





Hardware

Camera

At a glance, you'd be hard pressed to tell the front of the Galaxy S 4G apart from the Vibrant. The only difference is the return of the front-facing VGA camera also present on the original Galaxy S, Epic 4G, and Nexus S. It features the same gorgeous (dare we say vibrant?) 4-inch WVGA glass capacitive Super AMOLED touchscreen, complete with faux-chrome surround. The T-Mobile logo is in the same top center location, below the earpiece and next to the proximity and light sensors, while the Samsung logo is positioned bottom center, above the standard row of backlit capacitive buttons. And yes, the LEDs behind the capacitive buttons still turn off too soon and still shine too bright. In back, the Galaxy S 4G is almost identical to the Vibrant, with the same metal-rimmed 5 megapixel camera, speaker grill, and Galaxy S logo -- even the signature bump in the battery cover carries over. But instead of being finished in shiny black with a faint silver dot pattern, the back is painted a satin bronze finish that changes color slightly depending on the viewing angle, just like a lenticular print. It's a very polarizing design: while some people really like it, we think it looks cheap and tacky, especially on what is arguably T-Mobile's flagship phone. Everything remains the same around the edge of the device, with a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and microUSB connector (behind a clever sliding door) on top, a battery cover removal slit and microphone on the bottom, a lanyard hole and volume rocker on the left, and the power / lock key on the right. The Galaxy S 4G feels just as light as the Vibrant, and no less plasticky, which is a shame.Spec-wise the Galaxy S 4G further mirrors the Vibrant, but cranks things up a notch with the addition of HSPA+ for network speeds up to 21Mbps (what T-Mobile calls "4G"). Inside you'll find the same 1GHz Hummingbird CPU with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics, 512MB RAM, WiFi b / g / n, Bluetooh 3.0, AGPS, a compass, a gyroscope / accelerometer, and a light sensor. Despite being already six months old, this combination of hardware still delivers solid performance, especially when paired with Android 2.2. In addition to the aforementioned HSPA+ radio (with AWS / 1700MHz and 2100MHz support), there's also a legacy quadband radio for EDGE duty. Lifting the battery cover reveals a microSD card slot along with the obligatory SIM slot. A 16GB card is supplied along with an SD adapter -- it contains the movie Inception as a DRM encrypted file. Strangely, the 16GB of internal flash storage present in the Vibrant is gone from the Galaxy S 4G, leaving the microSD card slot as the sole option for storing media and other content. In our tests, calls sounded clear and reception was equally good. Battery life, however, was only average, with the 1650mAh battery lasting about 24 hours on a charge with moderate use (taking pictures, listening to music, surfing the web, and messaging). While this is in line with most other high-end Android phones, we think there's room for improvement.So does HSPA+ really make much of a difference? We compared the Galaxy S 4G to our HSPA-only Nexus S on T-Mobile by using the speedtest.net app in various San Francisco locales (within the carrier's HSPA+ footprint) and most of the time the results were similar on both devices. Of course the topography of San Francisco is notoriously hard on signal quality, and we expect the performance gap between HSPA and HSPA+ to widen over time as T-Mobile tweaks its network, but for now HSPA+ does not appear to offer significant speed gains. Your mileage may vary.Samsung knows how to make a nice cameraphone, and the Galaxy S 4G is no exception. It shares its 5 megapixel sensor and autofocus optics with the Vibrant, and takes excellent pictures. In fact, the results are better than most other 5 megapixel cameraphones. This is a camera with few equals amongst Android devices. It gathers a ton of information, with accurate color balance and exposure. There's no flash, but low light performance is top notch. Noise is kept well under control, and loss of detail is minimal. The Galaxy S 4G does a decent job of recording 720p video at a smooth 30 fps. While there's no autofocus before or during video capture, Samsung wisely chose AAC (instead of the default AMR) to encode audio, resulting in better sound quality. User experience can make or break a cameraphone. Thankfully, the camera interface on the Galaxy S 4G is one of the best we've seen on Android, no doubt thanks to the company's experience making dedicated point-and-shoot cameras. It's reasonably intuitive, and all the important controls are easily accessible, with less common settings nestled within menus. There's no dedicated two-stage shutter key, but you'll find touch-to-focus, smile / blink detection, and a panorama mode, amongst other features. Overall, we're very impressed with the camera on the Galaxy S 4G. It strikes a good balance between image quality and usability, without making too many compromises.