Samsung Galaxy S: Four inches of Android

Samsung is going intergalactic once again with the Galaxy S, a new Android 2.1 phone packing a giant screen and assorted built-in apps.

The Galaxy S sports a gazmungous 102mm (4-inch), 800x480-pixel, AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. Social networks are pulled together in a 'social hub'. You can input text using Swype to draw rather than tap on the keyboard, which we saw on the Motorola Quench last month. A 'write and go' feature lets you jot something down, then decide later if it's a text, email, calendar item or memo.

Our main picture, above, shows the Galaxy's daily briefing. This is a glimpse of up-to-date information on stuff of interest such as the weather, calendar, and how your portfolio is performing. Intriguingly, the phone will also draw on location information, including using augmented-reality app Layar.

A mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe? Whose idea was that?), borrowed from Samsung televisions, promises crisp-looking video and Web browsing on the high-resolution WVGA screen. You won't be able to watch native HD video, as Samsung claims, but it should look at least as good as the similar screen on the gorgeous Nexus One.

Inside the Galaxy is a 1GHz processor, plus a 5-megapixel camera that records HD video. The phone packs Bluetooth 3 and also connects to other devices via DLNA. It comes with a dock to turn it into an alarm clock or picture frame.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced. If this Galaxy is still too far, far away, the Galaxy i7500 and Galaxy Portal i5700 are in shops now.

Update: One of our US colleagues, Kent German, had a play with the Samsung Galaxy S at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. Here's what he thought: