Samsung Galaxy S General Impressions

After two weeks of heavy use and scrutiny on the Galaxy S (a week on 2.1 and another on 2.2), I have collected my likes and dislikes for this phone. On paper, this phone beats my X10 almost spec-per-spec (multitouch, 16M colors, S-AMOLED screen, 512MB RAM), but on practice, there’s a different story going on. Read on for the preview of the clash of the beauties.

Likes

• Best in class 4” S-AMOLED screen
• Useful pre-loaded apps: Task Manager, Office Editor, Swype, Aldiko eBook, File Manager, Asphalt 5, Mini Diary, etc.
• Special mention to the capable de facto Video Player and Music Player
• Access to updateable Swype text input
• Access to Android Market Apps and Samsung Apps (which includes Dictionary, Vlingo, etc)
• Fast loading 5 MP camera
• Front-facing VGA camera for video calls on Swype and YM
• Access to Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread in the future
• Nice integration of phonebook and social network accounts
• Access to beautiful live wallpapers—some Samsung made
• Workarounds if you don't like the stock solutions
• FM radio
• Feels good in hand
• Sliding door USB hatch
• Loudspeaker really loud
• Fast operation after lagfix

Dislikes

• 16M color screen still dithers
• Greenish tint on the S-AMOLED display
• Laggy performance before lag fix, occasional hiccups occur
• Video player skips, same with music player
• TouchWiz UI does not really add value
• Samsung widgets can’t be used on custom homescreens (LauncherPro, etc)
• UI uses too many big fonts which results in less info being displayed at a time and a low-res looking device
• Very generic body design, no premium look at all, makes the phone feel cheap
• Plastic is a fingerprint magnet
• 5MP camera is not very good, especially at low-lit environment since it does not have a flash
• Back and menu soft key may hamper an otherwise good user experience
• Freezes and hangs occasionally
• Audio reproduction feels too clunky
• Suspect buggy software

Galaxy S over X10

• Android 2.2 and possible access to 2.3
• S-AMOLED display
• FM radio
• Faster operation after lagfix, though suffers occasional hiccups
• Dozens of supported video and audio codecs makes it the perfect pocket theatre
• Updateable official Swype
• Better out-of-the-box apps & content (notification tones)
• Multitouch support
• Better voice calls without headset
• Overall better internet experience because of Flash lite and multitouch support
• 512 MB RAM is more than X10’s 384MB

X10 over Galaxy S

• Less dithering amidst 65K color limit
• Little to no ergonomics issue because of the hardware buttons used
• Classier looking
• More stable, rarely freezes, hangs and restarts on its own
• Better out of the box experience (little to no modification required)
• More usable and classy UI
• Better audio reproduction
• Better camera and video

So it’s blazing speed versus stability here, with Galaxy S and X10 picking one trait over the other. I can’t help but fall in love with S-AMOLED and some more fluidity offered by SGS on Froyo. Then again, the going gets rough when the pretty thing hiccups, and that destroys the fun. I can’t also help but be enchanted with X10’s good looks and fluid UI overlay, which in turn does not perform well on videos and still serves a soon-to-be-moldy Éclair which does not do justice for the intensive apps (cough Timescape cough) it runs.