Samsung i7500 Galaxy (Android)

Firmware: 1.5, I7500XXIH6, 2.6.27 hudson@andy #1, 76XXCSDCBALUM6375

In general, I have found that Samsung phones, while popular for their basic voice and texting, have pretty much sucked for 3 party application developers. For this reason they haven't been much use to us in the company.

It would appear, however, that Samsung knows this too, hence their jumping on the Android band-wagon. Finally samsung has produced a spiffy phone that developers can love too.

I think this phone is probably the nicest Android phone so far, especially if one is not a fan of HTC devices.

Note: I had some trouble because I originally bought this model from eXpansys UK and it turned out it was a grey-market phone from the UAE (Firmware 1.5 Kernel 2.6.27 wootae77@SE-S409 #1 Build number 76XXCSDCBALUM6375). Unfortunately it was without support for the Android Market application (which defeats the point of Android, really -- shame on Google for allowing Android phones to be shipped without the Market app or not making it easily available in a subsequent download). I subsequently sent that one back and bought a proper UK phone on contract from O2.

I'm not a big fan of the fact that it is touchscreen only (no keyboard or number pad) but that is a taste issue only. Battery life seems pretty great.

This phone doesn't suck.