Intro
A true Google Experience phone is what we have here, it is also a Samsung and steps up from the other Galaxy S phones out right now. It has some new features and other new good things as well.
Looks
Sleeker, faster, smoother and more Google than the previous Galaxy S phones. The one difference I try to point out to everyone how it has a curved design, a really cool look. The screen is bright, the phone is clean and jet black.
Hardware
The CPU is a 1 GHzSamsungHummingbird S5PC110 (ARM Cortex A8) with PowerVR SGX 540 GPU to handle graphics, I am glad that a lot of companies are putting a GPU in the phone as well. There is 512 MB of RAM and no memory card in the back of the phone or anywhere for that matter. Instead you get 16 GB iNAND (partitioned 1 GBinternal storage, 15 GB USB storage).
Screen
I mentioned before that the screen is curved and it is nice. It is a 4 in (100 mm) Super AMOLED contour (curved) display, A WVGA 800—480 pixel that offers (233 PPI). So a good resolution and a nice screen gives this phone a bit more spunk. The screen also offers multi-touch which is so nice.
Battery
A 1500 mAhLi-ion with 6 hours of talk time, and 428 hours of standby time. However, it seems with tons of services on it works for about a day (which does not mean 24 hours, I am meaning 6-8 hrs maybe 10). The services running include Twitter (touiteur and twitter for android, Facebook, two gmail accounts, google books, google listen and more throughout the day.) I run them to the max.
Operating System
The first phone running Google Android 2.3 also know as Gingerbread. It is a real Google experience meaning it is a pure Android experience. It runs 2.3 and has no extras like HTC or other Samsung phones. It is clean and smooth and fresh.
Software
As I mentioned you get Android 2.3 on this phone and you get a stock Android experience, no add ons or extras to slow anything down or speed them up in any way. It is fast and not dragged down at all.
Keyboard
There is no hard keyboard on this device, there is a software keyboard of course and it is very specific to Gingerbread 2.3. You can download it for other phones, I have it on my droid. It is a clean interface and really is awesome, they have found a way to space it out correctly and it is very smooth, I really like it.
Web Browsing, Camera and Video
There is a 5mp rear camera that can record 720p. It is a bit bigger and has a flash, not dual LED but it is LED and it takes crisp photos. The front facing camera is a VGA that does 640×480. I enjoy the front facing, always questioned them but have come to like them. This one is no different, however, I could not get the tmobile qik app to work as well, not a phone issue, just software.
Call Quality
The calls are quite nice, T-Mobile’s network is solid for calls, not as much for data as much. It still works and it still gives me 2mb of speed which is good, but I do drop down to edge quite often in Northern Utah.
Pros:
- It is sleek and slim
- The headphone jack is also flush
- Good Camera 5 mp which records 720P
- Only phone to officially have android 2.3
- A pure android experience with a new OS.
- Front facing camera offers nice quality.
Cons:
- Sadly it is nothing special since new phones are coming out
- No SD card is a deal breaker for me, I want to expand my memory
Conclusions & Final Thoughts
It is a really cool phone but it is trumped by all the new phones coming out lately, even the HTC Thunderbolt will be using true 4G over HSPA+. This phone came at the wrong time even though it is REALLY solid, even though it is plastic, it feels strong and durable.