Review: Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant

There’s no denying the popularity of Android phones as of late. Google’s operating system has taken on a life of its own becoming more popular each month. Part of that may be due to the fact that a new Android handset seems to hit the market each and every week. Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant is the latest to hit Canada, with it’s snazzy Super AMOLED screen. Sure it looks sharp, but is this Android phone you’ve been waiting for?

The Design

Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant is one sleek looking phone. In fact when I first unboxed it at the office many walked by and asked if it was an iPhone. At a mere 9.9mm it’s quite thin. Not quite as thin as the iPhone 4 mind you, but damn close.

The first thing you’ll notice is just how light the Galaxy S Vibrant is. It weighs 118 grams, which is about 19 grams lighter than the iPhone 4. Those are the technical specs. When you have it in your hand it feels quite a bit lighter.

The phone has nice rounded edges and the gloss gives it a slick feel. It actually almost feels slippery in your hands. That being said I would not be as concerned about breakage if I was to drop it as I would with an iPhone or even a BlackBerry Bold.

The Screen

This has got to be one of the nicest screens I have seen on a cell phone. With a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen is amazingly vibrant (as the phone’s name suggests) showing off a wide array of colours. 16 million colours to be exact. The blacks are true, giving off absolutely no light. Video simply looks amazing on this device as does everything else. The resolution isn’t as high as Apple’s Retina screen so text isn’t quite as clear, but users will not be disappointed.

The Cameras

The Galaxy S Vibrant has two cameras. On the back a 5 Megapixel camera with zoom and a multitude of other feature shooting modes including Single Shot, Self Shot, Beauty, Smile shot, Continuous, Panorama, Vintage, Add me, Action Shot, and Cartoon. You also have the ability to change the exposure in bright conditions if need be. Another VGA front-facing camera can be found on the front of the Galaxy S Vibrant which is used primarily for video chat. While you can use it to take photos (self portraits) you must pay to use Bell’s video chat service if you want to partake in video chat.

Overall picture quality is quite good. Take a look at a few of the pics we snapped below. It’s important to note there is no flash on this camera so you’ll have to rely on available light.

Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant can also record HD video at 720p. We shot this video on an overcast day to give you an idea of what kind of video quality you can expect.

Performance

Overall I have been quite pleased with Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant. The unit runs Android 2.1 and with the phone’s 1 Ghz processor I never noticed much lag. Menus scroll smoothly and multiple applications can run at the same time without issue. This is one of the first Android phones where I was happy with how just how fluid everything seemed to run. Not only that, I had next to no difficulty finding what I needed within the menus. Everything is laid out nicely providing a very friendly user experience.

Call quality was never an issue. Of the dozens (hundreds?) of calls I made on this phone I never had any significant problem or complaint. The voice quality was great, not sounding too thin and no echo. My cheek never once initiated an unwanted command on the touchscreen while I was talking, a problem I still encounter on my iPhone 4.

One of the features I was looking forward to on this phone was Swype. For those of you not familiar with Swype, it’s a new way input text. Instead of lifting your fingers to hunt and peck on a virtual keypad you simply drag your fingers from one letter to the next. There is a bit of a learning curve but it works fairly well. The only real difficulty you may encounter is when you want to add punctuation or special characters. There is a learning curve but once you play around with it for a few hours you’ll find it’s quite effective. I will point one thing out. If you have large fingers you will not like Swype. Fortunately this feature can be turned off of you fit into that category.

The Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant (left) next to Apple's iPhone 4 (right)

The Downsides

While the phone looks nice some may find it feels a bit cheap. The case is plastic which gives it a nice light feel but some will argue it doesn’t feel like it’s made from quality parts.

Battery life was decent but not spectacular. On average I could get about 8 hours of heavy use before the battery needed a recharge. It feels like it could have been better.

The Bottom Line

Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant is an outstanding Android handset. The user interface is intuitive, the screen outstanding, and the features top notch. Some will complain the phone’s plastic backing makes it feel cheap, but I actually liked how light the phones felt compared to similar handsets on the market. Overall Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant is solid addition to the Android family, making it one of my favourites to date.

The Good

Light weight
Stunning screen
Front facing camera
Fast processor

The Bad

No flash
Plastic backing feels cheap

Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant is available in Canada from Bell for $149.95 with a 3 year contract ($499.94 no contract)