Samsung Galaxy S

You've got the whole world in your hands!

ARRRGGHHH! OH MY GOD I MUST GET AN IPHONE! MUST GET AN IPHONE! MUST GET AN IPHONE!

Sound familiar? Yeah, we know it does. Some of us were in a similar mindset at one point. That was until a week or two back when four seperate people we know had to return their iPhone 4's for completely different reasons. So despite the fact that we aren't left handed, or that we'd try our best not to hold it on its side, we decided to look elsewhere.

What should fall into our laps other than the BRAND SPANKING NEW Samsung Galaxy S? After staring at it in the box for a while watching it glimmer in the light, we bunged our sim card in and went to town.

The first impression? It looks very alike to an iPhone, and in a way, works like one too. Except it does it better. The screen is bigger, the HD camera is better (thanks to more modes than you can shake a stick at, including a rather swish panoramic setting, although it would've been nice to have a flash), the battery lasts longer and is replacable to boot, and it's very easy to get to grips with. We've not even had to read the manual yet! You add all your accounts (email, facebook, twitter) through the same section of the phone, and it will sync all that data with any of your existing contacts, making for quick and easy texts, emails, or even tweets if you're feeling saucy.

You know all those people that jailbreak their iPhones so they can customise where the icons go and all that jazz? No need to do that with this baby, it's fully customisable from the start. Just hold your finger down on the app/icon in question, and you can drag it out onto one of the many avaiable home screens. You can also place widgets, such as weather reports and the like seen down the side of Windows Vista desktops.

The audio is incredible, pumping out rather impressive bass whilst remaining clear and crisp all out of one little speaker on the back of the phone. Get some decent music on it and you'll be able to outshine any of those prats that sit around and play rubbish music out loud on their phones!

Despite its aesthetic resemblance to the iPhone, and being nearly a milimetre thicker (WATCH OUT POCKET SPACE), it only weighs in at 118g, compared to the iPhone 4's 137g. It also has upgradable memory via an SD card slot, hidden nicely next to the SIM card.

A new form of typing texts has been introduced called Swype, where you drag your finger from letter to letter in order to form the complete word, and eventually sentence, as the more you use your phone, the more it will know what you're gonna say next. Kind of like when you've been in a relationship for too long, but in a good way. Google Talk is also available for IM purposes, and all the others (MSN etc) are ready for download through the Android Marketplace. You still have the standard QWERTY keyboard on screen with rather intelligent predictive text, or you can switch back to kick it old school with an onscreen keypad and get your texting thumb back into its groove.

On the subject of apps, there is also the Samsung specific application portal, which offers programs exclusive to Samsung phones, one of which is the rather special Road SMS, that allows you to see through the camera when texting so you don't bump into anything when walking down the road. Pre-installed on the phone apps are Layar, which helps you find things in a strange town (like Romford), Mini Diary that allows you to associate daily text with pictures, and Aldiko eBook, so you have something to broaden your horizons when stuck on the bus/train/other smelly form of public transport.

All in all? The only downside is no Flash. Everything else is a positive. If you want a smartphone that can do everything an iPhone can without wanting an iPhone, pick it up. You won't regret it. It's ok to hold however you want!

Here are some specs for the tech heads:

Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors - 480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches
ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor
8 GB/16GB storage, 512 MB RAM, 2GB ROM
Bluetooth
Up to 750 h (2G) / Up to 576 h (3G) on Standby
Up to 13 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 30 min (3G) of Talktime