The new Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0 have created a bew super set within which
Apple's iPod Touch now only dimly shines. It's like saying an eagle is equivalent
to an aggressive pigeon. Hereafter, I will refer to the Samsung Galaxy Player as "SGP"
and the iPod Touch as "iTouch".
COMMON HEAD-TO-HEAD FEATURES:
Back Camera: SGP=3.2MP ; iTouch=0.7
Front Camera: SGP=0.3 ; iTouch=0.3
Microphone: yes for both
Main Speaker: SGP=2 stereo; iTouch=mono
CPU: SGP=1GHz Hummingbird ; iTouch= 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 (underclockec to 800MHz)
RAM: SGP=512MB ; iTouch=256MB
Storage: SGP=8GB ; iTouch=8,32, or 64GB
Bluetooth: SGP=ver 3.0 ; iTouch=ver 2.1
UNIQUE TO SGP:
1. Expandable Memory via microSD/SDHC card (up to 32GB)
2. GPS (used with cached maps)
3. FM Radio (no WiFi, no problem)
4. Haptic feedback, i.e. vibration mode for silent alarms, games, and UI interaction
5. Phone-like ear speaker for VOIP phone calls
6. Replaceable battery
7. LED camera flash (only on Galaxy Player 5.0, not 4.0)
8. Adobe Flash 10.1 support (no more "Requires Adobe Flash" errors while web browsing on iTouch)
9. Broader file format support (including some open source audio/video codecs):
Video Files: AVI, MP4, 3GP, WMV, ASF, MKV, FLV
Audio Files: MP3, WMA, Ogg, FLAC, AAC, WAV
Image Files: JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG
Document Files: Word File (doc, docx, xml, txt, rtf, dot, dotx), Excel File (xls, xlsx, csv, xlt, xltx), PowerPoint (ppt, pptx, pot, potx, pps, ppsx), PDF
Now comes the bad news: No one is as slick as Apple. Having an Android device means doing more research and shopping
around for apps and media content. So, if you are used to the tightly integrated and generally friendly Apple ecosystem, you will likely have some withdrawal symptoms. Still, there is no denying that the Galaxy Players' hardware features are superior to the iPod Touch's. Is it worth leaving the smooth road Apple paves in order to use a more advanced device? That will depend on the individual needs of the consumer. Whatever one decides, it's nice finally to have an Android-based WiFi-only PMP that is every bit as advanced as a modern smart phone as an option.