Upside

One of the key specifications of the I5700 is its 800MHz processor. There are other phones in the Samsung stable with such a specification, namely the Jet and Omnia II–both of which have benefited from the higher clock speed. Currently, other Android phones such the HTC Magic commonly employ the 528MHz Qualcomm chip, so it’ll be interesting to see how much faster the Galaxy Spica will be. 

For those concerned with multimedia playback, the I5700 has a few convenient features. Firstly, it comes with a full 3.5mm audio connector so you can plug in a standard set of headphones without an adapter. 

More unique is its DivX support. This video codec gives high-quality video with small file sizes and is a popular file format for full-length movies viewed on computers. The ability to simply copy these files without conversion onto the Galaxy Spica should be quite useful for those who enjoy watching movies on-the-go.

Downside

Being a scaled-down version of the original Galaxy, the Spica does come with a few features stripped out. Firstly, instead of 8GB built-in memory, it has only 180MB. Its microSD slot accepts up to 32GB card, so the lack of internal memory doesn’t so much cripple the I5700 as merely pose a slight inconvenience. 

The I7500 came with a 5-megapixel camera, while the I5700 has a lower-resolution 3-megapixel sensor. This will affect those who print out photos from their smartphones, but should not concern those who view the shots only on the phone’s screen. 

Even though Android 1.6 has been released, the Galaxy Spica will come with the older version 1.5. Some advantages of 1.6 are faster camera response and an upgraded Android Market interface–things that will be missing from the I5700 unless Samsung issues and updates to the latest version.

Outlook

The Galaxy Spica I5700 is out in Europe. Samsung is still unable to comment on its availability and price in Asia–we’ll bring you more information as that becomes known.

[John Chan]