Samsong Galaxy S Review

Samsung has insisted on installing its own collection of "apps" and widgets, which are horribly designed, and use mismatched primary colours. They compare poorly with HTC's well-coordinated Sense apps and widgets. Samsung also insists on inflicting its software on you. You can't connect your Galaxy S to your PC as a mass storage device until you download and install Samsung's horrible Kies desktop suite - a 134MB download, no less. There’s a workaround, thankfully; in Android's Application settings, under Development, turn on USB debugging.

  One of the iPhone's advantages has been its large internal storage space, while Android phones have microSDHC slots. The Galaxy S goes one better, with internal and external microSDHC slots, even once you’ve fitted the bundled 16GB card, there’s still a free slot. Plus there’s 2GB of built-in memory on top.

    

     The camera features auto-focus, face recognition, white balance, ISO adjustment, anti-shake, auto-contrast and blink detection, and you can tap on the screen to focus on a particular spot. As with most mobile phone cameras, it suffers from lots of noise, especially in dark conditions, which isn't helped by the lack of a flash.

The Galaxy lasted for an unprecedented 29 hours in our light usage battery tests, which is around 50 per cent more than its nearest equivalent, the HTC Desire. This means it should last a couple of days if you’re careful with power-hungry features, such as GPS.

Network

HSUPA 900/1900/2100 
EDGE/GPRS 850/ 900/1800/1900

 

Dimension

64.2 X 122.4 X 9.9 mm (119g)

 

Display

4.0” WVGA(480x800) 16M SUPER AMOLED
mDNIe(Mobile Digital Natural Image engine)

 

Samsung Android 2.1 (Eclair)

Upgrade to Android 2.2 (Froyo) is available
via Samsung Kies depending on country and carrier

 

Samsung Apps / Android Market

Various applications downloadable

 

Social Hub

Integrates SNS, email, and calendar accounts

 

Android Samsung UI

Multiple Homescreens
Hybrid Widgets

 

Processor

1GHz CPU Speed

 

Battery (Standard) Li-pol, 1,500mAh

Talk time: 2G/803 min, 3G/393 min.
Standby time: 2G/750 hrs, 3G/576 hrs.

 

Camera

5.0 Megapixel AF camera
Self Shot, Action Shot, Add me, Cartoon Shot, Smile Shot

 

Video

HD Video Player & Recorder (1280 x 720) @ 30fps
codec: DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1
format: 3gp(mp4), AVI(divx), MKV, FLV, H.263Sorenson

 

Music

Music Player with SoundAlive
3.5mm Ear Jack
MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/OGG/WMA/AMR-NB/AMR-WB/WAV/
MID/AC3/IMY/FLAC/XMF

 

Memory

16GB/8GB+ MicroSD(Up to 32GB)

 

Android Browser

Flash Lite3.1, RSS reader

 

Multi-touch zoom

 

Light sensor

Accelerometer sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass

 

Additional Features

Layar Reality Browser powered by Tele Atlas
Swype, Write & Go
ThinkFree
Aldiko e-book