The Samsung Galaxy S could seem as if an iPhone 3GS wannabe, however its huge, vibrant screen and masses of smart-phone features create it a heap of than just another touchscreen conjointly-ran. Samsung has played to its strengths by delivering nice hardware and principally leaving the software side of things to Google's Android operating system.
Higher of all, the Galaxy S isn't insanely expensive. You may be ready to select it up at no price on a £thirty-a-month contract. It's also accessible for around £four hundred on a pay-as-you-go deal, and £450 SIM-free.
Light-weight as a feather, stiff as a corpse
The Galaxy S appearance terribly like the iPhone 3GS, with a black plastic case and a gunmetal-grey trim. On the front there are two bit-sensitive, flat buttons and a single mechanical home-screen button, lending the total phone a sleek and pared-down look that sets it except different button-laden phones that run Android, like the HTC Desire.
The galaxy s2 screen could be a 102mm (4-inch) behemoth, and but the handset manages to feel shockingly light-weight-weight, at only 119g. Some people will miss the heft of a large, serious sensible phone, however we tend to like the Galaxy S's lightness. We have a tendency to have a tendency to expect that the shiny black case will gather scratches when you've got used the phone for a whereas, though.
The large screen is that the supernova of this specific galaxy -- it's the Super AMOLED kind, that you'll be able to solely get on Samsung phones. The name's hyperbolic, however Super AMOLED screens are a massive improvement on the traditional AMOLED screens that we have a tendency to tend to loved on phones like the HTC Legend.
At intervals the past, we tend to've admired the insanely bright colors and high saturation of Super AMOLED screens, however lamented the particular truth that they are thus reflective that they will be invisible in bright sunlight. The Galaxy S has overcome this downside though. We tend to were ready to use the phone even in the brightest daylight that Wimbledon week may bestow upon us. The display even look wise compared to an LCD screen just like the iPhone's. The 480x800-pixel resolution isn't quite as spectacular as a result of the razor-sharp, 640x960-pixel show on the iPhone four, however it a lot of than bears comparison with the rest of the touchscreen posse.
Galactic speeds
The rest of the Galaxy S' hardware lives up to the promise of the screen. HSUPA connectivity ensures quick Internet surfing over 3G, whereas Wi-Fi works when you have got huge files to swap. You'll even wirelessly share your phone's 3G connection together with your alternative Wi-Fi devices, such as your laptop, as a result of of the tethering feature.
The Samsung Galaxy S offers 8GB or 16GB of internal memory, plus the power to feature up to 32GB extra with a microSD card. That creates the Galaxy S a huge memory monster, that is handy, since you'll would like to slap plenty of video and pictures on this phone to take advantage of its huge screen.
You may conjointly need tons of area to store the photos from the Galaxy S' five-megapixel camera. It took tight photos in sensible light-weight-weight in our tests. They were slightly noisy, but the camera was really quick to respond, that produces it excellent for taking spontaneous snapshots. While not a flash or LED photo light-weight, however, you won't capture abundant detail in low light.
With speedy surfing capability and a 1GHz processor, the Galaxy S is generally fast. Menu transitions are sleek and responsive, and employing a fast pinch of the fingers to zoom into the Web browser, maps and gallery applications is pain-free. The Android Market, but, did not even work after we 1st started the Galaxy S up, and it forever appeared to run at [*fr1] the speed of the opposite apps on the phone.
There is also an FM radio on-board, and, if you have got a Samsung TV, you may be in a position to use the phone as a distant control.
Awesome app action
Samsung has principally let Android handle the software features, that we have a tendency to have a tendency to assume is terribly wise -- we tend to generally don't understand Samsung's own makes an try as user-friendly. Android is Google's software for powering smart phones, and it includes innumerable treats, particularly if you utilize Google product like Gmail. As an example, Google Maps is offered on masses of phones, however, on Android phones, together with the Galaxy S, it comes with a free flip-by-flip navigation feature.
You will conjointly get access to the Android Market, that is jam-choked with apps that you can simply download and augment your phone, increasing its capabilities and features to an just about infinite extent.
Even if you never download an app, Samsung has created sure there are masses of fine ones pre-put in on the Galaxy S. Our favourite is Swype. It's another keyboard that produces writing on the screen faster, as a results of you only ought to run your finger over the letters that you want, rather than selecting out every one. To activate Swype, you just have to carry your finger on any text field. If you are doing not like it, you'll be in a position to change it off simply as easily.
Several of the options that we tend to tend to used to need apps for on Android, like support for Outlook email, have currently been designed into the operating system. The Galaxy S has the most recent version of Android place in, 2.1. Samsung encompasses a sensible record of updating the operating system of its previous Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy Portal, which bodes well for the Galaxy S, since version 2.2 of Android is on the way.
Unfortunately, we generally tend to'll be praying for a firmware update even before Samsung finishes baking Android 2.a combine of, as a results of the software on the Galaxy S can be really flaky at times. For instance, we generally tend to never got our calendar to sync any of the events from our Outlook calendar except the all-day ones, and our Google Apps calendar was ignored altogether. Our sample, that wasn't a pre-production version, conjointly froze usually enough to go away us feeling like we have a tendency to tend to were living in the North Pole.
Widget weakest link
Together with apps, you'll load up the seven home screens with widgets. Some embrace live updates, providing you with, for instance, up-to-the-minute information from social-networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. The phone additionally merges your Facebook and Twitter friends with the contacts in your address book, to assist you keep in touch.
Like apps, you'll download widgets from the Android Market, and Samsung has conjointly chucked a variety of its own onto the phone. They give the impression of being sensible, if you like Samsung's playful vogue, however we tend to generally tend to do not rate any of them as must-haves. For example, the daily briefing widget sounds nice -- it shows the weather, news and calendar for your day ahead. However the widget does not fill the screen, so it solely has space for one headline or appointment, and also the headlines all come from AP Mobile, that's solely helpful if you are favorite topic is American congressional hearings.
You'll never would like to use Samsung's own widgets if you do not wish to though, and you will move them and take away them at will. They will not be mind-blowingly wise, but do not let that place you off buying this phone.
Samsung has tweaked the menu slightly, chucking the quality Android apps onto rounded-sq. backgrounds that are highly reminiscent of the iPhone's icons. We tend to generally tend to do not apprehend why Samsung thinks this could facilitate folks accept this smart phone, however we generally tend to assume it's a waste of developer time. The a lot of a manufacturer messes with the default Android user interface, the less possible it's that users will receive timely updates to the operating system -- and Android tends to be refreshed a lot of sometimes than most folks's underpants.
However, for each dodgy widget or annoying, copycat menu, the Galaxy S overflows with dozens additional nice choices -- from the Aldiko ebook reader, which appearance simply like Apple's iBooks app, to the augmented-reality app, Layar. Taken together with the large screen, the Galaxy S lives up to the mobile-laptop hype, and we have a tendency to have a tendency to might happily stare at it until our eyes go square.
Conclusion
Thanks to Android's software brains and Samsung's hardware flair, the Galaxy S might be a very spectacular wise-phone package -- albeit an extraordinarily light-weight one. The large Super AMOLED screen is good, and you'll freely ignore the usually clumsy Samsung widgets and apps in favour of your selection from the thousands within the Android Market. The draw back of all this power is that the Galaxy S' weedy battery life and sometimes buggy software. But, for the pay-monthly price, we tend to will forgive the plasticky case and incontinent battery -- and, once a software fix comes over the air, the Galaxy S may be a real good-phone titan.
