Samsung Vibrant Review: Specifications, Design, Display and Hardware

Samsung Vibrant Review: Specifications, Design, Display and Hardware
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Samsung Vibrant Review

Samsung-Vibrant

The Samsung Vibrant is exactly the same as the Samsung Galaxy S, except for a few changes. It has been rebranded as the Samsung Vibrant and is available only with T-Mobile’s network.

The Galaxy S, as you all know, is one of the best Android smartphones of all time. It has received the Android 2.2 upgrade as well which makes it one of the few phones which run Android 2.2.

In this review, I will tell you everything about the Samsung Vibrant and show you why it is one of the best smartphones you can get.

Also, do check out our list of the best Android smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy S Specifications

  • Display: 4 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, 480 x 800 pixels, 16M colors
  • Memory: 16 GB storage, supports 32 GB MicroSD
  • OS: Android OS 2.1
  • Processor: 1 GHz Hummingbird Processor
  • RAM: 512 MB
  • Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA
  • Camera: 5 MP camera, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, 720p video recording
  • Radio: FM radio with RDS
  • GPS: GPS transceiver with A-GPS
  • Battery: 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery,

Design (4 out of 5)

The Samsung Vibrant, like the Galaxy S, sports a nice design and comes in an all black version. The design is quite appealing and despite having a huge display, the Vibrant is quite slim and easily pocketable. It has dimensions of 122.4 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm and weighs about 118 gms.

There are 4 touch sensitive keys just below the display: Menu, Home, Back and Search. The right side has the power/lock button while the left side sports the volume rocker. The microUSB slot and the audio jack are on the top and the back houses the 5 MP camera.

The display is one of the highlights of the Samsung Vibrant. It has a brilliant 4 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, the same one as the Galaxy S. The Super AMOLED display is exceptionally bright and provides the best contrast in any display. It offers vibrant colors which pop out and also has quite good sunlight legibility. It’s perfect for watching videos and movies.

Hardware and OS (4 out of 5)

The Samsung Vibrant comes with the same hardware as the current crop of Android superphones: it has a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, 512 MB RAM and 16 GB internal memory. It also supports memory cards up to 32 GB. The hardware is similar to the Galaxy S, the Motorola Droid X as well as the iPhone 4.

It comes with the Android 2.1 OS and should receive the Android 2.2 Froyo update soon. It comes with the Samsung Touchwiz 3.0 UI which is very intuitive and user friendly. The interface is fast and responsive, and a pleasure to use with the superb display. You get seven homescreen panes which support widgets. Samsung has also put in some widgets like clock, weather, social networking etc. You have the Social Hub which integrates social networking, email, and IM accounts for you.

It also provides the Swype text input system which lets you type by swiping your fingers across the keyboard. It supports almost all the applications and games in the Android Market, which now has more than 100,000 apps.

Multimedia (4 out of 5)

The Samsung Vibrant comes with a 5 MP camera which is capable of capturing images at a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. It has autofocus but doesn’t support flash. The image capture quality is quite good but the lack of a flash makes it unusable in the night. The camera interface is really good and very intuitive. It offers many advanced settings and features like geotagging, touch focus, face detection and smile detection. The Vibrant’s camera is great when it comes to video recording; it can record 720p video at 30 FPS with very good capture quality.

The Samsung Vibrant is ideal for watching movies because of its excellent display. It has a nice music player with a great interface; the same can be said for the video player too. The video playback is the best I’ve seen on a cell phone and takes advantage of both the excellent display quality as well as the big display size. The audio quality is very good, even better if you use it with a pair of high end headphones. It also has a stereo FM radio with RDS and an image gallery with nice animations and a fast interface.

Connectivity (4 out of 5)

The Vibrant has all the connectivity options you would expect in a smartphone: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA. It also supports Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 connectivity. It comes with a GPS transceiver with A-GPS which offers excellent GPS reception.

It has the standard Android browser based on Webkit which is one of the best mobile browsers. It is powered by a 1500 mAh Li-ion battery which provides long battery life.

The Verdict (4 out of 5)

The Samsung Vibrant is one of the best Android smartphones. It is essentially the same as the Galaxy S but is locked to T-Mobile’s network. I would definitely recommend it.