Here is my in-depth review of the Samsung Galaxy S using it for an entire week (and not using the iPhone a single time).
The Samsung Galaxy S is the latest Android phone to hit the market, it has a Super AMOLED which is built into the glass of the device rather than being placed as a layer on top of the glass like in all other smartphones.
Samsung have pulled out all the stops, well most of the stops, read on to find out why it’s not as good as I first thought.
Bluetooth Call Setup – In-Car
The Bluetooth stack on the Samsung Galaxy S is implemented poorly. Well, I can’t really say whether it’s a Samsung that implemented it poorly or whether it’s an Android thing, but taking the device in-car and pairing it with my Bluetooth speaker, whenever I make calls or am called, or call my voice mail all I get is static on the call. Nothing seems to stop it, whether it’s charging or not, whether it’s on the dashboard or on the seat. This really for me puts a downer on the Galaxy S because I spend 4 hours a day on phone calls and conference calls and I don’t like to have it placed up to my ear all the time.
Loudspeaker
When not in car I use loud speaker on calls by usually connecting my iPhone via a 3.5mm cable to my Linx B-Tube as I spend a lot of hours per week on conference calls. Unfortunately although the Samsung Galaxy S has a 3.5mm headphone socket and although you can play your music or any audio out through this to any speaker including the Linx B-Tube, as soon as a call connects, the audio won’t go through the 3.5mm cable UNLESS you use Samsung’s own headset that you get in the box.
This is very frustrating, Samsung seem to have done this because they’ve doubled the 3.5mm socket as a video out to TV. Crippling the audio-out on a device in favour of video-out is a bad thing to do. Samsung if you really wanted to do video-out via a 3.5mm socket then you should have added another socket to the phone.
Interface / UI
The interface on the Samsung Galaxy S is a great interface. The first thing you’ll see is the swipe to unlock. Not a new feature by any definition, however they use the screen as a piece of glass which is new, and you drag the dimmed glass tile in any direction to unlock and this is a very new feature.
You can turn on an unlock password screen, which is very new because here you don’t enter a password or a pin but you have dots on screen and you have to connect dots in a certain way to unlock the phone.
On the Samsung Galaxy S you have 7x home screens so you have enough for all your icons and widgets. Samsung provide some of their own widgets and applications. Unfortunately although some of them have some good use, just like the HTC custom widgets they tend to be on the large and bulky side and take up most of the screen.
The great thing that I haven’t seen on other Android devices is the ability to use Folders. This is a feature on the Samsung Galaxy S and allows you to either drag app icons into folders or to drag contacts into folders. This is a great addition and removes the clutter on most of the home screens and allows for more widgets.
One thing I find really slow is adding app shortcuts to the desktop, sometimes the device takes a good 20 seconds before you get a list of shortcuts available for applications. I’m not sure why this is but this is the only sluggish part of the device I find. This seems to happen when it has detected new apps are installed/removed and it seems to recatalog every app again but doesn’t tell you that it’s doing it.
Speed of device
I’m really liking the speed of the device, it’s fast with the Android 2.1 OS and although I’d prefer to have Froyo 2.2, I’m prepared to wait for the official Samsung update to appear later in the month. That said I started to see a lot of common freezing occurring on the device after posting a You Tube video I found out that Samsung have formatted the underlying partition wrongly. After having to ROOT the device and apply a patch, the device is running very much faster, in-fact EXTREMELY fast. No freezes in most of the apps now, just the occasional freeze here or there.
Multitasking
The Samsung Galaxy S like all Android devices comes with TRUE multitasking unlike the multislicing that iPhone’s have on iOS4. To be completely honest I haven’t really seen the need for multitasking, its good your apps remain open but this can also create a hindrance because I noticed the device slowing down and regularly freezing the UI completely. Once I killed most of the tasks with a free task killer (Advanced Task Killer) the device seemed to speed up and not freeze as much. I’m sure this is the main reason why Apple haven’t enabled full multitasking on the iPhone. The big thing for me is that the Samsung Galaxy S even with a 1500mAh battery still doesn’t last as long as the iPhone unless I turn off Bluetooth and WiFi, but the iPhone have these enabled.
Social Media
I’m a heavy Facebook, Twitter and Gowalla user and this is an area I knew I would be safe from using the HTC Desire. Android has a great selection of apps for Twitter, the best on Twitter by far is Seesmic. On the iPhone and iPad I would usually use Tweetings, I’ve found this to be the best all round Twitter app and is slightly better than Seesmic. There’s still no Tweetings on Android so Seesmic although great will have to do for the time being. I also have the official updated Facebook app installed which is great. I use Focus for Facebook on the iPhone because this removes app spam and does message threading and this isn’t on Android still. Gowalla I’m happy with as Gowalla have their own Android app and this works as well as the iPhone version.
Email
Email works great whether you’re a Gmail user or using Microsoft Exchange. The only thing I don’t like is there black interface. I’d rather they use common colours. I get the feeling they aimed the look and feel at a teenager in some of their colourings.
Podcasting
I listen to a lot of podcasts / netcasts and I have 3x JBL speaker docks, one in my office, one in the bedroom and one in the lounge, so whenever I want to listen to a podcast I simply would dock my iPhone and listen to it on the loud speaker. I can do the same with the Android but I need to connect it up to a 3.5mm speaker cable and I can’t charge it in the dock. This obviously is what is expected as the JBL speaker is an iPhone dock speaker. I can get away with using the 3.5mm connection. I’ve started using Google Listen and finding this works really well for podcasts, just doesn’t do videos. However, Dpod does and I also have that installed now.
Blogging
I’m not a heavy blogger but I do blog to my website a lot. I do most of this via the iPad but occasionally there are things I want to blog when I don’t have my iPad with me. Having the WordPress application and WPStats accessible on the Samsung Galaxy S is a great addition and although I’m used to WordPress on the iPhone I don’t have WPStats which is a great app to check my daily stats.
Productivity
I use Dropbox a lot because I save files on my PC and will access them either on my iPad or on my iPhone / Samsung Galaxy S. Dropbox have their own official app although I’m using the unofficial app at the moment on Android and this works really well. I also use F1 Racing for all my F1 fix that I need.
I have a number of news apps that I run on a regular basis like Engadget, Mashable, BBC News and Sky News. These all work extremely well, I need to find a good RSS reader that hooks into Google Reader. I usually use NetNewsWire on the iPhone which I really like but there’s no version available on Android.
Games
I haven’t installed many games yet on the Galaxy S, but all the regular Android ones that I have installed seem to work. Samsung do give you Asphalt5 (driving game) for free which is a very nice tough and shows off just how fast the device is (well after you root/jailbreak) 
GPS
GPS works, but it’s worse than the iPhone, and there’s always been a lot of complaints about the iPhone GPS. For a more in-depth look you can read Samsung Galaxy S GPS problems post.
Limitations / Shortcomings
Overall
I’m really liking the Samsung Galaxy S, to be completely honest I could probably have moved completely to Android with the HTC Desire. The problem with the HTC Desire like most devices is they are severely capped / limited on how much program install memory they have available, usually this is around 512mb or lower, so you completely fill up the device with about 20 apps installed. With the Samsung Galaxy S like the Incredible and other devices has an internal flash memory, I have 8gb on the Samsung Galaxy S with a further 32gb on microSD and this gives me almost an unlimited space to install apps. Unfortunately without Froyo 2.2 to be able to install apps on SD card, and also most developers not supporting this feature yet including Google, the 8gb flash storage comes in really handy.
I’ve almost completely converted to the Samsung Galaxy S, and I’m really torn now on which phone to use. I love the iPhone and it works out well because if I purchase an app on the iPad I almost always have it then installed for free on the iPhone. For the Samsung Galaxy S I need to repurchase apps as they’re not transferrable between platforms and for the most part you have to go for different programs on each platform, so that creates another learning experience. That said, the app support is really good and new Android apps are increasing in frequency which means there’s less holes to fill.
I like the iPhone but I also like the Samsung Galaxy S. For me the real annoyance is the 3.5mm jack, although that said, the external speaker on the Samsung Galaxy S is the loudest I have ever heard and I can do without using my Linx B-Tube as a conference call speaker. I have received some complaints that if I’m on external speaker and talk that people say they can hear echos or the audio breaks up a little which I didn’t have on the iPhone using the Linx B-Tube.
The other annoyances are the Bluetooth stack providing a lot of static over Bluetooth speakers/headphones and also the GPS, which kind of takes away from all the good the Samsung Galaxy S is doing and reduces it to a lack luster device.
Is it an iPhone killer? Simply put YES if you can get around the shortcomings of the device.
For now I’m still going to continue using the Samsung Galaxy S as my main phone and see how much longer I can continue using it with the above limitations instead of the iPhone.
The Samsung Galaxy S is also known as
Hi Dave, I enjoyed your posting, I have had the galaxy s for over a week and would like to share my short comings if i may.
1. The power button is on the opposite side as the volume button which is completely daft as you tend to squeeze the phone to power/close the display.(i900 omnia it is located at the top) which is cool for 1 handed operation.
2. The phone is too damn slippy you can practice juggling all too easily, I had to buy a bulky leather case, somebody will hopefully produce a rubberised back cover like the n95 I loved it.
3. I really miss my i900 omnia finger/optical mouse(not for its mouse function but because it was so good for tabbing around menus or text editing) I’m not sure if this is software specific to win mo or that samsung just like to save money but I still miss it.
4. home key is a waste of function as the back key should be set to short press to go back and long press(currently does no apparent operation) to close all/home user dependant. this could be embedded with advanced task killer which would probably be only a matter or s/ware update
5. I have turned off the circle screen lock pattern because while on a call it kicks in and you cannot end the call e.g the other person is on an extension which stays open, thus I have to unlock then select phone and end, This was a problem on the omnia you can’t end the call quickly, the phone should be set to ban certain functions while in a call I want to see the back button as an end only feature during a call .
6. When you are typing an sms (Swype is awsome BTW) but want to put the cursor somewhere it is a nightmare, sure you can double tap a word to edit but sometimes you just want the cursor somewhere within the text box.
Sorry for my ramblings which are just my observational opinions which my or may not be completely acurate, thanks
Paul
By: paul on August 30, 2010
at 12:43 pm
Thanks Paul!
Power Button / Juggling phone – I agree with you here, although actually coming from an iPhone and being right handed I now think it’s in a better place, the problem with the power button is it’s on the bezel and it tapers away with the contour of the phone which means if you’re holding in your right hand and get your thumb to power it off you can quite likely find it jumping out of your hand. I thought about getting a case then decided not to, I prefer my devices either with a wafer thin hard shell case or nothing at all. I’ve found by making sure my middle finger is below the volume button, gripping it hard between that and my thumb and then using the thumb to press the power button I can about 80% of the time get it right. Took quite a bit of training though!
Optical Mouse / Home key – I’m not a great fan of the optical mouse, I had an Omnia for a short while. I do find it kinda strange that they have such a big home button that is recessed and does nothinig, I did think at first it might have been a sensor track pad. It’s possible for Samsung to do a track ball/pad as other devices like the HTC Desire have it, so I think Samsung just decided to leave it off the device possibly to keep cost down. I actually like the HOME key, although I did try the trial of Visual Task Switcher and then purchased the full version for $1.99 – this is a really nice task switcher and works better than the built-in task switcher, more info available at http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.esdmobile.taskswitcher.full
Lock Pattern / Ear Sensor - I too turned the lock pattern off, I find it always gets in the way when I want to use the device the most, e.g. when I turn it on. Found myself wasting too much time unlocking the phone. One thing I have found similar to the iPhone 4 is that the ear / light sensor seems to not always realise when you have the phone close to the ear, e.g. if you move the phone slightly away from your ear whilst talking (at an angle) it only has to be 5-10mm, then place it back on the ear, numerous times I’ve had it hang up the call or start making beep sounds like it’s launching other apps. I’m hoping Samsung will do something to fix this as this gets quite annoying, especially when you hangup the call by accident.
Swype – I didn’t think I would like Swype but when I switch back to my iPhone or iPad (I have these too), I find that I’m solely missing Swype on those devices because I’m so used to Swype on the Samsung Galaxy S
. I don’t have much problem placing the cursor, usually I can do it with between 1-3 taps. That might not sound too good but trust me on the HTC Desire it would take me 10+ taps to position the cursor, and in the end I ended up using the trackball to move the cursor, so I find the locating of the cursor not too bad on the Samsung Galaxy S, it could be improved a little though.
If you haven’t tried to Root and apply the One Click Lag Fix, then take a look at How to speed up the Samsung Galaxy S so it flies that I wrote, because once you do this, it really is a lot faster and less lag.
Thanks for your comments, you can also check out the apps I have installed for additional apps that I use.
Dave
By: Dave Burrows on August 30, 2010
at 1:17 pm
I have now had my Galaxy S for about one year now. I do understand what you mean with the issues however these have now been fixed. e.g. The end call button, you can have the power button end the call which is brilliant (have a look in Settings, Accessibility). Another problem solved is the typing when you want to place your cursor somewhere. If you click somewhere a little ball will pop up which you can slide to the place you want the cursor to be and you will always get the correct place.
I don’t see how you are able to drop your phone so easily. I very rarely drop mine as it sticks to my hand very well. Also I find it very difficult to see how you press the volume rocker buttons when you press the power button.
And yes I do get the problem with the ambient light sensor in calls. Happens to me often when I hang up on people so I now don’t bother putting the phone on my face as the speaker is very loud anyway I am still able to hear the person on the other line very clearly.
One last thing if you do manage to drop your phone a lot don’t worry as these phones are UNBELIEVABLY strong. My brother likes to test it out and it didn’t break from dropping it off a two story roof straight onto concrete. He was going to try the third story but figured theirs no need as if it survives that then the phone will be fine
. BTW the phone had one little scratch on the chrome bezel around the phone and not a mark anywhere else on it.
By: John on September 13, 2011
at 12:23 am