Samsung GT-I7500 Galaxy

As of September 2009, the Samsung Galaxy is the best Android phone released so far, in terms of hardware. Its arch-rival is the HTC Hero (see the Samsung Galaxy vs. HTC Hero comparison).

Essentials

• Specifications - phonearena
• codes and key combinations
• battery usage: 14 hours and 15 minutes of MP3 playback on headphones. Details in Keneth Kwok's post I7500 MP3 Playback Time Testing.

PC software (Windows only)

Samsung New PC Studio (rather rubbish phone synch/management software) latest version. Note that even the latest version of NPS may not support the GT-I7500.

Disable Settings -> About phone -> Additional settings -> Mass storage only. Otherwise NPS will not detect any phone at all.

Samsung Galaxy community forums

• androidforums - largest
• hdblog.it - Italian, has rooting instructions and the GalaxHero theme
• androidiani - Italian; has some dubious "Fatal1ty" mod
• MoDaCo - very few topics but has some gems:
  • where to get the open source kernel
  • MoDaCo Custom ROM (rooted with custom Kernel with swap/netfilter + more!)
• talkandroid - very few posts

IRC: #android on freenode.net.

Firmware update and rooting

Firmware version numbers can be decoded to release dates.

Paul O'Brian from MoDaCo has posted instructions on how to flash the rooted recovery image, which will also let you root the phone. Note that for Windows, the slash characters after "windows" should be replaced with backslash, and the windows/adb mount /sdcard command won't work and is not necessary. Also follow the instructions below if you get the "error: device not found" message from adb (Android Debug Bridge).

For rooting the more difficult way, install ADB (Android Debug Bridge), then root the Galaxy.

Finally, flash the MoDaCo ROM. Note that as of 2009-10-07, the radio isn't updated.

adb error: device not found

1. If you get this error, first make sure you installed Samsung New PC Studio and the USB drivers (some come with New PC Studio, others may be on the CD that ships with the phone). New PC Studio is rubbish and probably won't detect your phone, but it comes with some drivers that enable the Android Debug Bridge (adb) to work.

2. Uncheck Settings -> About phone -> Additional settings -> Mass storage only. Windows will detect a bunch of drivers: Samsung Android USB Device, Samsung Mobile Modem, USB Composite Device, Modem etc.. Next, check Settings -> Applications -> Development ->USB debugging. This will enable the discovery of the Samsung Galaxy Composite ADB Interface device. Installing the driver for that is mandatory for adb to work.

For fast booting, you may need to install the Samsung Fast Booter USB device driver.

Flashing using Odin

How to flash the firmware^{{{dead link}}}:

1. Install Samsung New PC Studio and the USB Driver
2. Download Odin, the firmware updates, and launch Odin
3. Power off the phone (long press on the End call/Power button), then put it in download mode (Volume down + OK + End call/Power)
4. Select the update file(s). If you don't want operator-specific customization, don't flash the CSC file, or delete cache.img from the TAR archive if you're using the "one package" option in Odin.
5. Click start and wait.

Firmware download

Newer firmwares are often made available by the community:

• I7500XXIH8
• I7500XXII5 - released 2009-Sep-24; see bugs

Accessories

ZAGG just released an invisibleSHIELD screen/body protector for the Samsung Galaxy GT-I7500.

Thanks!

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