Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660 - A short review

It's a well known wisdom that things should be given a second look before determining an opinion about them. Some of the best albums have to be listened to twice to get the nuances in them. Some books have to be read twice in order to get the full extend of the ideas behind them. Some people may seem uninteresting or rude, but given a second chance they become entertaining and pleasant.

The same goes for gadgets: at first I disliked in-ear headphones, but now I love them, and the same goes for laptops. Even my current smartphone: I was certain that I won't buy the HTC Desire because of his many flaws, but now I consider it the best device I've ever owned. But the problem is, that this second look may go the other way around too, and this is what's happening to me and my current work phone: the Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660.

I had to take this phone, I did not choose it, but at first it seemed good: light, small, sturdy, not too thick. It has a low-res but decent screen, the UI was quite snappy and it felt good to hold. Even the design is rather elegant and in line with the current Samsung products.

But this office romance between me and my new phone did not last long. It started with the realization that the email app was very good at a lot of things, but displaying emails was not one of them. Then I figured out that the battery seems to last about 24 hours, while it's on standby, without WiFi or Bluetooth running. If I dare using the phone for calling, I can do it for about 2 hours, at best. The screen is illegible even in semi-sunny days and the touch sensitivity reminds me of smart phones from 2006. It's not even tough as it looks: it scratches easily and when I once dropped it, the back cover dismantled. The worst thing about this phone is not any of these, it's actually the call quality: the sentence I say most while using it are "can you please repeat what you've just said?".

You can claim that this is just a mid-range phone, released more than one year ago. But this is not an excuse, because other cheap phones from that period, like the HTC Wildfire S are better in almost every respect. With the exception of its size and weight, I found no advantages for this phone over my 2 years old HTC Desire, and I will get rid of it as soon as my new phone will arrive.

And yes, I am getting a new phone, but I will write about it in a future post.

Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660
Year of purchase: 2012 (I didn't buy it, fortunately. Got it from work)
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1
Other stuff: GPS, 3MP camera, microSDHC, miniUSB, upgradable OS, Android 2.3.4-2.3.7, accelometer, digital compass.
Battery life: about 1 day
Display:: capacitive multi-touch display, 3.2" TFT, HVGA
What I liked: Nice looks, small, light
What I didn't like: Awful call quality, bad battery life, so-so build quality, tends to disconnect from 3G, unstable software, screen not nearly bright enough, insensitive touch.
Conclusion: possibly The worst smartphone I've ever used.