By Mr. S. Heptinstall "Millenwagon" (England)
For a good while now the iPhone has been (in many peoples eyes) the smart-phone to have, for its simplicity, speed, huge range of apps and solid design people have been splashing out ridiculous money to own an iPhone (myself included). After a while we learned that it is pretty restricted and that jail breaking is frowned upon (rather than encouraged like palms Dev mode and androids 3rd party apps) and the whole product is stupidly over priced for what you get.
This is where Samsung have seen a whole in the market and created a magnificent smart-phone, the Samsung Galaxy S i9000.
OK, it isn't 'cheap' by any means, and it isn't quite as well built as some may have hoped but it is far cheaper than the iPhone 4 and it has many features that are far more impressive. You can pick one up for around £300 in excellent condition and for what you get it isn't really that over priced.
The first thing you notice is the super AMOLED screen, I can't express just how bright and crisp it actually is. I read many reviews before buying my i9000 and they all boasted on how amazing the screen is, I was skeptical I must admit. Then i turned it on and I was blown away. The colours are so beautifully vibrant, everything is crystal clear, and the wallpapers that come with the phone look absolutely stunning. Even with the Brightness turned right down it is still super bright and is even very visible in bright sun lit areas. It is also very scratch resistant and seems to stay pretty clean without having to wipe it all day, possibly an oleophobic coating of some sort.
The HD camera takes a lovely photo and the 720p video recording is much much better than I anticipated, however the lack of flash is well... how can I say it... Stupid! I am utterly confused as to why Samsung have left this feature out, It would be near a perfect phone if they had just added a flash but for some bizarre reason they decided to leave it out. OK digital cameras are pretty cheap for a half decent one and the camera is just an extra feature to the phone but it would have still been the icing on the cake if they had put on the flash.
The phone in general looks very nice too, it is clearly influenced in design by the iPhone but in my opinion it looks even nicer and feels much comfier in my hand.
It has plenty of memory, 8GB or 16GB with an expandable slot inside the phone which will take up to an extra 32GB of memory which should be enough for anybody.
The phone is nicely customizable as are most phones. You can easily change the wallpaper, which spreads out over 7 homepages that can be filled with widgets of your choice and shortcuts to your applications, but be warned if you have plenty of widgets they may slow things down a tad and really drain your battery because they keep refreshing. There is a way past this however, simply change the settings for each widget so they refresh manually/never. This will save hours of battery life. Many people are complaining that the battery life is poor however I disagree. I just simply turned the screen brightness to half and turned off background data and auto-sync and it has gone from lasting one day of good usage to 3 days before it needs a full charge. Also download a free task killer from the android market and this will close all applications that have been left open which will also save plenty of battery life and keep your phone running at maximum speed.
The phone overall is an excellent smart-phone. I was stuck between the Galaxy S and the HTC desire (2 very similar top of the range phones with very minor differences) and after testing the 2 phones the 4inch HD super AMOLED screen, the HD camera and the appearance of the phone itself won me over, and I am very happy with my decision. I'm giving the phone 5 out of 5 because i think it truly deserves it. The lack of flash is still crazy and it should have been added but I can't deduct a star just for that one reason. The android store is still a little limited (70,000+ apps is still plenty to choose from, but the selection isn't as impressive as apples) but that is something that will grow over time.
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