The Samsung Galaxy S Pro is real. We know that, of course, because we’ve seen a picture of it with Sprint branding. But what we haven’t had is specs or any hands-on impressions — until now.
We’ve got details from a tried-and-true tipster of what may well end up being the hottest phone of the year — a tall order, indeed, given what we’ve seen from HTC so far this year, and what’s coming out from Motorola. Let’s discuss after the break.
First, let’s preface this by saying that we wouldn’t be surprised to see some of what you’re about to read may well change by the time this phone launches. From what we’re told, things are still very much in the testing phase, and so it’s not unusual for some things — especially on the software side — to be changed up. But now, the juicy parts.
Samsung Galaxy S Pro hardware
- Size: It’s a tad shorter (about a half-inch) and more narrow (about three-eights of an inch) than the Sprint Evo 4G, but it’s thick. Not surprising, given the slide-out keyboard.
- Keyboard: Slider mechanism is very smooth and clicks in place when closed. The keys are raised, made of soft plastic. They’re pretty firm when pressed.
- Body: Our tipster wasn’t impressed by the plastic feel, though it could just be a prototype thing.
- Processor: Samsung/Intrinsity ARM Cortex A8 @ 1GHz.
- Screen: “Gorgeous,” which is about what we hear anybody say when they’re first exposed to Super AMOLED. Blacks are very dark, “almost look wet.” Font edges look a tad fuzzy, like on the Nexus One. But when viewing white text on a black background, they’re very easy to read. The resolution appears to be 480×800. The screen size is noticeably smaller than the Evo 4G, but bigger than the Nexus One. So it may well be the same 4-inch screen that’s on the Galaxy S. Very responsive, only needed a light touch. “Never used anything so fluid.” Feels a little plasticy.
- Memory: 512MB of RAM. There was 8.2 gigabytes of ROM, which possibly could be re-allocated to phone storage/internal storage, much like the Verizon Droid Incredible. But that’s speculation on our part.
- WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n.
- Cameras: 5MP rear-facing camera with 1x optical zoom, 720p recording. Front-facing camera is VGA.
- Other radios: EVDO Rev. A./Wimax. Additional SIM card slot points to possible World phone.
Samsung Galaxy S Pro software impressions
OK, so this is where we’d expect more movement before launch. But here’s what we were told:
- Sounds like the TouchWiz 3.0 customizations are on board. (Which our tipster wasn’t crazy about but says “really cool scrolling people widget makes up for it.”)
- Android 2.1-update 1 was on board. No word if it’ll launch with it or Froyo.
- As for video, H.264 and Divx both worked fine.
- Usual Sprint software was on board, and Sprint TV worked fine over 4G, 3G and Wifi (on the Evo 4G, it doesn’t work on Wifi).
So that’s it for now. We’re sure we’ll flesh this out some by launch time — whenever that is — and it’s possible we may see it announced in a week or so at the New York event. Let’s hope so, as the Galaxy S Pro is shaping up to be another (yes, another) must-have phone this year.