Image Gallery: Hands-on with the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant Google Android smartphone
Samsung is rolling out their Galaxy S line of devices to all four major US wireless carriers and the first carrier to get the device is T-Mobile with the Samsung Vibrant. The Vibrant is heavily focused on media and gaming with the Avatar movie included and The Sims 3 game. The Vibrant is the best Google Android device on T-Mobile at this time and available for $199.99.
The back of the retail box lists some of the main features, included media, and box contents.
The Samsung Vibrant lying under the upper cover of the box.
The accessories included with the Vibrant are the A/C charger, USB cable, and wired stereo headset.
There is a small box under the Vibrant and above the accessories.
You will find the included cover is green-blue while a second backup cover is included in reddish color.
Contents from the small box include manuals and a recycle bag.
There is media labeling on the sides of the box, including the Amazon Kindle.
A full version of The Sims 3 is included on the Vibrant and the logo appears on the side of the retail box.
A full version of the movie Avatar is included on the 2GB microSD card. It is DRM protected so you cannot take it off the card and transfer it to another device or card.
Here is a lineup of the three hottest Google Android smartphones available on Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Here is a bottom, left side view of these three devices.
Bottom view of the three super Android smartphones. The Vibrant is the narrowest device with a 4 inch display.
There is a proximity sensor located above the display.
The buttons below the display are touch sensitive areas that are flush with the display.
Note that the icons do light up in low light and dark conditions.
The volume button on the left side is a single black plastic bar.
The 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB port are found on the top of the Vibrant. There is a small door that slides to protect the microUSB port.
A small button protrudes slightly from the right side and acts as the lock/power button.
The 5 megapixel camera is found on the back left of the Vibrant. Note that there is no flash for the camera.
There is a single mono speaker on the back of the Vibrant.
This photo shows the back of the device as held in my hand.
The Vibrant is pretty compact for a 4 inch display device and fits well in my hand.
The display is on and you can see a bit of the color clarity of the Vibrant.
You will find specific live wallpapers on the Samsung Vibrant.
You need to slide your finger up to unlock the display.
There are several display settings on the Vibrant and by default notifications appear as puzzle pieces in different colors.
As you can see a notification for a different type of action appears in a different color.
You simply move the puzzle piece to the far right corner and then you will be taken to that message within the app directly.
This widget brings in your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter feeds and gives you some basic interactivity to respond.
By default there are 7 included home screens. You can remove some if you like or drag and drop them to rearrange how they appear on your device.
You can tap the Application icon to see an application launcher page appears that reminds me of the way the iPhone works. The center two program shortcut buttons can be customized with your selected apps.
There are three different ways to organize your application shortcuts.
As you load up apps, more pages appear in the application launcher.
The camera software is quite functional on the Vibrant.
You will find several different modes and settings in the camera software.
There is no flash, but you can select to take photos in low light conditions with decent results.
As you can see, Samsung included a few new live wallpapers on the Vibrant.
The notification bar has been customized with a wireless connection manager.
The AllShare utility works through DLNA to let you share content between computers and servers and your phone.
Unfortunately, the Samsung Media Hub service was not available at launch so I could not test out the movies and other media content that will eventually be provided.
Samsung included a handy memo, sticky note utility.
The diary utility lets you bring in images, text, and weather.
The new MobiTV client is actually very functional and looks great. It is much better than ever and may be worth the $9.99 per month fee.
The phone dialer is very functional and easy to use.
I took this shot in macro mode.
This panoramic photo was taken of my back yard.
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