The form factor - great as it's not too big, not too small with a 4 inch screen. If you're coming from a nexus one or a droid then you may not like the amount of plastic that's in the phone or the light feel. But even though it's a plastic build, it's a compact solid build. At first glance it will remind you of a Iphone. Again, it may be a turn off depending on your tastes.
Screen - hands down one of the best portable screens you'll ever see. Uses Samsung's Super AMOLED technology which they seem to be keeping for their own products these days. Avatar as a pack in for the device is a great move. Seeing the clarity of that film running on a Vibrant is awe - inspiring. The screen is responsive and accurate. I've had no problems with it in that regard. Resolution is 480x800.
Software - the Vibrant is running android 2.1 which is good, but 2.2 on this phone would have been amazing. But to be fair the update is coming in september. It runs with a custom user interface (ui) layer on top of android called touchwiz 3.0. It adds some interesting features to stock android but at the end of the day, I found it to be totally unnecessary. I've found similar and better features in the Android marketplace for the solutions that Samsung has tried to incorporate here. There are some glaring missing features though. The user dictionary that's standard in stock android is missing here. Also the ability to add custom ringtones to your contact list entries is also missing. Both functions can be easily added by downloading User dictionary from the market as well as Ringo Lite. The phone ships with Swype virtual keyboard and its enabled by default. It also ships with Samsung's own keyboard as well as the stock android keyboard. Swype has been my keyboard of choice since it was in beta. it's very intuitive and is a great choice by samsung.
Camera - the good news is the Vibrant takes great photos and videos. Videos can be recorded in "720p" but the phone doesnt have a flash. This was a major concern for me initially until I actually used the camera. In well lit areas, the Vibrant took great images. Night time shots were great too if ample light was available. If not, there's a night mode. It works for the most part but it left a good number of my pics a tad blurry.
Video worked as one would expect. I was happy to see consistent smooth framerate and no pauses or glitches in the videos I took with the device.
Hardware - this is what ultimately sold me on the Vibrant. It has a 1ghz Hummingbird (Cortex A8 core) cpu developed by Intrinsity with a PowerVR SGX540 GPU (graphics processor). What this means is this CPU/GPU combo gives the Vibrant better graphics/games performance than any other smartphone of its class. I didn't quite believe it at first coming from a nexus one with Android 2.2 (which I still own) but after comparing the Vibrant to the Droid, the N1, the Incredible, Iphone 3gs, and the DroidX, I noticed 3D intensive games ran smoother on the Vibrant. Consistently so at 60 frames per second. I did some research and found out why. That material is too much to post here. I'll leave it to you to Google it. But in short, the Vibrant is capable of processing 90 million triangles a second.
Phone - I've experienced no problems with phone calls on the device. Calls were clear on my end and the other end of the line. bluetooth worked as it should and pairing a headset was as easy as one would expect. There's no noise cancellation mic but the speaker on the phone is very loud for videos, music and speakerphone.
Battery life - This has been a topic of great debate and for good reason. My Vibrant has lasted an entire day with moderate use on a 1500mah battery. A day and a half with light use. It lasted about 6 to 7 hours with heavy use. That's watching Avatar for a bit, surfing the web, taking calls, downloading from the market, playing games here and there. It lasted my entire shift at work with me constantly configuring it, running it, using it. By comparison, my Nexus one with Android 2.2 cannot last the day with moderate use. I can get 5 hours out of it maybe 6 before I have to recharge. Heavy use with my n1 will net me four hours maybe 5. To be fair there might be a particular app or even Android 2.2 causing the drain because it wasn't that bad when I first bought it, but it is what it is at this point.
Screen - hands down one of the best portable screens you'll ever see. Uses Samsung's Super AMOLED technology which they seem to be keeping for their own products these days. Avatar as a pack in for the device is a great move. Seeing the clarity of that film running on a Vibrant is awe - inspiring. The screen is responsive and accurate. I've had no problems with it in that regard. Resolution is 480x800.
Software - the Vibrant is running android 2.1 which is good, but 2.2 on this phone would have been amazing. But to be fair the update is coming in september. It runs with a custom user interface (ui) layer on top of android called touchwiz 3.0. It adds some interesting features to stock android but at the end of the day, I found it to be totally unnecessary. I've found similar and better features in the Android marketplace for the solutions that Samsung has tried to incorporate here. There are some glaring missing features though. The user dictionary that's standard in stock android is missing here. Also the ability to add custom ringtones to your contact list entries is also missing. Both functions can be easily added by downloading User dictionary from the market as well as Ringo Lite. The phone ships with Swype virtual keyboard and its enabled by default. It also ships with Samsung's own keyboard as well as the stock android keyboard. Swype has been my keyboard of choice since it was in beta. it's very intuitive and is a great choice by samsung.
Camera - the good news is the Vibrant takes great photos and videos. Videos can be recorded in "720p" but the phone doesnt have a flash. This was a major concern for me initially until I actually used the camera. In well lit areas, the Vibrant took great images. Night time shots were great too if ample light was available. If not, there's a night mode. It works for the most part but it left a good number of my pics a tad blurry.
Video worked as one would expect. I was happy to see consistent smooth framerate and no pauses or glitches in the videos I took with the device.
Hardware - this is what ultimately sold me on the Vibrant. It has a 1ghz Hummingbird (Cortex A8 core) cpu developed by Intrinsity with a PowerVR SGX540 GPU (graphics processor). What this means is this CPU/GPU combo gives the Vibrant better graphics/games performance than any other smartphone of its class. I didn't quite believe it at first coming from a nexus one with Android 2.2 (which I still own) but after comparing the Vibrant to the Droid, the N1, the Incredible, Iphone 3gs, and the DroidX, I noticed 3D intensive games ran smoother on the Vibrant. Consistently so at 60 frames per second. I did some research and found out why. That material is too much to post here. I'll leave it to you to Google it. But in short, the Vibrant is capable of processing 90 million triangles a second.
Phone - I've experienced no problems with phone calls on the device. Calls were clear on my end and the other end of the line. bluetooth worked as it should and pairing a headset was as easy as one would expect. There's no noise cancellation mic but the speaker on the phone is very loud for videos, music and speakerphone.
Battery life - This has been a topic of great debate and for good reason. My Vibrant has lasted an entire day with moderate use on a 1500mah battery. A day and a half with light use. It lasted about 6 to 7 hours with heavy use. That's watching Avatar for a bit, surfing the web, taking calls, downloading from the market, playing games here and there. It lasted my entire shift at work with me constantly configuring it, running it, using it. By comparison, my Nexus one with Android 2.2 cannot last the day with moderate use. I can get 5 hours out of it maybe 6 before I have to recharge. Heavy use with my n1 will net me four hours maybe 5. To be fair there might be a particular app or even Android 2.2 causing the drain because it wasn't that bad when I first bought it, but it is what it is at this point.