CVByrne Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 I have to say the little ridge on the back at the bottom is genius. Whoever developed that earned his pay. Combined with the phones super light weight I can put my index finger on the back at the ridge and my thumb on the front at the bottom and the phone is held secure and balanced. Now when I pull the phone out of my pocket, I can pinch at the ridge and swivel the phone round so it's the right way up facing me. It's the little things like this that I really like. Oh and one drawback of the galaxy s, no notification led, is solved by the amazingly useful noLED app, a must get dirk. While textdroid is better than cabbage for using your free web texts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted October 12, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted October 12, 2010 I think the feeling of cheapness mostly came from the materials used to make it, the back particularly is very very plasticy, and not in a good way, it feels slightly nasty actually to me. The best way to describe I think is, you know, the difference between the plastics in a really nice upmarket car, and the ones in a bit of a budget end car. Theres not that premium feel, theres good plastics and bad plastics and the Galaxy S back cover is definitely in the latter realm for me. When you then compare it to other phones it has a bit of a low rent feel. Even my N97 has a more upmarket feel to it in the hand, which comes from the combination of nice plastics, a solid feel and a bit of weight behind it, which I actually quite like. Given that a lot of phones are moving to more upmarket materials, aluminium for example, the Galaxy S doesn't wow in the hand as much. It's still a spectacular bit of kit but I think it could have been a true no brainer purchase if it had that little bit more about it in it's construction. And a flash on the camera . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Here we disagree, the reduced weight is right up my street. When I first handled my friends galaxy s, I was like "wow that's so light." They deliberately went for plastic to make it light and I'm glad they did. The weight is a selling point to me and obviously many people too. While the build quality is excellent, regardless of the materials. Weight gives it a premium feel? So added weight is now a selling point. Baffling but true. You got to decide is the plastic build worth it for the phone with the best hardware and best screen of any phone in the world? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Actually if you get a silicone casing for the back, it feels a lot better and is much easier to grip onto. Plus it gives it a touch more weight if that whats you're after. P.S I resorted to buying one of these after dropping my Galaxy S on concrete floor, what a bad feeling that was! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Some very useful apps all organised in this thread worth a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 How come I am yet to read any reviews that actually rate the Galaxay above the Desire. T3 awarded the Desire the Phone of the year award only yesterday, and surely the Desire HD will piss all over the Galaxy when its released. I like the look of the Desire HD alot..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 It's an odd Desire love in, mainly due to the impact the phone made when it arrived at the beginning of the year, the first real iphone killer. The hardware is inferior to the Galaxy S in pretty much every way. Much of the harware advantages though will only become important as the phone ages and more cpu hungry apps come about. Though I've read plenty of reviews that have Galaxy S as the best phone. All reviews I've read say the Galaxy S is totally unrivalled as a media player, which nobody would really argue with. The problem with lots of the reviews for Desire are they're all old from Feb or March when it was a jaw dropper. The reviews are dated now. But all the little drawbacks of the Galaxy S are almost all down to software, Galaxy S is still on a bit buggy 2.1 software which is ok because they promised to fix it all with the 2.2 update which is mere weeks away. This is pretty much confirmed by the 2.2 froyo build leaks that people have tested. So you'd hope good reviewers would go back and redo the reviews once the 2.2 software is out. Techradar are the worst though, they love HTC and are obviously biased against everything else, they had so many complaints about their N8 review they changed it. They have the tag line on their desire review "the most powerful android phone ever" yet that's not even close to true anymore. I had a choice between X10 and Desire and picked the X10 for it's screen and camera (though Sony as useless with the software updates). The Galaxy S is that much better than both that I bought a Galaxy S 3 months after buying my X10. The proof is in the pudding, people are leaving Desires to get Galaxy S'. The fact Samsung managed to sell 5mil phones in about 10 weeks says it all about its popularity. Also Galaxy S is still better than the yet to be released Desire HD on hardware and screen. GPU is still twice as good in the Galaxy S as the Desire HD. Desire HD is just a European release of the Evo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDon Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Desire HD is just a European release of the Evo. Except for the fact it's got an entirely different hardware, the evo has the same chipset as the desire, the desire HD has a new updates one. It's a European evo in size alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Also I'd agree the Desire deserves to be phone of the year. It was the first phone to surpass the iPhone and really helped start the meteoric rise Android. Does that make it the best Android phone now? No it doesn't. Especially when Android 3.0 will not need any custom UI overlay, meaning all software advantages are gone, hardware is all that matters. When you combine that Galaxy S screen with the astonishing cpu / gpu combo huge onboard memory. It's not even a close fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Desire HD is just a European release of the Evo. Except for the fact it's got an entirely different hardware, the evo has the same chipset as the desire, the desire HD has a new updates one. It's a European evo in size alone. True, it has a new Andreno 205 GPU & has the new Snapdragon. It's a pity it's still got a paltry 1.5gb storage. Though a sd card will sort that out fine as 2.2 allowed apps on sd card. It's basically what HTC said, it's piecing the best of what they've done together. Nothing new or ground breaking in it. I'm really looking forward to seeing the nVidia Tegra 2, that should be something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Though I've read plenty of reviews that have Galaxy S as the best phone. Can you point me towards a couple as I have seriously not seen one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 here's a review and comparison Even in other reviews, the negative points of the galaxy s are the software. Samsung know this and by all accounts have fixed them with the 2.2 update. So once the software is fixed it becomes a no contest. The simple fact is the hardware is miles better. Sure with 3.0 android we'll all be running the identical software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDon Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Sure with 3.0 android we'll all be running the identical software.we really won't. No matter how good the stock UI gets vendors will still customize it to push their brand identity and add value. HTC aren't going to suddenly ditch sense because the android UI's no longer ugly, especially with the work they've done on the new version. Thinking devices are going to ship with stock roms only is extremely naive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 But the functionality is going to be almost identical with just a custom launcher overlay. What sense was doing great was adding a load of stuff that was missing from stock android. But as android advances these benefits are being added into the stock os. So basically there is less to be added in the custom overlay In essence using adw launcher with the sense ui skin will be very similar to using a phone with sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Also is your read techradar's desire vs iphone vs galaxy s review you'll note if you exclude the iphone you'll find the galaxy s wins on screen, calling, camera, maps & apps and battery. The desire wins on interface, messaging, internet and cost. Now they put the caveat that internet will be the same when galaxy s gets froyo. They are wrong on cost as the proveprice plans for galaxy s and desire are identical. While messaging is based off tap typing while lovers of swype wouldn't trade it for any form of tap typing. This review also does not mention hardware specs which the galaxy s utterly trounces the desire at. I just can't wait for froyo to unleash the true power of this phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDon Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 But the functionality is going to be almost identical with just a custom launcher overlay. What sense was doing great was adding a load of stuff that was missing from stock android. But as android advances these benefits are being added into the stock os. So basically there is less to be added in the custom overlay In essence using adw launcher with the sense ui skin will be very similar to using a phone with sense. Not really. Look at the features in the new sense, they're far more than just a UI overlay, it goes deep into core functionality of the os. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YorkshireVillan Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 i got a notification on my HTC Desire today to update to 2.2 im on 02 anyone else had this yet seems to have a few extra apps but im not really a techie as to what else it offers in the update... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDon Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Can turn the phone into a wifi hotspot, full on flash 10.1 support, massively improved JIT compiler which gives tons better performance, better battery life. Speaking of updates, word is going round that the gingerbread SDK is going to be released next week. That means gingerbread won't be that far off, november most likely for it hitting AOSP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Couple of bits: CV, The Desire is a fine phone, the CPU is at least on par with the GalaxyS, the raw 3d throughput is the only major thing the Galaxy has on it. Going by the fact that HTC know how to actually make Android perform well on phones unlike Samsung there's not a lot between them. I sold my Desire and bought a Galaxy S because of the raw hardware potential and the fact/hope CyanogenMod will make it fly. Froyo source was out last night from Samsung but they've pulled it again. Hopefully it finished downloading at work so I can start hacking on it today to see how far I can get an AOSP build going. If Gingerbread SDK is out next week the kernels shouldn't be too far out so hopefully the Froyo drivers won't take much messing to get them to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 I never said it wasn't a fine phone dirk, we're taking about the two best android phones here. I actually said it deserves to be phone of the year. Just that the galaxy s is an advanced piece of hardware and the software can be fixed. Hardware is permanent. We'll have to see how this froyo update works, rumor is the techs have signed off on the build, so should be soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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