. It still gets the job done mind you.
Though GP has a metal lining along its edges giving it a solid feel, the back cover, as in most Samsungs, is a big disappointment. The cover has a plasticy feel, is extremely fidget-prone and difficult to remove which means in the absence of card hotswap, you’ll have a tough time removing it to access your microSD card.
Applications - This is where all androids score heavily. Tons of free applications/games (Angry Birds, Fruit slice, X Constructions, Ninja, Pinball, etc are great games you can get for free) that you can
download from the Android Market. The big rider is you cannot download from Android Market to your computer and then transfer them to the mobile. You have to download on mobile which of course might cost you dearly.
A couple of features that make GP really stand out are the large qwerty keypad and support for Flash 10.1. The keys are large and very very "click savvy". This translates to one of the best typing experiences you can get on phones. With Flash 10.1, web browsing is a pleasant experience and most websites are rendered without glitches. In case of GP, browsing is somewhat restrained by a low resolution screen (320*240). Still it makes for a very good "socialising phone" package. Bluetooth 3.0 further ensures that file transfer is really really nippy.
GP comes with a modest 3.2 Mpx camera (with autofocus) which lets you take passable Facebook pics and Youtube videos (QVGA @ 30fps) but nothing more. But what I’m really surprised to note is the lack of flash. Samsung androids seem to have an aversion to flash for reasons best known to them (Even the 19K Galaxy S used by my wife doesnt have flash !). A 10K mobile not having flash is seriously impaired in the photography deptt., Rajeev_Vermacially if "Night life" is habit with you :-P
The other funny thing is lack of a videocall camera. When videocalls werent offered by service providers every damn mobile used to have a secondary VGA camera. Now that the service is becoming affordable, the cameras have disappeared all of a sudden !
Battery - Androids are power guzzlers. Whereas my Blackberry/E52 could easily go 4 days without charge with moderate use, the Galaxy Pro (and other androids) finds it hard to last two days without charge. You need at least a 1400-1500 mAh battery to give you something of a battery life on Androids and the GP with 1350mAh rating barely makes the cut.
As you can see for yourself the Galaxy Pro comes with a few compromises. But then you have to remember its a 9k Android machine. And for the amount of money spent, its brings in quite a few goodies to the table, Rajeev_Vermacially if you a looking for a great "modestly priced Android typing machine" !