New Phone!

Thought it's high time to get a decent, non-dumb phone. I've been investigating which phone to buy, namely iPhone 4, EVO 4G, Droid X, HTC Incredible, Captivate, Nexus One to name a few.

And today I decided to buy this gizmo from Samsung: T-Mobile Vibrant Galaxy S. This has the beautiful Super AMOLED display and runs Android 2.1 (upgradable to 2.2 later this year), and has 1GHz Coretex Hummingbird processor. I walked in to the T-MO shop at the 3rd and Market this morning around 9:30 and there was literally no customer at all and getting this phone was a snap :)

I got it with the Even More Plus plan, which I should pay with the full retail price ($499) to get the unlimited text and web + 500 minutes for $59 monthly. It's $20 cheaper than getting with the 2 year contract, so i thought it's a better deal. And since there's no contract, there's no early termination fee either.

So far i've been really liking the phone. I set up Google, facebook, Twitter accounts to the system, and the calendar, emails and contact lists have been all synced wirelessly without any issues so far. It comes with the Swype keyboard and it's really easy to type English. I installed Simeji to type Japanese but it definitely needs some time to get used to.

The biggest problem with this phone, if any, is that the design is a total rip-off of iPhone from the hardware to the Samsung's own customization of the Android OS (home screen and application drawer). I wouldn't really mind that much but some people might not like that.

Some of the things I've done so far, working and not working:

• Galaxy S has Twitter/Facebook/Myspace integration in the system (like you see with Froyo as well) and I configured them, but when I installed Twitter/Facebook Android apps, I needed to enter the information again, and now I see two Twitter configs in the "Accounts/Sync" section, which is not nice.
• I installed 1password and copied the .agilekeychain file in the root of /sd/ as it's specified, but it doesn't work (Can't find the file in the SD card) UPDATE: it's apparently Galaxy S mounts SD card path in a weird way, /sdcard and /sdcard/sd. I copied the file to the actual root of the mounted SD rather than /sd and now it seems to work.
• Tethering! Bluetooth DUN didn't seem to work, but tethering via USB + pdanet software works nicely. No rooting required.
• I'll try rooting once 2.2 port or anything shiny like cyanogenmod gets available, but so far i updated the launcher to ADWLauncher to get the best of 2.2/Sense/Galaxy drawer and nice widgets.
• The accounts preference has "Flickr" account type and it has [ ... ]@photos.flickr.com. I wonder what I should enter and what kind of syncing it gives to me.
• Apps I installed: ADWLauncher, 1password, Dropbox, Facebook, fourquare, Goggles, K-9 Mail, Kindle, mSpot, PdaNet, Remember the Milk, Simeji, Twitter. If you have more suggestions, let me know in the comment :)
• The screen gets locked really quickly when i leave it for only a few secs and requiring the pass code every time it gets locked is pain in the nut. Anyway to customize this? I tried lockbot, but the security code features seems like a paid one, and I'd love to get it for free ;) UPDATE: Autolock app available on the market seems to do this. I wonder how much battery life apps like this would drain by always running, but I'll see.
• I sometimes see a lag/stalling screen when the OS writes something to the filesystem e.g. changing config and saving it. It apparently is due to the Samsung's own filesystem configuration which makes the app data writes slow. If you want to fix it, you apparently have to root the phone and  symlink the path to SD card or load the kernel that supports ext3 and format and mount the SD card . As I said I'd see how annoying it gets (so far, not a huge deal yet) and once I can't put up with it I'll try root it.

Comments

[Redhotpenguin]

What other phones did you consider in this decision, and what made you choose the Vibrant?

[miyagawa]

like I wrote in the paragraph.

iPhone 4 - I don't like AT&T
EVO 4G - Too big, battery life sucks
HTC Incredible - No stock
Captivate - I don't like AT&T
Nexus One - 6 months old

[Redhotpenguin]

Thanks - my eyes went straight to the AMOLDED text and the shiny link, so I missed that first paragraph :\

[David Wollmann]

I've been using LauncherPro on my nexus ones for several weeks now and recommend it highly as a launcher replacement. The app drawer is much faster, almost immediately responsive after open. The LauncherPro dock scrolls horizontally and can host up to ten custom icons. Overall, very nice.

[Dice]

Android phones look mighty interesting and I'd have one if I didn't already have all these iPhone apps. Lots of AT+T sucks stories, guess it's a lot worse than softbank?

Either way, congrats on the phone, hope you enjoy it!

[Eric]

I just bought a Galaxy a week ago! Its awesome. The screen is gorgeous. My old phone (for the last 2 years) I paid $10 for in China. Feels like coming out of the basement into the sunlight.

Suggested apps: Google Sky Map, Google Listen, Google Reader, Google Translate, 3g Watchdog, Wifi Analyzer (wee which spot in the building/room has best reception), Antennas (show cell towers), Where's My Droid, iheartradio, HandCent SMS, Advanced Task Killer, The Cube (music player), The Schwartz (useless but surprisingly awesome!), PoliceLights, LED Scroller. Also App Referrer and Barcode scanner. I love QR codes -- I had no idea what I was missing.

Using Google's Sync PC app, I synced my Outlook calender (work) with my Google calendar. Then I synced my Google calendar to Android.

Also I was happy to see the webapp http://chinese.iijo.org (Catalyst + Plack) I wrote recently to help me learn Chinese (flashcards) works pretty well on the phone if I turn the phone to landscape.

3 problems with Android:
- Multitasking is great, but whats the deal with apps not closing and using all my memory?
- Can't buy apps outside the US (same for iPhone).
- When will Samsung update to Froyo?

[candelarion]

Now I can watch exclusive entertainment enhanced by a 4” Super AMOLED screen. I'm getting this one instead of the T-Mobile G2. This is interesting. :)

[International calls from mobile]

Thanks for this wonderful and nice gadget. You can find in this phone all the important things you are looking for a gadget. This is much very much helpful, handy, easy and comfortable to use. I really like it. God bless.!!!!

[International calls from mobile]

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