Samsung i7500 Galaxy Re-boxing

If you’re unlucky you’ll have heard of unboxing videos, where someone laboriously unpacks their latest gadget purchase, appreciatively describing each piece of cardboard and polystyrene in excruciating detail, and videoing the whole thing for the ‘benefit’ of the world. Frequently the gadget in question seems to be made by Apple, because who else but a purchaser of Apple products would do such a thing? Anyway, not to be outdone, here is my re-boxing post and photograph.

The star of the show is a Samsung i7500 Galaxy, which I suppose you would describe as an Android-based smartphone. In other words it’s like an iPhone but better, not least because you can run any software you want on it without having to ask Steve Jobs for permission. Unfortunately, this particular specimen is under the impression that a ghostly hand is pressing the buttons down the right-hand side of the phone at random intervals, especially when it’s making a noise. This has many annoying side effects, not least that every incoming call gets cut off and sent to voicemail – fair enough, since that’s my most common response to an incoming call. I’d rather have the choice though, so it’s gone back in the box and O2 are (hopefully) bringing a replacement today.

Apart from this irritating behaviour, first impressions are good. I’ve had it about a week and the only real complaint I have is the battery life. Poor battery life is a common feature of all these new-fangled phones though, and turning things off when you’re not using them (especially GPS and background sync) makes things a lot better.

The only other issue is that it ships with Android 1.5, and Samsung are currently saying they won’t be shipping a 2.0 upgrade for this model. Right now I’m not that bothered, but I know I will be later. If they stick to that, then like many others I won’t touch another Samsung product as long as I live. The option is always there to re-flash the whole thing with an unofficial Android 2 build anyway.

Applications

All the data I have on the phone is synced online to various places, so replacing it is no great hassle. The only thing I’ll have to do is reinstall the various applications I’ve installed so far, a job that will take less than five minutes, especially as I’ve made this list:

• ConnectBot – SSH client. Using this with a touchscreen keyboard is sheer hell – it took me over 5 minutes to type ‘tail /var/log/rabbitmq/rabbit.log’, for example. Handy for emergencies only.
• GPS Speedometer – it’s a speedometer. Not all that useful in itself, but it’s the only application I’ve found so far that holds the GPS open permanently. Without it, if you’re using Google Maps and switch away to another application, you can end up losing the GPS lock and have to wait for it to get it again when you switch back.
• Compass (Snaptic) – does what it says on the tin.
• GPSTest – good for figuring out what’s going on with the GPS, what satellites it’s using, what accuracy you’re getting, etc. Probably unnecessary, but my 2001-vintage handheld GPS shows all this by default when it’s powering up, so I feel lost without it.
• Google Sky Map – brilliant – point it at the sky and it tells you what you’re looking at. I normally use Stellarium for this, but a PC doesn’t know which direction you’re looking, and you have to tell it where you are. Plus, you rarely have one in the pocket of your jeans.
• Ultimate Stopwatch and Timer – everyone needs a stop watch, don’t they?
• Mustard – StatusNet-compatible microblogging client.
• Bubble – not so many people need a spirit level, but it comes in handy.
• Barcode Scanner – I haven’t (yet) found a genuine use for this, but maybe I will one day.