Friday, June 25, 2010

MAXIS Android offers : htc DESIRE vs Samsung GALAXY S

War of the premium Androids from Maxis

On 27 May,  Maxis launched the htc Desire at KLCC. This coming weekend on  25 till 27 Jun, Maxis will launch another premium Android phone, the  Samsung Galaxy S at Sunway Pyramid ( LG2, Blue Wing Section E ).

Buyers will now have 2 great choices of these higher end non-keyboard Androids

Special pricing plans are offered with any of the following rates and data plans:
Rates Plans : Value Plus 50 or 80 or 150 or 250 or 500 AND a corresponding Data Plan ( 12 months contract ) of 500 MB ( RM 58 )  or 1.5 GB ( RM 78 ) or 3 GB ( RM 88 ).

Details of offer : http://www.maxis.com.my:80/personal/android/Android_Phones.asp
Brief comparison on specs , major differences highlighted in bold:

Quad band
Handsfree loudspeaker
Bluetooth
GPS
FM radio
5 megapixel camera
Wi-Fi
Touchscreen
Weight: 118 grammes
Height: 122mm
Width: 64mm
Depth: 10mm
Internal Memory: 16GB
Expandable Memory: 32GB
Screen Size: 4 Inches
Screen Resolution: 480 x 800 Pixels Super Amoled
Camera Specifications: 5 megapixels, autofocus, geo-tagging, face and smile detection
Operating System: Android OS v2.1



Quad band
Handsfree loudspeaker
Bluetooth
GPS
FM radio
5 megapixel camera
Wi-Fi
Touchscreen
Weight: 130 grammes
Height: 119mm
Width: 60mm
Depth: 11mm
Internal Memory: 1GB
Expandable Memory: 32GB
Screen Size: 3.7 Inches
Screen Resolution: 480 x 800 Pixels Amoled
Camers Specifications: 5 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash, smile detection, geo-tagging
Operating System: Android OS v2.1


Deciding on which phone depends fully on one's needs of the features available. This is my personal opinion of the 2 phones :

Samsung Galaxy S:
I'd say the most obvious advantage here over the Desire is the Super Amoled screen which offer several advantages over the normal Amoled screen :
- lower power consumption estimated at 20% resulting in better battery life
- Superior viewing under sunlight , Samsung's official measurement is 80 % less sunlight reflection
- the display offers a 180 degree angle, meaning at eye level view images can still be seen without blurring or distortion
- Very high contrast ratio 100,000 to 1 : unmatched vivid colors and clarity
- Brighter display estimate at 20 % better

The internal memory of 16GB is very impressive and it'd be ideal for those who wishes to dump movies/audios onto internal memory instead of the SD card.

HTC Desire :
The strong points of the htc Desire is in its builtin software. The fully customized htc Sense interface with its attractive clock/dynamic weather widget is first class with no competition from others. Samsung products has consistently  failed to match HTC's implementation of user friendliness and it smoothness in touchscreen operation. The web reviews on the Galaxy is mainly and  heavily emphasized on its screen.
Those who like to customized and tinker with customized roms, application of modified themes etc will love the Desire. Such flexibility and enhancements  are terribly lacking and very limited for Samsung; infact the interface of this Samsung Galaxy S is more iPhone like.

Based on my needs, my choice will be the HTC Desire . If htc Desire adopts the screen of the Galaxy S , it'd be the perfect Android smartphone. But again, one can never have the best of both worlds !

CNet  had posted a voter's choice in its site.  To date,  the score reads 59 % for the HTC Desire and 49 % for the Samsung Galaxy S. It's a close fight and will continue to be so with each one gaining and losing against one another with time.

A must watch video done by Zenkinz . As it's mostly in Chinese you can read his full review at his blog : http://journal.zenyee.com/2010/06/20/galaxy-is-surreally-desirable/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvnzBtZimS4


Comparing the hardware :
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgCCgLdmR7c



Links to view other comparisons :
http://sefanboy.com/2010/03/29/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-vs-htc-desire-bravo/
http://www.fonehome.co.uk/2010/06/11/htc-desire-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-—-lords-of-android-do-battle/
http://www.mobileshop.com/blog/mobile-phone-blogs/htc-desire-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-the-uber-powerful-showdown/

On going forum discussions :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6008246
http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/77535-samsung-galaxy-s-vs-htc-desire.html

6 comments:

  1. nice comparison.
    as for the specification "Screen Resolution: 480 x 118 Pixels Super Amoled", i believe it is 480x800? 118g is ther weight.same goes with desire spec.

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  2. Correction : there are no LED flash support for Samsung Galaxy S i9000

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  3. wow, i never thought my father (which is nearly to your age) would have same interest on smartphones like you. You are one techno-gadget-old-man ! Even me myself can't come out with reviews like these. Keep it up coz I just put your blog in my bookmarks :)

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  4. Thanks for the review....Mr.Lee, I really need this review as I'm a bit unsure which one to buy..I guess..base on yr review..HTC will suits me better..:-).

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  5. Hi, I have been here for a few times already. There were some really nice reviews here.

    I would like to point out that the internal storage in HTC Desire is not 1GB. In fact, the available storage for apps and games is only 150mb.

    At the end of the day, I chose HTC Desire, based on the fact that the build quality is better and has a slight advantage in RAM; 64MB extra. The battery cover of HTC Desire is particularly difficult to crack open but it leaves no space between the cover and the phone itself. Hence, it is tightly secure.

    Even with the low internal storage, the new Froyo allows users to install apps and games on to SD Card. If you have a rooted HTC Desire with custom ROM, you gain more and space is not really a problem.

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  6. Samsung Galaxy S currently has a problem with its GPS function, which according to Samsung will be fixed sometime in September. So currently, I still think HTC Desire is a better phone with better build quality.

    ReplyDelete