Samsung Galaxy Europa Review
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Review: February 2011 |
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Last updated November 2011.
Phone rating: 
In a nutshell: The Samsung Europa is a cut-price Android smartphone that manages
to steer a fine line between cost-cutting and preserving essential
Android features. Its best features include Social Hub, which integrates
contacts, calendars, email and social networking, plus access to
thousands of Android apps and games. There's also GPS with Google
Maps, a music player, FM radio, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi and a powerful battery.
The screen may be smaller than other Android phones, and the camera
fairly basic, but when you compare the Europa with other phones
at this price, we think you'll be very impressed.
Best buy: *Free* from Three
(Black or White); or on Pay as you Go for £39.95 from
the Carphone
Warehouse (Black or White).
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The Samsung Galaxy Europa is a sub-£50 Android
phone. The price is right, but have too many corners been cut to get
to it? The answer, you'll be pleased to know is "not too many."
This is the cheapest smartphone on the market by a
long way, so we were a little sceptical about what it might deliver.
But the runaway success of Android proves there's a hunger for low-cost
Android smartphones, so the existence of the Europa is to be welcomed.
The Europa is smaller than most Android phones and looks a little cheaper.
Samsung have given the Europa an unusual asymmetric design (when viewed
edgeways) and have loaded the phone with buttons. These include a D-pad
and call and end buttons and seem superfluous in a touchscreen phone,
but some users may find them helpful, especially since the touchscreen
is rather small.
The Europa runs Android 2.1 (Eclair) and has a moderately
fast processor (600MHz) with a capacitive screen, making it respond
well to the touch and process user actions without much hesitation.
The screen is pretty small for an Android phone, at 2.8 inches, but
that's normal for budget touchscreen phones and if you want a bigger
screen you know you're going to have to part with some extra cash. The
screen supports Swype fingertip control, which lets you slide your finger
around the QWERTY keyboard for fast text entry. In portrait mode you
have an old-style alphanumeric keypad with predictive text. Samsung
have customised the user interface with the TouchWiz 3.0 user interface,
helping to make the most of the smaller screen size and adding some
additional functionality to the core Android operating system. You can
customise to your heart's content, with up to 7 screens available for
arranging shortcuts and icons.
Being an Android smartphone, you have full access to
Android Market with over 150,000 apps now available, and there's plenty
of functionality already installed on the phone, such as the Social
Hub which integrates contacts, calendars, facebook, email and twitter
feeds. This has got to be one of the best features of the phone. There
are plenty of games available for download too, such as the famous Angry
Birds.
Another great feature of Android phones is GPS with
Google Maps. This works moderately well on the Europa. The screen size
comes into play again, and the interaction with the maps was slower
and more clunky than with higher-spec Android phones, but it does work,
and frankly you're very lucky to find GPS in the under-£50 zone.
The music capabilities of the phone are good, with
an FM radio with RDS available in addition to the digital music player.
With a 1GB memory card supplied, there's room for storing a few hundred
tracks, and you can upgrade this if you want more storage. The Europa
has 3D sound emulation, but as always with budget phones the sound is
rather tinny. You'd be better off listening through a set of headphones.
A 3.5mm headphone jack is provided for this purpose.
Pennies have been saved ruthlessly when it comes to
the camera, which is just 2 megapixels with fixed focus and no flash.
It's fine for daytime snaps and uploading to facebook though. The camera
is used for driving the Layar Augmented Reality browser, which tells
you information about your real-world surroundings through your camera
viewer - you'll never need to look at the world through your own eyes
again :)
The phone does have support for fast 3G - HSDPA at
up to 7.2 Mbps - which is handy when you're downloading apps or checking
out facebook. There's also Wi-Fi support, which will give you even faster
data access when available, and also Bluetooth and USB. The fast data
access also enables you to browse the web and watch youtube videos,
although in the case of web browsing the smaller screen size does start
to compromise the experience.
The battery isn't as large as the high-end Android
phones, but it's quite respectable, at 1200 mAh and will give 2-3 days
of use between charges.
We've come out of this review feeling very positive
about the Europa. Yes, there are compromises in the spec: particularly
the screen size, the processor speed and the camera. But the screen
is still larger than the Sony
Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, and larger than many other phones in this
price range. The responsive feel of the capacitive screen, plus the
provision of all those extra buttons compensates for this. The processor
speed turns out not to be a problem either. And the camera ... well,
if you're looking for a great camera phone, look elsewhere. When you
cut the cost there have to be compromises and we feel that Samsung have
handled these well. If this is your first step into the world of Android,
we don't think you'll be disappointed by the Samsung Galaxy Europa.
Features of the Samsung Galaxy Europa include:
- 2 megapixel camera with digital zoom
- Video recording
- Display: TFT, 16 million colours, 320 x 240 pixels
(2.8 inches) touchscreen with auto-rotate
- Music player with 3D sound
- FM radio RDS
- MP3 ringtones / 64-voice polyphonic ringtones
- Messaging: SMS, MMS, instant messaging, email
- GPS with Google Maps
- Personal organiser functions
- Memory: 140MB plus 1GB MicroSD memory card (up to
16GB supported)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, 3.5mm audio
jack
- Internet: Layar Reality Browser, Android browser,
GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA 7.2Mbps
- Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900), dual band 3G (900/2100)
- Size: 108 x 56 x 12.3 mm
- Weight: 102g
- Battery: 1200 mAh
- Talktime: 380 - 570 minutes
- Battery standby: 370 - 520 hours
Compare Samsung
Galaxy Europa deals at MobilePhoneChecker.co.uk.
Samsung Galaxy Europa Consumer Reviews
Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this
phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so
please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive
language, and please, no advertising!
Average rating from 37 reviews: 
Reviewed by mike tudor from uk on 10th Feb 2012
i have to say this is one of the best i,ve ever had , i have a htc desire
and this little phone matches up to it in many depts and all for £39
!!! best samsung phone i,ve had by a mile .
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Reviewed by Mike from UK on 3rd Feb 2012
update to my last review: After reading other reviews the first app
I downloaded was a battery saver and was only getting 18hrs charge.
I decided to deleted the battery saver and I'm now getting well over
24hrs
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Reviewed by Mike from UK on 26th Jan 2012
I bought this about two weeks ago (my Nokia E5
was seriously playing up), My first android and my first touch phone
and I'm impressed (camera is poor but I use a camera to take pictures
and my phone to take "snaps"), battery life is poor (But I only used
to get 18hrs from my E5 and as my company issue Blackberries I leave
it on charge when at my desk), screen is bigger (just) tham my E5 and
has more colours, I can get all my emails (appart from Ovi), satnav
etc, when my contract is up in November I may well look at a Larger
Samsung touch handset.
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Reviewed by lee from England on 23rd Jan 2012
yes. i wanted to see what all the android fuss was about so picked one
up from cpw, £39, last week. I'll be honest, I'm hanging onto my G502
at mo, I like my keyboard. My daughter's took the galaxy - she's got
smaller fingers. its not the sturdiest of phones but its not to flimsy
either. Has all features, sat nav, wi-fi, etc. Amazing for price, a
fantastic piece of kit for price. I wasn't to keen on having to purchase
£15 top up cause i'm already on three and only really wanted phone.
On plus side, includes all you can eat data so have slapped in 8 gig
card and when not at school its downloading hard (a 700mb film with
lots of seeders comes down in twenty mins!) and its gonna be doing that,
have to leave it plugged in to charger all night, for next thirty days
(and nights) one problem I did have was getting mass storage mode up
on computer. I ended up having to download samsung Kies. If i'd wanted
to have to download a bloated piece of software onto my computer I'd
have brought an iphone. Got there in the end using android app, not
sure if Kies drivers helped or not. One other thing, there seems to
be background noise over earphones at low volume. seems to go when louder
- but maybe just drowned out by volume. I do like to lie in bed at night
and listen to mp3s, so this bad point to me. Like android phones, may
buy a more expensive one!
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Reviewed by achmed from england on 22nd Jan 2012
sucks
Rating:  Reply
Reviewed by Sara from England on 22nd Jan 2012
A good phone at the start, but lacks personalisation and is rather confusing!
Android is slow, as is YouTube. When I bought it in O2 it was £112.00
now it's down to £40.00! Rip-off, thought it was great at the start
as my phone before was the standard LG Cookie, but now with Blackberrys
and iPhones everywhere, it's time to cast it aside! DO NOT BUY! Rubbish
phone, and when you drop it, even once, it chips there are about 10
chips around the phone, so not a durable phone at all!
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Reviewed by Jon from Wales on 15th Jan 2012
I've got this phone on contract, it is absolutely appalling, battery
life is a miserable 5-8 hours. Processor is nowhere near fast enough,
it will not update to Android 2.2, it seems to think android is not
compatible with the Europa. Other problems include heat, whilst charging,
it gets alarmingly hot if you do anything, unplugging the charger costs
you anywhere from 6-20% of your battery. There's more, with no way to
transfer apps to your memory card, this phone actually REJECTS text
messages if you have too many apps on your phone. The Europa is totally
unacceptable. I would only recommend this phone to people I really didn't
like.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Stan from UK on 14th Jan 2012
Excellent for the price. I used it for a few months until I got an s2.
Only real difference is speed.
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Reviewed by Linda from Ireland on 11th Jan 2012
I bought my phone last weekend and I m only getting about 12 hours battery
life- barely a days work... should I bring this back?? It doesnt even
get much usage within the 12 hours.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by mike tudor from uk on 6th Jan 2012
having had a few cheaper android phones i have to say this is the best
i,ve had ...battery life is good screen is good , its a little slow
at times but for the price cant complain . real value for money .
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Reviewed by randika sampath from uk on 4th Jan
2012
this is my 1st touch screen phone.it's much cheaper than other android
phone with excellent features.but the 2-mega-pixel camera unable to
take good pictures and it should include LED flasher unless unable to
take photos in little dark environment. the other drawback is i have
seen, Flash Player doesn't work in this phone. i have tried to install
via android market, but it's fail.
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Reviewed by lee clark from england on 17th Dec
2011
i got one i think it's a excellent little phone for wot it dose and
on price got it becouse i hated my iphone it dose a lot that the iphone
dose if u use the same way plus more you can put your own ring tunes
on it and dont have to pay for them on android unlike itunes got excellent
navigation on it gets me to were i wont to go dont have to pay for it
unlike with apple were u may have to pay up to £60 to get it got a upgrade
in two months can not want to get the samsung galaxy s2 not sure in
wot to get it in black or white but i will be keeping this as well excellent
for kids as a gift for christmas or if u have not ever had a samsung
galaxy model befor to try
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Reviewed by Naseem from England on 22nd Nov 2011
This is my 1st touch screen phone, i love it to bits, and i like the
fact you can us wifi for surfing at home as well, as this quite easily
take away any reason, why a laptop would need to switched on for, when
the phone is more than capable for this event. It's one of the best
phones i have owned, i would go samsung and android again, got my eye
on the new Galaxy W, with 1.4 Processor at the moment.
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Reviewed by georgina from ireland on 2nd Nov 2011
i got the phone i think it was great no proloms at all i think if your
geting a phone get this one it is handy and i think it will last for
a very long time so for any boys or girls geting a phone get this one
because it works and i love it sooooooooo much and i dropped it so may
times it would never brack on me at all
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Reviewed by christine glover from uk on 27th Oct
2011
i bought this phone a few weeks ago and i absolutely love it! it's a
fantastic phone,does what all the other more expensive smartphones do,and
the camera is great! don't know why people say it's rubbish,i've taken
some great pictures with it,the colours are so vivid,even better than
the digital camera i have! the video recorder is great too,on some phones
the video is very shaky and blurry,on this phone it is so clear and
no shakes on it. There are 1000s of apps to download from android market,i
have downloaded some, the wifi is great too! battery life not to bad
depending how you use it,for me i charge it everyday, but then again
i am always playing with it-surfing the web-downloading apps etc,etc,i
can't leave it alone!! all in all i can't praise this phone enough,if
you are wondering wether to buy it or not i would say 'don't hesitate,go
and buy it today!!!'
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Reviewed by Oke from USA on 11th Oct 2011
nice phone ,but why the key pad do not light up
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Reviewed by psssss from uk on 8th Oct 2011
I start by saying I am not a phone pundit but I am really surprised
that this phone, that comes with android 2.2 (at least mine), only cost
50 pounds. Its a cool little phone. Basically if it wasnt for the camera
it could easily compete with much more expansive phones. Would recommend
it!
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Reviewed by PJ from UK on 4th Oct 2011
Horrible Phone. This was sold as an 'upgrade' to a Nokia N97... it's
poor in every respect compared to the Nokia.
Rating: Reply
Reply by Mobile Phones UK from UK on
4th Oct 2011
PJ, I think you were mis-sold. The N97 was Nokia's flagship product.
The Europa is an entry-level Android phone.
Reviewed by marius from ireland on 24th Sep 2011
I have it for about a week now(39.99 from three). good phone,loads of
apps,good battery(good enough) and...a good pone in general! WiFi works
great,music is good and the apps...GREAT! and by the way...mine came
with Android 2.2 Froyo! :))
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Reviewed by Petko from Bulgaria on 19th Sep 2011
I have this phone for a month and I think he's great solution between
price/performance.Working fast with all advantages of Android make this
device nice for everyone !
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Reviewed by Aiga from Latvia on 6th Sep 2011
Great phone. have it for a month, and i love it.
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Reviewed by Para from England on 24th Aug 2011
About a week in. It's fantastic. The camera is sharp and the music is
fantastic. I have no multiple messages, probably because of the firmware
(froyo). Recommend.
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Reviewed by Kathy from England on 11th Aug 2011
Multiple messages ! Well what can I say I have had 195 messages from
14th July and 191 of them are repeats and some have come at 0230 and
0530 in the morning !!! I am so pleased that I have read that there
is an upgrade to stop this problem. If you use the swype for texts it
is much easier. I would rate this 5 stars once the problem with multiple
texts is solved.
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Reviewed by lauren from england on 11th Aug 2011
I had this phone for nearly a year and it was great its easy to use
the camera is amazing but i lost all my contacts about a week after
getting it and also about 8 months after getting the screen broke and
it no longer worked i strongly advise that if your carless with your
phones to not buy this phone as the screen breaks easily.
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Reviewed by jollof rice from peckham on 7th Aug
2011
I got this phone today and it was brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best phone
I have ever used. Better than the iPhone 4. If you read my comment you
better buy this phone or else you have me to deal with. Absolutely by
far the best phone in the world. Better than the BlackBerry Torch. Thanks
for reading, Sir Jollof Rice I (King Of All Good Jollof Rice)
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Reviewed by Paul from England on 22nd Jul 2011
Excellent phone for the price. If you want to disable internet via data
then goto setings - wirless & networks - mobile sttings - access point
names and delete all the apn's except the one with green dot by it click
on this and where it says apn (which might be like giffgaff.com) change
it to anything like xxx.com. The phone will never connect to 3g or any
other type of data internat
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Reviewed by Bob from Uk on 12th Jul 2011
Bought one of these from O2 shop for my wife for £39.99 last week when
they had an offer on. For even double the price this is a great android
phone. I have an Apollo and toyed with the thought of given that to
my wife instead and keeping this one. It looks smart, the screen is
crisp and colours are vivid, it's smallish size (for an Android
phone) isn't too much of a problem. Connect it to your PC and download
Froyo 2.2 via the Kies program and this phone is even better, battery
life is unbelievable, my wife leaves wifi on all day and although she
doesn't make many calls (just texts) after 3 days it was still showing
over 50% charge! Only slight issues are: screen is a bit sensitive (easy
to type letters twice) and doesn't have "pinch to zoom" feature that
other phones have.
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Reviewed by Nigel W from UK on 12th Jun 2011
Re- multiple messages, my daughter's mobile suffered this problem so
took to nearest O2 shop. There is an upgrade which cures the problem.
It can be done in shop but with my daughter's phone for some reason
it didn't work so had to be sent away for two weeks. On return, the
problem was cured. However, as it's my daughter's mobile on Pay As You
Go, we only wanted WiFi access so before the 'upgrade' I'd fixed it
so all the background services were disabled and removed so it didn't
connect to 2G/3G services. On return, the services seem to be running
in a different way - I didn't recognise what's running where, so it
seems almost impossible to stop the background services connecting to
2G/3G network - hence my daughter gets charged £1 every day for her
ZERO usage of the internet. She wants to use at home on the WiFi but
if it connects initially to 3G network (before she can change the settings)
she gets charged. This is REALLY irritating. Apart from that major gripe,
the phone itself is really quite good. So can't give it 4 or 5 stars
because of this one niggle.
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Reviewed by sgh from uk on 4th Jun 2011
had it a week and must say im impressed with android 2.2, touch screen
is very responsive. only downside is the battery life usually lasts
a day if utilise wifi etc (i think this a common theme with all smartphones
though)excellent all round compared to my previous sgh monte which is
roughly at the same price.
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Reviewed by Ben from England on 31st May 2011
I have the same problem as someone else mentioned, get the same message
constantly, sometimes 50+ times, and often don't get messages from people
for days after they are sent, which makes the phone completely useless
for me.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by tukun from UK on 2nd May 2011
hi, i just bought it a week ago. its a great mobile. i already upgraded
it to froyo, my OS is now android 2.2.........its really K0ol.........
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Reviewed by chantelle from scotland on 12th Apr
2011
You get exactly what you pay for. A mobile that works for the first
week then everything goes wrong!!. Would not reccomend this to anyone.
The phone is constantly freezing, apps are forever force closing and
i always get the same messages through about 10 - 15 times. Also when
i get a phonecall, it takes a couple of seconds for the name of the
person who is calling to come up, then after that another couple of
seconds for it to actually answer, this has cause me to miss a few calls
before!. All in all the phone really is poor quality and not even worth
the small price it is!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by east end lad from UK on 11th Mar 2011
Pros: comfortable to hold, smooth touch-screen operation (and I'm not
big fan of touch screens), easy wifi connection, free google maps, general
samsung quality. Cons: 'keys' on touchscreen a bit on the small side,
even when turned sideways for wide screen; cannot use calendar without
a google account (how stupid is that?); once you log in with said google
details the google mail is locked to that account and only way to remove
it is factory reset which will wipe out all data) I'm tempted rate the
phone just a 3 but really the problem is not the phone it's the android
googleware that's rubbish. Hence I give it a 4.
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Reviewed by daz from england on 8th Mar 2011
hi i bought this phone for a lady friend of mine for £69.99 was her
first android phone,and its really pretty good for the price download
apps wifi etc,i have a htc google nexus one which is blazing fast but
that cost nearly 4 times as much so no suprise there.if only the camera
was a bit better that wud be great but still good for day time shots.
to sum up if you want an android phone and have a budget of around £69
go get this little beauty you wont be dissapointed
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Reviewed by jesus from israel on 6th Mar 2011
good
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Reviewed by Bhavya from India on 1st Mar 2011
I've played with this phone, upgraded to froyo, bricked it and got back
to normal. What else i can say. Btw i installed froyo from this tutorial
ankurtechblog.blogspot.com /2011/01/how-to-install-android-22-froyo-samsung.html
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Reviewed by tony from uk on 26th Feb 2011
just got this get it updated to 2,2 froyo
and its a bargin i even have sygic satnav in 3d on it runs a dream its
better than the htc tattoo which is stuck on donut 1.6 costs more to
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Samsung Galaxy
Europa links
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Galaxy Europa unlock codes: unlock Samsung Galaxy Europa
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