Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S

The Samsung Galaxy S (aka the Samsung I900) is Samsung's take on an 'Android Superphone', so as you'd expect, it is very powerful. In making this their answer to HTC's world-beating Desire, they have made the Samsung Galaxy S one of the best Android phones on the market. But what is it that makes the Samsung Galaxy S so good? Well, there's the massive four-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen and superfast 1GHz processor for multitasking and browsing the web to start with.

Design - 9/10

It has be said many times in the past, that Samsung don't know how to make an ugly phone. Their phones always look good; the Samsung Galaxy S is no exception, with its super-slim (only 9.9mm) body, and sleek aesthetic. If there's one complaint that can be levelled at the Samsung Galaxy S, it's that it looks a bit too much like the iPhone, but since some people would consider that a reason to buy the phone, it only loses the Samsung Galaxy S one mark.

Operating System - 10/10

Out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy S uses Android 2.1 (Google Maps, seach and email, plus thousands of apps), with Samsung's TouchWiz UI on top, so without doing any extra work, the user gets a brilliant experience, straight out of the box. However, for those prepared to put in a (very) small amount of work, the Samsung Galaxy S is upgradable to Android 2.2, also known as Froyo, which makes it even better. The Samsung Galaxy S also gets a lot of bonus points for including Flash Lite and the Swype keyboard, straight out of the box.

Hardware - 10/10

Here, we come to the main reason why the Samsung Galaxy S is so powerful; it's simply because in terms of hardware, the Samsung Galaxy S is virtually flawless. The processor is a 1GHz Hummingbird chip, which is not only fast but incredibly efficient, leading to a longer battery life. Not only that, but the Samsung Galaxy S includes a dedicated graphics chip, capable of pushing 90 million polygons per second; thus, it seems the hardware is optimised for mobile gaming, and the souped up hardware makes gaming on the Samsung Galaxy S a mind-blowing experience.

Camera and media - 9/10

The Samsung Galaxy S lets you capture life in HD. It has a five-megapixel camera built in, and although this is only average for a modern smartphone, it's a very good five-megapixel camera. Photo quality is excellent, and the Samsung Galaxy S can also capture video at 720p HD resolution. The camera also includes extras such as face and smile detection, so although it's not an eight-megapixel camera (which would have made the Samsung Galaxy S virtually perfect), it is very, very good. The phone has 16GB of storage built-in and that is expandable with a MicroSD card so there's no need to hold back.

Screen - 10/10

The Samsung Galaxy S is one of the first phones to use a next generation Super-AMOLED, and boy does it show! Put simply, the super-responsive four-inch touchscreen on the Samsung Galaxy S is a thing of beauty, with beautifully vivid colours, and deep blacks, that just aren't possible with anything other than an AMOLED screen. As it's also made from Gorilla Glass, the Samsung Galaxy S easily scores a perfect ten in this category!

Social - 10/10

Android has a great many social features built in (and thus the Samsung Galaxy S has those features as well), but the one of the great things about this OS is the Android Market, so any social apps that you feel are missing can be added to the phone really easily. However, what the Samsung Galaxy S already has is brilliant, whether it's Google services (like Googlemail) through the cloud, or the Youtube app. The Samsung Galaxy S also gets points for including the Swype keyboard, which indirectly makes the social features nicer (since typing on this keyboard is an experience nothing else has matched yet). Some testers have even said it's faster than a hardware keyboard, which is going to be useful when you're typing out Twitter updates on the Samsung Galaxy S.

Overall - 10/10

People have raved about the Samsung Galaxy S, and frankly, it is easy to see why; this is, quite simply, one of the most powerful phones ever made. In fact, the Samsung Galaxy S could be described as gloriously overpowered, but the great thing is that this power doesn't come at the expense of battery life or looks. So, do we recommend it? The Samsung Galaxy S is easily one of the best phones we've ever seen, so yes, it comes very highly recommended.