Comments on: Samsung Vibrant Android Phone

By: Consortitude

Consortitude — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:07:29 +0000

I got my phone on release day from my local T-Mobile store. All I can say is “awesome phone”.

Phone runs android 2.1, and it’s lightening fast. I have only lost reception once and that was in a known dead spot. I have been with Verizon for about 10 years, but got absolutely fed up with their high prices and poor customer service. Going over to T-Mobile has been a welcome change. On the day this phone came out, I rushed down to the store to check it out. I liked it, liked the open o/s standard of android and was ready to buy. I mentioned to the store manager that I had seen the phone here on Amazon the night before for $149.99 and to my surprise he offered to match the price (something Verizon would have never done…they wouldn’t even match their own website’s price the last time I renewed my service). The manager went and looked up the Amazon ad for his paperwork and found the price on Amazon had dropped to $99.99. He proceeded to actually mat h the new lower price than what we had agreed upon. All I can say to this is KUDOS T-Mobile!

Pros:

Features are top notch (5/5)

Reception is good (4/5) (only because it loses a bar, sometimes two if you hold it in your left hand…still much better than iPhone’s reception)

Internal memory is excellent 16gb (5/5)

Screen is crisp and bright (5/5)

Battery life has been very good so far (5/5)

T-Mobile service is much cheaper than Verizon or AT&T

Processor is extremely fast (5/5)

Cons:

The loss of signal when in left hand
Rating: 5 / 5

By: andyjang8944

andyjang8944 — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:42:06 +0000

I won't write about phone specs of what it can do since EVERYONE probably heard/read it enough about the 1ghz cpu, 5m camera, etc. Yes, it does NOT have a Front facing camera and flash but no big deal. I'll get down to review. Phone is beautiful, with glamorous display. It looks better in person than watching a youtube video review about the display. It's thin, but sometimes it gets kinda warm/hot and that's the trade off. It is very light to hold and doesn't feel that cheap plastic feel for me at least. Touchwiz has pros and cons. It's nice but sometimes, it can get a bit laggy. No big deal since 2.2 Froyo update will be coming up in August/September or soon. That'll make it 2-5x faster. Camera is gorgeous but it wastes tons of battery, I heard up to 20% per hour or so...so just take a picture, and then exit the camera application. I don't use widgets since it's a battery drainer. People complain about the no flash for camera but there's a "night mode" where it makes it great for taking pictures so that's a definite plus. Four buttons on the bottom of phone are very responsive w/ haptic feedback. Swype keyboard is also very useful and works 99% of the time. One thing it needs about keyboard is international keyboard like Korean for me. The Android market kinda sucks to be honest, coming from the Apple App store. App store feels way more polished and cheaper with lots of more games and higher quality. The games on Android are more expensive and aren't that fun, also lower quality. THe battery icon is kinda off for the phone so a "Battery Indicator" App is very useful. People complain about the GPS not working but I found a solution for that. I will post the link on the bottom. Navigation works perfect but GPS location doesn't work indoor like apartment, it's kinda off by few hundred feet or so but works very accurate outdoors. I get 12+ battery life with these following settings. Have email accounts manual sync with auto sync off. Turn Wifi, Blutooth, GPS off, use and turn on only when you need it. I also use automatic display sensor but some ppl turn the brightness down but I'd rather have it auto so it's brighter in the direct sunlight. Another tip, I used the Application killer app but after researching, Android 2.1 already efficiently kills unused app so that is completely unecessary. Also, it screwed up my phone where my Wi-Fi wouldn't work and it kept on saying "Unable to scan network" so after hours of researching, you have to Factory Reset it and then wifi works again. So, do not download task killers. One more thing, with the Google Navigation, it's still on after you press the menu key so make sure to press the settings button and press "Exit Navigation" so navigation doesn't run on the background and make sure to turn off GPS after using navigation. 3G speeds work very fast for me in LA and preloaded Avatar looks amazing with the Super AMOLED. Vibrant will be the fastest phone with the upcoming Android 2.2 Froyo update so overall, this phone is highly recommended.

P.S- I have an iPod touch with iTunes as my major music source. After doing research, I wanted to sync my Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant with iTunes and found an easy solution. It's almost like direct syncing with an iPod. For those of you having music on iTUnes and wanna sync it to Vibrant, here's a useful site. It takes like 2 min to set it up. Very easy.

MY OVERALL CONCLUSION/LAST WORDS:
Pros: 1Ghz Hummingbird Processor with 512mb RAM (I think)
5MP Camera with Night Mode and other Modes (720P Vid Record)
Thin/Sleek/Slim/Light Design with 4'inch Super AMOLED Display
Samsung Touchwiz 3.0 with Swype
Avatar/Gogo/Sims3/Other Preloaded Apps
16GB Onboard Internal Memory with Expansion Option for SD Card slot
Android 2.2 Froyo Update in Near Future

Cons: No Front Facing Camera
Touchwiz slightly buggy/laggy at times
Battery Icon not accurate
Not the Best Battery Life
GPS requires manual fix by owners for some people
Could've used Metal/Higher quality materials
Android Market kinda sucks/Needs to improve
Not an HSPA+ Enabled phone for FASTEST 3G. (Still pretty fast atm though)

GPS Fix Link:
[...]

iTunes Sync Link:
[...]

Hope I helped all of you Samsung Vibrant users! Definitely Recommended. Rating: 5 / 5

By: dp6002

dp6002 — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:35:48 +0000

First I have to say I love the phone almost everything about it. No that that’s out of the way I’ll get to the deal breaker. I happily purchased my Samsung Vibrant , played with it loved all the features etc.. The I brought it home I quickly noticed that as soon as I turned on to my street I lost all signal, I thought that was strange seeing as all my other T-Mobile phones had signal. Inside of my house I lost all signal including 3g. Here is where it got real weird I put the phone down on my night stand I noticed all of a sudden I would get 4 bars and 3g, as soon as I picked up the phone again I would lose all signal again. I tried calling people and had people try calling me and nothing no service. I returned the phone and got another one same problem. I finally had to settle for my second choice the 3g slide and lo and behold I get signal. I was really bummed because I was so looking forward to T-Mobil’s new flag ship phone. It does me no good though if I cant call anyone with it from my home. I hope they fix the problem so I can go back out and get it again.
Rating: 3 / 5

By: mcs1001

mcs1001 — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:23:47 +0000

I was ready to jump ship to AT&T and the iPhone till I heard this phone was coming out. Picked mine up yesterday and I love it (except for battery life).

PROS: Great UI, great unified email, browser, maps, etc...seems to be on par with/surpass iPhone. Cool built it power analysis tells you what your battery is being used up by.

CONS: battery life! The great looking screen is a battery HOG! In the 8hrs since a full charge 75% of the drain was due to the screen. . I even have the brightness turned all the way down and the screen time-out set to the minimum. Rating: 3 / 5

By: S. Hochman

S. Hochman — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:29:15 +0000

This is now Tmobile’s premier phone. Since Tmobile doesn’t have the Iphone, the Droid or even 4G, this is their best. It’s okay and definitely better than the My Touch but it’s no Iphone.

There is no camera in the front and not even a flash–how cheap can you get Samsung? Samsung always makes boneheaded mistakes on phones by trying to make them “unique,” and this phone is no different. There is no notification light to let you know you’ve a text or voicemail. Go in the shower and come out, if you got a call the only way you will know is by turning on the phone. The notification light hardly uses any battery and this is simply a really stupid mistake by Samsung.

Also, the charger is on the top. It is the only phone I know with the charger on the top so if you’re trying to make a call while charging it’s very awkward to say the least.

So for the same price as the Iphone 4 and the Droid X, you get a phone that has only 5MP with no flash, no camera in the front, so-so battery life, a paltry 2MB memory card, and no notificaton lights for calls. Frankly, the only reason to get it is because you’ve Tmobile, which does have great customer service and good prices–but can Tmobile at least join the 21st century and get a real phone to give its customers something that doesn’t seem like yesterday’s news?
Rating: 3 / 5