Samsung Galaxy (2009 smartphone)
The Samsung Galaxy is a smartphone manufactured by Samsung that uses the Linux-based Android operating system, which was purchased and further developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance to create an open competitor to other major smartphone platforms of the time, such as Symbian, BlackBerry OS, and iPhone OS. The operating system offers a customizable graphical user interface, integration with Google services such as Gmail, a notification system that shows a list of recent messages pushed from apps, and Android Market for downloading additional apps.
The device was announced on 27 April 2009 and was released on 29 June 2009 as the first Samsung Mobile device to use the Android operating system introduced in the HTC Dream, and the first in what would become the long-running Galaxy series. It was succeeded by the Samsung Galaxy S in 2010.
Features
The Galaxy is a smartphone, offering quad-band GSM and announced with tri-band HSDPA at 7.2 Mbit/s. The phone features a 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with power LED flash, and a digital compass. Unlike the first Android phone, the HTC Dream, the i7500 has a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a Directional Pad in place of a trackball.The Galaxy offers a suite of Mobile Google services, including Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar, and Google Talk. The phone's GPS enables Google Maps features such as My Location and Google Latitude. It also supports MP3, AAC, and H.264 video. A beta version of the Spotify music streaming service was also available for this phone via the Android Market.
Criticism
Due to a lack of software updates, Samsung received criticism from original Galaxy users.For some countries, Samsung updated the Galaxy's software to Android Donut. Users from other countries could download and update manually at the risk of bricking the device.