I’ve been recently hooked up with the Samsung Galaxy S by the friendly people of Vodafone Austria’s press department, anxious to see if this Phone lives up to its hype. I know quite a lot of people who talk good things about it, so i just had to find out what all the fuzz is about. I’ve had quite some Experience with Android before, spanning from the T-Mobile G1, over the HTC Hero, Acer BeTouch E110 to my current HTC Desire, which i bought when i switched providers. While i always loved HTC for the good specs and it’s Sense UI (yes i love that), i usually had a hard time with their Entertainment Hardware, meaning camera, speakers and overall Multimedia Compabilities. Of course, the last term can be improved massively with Apps from the Market, but none of the other. Wit that, and my huge background with Nokia Devices, i went out and tested the Galaxy S for about 2 weeks now and here’s what i thought about it. Keep in mind, those are my personal opinions, which might differ from your own.
Samsung Galaxy S Hits:
Display: This is Samsung’s obvious big Hit, the georgeous Super AMOLED Display on the Galaxy S. and yes, it is super. We talk about a 4″ WVGA Display, with a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Black is black and the Colours really come across super vivid and vibrant. This is, hands down, the best display i have ever seen on a mobile phone. While i personally prefer the 3,7″ or even 3,5″ Displays for day to day usage, the Galaxy S display was just awesome to watch pictures and movies on it. Will the Nokia N8’s Display be able to out-awesome it? Find out soon!
Internals: While my HTC Desire is quite limited with internal memory, Samsung didn’t mess around and threw a whooping 8GB of internal storage on the Galaxy S. This is partitioned into a 2GB Space for all your Apps and around 6GB for media, music etc. Low Memory warnings are history here. If this isn’t enough for you, you can still throw a 32GB microSD card in it, which should give you enough storage to bring you into the next century. processor-wise, Samsung has fit a 1GHz Hummingbird Processor in the Galaxy S, which at time feels faster than the Snapdragon in other devices, but ultimately gets beaten down by TouchWiz, Samsungs attempt to better Android. More on that later on.
Form Factor/Size: I love slim Phones and the Samsung Galaxy S just falls into that. While the Size with 122,4 x 64,2mm is on the edge for being too big, its perfect with a thickness of only 9,9mm. With this thickness, its easy to forget about it in the pocket, cause its really that damn slim. I wouldnt recommend sitting on it though, more on that later on.
Battery Life: Android has never been battery-friendly, i think everyone should know this by now. Still i think the Galaxy S has hold up pretty nicely, with Gmail on immediate delivery, Screen on auto brightness and normal Usage, i made easily 1 full day out of it. This doesnt sound much, but for Android, its quite an accomplishment. While most HTC Handsets have a 1.320mAh Battery in it, the Galaxy S rocks a 1.500 mAh unit, which gives some extra juice throughout the day. If this isn’t enough, there’s always a Solution from my Friends over at Mugen Power Batteries, and their Solutions for the Galaxy S!
Swype: Before i used Swype, i thought the HTC portrait QWERTY plus its great text correction system was the top of things for text entry. Samsung has integrated Swype in the Galaxy S, which i never tried before. I have seen it before but didnt think much of it, but damn, Swype is amazing. After a day or two, i was flying, being faster than ever before. Typing speeds like i never experienced them. Go on and try it, you’d be surprised!
Samsung Galaxy S Misses:
Build Materials: I haven’t owned Samsung Phones before, so i can’t comment on previous phones, but the Samsung Galaxy S is the worst piece of plastic i have ever had in my hand. You take it out of the box and immediately get turned off by this plasticky feel of it. I did not try it, as this is a trial phone, but i think you can easily go on and bend the Galaxy S, if not completely break it. If this isnt enough, the Galaxy S is slippery as f*ck. It happened quite often, that the phone just slipped out of my hand while working on it. It didnt hit concrete luckily, cause i think it would look messy after one full hit on a concrete floor. I had the HTC Desire before and gotta say that even though that one is plastic as well, HTC has covered the Phone in rubberized material, which are not slippery at all. This is a major turn-off.
Camera misses flash: The Samsung Galaxy S is equipped with a 5MP Camera with autofocus capabilities and lots of different scene settings and options. the camera makes okay pictures in daylight, in night times you’re screwed, simply because the Galaxy S has no Flash. not LED, not Xenon. I don’t exactly get a phone that can shoot videos in 720p, but gives up on you when the sun goes down. eesh. It’s 2010, right?
LED Notifications missing: When i’m at work etc, my phone normally lies on the table, in standby mode. I don’t use it often when the boss is around etc, but i still wanna see if something important happens, okay? this is why i love Notifications LED. It doesnt even have to be multi-coloured, a simple one is more than enough. missing on the Galaxy S. for what exact reason? no one will ever know.
TouchWiz: What Sense is for HTC, TouchWiz is for Samsung. And while i personally prefer Sense over even Stock Android, TouchWiz is mediocre at best. The Processor really does a great job in the Galaxy S, but gets ultimately beaten down by Samsungs Attempt to make the World better. or at least Android.
There are some terrible lags when you try and use the phone out of box. Lags so terrible, that you question yourself if Samsung was lying with the Processor. Those lags can be fixed rather easily with an app called one click lag fix, which works wonders. And yes i know, there are alternative launcher apps etc, but since its a trial phone, i review it like you’d buy it. the lag fix went on it after some days, cause the phone simply wasn’t any fun at all.
There are several Samsung Apps preinstalled, like Social Hub or Mini Diary, but none of them really add much to the Experience and can easily be replaced by (better) alternatives from the Market.
It looks so much like an iPhone: There, i said it. one of the first things when i got the Samsung Galaxy S in my hands, was that i had a cheap imitation of the iPhone in my hands. This further continued with the fixed App bar at the bottom (which is a good thing) and the App Menu going horizontally rather than vertically like Android normally does. I think copying and improving things from the best is a good thing, but i think Samsung overdid it a bit.
Verdict:
The Galaxy S was a phenomenal hit for Samsung and garnered quite a following since its out, and i appreciate Samsung for constantly testing out new waters, f.e. put a projector in their phones. The Galaxy S in my opinion was something needed for Samsung to let people know they’re far from finished. Famous for the fantastic 4″ Super AMOLED screen it certainly is a good looking phone and i also like the Processor/Memory side of things, however it just didn’t click with me. Too slippery, too plasticky, the lack of a phone flash and Notification LED are a major turnoff. It’s fun to use this phone, as is almost every Android Phone, and it gets even better if you apply a custom ROM on it, as i don’t find the Samsung Way of Android adds too much to it. The Samsung Galaxy S sells really well, and i know a lot of fans about it, but with the above mentioned downers, it’s just not a phone i want to own. Give it a shot if you have the opportunity and see for yourself, and make sure to let us know what you think of it!
