Reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S i9000

Both by quality and by media buzz and reputation, the iPhone 4 has dominated the smartphone market since its launch in June. Nevertheless, there are some mobile phones that are more than capable of facing up to the iPhone head on. One of these is definitely the Samsung Galaxy S i9000, a top-end Android smartphone that plays in the big league with the HTC Desire and new iPhone.

If we are honest, the Galaxy S i9000 could be Twitter reviewed easily - "Close to faultless as modern smartphones go, quibbling difference from HTC Desire and iPhone. No camera flash though! Huh?" If you’re concerned by the nitty gritty of specs though the Samsung Galaxy Si9000 does have some neat features that distinguish it from the pack.

The strongest feature on the phone is definitely its excellent Super AM-OLED screen. It might not have as evocative a name as "Retina Display" but the display resolution is superb, with vivid colours that make the menus and icons pop. Samsung has also upped the brightness levels past the average, which gives the phone rich, solid blacks, a great contrast ratio and usability in sunlight more reasonable than most OLED mobile phone screens.

It’s also a good size at 4", dominating the chassis. This complements the smartphone functions well, letting you view web pages without the need for lots of zooming, as well as videos and pictures.

Another distinguishing feature of the Samsung Galaxy Si9000 is the addition of the Samsung TouchWiz home screen to the standard Android menus. This makes the mobile phone’s user interface notably easy to use, giving you a go-to home screen that allows you to move apps around and uninstall apps quickly as you choose on top of the Android standby screen too with its app shortcuts and widgets.

This works alongside the snappy ARM-based 1GHZ processor that lets you nip from one screen to another and multitask without lag. The battery life helps out too – the Galaxy S can happily run for at least a couple of days presuming you aren’t watching movies on maximum brightness, and running apps that require GPS or constant web access.

The only thing that would be welcome on the otherwise super Samsung Galaxy Si9000 is a simple LED flash on the camera, a feature that most other Samsung mobile phones have. Yet this small omission certainly doesn’t detract from the quality of this outstanding phone.

Pandora Devine writes on technology and gadgets and has written this article on behalf of Orange.

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