April 29th, 2009 
Dan 
Whether it was intentional or not, O2 Germany have confirmed the existence of the Samsung i7500, a touchscreen phone with a difference; it’s packing Android! That’s right, the first phone to run on the Google Android operating system not made by HTC will be released by Samsung.
Android is an open source operating system that allows anyone to develop software. The benefit of Android applications is that Android does not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone’s capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users are able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. The other benefit of the Google backed Android OS is full support for Google services such as GMail, Google Maps with street view and YouTube.
Away from the OS, the Samsung i7500 is an exciting proposition. The phone features a 3.2 inch touchscreen using OLED technology for a vivid crystal clear display. The touchscreen features capacitive technology meaning that the screen reacts solely to the touch of your finger (rather than the stylus) making for a far more accurate and user friendly navigation method. An accelerometer and handwriting recognition round off the impressive touchscreen.
Elsewhere, the Samsung i7500 blows its Android predecessors out of the water in the camera department thanks to a 5.0 Megapixel camera with autofocus and a flash plus video capture. The MP3 player is nicely complimented by a 3.5mm audio jack meaning you can use any standard headphones (though generally 
Samsung bundled accessories are more than adequate). Connectivity is covered thanks to HSDPA and Wi-Fi which should work well with the excellent web browser. Built in GPS provides navigation and Geo-tagging for those priceless pics.
And if you thought the i7500 looked good on paper, wait till you see it in the flesh. Easily the best looking Android phone (and one of the better looking touchscreen phones), the i7500 looks effortlessly cool in brushed black metal and premium materials not to mention measuring in at just 11.9mm thick!
With no confirmed UK networks yet (this one’s an O2 exclusive in Germany) and set to launch this summer, click here to keep updated!
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Samsung i7500 touchscreen phone looks fantastic…. good features as well as good operating system too. I think the Android operating system will come on leaps and bounds this year and new phones from makes like Samsung should help Android make up ground on the iPhone 3G.
Has it been confirmed that the screen will in fact be Capacitive, and that there will be an Accelerometer??
Everywhere else i have looked, has failed to mention these two features :-S
The only advantage of capacitative is that it doesn’t have the plastic membrane over the top. It is no more accurate, or more desirable in any other way (though IMO, getting rid of the plastic film is a big plus).
I too would be keen to know if it has an accelerometer.
Also, no mention made of a digital compass, which is another one of those sensors which may sound gimmicky at first, but imaginative software developers will always come up with something cool, or even useful out of it. The new iPhone, and Google G2 (HTC Magic) both have digital compasses. This would be a big omission if the Samsung doesn’t have it.