We had some playtime with the Samsung Galaxy S at the Malaysian launch last Friday and while we wait for the uncertain availability of a review unit from Samsung, we thought we’d give you a quick first impressions on the latest Android smartphone to hit the market.

Display, Design and Built-quality
The screen of a touchscreen smartphone is always the centerpiece of its device, so we’ll start off our observations from there.

There’s an intense debate between the two of us here at SoyaCincau.com as to what would be the perfect screen size for a smartphone. How big should and could a screen go before it inadvertently makes a device bulky and cumbersome to hold and fit in your shirt or back pocket. Our discussions have always ended in the agreement that the 3.5in screen on the iPhone is the best size for a smartphone.

So how does the 4in Super-AMOLED 800x480px screen on the Galaxy S fair against the ideal 3.5in screen size? Very well actually, making the device nice to hold but not too bulky that you feel you’re going to drop it due of its girth. The additional screen real-estate is definitely noticeable making the Galaxy S a joy to use and Samsung’s super AMOLED technology delivers bright and clear renditions of icons, text and video. In terms of display, we feel the Galaxy S trumps the Nexus One, Desire and iPhone 3GS. We like it a lot.

The screen is definitely a plus point but we can’t say the same about the built of the Galaxy S. Overall, the Galaxy S feels too plasticky to live up to its flagship device claim. Comparing the Galaxy S against its natural rival, the HTC Desire, we’d say the Desire with its velvety plastic chassis feels more premium and better built than the Galaxy S.

Dimensions wise, there’s really not much to separate the Galaxy S with the Desire, the Nexus One or even the iPhone. There’s literally very little in it. They all feel very nice in the hand except for the Nexus One, which is the only device that we feel we can’t confidently hold due to its overly curvy design.

Read the rest of this entry »

	Mobile Devices, Samsung
	Maxis, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung glaxy S review Malaysia, Swype, touchWhiz 3.0

The Samsung Galaxy S, arguably one of the most advanced Android powered phone to hit the Malaysian market will make its debut tomorrow exclusively to Maxis.

Specs wise the Galaxy S doesn’t bring anything new in to the Android game save for the huge 4in Super AMOLED display and the proprietary 1GHz processor that is using the same core architecture as Apple’s A4 processor inside the iPad and iPhone 4. But as with most Android devices, it does come with some nifty custom features that is unique to Samsung.

One of them is the Swype text input interface. Swype allows you to forego the standard virtual keyboard and enter text simply by gesturing on the screen. It’s not a new approach, people using WinMo devices from the days gone by would probably know what we’re talking about.

Well, it appears gesturing technology has moved on quite a bit from the WinMo stylus days, so much so that it can now comfortably compete with physical keyboards in terms of speed and accuracy when texting.

Samsung proved that point with a legit Guinness World Record attempt for the fastest texting.

And like we said, gesture is not something new, even Google has an app for Android that uses gestures to allow for easier searching on mobile devices but the way Samsung has appllied it is devinitely novel.

Head on over to after the jump to see the record attempt being made and a bonus video of the Swype fares against the virtual keyboard on and iPhone 3GS.

Read the rest of this entry »

	Mobile Devices, Samsung
	Android, fastest texting in the world, gesture, gesture technology, guinness world book of records, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy S, Swype, swype vs virtual keyboard

Although having an earlier pre-launch preview, Engadget had the opportunity to get their hands on an official Droid X right after the launch, just few hours ago.

They shared that the Droid X body built feels similar to the Motorola Droid (Milestone) and it even has 3 mics for inward and outward recording as well as the 3rd mic for noise cancellation.

For input, you have a choice between Motorola’s multitouch keyboard and the 3rd party Swype pre-installed. Although it runs on a 1GHz processor, the UI feels a bit jerky for such speed.

The new Motoblur UI over Android UI is reported to be improved as well with more sleeker looking widgets which smarter resizing and rearranging.

Check out the video of the hands on here.

[ Source ]

	Android, Mobile Devices, Mobile OS, Motorola
	Droid X, Droid X Unbox, Motorola, Motorola Droid X, Swype, Video