Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S)
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 18, 2010 by Eric M. Zeman
T-Mobile's version of the Samsung Galaxy S -- the Vibrant -- holds up well when pitted against the Captivate. It lags the Captivate in a few places, while besting it in others. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
This is on Bad @$$ phone
I just got this phone a couple days ago and I must say I'm very happy with my purchase. I had the G1 and loved it and wanted a phone with a physical keyboard and didn't want a phone without it. But after playing with it and seeing how big the keyboard was on it I was sold!! No regrets at all on this phone.
Pros:
Big screen, great display, 1GHz processor, video output, 16gb on phone storage, weight is awesome and it feels great in my hand (not to big)!!
Cons:
No Adobe Flash player...yet,Android 2.1 for now,and no camera flash or front facing camera (not a big deal for me)
all in all best phone ive had! The cons well most will be fixed in september with the android 2.2 upgrade!!
Was Concerned but extremely happy
I give this phone a 5 just because I have owned it for a few weeks, tested this phone through many and I do mean many different situations. One of my biggest concerns after reading some reviews was the signal. I took this phone to an area with on my Motorola Cliq only got 1 bar if I was lucky. The phone barely had signal let alone one bar...however, one thing my Cliq could not do on no bars/barely any signal was my cliq could not make a phone call. The Vibrant performed beautifully making a crystal clear call with barely any signal.
One of the biggest down sides of this phone is the unreliable GPS. However, Samsung has promised a fix for it in September so I don't see that as being problem.
This is a great phone, with awesome features and running a very precisely tuned UI that is excellent.
The pro's and con's
Great phone to buy, i will recommend this phone over the IPHONE 4, and yes i bought the iphone 4 and returned the same day. well this phone is great but to keep it short I'm going to just list the pro's and con's IN ANY ORDER OK.
PROS:
1.) the best screen i have ever seen.
2.) light weight even tho it feels cheep at time, easy to carry around.
3.) 16GB memory in this very thin Phone.
4.) The touch screen is great way better than most phone.
5.) THE HUGE 4 INCH SCREEN.
6.) Live wallpapers, widgets, weather and many more.
7.) 5.1 surround system ( Head phones ) very loud.
8.) The FACT thats it's an ANDRIOD. the ability to customize your very own phone.
9.) too much A MUST BUY.
CON'S
1.) Battery LIFE ( OUCH )
2.) ear volume not to loud.
3.) AS of right now GPS-MAPS issues. THERE is a fix coming in September ( WITH FROYO ) :)
4.) No flash on the Camera.
5.) only one speaker and it kinda of suck.
other than this a must buy
Amazing device, perfection
Had this phone for 3 days now and all i can say is wow...
Pros
Most amazing phone screen ever, from size to color and clarity
Low light camera looks far better than a flash
Battery life and signal quality for tmo stronger than believed
Running 4000-6000 kbps in just a 3g area
Cons
No notification light (just a personal preference)
Vibrant is Great
I love this phone I came on to this phone from the cliq xt. The only thing that I miss on the cliq is the flash; however; the vibrant makes up for it in so many ways. I love all the interactive wall papers that you can download, the ability to watch movies, how fast the CPU is, the super fast Internet, and the high def screen. the only thing that I didn't like about the phone was when I watching Avatar, I would hit the home and/or back button, and it would take me back to the home screen. Than when I would go back into the movie, the movie didn't remember were I was so I had to search for my spot. Other that that I don't have anything else bad to say about this phone. I love it and samsung did a great job on this phone!!
Got Flash and Still on Android 2.1
...best phone ever!
Android is super customizable and the phone itself is super fast. With in 10 minutes I had a VNC app installed and was running a remote session of my home pc, I know some friends who's home internet service that is not as quick as this phone.
I was willing to wait on the 2.2 Android release for flash on this phone. I dont know what happened, but two days in, the default browser and the dolphin HD started rendering flash with out so much as a hick-up. I am still waiting for the 2.2 upgrade because the Android home site boasts increased speed of 2X-5X (for an already blazingly fast phone).
PROS:
* Android
* 4'' screen (bright, clear, glare-less)
* 1GHz processor (very fast phone)
* Can act as a hot spot for other mobile devices
* Feeds from your favorite social sites
CONS:
* Battery life very middle of the road, got about 6 hours of heavy use out of it.
* Teleportation, Temporal Displacement and Personal Force Field App DO NOT WORK! (just kidding they work fine, but time travel is limited to about 28 months a skip on a single charge.)
LOVE THE PHONE
everything about this phone is amazing except for the following
* NO FRONT FACING CAMERA BUT WHO CARES???
* NO LED NOTIFICATION??? COME ON SAMSUNG!!!
* BATTERY INDICATOR @ THE TOP OF THE SCREEN DOESN'T MATCH UP WITH THE ACTUAL BATTERY STATUS IN THE SETTINGS - "KNOWN ISSUE IN THE FORUMS"
other than that the samsung vibrant is what I have been waiting for, Previous owner of the BB FLIP, BB 8320, BB 8100, G1 and Original MyTouch 3g
You cant ask for more.
First off I have to say you can not ask for much more in a phone. This phone fulfills every need you would want or can ask for in a phone. You have the 1ghz processor, 16gb of internal memory, with the option to kick it up to 48gb with a sd card. Massive screen with amazing clarity. The camera is just to good to be true and the video is even better. This phone is a must have.
Now to all the "cons" that people are talking about, I am going to be a lil foward and honest. Umm the whole having a video camera in the front of the phone. Umm really unless you actually use skype right now on a very constant basis no need to ask for something you are never going to use. If you use skype alot ok then this is not towards you. Second, the hdmi output. Ok really, must I say it? You will probably use it once maybe twice out of the whole time you will own the phone. In other words there is no need for it if your not going to use it. No when it comes to the flash I will agree with everybody that the camera would be better with a flash. BUT with a camera with the clarity that it has I can honestly say if there is some light you are going to get more than a decent picture. Now I know I will probably get people who are going to comment and say that they would use the front camera and the hdmi output, and to be honest most of them are probably lying, but there will be those who honestly will use it. How do I know this because i work in the cell phone industry and 9.9 people out of every 10 dont know how to use their phone, or its features. The average person uses there phone for 3 things Calls, Text, and Email. Thats it. So to change that to something like using it for it hdmi output, your not fooling anybody. My biggest advice I will give to you that I give to all my customers is. Be REALISTIC when buying your phone. Because then your going to end up saying in the future my could do this but I never did it.
1st Android, Not disappointed
This is my 1st Android phone & I couldn't be happier, the screen is completely awesome, it's very fast, and swype is the coolest thing I have ever used. Android 2.1 coupled with Samsung's interface is nice and the music player is very nice to use with it's various settings.
Pros: Super clear hi-res screen, very fast processor, 16gb internal memory, swype, Avatar, perfect size, takes great pictures even without the flash, and is easy to use.
Cons: No flash (but didn't have one on my previous phone, so I don't miss it), Battery could last a little longer.
I'm sure this phone will last me for the next 2 years and can't wait to update to android 2.2. T-mobile has a winner with this phone and I can't wait to show it off to my friend who has the Droid X to compare the performance of each phone (should be fun).
Fast, Sleek and Fun to Use
Ok, so I've had my Vibrant for nearly two weeks now. Coming from the G1 my main goal was to have an Android phone that would actually respond when I tap. The G1 was getting really old and waiting for it to respond was driving me crazy. Also it was limited on app space. Not so with the Vibrant. It's blazing fast and has TONS of room for apps. It's not perfect, there are still some areas that I could wish for some improvements but I'm not sure if those are due to the hardware or Android 2.1. On to the pros and cons.
Pros:
- Amazing screen, bright, colors are incredible
- Fast and responsive, even the capacitive touch buttons are good
- Loud speaker
- Good voice quality
- Really thin (could it be too thin?)
- Everything you love about Android works
- Apps install incredibly fast
- 3.5mm headphone jack (remember, I had a G1 before - no jack there)
- Swype rocks. I even caught myself trying to Swype on my iPad today before I realized I had to tap each key.
- Browser is fast and loads websites just like it should
- Multi-touch pinch, zoom, etc.
- Great camera with some good effects and features
- Video camera is amazing
Cons:
- Micro USB - everybody is going to these but why? Just so we all have to buy new cables and chargers?
- Location of micro USB on top of phone makes it cumbersome in the car.
- GPS is worse than G1. Takes forever to get a fix. Pickier than G1 while driving, i.e. needs to be able to see the sky out the windshield. The GPS problems make the phone unsuitable as a car GPS replacement.
- No trackball/trackpad for cursor positioning
- Battery life is still dreadful. One day max and at the end of the day it's down to 15% or less.
- Even with the improvements it's still quite a challenge to see the screen outside in sunlight.
- Holding it "wrong" dumps signal just like the iPhone and a lot of other smart phones. Never noticed this with the G1.
- No notification LED
That's about it, I think this phone should last me another 2 years.
