Design

The Gio is solidly designed, although its frame is constructed entirely from plastic, and Samsung retains the good looks of its more expensive handsets. A faux-steel rim surrounds the edge of the Gio, and we like the dimpled texture across the battery cover.




 

User experience

Probably the best part of this pre-paid package is that Samsung basically delivers the same user experience that you get in last year's top-end Galaxy S smartphone, but for a fraction of the price. Samsung's TouchWiz UI is employed here, which gives you seven home screens to customise with widgets and a clean, horizontally scrolling apps drawer, which is really easy to navigate quickly.

FEATURES

The Gio supports 3G browsing on the Optus network (900 and 2100Mhz UMTS frequencies), Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. Samsung includes social networking apps and Navigon maps out of the box, plus DLNA media sharing, so you can share pictures, music and video with a compatible TV or Blu-Ray/DVD player over Wi-Fi.

Performance

This user experience is extremely punchy for a phone with an 800MHz processor. Samsung has done a great job of stripping back its system to its leanest, and the result is an extremely responsive system that reacts to input immediately. Turning the phone on, jumping to menus, scrolling across pages of apps — all of the daily tasks happen without any delay or any stuttering in the animation.

Battery life is good, but not remarkable in any way. The handset's 1350mAh capacity battery is generous for a phone of this size, but, with regular use of the internet, email and social networks, we found that we charged the Gio every second day.