The more phones that hit the market using Google’s Android operating software, the harder it is for each offering to stand out from the black-and-silver crowd.
Samsung is the latest company trying to turn heads, hoping consumers will snatch up its new Galaxy S smart phones, which are both attractive on the surface and well-appointed under the hood.
AT&T already sells the Samsung Captivate, and T-Mobile offers the Vibrant. Two more are coming: Sprint will start selling the Epic 4G at the end of August, and Verizon plans to roll out the Fascinate this fall.
I tested the Captivate, Vibrant and Epic 4G, which all have plenty of great features in common: bright, crisp screens; 5-megapixel cameras that can also take high-definition videos; speedy 1 Ghz Hummingbird processors and Google Inc.’s easy-to-use Android operating software.
With all this and more, one of these may be the ‘droid you’re looking for.
Probably the most obvious feature on each Galaxy S phone is a sharp AMOLED touch screen that runs 4 inches diagonally and dominates the face. AMOLED screens tend to have higher color saturation than standard LCD screens, and they can be thinner. In plain English, it meant that the videos I watched looked great — sometimes even better than on Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 4.