Apple's iPhone family have dominated the smartphone charts for the last couple of years, with a few serious challenges, but nothing that could quite unseat the market leader. With the new iPhone launched recently, it looks like the challenge has become even more difficult. The Samsung Galaxy S didn't receive quite the same level of publicity on its recent launch, but could the Korean company's best ever smart phone give Apple a run for their money?
When you first see the Galaxy S, you notice how good looking it is, and even though there has been a fairly liberal use of plastic to keep the weight down, the chrome trim gives it a quality appearance and feel. The next thing you notice is the size of that screen, which comes in at a very impressive 4 inches, considerably larger than the iPhone 4.
The screen is even more impressive when it's switched on. The high resolution Super AMOLED display makes everything come to life on the phone. Colors are bright and vibrant, and the superb contrast makes everything appear crisp and clear. The visual performance of the display is matched by its touchscreen capabilities, with a responsive touch that is easy and enjoyable to use.
The Galaxy S has a 5 megapixel camera, and while this is about average for a high end smartphone, and the same as the iPhone 4, the Samsung software lets you adjust and tweak a whole range of settings, giving you much more control over your photos. There's also full 720p hi definition video capture, which makes up for the fact the Galaxy S has no flash, relying on its 'night mode' instead.
Where the Samsung Galaxy S really comes into its own is when it's playing media. Samsung has put a lot of time and effort into creating one of the best media players on the planet, and they've succeeded. There's plenty of storage for your media for a start, up to 48GB. Videos look great on the Super AMOLED screen, and the music player provides amazing quality, with the Galaxy S offering virtual surround sound as well.
Samsung have added the latest version of their Touchwiz interface which overlays the most up to date Android operating system nicely. All the required connectivity options are present including GPS, 3G, WiFi and the latest Bluetooth. The Galaxy S manages to keep everything running with a speedy 1GHz processor and one of the most powerful batteries available.
Whether you prefer text, e-mail or the various social networks, the Samsung Galaxy S lets you integrate all your communications, making it easy to stay in touch, how and when you want to. You can also make the Galaxy S into the smartphone you want it to be with apps from both Samsung and Android.
Is the Samsung Galaxy S an iPhone slayer? It's hard to say. There are a lot of things it does very well, but we'll have to see whether it does everything well enough to take on the smartphone king. One thing's for sure, it's certainly a genuine alternative to the Apple smartphone.
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