What You Should Know About the Samsung Galaxy S

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

As with most smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S was introduced as a potential competitor to Apple’s iPhone. Samsung is one of the few companies with the ability to challenge Apple in the smartphone arena, which is why this device features such a great hardware specification.

A big name phone like this is bound to attract comparisons from many other devices and there are plenty available; how does the Galaxy S compare with the Nexus S or the Motorola Droid X, for instance, or its successor, the Galaxy S II?

If you’re in the position of looking for a good quality smartphone and have the Samsung Galaxy S as one of your choices, don’t forget that this piece of mobile technology comes in various alternative guises. It is worth checking out just how these variant releases compare with each other to get the best idea of which model you should choose.

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Samsung Character Reviewed: Just Another Entry-Level Feature Phone

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota  The features on the Samsung Character are extremely limited. It is a CDMA phone with 2G and 3G support and it won’t work on a GSM network.

There’s a 1,000 entry phonebook with multiple number slots, email and notes. You can also add picture ID and ringtones to your contacts and group them if you like. The basics are all here including a calculator, alarm function, calendar, stop watch and timer and a few more besides. You also get some basic apps for social networking and music.

Bluetooth 2.1 is supported but there is no Wi-Fi. The basic Internet browser is not ideal; it is pretty slow, images often won’t load and, because there’s no Wi-Fi support, you aren’t going to want to use it very often. There also doesn’t seem to be a dedicated email app.

The camera is awful. Seriously 1.3 megapixels in this day and age is simply not up to scratch. There are loads of options and you can edit shots after you capture them, but the maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels is a disappointment. There’s no flash and no support for video recording.

It does support up to a 32 GB microSD card and coupled with the 3.5mm headphone jack that makes it a decent MP3 player alternative. In fact it only supports the MP3 and AAC+ audio formats. It can also handle MP4 videos.

Additional features worth mentioning include a speakerphone function and voice commands.

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Samsung Vitality: Entry Level Android at Cricket

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AppId is over the quota

The Samsung Vitality has a 2G EVDO network supporting the following frequencies; 800, 1700, 2100 and 1900. In stark contrast to the Admire, full 3G functionality has been restored. The EVDO rev.A speeds are relatively fast, you also get the staples of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and of course microUSB 2.0.

The phone runs on a single core 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM7630 processor, with an Adreno 200 GPU and 215 MB of RAM. The fully accessible internal memory is capped at 200 MB. The phone has a decent amount of bloatware, most of it third-party, and very little from Cricket. Other than MuveMusic, MyAccount and Storefront, you are left in peace.

Now for the 3.2 MP camera, which is a bit better then the Admire's. Pictures still look like they've been taken in the middle of a fog, but the strong overpowering presence of the color white has vastly diminished. While the color bleeding effect is light and barely noticeable. Pictures turn out relatively sharp, with a good amount of detail. The variety of modes is still the same, you get three shooting resolutions, 4x zoom, scene modes, spot metering, five white-balance settings, color effects and geo-location. No flash.

Videos turn out nicely as well, they appear stable and with much less pixelation then before. You can shoot videos at 24 FPS (frames per second) in either MP4 or 3GP formats.

The excellent musical file support for the excellent Android stock player once again makes an appearance. As a recap the phone can play MP3, WMV, AC+, OGG and many others.

The video player once again can only handle 3GP, MP4 and M4V formats, at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480. Though you can leave several apps running in the background this time -- the video player can handle a good deal of stress.

As for pre-installed apps, you get -- ThinkFree Office which offers limited document viewing and editing options. Google Books, GTalk, Google Maps with voice navigation, YouTube, Google Places and finally Google Latitude.

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Guide to All You Need to Know About Samsung Apps

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AppId is over the quota

The problem when compiling a guide on Samsung apps, is that Samsung make phones that support many different platforms. Although the majority of Samsung devices run on Android, there is also the proprietary Bada, J2ME, and now we have Windows Phone 7 invited to the Samsung party. So we have a nice mix here to keep all Samsung owners happy. It's an idea to find out which OS your phone is running, if you don't know already, but to save your blushes we also have a section on finding the best apps according to your phone.

We first take a look at Bada and Samsung apps, before moving onto phone-specific apps, and then on to those must-have apps; the ones like security and battery monitors that we all need no matter what phone we have.

And then there are those apps that were on your phone when you first turned it on and you haven't got a clue what they do, or how to use them, so we take a look at those too. Let's get going!

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Samsung Stratosphere Reviewed: 4G LTE Smartphone with a Keyboard

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AppId is over the quota

It's slightly disappointing but like the Epic 4G, the Stratosphere is powered by a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor. Luckily it seems the Stratosphere is being sold as a mid-level smartphone, as it doesn't have the power to compete with the higher end smartphones currently available. In general, the processor is able to handle the operating system well, but there are occasional bouts of lag. Like the design, the processor is very much like the Epic 4G.

The call quality is decent for both outgoing and incoming calls, with no real distortion, but the sound is a bit on the low side. The 4G LTE speeds on the smartphone were definitely fast, though it does heavily depend on location. The 1800 mAh battery is actually on the impressive side, though the 4G LTE connection does drain the battery fairly fast. With regular usage, the Stratosphere was able to last a little under 2 days.

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Samsung Epic 4G Touch Reviewed

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The smartphone comes preloaded with Android 2.3 and with the latest version of TouchWiz UI, Samsung's proprietary overlay. Samsung has done a fantastic job enhancing the user interface with the latest iteration of TouchWiz. For starters, it comes packed with more widgets than before and these widgets have an ability that will be found on Android 3.1, the ability to be resized. Various Samsung hubs have been removed in favor of one central media hub, used to download movies and videos. Samsung also included Kies Air, which allows the Epic 4G Touch to use wireless connections to sync the smartphone up with PC's and laptops. It still has a lot of bloatware, courtesy of Sprint, but luckily it can be tucked away in a folder, never to be opened again, in the applications listing.

The Epic 4G Touch comes with the physical gesture abilities found on the Galaxy S 2. Flip the smartphone on its face and it will remain silent. It also features tilt zoom, allowing users to zoom in on pictures by placing their fingers on the display and tilting the smartphone. The other physical gesture ability is the panning motion, which allows users to move between home screens quickly when rearranging applications. The lateral movement pushes the screens around which allows for quick and easy rearrangement.

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Alltel Gives Back Following Gustav

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AppId is over the quota

We reported yesterday on the efforts of Sprint to return service to Hurricane Gustav affected areas, and it seems Alltel has been no different in their commitment to mobile users in and around the Gulf Coast. Alltel takes matters one step further however, giving away a couple of freebies to those forced to evacuate because of the storm. Those affected by mandatory evacuations have been granted 1,000 free nationwide minutes as well as unlimited text messaging for a limited time. Alltel customers eligible for these goodies will have until September 12th to take advantage.

Alltel is also encouraging customers to make donations to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund on behalf of hurricane-affected citizens. Customers of the service can send $5 donations via sending a text message. They need only type keyword “GIVE” to 2HELP (24357). Once the confirmation message arrives a few minutes later, a reply of “YES” will confirm the donation. These will be accepted through Oct. 31st.

“Many of our customers along the Gulf Coast suffered a significant blow from Hurricane Gustav,” said Joanna Miller, Alltel’s vice president of business solutions for Louisiana and Mississippi. “We all know the communities of the Gulf Coast are resilient, and Alltel wants to help our neighbors as they work through the recovery process.”

The free minutes and texts will be added to the accounts of any individuals and businesses with addresses in the affected counties and parishes. In Louisiana, the parishes are: Ascension, Assumption, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Vermillion and Washington. In Mississippi, the counties are: Hancock, Harrison and Jackson. Alabama’s Baldwin County is also included.

It’s good to see a company of Alltel’s stature doing something, even if it’s just small, to help in relief and give back to the community.

Full press release here.

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