Samsung I9000 Galaxy S - Specs - Pros Cons

Introduction

Competition is certainly one of the things that make the Android OS so much fun. There are already several manufacturers involved in the Google OS game and each of them has already released a flagship that aims at the peak of the food chain.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S official shots
Samsung might be coming a tad late to the party but they are obviously entering with a bang. The I9000 Galaxy S packs a display of the greatest technology that the mobile world has ever seen and a pretty big one at that. A snappy 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, HD video recording and a sweetly slim waistline make it look like the real deal in the eyes of every real geek.
Let’s take a look at the other features that the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S puts to the table.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 122.4 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm, 118 g
• Display: 4" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 480 x 800 pixels
• CPU: Samsung Cortex A8 Hummingbird 1 GHz processor
• OS: Android 2.1 (Eclair)
• Memory: 8/16GB storage, microSD card slot
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection and touch focus; 720p video recording at 30fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio
• Misc: TouchWiz 3.0 UI, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, Swype text input

As you can see the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S specs sheet is long enough to be considered high-end. What’s even better is that it manages to put something on top, namely the large 4” Super AMOLED display, which should become the new thing to beat if it has the performance of the Samsung S8500 Wave unit.

The TouchWiz-like Android customization still had some performance issues on the Galaxy Spica so we will have to see if those are fixed for the Galaxy S. We are also yet to check out how the new 1GHz Samsung Cortex A8 CPU compares to its Snapdragon peers in the Android environment, but we have a good feeling about it.
At any rate the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is a fine piece of mobile technology and we are as eager as you to see if it will actually manage to top the charts or end up in the chasing pack. So let’s not waste any more time and head to the hardware part of the preview where we’ll examine the Galaxy S ergonomics.

Design and construction

Simplicity is usually the key when designing a high-end multimedia powerhouse, but the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is a bit of an exception. The dotted back of the phone is definitely an attention-grabber but we’re not exactly sure if it will be everyone’s cup of tea.
We will let you decide whether you like it or not by looking at the studio shots of the phone.
What we aren’t particularly happy about the all-plastic body of the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S. It is so prone to fingerprints and smudges that only a few short minutes spent with it are enough to turn it into a greasy mess. A flagship smartphone deserves better and if Samsung though metal was too much at least the plastic used for building the Spica would have been a nicer choice.
Moving along, the oh-so-marvelous 4” Super AMOLED display of WVGA resolution dominates the front of the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S. Just as we hoped the unit has performance identical to the smaller, 3.5” unit mounted on the S8500 Wave and since bigger is always better when talking about displays, we now pronounce it the new king of mobile screens.

The Galaxy S 4”Super AMOLED display will rock your world
In case you have missed the Samsung S8500 Wave preview, let us remind you what the Super AMOLED technology is all about. It retains the amazingly deep blacks that characterize the other AMOLED displays but does away with the top glass panel to vastly improve viewing angles and sunlight legibility.
Indeed, the most beautiful display to look at indoors doesn’t lose its charm when taken outside and into the sun. The viewing angles are also bordering on perfection with the Galaxy S display performing as if it was printed on paper.
The sensitivity is as good as is to be expected from a capacitive touchscreen unit. The gentlest of touches is enough for a click to be registered, but gloves and styluses are a no-go.
Below the display sit only three keys – it’s a relatively low count for the Android family. The touch-sensitive settings and back buttons are on either side of the tactile feedback home key.

The three keys below the display
A long press on the settings key activates the search field, just as if you had a dedicated search key. As usual pressing and holding the home key activates the task switcher.
The transition between the touch-sensitive screen and the touch-sensitive keys is nice and seamless but the tactile feedback button might be a little confusing at first.
The power and screen lock/unlock key on the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is placed high up on the right side of the handset. It’s certainly not the most comfortable place for that button as it is a bit hard to reach and also not the first place where we would look for it (still Samsung are consistent with its placement on many phones). Then again, this might just be another thing that just needs getting used to.

The power key is high up on the right side
Unfortunately there's no dedicated camera key on the Galaxy S, which is a pity given the pretty decent camera.
On the left we find the volume rocker, which provides enough pressing area and good enough tactile feedback to make usage trouble-free.

The volume rocker on the left
The bottom of the I9000 Galaxy S packs nothing but the mouthpiece.

There’s only the microphone pinhole at the bottom
On the top of the phone is the tiny plastic lid that covers the microUSB slot and the unprotected 3.5mm standard audio jack.

The microUSB jack is covered with a plastic lid, unlike the 3.5mm audio jack
We complete our trip at the blue-dotted back of the phone. This is where the 5 megapixel camera lens and the loudspeaker grill are located. There is no flash of any kind so low-light photography or video capturing is basically out of the question with the Galaxy S.

The 5 megapixel camera lens and the loudspeaker grill are at the back
The microSD card slot is under the battery cover but luckily is hot-swappable. The battery cover is pretty hard to remove and you need to apply some extra pressure but it’s no biggie.

The microSD card slot is under the battery cover, but is still hot-swappable
The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S looks and feels quite sturdy. The general ergonomics are also decent as long as you are able to live with the size, but that’s something you know you are signing up for right from the start. The weight of the Galaxy S is impressively low for the size and it’s noticeably lighter than any other touch phone with a screen above 3.5 inches that we’ve laid our hands on.

The Galaxy S runs on a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor – Hummingbird – but when we put it head to head against the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 and its 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, the Galaxy S came out on top.
It won by a small margin, but still it won. The Samsung Galaxy Spica and HTC Legend turned in understandably lower results. We’ll have to see how the Galaxy S compares to another member in the 1GHz club – HTC Desire – but like we said, we’ll wait for the final version.
The HTC Legend is still unbeaten when it comes to graphics and the Samsung Galaxy Spica is ahead of the Galaxy S too – but keep in mind that they only need to update about a third of the pixels that the Galaxy S has to work with.

Video player eats DivX/XviD and 720p videos for breakfast

The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is among the best performers in the Android family as far as video playback is concerned. In addition to packing a dedicated video player app (though playing videos through the gallery is still possible) it also has DivX and XviD video support, which is very rare in the Google OS family.
Performance with higher-res videos is great – it played 720p videos like a champ. Small wonder, considering it can record 720p videos. There’s no TV-Out but thanks to the DLNA support you can still stream videos and photos to your DLNA-enabled TV or media player (any PC with Wi-Fi and DLNA-capable software would do too).

The Galaxy S video player is the best Android has seen
The interface of the video player itself is as simple and as it could possibly be. You get a list of all videos available on the phone and the controls while playing a video boil down to play/pause and skip buttons, as well as a draggable progress bar.

Camera

Android is keeping out of the megapixel race and the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is no exception – it packs a 5MP camera, which seems to be the norm for higher end Androids. This one’s pretty bare though – no flash, not even a shutter key.
The user interface is standard Samsung for the most part – and that’s not a bad thing. It’s easily thumbable and offers readily accessible scenes and shooting modes. It features geo-tagging, face and smile detection too.
At first it appears that the lack of a dedicated shutter key and the virtual shutter key that’s not even half-pressable are to the detriment of the camera but once you get used to it, Samsung’s solution is very good.
You use the touch focus feature to focus on your subject and tap the shutter key – the camera auto-focus is among the fastest we’ve seen. This makes focusing on the subject (and possibly reframing the shot to observe the rule of thirds) by half-pressing the shutter obsolete. You frame the shot how you want it, focus on what you want and snap the photo – it takes some getting used to, but in the end it’s a great solution.
The image quality is not the best in the 5MP range. There’s a fair amount of noise in the photos and even though the image processing algorithms suppress it, they also smear out the fine detail.
Images are also slightly underexposed but at least there is no clipping in the shadows and highlights. Anyway, we’ll delay final judgment until we see the finalized version of the Samsung Galaxy S software – a few tweaks here and there could improve the quality.


Samsung I9000 Galaxy S camera samples

Video recording

The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is in the elite club of mobile phones that captures 720p video.
Videos are captured in 1280 x 720 pixels resolution at 30 fps – unlike the Samsung i8910 OmniaHD and the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, which capture videos at 24fps. The amount of captured detail is good, noise levels are low – the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is a worthy replacement of those pocket HD cameras.
But there are still things in the software that need to be worked out – videos can run up as much as several megabytes per second of video. The data rate will probably be reduced to something more reasonable in the final version of the software.

Final words

The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is certainly a remarkable handset. Its software might need a bit more tuning before it hits the shelves but its hardware is already impressive enough.
Certainly having the best display in the business will attract quite a lot of customers by itself. Now add the HD video recording that the Galaxy S holds against its competitors and you get yourselves a pretty decent deal.
We wouldn’t go as far as saying that Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is the best Android handset just yet, but it’s certainly in contention for the throne. And if Samsung manages to polish up the already really nice TouchWiz UI before the Galaxy S gets released officially it will certainly become the handset to beat.
Even more, it’s expected that it will hit the market in about a month, which is even sooner than the Samsung Wave planned release. It will easily be your first opportunity to get yourself a SuperAMOLED HD-flaunting smartphone.
It’s pretty clear that Samsung’s first attempts of an Android-running flagship is a success but the jury is still out on whether or not it’s the uberphone that can make up for the delay as its competitors are already on the market.

Comparison with iPhone 4

Samsung Galaxy S over Apple iPhone 4

• Android 2.1 Éclair, 2.2 Froyo update just around the corner
• 4” SuperAMOLED display with a 15:9 widescreen aspect ratio
• Regular SIM card support
• DivX/XviD video support
• FM radio with RDS
• Notably cheaper

Apple iPhone 4 over Samsung Galaxy S

• iOS 4
• 640 x 960 pixel Retina display
• Scratch-resistant, high-quality glass panels
• LED flash
• Precise movement tracking via a gyro sensor

It’s Android’s finest against the iPhone but that’s how we tend to look at it on our side of the pond. The truth is, there are meaner and keener droids out there. The Motorola DROID X and the HTC Evo 4G are obviously not part of our story but are the kind of phones to merit a place in history.
Anyway, there’s enough firepower here even without the US heavyweights. Screen and OS are the most powerful weapons of both the Galaxy S and the iPhone 4. SuperAMOLED came first and impressed the world but now the Retina display is claiming the crown.
With platforms it’s a mirrored image of the same events: iOS (known as iPhone OS at the time), redefined touchscreen usability but Android claims to have leapfrogged it with Froyo.
To further complicate things, even absolutely identical specs don’t produce the same performance. The cameras on both devices may look similar but the rival camps took a completely different approach to processing – that holds true for both still imaging and video recording.
At times, it will look like the Galaxy S is competing against a first-gen iPhone. There are still things Apple will never bother put in their phones. Elsewhere, the Samsung Galaxy S might find it hard to match the stature and eloquence of the iPhone. That’s how we like it though – punches flying both ways. Be right back.

Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.1 update for iPhone and iPod touch

This walk through is based on the GM (gold master) version of iOS 4.1. We’ll continue to add to and improve it as needed, and update once iOS 4.1 release version hits, probably on Wednesday September 8.



If you don’t have time (yet) to read this iOS 4.1 walkthrough and are eager to get the basics down now, here’s a quick 5 minute video guide to get your started.

We’re showing it off on an iPhone 4, which should be similar to how it will work on an iPod touch 4.


What hasn’t changed
Most things haven’t changed with iOS 4.1, so again, check out our iOS 4 walk through to get up to speed on the far more numerous changes last summer’s update brought.


System-wide changes
AVRCP Audio/Video Remote Control Protocol for stereo Bluetooth
Yes, you can finally — finally — control volume, skip tracks, and do pretty much anything your stereo Bluetooth headset allows. Unfortunately, at least in my tests, volume changes on the headset don’t show up on the iPhone’s volume slider — but they do work in both iTunes Store streaming and iPod apps.

FaceTime app
iPod touch 4 gets a brand new, top left icon on the home screen just for FaceTime. (Which makes sense since there’s no Phone app from which to initiate a FaceTime call. There’s also no phone number associated with iPod touch so Apple/iTunes IDs will be used instead.

Photos – HD YouTube uploads

iPhone 4, and now iPod touch 4, can record 720p HD video but in iOS 4 those videos would be compressed down to SD when uploaded to YouTube. 4.1 fixes that. Just tap the action button at the bottom right and share HD straight up to YouTube.

Note: HD uploads require a Wi-Fi connection.



Camera — HDR photography

iOS 4.1 adds HDR photo capability to the iPhone 4 — and now iPod touch 4 — Camera app. HDR stands for high dynamic range and usually involves a photo with one or more identical photos that are over- and underexposed and then combined together so that far more light and shadow information is available than a single exposure would allow. These high dynamic range images can then be tone mapped to provide a far greater amount of detail, far more like what the human eye can see. So basically, you can see detail in the sky and in the shadow under the tree, rather than having one blown out or the other lost to black. (That’s my lay person, non-photo geek understanding of it anyway).

To enable HDR you simply tap the HDR button, much like the LED Flash button under iOS 4.

Note: HDR photography doesn’t seem to work on earlier iPhone models like iPhone 3GS.


Then, when you take the picture, iOS takes not only the regular shot but one overexposed and one underexposed. Shooting the picture seems to take roughly the same amount of time, but saving it takes noticeably longer.

So far, based on the results I’ve seen here and online, iOS HDR does a good job pulling color and detail back into what were previously blown out skies, but an only okay job revealing detail in shadowy areas.

For non photo geeks, however, all they’ll notice is better pictures with bluer skies and brighter people, which is probably why Apple added the feature in the first place.



Apple has also made the camera controls easier to use in landscape mode, rotating them along with the UI.



iTunes Store – Ping and TV rentals

The iTunes Store was originally introduced in iOS 1.2 (iPhone 1.2) as the iTunes Wi-Fi music store and that we’re about to talk about features accessible over 3G and involving video shows desktop iTunes isn’t the only version growing beyond it’s original moniker and focus. With iOS 4.1, new features include the social music network Ping and $0.99 TV show rentals.

Ping

Ping isn’t exclusive to iOS 4.1 — it’s already available to iOS 4.0.x users — but Apple is touting it as a new feature and it’s being launched at roughly the same time, so it makes some amount of sense to fold it in here for easy reference.

A social music network, Ping debut with iTunes 10 but is also accessible on the iPhone and iPod touch via the double talk bubbles tab, bottom middle. If you haven’t yet signed up in iTunes 10, you’ll get a Ping splash screen telling you to do so.




Once you’ve signed on, the Ping tab will come up with the Activities view. Activities show what’s going on with the people you’ve followed — status, pictures, and videos from recording artists like Lady GaGa, and comments, likes, and shared music from friends. It gives you the ability to like or comment on any of those things and, of course, instant access to preview and purchase the music being liked or commented on in iTunes. That also means there’s currently no way to share or discuss music that’s not in iTunes, specifically in your local country’s iTunes store, which can be frustration for Beatles fans in the US, and fans of far, far more artists internationally.

Actions are fairly simple. To like or add a comment to an activity, tap the appropriate button. To preview or purchase a song that was posted, tap anywhere on the song widget, from album art to title. To be taken to the song’s album, double tap on the title.



The People tab gives you a list of people you follow and people who follow you, as well as a featured button for a list of recording artists.

Tapping on a person gives you profile page with recent activity and an easy follow/stop following toggle. You can also switch to an info view that contains a short bio and buttons to see the person follows and who follows them. Similar to Twitter, people can either let anyone follow them or decide to approve followers on a person to person basis.



The My Profile view, as the name suggests, shows you your own recent activity and, at the bottom, has a button for My Info that shows you your own profile. You can’t (yet?) edit this info on iOS, however, and will need to go back to iTunes 10 on Mac/Windows for that.

I’m not sure if it’s the blank loading screen, but iTunes Store has never felt like the snappiest app on iOS and including Ping inside it likewise makes it feel less snappy than Twitter or Facebook. It also doesn’t seem to save state of, or cache, the tabs – perhaps because they’re web pages being re-loaded each time – which makes the experience of moving between apps seem sluggish. There’s also no refresh feature, you need to switch between tabs to check for new data, and sit through more reload screens…



TV show rentals


The other addition is TV show rentals. They’re only available from ABC (whose parent company, Disney, counts Steve Jobs as its biggest share holder), and FOX (whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, sees mobile devices as a way to save old media), and cost $0.99 per episode. You have 30 days to start watching and 48hrs. to finish once you start.

To access them, tap the videos tab at the bottom, then the TV Shows tap center top. Tap on a show and you’ll get the info screen with full season purchase price. If you want to rent a single episode, double tap the title and you’ll get the single episode info screen with rental option.

Double tapping is usually reserved in iOS for zoom, so it’s not the most elegant or intuitive way to get at rentals.


A discounted season rental price would be nice, but this is Hollywood, so baby steps. Tiny, tiny baby steps.

Note: if you rent on iPhone, only the SD version will be downloaded. If you rent on Apple TV, you’ll get the HD version. Given iPhone’s 3.5″ screen, SD is probably a better option to save on file size.

Settings
Add new features and you’ve got to add new settings for those features. Or, as is often the case, you’ve got to add new settings for features you added in previous versions of iOS. Sill, Settings didn’t get as big a bump in 4.1 as it has in the past.

General: Restrictions
You can lockout Game Center multiplayer games if you don’t want your kids social gaming with the unwashed denizens of the internet. Which you probably shouldn’t.



General: Keyboard
iOS 4 spell check causing more problems for you than it’s fixing? No problem, you can now turn it off. [9to5Mac]


Photos
With HDR photos, you can choose whether to save both the original and HDR version to the camera roll, or just the processed HDR image.


Game Center
Game Center, Apple’s social gaming network, remains in sandboxed developer preview mode but should go live sometime around iOS 4.1’s public release this week. Currently, as with the iOS 4 beta version, you can sign up for an account, share your status, view your friends, and approve incoming friend requests.

The games tab simply reads “find Game Center games” but redirects to a web page. During the iOS 4.1 demo, however, it featured Angry Birds, Dungeon Hunter 2, and other popular titles.

Likewise, achievements, leader boards, and match-making should all go live sometime this week. We’ll update with a complete walkthrough when that happens.



Phone


New to the Phone app, if you choose to add a number to Favorites, and that number is mobile, and is an iPhone 4, you’ll be given a choice of adding the phone number proper, or adding it as a FaceTime connection.
 

The Nike+ app update that was included in iOS 4 beta but missing from the public release returns in iOS 4.1 and looks like it’s here to stay this time. It allows you to sync data with the Nike+ servers directly from the iPhone rather than having to sync through an intermediary computer. About time.

iOS 4.1 pricing and compatibility

iOS 4.1 is a free update for iPhone users and for iPod touch users.

Compatibility should be the same as with iOS 4.

*iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4 (2010): All features
*iPad (2010): Coming this fall with iOS 4.2
*iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009): No features requiring iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4-type hardware (i.e. FaceTime)
*iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): No multitasking, custom wallpaper, and Bluetooth keyboard support.
*iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible/no update

Conclusion
iOS x.1 point updates are relatively minor compared to the full version releases but this fixes some major bugs, adds a few great new features for iPhone users, and powers a whole new level of experience for iPod touch 4 owners.

Did we really need two separate new social networks in Ping and Game Center, or would a unified iOS/Apple social network have been better? Only time will tell.

If you were waiting on a new notification UI or widgets, well that’s not the point of the point release, but iOS 5 is only 6 months from beta so keep the dreams alive.

iOS 4.2, with wireless printing and AirView is scheduled for November, however, so there will be more to come for iPhone, iPod touch, and finally iPad users this year as well.