Samsung Galaxy S... highest spec Android phone released... also with QWERTY!

[Richdog]

Yes gents, it's that time again. In fact it's that time again already, namely that of another uberomgandroidfone to be released, except this one actually puts some of the specs of the Evo 4 to shame (see below article). What is it?

The Samsung Galaxy S http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/03/23/samsungs-galaxy-s-android-smartphone-launched-plays-hd-720p/

Oh yes, and Pro version with hardware QWERTY http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/31/samsung-galaxy-s-pro-to-come-with-a-qwerty-keyboard-in-june-say/

So, as for the specs... http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/03/23/samsungs-galaxy-s-android-smartphone-launched-plays-hd-720p/

Engadget Hands-On http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/samsung-galaxy-s-hands-on-with-video/

Samsung dragged the Galaxy S out for us to gawk at this morning at CTIA and after the 30 minute video presentation, we were itching to actually check it out in our hands. Let's just get this out of the way right off: the 4-inch WVGA 800 X 480 Super Amoled display on the Galaxy S is nothing short of stunning. Put side by side with an iPhone under some very harsh lighting, the difference between them -- feel free to have a peek at the video after the break -- is pretty astounding. Everything is bright and crisp, text legible, and the colors are jaw-droppingly beautiful. Touchscreen performance? This is another standout on this Android 2.1 device and coupled with Samsung's 1GHz Application Processor, not only is it responsive but the UI is smooth and fast. The Galaxy S can shoot HD video at 720p using its 5 megapixel cam, plays it back with aplomb, and did we mention the display? The spec sheet lists this as triple-band HSPA device living in the 900 / 1800 / 1900 realm -- and while US availability was announced for this year, no word on what carrier -- so we hope to see that 900 swapped out with 850. This is one for the wish list friends, and we're seriously hoping that wish gets filled long before this year's holiday season.

Mobile Magazine: http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/03/23/samsungs-galaxy-s-android-smartphone-launched-plays-hd-720p/

It looks like the news is coming out fast and furious from CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas. Contending to be one of the hottest new smartphones to hit the limelight – the Samsung Galaxy S is a “super” updated version of the Samsung Galaxy that has already been floating around the market. Samsung is pretty proud of this little phone, especially since there isn’t much that is small about it. For starters, you get a large four-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display, which will rock for web and video since the DivX certification its garnered for HD video playback at 720p resolution.
To back it up, you get plenty of horsepower from the 1GHz application processor (a Snapdragon perhaps?). Going through the rest of the spec sheet, we find the Google Android 2.1 machine loaded to the nines. Decked out with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri-band HSDPA/HSUPA, a 5.0MP camera, a secondary VGA video telephony camera, 720p HD video playback and recording, a mobile augmented reality browser (now were talking), integrated messaging with Social Hub, aGPS, accelerometer, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 8GB or 16GB of internal memory, and an external memory card slot.


Getting beyond the vanilla Android experience, Samsung has also included a “daily briefing” feature that gives instant access to weather, news, stocks, and your schedule. There’s a home cradle, Swype virtual keyboard, and a “smart alarm” with natural sound.


The Galaxy S is expected to launch “soon” in Europe, North America, Latin America, Australia, and Asia.

Engadget PowerVR SGX540 GPU Article: (http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/26/...apdrago?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_engadget)

When we got some hands-on time with the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S, it was painfully apparent that the thing has some serious power under the hood. Now we have a better idea of just how much power, with reports indicating that it has the graphics oomph (thanks to its PowerVR SGX540 GPU) to push 90 million triangles per second. Compare that to the Snapdragon platform, which manages 22 million polygons, and the iPhone 3GS's 28 million from the earlier SGX535, and you get a feel for the muscle lurking behind that gorgeous Super AMOLED screen. Of course, polygon counts aren't everything when it comes to graphical power these days, and 300 million triangles won't help you if your handset gets laggy after you install every single Bejeweled clone in the Android Market, but forgive us if we're a little excited about the rapidly brewing mobile GPU war.

The specs for phones are now getting truly drool-worthy... and the Super AMOLED screens look awesome.

The question is... can Samsung rectify the poor support history they have in upgrading and maintaining their phone software and firmware?

Either way, interesting device.

 

[Richdog]

It just looks like an iPhone rip-off (except the one with the hardware k/b). I'm pleased Samsung are making strides in this area but it would be nice to see a bit more individuality from them. I'll keep my Nexus for now.

Erm, actually it looks like a Samsung Omnia i900 rip-off... funny that.

 

[Richdog]

What's the point in all that polygon power if there are no visually good looking games on Android? Wasted GPU if its for video acceleration only.

There are some 3D games out, and more being developed. Few examples here http://androidandme.com/tag/android-3d-games/ but many more if you Google.

 

[Richdog]

Its a copy of the Iphone?

Borich

Good one Borich, good one.

 

[Richdog]

The QWERTY on the pro version looks awful imo.

It doesn't look bad at all, and a gazillion times better than the Milestones.

Seperate number row for the win, logically laid out.

 

[Richdog]

Why is it useless?

It's not 3G yet?

 

[Richdog]

I must be missing it too fella because I just don't get it.



No, its a phone. If you want something that can play back 720p content buy a media player not a phone.

In the same way that no matter how good the camera is on a phone, it will never replace a proper camera....

Whats the next complaint...

WHAT......no optical zoom!!! Phone must be fail

What an ignorant post. Phones are not now just "phones", anyone with even a glimmer of a braincell can see that phones are slowly turning into mobile mini-computers, with processing and GPU power increasing dramatically every couple of years. As technology progresses, quality will start to approach that of a low-end video camera, the Sony X10 isn't too far away in that respect. I recorded a few hours of family footage on my old N82 one christmas and it was great quality all things considered, and is still viewed to this day. Thus, it is now perfectly reasonable to expect mini-HDMI connectors on the new superphones that record HD quality video

If you can't grasp this somewhat basic concept then there's not much hope for you.

 

[Richdog]

or maybe were being realistic. a tiny % of people want/need it and if they do need it then samsung will want them buying one of there own media recorders/players...

surely if you want to play the video on the big screen you can plug it in via usb to either the tv istself or a set top box or console

Mini-HDMI will soon (in a generation or two) be a standard feature on many high-end smartphones that have good cameras. This is not crystal-balling, it's not rocket science, and we're not splitting the atom here... it's a natural result of having a connection format so small and suited to this use, and scale of device. It's a means to an end (playing media direct to a suitable device), nothing more nothing less. This is my last post about this subject as I can feel my will to live being sapped each time I reply to such twoddle.

 

[Richdog]

I just had to laugh Rich, sorry.

Ignorant it is not dude, its a simple fact that 99% of people will not consider a phone (i'll just say that again for ya...phone...) to have a HDMI output.

I just had to laugh... since when was the ultra high-end smartphone market aimed at anything other than the 1% of power users who have the capability to appreciate things like HDMI ports?

If it comes with one then all well and good but I'm certainly not alone in deciding on a handset based on whether I can plug it into the TV or not.

No-one said it was based on that, you're exagerrating a tad.

I just don't expect this little 6" gadget that you carry around with you all day to replace every single entertainment device in the house, which seemingly you guys do.

ANother exagerration. We are power users... maybe you aren't. Different people different uses. It does not change the fact whasoever, that if a phone is now coming out with HD recording as an in-built feature, that a HDMI port is now a perfectly logical addition to a phone. HD phone, HDMI port. HDMI port, HTDV. Rocket science it is not.

 

[Richdog]

Personally at the moment I think the iPhone 4 is looking the brightest option, though it genuinely pains me to say it.

 

[Richdog]

Any reasons?

New software addresses the traditional complaints, phone is amazingly slim, has HD recording, and the hardware specs are very solid. If it didn't tie you into a 2 year contract, and Apple weren't so fanatic about what they approve on the market, it would be an epic win in my opinion. Either way im seriously considering one given the awesome apps thast are available, especially that will be useful to me in my part of the world. And yes, again, it pains me to say this.

 

[Richdog]

New software barely touches on any of the main complaints that I am aware of

You know Google are going to catch up thick and fast with Apps now Froyo is stable and released, they haven't even been trying until now.

I trust you know what you are on about (to a certain extent ), I would have thought you'd want a Desire over this, by quite a clear margin, but if you think it's the phone for you, then so be it!

Well I know what im talking about as far as my opinion goes, which I guess is the same for most of us, I never claim to be an authority on anything, im just a gadget lover with experience... no more, no less. Ive had Android for a while now and while I love it, I feel the apps are not up to scratch as far as the iPhone goes (all things similar, ie: competing apps), especially for my area of the world. It's not all about hardware, it's about a phone doing what you need on a day to day basis without you having ot give it much thought... and the 4G seems to be pipping it for me at the moment.

The transport apps are much better, the skiing/travel apps are much better, and everything works quickly and seamlessly. With multitasking now enabled (to an extent, I know), i'm finding very few things I can moan about. Once its jailbroken and I can be naughty with apps etc then I can see myself being very happy with it, STUPID non-replaceable battery aside.

The Samsung phones are at the edn of the day not options as their updates are slow and support often non-existant... I would realistically go with a HTC as my next phone, if the 4G doesn't pull me over to the dark side.

 

[Richdog]

Maybe so. ALl I know is I quite fancy experiencing the best the iPhone has t offer for a year, and then seeing how Android is doing. My Milestone has just showed me that it's notyet quite polished enough to make daily use an absolute pleasure.

 

[Richdog]

Whinging is not mutually exclusive. And the Desire is getting a Divx package soon, it just all depends on a companies willingness to negotiate and agree with divx http://androidandme.com/2010/03/news/htc-desire-to-gain-divx-playback-via-future-update/

 

[Richdog]

Why's that? Flash = crap, phone camera flash = crappest of the crap.

Silly logic. A phone camera with a flash is better than a phone camera with no flash. My Nokia N82 takes perfectly acceptable pub and club pics with the xenon flash, as well as passable outdoor photos when you dont have a real camera around and it's not the only phone capable of doing so. Constant comparisons to professional cameras really does get on my mammaries, it's such a tired old spiel.

 

[Richdog]

I'd like to agree with you but I can't really because that argument comes in the same kind of logic that more megapixels = better camera.

That's just the angle you're interpreting it with... and is another completely seperate argument.

Sure it is nice to have the option of a flash, I can't argue with that, but there are plenty of phones out there with flash that would take much worse pictures than some phones without flash.

Yes, if the camera is **** then the camera is ****, no flash will change that. However a flash is a desirable addition for low light shooting, even on **** cameras.

I'm not saying that people are wrong to like flash on phones, I'm just saying that to discount the most powerful feature rich android phone to come to the UK because it doesn't have a flash on the camera is a little strange.

I wasn't discounting it...

Also I've been taking night indoor photos with no flash for years and they come out ok.

Care to post a couple of samples?

 

[Richdog]

No 2.2? Madness.

Agreed, wtf are they thinking.

 

[Richdog]

Why build such awesome hardware and design it as an iPhone clone? I know I've said it before but I genuinely couldn't buy this phone on that basis.

*Yawns*

 

[Richdog]

yes i did.

and believe me its amazing.

the screen apparenly is the best screen around and i include the iphone 4 in that, the speed, everything aboutt it as well as the swipe text app which i saw in operation and is seriously amazing.

apparenttly this phone costs samsung £1200 to make, it has the only 3d converter processor for watching true 3D movies, it is the only true 3D phone, it has the same sound system chip as in the audi R8 by bang and olufsen. the chip is 1ghz but is 4X faster than the snapdragon processor, the list goes on.

watch apples marketing for the iphone4 change as the screen is better, stronger higher res and simply better in everyway than the iphone 4.

how do samsung know this, they tested i as not suprisingly samsung supply bits for the iphone4.

the bloke said the super amo screen would cost £20k to make a 32inch version !

this is one seriously phenomenal phone guys.

lol, lol... oh and...


lol.

 

[Richdog]

Tell me one single preview of this phone that mentions the screens pseudo-3D capabilities... or was it a super secret not released to the poblic and ignored by all the professional sites that had a hands-on go with the device?

And as for "part of your job being to sell it to others", considering the absolute nuggets ive seen in the UK phone stores, it doesn't surprise me.

If i'm wrong I will gladly chew some humbe pie, it wouldn't be the first time and won't e the last, but I have seen NOTHING to indicate it has anything other than 3D acceleration. Don't you think it would have been raised at least once in the media?