SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....
The sad thing is that exactly one day before my business ran into problems, I had gone and paid a good sum of money for the Galaxy S. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, there is no such thing as returning something for your money back.
Until things started to look up again, I didn't even use the thing. In fact, the day things started to get a bit better for me was the day I started to use the phone, and it was only a few days before I came back to OW. Hopefully, things will not go south again soon, because I seriously believe that I will develop a stomach ulcer.
ANNNNNNNNNNYHOOOO... see this is why I left. I didn't want to crap on every thread with my depression, not that I am depressed anymore.
OK, so on to the Galaxy S:
So I have to say, that I was a lot like Sirean and Que, when it came to cellphones. Yes, I was
that guy. Back in the late 90s, a lot of my rich and even not so rich friends had cellphones, and I found them to be useless because:
a) It cost $200 for a cheap cellphone.
b) Gandhi loves goat sex, and giving handjobs to farm animals.
c) You could do very little with the device aside from call and be called.
d) What the fuck sorta student needs to be reached 24/7?
e) Cellphones required ridiculously shackling year long contracts.
f) The minutes you paid for were deducted even when you were receiving calls.
g) It was significantly cheaper to have a dedicated landline.
In the end, the convenience of a cellphone wasn't worth the many expenses, and a lot of my friends were getting cells simply to show off. I did get a cellphone in 2001, but that was when it was actually cheaper to get a cellphone than a landline. Until then, whenever the subject of cellphones came up, I was that guy to go on a rant about why they were stupid. When I finally did get a cellphone, I shocked a lot of friends, much like Que shocked us when he got his...
OK OK so the Galaxy S:
My last smart phone was using Nokia's Symbian, which felt very little like a smartphone OS. I've used older iterations of Android on other phones though. This, uses the Android 2.1 OS, which is fantastic. It is like having PC in my pocket.
Some cool things about the Galaxy S.
1. It features
a SUPERAMOLED screen. What is AMOLED? It is the future of television. In 5 years, they say all TVs will be using AMOLED, because it has the color depth, richness, and excellent viewing angles of a plasma, coupled with the sleekness, power efficiency, and brightness of an LCD. It is only financially practical to make cellphone sized screens for now, but in half a decade, they should be rolling out TVs.
The screen itself is better in terms of color and brightness than the latest iPhone. It has a slightly lower screen resolution though.
2.
The interface is the best I've seen on an Android phone, and that's because it uses a custom Samsung skin. Now, this was the big reason I was hold off on buying a Galaxy S, because Samsung are pretty poor at software, but here, it is an actual improvement. I was initially going with the HTC Android phone, until I read what engadget and the mega all-things-Samsung-cellphone-related hater, Gizmodo, had to say about the Galaxy interface, and yes, Samsung's skinning largely complements Android, though, if you dig just a touch, you find the familiar Android interface at work.
To be honest, the Samsung skin makes the phone feel like an advanced version of the iOS (iPhone skin), which makes the phone feel like it has the best of both worlds.
I am not sure if this is the same on all Android 2.1 phones, but with the Galaxy S you can have up to 7 desktops, which you can customize with your program shortcuts i.e. widgets. The desktop wallpaper is sorta divided between the dekstops, and as you scroll through the desktops, you scroll through the wallpaper. It is quite neat.
3.
The phone's OS, Android 2.1, is pretty sweet. Right now, if you want to decide on a smart phone OS, you either go for Apple's iOS, or Android. Both Windows Mobile 6.5 and Symbian OS feel very prehistoric at the moment, and both have huge updates to come. So you are down to Google or Apple.
As Apple said, the iOS vs Android debate is a lot like the Mac vs PC debate. I think the Android is just a superior OS. It feels like you are using a PC, and you have a lot of control, with access to a lot of operating information, and a PC like interface to boot. You can install, uninstall, suspend, limit, partially limit, modify programs much like you would on a PC . It is also completely open, and features complete multitasking (I am running about 10 programs at once), allows the use of flash etc.
What they nailed was keeping the complexity under the hood. You can have a very simplified experience if you want to.
4.
Typing can be handled through Swype, which can making typing extremely fast. Here is a short vid of how it works:
Pretty cool. You basically run your finger from letter to letter, and it takes care of the rest.
5.
Gaming is one area where it is definitely behind the iOS. However, last night, I spent three hours playing a tower defense game called "Robo Defense". Now, it may have been because it was my first tower defense game, but the game had me hooked like anything. I couldn't believe I was unable to let go of a cellphone game. Overall though, the games are pretty much behind the iPhone, but robodefense is sweet.
6.
The Camera isn't brilliant, and lacks an LED light or a Xenon flash, but in decent light conditions, it isn't bad.
7. One cool thing is the top
drop down menu, which can be accessed at any time, and has shortcuts to key features like running programs, wifi, GPS etc.
The phone's interface is really fast, but still a touch behind the iOS. Apparently the upcoming Android 2.2 update will improve that aspect of it. The battery life is pretty good for a Samsung phone, though again, the Android 2.2 update is supposed to improve that aspect of the phone by quite a bit.
So yea, overall, the phone is brilliant. It is like having an actual PC in my pocket. There are a dozen widgets and apps tailor made for Android. I have been using applications made by The Onion, Engdaget, and TED, and they are excellent to use. Browsing the internet, accessing e-mail, gmail, faceboook, youtube etc all feel like very natural experiences, and it is all lightning fast. I was using Google Maps in a remote part of this crazy country the other day, and it was guiding me perfectly well.
The Andorid marketplace, while filled mostly with garbage, has also a lot of excellent and highly useful applications.
It always felt like a bit of a handicap to try to get any sort of work done with Symbian, and also felt like a bit of a novelty. With Android it feels very easy and very natural.
