Android today is a strange animal: there is a lot going for it, but as many critics have said before, there is a fragmentation problem that threatens to affect the success of the whole platform. Brand new cellphones are coming loaded with a two-year-old version of the OS, while certain higher-profile phones, often with lower specs (cough*Droid*cough) bring along with them a more modern, capable version of the same Android system.

The Samsung Galaxy Spica is one such animal. The phone has some punch: an 800MHZ processor; 256MB RAM; a nice 320×480, 3.7” LCD screen that displays colours beautifully; a 3.2MP auto-focus camera (no flash, however); and dedicated operating keys. But when you get the phone you realize this is no high-tech gadget. The build is solid, and there is heft to it, but it is primarily a plastic phone, with a textured back for easy gripping, and the whole thing reeks of mid-level consumer. Which is not a bad thing at all.

Measuring 4.53 x 2.24 x 0.51 inches, the phone is not thin, around the same thickness as the HTC Magic, but does not feel big. It is fairly stout, and measuring by comfort, fits in most pockets comfortably, without adding any undue weight. By and large, this is how I like to measure the pocketability of a phone: whether one can put it in his pocket and forget about it. Unless you wear very tight jeans, this phone will not pose any trouble.

The phone’s layout is fairly intuitive, but there are too many buttons on the bottom: A dedicated on/off switch, a call button, back, search and notifications buttons, as well as a four-direction clicker with enter button, make for a crowded area below the screen, one that could have been solved had they merged the home and on/off keys, or perhaps put the power button on the top of the phone like many other Android devices. On the right side there is a camera button that, when on the homescreen activates the camera app, and when in the app, auto-focuses and takes a picture. This is a wonderful feature, and one that will likely appeal to the teenager who likes to snap photos of his or her friends all day. On the left side there are volume up/down keys, and on the top of the device is the micro-USB charging port and headphone jack. I would have preferred Samsung not include a flimsy cover over the USB port, because they snap easily, but it saves money in repairs in the long run.

The phone runs Android 1.5, and quite an unaltered version of it. Unlike the newly-announced Samsung Galaxy S, which runs 2.1 with some UI and widget additions, their previous Android phones include only the barest of tweaks, though in the Spica’s case, there is a major one: Divx and xVid support. There is a Divx Video on Demand app, which, once connected to their servers, you can purchase and download movies to, but it also brings standard Divx support to the media player. For most people who struggle to convert their downloaded movies to various phones and media devices, this is a huge bonus, and one I hope Samsung will continue to support.

Rogers has also included their newly-minted My Account app on the phone, giving you access to your billing and usage features when away from your computer. I love this feature, and it goes to show how Rogers is finally realizing that their non-iPhone smartphone customers should be treated to the same functionality as their iPhone user base. This app will also soon be released for the Blackberry platform, if it hasn’t already.

The Marketplace on Android 1.5 looks fairly bare-bones. It is mostly text-based, but gives you the opportunity to search for the most popular apps or the newest apps, in many categories. Rogers recently added Paid Apps to their Android phones, and while there isn’t a huge library of must-have­ paid apps just yet, at least the few that are worthwhile are available. Android 1.5, however, does not support many updated programs, as there are integral OS features missing from the initial version (1.5 was released nearly two years ago). Samsung and Rogers have assured customers that this phone is upgradeable, and rollouts will begin in Q2, which starts in April, so we’ll have to take them on their word. There is a ray of hope, however, as Asian Galaxy Spics customers have already begun receiving their updates to 2.1, so we know that Samsung has continued to support this phone even as they announce newer and better handsets. The same thing, unfortunately, cannot be said for HTC, who continue to flounder in their promise to update their Sense-based phones, such as the Hero, to 2.1.

One of the major downsides of owning a 1.5-based Android handset is the lack of multi-touch support (and the lack of HTML5 in the browser, but other browsers, such as Dolphin, do support it). When you enter the browser app, you will notice that, especially if coming from an iPhone, your immediate inclination it to pinch your fingers together to zoom in. Doing this will only move your screen around, and you will soon have to adjust to the painful method of pressing the Zoom In/Out buttons that appear on the lower right hand of the screen. The browser, otherwise, is a smooth experience, and with HSDPA support (which is Rogers’ high-speed 3G network) and an 800MHZ processor, the phone never seems slow.

The Samsung Galaxy Spica supports three home screens, each with the ability to customize it with widgets, shortcuts and custom wallpapers (though one wallpaper applies to all three screens). Widgets are tiny applications that sit on the home screen, giving you immediate access to information from your various programs. If you use a certain Twitter application, for example, its widget could sit on one of your screens, scrolling through a list of your newest tweets. If you like to leave notes for yourself, a to-do app could support a widget for sticky notes on one of your screens. Widgets are incredibly versatile, and give Android a sense of looseness and openness that the iPhone, or any other mobile OS, never had.

The other selling-feature of the Android system over the iPhone OS is the Notification bar on the top of the screen, that opens like a drawer when you sweep your hand over it. This is accessible even when you in apps, and lets you see if you’ve received an email or text message, or an alert from another app, which you can quickly switch to, and then back again. The system works much better than its iPhone equivalent, whose notifications appear only once, and cannot be retrieved again. Android has incorporated this into the core of the OS, and developers are using it to give users easy access to their apps. For example, when playing music, Slacker Radio has a permanent notification area giving you information on the currently song being played, and also a quick shortcut to enter the app and change/stop the playback. It just works, and that is all one can ask for.

Android, being made by Google, also supports native Google applications, such as Gmail, Google Maps, Search and many other apps designed specifically for the platform. Search is an incredible feature, since most phones have a dedicated search key, so any time you want to look something up on Google, hit the key and a text box pops up with your virtual keyboard. Pressing enter will open a new browser window, and away you go. You always have immediate access to your most frivolous queries, it works very well. If you use Google Calendar and Contacts, once you sign in to your Gmail account, these are synced with your phone, and any changes you make on your phone will be uploaded to the web, and vice versa. The whole integration is seamless. If you do not use these features, you can opt out of synchronization, but you do need a Google account if you aim to download apps from the Marketplace, as it uses your login information to store download history, so if you ever switch to a new phone all your purchased apps will be available to you right away.

This Google-Big Brother integration may scare off some people, since it is likely that the company has access to your search history and download habits to use them in pushing certain advertisements to your phone. But if you’re comfortable with being used constantly as a statistic, the Google integration is priceless, and I could not imagine not having it any more. I truly believe that Google just wants to make money selling people what they want, so if custom advertising aimed at your search habits is your definition of evil, stay away from Google, but you’re probably not going to get very far.

The Galaxy Spica has a 3.2 megapixel camera built in, with no flash, but the auto-focus makes up for it. The quality of photos is good, a bit grainy in low light, but can easily double as your main camera in a pinch. The camera app boots up quickly, and saves photos in no time, which is a nice change from the Motorola Milestone, which took several seconds to open the app and often by the time you took the picture your subject would be bored of waiting.

The built-in keyboard is the stock Android keyboard, which is just plain bad. There auto-correction is hit and miss, and the finger recognition is inconsistent, making for a very frustrating experience. Thankfully, unlike the iPhone, you can download different keyboards from the Marketplace and make them your default, so you’ll never have to suffer through the stock one again. Smarter Keyboard Pro, and Better Keyboard are two good examples of replacement keyboards with good development teams behind them, and though they each cost a couple bucks, they will save you countless frustrating moments.

As a phone, (which is the least of your worries, right) the Galaxy Spica is excellent. Call quality is clear and reception has been excellent throughout Toronto (though Rogers usually is quite good all over the city). Battery life is also another great feature of the Spica, since the phone can last nearly two days on a single charge with minimum use.

In addition to the extensive written review, I have put together a short video walkthrough.

I would recommend this phone for people tired of being bound by the limited Blackberry App World, and too for those not wanting to make a huge financial investment in a more powerful Android device. When it gets upgraded to 2.1, this will rival any high-end Android device, and though the build is only solid, it can probably be tossed around a bit without concern that it will get damaged or break. With a screen protector this phone will likely last a long time.

Rating: 7/10

Thanks to @rogersmiranda and Rogers Wireless for providing the handset to review.