REVIEW of Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660: Average Gio

Introduction

It’s devices like the Samsung Galaxy Gio that helped Android gain so much ground in so little time. They are a better bargain than the uber-smartphone and find their way into people’s pockets a lot easier. With that goal in mind, the Galaxy Gio must be an all-round pleaser of a phone.

    
Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660

They may soon be running out of names for the Galaxy lot. But it will be when number plates start to fall short that they’ll know they’re in trouble. Back to the point though. Boy number S5660 is called Gio. He’s a teenager – mischievous and fun, too young for a suit and tie.

It’s a decent offer for the midrange: with a good enough version of Android (2.2.1 Froyo), good enough screen, a powerful 800MHz processor and a great connectivity set, ranging from 3G to GPS. There’s little to complain about, save for the imaging skills perhaps.

Here’s the rest of what the Galaxy Gio has to offer.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA support
• 3.2" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) resolution, multi-touch
• 800MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset; 278MB of RAM available to the user
• Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) with TouchWiz 3.0 UI
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n with Mobile Hotspot functionality
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• 3.2 MP autofocus camera with geo-tagging and face-detection
• QVGA@15fps video
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• microSD slot (up to 32GB, 2GB in box)
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• DNSe sound enhancement
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Document viewer
• Smart dialing
• Swype text input
• Samsung Apps brings a few nice apps for free

Main disadvantages

• Poor video recording
• No shutter key for the camera
• No Adobe Flash support in the web browser
• No ambient light sensor for auto brightness
• No DivX/Xvid video support out of the box

The Samsung S5660 Galaxy Gio obviously isn’t a camera-centric device. QVGA video and 3.2 MP stills don’t go a long way. But as a smartphone it has what it takes to be taken seriously.

    
Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660 live shots

The Samsung Galaxy Gio is a phone of compromise. If you’re looking to give smartphones a try, you may be willing to live without a killer screen and a brilliant camera. The Gio will be a good choice for newbies or budget upgraders, if the price is right.