A beautiful AMOLED screen, a gorgeous 5-megapixel camera, a sleek, polished design, a Google Android Éclair OS, a 1GHz processor. The result? A S-uper smartphone that will take over the Galaxy. Especially for the Google user.

It is the Age of the Smartphone.

Look around you and you will see fingers flying across touchscreens, or hear Blackberrys beeping to notify owners of every email, message or Facebook update. iPhone is more like ourPhone, and practically everyone has a BB pin.

It is the age of phones so smart, they do everything except wash your clothes for you. (Even then, give Steve Jobs some time. He'll figure something out. Somebody's gotta' to wash those black turtlenecks and Jobs just doesn't do laundry.)

So it is only a matter of time before the conventional mobile phone makers hit back hard at the Apple/RIM-dominated market.
And Samsung, the Korean tech-giant, has done so in a big way.

Going the way of the Google Android operating system (OS), the brand-spanking-new Samsung Galaxy S runs on the Éclair (Android 2.1), which has been making the rounds in the tech circles as the OS that will give users the open platform and flexibility to create applications and enable third-party applications that will make life just that much easier.

Unboxing the Galaxy S for the first time, the first thing I notice is how sleek, slim and light it is. At 9.9mm thick and a miniscule 119g in weight, it is a thing of beauty. I only wished they had not used plastic as the back covering.

The next thing I noticed was the absolutely stunning display. Crystal-clear, with 16 million colours and pixels on display, this AMOLED screen is definitely the big win for the Galaxy, since the only other equivalent is the iPhone 4, and well, we all know about iAntennagate 4.

The Home screen is all-Android: Android Market, Gmail, Google everywhere. Touch sensitivity is excellent, which is saying something since Samsung's previous attempts into touch screens have been not as advanced or sophisticated.

The camera is also as expected from Samsung - five megapixels with all the works, HD video recorder, takes pretty pictures. The music player is good as well - SoundAlive and stereo widening and a fairly accessible and simple interface to switch between songs and make playlists.
Call quality is good, clear, nothing groundbreaking, but seriously, do we even remember what the function of a phone really is anymore?

It doesn't come ready with a Facebook application but that is easily downloaded from the Android Market, and it manages text, calls and emails efficiently. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are all just b-e-a-youuu-tiful on the screen, and fairly easy to use.

While the much-heralded Google Voice Actions has not come to the Galaxy S, an update to the Froyo (Android 2.2) at the end of the year should see to that promptly.

Also, much as I hate to say it, the 1GHz processor is the fastest in the market but it still lags sometimes. It also freezes up once in a while. It is surprising, considering there is top-notch stuff inside it.

But that is where my gripes about it end. I liked the Android's look and feel, and I like how Samsung has wrapped it in a sleek, stylish and functional package. It is an all-round pleaser.

At RM2,599, it is not cheap, but it comes packed to the brim with good, good stuff. Definitely worth looking into.