Last weekend a wonderful google phone Samsung Galaxy i7500 came to me. I would like to share my first impressions and give some tips to those who will use phones based on Android OS.

About a piece of iron

The phone is pretty nice. The main feature is a very bright capacitive AMOLED display. It is quite easily soiled, but this is compensated by the brightness and saturation of the screen. Compared with the main competitor (HTC Hero), the Galaxy is thinner, lighter, smaller, has a brighter display, 8 gigabytes of internal memory, but less RAM (I personally have not encountered a shortage of RAM yet). Much more detailed about the iron component was written in Mobile review .

Firmware

The phone came to me without a Russian interface (originally from Germany); later it turned out that this is not difficult to fix: you can download the firmware here , and the update instructions are here . Since Russian words are on average longer than English, some menu items are now not fully displayed. But now, without additional software, you have a Russian keyboard with switching to English.

Software

Unlike Hero with its Sense, Galaxy comes with a standard Android OS interface that does not sparkle with beauty (and is not always obvious), but it works quickly and after getting used to it, it turns out to be quite convenient. Android OS has warts, but the concept is that all the flaws are fixed by third-party applications. Google’s big bold plus for openness of the platform: in the security settings you can allow installing software from any sources. The Android Market does not have its own website; but fortunately there is Cyrket which is like a mirror of the Android Market for a regular browser. There are no paid programs in Russia yet; all the software that I put on my smartphone is free.

Important programs

• aContacts replaces the standard notebook; Contacts can now be searched using T9 for any part of a name or phone number.
• tasKiller free - Android does not provide for closing programs. You can live without it, but if you want to have control over the device, I advise you to install a similar program.
• WiFi OnOff and / or its analogs for Bluetooth and GPS allow you to quickly enable wireless functions; In the Russian firmware there is a similar program (although not so convenient in my opinion).

Useful programs

• SMS Backup allows you to synchronize sms with Gmail by IMAP.
• Wifi Analyzer conveniently and beautifully displays available networks and the channels they occupy. Very useful for resolving conflicts.
• RMaps - until the developers of Yandex sleep, Robert Developer done hours at dnuyu launcher that can not only Google Maps, but Yandex traffic jams (and even able to read off-line data in more detail in the developer blog, Yandex in Moscow cards occupy about polugiga).
• Russian Keyboard - Russian keyboard; If you decide not to Russify your Google Phone. Or if you want to erase the symbol with a stroke to the left.

Cool programs

• Google Sky Map - an indescribable feeling: you look at the stars through the phone (also try searching); Please note that in the old firmware the compass was a little broken, which is why the program worked quite strange.
• Metal Detector - metal detector (!).
• Bubble will make a level out of your phone.
• Labyrinth Lite - a labyrinth with a ball; like an iPhone, only better :).

Other

In fact, there are a lot of software: currency converters, calculators, Wikipedia optimized for google phone, GPS trackers, Documents To Go (for reading office formats), ssh client and much, much more. When installing software, pay attention not to the number of downloads, but to user ratings.

Conclusion

After bringing to mind the software filling, the phone began to make a very pleasant impression. It is very nice that you do not have to hack anything, free software is enough for almost all needs. I think that after a short period of time, Android will become one of the most popular telephone software platforms. If you have questions, ask.

UPD: For those who do not know anything about the platform, it is worth noting a full browser, full integration with mail, calendar and contacts from Google (you will never lose an important number and you will not forget an important reminder). Convenient communication via SMS in the style of IM. Cross-platform free SDK.