GALAXY S

I've never cared too much about cellphones in the way that many teenagers and college students are so into what's new with cellphone technology in the iPhone, Blackberry, etc. Recently, my parents upgraded my old very reliable Nokia phone into a new smartphone called Galaxy S.  The past couple of days I've been able to play with it and explore its many different features. I can see the appeal of the Galaxy S through its thin and sleek design, as well as its high tech software and extra features. In my opinion, it’s much like an iPhone, except externally, it’s thinner, smaller, and has a slightly different arrangement of icons on the main screen. 

Samsung's Galaxy S

The Samsung Galaxy S is chockfull of specs that make it distinguishable among the smartphones and unique in its own way. It has a 4-inch multi-sensory touch screen with a Super AMOLED display that’s bright, clear, and anti-reflective so that it's visible even in the sunlight. The use of the Super AMOLED (Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diod) display is one of first of its kind in the cellphone market, which displays the innovation of the Samsung cellphone designers; the Super AMOLED display is ideal as it is a 20% brighter screen, 80% less sunlight reflection, and 20% reduced power consumption. This is an attractive part of the hardware because of the sustainability objective that all designers should strive to achieve. The Galaxy S also has an impressive 5-mega-pixel camera that does selective focus, has built-in photo effects, and is capable of recording video as well.
          The software and additional features of the Galaxy S make it a truly innovative phone. One feature that I really liked was the Swype capability, where when texting or typing anything on the on-screen keyboard, you can just swipe your fingers over the letters for each word (instead of typing each letter one-by-one) and the phone automatically inputs the word. It saves time for texting, which is already fast, but it allows you to work faster. Of course, you can access internet through this phone as that has become a staple in all smartphones. Another cool feature is the "AllShare" where you can play files from the phone to another player like a TV, play file from a server to the phone, or play file from a server to another player via the phone through a Wi-fi connection.

Galaxy S frontside

Galaxy S  backside

          The exterior of the Galaxy S is rather sexy because of the smooth, reflective surfaces of each sides of the phone. It is simple too, and produced only in one color--black, which makes it good for customizing. It is about the size of my palm and probably fits the normal hand perfectly (personally, it's a little too big for my short fingers but no biggie). Ergonomically, the rectangular shape of the phone does not feel ideal or comfortable when being held; I feel like this aspect of the design could have been changed or further explored upon to make it better fitted to the hand and less comparable to the iPhone phones. The thinness and weight of it, however, is a good thing because it does not make it feel like its bulky unlike other smartphones.
          Overall, the Galaxy S is a great and innovatively designed smartphone. It has set the bar higher for smartphones everywhere.

Credit/Links:

[Galaxy S picture] http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-android-smartphone-in-action-video-24-03-2010/
[Super AMOLED info] http://www.samsung.com/au/smartphone/technology/super-amoled.html
[Galaxy S info] http://galaxys.samsungmobile.com/specification/spec.html?ver=low
[Galaxy S info] http://galaxy-s.t-mobile.com/samsung-android-galaxy-phone
[Galaxy S picture front side] http://www.phoneultra.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-s/
[Galaxy S picture backside] http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/27477/samsung-galaxy-s-review/