I’m a huge Android fan!
I have an mini Android statue that I keep on my desk, I follow numerous Android blogs, and I even have two different “rooted” Android devices (a phone and a tablet). One might say that I’m a little Android-obsessed, and I’d find it hard to disagree. So when I tell you that I love my Galaxy S phone, I hope you understand that this is no casual love affair!
I purchased my T-Mobile Vibrant just over a year ago in June 2010. The newly-released Galaxy S phones were all the rage at that time, and T-Mobile was one of the first major US carriers to receive one of the different variants. The iPhone 4 had just been released a few months earlier, but there was no way I was going to “drink the Kool-Aid” and go with the iPhone. I like choice and substance over cool icons, thank you very much!
I headed to the nearest T-Mobile store for some hands-on time, and was sold at first touch. Everything about the phone was exactly what I wanted and needed after my previous phone, the T-Mobile G1. In this era of newer and better, I love my Vibrant and haven’t had a single thought about upgrading to a newer phone. Why upgrade when my Vibrant does (virtually) everything I could ever need or want in a phone!
The Vibrant has more than lived up to the hype of its’ initial release. Even compared to the newer Galaxy S II variants, the original Vibrant more than holds its’ own against the challengers. Strong words, you say? Let me list some of the reasons why I (still) love my T-Mobile Vibrant.
The Screen
The first notable selling point for the Vibrant, hands down, was the 4″ AMOLED touchscreen! The home screen was already more dazzling than I had seen on any smartphone at that time, with amazing clarity of detail and bright colors. It didn’t hurt that they had a great photo of the Golden Gate bridge as the background for the home screens. It looked great, but was about to get even better.
The phone came preloaded with the movie “Avatar”, and there couldn’t have been a better way to highlight the display. Aided by the 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, the effect was a visually rich and smooth viewing experience. One look at the forests of Pandora on the Vibrant’s screen and you couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the knowledge that this great-looking theatrical release was running on phone! The experience sold itself.
But this AMOLED screen offers much more than simply a great viewing experience for movies like “Avatar”. Pictures, apps, web browsing… everything is enhanced by the display. Games look just as amazing on the Vibrant. Even simple games like Angry Birds look great, and the slightly larger screen makes playing much easier than on other phones. My partner has an iPhone, but always prefers playing Angry Birds on my Vibrant because it looks so much better on my screen. So much for the iPhone 4’s retina display.
The Keyboard/SWYPE
My previous phone, the G1, had a full QWERTY keyboard that allowed large-handed users like myself to text/type with relative ease, especially in comparison to the small on-screen keyboard of the iPhone. Hands-on experience with an iPhone left me feeling not so great about pecking letters using an on-screen keyboard with my big fingers. I was hesitant and the Vibrant’s on-screen keyboard until I discovered SWYPE (which comes pre-installed on the Vibrant).
With SWYPE, you trace your fingers over the letters of the word you want to type. It was a little odd at first. But after a few days I couldn’t imagine typing/texting any other way. It’s accuracy and predictive word suggestions had me swyping my texts, emails, url’s and search terms faster than ever, and faster than all of my friends with iPhones. I can “type” an entire WordPress blog entry on my Vibrant while vigorously pedaling on a stationary bike at my gym. I’d like to see iPhone users try that.
The Camera
After the not so great pictures produced by my G1, I wanted a phone that could actually take decent pictures like a camera. It’s tough when you’re on the go and need to keep both a phone AND camera in your pockets. I snapped a couple of test pictures in the store, aiming at regular and lowlight subjects. The results were good. The Vibrant’s 5 megapixel camera offers much better clarity and resolution than most phones. Not quite “real camera” quality, but more than good enough for a phone.
However, the lack of a flash for night pictures threatened to derail the purchase. We’ve all been in situations at night where you take pictures with friends only to later discover that the pictures are so dark that you can’t identify anyone’s face. Very few phones have a good flash for their cameras. Often, pictures look worse with the flash because of the harshness of the light. So I decided to focus on the rest of the phone’s cool features instead of that one feature omission.
Some online forums mentioned Vibrant owners who were happy with low light pictures when they correctly used the night settings in the camera app. I tested the camera and those settings on the first night I got my phone by taking pictures of an Asian art statue exhibit in front of City Hall (San Francisco). Even at night with only streetlamps for light, most of the pictures turned out pretty good if not downright great.
Kudos as well for the “Panorama” setting on the phone. It easily leads you through a series of photos with the help of arrows and framing so that you can take great panoramic view shots. I used this feature often while on vacation in Spain and Portugal, and loved the shots it took.
Speed & Apps
There’s nothing worse than tapping the screen to open an app only to wait as the phone thinks for awhile before finally responding. The Vibrant is pretty snappy in opening apps. Multi-tasking with multiple apps too. There are times when apps are sluggish and “Force Close”, but it’s not often. (Note: that happens with most phones because of the apps, and not the phone.)
On the whole, I love the Vibrant’s ability to run “apps, apps, and more apps”. It has the whole of the Android Market available for download options. Now with the Amazon appstore, there are even more app options. Some of my favorite premium apps are ones that I got from the Amazon’s “Free App of the Day” promo. With all of these apps at my disposal, there is absolutely nothing I can’t do with my phone!
I once considered buying a laptop for my travel needs, but have since reconsidered. With or without a Wi-Fi connection, I have continual access to my email, music, video, texts (via Google Voice), contacts, documents, games… you name it. I can blog on the go, I can read a book using Kindle, my Vibrant can even serve as a mobile access point for my other devices that need Wi-Fi. I can take pictures, and video, then share them immediately with my friends and family no matter where I am in the world via email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter just to name a few options. THAT is the sign of a “smart” smartphone.
Phone Calls
Of course the basic function of any smartphone is to make calls. I’m not a big cell phone talker, but the Vibrant suits my needs just fine. Sound levels are good for both sides of the call even with background noise. The proximity sensor turns off the touch screen as you bring the phone to your face so there’s no chance of accidentally disconnecting the call with your cheek. It paired easily with my bluetooth, and coupled with direct dial shortcuts on my home screen, calls can be made easily with one tap of the finger. “Easy” is a good thing when driving.
Internal/External Storage and Other Good Stuff
The Vibrant comes with 16Gb internal storage with microSD capacity up to 32Gb. I would consider myself a power user, and haven’t come close to filling up either my internal memory or my 16Gb microSD card. This is much better than the fixed storage capacity of an iPhone (16Gb or 32Gb).
The success of any smartphone comes down to “ease of use” in practical situations. This incident illustrates the point best. I downloaded a great workout video in flv format to my phone; and wanted to share this video with a friend who owns an iPhone… without iTunes access. Unfortunately, the lack of external storage or a port to access internal storage without iTunes makes it difficult to share large file with an iPhone user. iPhones are also not good for viewing non-iTunes recognized files. After discovering that Dropbox was pretty much our only option (with account sign-up on his part and folder sharing on mine), I was finally able to share the video with him. And by that point neither of us really cared.
There were way too many hurdles to jump for something that should have been much easier to do, and without needing to sign up for a third party service. If I have a large file (in this case a video) to share with someone, I should be able to do it directly, and vice versa. My Vibrant handles this type of task easily, sharing videos, music, whatever. Easy, and practical.
Speaking of media files, the Vibrant can access a slew of different file types that are commonly used online: mp3, mp4, m4v, flv, wmv, avi, and 3gp files (I’m sure I’m forgetting a few). It also handles most other files you would need on the go, such as pdf and word documents…even excel files.
Bottom Line
Having my Vibrant at my side throughout the day is very much like carrying a tablet PC or laptop that makes phone calls. That has been my experience. To be honest, it didn’t come out of the box able to do what it does now. That’s the selling point for an iPhone: it works right out of the box. It offers many functions out of the box, but it doesn’t allow you to do exactly what you want and change the phone to suit your needs. What you see is what you get. And that’s enough for most people.
The Android OS is great, but it’s not an “out of the box” experience. It took time to find the right apps and set up my Vibrant in a way that works best for me. The right apps, the right layout and shortcuts for my 7 home screens, the best web browsers and such… That can be the downside of Android configurability. But it’s also the beauty of it when you reach the end point: you have a phone that looks and does exactly what you want.
There are a few things I wish I could change to make the Vibrant slightly better. I sometimes wish it had a front-facing camera, the Gingerbread Android update (Samsung is notoriously slow with its’ Android updates), or better sync with the functionality of my bluetooth. But those are all small things: nice to have items. The most important thing is that I have a phone that has served me well for over a year. I am very attached to my Vibrant. My partner often joked in the beginning, “if you love your Vibrant so much why don’t you marry it?” Yes, San Francisco is liberal, but not quite that liberal…yet.
I know there will come a time when it will finally make sense to upgrade, but that time is not now. Unless, of course, they produce a Vibrant that can make my morning coffee and bring me breakfast in bed.
THAT would be an upgrade worth making!
A quick check online shows that the Samsung Vibrant can still be purchased directly from T-Mobile.com for $99.99 with a two-year contract, new activations only. Good deal, good phone. Check out some of my other geeky Android thoughts at kevware.com/geek.