Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani review

A decent 5 megapixel snapper

The Galaxy S lineup is staying out of the megapixel race and the I9010 Giorgio Armani is no exception – it packs a 5MP camera, which seems to be the norm for higher end Androids. This one’s also bare of accessories though – no flash, not even a shutter key.

The user interface is standard Samsung for the most part – and that’s not a bad thing. It’s easily thumbable and offers readily accessible scene and shooting modes. Geotagging, face and smile detection are enabled too.

Galaxy S GA camera interface

The Samsung Galaxy S GA similar to its siblings lacks a dedicated shutter key and the virtual shutter key that’s not even half-pressable are to the detriment of the camera but once you get used to it, Samsung’s solution is quite good.

You use the touch focus feature to focus on your subject and tap the shutter key – the camera auto-focus is among the fastest we’ve seen. This makes focusing on the subject (and possibly reframing the shot to observe the rule of thirds) by half-pressing the shutter obsolete. You frame the shot how you want it, focus on what you want and snap the photo – it takes some getting used to, but in the end it works fine.

The camera offers a wide range of photography features, almost anything you can find in a cameraphone – blink detection, image stabilization, geotagging, smile detection, face detection and auto contrast.

The Samsung I9010 Galaxy S image quality is about average for the 5 megapixel league. The resolved detail is hardly impressive but colors are nicely rendered and contrast is pretty good. The metering seems a bit too enthusiastic, which works out fine in most cases but results in highlight clipping occurring slightly more often than usual.

Check out a few samples and judge for yourselves.

Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani

Photo quality comparison

We’ve also added the Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani to the database of our Photo Compare Tool. The Tool’s page has a quick how to guide and also what to look for.

Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani in the Photo Compare Tool

Video recording does HD

The Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani is capable of shooting 720p videos.

The camcorder interface has the same layout as the still camera one.

Camcorder interface

The video recording is actually the better half of the I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani camera. The HD footage recorded in mp4 format comes up perfectly smooth with enough resolution and natural colors. Digital noise is also pretty well kept under control.

A touch of extra saturation might have made the videos even punchier, but would also lead to some unpleasant side effects – more unnatural colors and color clipping.

Samsung I9010 Galaxy S Giorgio Armani 720p video sample

You can also download the untouched sample, taken straight from the device.

The Galaxy S GA’s camcorder is one of the very few phones to feature continuous autofocus. Similar to the XPERIA X10, it may take a few seconds to refocus after you reframe, but unless it’s very rapid action you are trying to capture (and cameraphones aren’t particularly good at that anyway) this won’t bother you too much. In fact we prefer this approach instead of fast and constant re-focusing which in the end may ruin the video completely.

Here's a short video to show you how it adjusts.

Connectivity

The I9010 Galaxy S GA covers its connectivity bases alright – worldwide ready quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSPA with download rates of up to 7.2 Mbps and upload at 5.76 Mbps.

Similar to the first Galaxy S phone – the I9000 GA offers Wi-Fi (b/g/n), the new Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP support and USB v2.0. The USB interface is standard microUSB, which makes finding a suitable cable a lot easier.

Android 2.2 Froyo allows file transfers via Bluetooth, so there’s little else left to ask for.

Besides its 16GB integrated storage, the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S supports microSD cards of up to 32GB. The slot is under the battery cover. There is also 2GB of ROM, with 1.5 GB free space for app installation. As you know Android 2.2 Froyo enables installing apps on the memory card and the extra internal storage, so you shouldn’t be concerned about insufficient space.

The 3.5 mm standard audio port completes the connectivity tally. You can keep your favorite headphones and use them with the Galaxy S GA hassle-free.