Samsung I9000 Galaxy S Sim Free Mobile Phone

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.

Great phone, the definite underdog of the smart-phone market.

*I have the 16gb version of this, but I couldn't see it on Amazon. The phones are the same apart from this small detail.*

The first thing anyone notices about the Galaxy S is the screen. There are other smartphones out with the same size of screen (the HTC HD2, I believe) but the "super AMOLED" display really pops with brightness and colour. Normally I dismiss claims of "20% extra brightness, 80% sunlight reduction, 20% extra battery" as marketing guff, however, in the case of this technology, it appears to be at least somewhat true. The screen makes even mundane usage of the device something of a joy.

The phone is sold with Samsung's own interface on top, and in many ways it reminds me of the Sense UI on the HTC devices, though it does lack some of the widgets that came with my wife's HTC Hero, such as as the homescreen weather/time widget and the email widget. Similar applications were easily found on the Android Market. The touch whiz interface is clearly somewhat less polished and pretty than Sense, but it essentially does the same things.

And this phone is fast. The capacitive screen requires the lightest of touches to set the processor in motion and switching between apps, screens, pictures, albums is almost instantaneous. The machine is built on a 1ghz processor like the Nexus 1 and Desire, but it beats both in benchmarks and includes a dedicated graphics engine. I haven't had much opportunity to try many games, though the few I've tried (including Asphalt, a 3d heavy game) have run extremely well. It's just a shame that there aren't more big developers working in the Android Market at the moment.

Swype is a brilliant addition to text input on the device. You may have heard of it, or something similar - it allows you to trace a "path" including the letters you want in a word, rather than pecking them out individually. This sounds somewhat silly until you try it. The software has an uncanny knack of choosing the correct word out of the letters you trace and it makes typing out long words fast and easy. It isn't so good for the fiddly bits of messaging - punctuation, capitalisation - but you can combine it with hunt and peck for finer editing.

Now the bad.

The design of the phone is inoffensive, yes, and also generic. It's what you'd draw if you wanted to represent a distillation of 2010 smartphones. It's basically an oblong screen with filleted edges. It has one clicky physical home button flanked by capacitive menu and back buttons. I found that I missed the physical trackball of the Hero, if only to flip between screens or fidget with. The case is a shiny, slippery plastic, and the back is composed of tiny, faintly iridescent polkadots. Not very nice to look at or hold, especially since this is a large, thin slab. Don't ever rest it on your knees, it'll just slide off. I expect that I'll get a case with a bit more grip for it when a wider selection becomes available.

The battery life isn't great either, though I am able to get at least a regular day of use out of it. It has never given up on me when I've needed it, but it does get worrying low late in the day. Bear in mind that it's my new toy and, as with any new gadget, I play with it all the time: installing new apps, changing backgrounds, taking pictures, messing with the GPS, etc. So when I calm down a bit I expect the battery will go proportionally further.

Overall, this is a very polished device. It's packed with cutting edge hardware that works in efficient tandem with a quickly maturing Android. I dislike its physical design and it's a shame that Samsung didn't plump for higher quality materials and a more daring style to match the hardware. However, we don't (at least, I don't) buy phones for what they look like when they're switched off, lying on a table. No, we spend most of the time looking at the screen, and the Galaxy's display more than makes up for its ugly chassis.

Edit (11/02/11):
As others have recommended, I eventually got a simple silicone case. The phone is much better protected and way less slippery now, though it is slightly harder to slip out of a pocket! Small price to pay for a phone I'm probably going to rely on for the next year or so.

Never imagined I could become addicted to a mobile phone, but this is more than just a mobile phone. Retired and in my mid sixties, my memory isn't too good, but now I wake up in the morning, roll over and check my calendar. I can set reminders and alarms so I never miss any appointments or birthdays, etc. Throughout the day I text, e mail, shop, bank, check my shares, take lovely photos even without a flash, upload them to Facebook instantly, make recordings and videos and use the gps for directions on foot or in the car. Last thing at night I enjoy listening to the radio while I write my journal, no longer on paper, now I can include a photo from the day, and then I read an e book.

All this from a beautiful, slim and smooth phone. Unbelievable! I just adore it!