This is a stylish and smooth handset from Samsung. It has a similar look to the iPhone 3G/3GS with its silver bezel and black finish, even the ear piece looks the similar. The phone is surprisingly lightweight and slim even though it is packed full of features.

The phone has a large 4 inch high definition touchscreen, which is exceptional, the image quality is brilliant and bright, and viewable from most angles. The touchscreen is also perfectly responsive and has some multi-touch functions, it is easy and smooth to use. Powered by Samsung's Hummingbird 1GHz processor, there is no lag and the phone operates quickly and with ease.

The phone runs on Android, however Samsung has customised the interface and it looks and behaves much more like an iPhone. This welcome customisation is simple, intuitive and easy to use.

The interface also includes Swype functionality built in to the onscreen keyboard. Swype is a new way of composing words, by starting with the first letter then moving your finger to the next letter of the word without taking your finger off the screen. Its hard to describe in words, so check out the video demo to see how it works.

The Galaxy S features a 5 megapixel camera with a host of functions such as auto focus, self shot, action shot, smile shot and panorama shot. The camera can also record HD video. The quality of the video is great as well as the photo quality, however the lack of a flash means low light pictures are not so good. GPS and WiFi comes as standard as does the Augmented Reality layer application.

Overall in our opinion this is one of the best Samsung handsets to date and is the best Android handset we have used to date. The phone seems to take some styling and interface ideas from the iPhone, which is not a bad thing and this handset could be a true competitor for the iPhone. For those who want a good quality, high feature touchscreen smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S should definitely be considered.

Click here to view our hands on preview video

Click here to view our Swype demo video

Summary:

• Good Points: Touchscreen, stylish, lightweight
• Bad Points: no camera flash
• Others to consider: Apple iPhone
• Free on contract with: Vodafone