Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S)
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 18, 2010 by Eric M. Zeman
T-Mobile's version of the Samsung Galaxy S -- the Vibrant -- holds up well when pitted against the Captivate. It lags the Captivate in a few places, while besting it in others. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
High end Phone?
I got this phone the day it came out. Here are the pros and cons based on over 6 months of use.
Cons:
It takes the Internet a long time to load on both 3G and Wifi. My daughter's $30 lg optimus T kills it.
Many times it freezes up or lags so bad it is unusable. Task manager and reboots seem to have no impact on performance.
Call quality is such that people always ask me to repeat myself.
It takes this phone forever to reboot, slightly longer than a windows vista reboot.
I never got the samsung Kies application to work with my computer. I am not a novice.
I didn't like the power button on the right side of the phone. I felt I was very awkward to use many times.
Pros:
Beautiful hardware beautiful screen
Big but not too big
I liked the look and functionality of touch wiz.
video playback was superb when the phone wasn't bogged down.
I had high hopes for this phone and paid full price for it. I would still have it if I hadn't pulled it out of my pocket with a cracked screen one day. I was almost happy to have a reason to justify to myself for the purchase of a new phone. You would think with the specs of this phone it would run like a champ, my experience was truly abysmal.
Why wait for Froyo?
I've had my Vibrant for a few months now and after first being frustrated with not getting Froyo, I decided to learn more about this phone. I started by reading as many different forums as I could find. XDA Developers is a GREAT site! Look up and read âthe Bible.âÂ
The hardware used on the Samsung Vibrant is top notch. It's much the same hardware used on the new Nexus S, except for a few things, but the Vibrant does have an external sd card, which the Nexus does not.
There is no flash for the camera, but even low light pictures taken with the Vibrant are a lot better than most would expect.
There is also no front facing camera on the Vibrant, but several people have purchased an OEM camera on eBay and installed them with success. It doesn't look too hard to do (watch the video) and is something I'm looking into. Price for cameras on eBay currently are about $30.
I've had a warranty on my phone for the first few months, but have since removed it. From what I've read it is pretty hard to âbrickâ a Vibrant. Just read up on the process of flashing ROMs and be careful to follow all steps.
I no longer have issues with the GPS and am enjoying the fast Maps app from Google. Games and videos are incredible. I also have Flash 10.1 as well as root access on the phone.
I'm currently running a ROM called Axura 2.2 which is Froyo. It has several launchers including one that looks like Gingerbread. All ROMs vary slightly, giving different looks and functions, one of the many benefits of having an Android phone.
It's just a matter of time before someone like the XDA Developers release a Gingerbread version for the Vibrant, who knows..they may have that done before an official Froyo is pushed out.
I do want to add that I have had a few issues messing with my phone, but never anything that wasn't fixable. The forums have many that are willing to help. My advice is to take some time, read, watch videos and then dive in. Enjoy your Android phone for what it was meant to be.
Great phone, Maker???
I have had 3 Vibrants since it first came out, and i love the phone design, and speed, but samsung keeps slacking when it comes to updates. I know not everyone has the problems i have with mine, but there are a lot of people that got bricked with the J16 update (Fix For GPS, and media hub among other small things) and it is very frustrating when you have to exchange your phone and start all over again. You can back up your apps to app monster and then move the files to your sd card, but not everyone does or knows that. So when you get an exchange, you basicly start all over on customizing your phone. I went with the new mytouch 4g and i am impressed. the Internet browsing is twice the speed and it already has the 2.2 FROYO on it, and that is something that HTC is good for. HTC phones always get the updates fast. Samsung has messed up my vibrant that i loved and my blu ray player among other devices through out the years that needed updates. So i will be putting my trust elsewhere for a while to see how things come along.... If you don't mind giving up the AMOLED screen than i would recommend the HTC Mytouch 4G. the screen is an LCD but still looks flawless, and it has the 1 ghz processor that has surpassed samsungs hummingbird. speed is great, feels expensive, and can video call over 3g/4g or wifi, unlike the i phone 4 that only allows on wifi.
Great, but it has some cons.
Pros:
Great phone
Android
1Ghz Processor
Super Amoled display
T mobile
4-inch screen
That cool mini USB hatch :D
Cons:
I'm not sure if this is with all models, or if it's just mine, but it keeps restarting itself whenever it wants to.
No flash? This should be standard for all smartphones.
Touchwiz isn't the best skin out there.
Plastic-feeling
Vibin wit da vibrant
ima jus spread out pros n cons. (briefly)
pros:
1.large and super clear screen.
2.android UI is awesome as usual.
3.this is my 3rd android phone so im very used to it and its not that much different from my myTouch Slide xcept it is a full touch screen n its screen has much better resolution.
4.the battery life is actually very gud!
5. very very beautiful.
cons: i really hate the capacative buttons at the bottom, no one has perfected the "touch" so keys like that shoud be physical. and that is really my only gripe.
the phone is great overall n i love it, "get it if u got it"
Best phone I've ever had hands down
This phone is amazing, I'm going to explain via pros and cons what I like and dislike
Pros:
-big screen, movies and everything else is amazing
-amoled, brighter than any other screen, even with the absolute lowest display setting
-android, no need to say more
-processor is great, in my area my download rate is 2mb per second
-hd video recording, amazing
-slim, fits right I your pocket with ease, even with a case
-sound quality if amazing
-gets the job done with little to no errors
-looks nice a and works even nicer
CONS:
-no flash
This phone is everything it claims to be and more. I'm so glass I decided to get it :)
It's a Vibrant Thing!
I've owned my Samsung Vibrant now for almost a week, so I think that I can provide a fair review.
Coming from the T-Mobile myTouch, it has taken me a bit of time to get use to this monster piece of equipment. The biggest change being the lack of a trackball...I guess I used it more often than I thought, lol. That being said, here is my review;
The Samsung Vibrant is an AWESOME phone. I really wanted an iphone, but didn't want to change service providers. I'm glad that I made the decision to stick with T-Mobile and purchase the Vibrant.
PROS
- GREAT screen
- Camera is superb!
- Build; I've already dropped it...OOPS! But it appears to be fine
- Android Market
- Feels comfortable in the hand
CONS
- No trackball...minor, so I can get over it
- Feels good in the hand, but a little cheaply made
All in all, I'm very impressed with the Vibrant, so I'll keep it. And I recommend it to anyone looking for the freshest Android phone on the market.
Excellent!
I have had my Vibrant for 3 weeks now and I LOVE IT! I've previously owned a Wing and a Dash so this is my first venture away from Windows Mobile and into the Android OS. I was also considering the HD2 but had heard such negative things about Windows Mobile 6.5 I decided to go with the Vibrant and I'm glad I did! I still haven't even come CLOSE to learning all the features/functionality, this is one powerful phone.
PROS:
-HUGE beautiful screen
-A LOT of free apps
-Fast
-Very clear call quality
-Easy to switch in-call to bluetooth or speaker
-Love, love, LOVE Swype for text entry!
CONS:
-Speaker phone sounds distorted (they all do)
-Ease of operation...it's a little difficult to learn
-"Settings" needs its own tab on the homepage/home row and needs to contain more capability
Overall a GREAT phone, I wholeheartedly recommend it!
Promising "Bleeding Edge" device.
After Using an Iphone for a year my initial impression of The Samsung Vibrant was a big improvement in terms of performance and features over the iPhone.
Call quality seems as good or better then the iphone but it does suffer from drastic signal loss when held close to your face or cradled in your hand. However, even at 0 to 1 bar it still holds a call and useable 3G.
As impressive as the phone is, I Immediately encountered random slow-downs shut-downs and rebooting. The phone continuously switched between Edge and 3G or would not connect to 3g at all. T-Mobile said the SIM Card did not support 3G and replaced it but I still experienced times when in areas of good 3G coverage where it would not stay connected to 3G.
Using the Map Applications or turning on the GPS seems to cause: "Application Settings (in process com.android.settings) is not responding" errors.
The audio player often skipped and the audio player occasionally crashed from both the built-in flash memory or MicroSD Card.
3 factory resets did not help. T-mobile says there is a problem related to the GPS, and Samsung is expected to provide an update in September 2010.
As I had a similar experience with a previous Samsung phone, I choose not to trust Samsung and returned the phone within the 14 day remorse period.
Pros:
- Nice, brilliant Screen.
- Competitive price.
- Accepts MicroSD Cards
- Android Operating System
Cons:
- Known GPS problems
- Instability and hardware/software related crashes
- Heavy stock memory load or what some call "Bloatware"
- Supplied with Android 2.1
- No HDMI output
- No voice bluetooth dialing or recognition?
- Erratic battery life
- GPS seems to greatly decrease battery life and generates heat.
- Screen too bright in low light.
- possible issues with 3G.
- Audio Player skips,
- Supplied web browser often mis-displays some pages, preventing navigation
- Installing more featured browser caused device to run out of memory and crashes dialer.
