With my exams over and done with, I can finally get down to putting up some of the remaining reviews before the two weeks Samsung Galaxy S review period is up!
For today’s review, I would like to show you the camera and video taking functions on the Samsung Galaxy S! Aside from that, I would also be taking you through how your photos and videos are shown on the phone. And as usual, you can either see how the functions are in my youtube review videos or just scroll down to look at all the pictures!
The Camera
Part 1 of the camera and video camera review.
Part 2 of the camera and video camera review.
The 5mp camera unfortunately does not come with flash, which is quite a downer for such a phone that has practically everything. Why are gadget makers so cruel!?! Why must they hold back on certain items?! I can’t and won’t buy another phone JUST because that new beautiful phone has a flash on it! I’m not going to fall for that marketing ploy! NEVAR!
Anyway, the maximum resolution is 2592 X 1944 pixels and best of all, the camera has touch screen autofocus. Nais. (insert facebook thumbs up)
The camera comes with Geo-tagging, face and smile detection and even has antishake!
Though the flashless situation is a bit of a downer, you have the option of changing your ISO and also the exposure which is quite unheard of for a camera phone. And no, there is no option to change the shutter speed you greedy bastard.
There’s a few shooting modes that you can use.
The self shot utilizes the front facing camera and takes really crap photos, with a maximum of 0.3mp, but good for sending that good morning photo to your boyfriend or girlfriend.
Beauty mode gives off a gaussian blur, makes the average girl (read: me) glow sweetly. I think I have mentioned this feature in a previous post.
The smile shot utilizes the smile detection technology. Works like a charm. Will show you more further down the post!
Continuous mode is your burst function, great for freezing those droplets of water. (but make sure your lighting is like sunlight or else you can’t get anything under lowlights)
Panorama…I thought it sucked while preparing the videos and photos for this post. But I took it out to town today when I had to go bang tables at the TNB headquarters for charging me RM500 for this month’s bill and… lo and behold! It takes really nice 180 degrees panorama shots! Shall upload the picture in the next review!
Oh vintage. *jizzes in pants* I love the vintage mode SO, so, so, so, much. It takes in four different modes: neutral (normal colour), warm (orangey colour), cool (bluish-greenish colour) and mono (black and white). All photos have a vignette effect to it. I’m pretty sure you’d be familiar with the vignette effect if you have been following my last few posts.
Add Me is ugly and pointless. Just randomly shoots one photo, and then you point and shoot another. It adds it together. I tried a few of myself kissing myself..etc.. but the effect is quite bleh. So you can skip that, no problem.
Action shot, I have yet to try that one out. But the maximum resolution is quite low, so skip that too.
Cartoon is quite cute! You can change almost everything to vector art! I have a bit of a cartoon mode demonstration in the video, so please layan and watch it too!
Here’s the smile detection technology I mentioned in the smile shot mode. I got a photo of myself and Chee Kiang at the Nuffnang blog awards and our smiles were actually detected! Damn cool right?!?
You then have scene modes.. which is like different hues… lightings…*insert camera jibberish*
More of the scene modes.
The last two. I have yet to try these out. IMHO, even in your normal Point-n-Shoot cameras, these scenes don’t do much for your photos. I just take everything in auto or manual mode.
Some settings that you can find within the camera application.
A little tip though. You may want to download some camera applications from the Android Market like the RetroCamera or FXCamera or something like that which is riding on the LOMO cam trend but it crashed my main camera a few times. I had to restart it a few times. So I think I am better off without those cool effects. Even if the effects are cool, the resolution is super poor. So…. yeah. Don’t bother.
The Video Camera
As we all know, and love, about the Samsung Galaxy S, is that it takes video in HIGH DEFINITION!
My damn tv doesn’t even have it yet, but my handphone already has it? Wtf?!
The video camera interface.
But it’s true. You can shoot videos in high definition (720p) and alternatively shoot in plain ol’ VGA mode which is great for your MMS videos.
But I can’t stand videos taken in VGA mode, i mean like why want to take any VIDEO at all with that kind of quality? I am always so annoyed when someone sends me some scandalous sex video and they are always, always, ALWAYS, shot in VGA mode. Can’t see nuts leh. Literally. It’s like rod…..then pixel. Like wtf!
So high definition is the way to go if you want the world to see everything.
But I am not advocating THAT okay, by everything I mean how green the grass are in the videos, how happy my boyfriend looked on his graduation day, how cute a little child is blowing bubbles from a bubble gun along Gurney Drive and all the sweet and innocent things in this world. *throws flowers and cotton candies everywhere*
La Galleria
Part 1 of viewing your media.
Part 2 of viewing your media. (this is actually a video clip of Glee’s Cover on Bad Romance..:D)
Part 3 of viewing your media.
All images saved in your phone can be found in the ‘gallery’ application. No matter where you save your photos on your sd card, it will be scavenged by some strange mechanism in the phone and be placed in the gallery for you.
Be it photos that you took with your camera, photos transferred from other devices via bluetooth (where can I get a bluetooth digital camera?! I long for the day~), print screens from your applications, photos saved from your computer..oh the list is endless.
A cool effect you can do with the gallery is that the albums tilt this way and that way when you move your phone about. I suppose the accelerometer is responsible for this.
You’ll see this when you click on the photo album. Oh, you can even see videos, yeah I forgot to mention that. By clicking on any individual picture, you’ll have the option to immediately upload it to any social media network you want, email it to anybody you want… I have mentioned all this in the previous post.
The Video Player
Now, the video player is a serious WIN on the Samsung Galaxy S.
The interface could be better lah.
But when the quality is nothing short of stunning, everything else just falls into place. This proved to be a good procrastination tool during my study week. *guilty*
Next, we have youtube! Compared to the youtube application on my Sony Ericsson Satio, this youtube application wins hands down because you have the option of playing it in high quality! After opting for high quality, videos are really nice and clear!
The interface is sleek.
Say hello to Nigahiga in low quality!
So much more handsome in high quality right?
Another way to watch video is via your browser.
So, you can only watch Xiaxue’s videos via the clicknetwork site. Quite mafan to find on youtube, don’t know why. I don’t think it’s on youtube anymore, or is it? I think she’s using vimeo or something like that.
So when you click on a video, this is what you will see.
Clicking on ‘Internet’ will initiate a download. Something like what your Realplayer can do to flv files.
If you click on video player, you can stream the video! Quality looks good, doesn’t it?
Looks a bit blur here, but it’s really clear.
The Music Player
Watch the video first!
Love..love..love..<3 I really like the music player. You know what’s the best part about this whole arrangement?
There’s a slot to insert your microSD and up to 32gb too! So, think about it. How about I slot in like 32gb worth of videos AND songs on top of the 16gbs already built into the phone? Too awesome right!! *squeals*
Didn’t manage to get the album art in. Not sure how. But here’s the list of songs I have on anyway.
*clears throat* Bathroomdiva is my syok sendiri name when I record myself singing my favourite song of the moment on Garageband. Oh right, by flipping the phone to its side, your playlist will look like that. Like a digital jukebox. The records swivel around as you choose a song.
The player interface.
You can change the sound quality too! Wide is really loud!
Some of the other things that you can tweak within the music player.
With the visualisation checked, you can have some of this.
FM Radio
Please watch the video!
The FM Radio, like all your FM radios on your phones would need you to plug your earphones in.
Not much photos, but you can check out the video. It is slightly more detailed. Scans all the available radio channels and lists it out for you. I thought that was pretty cool!
Aldiko eBook Reader
See the Aldiko eBook in action!
I’ve never had an eBook reader so this was rather new to me!
One of the reasons why I was drawn to the iPad was because I could read pdf journals with ease and also read books in a comfortable way, digitally!
You can even see the cover of the book and judge it.
The words are well sized. You can increase the fonts etc etc. About pdfs, you can download the Adobe Reader application and see your pdfs there. Very smooth, hardly laggy at all!
Ahh, we have come to the end of another review post. Sorry lah my blog is a little commercialized these days. Tahan lah k? Will write emo posts about graduating (hopefully. If cannot, will write emo posts about staying back for another year. Touch all the wood around you for me please.)
So here are some photos and videos that I have taken recently with the Samsung Galaxy S. Enjoy!
Some videos first:
A video of Chee Kiang going up to get his scroll!
Getting Chee Kiang and Adeline to say a little something about graduating!
A rusty drain pipe near where I had my dinner a few evenings ago.
I like photographing this kind of weed.
In vignette effect!
Vignette again! <3
Photo of Chee Kiang’s messy apartment.
With his mortar board that he did not quite get the hang of.
Edited this photo with the Android Photoshop Mobile application. Can do quite a lot of things with it!
The view from Chee Kiang’s kitchen.
My darling boy graduated as a pharmacist from NUS! What I did was risky… but it was a very important day and I had to be there even though I had another exam to sit for on Monday. I flew back to Penang (where I parked my car, I love how convenient flying from Penang airport has become) on Sunday and was studying again by 2pm, gearing up for my second last exam.
While walking around the shopping mall near his place, saw these colourful waterbottles. So cute somemore as they are very tiny. For babies I think! This is taken with the ‘beauty mode’. See the soft glow? <3
Chee Kiang’s classy room. *jelez*
If you managed to read up to here, drop a comment lah!
The reason why anyone would want a smartphone these days is just so they can update their status anytime, tweet about something exciting that has just happened (not necessarily what others may consider to be exciting) or even take a quick snap of the silliest thing and putting it up on the world wide web immediately!
I used to wonder if humans in the past knew that there would come a day where the one thing that they need almost as much as food, water and oxygen would be the MOBILE PHONE.
Ever felt like you lost an appendage when you forgot to bring your phone out for the day?
I know I have.
From this revelation, I had wondered what would be the next big thing that people could not possibly live without! I think facebook comes pretty close to becoming a necessity these days.
The Samsung Galaxy S integrates all my social media needs extremely well! Almost every single thing in the phone comes with an ability to share on Facebook, Twitter and any other applications that you have downloaded like WordPress, Flickr, Picasa..etc.
Do have a look at the three videos below (split up into three parts because the file was too big for lousy youtube!) for a tour of the social media tools available on the Samsung Galaxy S! At the same time you can see how fast you can switch between screens. I really love the touchscreen, it’s extremely responsive. Granted, it responds mostly to the pads of your fingers, much like the iPhone. With my Satio, I grew accustomed to using my nails to tap. Not sure how they differ, technically, but oh well. Human beings are able to adapt to any strange new conditions.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
The photos below might be similar to the video but you know, there are always those of you who are too lazy to click on videos! (Shame on you! All my effort to record, delete, edit, upload..ughh)
Since I have not done much of a tour around the interface, here’s the draggable notification bar. It has the wifi, bluetooth, silent and vibration options at the touch of a button. When a new email comes in, it will appear as a tiny logo at the upper left hand corner. If it’s a facebook notification, there’ll be the facebook logo instead and if it’s a new mention from twitter, then a little bird sits at the upper corner there. Just drag the bar down to access your latest email/message! I LOVE IT!
Boo. I’m unpopular like that. T_T
Alternatively, with the always-reliable options button on the lower left hand corner of the phone, away from the SUPER AMOLED (yeap just have to say it in caps) screen would allow you to also check your notifications (same functions) and edit your apps, search for something within your phone, change your wallpaper and go straight into settings. Side track: Going into settings to tweak your phone to function the way you want it is very much hassle-free. Doesn’t induce any headaches at all!
I have Facebook for Android installed but IMHO the interface is ugly like shit. I mean hellooo.. where’s the heart in this? In my old Xpera X1, there was a facebook app that opens to reveal floating profile pics in tiny balls, clumping together and bouncing off each other softly, slowly, sort of in a Brownian motion and almost like they belong in Avatar, you know those floating dandelions that is the life of the blue people yada yada yada – in short, it was very nice. But what sucked about that app was that it can take forever to open. Sometimes never.
So…. ugly application, fast loading time. Okay lah. Can lah.
It loads photos from my albums pretty fast too.
Alas I still prefer to use Facebook Mobile. The fonts are prettier on the android phone!
The touch site loads really fast too. The Samsung Galaxy S has a pretty awesome browser. Is it javascript when you have notifications popping up and stuff? If so, then well, the javascript thingamajig on this phone out performs any browsers that I havee ever used before. Even the Opera Mobile which I have tried on WinMo and Symbian. Meh. Doesn’t cut it for me.
And we have the Full Site! Somehow the full site disappeared from my Satio after a month or two. God knows where it went to. Even when I could somehow access it, I can’t tag people. It’s so important to tag people in photos you know! What’s the point of going mobile when you have to go home and turn your computer on just to tag some faces? Boooo.
But the browser on this one allows me to load the full site completely AND tag photos immediately. HEARTS!!
It does however freeze up when I try to tag people within wall posts or status updates. Can’t have everything. Sigh.
Zooming in at a rather comfortable magnification level with double taps.
Back to the facebook app, the profile page is quite okay! Can even upload photos immediately. Click on the camera icon to either snap a picture or upload something from the gallery.
Don’t you just love the media interface? *Drool*
As you can see from some of my pictures from within the phone, I have become quite a fan of the phone camera’s vignette function.
So let’s say we want to upload this emo shot of a rainy day, as seen through my side view mirror.
See the options you have? I am like literally spoilt with choices!! In my old phone, I forgave it for all its shortcomings because it was touted as the best cameraphone available in the market. I had to email all my photos to my facebook mobile email address or twitpic email address, but that was okay. It was fine. BUT NOW, now.. I have all these options. How can life ever be the same again!?
After choosing, say, facebook, this is the screen you’ll see immediately. Nifty huh?
Or wordpress, instant blogging! The tiny icon you see at the bottom of the ‘add’ button would be the photograph that we would be adding to your wordpress blog. I have yet to find out if I can put in more photos at a go.
And to twitter…! It generates a twitpic.com address for you. You have to select the option of either using twitpic, yfrog or tweetphoto when tweaking with your twitter application’s settings.
Now, a quick look at twitter. I was initially using Twitter for Android but since it sucks some serious balls by not having the option of replying all, I jumped onto the bandwagon which was Touiteur, which is appararently pronounced as Twitter in French. *shrugs*
The Twitter for Android application however does send notifications faster than this Touiteur and Touiteur takes quite a while to load. But it has very good features!
By clicking on a random tweet, this is what you’ll see.
You have the option of replying to everyone or be selective with your replies too.
Not quite a good example of links, but clicking on any of the twitter usernames will bring you to their profiles. If there’s a url within that particular tweet, it will appear here as an option for you to click on.
There is a bar at the top for you to drag down if you wanna tweet something or attach a photo or share a website.
Oh look I have an email! *feels popular*
YAYY.
On the second page of my homescreen, I have this thing called Feeds and Updates. I was messing about with the phone, removed the Daily Briefing thingie where there’s a weather report on my area (sungai petani – 5 years here, I should know the weather by hard now. It never changes much.) and accidentally activated this Feeds and Updates thingie. I initially thought it was the social hub thingie because my friends’ tweets and facebook updates are published in a steady stream.
I’ve still yet to figure out how to access the social hub like how it is advertised on the samsung website. By clicking on Facebook and twitter, I’m brought to the mobile versions of both my accounts.
Here’s a pre-installed application that I tend to use a lot. Since I’m too lazy to open my facebook or twitter app, the Write and Go application is really useful!
It looks like some notepad but it is more than that.
Here’s a short demo of the swype keyboard. I wanna do a video blog and a post on the swype function later!! Not yet though. Just some teaser here first.
I don’t know la, just simply typing.
Satisfied with your witty status/tweet, you hit “Update Status” and this pops up. Check those that you want updated. Convenient right?!!
Though it’s my study week but I still have to come in for a few more clinical sessions to issue a crown and a cast partial denture to two of my patients. Some of my classmates were hovering around my phone because they have seen me raving about it on facebook far too much that they decided to punish me by kidnapping my phone. They had a good time playing some puzzle game where you have to fit blocks in together to match a certain number or something. Most of the boys were very impressed with the Swype keyboard. It is seriously a breakthrough in technology! I also showed them the Google Sky application, which is really beautiful. I’ll show it here later. Need to study for two more exam components in the coming week. Sigh. So, will have to take things slow.
All right, now that I’m done raving about the integration of social media tools on the Samsung Galaxy S, here are the photos I have taken with the phone since my last review:
Vignette in Mono colour. These are decodens, which are available on The Sticker Monster (for those who are visiting for the first time, it is my blog shop where I sell stickers, bling blings and decoden. Basically scrapbooking materials and cute things girls use to decorate their phones) and I was half way packing an order for a customer and thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it make a lovely picture!” It sure as hell did!
I think this is prettier. Vignette in Warm tones.
My outdated Santa Claus decoration which glitters and swings when I take sharp corners. <3
Taken with Sush who came up to Penang to visit her family. This was in Top Shop, Gurney Plaza and apparently she is not used to seeing such big denominations as the prices in Pounds don’t look that daunting.
Back in Sungai Petani, Kedah, a meh sunset at the traffic lights.
Vignette in normal mode. That’s Brenda!
Thank god my crown is ready!! My patient would be very upset if her crown was not ready in time. Happy to report that she was very pleased with the colour of the tooth as it matched her adjacent teeth very well!
These are articulators. We use it to replicate the bite of the patient so that we can set the false teeth accurately when making dentures.
A view from the dental technology lab.
That’s Cze-Yin checking on some of her lab work.
Me, in full dental regalia presenting to you an empty dental chair in our polyclinic. We have 36 bays there and patients come from all over for the free dental treatments at our dental hospital.
Cze-Yin looking so decent.
Got bored while waiting for my patient to come. This is Vignette in Mono.
You get to do some comparison. Vignette in warm mode.
Vignette in cool mode.
Vignette in normal mode.
It’s quite cold here in Sungai Petani these days with the constant rain. I love it when the mist envelopes the surrounding hills behind my university.
Another wet day at AIMST.
Just a random shot. Yeap, I bought a car charger for the phone.
I meant to take a picture of my dinner which was Chicken Cordon Bleu at Secret Recipe..
Artsy fartsy shot of Brenda’s arm and what’s left of her Tom Yam Kung.
Porridge at my favourite cafe near my rented house here in Kedah! Century egg porridge with bits of oysters, spring onions and chicken slices. DELISH!
Another day at the clinics. Sigh. Last day in fact. My patient’s cast partial dentures are ready. Yay.
Hurriedly flagged everyone over from all corners of the clinic to pose for this photo. For most of us, (unless the poor sod has to come in tomorrow to continue with some left over treatment, sucks to be him/her) it was our last day in the clinics, tying up loose ends. In the month before our study week, we were rushing against time to fill up our quotas and so here we are, on a Thursday, when we should be at home sleeping studying, issuing our finished bridges, crowns, cast partial dentures, acrylic partial dentures, completing the final stages of our root canal treatments etc.
Came home at 4 something to study some orthodontics before dinner and felt quite down (no reason, I think I might have bipolar disorder), out came the chocolates of hypocrisy to cheer me up:D
Testing out the so called Beauty function on the camera. It makes your skin looks softer and I think it gives a teeny weeny bit of gaussian blur to the picture. I am not being perasan about the Beauty function k. I also wish it wasn’t called beauty. I had some battering to my self esteem the day before. Anyone heard of this stupid forum called my kopitiam or summat? They took my creating fake double eyelids post and laughed at my photos. Oh well. Not like it’s the first time it has happened for that post. Some forums in other countries have expressed horror at how I ‘mutilate’ my eyelids to make them appear to be double eyelids, but it’s really not a big deal. I didn’t even bother because I thought it was in a country far far away, it won’t matter. But then when it’s somewhere closer to home, I had to do something. I’ve made that post private already… I won’t allow my reputation to be ruined in the hands of stupid shallow males who type with intentional spelling errors only to get hurt again. Especially when my concentration should be elsewhere like exams…and.. eheh, reviewing a phone…….. among other things.
If you must know, yes, I did stand up for myself by telling them that I was insulted etc. The people at the forum didn’t believe it was me. Some even asked me to fuck off. Luckily the moderator was kind enough to remove my link and my photos from that particular thread. The forum makes very mean comments regarding everything else under the sun. For some dark humour that does not involve you, I guess it makes for great entertainment.
EH WAIT. This is supposed to be a Samsung Galaxy S review!! Sorry, sorry. Back to the phone.
A picture of Lie Yuen’s dinner. Banana Leaf Set! Vegetarian somemore!
My sinful Briyani Chicken dinner set. Mmmm!
Oh and here’s a HD video treat!
A tiny tour around my dental tech lab at uni:
That’s all for the second part of my Samsung Galaxy S Maxis 10 review. More to come!
I am getting more and more convinced that twitter is like this social media tool sent straight from heaven.
One was when Kel Li was asking about ulcers and after giving her some *cough* expert advice *cough*, that particular question came out for my final exams the following day!!
And another one was when I saw a tweet about a bloggers’ phone review program organized by Maxis. Bloggers/twitter users were invited to send in audition videos to convince the good people at Maxis why they should be chosen to review the latest Android phone to join the Maxis family – THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S! It retails at RM2599 but if you get a contract with Maxis, you save RM900 and only pay RM1699. More details can be found here.
Here’s my audition video:
I was never a huge fan of Samsung. If you’re a tv, you’re a tv. Like for LG, if you’re a refrigerator, you’re a refrigerator. So when they branched out to the mobile phone market, I was a little wary.
But after spending two days with the phone, I just.can’t.seem.to.put.it.down!!!
My mum and brother (who found the office to collect the phone from, on google maps, no less) were kind enough to drive down to Damansara to get the phone for me as I am still stuck in Sungai Petani, trying to wrap up my final exams. I have 10 days in between my theory paper and my ..er.. something like a practical paper, so I pretty much have some time on my hands to explore this gorgeous Android phone thoroughly!
10 participants have been chosen and the review program will last for two weeks, so hopefully I can keep up with Maxis’ expectations and do a good job with the reviews.
The Samsung Galaxy S is packed away in a classy black box, totally befitting of its nature.
The Samsung Galaxy S as you probably know already, is running on the Android platform. The Android platform was created by Google and have been adopted by more recent smartphones. Like the HTC Desire and the Xperia 10 are both running on the android platform.
I’ve only ever used the Sony Ericsson Experia which was running on Windows Mobile (which I can’t stand. It can’t be customized to my liking AT ALL) and when I got my Sony Ericsson Satio, the symbian platform. The symbian platform is mostly associated with Nokia phones, don’t know why Sony so itchy backside go and use symbian. As a result, there were many many many applications that I could not use because it was a Sony and most Symbian apps are made for Nokia.
Using these two platforms only made me hungry for all those lovely applications that my smartphone toting friends have been raving about. “Did you know that you can play Cooking Mama on the iPhone?” “OMG my phone can detect the nearest speedtraps!!” “Let me check-in at this joint first.” Gahhh.. I wanted in on it too.
Enter the Android Market.
The android market is relatively newer than the itunes store but the list of free applications are ENDLESS. Can’t stop scrolling one.
Indirectly camwhoring with the Samsung Galaxy S prior to my unboxing video. I tell you, my unboxing video is super fail. I totally forgot to record the part where I lift the lid of the box up. :\
Unboxing Video FAIL and a short introduction on the Samsung Galaxy S:
The phone settled cozily in its padded packaging.
Inside the box are the usuals – phone charger, earphones, usb cable, battery pack, manuals and warranty forms.
There’s a sticker on the front of the phone bragging about its awesome awesome features!
Camwhoring with the Samsung Galaxy S before turning it on for the first tieme!
This was the moment when I fell in love with the Super AMOLED screen. I finally found the power button and the gorgeous screen came to life.
The photo does the phone no justice as the glow just emanated from the phone, spilling out within that small space in my dark hotel room.
One thing to really really love about the phone is how easily it downloads the internet settings for you upon insertion of the SIM card.
My experiences with my previous two smartphones made the internet settings thingie quite a hassle, to the point that I even fear resetting my phone to factory settings.
After many many research and consideration, I have decided that it would be most cost efficient to have two separate sim cards on two different phones.
I have been using the Maxis Value Plus 80 plan for a couple of years now. Using data on a normal talk plan can be very hefty. Even with the bundled data packages available, I don’t find them to be very cost worthy.
I was ecstatic when I managed to get the Maxis Broadband Package for Rm48! I already had my own USB modem, so I just took the sim card and stuck it in my smart phone. When I am away from my streamyx connection and would love to kill time with my laptop, I’ll just stick the simcard into the USB modem and voila, instant high speed internet! (as I am on broadband)
One thing I have never been sure about is if there are any differences between the speeds of both broadband and normal talk plan data speeds. My Maxis broadband can be faster than my streamyx connection at times.
ANYWAY, back to the Samsung Galaxy S.
When I stuck my maxis broadband SIM card into the phone, the settings just fell into place immediately at the click of a button. No username asked, no passwords, no need to go into the settings etc. They then prompted me to add my google account and after that I was signed in to all my google stuff!!
Here’s the right side of the phone where the power button is located. (couldn’t find it at first)
The back of the phone, with its 5.0mp camera and the speaker. I’ve read some reviews about how they would rather the phone have a more matt finishing than its current plasticky back but I think with it being plastic, scratches will be less. It looks rather promising in the scratch resistant department.
To the left of the phone would be the volume control which doubles as your camera ..er.. zoomer.
At the top of the phone would be the 3.5mm jack and the USB port.
I like the fact that you have to slide the entire screen down to unlock it. Locking the phone is done by pressing once on the power button.
There is a home button (too dark, cannot see, but I assure you, it’s there), a left button to change settings for applications and etc, a right button to go back, back, back.
As I have mentioned in the video, the most awesome technology to come from the Samsung Galaxy S would be the Swype keyboard. The idea is to trace the alphabets of a word that you wanna write, and tada, it appears in your message/tweet/status/email whatever that you’re writing. I’ll do another detail on the Swype function over the next few days!
The best thing about it is that it doesn’t even have to be alphabets specific. More on that later.
Just a sneak peek into one of the apps… I love it that I can customize my MSN! Ahhh! It’s almost as pink as my adium contact list.
Oh, right. Here’s a photo of the phone without the battery cover. There’s a slot to insert a microSD and the phone itself already has an internal storage space of 16gb. So that’s a whole lot to go before cranking up the old lelong.com.my or forum.lowyat.com.
Before I end my introductory post on the Samsung Galaxy S, here are some random photos and HD videos taken with my latest baby (for two weeks though, sigh):
At Kek Lok Si
Along Gurney Drive
My blinged up car keys shimmering under the lights at Kenny Rogers while waiting for Lie Yuen’s flight to touchdown at the Penang Airport.
Just checking out how the camera fares when capturing my laptop screen.
My favourite shot!! The food seem to have an ethereal glow about them.
Told Mun Teng on gTalk that I was at Kek Lok Si and if she wanted me to tell Guan Yin anything, complete with photos and all.
Sorry lah I can’t get over my beautiful car keys.
Yea I know I look quite messy here. I was testing the front-facing camera. Not too bad eh?
With so much noise in the morning though. Yeap, having a smartphone means you don’t have to roll out of bed to check your email, facebook and twitter.
With the normal 5.0mp camera. My exposure was set too low actually, but it would really be nice if there was a flash.
Bwahahhaa… slapped on some make-up before doing the video above. Pai seh, pai seh.
Was looking around my room for random things to snap, so here you go!
I’ll be back with more videos and blog posts about the Samsung Galaxy S!
In the mean time, find these other users on twitter to follow their journey with the Samsung Galaxy S:
@ariffshah @Marc_ky @tekong @galvintan @runningandrew @atreyustrange @sapiensbryan @minishorts @keemanxp
There’s a saying in cantonese that Lie Yuen has taught me that goes something like a clear and fair face covers three layers of flaws or something like that. True that! It is comforting to know that at least there’s one part of myself that I can work on, which is my skin.
I am quite blessed because I have never experienced any major acne problems but I have never been particularly happy with my lack of a glow. I long to be one of those girls who look just a little pink in the face, a natural blush. I’ve been to a few beauticians and every time I get my skin assessed, I would be told that my skin is actually very dry and that my pores are big. Big pores run in my family and when I apply my foundation, it can be a little gross up close because tiny little opaque dots can be seen where the foundation is more concentrated. I have some blackheads splattered across my T-zone too and back in A-levels, I would squirt out whiteheads from my nose to gross Chien out. She calls it my Medusa nose.
So yes, as you probably expect, this is a product review! One that I am very very happy to do because I got free products from Cellnique to try!! Yay!! I even have some 50 samples to give away. Scroll all the way down for details – read the post first la though, please.
I have long heard of the brand from my friends who frequent beauticians and also my mum who advocates Cellnique. My brother who had a little bit of an acne problem going on a couple of years back, had his skin all cleared up after a few treatments. And what with his one year in the Uk, sure damn nice lah his skin. *jealous*
Selina from Cellnique has approached me with a range of products from B•liv by Cellnique that would suit my skin condition. B•liv was originally known as ‘Cellnique Pro Series’ but it has been rebranded to keep up with young people like… ahem, us. To..ahem, match our on-the-go, stylish and confident lifestyle. I know some days I might think I’m a little too old for certain things but sometimes when you have nice products to try out, you’ll take pride being in the young adults age group. Very happy actually to be on the nubile side of my 20s.
Myself and my exciting box of beauty products from B•liv Cellnique!
Due to my very very packed schedule attempting to finish up with my final year clinical management report and clinic quotas in the past few weeks (tears were shed, hairs were pulled out, nightmares were dreamed, weight was lost (YAY), heart attacks given by ffk patients etc), I finally had time to do the review. Despite my heavy schedule, I was using the products everyday diligently. In all honestly, I have very poor compliance with beauty products. I buy them, use it once or twice and forget about it. But since I had to do a review, I kept at the regime.
I never really believed that beauty products can do wonders for me (sort of jaded about myself already) but even before doing the review or telling anyone that I was using a new range of products, I have been getting compliments on my skin! True story!! I was also pleasantly surprised because no one ever told me that I looked radiant before, so I guess it is really happening now!
Here’s a before photo taken during my ADSALympics event, an annual sports week at my dental faculty that drains us of all energy and soul.
I know there’s no obvious flaws (skin I mean, the rest you just pretend you never notice anything, don’t have to make it obvious ya) but you can see I’m not actually glowing. That’s the reflection of the sun. I just look…….yellow.
One more artsy shot with my camwhoring shadow behind me.
So here’s what was inside the goodie box:
L-r: Shrink and Tighten, Shrink and Tighten + and Off With Those Heads
It is a sebum gel that you can spread across your T-zone, massaging it into your skin until the wet feeling is gone. The gel just absorbs into your skin! It also feels fresh because there is a nice minty smell.
According to the description given, your clogged pores get soften thus extractions of the blackheads become easier. WIth the tea tree oil and witch hazel extract, they keep acne and comedones at bay plus aloe vera to keep the skin hydrated.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take any before and after photos of my blackheads. I know I should have..sigh. I do think that my blackheads are getting less.. at least new ones don’t crop up. I just need to get some extractions done on the existing ones now that they are easier to remove.
For my craters, we have Shrink and Tighten which is to be used together with Shrink and Tighten +. The consistency is more fluid than Off With Those Heads with a slight yellow tinge to the gel .the smell is also more fruity than Off With Those Heads!
I have to say I am quite impressed with its functions. Shrink and Tighten pump collagen into your open pores to seal it, sort of a barrier protection from future big pores! It has Vitamin B3 which helps to hydrate the skin, Vitamin C for healing and as an antioxidant and Oleanolic Acid which has anti-inflammatory properties.
Shrink and Tighten + is the one to thank to give your skin that glow you’ll get after using these products, imho.
Fresh from the bottle, the formula is quite oily and when you rub it all over your face, you might feel a little irritated at first because you’ll be like, “Great, just what I need. More grease on my face, ughh.” But if you keep rubbing, rubbing and rubbing it in, you’ll realize that it gets absorbed into your skin leaving your skin to feel supple and hydrated without any greasy feeling at all! Even your fingers don’t feel greasy, just moisturized! z
Use it at night so that collagen production can work overtime and help to reduce those pores. The L-ascorbic acid helps with skin lightening, Witch Hazel extract for prevention of acne and comedones and Vitamin B5 for hydration.
See how oily it looks in the bottle?
About two weeks into using the product. At the sides of my nose, it is quite ugly lah with all the pores coalescing together forming unsightly holes. Applying foundation to the sides of my nose can be quite a bitch.
About a month after using. It looks smoother over all! No one’s gonna stretch the sides of my nose when they see me right. So, this is good enough for a clear base to put your make-up. Even the pores look more evened out.
Then we have Leach Me which is a moisturizing mask that does deep moisturizing, brightening and age preventing. Brace yourself ya, I’m gonna throw some complicated chemical names at you.
Sodium 1-Pyrollidonecarboxylate helps with water retention, it helps the skin to better hold moisture. Acetyl Hexapeptide – 8 is for reducing wrinkles (score!!), Acerola Fruit extract to prevent aging and is used as an antioxidant and other fruit acids complex which are used for exfoliation, skin hydrating and help simulate new cell regeneration.
The entire packet is soaked with the formula. Upon removing the mask, it is actually dripping with the formula!
As you can see, it is very very very wet. Formula was dribbling down my chin which I rubbed into my neck. No use having a young face and a wrinkly old neck right? So better to make the most out of it! The mask can be used once or twice a week.
Cannot smile when having the mask on or else formula will get into my mouth!
Got Me Covered is a sunblock + foundation formula for everyday use. It has a nice sheen to it upon applying, nothing too obvious. Sometimes foundation makes us look overly made up for our day-to-day activities, so this is ideal and it also allows the skin to breathe properly.
It comes with UV protector which helps in anti-aging, used as an anti-oxidant and suncreen. Salicylic Acid helps with exfoliation and the formula has a natural foundation colour that matches your skin tone.
The thin sheen that I was talking about. Nothing too cakey.
After applying the foundation. Looks very natural right?
So that pretty much sums up my experience with B•liv after using it for one whole month!
I’m not tooting my own horn, but the pink glow that I have always wanted is there!!
A happier photo to show off the pinkness on the apples of the cheek!
To further accentuate the glow.
Cellnique has been so kind to offer 50 free samples of Off With Those Heads! So all you blackhead clogged girls (and boys!) can send your full name and mailing address to fbfreesample@blivskin.com with the subject “jayelleenelial.com“. Be quick though, the offer ends 1 week from now! This means…you have until 19th of June 2010! Hurry!
If you are keen to buy their products, head on over to the B•liv by Cellnique website! Should your purchases be above USD60, you can opt for their free exclusive B•liv recycle bag instead of the usual packaging box. Head on over to their microsite, Cellnique Earth Campaign to support their No Paper. No Bag initiative!
Even when I could somehow access it, I can’t tag people. It’s so important to tag people in photos you know! What’s the point of going mobile when you have to go home and turn your computer on just to tag some faces? Boooo.
But it has very good features!
