Samsung’s Galaxy S Series

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Sleek design, fast processor, full featured and a long battery, yeah right? Well Samsung didn’t think it wasn’t possible so they pushed the envelope and made such a good phone that all 4 of the major US providers wanted a bite. The Samsung Galaxy S lives in its own class of Smartphone. It’s the first phone to feature Samsungs’ Super AMOLED screen which is on another level compared to all screen types. The phones feature Android 2.1 and were recently updated to 2.2 Froyo. The phone also sports Samsungs 1Ghz Hummingbird Processor so you know it packs a punch. Even though the heart is the same in everyone one of these beasts the limbs are very much different. Today I hope to break this down for you so you can choose exactly what galaxy to visit.

Samsung Fascinate on Verizon

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Samsung Facinate
Network CDMA Verizon
Size Dimensions 4.92 x 2.53 x 0.39 inches
Weight 4.16oz
Battery Type Li-Ion, 1500mAh
Talk 7 Hours
Standby 312 Hours
User Interface Input Device Touchscreen
Display Resolution 480-800px
Type Super AMOLED
Physical Size 4.00 inch
Touchscreen Capacitive, Multi-touch
Camera 5.0 Mega Pixel
1280×720 (720p HD)
Flash: LED; Auto focus, Smile detection, Digital zoom, Multi shot, Effects, Self-timer, Panorama, ISO control
Multimedia Video Playback MPEG4, DivX
Music Player MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WAV, AMR, MIDI
FM Radio FM, RDS
External Storage Built-in 2GB Internal / Up to 16GB External
Memory Slot microSD/microSDHC
Software O/S Android 2.1 Éclair
Processor TI OMAP3630-1000, 1000 MHz
Memory (RAM) 512MB RAM / 1024MB ROM
Connectivity Internet HTML
USB microUSB
WiFi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0, Stereo Bluetooth
Headphones Connector 3.5mm
GPS Type E911, GPS, AGPS

First up we have the Samsung Fascinate. This Galaxy S was designed for Verizon so sadly to say we know some things are going to lacking. Let’s start with what’s good with the phone first. The battery life is phenomenal and compared to the rest of Verizon’s “Droid” lineup this phone shatters the competition in the “how long my phone will stay on” category. Anytime you can get a solid battery out of a phone without giving up features you get an A+ from ThinkWireless. The primary reason for the extended battery life is the installment of the new Super AMOLED screen. Samsung took what was already a good screen (there OLED screen) and made it 20% brighter, have 80% less sunlight reflection and 20% reduced power consumption. Anyone rocking a DROID X or HTC Incredible can tell you anything in the hardware realm that would dramatically increase your battery life would be more than welcome. The call quality on the Fascinate is far superior to its Galaxy S brethren. This is probably in part to Verizon being huge. Crystal clear calls could be heard on either the sending or receiving end of every phone call. The shell to this phone is extremely sexy, also. It’s quite thin and has an almost resin covered carbon fiber look to the back of it which I absolutely love. Other than the Captivate I think this phone wins the best look award.

The bad isn’t as extensive as you would think coming from Verizon. One of the most annoying things that I noticed on this phone was the fact that the built in “Android Search” widget actually routes through Bing Search would could anger some major Google fans. The crazy thing is unless you root the phone there is no way to change this. I don’t know if this was Verizon’s grand idea or Samsungs but either way I should be able to choose what search engine I use.  Second is Samsungs TouchWiz UI. This is a good attempt at a UI and isn’t as bad as Moto Blur but it’s not Sense UI and never will be. For some reason no one other than HTC can figure out a quality UI that’s actually worth running over top of the stock UI. The included internal storage space left something to be desired but it’s nothing a 16GB microSD card couldn’t fix. I’ve heard reports of this phone having a long GPS lock time but when dealing with the phone I didn’t have that problem.

Other than those few problems Samsung succeeded in providing Verizon with a solid Super AMOLED Android phone. I’m not ready to proclaim this phone the new Verizon Android king but it’s surely knocking on the door, LOUDLY.

PROS:
Beautiful Super AMOLED Screen
Great Battery Life
Superior Call Quality
Extremely Sexy Shell

CONS:
Annoying OS Quirks
Small Included Internal Storage