Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 Smartphone Reviews and Deals

Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 review

Good

Stylish all-rounder, cheap, feels good in the hand

Bad

Not a great screen, pointless buttons

Overview

When I first popped the Samsung Galaxy Europa out of the box, it immediately put a smile on my face. It is pleasantly chunky looking with a nice blend of black and chrome, plus a curvaceous back that adds to the elegance. In short, it's a nice looking phone.

This is all the better when you look at the price tag - right now (Feb 2011) you can grab this little fellow free on contracts costing less than £15, or grab one SIM free for well under £200. That's pretty good for an Android smartphone made by one of the world's leading handset brands.

And this is a fully functioned touchscreen smartphone. Everything is in place - 3G, camera, multimedia, Android Market access, email, internet etc. If you're looking for a cheap mobile that ticks all the boxes, this is a good place to start your search. 

However, while it ticks all the right boxes, it's also fair to say it doesn't tick them all with big red pen.

Work

Whether the Samsung Galaxy Europa is going to be a smartphone good enough to please the boss is going to depend very much on what you need to do with it. If you simply need a phone you can check your mail on, use for simple memos/calendar entries, or even a spot of GPS navigation, then no problem.

You're dealing with an Android smartphone, so all the Google goodies are in place. The email client is a synch to set up, while Google Maps Navigation is a joy to use. The on screen keyboard is also adequate, despite the visible screen being well under three inches across.

But that little screen means tasks such as editing files are going to be hard work at best. And when you throw in that the processor is only 600MHz, you shouldn't expect too much hard work from the Europa. On the bright side, the 1200mAh battery won't have a problem keeping you going all day.

To put things in perspective, the BlackBerry Curve is almost the same size (its a little wider), is designed as a work handset, has a full QWERTY keyboard and can also be picked up free on £15 contracts.

Play

Arguably the point of touchscreen Android smartphones, everything is in place on the Samsung Galaxy Europa for you to play to your heart's content: music player, video player, camera, app/games stores etc etc. However, while being a Jack of all trades, the 'master of none' part of that saying also rings true.

As we mentioned above, the TFT capacitive screen isn't up to much. It is responsive, which is of course vitally important, but at 2.8 inches and 240x320 pixels you're not going to want to watch many video clips on here. 

That said, the image is pretty sharp and you can tap to zoom, so looking at internet pages is a better experience than you might think. But if you're going to be using your smartphone for viewing a lot of videos or web pages, you should probably opt for a model with a larger viewable screen.

Access to both the Android and Samsung marketplaces is quick and simple, with a vast range of downloadable games and apps available. One of your first ports of call will probably be the ringtones section - the ones supplied on board are hideous.

The camera is two-megapixel with very little in the way of bells and whistles available. However, it takes a good enough picture if you're just looking to upload stuff to Facebook and not shove your artistic gems on billboards. 

Connectivity

Talking of Facebook, you'll have no bother getting to grips with all your favourite social networking sites from the Europa. In fact, in terms of connectivity, you should have no problems at all.

As a Google Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Europa has all the connectivity options you'd expect - after all, Google is all about getting online and into the cloud. You'll get 3G HSPA at up to 7.2Mb speeds (which is more than adequate for the UK), Wi-Fi is easy to set up, while there is also Bluetooth and simple computer syncing via a standard microUSB port.

Performance

Across the board, we had no real complaints in terms of performance. Call quality, feel in hand and on-screen keyboard made for a pleasurable and reliable call and texting experience, while the menus were quick and responsive.

We didn't push the Galaxy Europa too hard in terms of trying to break its back, but that was more due to the fact it isn't the kind of phone that demands it - I don't think someone looking to push a smartphones to its limits would look twice at it. 

However, what we did ask of it, it was up to the task. The processor chugged along nicely and if you're going to be talking, texting, surfing, navigating and listening to some tunes, we're sure you'll get along just fine.

The one area that got my goat was at the bottom of the handset, where you'll find six (yes, six) buttons plus a central button/directional pad. I'm not sure any of the extra six are really necessary, although the two call/end buttons at least made sense and were easily visible. It's the four above those (two each side) that really irk. Not only are they pointless and a little confusing, they're also often impossible to see due to the poor design - if its dark, you've got no chance. 

Verdict

Overall though, I'll definitely give the Galaxy Europa the thumbs up. Samsung has really got the hang of Android now and this handset shows you can make successful smartphones at the cheaper end of the market that are still fully functioned, if not quite as sexy as their bigger brothers.

The Europa does the basics without fuss and can do more demanding tasks adequately, making it a great introductory smartphone. The ease of use of the built in Google apps adds to this, while the wealth of apps available makes it even more appealing to the younger generation.

It also looks good and feels good, making it a strong all rounder. As long as you're not wanting a back up TV, as the screen (and camera) are the biggest low points, then the Samsung Galaxy Europa is a very strong budget smartphone contender.

Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 specification and features

Model

Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500

Manufacturer

Samsung

Operating system

Android 2.1 (Eclair)

Colours

Black, white

Mobile internet

WiFi

Yes

3G

Yes

HSDPA

No

Size

Size

108mm x 56mm x 12mm

Weight

102g

Features

Talktime

10 hrs

Standby

521 hrs

Touchscreen

Yes

QWERTY keyboard

No

Camera

2 megapixel

Video

Yes

GPS

Yes

Bluetooth

Yes

Music Phone

No

FM Radio

Yes

Quad Band

Yes

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