Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 review

Have we finally got a decent low cost Android smartphone?

The definitive Samsung Galaxy Europa review
The definitive Samsung Galaxy Europa review

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Battery life was surprisingly good. With a relatively slow processor and a smallish screen to drive, the 1200mAh battery managed to keep the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 going for two days of light use.

As every with any Android handset you are in charge daily territory, but if you happen to be outside mains power world you could survive for two days if you are frugal.

Frugal means not using Wi-Fi or GPS, and that latter is tempted with Google Maps and Google Maps Navigation. The GPS took rather a long time to get its first fix on where we were, but thereafter it was faster and more efficient.

Samsung galaxy europa i5500 review

We've already mentioned some of the apps Samsung adds to the Android standard fare. It also bundles the Layar augmented reality browser and an app called AllShare, which uses DLNA to share files across devices.

There is also a little memo app which you can use to make notes, even giving them different coloured backgrounds if you want to try to organise them a bit.

Samsung galaxy europa i5500 review

The Android Market is supplemented by Samsung's own app store which still has a woefully small amount of apps, although Samsung promises this is increasing all the time.