Samsung GALAXY S I9000 Review

Introduction:

Samsung must have been pretty confident in the GALAXY S's virtues to designate it for a simultaneous launch in 110 countries. Therefore it's not surprising that the South Korean manufacturer has a wow factor built-in from the start. The Samsung GALAXY S comes with a huge 4” Super AMOLED display, significantly larger than the only other such screen on the market – the 3.3” one of the Samsung Wave. This gorgeous window to the phone's soul is hinged to another novelty from Samsung – the 1GHz Hummingbird heart of the device. It is Samsung's answer to the Snapdragon cores found in the current cream-of-the-crop handsets.

Working in tandem with the newest edition of the TouchWiz UI, these unique features of the Samsung GALAXY S should ring in what the company names Smart Life into your existence – a sophisticated companion from dusk till dawn. Will the phone live up to the hype, or will it be just another victim of stretched marketing imagination? Now the only smart thing left to do on our part, is to review the GALAXY S where the rubber meets the road...

Box content:

• Samsung GALAXY S handset
• Li-Ion battery 1500mAh
• Headset with microphone
• User manual
• Get to know booklet
• Travel adapter
• microUSB cable
• Screen protector

Design:

The Samsung GALAXY S I9000 is a typical rectangular representative of the big touchscreen phone designs these days. The screen is recessed just a tad below the rim of the casing, which protects it from direct contact with hard surfaces when placed face-down. As can be expected from a 4” display, it occupies most of the frontal space, but room is spared above and below it for the earpiece and navigational buttons.

The Samsung Galaxy S is a typical rectangular representative of the big touchscreen phone designs these days

You can compare the Samsung Galaxy S I9000 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

There are three keys right below it – touch home, physical menu and touch back. Long pressing the context menu key fires up the smart search function, so we actually have all four standard Android keys present. The other front elements are above the screen - the earpiece slit, a front facing VGA cam, and the dot sensors for proximity and ambient light. The Samsung branding is visible right above the screen, as well as on the lower section of the battery cover.

The 4” display	The three keys below the screen	Earpiece and front facing cam

The back hosts the 5MP camera lens in the upper left corner, and the speaker grill on the right. Below them is the ubiquitous “with Google” branding, which hints this is a full-featured Android device, with the whole set of Google services preinstalled. The dotted back cover makes one think the phone has measles rather than bring the alleged carbon fiber-esque look, but that's our take.

	The back has a nice curved hump at the very bottom	5MP camera lens and speaker

On the upper left side is the volume rocker, which is a whole piece with a decent travel click, and on the right is the power/lock key. It is welcome that Samsung has provided a physical lock key to the GALAXY S. You can't accidentally dial on a capacitive screen in your pocket, but it's the quick pressing of the lock key before you slip it in, that completely takes the worries out.