The Samsung Galaxy Apollo GT i5801

It may be a little on the chunky side, but if you’re not prepared to pay the eye-watering prices currently on offer for a high-end Android phone, you’d do well to consider this little brute. OK, in the world of Samsung mobile phones, the Samsung Galaxy Apollo isn’t in the same league as the superb Samsung Galaxy S – one of the best smartphones out there at present. Excellent though it is, the Galaxy S is also distinctly expensive (currently around £450 for a SIM-only deal).

Like the Galaxy S, the GT-i5891 includes the version 2.1 Android operating system, and if you’re into contract mobile phones, the handset’s yours for free if you opt for a two year contract at £20 a month (SIM-free it’ll set you back £225 or you could opt for a pay-as-you-go deal for about £150). But there are other allures to the phone, too. Like its wonderfully responsive touch screen: it uses a capacitative (rather than a resistive) screen that supports multi-touch – just pinch your fingers together and you’ll zoom in on the webpage, map or image you’re viewing. A Qaulcomm processor drives the action, running at around 667 MHz. That’s zippy enough for the average user, but it tends to be a little tardy if you’ve got lots of widgets open on your screen. You’ll easily get two days of use from a single battery charge-up, though.

Samsung has thrown in a DivX-certified video-playing app (resolution 720×480 pixels) so you won’t need to re-encode DivX or Xvid videos on your PC first in order to view them. There’s also a 3.2 megapixel camera, and the supplied in-ear headphones give surprisingly good audio playback when you’re listening to music, with a pleasingly gutsy bass.