Samsung Europa/i5550/Galaxy 5

RichyX

This little fella just appeared on Meteor PAYG - https://store.meteor.ie/phones/samsung_europa/#what-you-get-tab

Wifi, GPS, Android 2.1, capacitive screen.
The screen may be a little small at 2.8" and 240x320.
Other than that it sounds like a pretty sweet phone for 140€.

FireHydrant

It does look sweet alright... Way cheaper than any android equivalent

RichyX

Just realised the camera could be a bit rubbish.
2MP but no auto focus.
Could be a blessing though, my first camera phone was the most fun because there were no delays before a shot, it was a good little snapper.

evolutionqy7

state of it

i dont see the point in cheap mobiles having a decent os as it will limit user experience of what the OS can really do and more than likely make the person scared of ever going towards that os again

RichyX

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

state of it

i dont see the point in cheap mobiles having a decent os as it will limit user experience of what the OS can really do and more than likely make the person scared of ever going towards that os again

Not everyone wants to spend 300€+ on a top of the line mobile phone.
I'd be happy to pay half that on a phone with 95% of the capability, which the Samsung Europa seems to be.

Ste-

I think entry level Android Phones to be a good idea.
I got the LG Otimus and while being a great phone it has opened me up to the market place and the wonderful range of different things Android can do. I think it's an ideal way to get people interested in Google's OS and possibly people will in future spend the €300 on a top level smart phone, I know I will.

floggg

6mb internal memory? Unless that is a typo, this renders the phone almost useless for apps etc, which is the whole point of an Android smart phone.

RichyX

floggg wrote: »

6mb internal memory? Unless that is a typo, this renders the phone almost useless for apps etc, which is the whole point of an Android smart phone.

Samsung's site says 140MB, gsmarena says 170MB, Phonearena says 100MB.

evolutionqy7

which bring this phone to the x worst point of android to this phone

no apps on sd card without the phone being rooted...

on top of that some games wont be playable on it due to the fact that its a low end phone...dont get me wrong i don't say its a bad thing that their bringing this out as i know not everyone can go 300+ on a phone...

but was just making a point that a powerful os on a low end phone could leave the experience sour...

mclovin.

floggg wrote: »

6mb internal memory? Unless that is a typo, this renders the phone almost useless for apps etc, which is the whole point of an Android smart phone.

That is strange. The site also say 32MB expandable mini sd, surely you can expand it more than that?! I want to buy this phone but I was planing on using it as my mp3 player too. Cant a any size sd work in that slot.

justsomebloke

mclovin. wrote: »

That is strange. The site also say 32MB expandable mini sd, surely you can expand it more than that?! I want to buy this phone but I was planing on using it as my mp3 player too. Cant a any size sd work in that slot.

apps are generally installed only on the internal memory, thus a small internal limit will limit the amount of apps you can install.

However music, photos etc can be put on the external memory card so ye this could easily be used as an mp3 player (well if the sound off it is any good)

mclovin.

Joe the Santa wrote: »

apps are generally installed only on the internal memory, thus a small internal limit will limit the amount of apps you can install.

However music, photos etc can be put on the external memory card so ye this could easily be used as an mp3 player (well if the sound off it is any good)

Im amusing it has a 3.1 jack for headphones. I think I read that somewhere but I could have just made it up.

Actually I looked a few pics and you can see it on the top.

mclovin.

Yeah Ive been to the shop and I asked the guy to check the specs for me.

The Internal memory is something like 130 or 150. But the micro sd port apparently only supports up to 16gb cards.

evolutionqy7

i cant image any one buying a 32gb card really...their costly...and your never gonna buy one especially if your buying a low end phone means your tight on money and not gonna buy a 32 gb card...16 is most you would need...even 16gb is costly...i paid 70 quid for my 16gb class 6

woop

its also not capacitive tis TFT according to meteor site EDIT- on more research Im not too sure

will this have the problem of not running certain apps due to screen or is 2.8 large enough

there is very much a market for these phones, its a pity about the low internal memory if that is the case

Zeouterlimits

Bought one on Saturday, loving it so far, covers my needs when combined with a new iPod Touch.

woop

190MB internal 170 when read
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnbBXZD6pAA
@4.50

mclovin.

Got one too. 1st one stopped working after 5 hours

But I brought it back to the shop and they replaced it straight away and this new one seems to be the bees knees

woop

so is it capacitive or resistive?

meathgal2010

Capacitative

woop

meathgal2010 wrote: »

Capacitative

I got one:) anybody get the gps working? its been searching ages here

sometimes pressing search in market app doesnt register but when I go landscape its fine again. Theres a white noise like sound for 2-3 seconds after pause/stop music playing through headphones. Does anyone else experience this? otherwise a cracking phone just want to know whether they are all like this

delta36

Hey all,

Apologies if this thread is too old to revive, but I'm looking to get the Samsung Europa phone for christmas, and to use it as my full time mp3 player. Obviously the normal sized headphone port is a draw, can anyone who's used it say how well it functions as an MP3 player? I'm also planning on putting a 16GB Microsd card in it. I don't have a great amount of knowledge on these things, but would there be any drawback in having a card that size in use? I'm thinking in terms of playback and access speeds from the phone. Will I have to endure lots of silence in between tracks as the phone switches between songs?
Thanks for any advice!

Colibri

delta36 wrote: »

Hey all,

Apologies if this thread is too old to revive, but I'm looking to get the Samsung Europa phone for christmas, and to use it as my full time mp3 player. Obviously the normal sized headphone port is a draw, can anyone who's used it say how well it functions as an MP3 player? I'm also planning on putting a 16GB Microsd card in it. I don't have a great amount of knowledge on these things, but would there be any drawback in having a card that size in use? I'm thinking in terms of playback and access speeds from the phone. Will I have to endure lots of silence in between tracks as the phone switches between songs?
Thanks for any advice!

I'll be honest and say that I haven't used the music player LOADS but when I did, it was excellent. Certainly better than my ipod classic in terms of quality! You won't be disappointed with the sound quality anyway

RichyX

delta36 wrote: »

I'm also planning on putting a 16GB Microsd card in it. I don't have a great amount of knowledge on these things, but would there be any drawback in having a card that size in use? I'm thinking in terms of playback and access speeds from the phone. Will I have to endure lots of silence in between tracks as the phone switches between songs?
Thanks for any advice!

I've yet to buy the phone, but I seriously doubt there'd be any access speed issues.
The phone can take a maximum of a 16GB card, so if you're using it as your main mp3 player you might as well buy the 16GB.
Just don't get one on eBay, not the safest place for memory if you've any doubts about what you're looking at.

delta36

Excellent, thanks for the replies people!

RichyX wrote: »

Just don't get one on eBay, not the safest place for memory if you've any doubts about what you're looking at.

Yeah, I figure I'll go for a branded SanDisk card or similar, just to be sure.

Timmaay

I got one in the 1st place because my old nokia "xpress music" phone was utter sh*te at playing music and would crash if you tried to put more then 10songs on it! I have had zero problems with the europa, I have not far off a full 16GB sd card of music in it, and it loads up no problem at all, and the app for music is good and simple to use, if your not happy with it ya can download winamp or a few other mp3 players either. The stock headphones that come with it aren't half bad either! The only slight downside, and this is with all smartphones, the battery life is abit rubbish.

Colibri

The battery life can be a bit iffy alright, but simple tweak such as turning down brightness, turning off 3G with APNdroid, etc. Can make it loads better.

RichyX

Colibri wrote: »

The battery life can be a bit iffy alright, but simple tweak such as turning down brightness, turning off 3G with APNdroid, etc. Can make it loads better.

What's the longest you've had yours last?

Timmaay

RichyX wrote: »

What's the longest you've had yours last?

I'd say I've got mine to last almost 3 days, thats with barely using the phone, with heavy use this could drop to 20hours! I also downloaded the app Advanced task killer, its amazing the amount of apps that are running in the background the whole time, and opening this every so often will close them quickly!

jayteecork

guys how the f do you stop this phone using your credit when wifi isn't enabled?

It checks my gmail (which I have set up) and takes away my credit!!!
It's a ****ing nightmare!

Also, when wi-fi is enabled the battery lasts about 3 hours!

I'm having problems with the touch screen too and unlike my last Samsung phone there seems to be no way of recalibrating it. Having awful problems tpying in names and passwords for facebook and stuff because I can't turn off predictive text.

All in all not too happy so far. At least there's some decent free apps available like Angry Birds!

Zonda999

Jaytee,

Turn off background data in the accounts and sync menu in the settings

Also get the free app APNdroid, and enable it. That'll sort out the data problem!

delta36

Timmaay wrote: »

The only slight downside, and this is with all smartphones, the battery life is abit rubbish.

I've heard that is a thing with most smartphones, but considering I pretty much have to keep my MP3 player constantly plugged in to charge, it should be an improvement!

andalon

Timmaay wrote: »

I got one in the 1st place because my old nokia "xpress music" phone was utter sh*te at playing music and would crash if you tried to put more then 10songs on it! I have had zero problems with the europa, I have not far off a full 16GB sd card of music in it, and it loads up no problem at all, and the app for music is good and simple to use, if your not happy with it ya can download winamp or a few other mp3 players either. The stock headphones that come with it aren't half bad either! The only slight downside, and this is with all smartphones, the battery life is abit rubbish.

just got a Europa, first smartphone for me, seems fine, but unable to play wma files - is there a way of playing them? a recommended player for download?
also, when i tap on the market icon, it opens and closes a white/blank screen?? no access it seems. browser is working though - anybody had a similar experience or knows how to get market to work?

Thanks for any hints!

TheDriver

I did the whole APN off widget etc but problem now is MMS can't come in and then i turn the APN on, it charges internet, I paid nearly a euro for receiving an MMS! So how do I ensure no data but that I can receive MMS free and send for the cost of a picture message?

delta36

andalon wrote: »

also, when i tap on the market icon, it opens and closes a white/blank screen?? no access it seems. browser is working though - anybody had a similar experience or knows how to get market to work?

Thanks for any hints!

Is it the Samsung App Market you're trying to access, as opposed to the Android App market? Apparently the Samsung Europa isn't supported by the Samsung App Market yet, so that may be part of the problem. That said, maybe I should let someone who's actually currently using the phone answer that one.

jayteecork

andalon wrote: »

just got a Europa, first smartphone for me, seems fine, but unable to play wma files - is there a way of playing them? a recommended player for download?
also, when i tap on the market icon, it opens and closes a white/blank screen?? no access it seems. browser is working though - anybody had a similar experience or knows how to get market to work?

Thanks for any hints!

Market should pop up fine, that sounds awful if you can't get onto the marketplace.

If you do look for winamp - that should play wma files.

The Bull

Is the new firmware Android 2.2 out yet for this phone and has any one loaded it to there phone yet?

andalon

jayteecork wrote: »

Market should pop up fine, that sounds awful if you can't get onto the marketplace.

If you do look for winamp - that should play wma files.

Thanks for your replies - I got access to market working by restoring everything to factory default.

I was able to download winamp, but it doesn't seem to play wma files for me maybe the winamp version for android phones does not support wma?

Also, completely new to the whole area, I had not thought about the difference between samsung apps and android app market. Thanks for pointing that out!

jayteecork

Thread here.

http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f41/wma-format-3359/

you might have to convert the wma files to mp3 on your pc first.

Mad_Mike

jayteecork wrote: »

guys how the f do you stop this phone using your credit when wifi isn't enabled?

It checks my gmail (which I have set up) and takes away my credit!!!
It's a ****ing nightmare!

Also, when wi-fi is enabled the battery lasts about 3 hours!

I'm having problems with the touch screen too and unlike my last Samsung phone there seems to be no way of recalibrating it. Having awful problems tpying in names and passwords for facebook and stuff because I can't turn off predictive text.

All in all not too happy so far. At least there's some decent free apps available like Angry Birds!

To stop checking your gmail/twitter etc, go to Settings - Accounts & Sync
Remove tick from Auto-sync, then remove tick from Background Data
Then when you are on wi-fi, open the gmail app and click menu-refresh

As for turning off predictive text, that's also in your settings
Go to Language & Keyboard
Then choose whatever keyboard you use
For example if its the Samsung keypad, choose that, and 3rd one down is XT9 Predictive Text. Remove the tick from that and you're sorted

Mad_Mike

To play wma files, download the free yxPlayer
Its really a video player, but it will also play WMA
http://www.appbrain.com/app/yxplayer/kr.mobilesoft.yxplayer

andalon

Mad_Mike wrote: »

To play wma files, download the free yxPlayer
Its really a video player, but it will also play WMA
http://www.appbrain.com/app/yxplayer/kr.mobilesoft.yxplayer

Thanks, this one works for wma. Also, i found Power AMP does play wma, but it is only free for a trial version - might be worth buying, though.

AwayWithFaries

Brand new Europa should be arriving in the post tomorrow. Can't wait.

kline64

i i got this for xmas ,it keeps eating my credit but i dont know how,and every time i put the sd card in it tells me no sd card in phone ?? sd card came wit phone it works in sons phone & hubbys phone but not recognised in mine!

Timmaay

kline64 wrote: »

i i got this for xmas ,it keeps eating my credit but i dont know how,and every time i put the sd card in it tells me no sd card in phone ?? sd card came wit phone it works in sons phone & hubbys phone but not recognised in mine!

Do you use the internet much? You can turn off 3g by going into setting/mobile network setting and turn on the "use 2g only". I think this should do the trick, I dont use the internet much on mine, only at home when I connect to the wifi.

kline64

Timmaay wrote: »

Do you use the internet much? You can turn off 3g by going into setting/mobile network setting and turn on the "use 2g only". I think this should do the trick, I dont use the internet much on mine, only at home when I connect to the wifi.

no dont use the internet on phone also when i try connect to bluetooth it wont recieve data from other phones, pain in the ass if you ask me!give me a normal phone anyday!!

harpstilidie

Thinking of getting this phone. Would you recommend it? Can you not install the apps on the external memory nah?

Fly High

I have this phone since October, I absolutely hate it...

I used to send and recieve a lot of MMS but this phone refuses to do it! I have spent ages on the phone to meteor customer services and had the phone sent for repairs for faulty software and it still won't work! It just says downloading for days and never actually does download... Any advice?

It also dies every night, I now turn it off for the night, which is a pain in the behind, wifi and 3g off, brightness all the way down, not heavy use and I can't get a day out of it

If I could go back to my crappy do nothing not smart phone I would in a heartbeat, but this was a gift, and was like 130e back when I got it

If anyone can help me out, I'd be so grateful!

evolutionqy7

Louise~ wrote: »

I have this phone since October, I absolutely hate it...

I used to send and recieve a lot of MMS but this phone refuses to do it! I have spent ages on the phone to meteor customer services and had the phone sent for repairs for faulty software and it still won't work! It just says downloading for days and never actually does download... Any advice?

It also dies every night, I now turn it off for the night, which is a pain in the behind, wifi and 3g off, brightness all the way down, not heavy use and I can't get a day out of it

If I could go back to my crappy do nothing not smart phone I would in a heartbeat, but this was a gift, and was like 130e back when I got it

If anyone can help me out, I'd be so grateful!

Nothing you can do. Samsung has a name for bringing out great phones with the worst software ever. SE not far away from it too.

jayteecork

harpstilidie wrote: »

Thinking of getting this phone. Would you recommend it? Can you not install the apps on the external memory nah?

you can yeah.

January

Thinking of buying this on 3... until I get my iphone back

If you have the unlim data bundle on 3pay it doesn't take any credit for having 3G on right?