Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000 - 8GB - Metallic black (Unlocked) Smartphone

Samsung must have been pretty confident in the GALAXY S's virtues to designate it for a simultaneous launch in 110 countries. Therefore it's not surprising that the South Korean manufacturer has a wow factor built-in from the start. The Samsung GALAXY S comes with a huge 4” Super AMOLED display, significantly larger than the only other such screen on the market – the 3.3” one of the Samsung Wave. This gorgeous window to the phone's soul is hinged to another novelty from Samsung – the 1GHz Hummingbird heart of the device. It is Samsung's answer to the Snapdragon cores found in the current cream-of-the-crop handsets.




Working in tandem with the newest edition of the TouchWiz UI, these unique features of the Samsung GALAXY S should ring in what the company names Smart Life into your existence – a sophisticated companion from dusk till dawn. Will the phone live up to the hype, or will it be just another victim of stretched marketing imagination? Now the only smart thing left to do on our part, is to review the GALAXY S where the rubber meets the road...



Box content:

•Samsung GALAXY S handset
•Li-Ion battery 1500mAh
•Headset with microphone
•User manual
•Get to know booklet
•Travel adapter
•microUSB cable
•Screen protector





Design:


The Samsung GALAXY S I9000 is a typical rectangular representative of the big touchscreen phone designs these days. The screen is recessed just a tad below the rim of the casing, which protects it from direct contact with hard surfaces when placed face-down. As can be expected from a 4” display, it occupies most of the frontal space, but room is spared above and below it for the earpiece and navigational buttons.

There are three keys right below it – touch home, physical menu and touch back. Long pressing the context menu key fires up the smart search function, so we actually have all four standard Android keys present. The other front elements are above the screen - the earpiece slit, a front facing VGA cam, and the dot sensors for proximity and ambient light. The Samsung branding is visible right above the screen, as well as on the lower section of the battery cover.
The back hosts the 5MP camera lens in the upper left corner, and the speaker grill on the right. Below them is the ubiquitous “with Google” branding, which hints this is a full-featured Android device, with the whole set of Google services preinstalled. The dotted back cover makes one think the phone has measles rather than bring the alleged carbon fiber-esque look, but that's our take.
On the upper left side is the volume rocker, which is a whole piece with a decent travel click, and on the right is the power/lock key. It is welcome that Samsung has provided a physical lock key to the GALAXY S. You can't accidentally dial on a capacitive screen in your pocket, but it's the quick pressing of the lock key before you slip it in, that completely takes the worries out.
Another nice idea from Samsung is the sliding lid over the microUSB port at the top of the Samsung GALAXY S – prevents dirt and lint from clogging the port. The same can be found on the Samsung Wave, and takes another worry out of the equation. The top also houses the 3.5mm audio jack, which can serve as an S-video port for TV-out, if you get the additional cable. Flash with the new Gingerbread rom 2.3.4 and you could transform it into a USB hub: Plug in a USB flash drive or a portable HDD with your content on it.

Great phone

I can compare Samsung Galaxy S I9000 vs HTC Desire Bravo.
Samsung Galaxy S I9000:
+ Screen size and brightness.
+ More apps in factory default Android OS.
+ Build files manager.
+ Easy OS updates/reset version via 3 buttons mode.
+ Better music player (effects, equalizer, support FLAC).
+ More camera settings (photo/video. Where to save internal/sd card).
+ USB port is protected.

- BAD SOUND QUALITY WHEN USING ALL OTHERS HEADPHONES/HEADSETS (I TRIED AKG AND SENNHISER HEADSETS, VOLUME CONTROL AND ANSWER BUTTON DOSEN'T WORKS. DULL SOUND).
I RECOMMEND ORIGINAL SAMSUNG GALAXY S I9000 HEADSET.
- Low speaker sound and quality.
- bad GPS (compare via IGO May Way).
- No Flash.

This is my first "Smartphone". Purchased the i9000 used and unlocked. Needed to use in both China and the U.S. using country-specific SIM cards. It was made for the European market but language downloads were handy in Android. It came with a protection on both screen and case. That was significant value added to the auction price I paid. Surpassed my expectations on product quality and ease of setup. Product was accurately represented.

Excellent display, the size is perfect, battery life is decent not great.
The stock software is horrible, phone gets stuck after few weeks of work, slowness in touch response.

MUST move to custom rom, since then the phone is flying and works perfect.

I bought this item because in my country it is too expensive and I saw in Ebay for a good price.
The product is original, great quality, but this configuration is a little diferent from Brazi configuration, because the brazilian configuration have a Digital TV on it.