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Samsung Galaxy S i9000 Review

The Samsung Galaxy S is among the most anticipated Android phones to date. So after using the handset for over a week, I’m handing down my verdict. Check out the full review of the Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 after the jump.

At first sight, the Samsung Galaxy S would not really catch a lot of attention except for that large 4-inch display. The dark, glossy body makes it look plain and simple.

The handset actually reminds me of the iPod Touch due to those curved edges and the silver lining on the front panel. However, the back side offers a little more design touches with a polished honeycomb print on a flat surface with a bit of stubby bottom end. That little protrusion allows for better grip especially that the handset is very slim.

Aside from the Samsung logo, the back cover has a large “with Google” print. The 5-megapixel camera is situated on the top end with the speakers beside it.

The power button is on the upper right side, the volume rocker is on the left side while the 3.5mm audio jack is found on top along with the micro-USB port hidden by a sliding cover.

The large 4-inch screen looks great with that Super AMOLED display — it’s bright, crisp and offers better image clarity compared to other displays I’ve tried and used in the past (I did a quick comparison between Retina Display, AMOLED and Super AMOLED here).

At full brightness, the difference is huge compared to regular LED displays. Couple that with a smooth multi-touch feature and tasks like internet browsing, navigating in Google maps as well as viewing photos are all a nice experience.

The navigation controls are few and simple which are found at the bottom end of the front panel — a curved, rectangular Home button at the center and 2 touch panels on each side for Back and Menu (similar to the XPeria X10 in orientation only without the physical buttons ). The touch panels are very close to the edge of the handset so it tends to be accidentally activated once in a while.

The Samsung Galaxy S provides a different and customized TouchWiz 3.0 UI that’s layered on top of the Android 2.1 OS. Some of the more noticeable UI implementations include:

  • A total of 7 Home screen panels (5 from Android 2.1 + 2 more from TouchWiz UI).
  • The Home screen scrolls from the 1st panel to the 7th starting at the far left to right, unlike the default ‘centered’ position in other UIs.
  • There’s no sliding window for the app launcher. Instead, there’s a fixed/dedicated icon (represented by 4 concentric smaller squares) on the bottom right corner of the screen.
  • While most other app launcher scrolls from top to bottom, it’s left to right in the TouchWiz 3.0 UI.

Of course, you also get that obligatory Live Wallpaper for some added eyecandy. See the short video below showing how the TouchWiz 3.0 UI works.

The handset is powered by an ARM Cortex A8 1.0GHz processor and as such, the unit performs really well. Applications are very snappy and there are no significant lags or wait time even when running multiple functions or apps. I’ll be doing a separate post to compare benchmarks between this system and the SnapDragon of Qualcomm in other smartphones.

The one other feature that I think the Galaxy S excelled very well is in the camera feature. It’s only rated 5MP but capture quality is very impressive. The lens does auto-focus on its own but you can also manually focus it by touching the subject in the view screen.

Captured images are sharp, clean and well saturated. It can do ISO 50 and reach a shutter speed of up to 1/383 secs based on sample shots I took. Even night shots and in low-light environments, the photo quality is still very good. It’s also great that the minimum focusing distance is just 3 or 4 inches away so you can do macro shots. See more of my sample shots in the gallery here.

Likewise, the camera can take hi-def videos up to 720p at 30 frames per second and actively re-focuses as objects move along the view. See sample footages below and watch them in full screen to appreciate the HD quality.

Images and videos default in the 4:3 aspect ratio but you can switch to the wide screen 16:9 aspect ratio in the settings (so some of the photos here were cropped).

The solitary audio speakers are the back might seem small but it does a pretty good job with good volume range and decent mix of treble and bass. As expected, the sound is reduced by around 50% when you put it down in a flat surface on its back while playing music or video.

The review unit I used also has a 16GB internal storage so I didn’t need an extra microSD card to save all the photos and videos (you can bump the storage to 48GB if you add an external 32GB microSD though).

As an added bonus, Samsung included their own App Store on top of the Android Market. While there are very few apps in there, it’s nice to know we can expect Samsung handset-specific apps in the future (for example, the Road SMS app was a huge hit that it got hundreds of links from big sites including The Daily Wh.at and Engadget).

Battery life varies and really depends on usage patterns. It’s able to last more than a day (or closer to 2 days) on a full single charge but easily drains when you use 3G/WiFi and the camera a lot. It’s not an uncommon battery performance among Android smartphones these days.

It’s pretty hard to ignore all the features the Samsung Galaxy S and not admit that it will undoubtedly be a huge favorite among Android fans. It may lack the necessary eye-candy in the design department with a plain and simple built but what it lacks in form, it makes it up in function.

The large Super AMOLED display, the lean and mean form factor, the raw processing power and superb camera are top of mind when considering this unit. And with a price point that rivals all other Android smartphones in its category, the Samsung Galaxy S i9000 hits that nice sweet spot. It certainly is the among the Android phones to beat this year.

Disclosure: The Samsung Galaxy S was provided to me for free by Globe Telecom. They are also a year-long sponsor of our YugaTech Giveaways so allow me to plug them a little bit — you can get the Samsung Galaxy S with Globe for free under Plan 2499 until July 31. After that, it’s free on Plan 3799.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

182 Responses

  1. Avatar for Michell Michell says:

    I quite like looking through a post that can make people
    think. Also, thanks for allowing for me to comment!

  2. Avatar for Charm Charm says:

    Hello guys, you might be interested at more than 50% discount for Apple iPhone 4S or Galaxy at Pinoytiangge.com

  3. Avatar for yuck yuck says:

    for me I called it a cheap immitation of Iphone
    come on samsung dont you have your own originality?

  4. Avatar for yuck/1 yuck/1 says:

    for me I called it a “cheap immitation of Iphone”
    com on samsung dont you have your own originality?

  5. Avatar for Joel Rosendo Joel Rosendo says:

    Hi. I’m wondering if verizon samsung galaxy fascinate can work here in the philippines. a friend of mine from US is giving me one but we don’t know if i could use it here. please help me…

  6. Avatar for jennifer da mesa jennifer da mesa says:

    how much is the price? ung walang plan. thanks

  7. Avatar for sumsung I9000 sumsung I9000 says:

    pano po mag aply globe plan

  8. Avatar for Charlotte Charlotte says:

    How much ba ang samsung gaLaxy 551 sa SM city taytay ??

  9. Avatar for reichnamjel reichnamjel says:

    Samsung Galaxy S (super amoled screen) is already phased out, but you can still find a few of them..

    Samsung Galaxy SL (SLCD screen) na po yung ipinalit nila sa SGS. mas mababa ng konti yung GPU niya at hindi na po Hummingbird ang SOC niya.

  10. Avatar for reichnamjel reichnamjel says:

    Samsung Galaxy S (super amoled screen) is already phased out, but you cant still find a few of them..

    Samsung Galaxy SL (SLCD screen) na po yung ipinalit nila sa SGS. mas mababa ng konti yung GPU niya at hindi na po Hummingbird ang SOC niya.

  11. Avatar for mememe mememe says:

    i saw galaxy s in greenhills last saturday and they have the 8gb. they’re selling it for 19,500.

    • Avatar for light light says:

      Cool! did they say if it was the Super AMOLED version or just the Super Clear LCD version?

      because the super clear lcd version is officially 19,990 at samsung stores

    • Avatar for mememe mememe says:

      it’s super amoled. i’m also planning to buy one kaya lang di pa kaya ng budget..

    • Avatar for light light says:

      ahh ayos! plano ko rin bumili eh xD salamat!

    • Avatar for mina mina says:

      17k na lng po sya ngaun sa market market MEGA ONE

  12. Avatar for light light says:

    i went to the samsung mobile store in Ali-Mall yesterday and inquired about the galaxy S and the saleslady said that it’s already phased out. is this true?

    I was planning to buy one. I hope it’s still available at greenhills :D

  13. Avatar for TwIsTeD_Rubz TwIsTeD_Rubz says:

    Has anyone tried to flash the lasest firmware, the leaked 2.3.2? Applicable ba yun to SGS’s sold here in the Philippines?

    • Avatar for Pinoy Android News Pinoy Android News says:

      the latest 2.3.2 leak has some issue, the notable is the 3g malfunction. i suggest better to use cyanogenmod 7 RC 2.

      http://pinoydroid.net/cyanogenmod-rc-2-downloaded-150000-times-24-hours

  14. Avatar for vee vee says:

    how much na po ang price ng sgs nowadays??

  15. Avatar for balanescu balanescu says:

    Here is a tutorial on how tu update the firmware of your I9000 Galaxy s to js3 ,also there is one for sale at 305 euro http://www.sh-phones.com/?p=91

  16. Avatar for SaveLeisurely SaveLeisurely says:

    Samsung Touch-Screen Phones on SALE! 2011
    5 top Samsung touch-screen phones including Android Running smart phones are up for grabs at a relatively cheaper price.

    for pricelist please visit:
    http://saveleisurely.blogspot.com/2011/01/samsung-touch-screen-phones-on-sale.html

  17. Avatar for adam adam says:

    It is better than Iphone but if you’re kinda short of budget then why not try Samsung wave 525.

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