[Galaxy S I9000 General] AXIS of Reality:
For the various differences:

SCREEN

Big improvement, especially in sunlight, but everyone knows that already. I like the 4" size too as, for me at least, it's the perfect balance between screen real estate and usability (larger than 4" and you need to start shifting your hand to reach stuff).

The other thing to consider is that the Galaxy S has a far better capacitive touch sensor, so none of the multitouch issues of the HTC phones and it feels much more responsive to me. It's also made from Gorilla glass, so much stronger than regular glass and coming from the HTC Hero feels a lot less frictiony for me. My fingers seem to be able to glide across it much better than my old Hero and iPod Touch 2nd Gen.

SPEED / POWER

The Hummingbird CPU in the Galaxy S is known to be a fair share more powerful than the Snapdragon in the Nexus One / Desire, as can be seen by comparing the Nexus One <2.2 and the Galaxy S <2.2 bars in the graphs shown by the previous poster. The difference is, the Nexus One has Froyo now which provides a HUGE performance boost, hence the massive bar in the top of the graph. Froyo has been confirmed for a Korean launch in August, and most likely then international in September. Can you wait until then is the major question, but from a usability standpoint the Galaxy S is very snappy and the latest beta firmwares have mostly fixed the lag issues.

The GPU is FAR more powerful, so if gaming is your thing you'll find there isn't a single Android game that is anything less than flawlessly smooth, even Gameloft's games such as NOVA.

BUILD QUALITY

Here's where we need some distinction. There's a big difference between build quality and materials.

The materials are where the Galaxy S isn't quite as nice as HTC's phones. The front is great, but the rear is glossy plastic which is quite slippery and incredibly easy to smudge. Simply put, it doesn't 'feel' as premium as the Nexus One or Desire's soft-touch plastic and aluminium. Easily fixed with a case though.

That being said, the build quality is still top notch, with no creaking or flex in the phone. The gorilla glass screen is strong, and the plastics are suitably hard. Nothing feels loose or weak.

So basically, the phone is strong and well made, they just should have used some nicer-feeling materials to give it the premium feel and look its hardware deserves. It would also be nice if they hadn't aped the iPhone 3GS look, although I must admit I'm getting used to it and holding it next to a 3GS in an Apple store today it actually made the 3GS look cheap and nasty (especially the screen and chunkiness).

SOFTWARE (TOUCH-WIZ 3.0)

I was cringing when I saw the screenshots and photos of what Samsung had done. It looked cartoony and quite frankly amateurish. After using it, I actually don't mind it anymore since one of the key things is having a solid black background. Being a Super AMOLED display, it's actually pretty much impossible to see where the edge of the screen is with black next to it, giving the impression the text is actually floating on the black glass.

It does use some wild colours like the iPhone-esque apps menu, but in the end I wouldn't say it's any better or worse than stock Android. Just a bit different.

Functionality-wise however, it does have some good improvements. Being able to jump to messaging or email straight from the lock screen if you've gotten something new while it was locked is great, as is having music controls in the notifications pull-down list (very very handy!). The best thing has to be having the wifi / bluetooth / gps / silent mode buttons in the notification list at all times. Google should add this themselves!

They've got a few widgets (mostly meh) but a very good task manager in the latest firmware, and some of their apps are surprisingly good. The email one works well, and their music player is an improvement over the stock Android one and even includes a custom equaliser.

If you don't like Samsung's stuff, you can just use Launcher Pro to get back to stock easy, no probs at all.

OTHER GOOD STUFF

It's been shown the Galaxy S actually has the best sound quality for any Android phone via headphones, on par with the iPhones in absolute minimal distortion or interference. No background buzz and full dynamic range is fantastic! Sammy did a good job with the media.

Speaking of which, it supports tons of media formats such as FLAC for audiophiles, and for video it can do MP4 as per usual, but also FLV, MKV, DIVX, XVID and WMV! It's the best Android media phone by far.

Internal memory is also either 8gb or 16gb (depending on country), including 2gb for installing apps as well as obviously having MicroSD. Again, great for media.

The phone itself is very light thanks to the use of plastics without feeling flimsy, and is extremely thin for its size. Holding an iPhone 3GS today made the iPhone feel positively bloated!

A good sign Sammy has changed its ways from poor Android support is the nearly constant flow of new beta firmwares recently, some separated by a matter of hours! These have each been fixing bugs and improving performance as well as adding some new features such as the task manager.

Froyo has been confirmed for August in Korea and most likely September everywhere else, but of course no word on Gingerbread.

The battery life is reportedly better than the Nexus One and Desire, although I haven't owned either of them and can't comment.

ISSUES / PROBLEMS

The most widely known problem with the Galaxy S is the GPS issue, with it being very shaky getting a connection. Recent beta firmwares have improved this somewhat, but it's still so much of an issue that if you use GPS a lot you should probably avoid the Galaxy S. I never use GPS anyway, so not a problem for me though. :D

Also the firmware that ships on the Galaxy S is quite buggy with random stalling / lagging. The recent leaked beta firmwares have mostly fixed this as well as some fixes found by xda members, but simply put the Galaxy S firmwares are nowehre near the Nexus One or Desire's in terms of polish and maturity yet, so be aware.

It's also unlikely we'll see many radical custom firmwares with the Samsung drivers being encrypted, so no massive ports or huge variety of roms like the Nexus One / Desire. Mostly just themes and optimisations.

The camera is also lacking a flash, which is a big omission for many people but like the GPS issue I rarely use my phone for photos anywhere. :rolleyes: It's like the Galaxy S's drawbacks were specifically designed to not apply to me, haha.

All in all, I love the Galaxy S. I had an HTC Hero and was a big Sense fan, but I've found the Galaxy S offers everything I want.

Just be aware the firmware is still reasonably buggy and performance isn't at the level of a Froyo-running Nexus yet, but should definitely overtake it once Froyo is released for the Galaxy S's superior CPU and far superiour GPU. If you're happy flashing your phone with the new firmwares that keep being leaked and provide bug fixes while we wait for an official firmware release, the Galaxy S should keep you happy. :)

-----

Wow. I just started typing and didn't realise what a marathon it is! Congrats if you managed to read it all!