By The Samsung Vibrant — T-Mobile’s version of the Galaxy S — just went on sale today. We have heard some reports that T-Mobile may not be putting the greatest amount of gusto in the world into promoting the handset (units aren’t even out on display in-store in some locations), but that hasn’t stopped Shivers from over at AndroidForums.com from getting his hands on the latest Android phone from ol’ Magenta. He was even kind enough to put together an unboxing video for the benefit of the larger Phandroid readership. This particular piece of footage will sit right alongside our own recent unboxing of the internation Galaxy S, which will have a full review following early next week.
the nexus one still rapes that vibrant SAMSUNG make trash.
let me have your old phone lol i need a phone badly hahahaha
Are you sure? I went to the store and checked it out. No other phone, I mean no other phone matches the screen or audio quality. I had a samsung behold two and swore off Sammy, but dont this new phone kills any phone I have seen. It is by far the slickest looking phone in person. Evo and X dont match its form factor.
It’s not bad so far. I’m going to give it the ol’ 14 day trial.
Why the huge bezzel on top and bottom? Some of that could have gone to even more screen space.
worst unboxing ever. Crappy camera and half the phone is out of the frame
I’m enjoying the phone too, but where are the advertisements??? Such a stealth release. At tmobile today they didn’t have anything up for it. No cases, screen protectors…nothing. I hope tmobile and samsung support this phone.
Shivers i’m giving it the 14 day trial as well. I’m liking the phone so far. Question for anyone with the phone, can we add RSS feeds in the “daily briefing” widget? , I use to have news come to my motorola cliq in news widget. I hope i can do the same here. Thanks in advance
I went to the t mobile store today and played with this phone for about 30 min. Didn’t like it. It looks just like the iphone 3g or 3gs. Its really just a bad iphone clone with android on it. Plus tmobile has the worst network ever. I know because I am current tmobile user.
@Shay, I agree
That was just a pisspoor unboxing
Dave, I’ve found that a bigger bezel can be nice. It gives you a good place to hold the phone without accidentally hitting the touchscreen, especially while in landscape orientation.
Well the only excuse I can give for the crapiness is that my ex-girlfriend left the charger for my camera at her mother’s house and I had to use my Nexus One. I kinda promised the video so I didn’t wanna let anyone down.
The bezel is because samsung is trying to copy the iCrap device. The UI does the same thing.
Lame-o Samsung. Although the EPIC on Sprint looks mighty nice.
Picking mine up tomorrow. Can’t wait. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Samsungs previous attempt with Android but I think this phone will be a huge turn-around. Not a huge fan of Touchwiz either but there’s a simple solution for that. ADW Launcher. There, problem fixed. I’m not someone that uses my phone camera a lot so the flash doesn’t concern me or the lack of a ffc. Give the phone a chance people. No one is making you buy it so why rag on it so harshly.
I got it today and it seems really nice. Fast and I thought it was too much bezel but as I use the onscreen keyboard more and more. I’m starting to like it. The bezel makes it a lot easier to hit the enter key. But I have one question to anyone who has the devices. If there isn’t a FFC then why is there three lenses inside the ambient light sensor (although one looks like an led.)
As far as touch wiz 3.0 goes, other than a few tweaks, the dock bar on the bottom and the app drawer, it is pretty much stock. It isn’t nearly as intrusive as Sense (i normally like sense but the mt3g slide version killed it for me) I’m just happy i don’t have to look at the stock androids notifications bar and drawer button.
What?!? When he took out the second backplate i was like “thank god theres a non-glossy one” – but wtf is that? 2 ugly fingerprint magnet plates in one package?
c’mon …
@jdizzle, i disagree…t-mobile’s network is great, and they have good customer service. plus it should get better with hspa rolling out next week.
i mean it does look like an iphone but that’s about it…
got it this morning, haven’t stopped playin – it’s like i’ve stepped outta the dark ages after my G1. was worried abt zero keyboard but swype 3.0 is amazing – moved all my app’s, watched a little Avatar in HD, with 5.1 surround!?!?! and still after 4 hrs solid use i have abt half my battery left – haven’t had wifi on the whole time mind…..and as for T Mo’s svce – maybe it was there all along ‘cos after my G1, it’s like discovering wifi after dial-up thats how much faster the Vibrant is – so maybe just maybe this phone/T-Mo ain’t as bad as some are tryin’ to say and for $199+tax and a $50.00 rebate with $85.00/month unlimited everything – i ain’t complaining!!!
I bought it today and the phone is amazing! Ive used n1’s, evo, iphone4, etc…I can honestly say this is the best phone on the market! This is the t-mobile phone that finally made me upgrade from my g1 and I am so glad that I waited for it! I still don’t know why t-mobile got rid of the flash and the ffc but its still an amazing phone. The swype keyboard is pretty impressive. I thought it would be tough to pick up but its pretty easy
I’ll wait for either the HTC Sidekick Twist or the HTC Vision in November. They will have a qwerty keyboard and possibly Android 3.0 and the Vision is supposed to be sporting a dual core processor!!
I absolutely LOVE this phone! I was the first to pick it up at my local store and this afternoon my brother went to pick one up after playing with mine. This has to be the best phone T-Mobile has out right now. People who are doubting I recommend you going down and playing with a demo.
Even though verizon will eventually get the fascinate. i am truly jealous of t-mo right now. i got a chance to play with the vibrant and its by far the best android device ive ever laid hands on (that includes the X). totally doesnt feel too plasticky or cheap at all. verizon fascinate will probably be released in september once the galaxy s phones have already lost their momentum.
easily the best tmobile phone, ever.
The only thing I miss on the Vibrant is a working wi-fi tether application. That and the signal is a bit weaker than my G1. Other than that it is a clear winner in every respect.
It’s 30 days in California, it’s the law for all carriers here.
It’s a new beginning for t-mobile. They have to get rid of the teen-mobile mytouch mentality and into the world of really powerful stuff.
Just got home with mine, LOVE IT! It is bright, snappy, and super thin! I think this phone will get plenty of support from Samsung since they are dropping it everywhere!
why would you get this phone without LED Notification. thats just lame
I picked up two Vibrants today. I’ve been waiting on a Galaxy S phone for several months and the Vibrant meets my expectations. My previous phone was a G1 but I have been evaluating a Droid X for the past few weeks. I can tell you the Vibrant’s 4″ display is richer than the 4.3″ DroidX display. The Vibrant’s UI is snappy and smooth thanks to the 1ghz hummingbird CPU/GPU. It seems noticeably more fluid than the DroidX.
It may look like an iPhone on the outside but that’s where the similarities end.
Physical likeness to the iPhone aside, this phone is in no way similar. I have owned the 2G iPhone as well as a 3GS. I came to the Vibrant yesterday, leaving Sprint and their woeful customer service (and 4 refurb Palm Pre replacements) behind.
The Vibrant is easily the best phone I have ever touched. This includes the EVO, Droid X, Droid Incredible, iPhone 4….you name it, it smokes it. Light, fairly well fingerprint resistant, amazingly quick, beautiful display, the awesome customizable Android OS….can’t be beat…until a few months when the next awesome CPU/GPU advancement is unveiled. ;)
Quick bootup.. like it.
Does anyone know if the international version of the Samsung Galaxy S (the i9000 or something like that) is compatible with T-mobile’s 3g bands. The international version of the phone trumps t-mobile’s variant.
I picked up my Vibrant yesterday. Another friend here at work picked one up as well (he wasn’t planning on it when he went in). And a third friend went a little later to pick one up as well. I love it. It is my first Android phone and I am glad it is my first. :) It is smooth, quick, and just all around sweet. I have to dig into the Android OS now though to learn all the ins and out. And I’m waiting to root until I am 100% that this puppy will stay with me for a long time. :)
@Spherical Puma – No it isn’t compatible with T-mobile’s 3G network. It has 1900 (for europe band) vs T-mobiles 1700. However T-mobile is starting to use the universal 2100 bands, so if you are in an area where T-mobile is using 2100 exclusively, you will get 3G connection. Not sure how that works though.
I was able to see the video embedded in this webpage on my Nexus One with Adobe Flash…
the Samsung Vibrant, can’t do that.
But maybe someday they’ll update it to Android 2.2 much in the same way they tried to update the Behold2 to Android 1.6 (still trying to i think)
With such a huge screen, can you still compose a text with just a single thumb? Or is the phone just too big to pull that off?
i too have put thought into never getting a samsung product. however, when i look into the past, i have to say that i am anticipating the arrival of my vibrant. sure, i was let down by the behold2, but, i honestly think that this phone will be different. look at all the time, effort, and money sammy is spending on this phone. i never seen this much effort put into any other samsung phones. the galaxy s lineup is sammy’s pride and joy. i am comfortable with the purchase of the vibrant, because i think they are going to support this phone way better than any other phone. all the galaxy s phones will have pretty much all the same components, and drivers, and ui… albeit each carrier having their own distinct copies of the phone. so it should be pretty easy for samsung to release updates for all versions of this phone.
I am getting use to the Vibrant but have had a problem today. I was on another screen other than the home screen and I received an incoming call. I could not get out of
the screen that I was using to answer the call..no notification came on the screen allowing me to do this.
That happened to me twice today. Has anyone elso had this
happen?
I’ve had the phone for 4 days now and absolutely love it! the screen is perfection and the sleek design is easy to hold and light weight. The speed was faster then i thought it would be and this vid doesn’t do the phone justice.. Its a Keeper!!!!
Just wanted to leave a comment. Ordered my vibrant today and i just CANT WAIT to get it in my hands and start learning the software. Also, about the phone having no flash, the man from tmobile was very informative about this phone and he asked that question up the line all the way to to the top to find out that samsung feels their 5 mp camera is so top of the line that it will take clear pictures even with little light. Sooo maybe someone who already has the phone can verify how reliable this information is? im hoping its true because i use my phone to take pictures more than my 8 mp camera.. Thanks for any response on my post. Have a great day!
the vibrant is a return for me, I will stick with my nexus one. The evo is still the best android phone so far, by a mile….which is why it it massively outselling the vibrant. The vibrant has a gps that doesn’t work, no LED notifications, lag issues, crappy touchwiz interface anf looks like a iphone knockoff you’d get in chinatown. Fail.