Samsung Galaxy S

[jjgreenwood]

Here is a first impressions of this handset. For the last 18 months I have been using an apple 3g 16gb which has performed the job very well. My only problem with the handset was its ability to get signal which was much worse than any other handset I'd had. With new phones now on the market I decided to switch to vodafone after many years with o2 to try and resolve my connectivity issues, I decided to try android and after vodafone couldn't deliver a htc desire went with the slightly more expensive samsung - mainly due to its increased storage.

The Phone - physical form

Was very impressed first of all with how it felt. Expected it to feel flimsy and whilst it is light and made of plastic, it does feel like a well made device. Compared to the iphone it doesn't feel like it will take the knocks but then it has removable back panal so obviously won't. It is significantly lighter and thinner without feeling much bigger. The screen is clearly in a different league - as has been mentioned. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the iphone 4's that will litter our workplace in a few weeks.

Software

Works well, much more scope for customisation than an iphone. The only thing i will note is the speed at which the device moves. I played with a HTC desire in CPW and it seemed very fast - maybe i need to know more about andriod but at times the samsung is no faster than my old iphone. In some cases its just slower. In the key applications for me which are the browser and the email client its very fast so thats fine but the rest can take a couple of moments to load. My friends iphone 3gs seems to load quicker. Also the software doesn't feel as stable as the iphone, probably related to the amount of customisation and the fact i've got every bell and wistle running. To be fair in the applications menu its fast, its only in the home screens menu (which you can't do on an iphone) its slow.

Hardware

I suppose this is the camera and buttons. It all seems to work ok. The camera is a million times better than that on my iphone which isn't hard as it was rubbish.

Initial setup

Very easy tbh. Exported my me account to gmail and then downloaded my contacts off the back of it. Synced the two which was easy as gmail tells you how and job done. I liked how the phone exported my facebook contacts and populated everyone with pictures, very clever.

All in all a worthwile upgrade if only I can work out what is slowing the thing down.

[directhex]

To be fair in the applications menu its fast, its only in the home screens menu (which you can't do on an iphone) its slow.

This is Samsung's own replacement GUI, and may be a major cause of slowdown. If the base ROM is 2.1 or higher, try looking in Settings/About Phone/battery/Battery Use to see what's using the battery most (and presumably the CPU too) - although this may exclude the home screen.

A replacement GUI may be a source of extra pep.

[jjgreenwood]

I have downloaded a different launcher app but some of its apps didn't install with it - think its called launcherpro may go to that if this is the case

[jjgreenwood]

Used it for a few more days now - some updated observations

app killer is essential as it seems to want to run a lot of apps on start up and its multi tasking likes running everything at the same time, can't find a way of actually exiting a lot of programs

battery lasts a day but I am playing with it a lot, i think battery will actually be comparable to when i first got the iphone when i've sorted it

speed has improved a lot with getting to know which apps are running and using app killer to kill of the ones which aren't required

the display eats most the power but only needs to be on full brightness in direct sun so turned that down

loading stuff onto the ui causes it to run all the time so backed down to a couple of screens using mainly shortcuts rather than the apps themselves

reception is definately better but handset still suffers compared to a normal phone - the wifes ancient samsung slide effort still gets better reception than my smart phone

appreciating the build and lightness more and more, this really is a quality item

speed on internet and games is mega compared to old 3g and friends 3gs, had an iphone 4 in the showroom today and while its nice nobody thought it was better than the samsung (or worse)

music player is very good and quality/loudness has a slight edge over iphone, although coverflow doesn't look as pretty

720p video recording is better than my flip mino hd which was a surprise

photo quality is generally good - miles better than iphone

battery use while using video capture and photo's is fairly heavy so you have to be careful

charging the battery takes forever compared to the iphone - you need to leave it charging overnight, where the iphone says its fully charged in an hour or so

email is much better as I can have different accounts in different apps

[Funkstar]

charging the battery takes forever compared to the iphone - you need to leave it charging overnight, where the iphone says its fully charged in an hour or so

Where are you chargin it from? The bundled charger?
have a look at the amp rating, it's probably 500mA. If you get a 5v charger that can output 1000mA, I bet charging will be significantly faster.

[jjgreenwood]

Where are you chargin it from? The bundled charger?
have a look at the amp rating, it's probably 500mA. If you get a 5v charger that can output 1000mA, I bet charging will be significantly faster.

Yea am using the one out the box, will have a look at others, cheers

[shoeses10]

I don't have that kind of phone yet, but i have heard so much about it. I guess I will replace my old one for this.

[Fiona21]

I have just purchased this phone, this is my first smart phone, can anyone tell me how to log out off the internet?

[AndyCr15]

You might need to be more specific. As far as I know the internet itself has no log in, only websites and applications.

[ipwiz]

Sexy phone - Whose selling it - is it just Vodafone

[mark22]

I want this phone but still on contract with my I8910, another great phone. Looking here you can get it from O2 and orange as well. Still not free on contract but not bad for such a good phone.

[Fiona21]

Thanks Andy

Does that mean that if I come out of the internet or applications I am not using internet time?

[AndyCr15]

No, definitely not. What I'm saying is, you don't log in to 'the internet', you log into your Google account or Facebook.

Unfortunately, 2.1 doesn't have a simple way of turning off your data and many people use something like APN Droid to do this. FroYo has an option in settings to disable data, very useful.

[directhex]

Thanks Andy

Does that mean that if I come out of the internet or applications I am not using internet time?

Plenty of things will use the net in the background - scheduled checking of your email accounts, Facebook friends, Twitter, and so on.

If you're that concerned, then 1) a smartphone wasn't a good buy, and 2) disable mobile data when you're not using it (you should be able to add a widget to your desktop to turn this on and off easily)

[finlay666]

Looked at the Galaxy S

Saw it had a Samsung UI
Decided against it

Might be faster + more powerful than the desire + arguably better screen, but a crappy, laggy UI is a huge negative for me

[AndyCr15]

Surely it wont be too hard to flash a ROM with standard Android on it? Besides, most people think Sense UI is a slow UI, but people seem to get on with it