The I7500, Samsung's first Android phone, would be available in major European countries in June 2009. Tuesday, April 28, 2009: Samsung Electronics has launched the I7500 -- its first Android-powered mobile phone. The Samsung I7500 follows the HTC Dream (also marketed as T-Mobile G1, Era G1 in Poland) -- the first phone to the market that uses the Android platform. Samsung's Android handset features a 3.2-inch Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) touchscreen and 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, giving users access to Google Mobile services and full Web browsing at blazing speeds.
The Samsung I7500 offers users access to the full suite of Google services, including Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar and Google Talk. The integrated GPS receiver enables the use of Google Maps features, such as My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route description.
Hundreds of other applications are available in Android market. For example, the application Wikitude, a mobile travel guide, allows consumers to access details of unknown sights via location-based Wikipedia articles.
The Samsung I7500 comes with latest multimedia features. Along with supporting a 5-megapixel camera and various multimedia codec formats, the I7500 also provides a long enough battery life (1500mAh) and memory capacity up to 40GB (Internal memory: 8GB, External memory: Up to 32GB) to enjoy all the applications and multimedia content. The phone also boasts its slim and compact design with 11.9mm thickness. It also includes a 3.5mm headphone socket.
The HTC Magic, on the other hand, has a 3.2-inch LCD screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera, is 13.6mm thick and has a 1340 mAh battery. It has no 3.5mm headphone socket.
Commenting on the launch, JK Shin, executive vice president and head, mobile communication division, Samsung Electronics, said, "Samsung is amongst the earliest members of the Open Handset Alliance and has been actively moving forward to introduce the most innovative Android mobile phone. With Samsung’s accumulated technology leadership in mobile phone industry and our consistent strategy to support every existing operating system, I believe that Samsung provides the better choices and benefits to our consumers."
The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June 2009. The company has not revealed pricing for the device.
Motorola is also working on hardware products that would run Android. Sony Ericsson is planning to release an Android based handset in the summer of 2009. Acer is rumored to be releasing phones called the L1, C1, E1, F1 and A1 (unconfirmed) late in 2009.
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