Galaxy S review: The 2010 original that launched the Galaxy dynasty with a Super AMOLED.
Where the Galaxy story began.
The original Galaxy S put a Super AMOLED and the Hummingbird chip against the iPhone 3GS in 2010 — the start of the line that would dominate Android. Early GPS bugs and TouchWiz lag were the warts, but its place in history is secure.
01Display
70/100At 70/100 this is one of the strongest display showings among flagship phones of 2010 — 8 points above the cohort average.
02Camera
44/10044/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2010 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
40/10040/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2010 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
44/10044/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2010 — 11 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2010 — 8 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
52/100At 52/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among flagship phones of 2010 — 7 points above the cohort average.
- First Galaxy — launched the dynasty.
- Super AMOLED was stunning for 2010.
- Removable battery + microSD.
- Light 119 g.
- GPS bugs plagued early units.
- TouchWiz lag.
- 512 MB RAM.
- Slow updates.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 50-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .