Samsung Galaxy S: A carrier-by-carrier guide

Samsung Galaxy S: A carrier-by-carrier guide

Samsung's long-anticipated Galaxy S smartphone is now officially headed to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular. Yes, a desirable handset actually available on multiple carriers -- a novel concept, eh?

While you'll be able to get the Samsung Galaxy S in plenty of places, though, each network is putting its own twist on the offering. Here's a breakdown of what you can expect from one carrier to another.

[This story is from the new Android Power blog at Computerworld. Follow@AndroidPower on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to make sure you don't miss a beat.]

Samsung Galaxy S: What's Consistent

Regardless of which carrier you go to or what name the phone is given, all of the upcoming U.S. editions of the Samsung Galaxy S have a few things in common.

The Galaxy S has a 4-inch, 800-by-480 Super AMOLED display and runs on Samsung's 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor. The phone has a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with 720p HD video capture. It'll ship with Android 2.1 and is on-track to get the Android 2.2 upgrade, though no specific time frames have been announced by any of the carriers thus far. All of the Galaxy S models also feature Samsung's Social Hub, the company's equivalent of Motorola's Motoblur or HTC's Sense user interface.

[Related: Android 2.2 hits Nexus One -- so who's next?]

The Samsung Galaxy S has both an accelerometer and a gyroscope (or a gyroscope thingie, if you want to use the technical term). Driven by a six-axis sensor, the tools are said to provide a smoother response to your tilting and panning, particularly during game play.

Those are the basics; from there, you'll have to look to each carrier's model to see what you'll get.

Samsung Galaxy S on AT&T: The Samsung Captivate

Branded as the Samsung Captivate, AT&T's version of the Galaxy S comes with 16GB of internal storage and supports microSD cards up to 16GB. AT&T has not yet indicated, however, what (if any) SD card it'll actually include with the phone by default.

AT&T's Samsung Captivate will have a handful of AT&T-specific apps such as its AT&T Address Book, AT&T Navigator, and AT&T Family Map. And, if past AT&T Android handsets are any indication, the Captivate will likely be locked down by the carrier, meaning the ability to install non-Market apps and have complete control of your phone will be stripped away.

• Available: Sometime "in the coming months"
• Price: Not yet announced

• Register for updates from AT&T here

Samsung Galaxy S on Sprint:  The Samsung Epic 4G

Sprint's edition of the Galaxy S, the Samsung Epic 4G, is perhaps the most distinguished of all the Galaxy S devices. The Epic 4G has a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard and a front-facing camera. It's capable of utilizing Sprint's 4G network and also comes with a mobile hotspot option (presumably for an added fee, like with the EVO 4G -- though you can always accomplish single-device Android tethering for free, if you know how).

Sprint will include a 16GB microSD card with the Epic 4G. It's not immediately clear what kind of internal storage the device will have.

• Available: Date not yet announced
• Price: Not yet announced
• Register for updates from Sprint here

Samsung Galaxy S on T-Mobile: The Samsung Vibrant

The Galaxy S ships as the Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile. The Vibrant stands out mainly for the added software T-Mobile is including with the device: The phone comes preloaded with Amazon's Kindle for Android app, a 30-day subscription to MobiTV, and a month of free in-flight Wi-Fi access via Gogo Inflight Internet. It also includes a 2GB microSD card with a copy of Avatar as well as an "exclusive collector's edition of a popular game" (vague enough for you?).

The Vibrant will have some options for color customization, too: You can pick between a dark blue or lavender battery cover upon buying the device.

Aside from the included 2GB SD card, T-Mobile hasn't yet disclosed what kind of storage the phone will have. The carrier does say, however, that the devicesupports up to 32GB of external memory.

• Available: July 21; preorders begin July 1 at all U.S. RadioShack locations
• Price: $199.99, with two-year contract
• Register for updates from T-Mobile here

Samsung Galaxy S on Verizon: The Samsung Fascinate

Our final major-carrier contender is Verizon's Galaxy S, the Samsung Fascinate. The Fascinate will have 2GB of internal storage with a 16GB microSD card included. The phone, like Verizon's Droid X, will feature optional mobile hotspot functionality. Verizon hasn't yet released an image of the Fascinate, so it's not entirely clear whether the device will have any unique aesthetical elements.

One odd thing that caught my eye with the Fascinate: The phone will come preloaded with Bing Maps and Bing Search, a curious and rather atypical move by Verizon. The Fascinate will also have Verizon's standard suite of software, including its V CAST Music with Rhapsody, V CAST Video on Demand, and VZ Navigator applications.

• Available: Date not yet announced
• Price: Not yet announced

Samsung Galaxy S on U.S. Cellular

Small-fry carrier U.S. Cellular is hopping on the Galaxy S bandwagon, too. Aside from the standard basics, U.S. Cellular has yet to release any specifics about its device -- including what name it'll use -- so it's tough to say much about how its offering might compare to the major carriers' editions.

• Available: Sometime in the fall
• Price: Not yet announced

Samsung's Galaxy S scores in benchmarks

Samsung's Galaxy S scores in benchmarks

Samsung announced its flagship Android device, the Galaxy S (I9000), last week for Asia. The company is wasting no time to getting it to the hands of users. In fact, those in Singapore will be able to purchase one at the end of this week. We've just received an evaluation unit and will be doing a full review soon.

The new Hummingbird processor in the Galaxy S. (Credit: Samsung)

One of the most interesting things about the I9000 is its Samsung S5PC110 or Hummingbird processor. This chip is clocked at 1GHz and based on the Cortex A8 architecture. Announced late last year, the Hummingbird's full specifications are still not available on Samsung's semiconductor Web site. But at CTIA in the US early this year, Samsung revealed that the chip is capable of processing 90 million triangles per second, thanks to the PowerVR SGX 3D graphics engine. In comparison, the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor used in devices such as theHTC Desire and Google Nexus One does up to 22 million triangles per second.
With the Galaxy S in our labs, we decided to run a few quick benchmarks to see how it stacks up against the HTC Desire and Nexus One smartphones. The apps used were Linpack for Android, Benchmark from developer Softweg Studio and Neocore from Qualcomm.
These applications are freely available from the Android market. In the case of Benchmark, we focused on CPU performance and 2D graphics performance. Neocore measured 3D performance as it rendered a videogame-like sequence, reporting the resulting frames per second (fps) achieved. PC gamers will recognize this process as being similar to using 3DMark on a computer.
Here are the results.

Linpack for Android
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Samsung Galaxy S (1GHz Samsung S5PC110 processor, 512MB RAM)

8.419

Google Nexus One (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 512MB RAM)

6.940

HTC Desire (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 576MB RAM)

7.003

Benchmark by Softweg CPU performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Samsung Galaxy S (1GHz Samsung S5PC110 processor, 512MB RAM)

783

Google Nexus One (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 512MB RAM)

704

HTC Desire (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 576MB RAM)

695

Benchmark by Softweg 2D graphics performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Samsung Galaxy S (1GHz Samsung S5PC110 processor, 512MB RAM)

31.68

Google Nexus One (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 512MB RAM)

28.42

HTC Desire (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 576MB RAM)

28.46

Neocore 3D graphics in fps
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Samsung Galaxy S (1GHz Samsung S5PC110 processor, 512MB RAM)

55.7

Google Nexus One (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 512MB RAM)

26.5

HTC Desire (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor, 576MB RAM)

26.5

As shown by the charts above, the Galaxy S beat the two HTC-made devices by a bit for CPU and 2D graphics performance. But when it came to 3D graphics performance, the I9000 trumped the Qualcomm-equipped smartphones, achieving more than twice the frame rates of both the Nexus One and Desire (see video below).

These tests were performed on devices running Android 2.1. As some other reports have shown, the Nexus One is even faster with Android 2.2 (Froyo), improving upon its Eclair benchmarks, especially in terms of CPU performance. Given what the Galaxy S is capable of now, it's mouthwatering to imagine what it can do with a Froyo update. Samsung has said this will come eventually but hasn't committed to a release date.
Does this mean the Samsung Galaxy S is the Android phone to get? Well, there are other factors to consider, most of which we will explore in full in a thorough review. Watch out for that in the next few days.