My full comparison SGS vs X10( Now with some pictures)!

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Ok here im going to compare the x10 and the SGS in as many departments as possible.

Build quality, the feel.

There is no doubt in my mind that both these phones are light especially when compared to the Motorola droid/milestone. However, if you have ever held an sgs you will quickly realise that it is like a feather, and to be honest you would never want it to fall unto the ground because it feels like it would just smash into a million Pieces. The X10 on the other hand manages the perfect balance, its light but no so light that you need to take special care to prevent it from getting broken.

Build quality, durability

Now, because I have not actually gone out of my way to damage any of the phones i cant tell you just how durable both are. But I must admit in this section i can safely say the x10 can take a beating, and I cant help but praise sony for adding the extra screen protector thing. The sgs on the other hand is a different story i have actually had to buy a case just in case i actually drop it.

Appearance

Now this is down to personal preference. The sgs has been likened to the iphone, which it does a little bit, and without a case people will definitely mistake it for one. A complete fail in originality. The x10 has a far more masculine appearance, and i love the fact it has a matte back plate so it wont get scratched.





Screen refer to previous thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=771707

UI
Both are pretty poor in my opinion compared to sense at least, but the sgs one is so reminiscent of an iphone i changed it within 10 mins.

Camera,
Both cameras have a wealth of options e.g smile detection, macro mode etc.(the sgs does not have a camera button)
It is a well know fact the x10 has a 8 mp camera while the sgs has a 5mp one. But is it a straight win for the x10? simple answer, no.

Day Time
Taking pictures in the day almost always looks better on the x10 than the sgs, thats a fact. However, If like me you rarely upload pictures onto the computer, then the sgs screen does make its pictures look better initially.

Night time
The X10 has a flash(well a light) so you would think that night time pictures would look better. Unfortunately the flash is only ever useful in extremely dark conditions and when it comes to low light people have described the pictures as grainy. The sgs has no light but what I have noticed is that low light pictures tend to look better possibly as a result of Samsung trying to make up for the lack of flash. But this could be the screen deceiving me again.(I havent compared them for a while though i will do so later).

Close up
This may be a software limitation but my x10 struggles in this department when looking at text. It never get the fine lines in the writing and i usually have to pull to camera quite far from the page to get it to even focus. The sgs does this flawlessly and I was amazed by the level of detail i could get, i can safely say this was nothing to do with the screen. I have seen some amazing pictures on this forum of flowers taken by the x10 so i will have to do some further testing.

Making Calls

A problem I have seen on this forum is that people complain about low call volume on the x10, something which I have not experienced. Overall both phones are good enough in this department although the sgs has got a higher maximum volume. Vibration is weak on both phones and the speakerphone is significantly louder on the sgs. (This is my personal preference, but i like the fact in the call window of the sgs the end call button is huge, and the speaker and call pad buttons are within a touches distance while on the x10 you have to pull up another menu)

Messaging,

Again in this section the sgs has blatantly copied the iphone, however that is to its advantage because the messaging interface is generally nicer to look at(personal preference) Also the pre-installed swype keyboard is a nice addition (can also be installed on the x10). One thing that pisses me off is the lack of a notification led on the sgs, instead they have put a camera which is frankly useless( to me anyway). Although there is an option to install an app to do the same job, its just not the same.

Multimedia, Music

Music sounds great on both devices when using these sony ex500

The sgs does have the advantage of an customizable EQ which is great, also the playlists can be more than 20 songs and its much easier to navigate (this is an advantage of a separate music app). On the X10 i did have trouble skipping track while driving which i did not with the sgs. I do like the uniqueness of the x10 media scape though.

Multimedia, radio

Well the sgs has a radio the x10 does not, quite simple

Multimedia, video

What I have noticed is that the x10 has a longer screen which is nice for wide screen films but that is where the joy ends for the x10.

The sgs has support for basically everything i could throw at it, mkv, avi,flv, you name it. The ability to download films and just dump them on the 8gb(or in my case 16gb) internal memory is simply fantastic. No need for conversion or anything. The video player has its own brightness, colour tone settings as well as an outdoor visibility mode and the quality is outstanding (the best on any phone i have witnessed.) The x10 can play videos once converted and it is very sharp, maybe even a tiny bit sharper than the sgs, but if your watching a video you will hardly notice.

Edit: The x10 can use an app called rockplayer, so it too can play a load of formats(oh the joys of android)


GPS,

Gps on the galaxy is pretty poor, and you can not drive anywhere with it, unless you want to end up in a nearby river.(a software fix has been reported to be coming though). Well the x10 gps is perfect, no complaints here.

Speed

Both have 1ghz processors but the x10 doesnt really lag at all. On the other hand the sgs lags as soon as you get down to business, the lag is not serious but more like a 2 second wait before an app opens (it can be frustrating). Thankfully there is a lag fix which has been made and it works well but most users are waiting for the official fix.

Software

The sgs is on 2.1 and waiting for 2.2 in sept
The x10 is on 1.6 and waiting for 2.1 in sept (720p coming so i didnt compare video camera)
I dont see sony catching up soon, its a shame, because the x10 would fly with 2.2.

Root,
Both phones have root but only the sgs has bootloader access that being said there arent many roms out for the galaxy S yet anyway.

Well i am done, i will upload pics when i have time. I hope you find this useful

EDIT:

Battery life,

Now as we all know, until battery technology improves significantly smart phones will always have a crap battery life. The x10 has a good battery life with about 1 days uses. However the sgs doesnt seem to use any battery when the screen is off so can manage a full day with relative ease.
Unfortunately both phones heat up to high temperatures and the sgs has reached 52 degrees Celsius which leads me to believe it will degrade the battery at a faster rate than the x10.

Pictures

X10


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SGS


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X10(i wasnt very still)


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SGS(also wasnt very still)


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X10


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SGS(I could move closer and still get focus)


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X10


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SGS


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x10


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SGS


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Thanks, this is very useful! I'm due for an upgrade at the end of the month and am fairly torn between the two. AT the moment I'm leaning towards the x10 because a properly functioning GPS is important to me (have just changed cities, don't want to end up in the sea) and because I use my device for reading a lot, so sharper text would be better. However, my wife has the Samsung Wave, which also has a SAMOLED screen and it's well-nigh unbeatable when it comes to media viewing of any kind, which has made me think twice about my choice.

Otherwise, from what I've read, my thoughts seem to mirror yours. Hmmm, decisions decisions...

Excellent comparison. You really weren't kidding when you said you weren't a fanboi for either brand.

The reasoning is sound and the arguments presented, while subjective, are fair. I agree on most parts, I've even taken steps to rectify some of the criticisms.

YMMV but Vignette works really well for me, I've used it several times to snap photos of printed documents and they've turned out ok. Not perfect but good enough to run OCR on so it might be worth a look.

For the video playback I wholeheartedly recommend Rockplayer. It's been able to play everything I've thrown at it. It doesn't do HD content well though, I usually get around 15 fps playing back 720p videos. It drops frames making it watchable but I can't stand watching anything at that speed. Anything with a native or lower resolution plays back at full speed though, even high bitrate MKV.

Both those apps are commercial but there are demo versions available, you should check them out.

Does the SGS playback 1080p DivX files? I read the Galaxy Tab does this (it has the same CPU if I'm not mistaken). I know 1080p playback on a device this small doesn't make sense, but I'm just curious if the CPU/GPU has the raw power to do this stuff.

Originally Posted by Cinner

Does the SGS playback 1080p DivX files? I read the Galaxy Tab does this (it has the same CPU if I'm not mistaken). I know 1080p playback on a device this small doesn't make sense, but I'm just curious if the CPU/GPU has the raw power to do this stuff.

Yep

This review is spot on.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Thank you for your kind comments.

Originally Posted by ddewbofh

Excellent comparison. You really weren't kidding when you said you weren't a fanboi for either brand.

The reasoning is sound and the arguments presented, while subjective, are fair. I agree on most parts, I've even taken steps to rectify some of the criticisms.

YMMV but Vignette works really well for me, I've used it several times to snap photos of printed documents and they've turned out ok. Not perfect but good enough to run OCR on so it might be worth a look.

For the video playback I wholeheartedly recommend Rockplayer. It's been able to play everything I've thrown at it. It doesn't do HD content well though, I usually get around 15 fps playing back 720p videos. It drops frames making it watchable but I can't stand watching anything at that speed. Anything with a native or lower resolution plays back at full speed though, even high bitrate MKV.

Both those apps are commercial but there are demo versions available, you should check them out.

Yes i have tried rockplayer when it was a beta and its great, I will include this review thanks for the tip.

Pretty good comparison. You didn't really go into any major bugs or issues with either device but that's ok for comparison's sake.

There is one thing I am confused about. You say you couldn't get focus in close-up shots on the X10? Did you have it in Macro mode for this? Just wondering because I haven't had any trouble when using Macro mode.

Also, you didn't really mention anything about reception. This is one area (having had both phones for more than a couple weeks) where the X10 really shines above the SGS devices.

Finally, in regard to vibration on the SGS devices, when I had a i9000 rom on my Captivate I noticed the vibration was really week. There is a setting menu to increase the vibration but on the i9000 rom is was not as strong as it was on the Captivate. This suggests that this issue is likely resolved with a software upgrade since the intensity is adjustable.

Sorry, I almost forgot, you can have playlists larger than 20 songs on the X10. I'm not sure if that comment was in regard to SGS or the X10. I have five playlists on my X10 right now and they are all 100 songs or larger.

Originally Posted by naplesbill

Pretty good comparison. You didn't really go into any major bugs or issues with either device but that's ok for comparison's sake.

There is one thing I am confused about. You say you couldn't get focus in close-up shots on the X10? Did you have it in Macro mode for this? Just wondering because I haven't had any trouble when using Macro mode.

Also, you didn't really mention anything about reception. This is one area (having had both phones for more than a couple weeks) where the X10 really shines above the SGS devices.

Finally, in regard to vibration on the SGS devices, when I had a i9000 rom on my Captivate I noticed the vibration was really week. There is a setting menu to increase the vibration but on the i9000 rom is was not as strong as it was on the Captivate. This suggests that this issue is likely resolved with a software upgrade since the intensity is adjustable.

Sorry, I almost forgot, you can have playlists larger than 20 songs on the X10. I'm not sure if that comment was in regard to SGS or the X10. I have five playlists on my X10 right now and they are all 100 songs or larger.

1. I could get focus but i would have to move the camera further away than the sgs and the images were not as clear, yes i used macro mode.
2. reception, im in an area of good reception so they both have max bars all the time.
3. What i was getting at was vibration was weak in both phones compared to my very old phones eg my old Samsung u900, even when increased to max.
4. This was not the case with rb14/16 mediascape so that may have been fixed.
What bug have i not mentioned
I hope that answers your questions.

Agree on the X10 Camera. Great in natural light, often poor otherwise.

I do not find the X10 fast. In fact, I find it rather slow with the odd hang up sometimes.