My Review of The Samsung I5500 Galaxy 5

I've always had crappy cell phones and was a technological luddite when it came to those new fangled smart phones. Yes 'smart' phones, you know, the ones that cost you an arm and a leg to own and then you still have to pay a fortune every month for the service? What's so smart about that? Well, after many reliable years of service from my seemingly indestructible flip phone, I finally bit the bullet and purchased this Samsung I5500 Galaxy 5. I had no choice the darn flip phone wouldn't die. It's been through the washer and the dryer and after about a day of drying out it came out as good as new! You see, the "five" button was sticking, so I guess the soap and water fixed that! .. hmm, maybe I'm writing a review on the wrong phone, no,no, back to the Samsung.

I went with Virgin Mobile as my provider and was very satisfied with the overall package I chose. It was perfect for me, I got a kick ass local calling package that gave me 200 outgoing minutes, unlimited incoming talk and chat, with NO DATA PLAN. I was able to take a regular plan without data because I purchased the phone. I did not want internet on my phone... I simply use my home wi-fi connection to get apps and browse if I wanted to.

I have recently cut my monthly plan and now use the phone on a pay as you go basis. I consider it as my mp3 player and personal organizer that can also place the occasional phone call.

I also purchased some protection for my new phone. I got the rubber skin and the clear screen protector. The skin was super easy to install. The clear screen protector was a little harder. You need to be very precise with the placement of the plastic. If you don't lay it on just right you run the risk of having air bubbles which are very difficult to remove. Once installed the protection provided by these two products will save your phone from scratches in the long run and are well worth the extra cost.

My first experience with touch screen technology was the iPod touch. On this phone I found that the interface was initially not as intuitive as the iPod, however as you get used to it, and find what all the extra buttons do, you begin to prefer the interface of the Android over the Apple products. Android's free apps still have a long way to go before they even come close to where Apple's free apps are.

I quite preferred the mp3 player on the Samsung phone over the iPod! It was very easy to find your songs and even easier to manage your collection because, unlike the iPod, the Samsung's memory acts like an external hard drive when plugged into your pc. I just never 'got' the apple sync thing... sorry.

Keyboard typing on the Samsung is quite the challenge. The keys seem to be to small, often times you hit the wrong key. The iPod shines brightly in this department. To remedy this problem I just turn the phone to the horizontal position, this makes the keys bigger.

Yes! Why not? For the price it's almost a no-brainer. Even if you don't take a plan with anyone, this device can be used solely as an mp3 player. Hook it up to wi-fi and you could get your apps and stuff. The sound quality is great, and it is capable of playing mpeg4 files as well. It has excellent playlist editing capabilities.

The camera on it is cool, as it does panoramic shots! The video camera is excellent as well. Overall this is a great little device. I highly recommend this phone to anyone considering this type of purchase.