Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani review: Fashionware

Introduction

It’s not the suit that makes a man and it’s certainly not a big fat logo that makes a phone. To be honest, the last thing Android needs to boost its credit with users is a big designer name. But for a change, this is one of the rare examples when a smartphone is not being eclipsed by a fashion phone.

 
 

Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani official photos

What we have here is a limited edition fashion item – there’s no doubt about that. But it’s got a better purpose than blind you with bling. The phone has it all: impressive hardware, commanding looks and excellent build. The important thing though is you don’t care if it’s the Galaxy S or Armani taking credit.
Super specs combined with beautiful finish, a dazzling Super AMOLED display in an impressively thin package – a combination like that simply cannot go wrong. The Galaxy S line has long been committed to delivering high performance. With the Armani touch, looks and build quality are catching up. You can have anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price. The Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani is anything but cheap.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
• Android OS v2.2 with TouchWiz launcher
• 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird platform; 512 MB of RAM
• 5 MP autofocus camera with face, smile and blink detection
• 720p HD video recording at 30fps with continuous autofocus
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• 16GB internal storage, microSD slot
• 9.9mm slim
• Excellent build quality
• Full Flash support for the web browser
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• 1650 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Great audio quality
• Document editor
• Secondary video-call camera
• Swype
• Access to the official Android app repository and Samsung Apps repository

Main disadvantages

• Pricey
• No flash for the camera
• No dedicated camera key
• Average loudspeaker performance
• No FM radio

Samsung didn’t need perhaps Italian craftsmen working on the I9010 Galaxy S – they already had the design tested on the AT&T Captivate. However, someone at Armani must have had a say on the choice of materials: the appearance and hand feel are first class – being subtle is no small part of that by the way. That’s another – surprising – point in favor.

 

Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani views

Anyway, contrary to the stereotypes about designer phones, the Galaxy S Armani doesn’t boil down to a logo – or lack thereof. What’s important here is that you are getting an all-inclusive deal: a full-featured smartphone with the latest technology available and an exquisite fashion item. Whether the logo implies Armani-approved or Armani-designed is irrelevant – as long as the phone has the looks and the brains.
Now let’s get past the exquisite packaging and see the Armani droid in its full glory.

Unboxing might leave you slightly disappointed

This may be a self-evident statement but utmost attention to detail is what makes the difference between premium and standard grade items. The plain-looking paper box of the Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani does seem a bit too ordinary for a high-end handset. But soon you realize it’s the packaging of the packaging.
Inside, there’s another box shaped like a jewelry chest with an Armani-branded magnetic buckle. That’s where the actual phone is, along with the supplied accessories. Items are separately packaged in little boxes made of paper which almost feels like fabric to the touch.

 


 

The box looks cool, but has very little inside

Anyway, the wrapping lives up to the name and this is exactly why you will probably feel a bit let down with the actual contents. We were hoping for a carrying case or at least a cloth to keep that Super AMOLED screen in prime shape. But we ended up with just a charger (Armani-branded), a USB cable and a headset.
There wasn’t even a memory card. And yeah, we know the I9010 has 16GB of storage already, but it’s not like you can have too much storage. And mind you, this one here is not what they call an austerity package.

Design and construction

We like the I9010 Galaxy S design so much we secretly wish the global Galaxy S looked like that. And yes, we used to envy AT&T subscribers for being able to enjoy the best looking version of the Galaxy S.
Of course the sloped top and bottom or the ribbed back wouldn’t have been so appealing, had it not been for the high-quality soft-touch plastic and metal. Equally important – to us anyway – the styling of the phone is subtle and mature. A fashion version of an Android smartphone is a proposition we would typically be skeptical about. Well, not the Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani. They obviously got it right: it’s good looking, high-performing and ultimately tasteful.
But no matter how sleek the handset is, once you turn the 4” WVGA Super AMOLED on it’s where all eyes will focus. We never missed an occasion to voice our admiration of the image quality of Super AMOLED with its incredible contrast, high resolution and spotless sunlight legibility.
The PenTile matrix might take away some of the sharpness, compared to regular screens but that’s hardly a problem in everyday use. After all you still have plenty of resolution to work with. The deep blacks however are obvious at the very first glance and chances are once you get used to them, you would never want to go back to regular LCD ever again.
We are also particularly fond of the deep and vibrant colors, but since saturated colors are not everyone’s cup of tea, you don’t have to agree with us on this one.

 

The Super AMOLED units are simply gorgeous 

The sensitivity of the capacitive unit is top notch. As a matter of fact, the screen is a bit over-powered. It means that every now and again it will respond to your finger actually hovering a millimeter above the screen. Again – whether you like this or prefer a slightly less sensitive unit that might occasionally miss a click, is strictly a matter of personal preference.
Finally we have to mention that just like the regular Galaxy S, the I9010 Giorgio Armani has scratch resistant Gorilla glass.
Moving on, we find four touch-sensitive keys below the display. That’s one more than the original Galaxy S’s home, menu and back trio. The new addition is the dedicated search button so you don’t need to long-press the menu key to go to the Google search box.

User interface gets better

Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani runs on Android 2.2 Froyo and is one of the first Galaxy S phones to have it out of the box. As usual the TouchWiz overlay (or launcher as it’s technically called) is most prominent. It improves both looks and usability and integrates excellently to Android Froyo.
Despite the Giorgio Armani branding, there is almost no GA styling on the outside or any exclusive content inside. If you have used the previous Emporio Armani feature phone, you will recognize the Armani font, which is slightly different from the original Samsung one. The font, a wallpaper and a shortcut to GA’s website are the only GA things inside and barely pass have any added value by our books.

Since the user experience isn’t too much different from that on the other Galaxy S phones, we’ll reuse some portions of the text of our previous reviews. You can rest assured that we’ve reflected any differences we’ve seen.

 
 

The TouchWiz 3.0 user interface comes preinstalled on top of the Android OS

Let’s start with the homescreen. It accommodates up to seven homescreen panes, which can be managed as easy as never before. A pinch zooming out gesture takes you to the edit screen where you can add, remove and rearrange the panes as you see fit.

 

Add, delete or re-arrange homescreen panes with pinch zoom out gesture

Moving on, the Android 2.2-running I9010 Galaxy S GA brings a few new live wallpapers and lots of Armani still ones. You can find more wallpapers in the Android Market.

 

Live wallpapers • still wallpaper gallery

However the improved notification area is one of our favorites. Packing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and sound toggles on top since Eclair it now adds an automatic rotation switch. These handy shortcuts can save you a whole load of digging in the Settings.

 

The updated notification area

The lock screen has remained relatively unchanged – you now need to swipe to the left or right (rather than upwards) to remove the virtual glass pane covering your phone. There are cool alternative unlocking patterns too when you have a missed event – a message or a call.

 

The Lockscreen

The Samsung home-backed widgets are still here and even new ones are added. There are no GA exclusives though. Some of widgets are preinstalled, while others are available for free from the Samsung Apps repository. Still there are so many of those available over at the Android market that custom widgets are hardly considered a selling point any more.