What happens when Samsung decides to horde its stock of S-AMOLED screens and not share with the rest of the world? They create the Samsung Galaxy S. The worlds largest S-AMOLED device measuring in at 4 inches. The launch for the Galaxy S has been one of the most aggressive campaigns recently with an attempt to saturate the world with this device. Samsung will release this device in over 100 countries and while I cant verify that this has been achieved, I can say that in the U.S. they have successfully penetrated the 4 major carriers (ATT, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon), along with numerous smaller carriers. While holding out so long for something that would be a perfect fit for me (I struggle to find something that will overtake the need for simplification) I decided to take the plunge and purchase this device. Well aware that ATT no longer offers unlimited data plans I signed with T-Mobile and registered for an Even More Plus plan. Although I am using the Vibrant as a reference for this article a majority if not all included information should applicable to all Galaxy S variants.

Lets start with the most obvious part of the Vibrant, the gorgeous 4 inch Super AMOLED display! The screen takes up most of the real estate on the front of the device and looks amazing. While I’ve used AMOLED devices before (N86, Nexus One) you just never get used to how beautiful the displays looks. The high ambitions of Samsung to improve on AMOLED have brought to fruition a screen that has virtually no flaws, Super AMOLED. With a Super AMOLED display visibility under sunlight is good and fixes one of the major flaws for older generation AMOLED displays.

Even though it has a large screen the Vibrant feels comfortable in hand and could be in part to its rounded edges and relatively thin profile. The design of the device is simple with few physical buttons (power/lock, volume up/down) and 4 touch sensitive ones (settings, home, back, search) on the front. The handset is almost reminiscent of an Iphone, but only in reference, the design strays from looking/feeling cutting edge by using simple materials and a low key design. The only hint of “flair” comes in the form of a gun metal outer bezel that surrounds the screen. The top has access to a microUSB port which is covered by a sliding door and 3.5mm headset jack. I found the sliding door to be a nice touch in design but in everyday practicality it was useless. Most times I would forget to even close it. On the back panel there are two small slits for the speaker and the lens for the camera. The speaker grill has a raised point which aids in better sound projection. The camera lens is surrounded by a chrome bezel which is slightly raised to prevent scratches on the lens.

The backplate is constructed with one piece of plastic which must be snapped off in order to expose the innards such as the battery, sim card, and microSD slot. Towards the bottom of the back of the phone has a small chin that provides a little curve to the otherwise flat phone. Samsung was quite generous when providing storage by including 16GB of internal storage with room for expansion. The device is light, thin, and sturdy. As the case with most phones with so few moving parts. Some might associate the weight of the device with cheapness, I welcome it. I like the feeling of having a great mobile device in my pant pocket and not feel it. It becomes invisible until I need it.

With the importance of software becoming ever present in judging a mobile its hard to explain the dichotomy that is the Android OS. The Vibrant is no exception with Android 2.1 running with Samsung’s own experience, TouchWiz UI 3.0. Whats TouchWiz? The TouchWiz UI offers customizations such as a new menu system (customizable list and grid formation) , a persistent application tray that holds 4 main applications (dialer, contacts, messaging, applications) two of which can be removed and customized with your own personal applications, custom widgets, Swype (custom keyboard application), and a toggle tray located in the pull down menu (Wi-Fi, BT, GPS, Silent). It seems to me that Samsung was trying to create a user friendly experience.

One that everyone could understand without having to learn something new. They succeeded. While its not revolutionary or visually stunning (some might say it even borrows elements from another popular UI/OS) Bottom line is TouchWiz is simple and it works. One thing I felt I had to nit pick was the amount of stock icons that came preloaded on the device. The thing is just overwhelmed with pre-installed applications and the inability to remove them (without ROOT) is a tremendous inconvenience. But, can I really be upset over this? No, I purchased a carrier branded device and thats the penalty/nuisance I will have to deal with. How does this all come together? The UI is smooth, and the 1Ghz processor speeds through most things with only the occasional hiccup (XDA has found that the file system is the culprit not the processor/hardware).

You made it! I hope you enjoyed the first part of the Vibrant Hands On and hope that you come back next week for part 2 which will deal with the camera and video shooting experience! Feel free to leave comments on things you would like to see covered in future Vibrant Hands On or leave me a tweet @EdmondJDantes via Twitter.

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