How would you change the galaxy s?

[jollygoon]

Let's try not to answer with the obvious bashing of samsung's inability to release a useable froyo update and/or gps issues. Seriously guys how would you change it?

Me? A couple of things do spring to mind right away:
- the antennae hump at the back. I don't like it, take it away. It doesn't lend itself to an ergonomical, comfortable grip, does it?
- the file system. As I gather, this is the reason we need lag fixes. I actually do wanna know though, what are the advantages of this file system?
- I hate saying this but: the looks. C'mon seriously? It looks too much like an iphone! Granted, the iphone is a good looking phone but if I didn't know better I would've thought this was a knock off.

 

[Al3x4Fun]

true! the galaxy s is just an over sized iphone 3gs:|. But i like the design from the i7500. I think the can use it to Galaxy S too.

 

[snapper.fishes]

I wouldn't have bought this phone if it didn't look so much like the iPhone. I like the design. But the hump at the back is a little strange.

A Xenon flash would have been nice So will a real metal bezel.

 

[big_mike]

a flash would have gone down a treat!

 

[lobo76]

a flash would have gone down a treat!

really? flash on phones is really only usable as a torchlight.... I find that any pictures taken with the flash on tends to be overexposed.

 

[Socks]

browser needs to have bugs fixed...don't care if there are other options. I like this one, if only it wouldn't force close due to conflicts.


Swype keyboard needs to recognize more common words Furthermore should be able to recognize common phrases to simplify typing.

Optimize touch screen software there is a blatant lag time between input and action. Usually annoying while checking boxes in things like yahoo mail to select items.

More RAM.

4.75 inch screen

More processing power...

and being a verizon user I want that damn camera back and I should be able to use it with whatever program I want. Like a normal web camera.

One of those rubber roll up keyboards as an accessory would be nice for taking notes if coupled to a nice word processor

 

[LateNiteMike]

I love the design of the SGS. It's clean, sleek and beautiful....and I really like the understated elegance of the bezel.
I really don't mind the antenna hump.
I do have a problem though with the very smooth (slippery) surface of the backside (battery cover).
My solution was to get and install a black silicone matte surfaced cover (skin). It fixes the problem of the phone being too slippery in the hand....but unfortunately at the same time it also covers up the beauty of the bezel.
I do like the little sliding door over the usb port. That was a nice design touch.
Overall, I think it's a very nice piece of hardware.....and I think it looks better than the iPhones.

Oh yeah,....and the 4" Super Amoled display screen...is an absolute KILLER !

 

[NZtechfreak]

Changes:

- Agree with the design being too iPhone like
- Better quality materials
- S-AMOLED but with true subpixel matrix, rather than pentile
- HDMI out (while retaining its current TV Out connector)
- Remove RFS filesystem
- Have 1.8GB app install space as fast NAND memory
- Xenon flash
- Subtitle support in the video player

Probably some other stuff that will occur to me later...

 

[mikedt]

Move the antenna bump to the top from the bottom. So when the phone is resting on a desk it leans slightly towards one rather than away, as it currently does.

 

[Natwolf]

I love the design of the SGS. It's clean, sleek and beautiful....and I really like the understated elegance of the bezel.
I really don't mind the antenna hump.
I do have a problem though with the very smooth (slippery) surface of the backside (battery cover).
My solution was to get and install a black silicone matte surfaced cover (skin). It fixes the problem of the phone being too slippery in the hand....but unfortunately at the same time it also covers up the beauty of the bezel.
I do like the little sliding door over the usb port. That was a nice design touch.
Overall, I think it's a very nice piece of hardware.....and I think it looks better than the iPhones.

Oh yeah,....and the 4" Super Amoled display screen...is an absolute KILLER !

I fully concur with you LateNiteMilke, its a brilliant phone to date. I really think the back hump gives the phone more character rather than a plain old boring flat type back.

 

[Hark]

The hump is like the chin of the G1/Hero, gives the phone character as a couple of people have said.
Still while I don't mind it, but I'd have just made the phone slightly thicker and thrown in a bigger battery, it'd still be plenty thin. I prefer the back of the Captivate:

Samsung Galaxy S/SGH-I897 - XDA-Developers

As an alternative I'd get a replacement back (not a cover) to give a better grip/look&feel than the cheap plastic back without adding size that a cover gives. Been some talk of them on other forums but seems there's not much out there (yet).

I agree it's a bit too much an iPhone wannabee (hardware & Touchwiz), if I'd wanted an iPhone I'd have gotten one. I also miss the directional pad of the original Galaxy i7500 (or a trackball) as it's really handy when editing text.

A camera flash would be nice (as a flashlight as well as for photos) and considering the Fascinate got one I'm not sure why they left it out of the EU model. Still flash on a camera phone usually sucks (indeed I hardly even use it on my camera proper) so no biggee.

Filesystem, Swype, Browser bugs, lag, subtitle support are all software issues and will hopefully be fixed over time. Froyo is a nice improvement already, hopefully the final and future releases will make it even better. Just have to hope Samsung support this phone better than they have other phones in the past...

More RAM (or even replaceable!) for future proofing (Gingerbread) would've been nice.

Only had it 4 days, so not quite sure how I managed such a long list already... I do really love it. It's more little things though, the phone is really lovely.

 

[goyal.sanchit]

1.) Zenon or LED Flash. I used to use the LED flash EXTENSIVELY as a torch on my previous phone.

2.) After reading this thread I would agree the phone should have been less slipery. Currently I use a strap with my phone so that if the phone slips somehow it has better chances to get entangled and not fall off.

3.) Most important- Option to reduce brightness even further! The phone is way too bright even at lowest level and result in strain. The phone was useless for me until I found a market app which adds a filter over a screen and can make the screen very dim.

4.) Subtitle support in video support would have been good.

5.) Tabbed browsing in default browser.

 

[oilyrag]

Metal casing instead of plastic, LED or xenon flash and should have been shipped with the lag fix applied.

They should have just shipped stock Android, not wasted time and money developing software that nobody wants.

Just give us the best hardware possible and ship it with stock Android, we can take it from there.

The money saved from not writing crap code, could be spent on further refining the hardware.

 

[goyal.sanchit]

Just give us the best hardware possible and ship it with stock Android, we can take it from there.

Not everyone can take it from there and flash phones or ROOT them to install what they want.

I agree people on forums are knowledgable but there are lot more %age of normal users also.

 

[oilyrag]

Not everyone can take it from there and flash phones or ROOT them to install what they want.

I agree people on forums are knowledgable but there are lot more %age of normal users also.

This is exactly my point. If Samsung had removed all their bloatware from Froyo, all the major issues that people complain about would have disappeared about 2 months ago.

They should just build the best hardware possible and let Google write Android.

Nokia would clean up if they dumped Symbian and just went stock Android on this: Introducing Nokia N8

I bet an Android version of this phone would outsell Symbian at more than a 5 to 1 ratio.

 

[Andrewdroid]

1. All the Galaxy S phones should be similarly shaped because it's very annoying with the cases and the accessories. What's the point of this really? Standards, standards.

2. Every one of them should have the flash and front facing camera. Why is this only on one version of the Galaxy S???? And why is that version in Canada? Whatever. I don't understand... and that version isn't any more expensive with the unsubsidized price. No clue what the deal is here.

3. Every GSM version of the Galaxy S should be quad-band 3g. The iPhones are all like that, there's no need for this dumb tri-band stuff. At least the regular cellular is quad-band, it took the phone companies so long to start doing this though.

4. Fix that damn GPS issue for good.

5. Samsung could differentiate itself by offering special Samsung apps where Android lacks.. for instance a special backup tool that doesn't need root privileges to work efficiently.

 

[LateNiteMike]

This is not intended to replace my previous posting....rather it is in fact intended to supplement it in a relevant way. It has to do with the camera lens on the SGS.
Please refer to this other posting in this thread to see more specifically what it is I'm referring to.
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s/194983-lens-sticky-plastic.html

I still love my SGS but after my previous posting I discovered that it's far too easy to end up with blurred photos....because of oily fingerprint smudges on the SGS camera lens!
Any good photographer knows that it's wise to have and use a lens cap.
The SGS (as well as many other phones with cameras)...don't have one.

Ironically in my previous post in this thread I complimented the designer(s) of the SGS for putting a little sliding door over the USB port.
Yes, that was good.....but then....why in the hell didn't they think to do the same thing with the camera lens ???!!!
Looking back on the whole situation....If I had to choose between a cover for the USB port or a cover for the camera lens.....I'm gonna go for protecting the camera lens...for sure.
Without some sort of cover it's just too damn easy to end up with blurry photos from having smudges on the camera lens.

So, my tip for preventing getting blurry photos is in that other posting (above).
You might wanna check it out. It works for me.

 

[goyal.sanchit]

This is exactly my point. If Samsung had removed all their bloatware from Froyo, all the major issues that people complain about would have disappeared about 2 months ago.

They should just build the best hardware possible and let Google write Android.

Nokia would clean up if they dumped Symbian and just went stock Android on this: Introducing Nokia N8

I bet an Android version of this phone would outsell Symbian at more than a 5 to 1 ratio.

=======

If companies start using Stock android ONLY then they would loose heavily in the long run. This was also mentioned by an Ex-nokia official also recently.


If everyone is using stock Android then the only differentiating thing is hardware. There is no brand made. If tomorrow some other company launch a phone with good hardware people would move to that.


HTC sells many of its phones because of its Sense user interface. Touchwiz should be improved but removing it completely might not be good for samsung.

 

[wellmiss]

I would like a better way to handle contacts. Its either last, first first last, no sorting by company, and if your contacts come from your google account you cannot edit them from the phone.

This is an app question, why do apps need to have access to your contacts? I would understand if it was a new contact manager. I just dont understand when apps for say finding a place to eat...why would they need to "read your phone state" and why would they need your personal information?

 

[Shocky]

Xenon Flash (LED Flash is useless, other than use as a torch)
1GB Memory (Having only around 300MB usable right now is a bit of a joke)
Higher Quality Material (Don't care myself, but it would shut up the whiners)
HDMI Out (Arent we ment to have USB to HDMI out soon?)

 

[EarlZ]

In terms of build quality, the home button is the weakest link.. I dont even ever wipe the home screen button coz I know even a micro-fiber cloth will scratch it.. and on my phone it has a gazillion scratches already from my bare skin