Samsung Galaxy S review

by Scott Bicheno on 23 November 2010, 13:15

Tags: Samsung (005935.KS)

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Software and conclusions

Onto the software, this is what I was banging on about at the start of this piece. At the end of the day the Samsung Galaxy S is an Android phone. The UI is defined by Google, the customisability is defined by Google, and the apps - with a few Samsung extras - are defined by Google. It's a Google-phone and admits as much on the back.

In case you've never used an Android phone, this means you have the ‘wall of apps' much like an iPhone, but you get excellent integration with Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, YouTube, etc. And, of course, you get the rapidly growing Android Market. I've found Gmail and Google Maps especially to be excellent mobile products but, of course, you can get them on all Android phones.

There is some unique stuff. Samsung Apps is a store of around 20 free downloads, which includes a news and weather widget and a bunch of different language dictionaries. There's also the option of using Swype technology when typing but, frankly, it takes a bit of getting used to.

The only other UI variation I detected was that buttons for ‘Phone', ‘Contacts', Messaging and ‘Applications' appear at the bottom of the screen no matter which of the seven home screens you're on. Samsung also chucks in a couple of free e-books - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Pride and Prejudice - which is nice.

Widgets are fun - these are dynamic data feeds that display on the home screen. The ESPN one is great for sports results and, in my opinion, TweetDeck for Android is all I need in the field of ‘social hubs' that OEMs seem so desperate to thrust at us. Lastly I recommend Advanced Task Killer, which has a widget that shuts down all superfluous apps with one touch.

So, in summary, the Samsung Galaxy S is a good Android phone. You can't go too far wrong with an Android phone, it seems, because a lot of the quality is assured by Google. As long as you pick an OEM that can get new versions of Android out reasonably quickly - I updated to Froyo while researching this review, but some HTC handsets got it sooner - you don't have to worry too much about obsolescence.

What you pay for by getting a more expensive phone is hardware spec and the likelihood that the OEM will prioritise Android updates over cheaper ones. But that aside, and much as I enjoyed using the Samsung Galaxy S, there seemed no compelling reason to chose it over equivalent Android handsets such as the HTC Desire.

Good:

  • Android
  • Hummingbird SoC
  • Screen
  • Timely OTA update

Bad:

  • Plastic chassis
  • No alert LEDs
  • A lot like other Android phones

 

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HEXUS Forums :: 2 Comments

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Posted by Barkotron - Wed 24 Nov 2010 14:04
I dunno, I think there are a few reasons to get it rather than the Desire (I have this, my wife has the HTC).

For me, there are quite a few things wrong with the Desire that are just not there on the Galaxy S.

1: Screen, especially in sunlight. The Galaxy S screen is far, far better than the one on the Desire. Bigger, more responsive, more accurate. It can actually be used in sunlight as something other than a mirror as well. This is a massive advantage.

2: Storage: there's basically no storage on the Desire other than what you put in there in an SD card. 8GB/16GB plus whatever card you want to put in is a big plus to me. The Desire's room for application installs is miniscule as well (under 200MB, isn't it?), so if the apps you want don't support Apps2SD or you're not on Froyo, you're left with having to shuffle apps rather than just installing what you want. The Galaxy S has 2GB of app install space - between that and apps2sd you're not going to run out any time soon.

3: Camera. The camera on the Galaxy S is decent in good light, okay in not-so-good light, and there's no flash so you're screwed in the dark. However the camera on the Desire (on each of the 3 different ones I've used) is abysmal, whatever the local conditions. Video capture is far better on the Samsung as well.

4: games - 3d games run perfectly on the Samsung, patchy on the HTC. It's just better at processing the graphics. The Quake3 port is particularly noteworthy. Also, I don't know if they've fixed the multi-touch issues on the Desire, but controlling multi-touch games was very unreliable last time I tried. Admittedly I haven't seen a Desire with Froyo on yet, so I don't know how much better that makes things.


There are things that annoy me about the Samsung as with any piece of tech, but I absolutely would not swap for the Desire unless someone offered me an awful lot of money to do so.
Posted by Rob_B - Wed 24 Nov 2010 14:11
I had a play with a Galaxy recently, coming from a HTC Desire it's just a big version of it, I really wasn't impressed with it & it's far too expensive (IMO) Nothing really uses the big screen to make it a worthwhile purchase & it is a bit laggy :/

Barkotron
3: Camera. The camera on the Galaxy S is decent in good light, okay in not-so-good light, and there's no flash so you're screwed in the dark. However the camera on the Desire (on each of the 3 different ones I've used) is abysmal, whatever the local conditions. Video capture is far better on the Samsung as well.

Design flaw on the lens (HTC refuse to acknowledge it but just search & you'll see how many people have it)
The lens cover is flush with the back & is soft plastic so gets covered in tiny scratches. Take a picture with then without your back cover on, its amazing!

Take off the back cover, pop the lens out with a cotton bud, put a tiny dot of toothpaste on the lens and rub with a soft cloth until the micro-scratches are gone, pop the lens back on but inside the back cover (there's even a space for it!)
apart from cleaning of the odd bit of dust now & again it won't scratch anymore :clapping: