I’ve been waiting for an easy and safe way to acquire a Google Nexus One that I silently wish Globe would offer it themselves, or even some other Android–powered goodness in a smartphone. I can actually just go for an iPhone 3GS that’s already available without the worries, but why settle for something older? After all, I think the future of mobile phones will be powered by Android and Linux in general.
I was pleasantly suprised when I saw this on the paper last Saturday:
Finally, an Android–powered phone available directly from Globe! The Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica appears to be a good enough phone with a very attractive price. On paper, the specifications suggests that it’s not as good “advanced” compared to a Nexus One. It has an 800MHz processor instead of 1GHz, and the camera does not have a flash. On the other hand, it has the native capability to play DivX and XVid videos, something the Nexus One cannot do just like many other smartphones.
At less than 15,000 pesos, I don’t mind this phone being not as good as the Nexus One. If it can do the basic things a phone should do along with the niceties that come with Android, as long as it’s not built on buggy hardware, I’ll gladly take it. The Nexus One costs almost twice as much if you decide to order from the US now, even more if you buy from gray market importers, so this is a really viable alternative.
This should be a bit cheaper under my retention plan since I’ve yet to renew my postpaid contract; I think I’ll be visiting a Globe Business Center later today to ask. It would be nice to play with one for a thorough review though before I commit into this. But since it’s got Android and Samsung’s no slouch in building phones anyway, I just feel this will be worth the money.