By Dave Demarest (shivers316 of AndroidForums.com fame), like any hopeful T-Mobile subscriber looking for the best Android phone they have to offer, got hold of the recently released Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant. Acting as a human guinea pig, he dutifully put the handset through the paces. His review of the phone follows. [Be sure to also check out my full review of the international Samsung Galaxy S (the spitting image of this here T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant sans the front-facing camera).]
Here it is, folks! As a follow up to the most amazing unboxing video in Phandroid history, I present you with the shivers316 review of the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant. Now, bear with me a little. I’m going to do my best to give you a fair and detailed review.
Samsung Vibrant Hardware
With a 4” Super AmoLED screen, 5MP camera, 720p video recording, a 1Ghz processor, and 16GB of built in memory, T-Mobile finally has a contender for the big boys in the Android world.
What I noticed right of the bat when I took the Samsung Vibrant out of the box was how light it was. Now, some people have said that it feels cheap, but I don’t feel that to be the case. Also, people have compared its looks to that of the iPhone 3G and 3GS series which, let’s face it, it sort of does.
Holding the Samsung Vibrant in your hand you’ll be looking at a 4” Super AmoLED screen. On the bottom there are four soft keys: Menu, Home, Back, and Search. Around the screen you’ll find a very iPhone-like chrome bezel.
On the left side is a volume rocker. On the right is a power/screen lock/unlock button. Look up top and you’ll find a 3.5mm headset jack and the microUSB port. What I like about the microUSB port, which is a small but appreciated, is that it has a cover that you can open and close when needed.
Turn it over and there’s not too much too see. On the upper left hand corner is the 5MP camera. On the upper right is the speaker. The Samsung Vibrant also comes with two back covers. A greyish, graphite looking one and a purple one.
All in all, I feel that the hardware of the Samsung Vibrant is pretty solid. It is very light, which some people may mistake for cheap. But, to me, it’s a pretty well built phone.
Software
The Samsung Vibrant ships with Android 2.1 and she be upgraded to 2.2 by the end of the summer. It’s running Samsung’s Touchwiz 3.0 on top, which is a drastic improvement from older versions of Touchwiz.
What you’ll notice first about the Touchwiz overlay is the fixed dock bar at the bottom of the homescreen. It provides you with access to the dialer, contacts, messages, and app drawer. You’ll also get 7 homescreens to customize to your liking.
Click on the app drawer icon and you’ll find a very different scene than you’ve seen on stock Android. This is where it gets iPhone-like again. Each icon is encased in a colored square, much like you’ll find on the iPhone. Unlike the stock Android, Touchwiz provides a horizontal slide app drawer as opposed to the normal vertical one.
Samsung has also packed a bunch of their own custom widgets onto this phone. There’s an Accuweather clock that provides you with the current condition and temperature of the cities of your choice. The Buddies Now widget lets you add people to a spinner and keep track of their social website status’. The Calendar clock helps you keep track of the time and any events that you may have coming up. Daily briefing keeps you up to date with weather, finances, and news. Days Widget lets you journal your days with text and photos. Dual clock allows you to keep up with the time in any two parts of the world that you choose. Feeds and updates keeps track of your social websites and allows you to update your status on all of them in one shot. And, last but not least, there’s the Y! Finance clock which provides you with the time and updated staus of your favorite stock.
Samsung has done a great job updating the Touchwiz interface. While it’s not my cup of tea, people should be happen with all the available options and ease of use. It’s definitely user friendly.
Camera and Camcorder
Ok, let me say this right off the bat…Night Mode is not a replacement for a flash. Now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk about the 5MP camera with autofocus and 720p video recording.
This phone takes damn fine photos…in the daytime. Crisp, clear, and lots of options. Hit the camera icon and you’re present with a large viewing area, a shutter button and a slide out options panel. Click the option panel and you’re presented with 4 options on the left: Camcorder, Shooting mode, Default Dest., and Exposure. The 2 options on the right are: Settings and Quickview, which brings you to your gallery.
Switch over to Camcorder and you’re presented with its own shutter button and slide out options panel. Click the options panel here and the 4 options on the left are: Camera, Recording mode, Default Dest., and Exposure. It also has settings and Quickview on the right.
The 720p video recording is gorgeous. But, once again, only in the daytime. And there is no night mode for video recording, so there isn’t even that little bit of improvement.
Personally, I like using my cell phone as my primary camera as well, so having a good camera is important to me. Go out for a daytime excursion or some fun at the beach and the camera on this is phenomenal. Want to take a picture of the beautiful girl you met in the dark club and you’re out of luck. It’s a good camera, but a flash would have made it great.
All the other goodies:
I’ve talked about the hardware, the software, and the camera. So, what else does the Samsung Vibrant have that’s cool? Well, a few things actually. Let’s talk about them shall we?
- Avatar: Yep. It comes with Avatar preloaded on the 2GB microSD. Great movie on a great screen. Luckily, you have 16GB of internal memory, because this movie takes up ¾ of the memory card.
- Sims 3: This is a special edition of the Sims 3 game that has been optimized specifically for play on the Samsung Vibrant. Gameplay is actually pretty good.
- mobiTV: Wanna watch your favorite TV shows on your phone? Well here you go. You get a 30 day trial after which your T-Mobile bill will automatically be charged $9.99 a month until you cancel.
- Amazon Kindle: I’ve recently become obsessed with this app. I always swore that reading traditional books was the last piece of the archaic world I was going to hold onto. Well that’s not the case anymore. I love having my books at my fingertips. And, even better, is that it syncs your place with any other device you have the Kindle app installed on such as your PC or an actual Kindle.
- gogo: Like to have inflight internet? Travel a lot? Well gogo provides you with inflight internet on a number of different airlines. First month of unlimited internet use is only $19.99
Conclusion
T-Mobile has finally officially (see Nexus One) released a contender to the Android arena. The 1Ghz processor flies and the screen stays vibrant (see what I did there?) even in the brightest sun. Does this phone beat out the likes of the Droid X or the Nexus One? Well that’s a matter of preference and opinion. Does it’s good traits make up for its faults? Definitely! Am I keeping it? I’m still on the fence. I still have another 10 days to decide, but the Samsung Vibrant has big, Nexus One, shoes to fill in the T-Mobile lineup.
I would definitely recommend this phone to someone looking for a great phone, with good features and a nice interface. The hardcore Android fans will probably still prefer the Nexus One, but the Samsung Vibrant should definitely hold its own pretty well.
Yo people,
I don’t mean to be rude, but this video is not a review of the Samsung Vibrant, which I would have loved. Instead it was a video of a guy with buyers remorse because he really loves his Nexus One. No offense, I mean, that’s a legit thing to say or think, but why post it on here as a Samsung Vibrant review? It was a waste of time for me.
At least label it correctly: “A quick vid of a guy with buyers remorse for having upgraded from Nexus One to Samsung Vibrant”
You didn’t mention any of the issues with the phone, such as reception problems, GPS location problems, and inability to access the Android Market. I have experienced all of these and never did with my G1. T-Mobile and Samsung need to be taken to task over these issues or they will have no motivation to fix them.
I love my Vibrant. It is an awesome first Android Phone. However it may be replaced during the holidays depending on what is coming out. :)
I have this phone right now. I had a major problem with it. First of all my contacts didn’t transfer over. I’m going to have to go in tomorrow to get that straightened out.
Also, I started adding contacts to a new Gmail account that I made. There is an easy sync option. I tried to open my mom’s information and that’s when I got this message;
“android.process.acore has stopped unexpectedly”
I called tmobile and we tried to fix it.
They recommended that I take the device back to the store and exchange it.
I also had trouble when I downloaded the Google “Listen” app to listen to podcasts.
I clicked on a podcast and got the same error message.
Does anyone else have this problem? It’s a very big deal and Tmobile’s solution is to exchange the phone. Also, they had no idea about the problem, which is a lie since it affects the G1 phone which came out in 2008.
Please somebody respond below if you have this problem on your Android phone.
-robert
show the sims, show avatar show what this phone can do.
So Ben, all those words weren’t a review? I actually found it very informative, and as he stated, the video was only like a wrap-up.
I agree with the first poster.
It really struck me as odd that this wasn’t so much a review of the Vibrant as it was a video of someone expressing his love for the N1. The N1 is a great phone no doubt. But saying “stay with the N1 if you have it, this phone doesn’t really compare, nothing does…” is kind of a false statement. The Snapdragon is very inferior to the Hummingbird, especially when it comes to media and gaming. This is really the first phone that can do flawless 3D gaming at great frame rates.
For proof of this, head over to http://www.androidcentral.com/att-samsung-captivate-benchmarks-and-graphicsgaming-test
As you can see, the Nexus really struggles when it comes to the graphics benchmarks and even when they run Asphalt 5. The N1 does see benefit from Android 2.2, which the Vibrant/GS is getting soon anyway.
Another thing, the phrase “T-Mobile has some really great things in the pipeline” has been being said since 2005/2006, when we were all hoping for the greatest WinMo device, and has been a recurring theme in why you shouldn’t buy this phone or that phone. And T-Mob has always been dead last in the game of new, exciting hardware. Well folks, this device is currently the top-of-the-line Android device, and the N1 has become outdated with it’s release. You should look at it in a different way….is the phone you buy today going to make you happy 18 months from now? You can’t just keep waiting and waiting, esp when T-Mobile has it’s track record of not delivering.
This phone is beautiful!
how can you even put N1 and galaxy S in the same sentence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpP5QljEqow&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVlsRCMltDg&feature=player_embedded
It’s a quantum leap in hardware technology. The color quality, the gpu, the multitouch capability…
i actually work for t-mobile and this is a terrible review. firsth the nexus one has many faults so idk what this guy is talking about 2. aside from the occasional freezing the phones has where u have to pull the battery out and restart it, the phone is near perfect, and the freezing will get fixed anyway. the nexus ones buttons on the bottom are so not responsive is bad, and the on screen keyboard is trash. 9/10 for the vibrant. this guy is a tool box.
@swehes I agree with you. Not 100% sold on it being phone for the next 2 years.
I went to my local Tmobile store yesterday to see the vibrant and I was dissapointed how cheap it feels. Its too light and feels fragile compared to the N1, my girlfriends 3gs, and even my brothers Cliq XT. I really wanted as a replacement to my troublesome N1 because of the gaming capabilities but no LED flash is a deal breaker because I also use my phone as a primary camera (nothing has beaten my SE K800i btw) and with the right settings the N1 takes great pics. I’m still considering the Vibrant or might end up calling HTC to fix my N1
I checked it out at a T-Mobile store yesterday, but they didn’t have a demo phone. Why? Because their demo phone was literally ripped out of the table. Luckily one of the employees was nice enough to let me look at his personal Vibrant, and he said he loved it. He previously had a Nexus One (I knew he wasn’t lying because he let me look at his N1 a month before) and he said he like the Vibrant enough to sell his N1. I loved ever thing about the phone. I feared that it might feel cheap, but i loved how it felt. It was light, thin, and i really liked the look of the plastic back. I normally don’t like plastic backs, but I really liked the one on the Vibrant. I really loved the screen. I still think that the iPhone 4 has a better screen, but definitely not by much. I looked at the Droid X after, and I thought the Vibrant had a much better screen. Needless to say, I was on the phone with customer loyalty that day, and i got a Vibrant for $149 and free 3 day shipping, which is great considering i got a mytouch on launch and I still have 13 months to go ;) I cant wait to finally have an incredibly powerful android device
Yea, this phone doesn’t feel cheap. I think it’s built well. Excellent review. Sorry to disappoint anyone but there’s no perfect phone, even the evo 4g. Each phone is a stepping stone to a better phone, it’s business. I enjoy mine even though at times it lags. Updates will fix that. I can adjust, as long as I have a good quality phone and I have one in the samsung vibrant.
UM UHH UMMM UHH UMMM YOU KNOW
Painful to listen to.
Does anyone know if there is another input method option besides Swype? … Swype doesn’t have text to speech, plus I just don’t particularly like it, and I did use the unauthorized version, then the Beta for several months.
Um um Uh you know … you and your Nexus One should like um … you know … get a box of condoms and um uh you know … like a room … for um … about a month … um, or two or maybe um more …
Don’t call us … we’ll call you (um … then again, um maybe not)
This is quite possibly the worst review I have ever heard. Hey buddy! Don’t quit your day job. It’s quite obvious the guy in this video is a Nexus One fanboy. When your doing a review it is imperative you remain unbiased so the viewers get a honest review. I have a Nexus One and just purchased the Vibrant. I was sad to give my Nexus up but I just had to. These two phones aren’t even in the same league and understandably so. The Nexus One is 6 months old. I have had no problems with the Vibran. This phone has no GPS problems. All of the morons who are saying it does are not going through the settings and enabling GPS. Iv’e road almost 400 miles while using the GPS and haven’t had a single problem with it. IF YOUR DUMB-ASS CAN’T WORK THE PHONE PROPERLY THEN TAKE YOUR ASS BACK TO A DUMB-PHONE!
Ya buddy a bad review. First leave your personal feelings aside. I sold my n1 for this phone and never looked back. I’ve had no issues with my GPS or contacts. Just becouse a phone feels light does not mean its cheap. Yes is got a lot of plastic but is sturdy. There is no creeking of cheap plastic its a solid phone. The other thing that makes it lite is the screen is thinner. Is a great phone so go and upgrade right now go on you know you want to.
@obscenejesster
gps is on by default. you must be talking about the tower triangulation setting which…well…isn’t gps. I have the vibrant, and GPS is fucked by default. Over a period of 3 days, I got it to work once. There is a thread over on the xda forums with gps tweak settings, and it fixes things perfectly. They’ll have a software patch out for this problem in no time…
As for the nexus one chatter. I owned a nexus one for a couple of months right after launch. It was nice and all, but this phone eats nexus ones for breakfast.
got my Vibrant on Saturday…and I LOVE it…no problems at all with it… ;-)
Look man u can enable gps but u ALSO must enable gps in app! Damn fucker! Knowledge is power. Now, those of you n1 user I’m not hating and I use to want a nexus one. But the FACTS are the FACT! Do your study first. That phone dont have shit on the vibrant but led notification. Ok I give u that so the tight ass dude in the video doing the review can keep that old ass nexus. I’m. Not mad at ya! Lol phandroid this the second bad review I seen today. Where do u find these fuckers. This my only question to world. Would u rather have POWER or led flash? Until more powerful comes out please get off our phone dick! If u dont like dont buy! Ok
@Jason, I guess it’s a problem that is only effecting some people because it hasn’t effected me one bit and I have used it for roughly 10 hours so far without a hitch.
Look man u can enable gps but u ALSO must enable gps in app! Damn fucker! Knowledge is power. Now, those of you n1 user I’m not hating and I use to want a nexus one. But the FACTS are the FACT! Do your study first. That phone dont have shit on the vibrant but led notification. Ok I give u that so the tight ass dude in the video doing the review can keep that old ass nexus. I’m. Not mad at ya! Lol phandroid this the second bad review I seen today. Where do u find these fuckers. This my only question to world. Would u rather have POWER or led flash? Until more a more powerful phone comes out please get off my phone dick! If u dont like it dont buy it! Ok
I just don’t understand what they were thinking about lack of flash. It would definitely sell a lot more phones.
I like the Vibrant but i wish it had flash and zoom. Also, i wish the the speaker was somewhere else. The sound is so muffled when i sit it on a flat surface.
@Webby I use Better Keyboard when i want to text to voice.
I have had this phone since release also and have had no problems w/ anything. I love it so far and like several people have said it doesn’t even compare to the N1. WORST “review” ever!
Nice phone. But lack of a flash is dumb. There are countless scenarios where the bright-as-hell flash on the Nexus One has been useful such as at an evening family BBQ, or near closing time at the theme park, or even as a flashlight in a dark basement.
Not to mention, is the charge port really on the top? Isn’t it uncomfortable to talk on the phone while it’s charging with that wire sprouting out the top? Most phones have the charging port on the bottom for this reason…
Dont buy the phone then dude. Dont worry about how we feel. We are happy with this bad boy! Why do it take broke ass people who wish they can buy this phone talk shit and ask dumb ass question.
@Miguel, Droid1 USB port is on the side. About to retire the phone, but never liked the location much, tho that’s not quite as bad as on the top. I think they put the Droid’s on the side for purposes of the Dock they sold as an accessorie.
Interesting note that the author referenced the N1 but didn’t reference the HTC Desire which is essentially the N1 with SenseUI installed and a different casing. So even with Google no longer releasing the N1, there remains its offspring (more or less).
I must admit,even with Touch Wiz,this phone is pretty good. In fact, it probably would have made me stay with T-Mobile.
However, the lack of flash for the camera is INEXCUSABLE! Once again, T-Mo shows us that they aren’t ready to run with the big boys.
Sprint…Evo…here I come.
To the lack of a flash on this phone…if there’s the slightest amount of light around, like in a theme park or at a family BBQ, the camera’s firmware uses it and does quite well and gasp…no redeye ;) Also, you can use the screen on this thing to light up football field.
miguel it’s a smartphone, not a swiss army knife. Of course, if there can be phones with perfume dispensers…
The review on the international version of Galaxy S was much better quality.
This “review” is way off.
I just got the Vibrant, after selling my Nexus One.
When you’re selling a phone only 3 months after getting it, there must be something wrong with it.
Things that blew about the Nexus One:
Screen is only 16bit color. Photos looked like crap because gradients are not smooth on a 16bit screen. Even iPhone v1 is 18bit, and it came out 3 years ago!
Camera sticks out the back of the phone, with edges so sharp it will scratch the hell out of any table you put it on.
Touchscreen response is always messing up.
4 buttons on bottom DON’T WORK half the time!!
When your phone touchscreen doesn’t work alot of the time, it’s WORTHLESS. Nexus ONE = FAIL.
The Vibrant screen is the best I’ve seen on any phone.
Phone is very light
Touchscreen actually works!!
WIN.
I’ll reserve judgement on the lack of a flash when someone posts some side by side, low-light comparison shots of photos from the Vibrant (Galaxy) alongside photos from a phone with a flash (Nexus One, Incredible, Droid X, etc). Then I’ll be able to compare apples to apples.
I am never confident in software enhancing dark photos, especially not on a smartphone. And I ask again, how is it having the charging USB port on the top of the phone?
@miquel
go to tmonews.com they just posted samples of the vibrants ability to take good night time pics.
I’m a current T-mo family plan subscriber off contract and the upgrade option to this phone is a joke. They offer a $50 dollar discount with 2 year contract extension… so I could get it for $449 bucks and pay an extra 30 bucks a month for service. I guess T-mobile really doesn’t care about their current customers all that much.
@miguel…. Anyone complaining about the usb charging on the top is pretty much retarded and/or hasn’t seen a decent review yet or read the full specs….the phone landscapes to either direction you turn the phone making the phone very easy to use regardless of wether your phone is plugged into the wall to the left or right… as far as making straight up and down phone calls while charging it’s not that bad and if you can’t sit 4inches closer to make up the distance you lose from having it mounted up top n tugging on your phone then poo on you for causing your own prob n not realizing you can get a couple extra feet even with a corded headset or wait…..these things have a new fangled contraption called a speaker phone, ooooooh!!!! All in all I’m typing this now using my swype enabled vibrant in direct sunlight in the mojave desert and doing so with much pleasure…..
Warning…. Rant ahead:
I’ll tell you I was in tmobile on the 18th to purchase an hd2 that I planned on rooting to run 2.2froyo, had it out of box literally about to insert my sim at the register and this display screen twinkeled out of the corner of my eye while another customer handled their functional demo phone;
“ummmm, what the heck is that” me-said to helper lady.
“oh that’s the brand new samsung vibrant, it’s only here on a soft release right now…”says she.
“mer, uh, huh? You said brand new? I just spent hours reading bout the evo, the droidx, Nexus one, even the iphone 4(honestly only in comparison as I’m an android phanboy, thus my wanting to root the winmo hd2 to run my os of choice),even just drove verizon only to be disgusted at their outrageous prices for unlimited service and data plans, then off to sprint n had my credit ran to find I had to pay a 100 dollar deposit as well as the 260 post tax phone and my 200 dollar early cancellation fee for tmobile which led me back here to settle for the hd2…. Now you drop this nugget of shiny goodness right in my lap!!!” I rambled on……
She retorts “oh ya it actually comes with avatar the movie too!”
I SHAT MYSELF………….
“show me….” 20th century fox logo rolls and the crisp clear visual wonderment that avatar had instilled in me in theater hits me like an acid flashback…… “so its not too late to get this phone here right? It iiiiis available for sale this second, correct?” I said with wanton look in my eyes….
The following response nearly made me cry “oh yeah, soft release means its out and available just not advertised on display yet”
what joy !!!
since I have NOW done my research and it has only solidified my decision knowing the insane specs this phone boasts, my experience thus far has been nothing but pleasant if not outright impressive….my two coworkers sporting evo’s of their own even look wide eyed at the phone stating how nice it is even immediately pulling up youtube vids to get an idea of what this shiny phone can do for themselves, all in all making me happy I chose something a lil diff….
Now I too share the complaint of no led flash, but given my last was the g1, nothing gained nothing lost…and oh, I use my gps avidly updating my widget for weather channel constantly and I work all over multiple towns selling door to door and haven’t seen an ounce of lag from my maps or google nav…,this prob may just be area specific, thank goodness its not here.
So there’s an honest review for ya, from first impression on and I feel ill only be more pleased as samsungs dedicated app market becomes available in the US and I get the chance to really try out some of the gaming features I have yet to test…. Sorry for rant….
@Andrew – call the upgrade line or go in store. I actully called in on this because $449 for a 2 year contract is pretty stupid…
They gave me 232.99 for my existing contract (4 months left) and 217.99 for my out of contract line.
Decent deal – but not published on the web site for some lame reason.
Andrew.. go to the website. $164.99 after $335 instant discount.
Oh ya… And I actually prefer the top mounted headset cause it makes for better use as an mp3 player and the cord comes out the top n I thimk everyone will find that when tethering with 2.2froyo (or if your savvy enough already to do so with pdanet from junefabrics.com) that most will prefer having a top mounted usb so they can grab their phone and look at it without the cord wrapping back to the computer like I had to deal with when tethering my g1….just some foresight into possible future benefits of top mounted usb
I’ve had this phone since it first dropped last thursday and the phone is amazing! I was so close to leaving t mobile to get the sprint evo until I heard about this phone coming out and I’m glad I waited for this and made the right decision. The super amoled screen is in a league of its own and is by far the best screen available for any phone. Yeah it would be nice to have a flash but as long there is a bit of light the pictures aren’t that bad in night mode. I’d say this and the and the evo are the best phones on the market but when it comes to the humming bird processor and the super amoled screen this phone is by itself at the top of the hill!
@obscenejester
@cwalker
@mike
@swehes
@ari-fri
(The regulars…)
I love you ALL & are right on the money. It is an amazing phone-this is only the begnning for high end Androids to come from TMO. As fast as theyre being produced these days, its hard to marry for 2 years; however, the Vibrant is close enough, for now! You guys rock!
Ari-free, my apologies for not getting it right.
I’ve had the phone for a few days now since ordering it on launch day. Came from the Cliq. I had done my homework, reviewed current phones, upcoming phones and in all honesty, this phone blows everything out of the water. Completely beats and exceeds my expectations. I’ve had not one single issue with it at all and the screen is so crisp and detail oriented that it literally blows the competition (Hello Retina Display) out of the sky.
I think the sweetest part of the deal for me, was I scored my phone for free! ;)
Yeah I found I could get it on Wirefly for 168 per phone on upgrade, but I’ve decided to wait for the Epic to drop for Sprint in my area.
I love my vibrant! I have absolutely no problems with it.
Listen, pictures still turn out in low light. Its a really good camera.
And I just got a call from mi master while I was writing this And the sound is crystal clear.
Buy this phone. You won’t regret it.
Mi madre no mi master lol
Mike, how? I am a myT champ, have the Slide for free, waiting on UPS now to deliver my Vibrant but don’t know of any other Android programs within to get it for free. Lucky you. I ordered Vibrant 3am on launch & have set up Vibrant for 2 of my coworkers who received theirs prior to & ordered theirs day after me! Gotta go, UPS just arrived!!
Maybe its just me, but whats with all this gaming garbage and crap on a phone. Come on people do want a functional phone or a toy. Grow up people.
Eric, its meant to be for everyone, not just professionals. We like to have fun to.
Putting aside the childish & emotional posts, I both agree & disagree with this review. As someone who bought a MyTouch3G on release day 8/5/09 and a Nexus One when it appeared here’s my take:
1. N1 feels more solid, as the trackball with color notifications, flash that doubles as LED flaslight and lots of MODS that are posted every few days. I’m currently running LeoFroyo 1.2
2. Put my N1 side-0by-side with Vibrant at a Tmo store today. Although only .3″ difference, the Vibrant screen appears much larger, better contrast ratio better I admittedly like the “iPhone-ish” black with silver trim more than the curved bronze of my N1.
3. From a number of tech reviews it appears the Hummingbird is better & faster than the Snapdragon but i couldn’t see any real difference when holding and tinkering with both phones.
Bottom Line: I concur with the author of this review. If you have an N1 keep it. If not, get a Vibrant and you’ll be very happy with it.
I have read so many reveiws about phones that i have chose to stay with my g1 until this eyar. I am excited to be buying a Vibrant and that i will be giving a response to this reveiw. this reveiw is so onesided. i have held the vibrant and yes it is light. but not cheap. the light feel makes it like a toy feel but at the same time you can feel the durability in the plastic. there is so many different possible things on the vibrant and the N1 is in it’s own class but so is the vibrant. snapdragon processer really is inferior to the hummingbird. even with the new htc phone that should be comming out in mid -december early january with 2 SnapD’s there is no comparison to the humming bird with the frame rates, 90 million triangle per frame rate – 22 Triangles per frame rate.
I just got the Vibrant yesterday, I found the volume is pretty low…
I wish people would stop talking about the nexus one and showing videos of the nexus one. The nexus one is no longer available in the U.S., unless you have $700 to buy one on ebay. So now there is no more comparison with the Vibrant, because it’s the only one still being sold in the United States. I’m sure the nexus one is an awsome phone. I wanted one bad, but waited a week too long. You can’t get it from google or t-mobile. Only vodophone, which is in Europe and elsewhere. So now I will definately be getting the Vibrant.
Anyone who said they didn’t have GPS issues with the G1 apparently didn’t buy one when it came out. I couldn’t get GPS lock until the second update.
I love the phone but I had terrible reception problems, worst than my cheap motorola Krzr phone ! What up with that? The Tmobile guy told me it was because my sim card was old ? Has anyone else had reception problems ?
@Candylady2m, the Nexus One is still available from Google for $530 as a developer phone, along with the ADP 2 (pretty much the MyTouch 3G)
…And you can become an Android Developer easily with your existing Google/Gmail account after paying a $25 registration fee.
This is a one of the latest and most powerful android phone that came out. we have it on sale at discount here
http://www.ba8saigon.com/samsung-vibranttmobile.html
Thank you for mentioning if it is not worth buying for a Nexus One user, my N1 is currently being repaired at HTC and i need an Android phone for work, i was almost going to go out and purchase a Vibrant today but i’ll wait!
I bought my Vibrant on July 16th. I have reception issues. My text message wont go thru. I have had more dropped calls. The volume cuts out when my phone rings. I had the Blackberry 8900 and I think I want to go back. I’m having issues with Facebook syncing on my phone. Just not what I expected. Depending on how I hold my phone I lose all my bars just like the Iphone. I was told to change my sim and still nothing has improved. Now they said something about resetting my txt message another way to keep me with the phone. I think I’m going to switch to the Bold. I am a huge texter and I dont like that I cant send or receive txt messages for an hour or so out of the day. Thats sooo annoying..
I haven’t experience any reception problems at all, and I live in a very un-cell friendly area. I love everything about my vibrant no complaints at all. I could really give 2 sh*ts about a flash for the phone. Don’t have one? Get one.
I’ve been a loyal T-Mo customer for years. I’ve been excited forever, to get an Android phone. I almost got a Nexus one but it was just too expensive for me to drop the cash, especially as it was going through all those issues at the beginning. My Blackberry Pearl finally passed last week. A prong broke off where the charger cord plugs in, so it wouldn’t take a charge and the fix would have been too expensive to be worth it. I went to the store with basically an emergency and left with a Samsung Vibrant. AWESOME phone. I read comments about issues with sync, texting, GPS, etc. and I just feel bad. I have no problems at all. The screen is awesome. It’s lightning fast. Everything works. And, it’s “hackable” in that Android sense for when I get to that point. But for now, the thing is awesome as is. I love this phone. Highly highly recommend.
I love the phone itself, but do not like the battery life.
Can it(battery life) be fixed? For a brand name and especially by the provider (t-mobile), I would think would have a solution to this.
Regards,
Vibe10
I purchesed the Vibrant and would like to know if I can get more memery? 32 Gigs instead if the existint 16 Gigs.
Thanks, Barry
Please respond to the bsross email.
Barry you can expand the memory via microSD/microSDHC card.
I think the specs of theSamsung Vibrant
are quiet impressive.
I just got the Vibrant buy one get one free deal with T-Mobile. I couldn’t be more pleased. I was the biggest skeptic until I actually got it and customized it. Its fast, color is vivid, sound is sharp and battery life is not bad for an Android phone considering its new and I’m downloading tons of stuff. Very Pleased!
good phone,better than Iphone w/c is limited use in the whole world.Bigger and clearer screen too…………love it baby!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this a review of a phone, or of a portable game/camera device? How is the voice quality, signal dropping, battery life, keyboard/texting ability, etc. ?
I’m going to keep searching for a real phone review.
its a phone’s review!! The Samsung Vibrant or the T959 Galaxy S… Its amazing!!!!! i love the stuffs included w/ it!! especially the movie Avatar ang The Sims 3 w/c is a very good game!!!!! I love everything about that phone!!!!! Thumbs Up!!!!!!!!!!!! |….
i want to get the vibrant but im nott sure if i shouldd i hear ppl talking bout the battery nd the feel nd camara ..should i get it still cuz i do want itt
I agree with obscenejesster. Transfering contacts is NOT rocket science for gods sake. No gps issues. Near perfect phone. My only problem is that it lags,occasionally if you install too many apps due to the fact that the phone has 3,pages of apps (thanks samsung). Also battery life could be better.
Could be very good phone phone but broken GPS, missing Froyo in 2010, and lack of support from Samsung make this phone a complete failure.
JI6 update, released to fix GPS – another failure.
GPS Restore by Samsung blaming consumers for broken GPS while not fixing anything and broken by itself – yet another failure.
Missing, but promised by the end of 2010, Froyo update – lies and failure again.