Samsung Galaxy S 4G
Phone Scoop Review
Feb 22, 2011 by Eric M. Zeman
Samsung has updated the Vibrant variant of its Galaxy S line with HSPA+ at 21Mbps. Is a faster data radio worth the upgrade? Find out in Phone Scoop's review. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Even better than the original
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This phone is just amazing. The Galaxy S (Vibrant) model was good, but this just keeps getting better. You still get the great AMOLED screen which is just mesmerizing, and a great 5MP camera, but now you also get longer battery life, snappier processing, a front facing camera, and the fastest 4G capability to date! The only thing that keeps this phone from a full 5 rating is they downgraded the built-in memory from 16gb to 1gb and now give you a 16gb sd card. Other than that? Stellar.
A heck of a good phone
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So speedy! I chose to forsake my secondhand iPhone 3G, and I'm so glad that I did. This is a gorgeous phone with a lot of great features, and it's amazingly fast.
PROS:
Takes beautiful, clear pictures
Can run several apps at once with no lag
Great selection of apps in store
Gorgeous screen with bright colors
Easy to close apps
Highly customizable
SD card memory can be upgraded
CONS:
Very hard to read screen outside in daylight
Swype takes some getting used to
Camera is slow
Overall, this is a great phone. My mom's getting one too!
Good, but....
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I must say that having owned previous Androids has not helped my experience with this phone. At first it seemed to be amazing with a large screen and fluid UI, but soon there after the flaws began to appear. The screen is large, but the pixels are too few. Most pictures and wallpapers are missing the "pop" other makers have like LG and images appear grainy! (we're in 2012 right?) grainy is NOT acceptable at this point. The camera is way too slow for my taste. I clocked a picture at 2 seconds! Also, when you have too many apps downloaded the interface becomes slow.
Pros:
Screen size
GPS- Awesome maps
Cons:
Screen quality
Camera
Power under the hood
Keyboard (doesn't type well)
Look at LG (better colors and processor) or HTC.
A little disappointed
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The phone started off fine but then it started to become slow. Then it would freeze or go to a black screen whenever I tried to call, text or go to an app. Got very aggravating.
Beautiful!
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When I had this phone I loved it! The screen was beautiful.. The keyboard & swype was very responsive.. Ringtones are loud, and phone calls sound good. Movies and videos show excellent on this phone. I didn't really too much care for the camera.. There was this annoying spot in the middle of the camera when taking pictures indoors. Great app selection. 4G always worked to it's fullest potential. If it wasn't for T-Mobiles horrible reception and lack of towers. I would have been happy to keep this phone for 2 years. Perfect smartphone I tell ya.
Big Improvement
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I've had my 4g for a little over a week now, and I'm very impressed! I traded my Vibrant which I loved, but which had the annoying habit of dropping to EDGE regularly, especially inside my house. So far I have been dazzled by the SPEED of this thing! I've been getting near 10 mbps download speeds, every bit as fast as my wifi. The ONLY thing I'm disappointed with is the internal memory. Why, oh why, Samsung, did you not copy the Vibrant and put 16 gigs of internal in this thing???? That in my opinion is the only weakness of this phone.
PROS:
AWESOME screen
FAST
Amazing Battery Life (my Vibrant would drain from just a few hours of web/texting)
Great call quality
Synchs better with my bluetooth headset than my Vibrant did
CONS:
Memory
No camera flash
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Samsung Galaxy S 4G
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I must say that this phone is the best phone made by Samsung I have ever owned. For a long time after owning several Samsung phones, I would not buy them for a long time, but this one is the best ever. Coming from the Sprint HTC EVO, Blackberry Bold, HTC Hero, HTC Touch Pro 2, I highly recommend getting this phone if you are looking for a phone that costs less than dual core phones, but does the same thing.
Pros
Super AMOLED screen
Good battery life and power saving features
4G is HSPA + that WORKS (4G was a joke on Sprint)
VERY, VERY FAST DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD SPEEDS
This phone DOES NOT BURN A LOT OF BANDWIDTH, unlike HTC devices, so you can be a heavy user as I am, and not burn your data cap limits
Very clear call quality
Speaker is loud and clear
Phone ringers are loud and clear
16 GB memory card
Ability to move apps to card
Phone has a call reject list that accurately blocks unwanted callers built into the call function
Camera takes beautiful pics even without a flash
Video is crystal clear and movies play clear
TouchWiz interface does not interfere with the overall Froyo 2.2 Android OS experience, compared to Sense UI on HTC devices that overpowers Android OS
Cons
Comes with too many pre-loaded apps you cannot get rid of
Internal memory is less than 1GB with all the apps preloaded in the phone
When the battery is low, the screen automatically dims and it can be annoying at times
The Cons of the phone are tolerable. There is no perfect phone, but this one comes close to it. Way to go Sammy!!
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First Android Phone
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Used to own a HTC DASH 3G, Palm Treo 650/700, and multiple blackberries. Overall the phone is solidly built, and has all features I'm looking for in a top of line smart phone
The phone is beautiful, it has really good sound and the size/weight is on par or better than many of the other Android phones I compared at T-Mobile
PROS
- AMOLED Screen is one of the best I've seen.
- 16GB SD Card included
- 4" Screen Size
- 1650 mAh battery
- Micro-USB connector
- Easily Rootable
- Light Weight
- WiFi Tethering
CONS
- Some very popular software crashes on phone
- Camera could have better zoom and flash
- Some of the system settings could be more customizable (e.g. power control settings, screen brightness settings, sound control settings)
In closing, even with the Cons, if you're happy with Android Froyo 2.2 I'd highly recommend this phone. But this phone has all of the features I want from a phone that isn't an iPhone and considering that T-Mobile's plans are incrementally less expensive than AT&Ts and the 4G support is pretty good.
BB to Android Galaxy S 4G
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I had the first tmobile touch screen smart phone...then to the bb for over 10 years with newer devices all the time...last was the 9700 running 6.0 OS.
It has taken me a while to make the adjustment but the wait is worth it. The swype technology really helped. I'm still a big email and texting junky but now I'm a convert. The big screen is all worth it for me even though I don't use the phone for much more than a phone and texting device.
I do miss the bb search capability of just typing in a few letters from the main screen and having a list of contacts come up. It's an adjustment worth getting used to. The app store is awesome also. 4G works great. I do wish it was enabled for tmobile's 'at home' service like the 9700...I could use that at home an hit my wifi and not use any minutes.
I would recommend this phone to anyone who is interested in having a smooth/fast running device.
Galaxy S 4G that puts out!
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Used to own a Vibrant, MyTouch 4G, and a HTC EVO 4G I've been somewhat disappointed in all the 4G hype that is way too slow. However, since this phone actually supports HSPA+ and not just HSPA the speed increase is very noticeable.
I can actually stream video and music without the constant stuttering that happens with the other phones I've had. It's not due to reception, just the technology.
PROS
- Super AMOLED Screen is simply gorgeous.
- Adequate Hummingbird 1Ghz Processor
- 16GB SD Card included
- 4" Screen Size
- 1650 mAh battery
- HSPA+ compatability, not just HSPA
- Easily Rootable
- Light Weight
CONS
- Samsung TouchWiz UI and just the software in general is not as refined as others like HTC Sense. Not even close.
- Samsung is HORRIBLE at getting timely updates out, more so then competitors like HTC.
- Seems to drain battery a little faster then avg.
- May encounter more force closes and needing reboots more often then other smartphones.
In closing, even with the Cons, if you're happy with Froyo 2.2 I'd highly recommend this phone. Especially if you need higher bandwidth capabilities that the other so called 4G phones in T-Mobiles lineup don't deliver on.
