Samsung Galaxy S

BenEadir

Thanks Wayne and everyone else.

I've a lot to learn.

The issue I was having with my GSM signal at home seems to have been resolved. It was either that the sim wasn't conecting properly (I reinstalled it 'firmly') or somehow my home wi-fi was interfeering with the way the phone picked up or displayed the signal. I turned off wi-fi, reinstalled the sim and re-booted and all seemed better. I'll know better when I get home and re-start wi-fi.

Wayne, If I'm not using exchange on my PC can I use it on my SGS? I use Googles own "Google Apps Sync" application to keep my Outlook sync's with the Google Apps hosted email, contacts and calander bo I'm a bit worried that syncing via exchange instead of IMAP would somehow mess things up. Any thoughts?

Ben

wayne040576

Just noticed they have a tablet on the way too:
http://www.i4u.com/article35134.html

wayne040576

BenEadir wrote: »

Thanks Wayne and everyone else.

I've a lot to learn.

The issue I was having with my GSM signal at home seems to have been resolved. It was either that the sim wasn't conecting properly (I reinstalled it 'firmly') or somehow my home wi-fi was interfeering with the way the phone picked up or displayed the signal. I turned off wi-fi, reinstalled the sim and re-booted and all seemed better. I'll know better when I get home and re-start wi-fi.

Wayne, If I'm not using exchange on my PC can I use it on my SGS? I use Googles own "Google Apps Sync" application to keep my Outlook sync's with the Google Apps hosted email, contacts and calander bo I'm a bit worried that syncing via exchange instead of IMAP would somehow mess things up. Any thoughts?

Ben

You can use it on the phone and not on the pc.
I actually have outlook on the work pc, and sync with both the galaxy s and the ipad.
If you tun one off, it will just update the next time it is on. I actually have the galaxy’s sync turned off just now because the work emails were causing to dingle every few minutes.

I’ve never tried "Google Apps Sync". I imagine if your turn on exchange at the same time as imap, you’ll get duplication of calendar events.
You may need to turn off sync on the imap first.

mathew

SuperUser

HibernianRunner

Hi all

Looked around at various phones and I've come to the conclussion that the Samsung Galaxy S is the one for me. I am on 02 pre-pay and want to stay that way too. My current phone is a simple one so this will me my first smart phone.

I have decided to buy it online from the Carphone Warehouse for the price of 479.99 with 30 credit for upgrading.

So I have some silly questions: regarding what is sim free mean? I assume that if I get the phone I just pop in my old sim in and it will work? Do I need a special sim because its a smartphone?

Also what does the term mean locked and unlocked regarding these smartphones? Sorry I havent a clue.

Anyhelp would be appreciated.
Many thanks.

wayne040576

HibernianRunner wrote: »

Hi all

Looked around at various phones and I've come to the conclussion that the Samsung Galaxy S is the one for me. I am on 02 pre-pay and want to stay that way too. My current phone is a simple one so this will me my first smart phone.

I have decided to buy it online from the Carphone Warehouse for the price of 479.99 with 30 credit for upgrading.

So I have some silly questions: regarding what is sim free mean? I assume that if I get the phone I just pop in my old sim in and it will work? Do I need a special sim because its a smartphone?

Also what does the term mean locked and unlocked regarding these smartphones? Sorry I havent a clue.

Anyhelp would be appreciated.
Many thanks.

Sim free is the same as unlocked. It means you can use a sim card from any network in the phone. When it is locked, it is locked to a partcular network so only sim cards from that network will work in it.

HibernianRunner

wayne040576 wrote: »

Sim free is the same as unlocked. It means you can use a sim card from any network in the phone. When it is locked, it is locked to a partcular network so only sim cards from that network will work in it.

Thanks wayne for the reply.

Regarding CPW are the phones locked or unlocked do you know? Can't see any info regarding this on their site.

Zagato

Well if they are unlocked, that seems to be by far the cheapest place to buy them.

Oafley Jones

wayne040576 wrote: »

Sim free is the same as unlocked. It means you can use a sim card from any network in the phone. When it is locked, it is locked to a partcular network so only sim cards from that network will work in it.

Sim free isn't necessarily the same as unlocked. A phone can be sold/advertised simfree i.e without a contract, but it can still be carrier locked. So always ask to ensure that it's unlocked.

bindybandy

Just got one of these and it seems fantastic so far but does anyone know how to plug it ino pc runing windows 7 so i can drag and drop files? I've plugged the usb cable in and in settings on the phone told it to use USB as a mass storage device rather than samsung kies etc but when i look at my drives in win 7 i get 2 removable drives and they say "please insert a disc" when i click on either of them?

Brian

bindybandy wrote: »

Just got one of these and it seems fantastic so far but does anyone know how to plug it ino pc runing windows 7 so i can drag and drop files? I've plugged the usb cable in and in settings on the phone told it to use USB as a mass storage device rather than samsung kies etc but when i look at my drives in win 7 i get 2 removable drives and they say "please insert a disc" when i click on either of them?

A notification should appear at the top of the screen saying something about USB mounting, click it and then select mount USB.

bindybandy

Baza210 wrote: »

A notification should appear at the top of the screen saying something about USB mounting, click it and then select mount USB.

Ah that's perfect - can't believe it was that simple and I didnt notice. Off to copy some files into the "media" folder now to see if they show up on the phone. cheers for your help.

Spybreak

I literally just bought one of these on CPW asking for the "vodafone prepay" model. 479e and it's factory unlocked, using it with my O2 card right now.

First impressions very positive, moving from an iPhone 3GS and I'm a hardcore Apple fanboy, just decided to skip on the iPhone 4 this year and try out android.

Screen sharpness could be better, but it's still a positive change from the 3GS.

Void

The only thing this device has going for it is the very small size/weight. The Desire is cheaper and better IMO.

Spybreak

Void wrote: »

The only thing this device has going for it is the very small size/weight. The Desire is cheaper and better IMO.

Better GPU, larger battery, better screen technology, marginally faster CPU. The desire is great and I almost went for it, but this phone is newer and somewhat more advanced.

Time will tell if it gets the same dev support for it.

Void

It's not... I could see no difference in screen (yes one is supposed to be s-amoled). The GPU thing is a complete red herring, I don't know why people keep saying this. Samsung dev support is terrible.

Have you actually put the two devices side by side? I was not impressed with the GalaxyS (apart from it's size). The Samsung skins is also horrible, it looks like a copy/paste of the iphone. There is no application out that even stresses the Desire, so I don't know why people talk about GPUs tbh (I write mobile opengl stuff).

GalaxyS has 1500mAh battery, same as Desire. Edit: Oops Desire has 1400, ok ok. Still gonna have to recharge every night

Spybreak

I'm completely new to Android so no, I haven't seen the desire working in person, just dummy phones. I do like the Desire better physically, it seems better built and it's just a better design.

However, as for dev support, the galaxy is getting released everywhere and in different carriers, it has been rooted and samsung has released the sources so theoretically it should be more than possible to get a good dev community around it if it starts getting sold, which it is.

Void

Sorry nope. Android is open-source. Neither HTC or Samsung release the sourcecode for their proprietary stuff (the custom skin on top). Android doesn't actually belong to anyone. The HTC phones are also released worldwide on multiple carriers, this is NORMAL.

Neither company are actually developer friendly, they put lots of security on devices to stop modding. N1 is exception because Google mandated the "easy root" option.

Spybreak

Right, so what is this exactly?
http://innovator.samsungmobile.com/bbs/stars.ThreadBoard.do?starMbrId=SteveHa&viewType=rss&messageId=84609

I don't care about source for their UI stuff, but I do care about people being able to port 2.2 and 3.0 eventually to the device if Samsung decide not to port it themselves, like how the Desire got 2.2 before HTC released it officially. From what I understand devs need the source code for that and that looks like it.

As I said I'm new to Android and just got the Galaxy S to test the waters. I will easily sell it and get something else if it doesn't fit my needs, but so far I like what I see.

Mad_Mike

Void wrote: »

It's not... I could see no difference in screen (yes one is supposed to be s-amoled). The GPU thing is a complete red herring, I don't know why people keep saying this. Samsung dev support is terrible.

Have you actually put the two devices side by side? I was not impressed with the GalaxyS (apart from it's size). The Samsung skins is also horrible, it looks like a copy/paste of the iphone. There is no application out that even stresses the Desire, so I don't know why people talk about GPUs tbh (I write mobile opengl stuff).

GalaxyS has 1500mAh battery, same as Desire. Edit: Oops Desire has 1400, ok ok. Still gonna have to recharge every night

What on earth are you talking about????
I own both phones and the Galaxy S has FAR superior graphic capabilities to the Desire!!!

Overall, I prefer the Desire as the Samsung firmware is not the best in my opinion. Tends to be a bit laggy, but there are lots of new releases out which are reported to fix these lags, so I guess I'll try them out, but have a look at this youtube video to see the difference in the Galaxy GPU and the Desire & Nexus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUQP7CWyeQ

BTW, there is also another vid on there of them all running <EDIT>Quake</EDIT> and again, the Galaxy blows the other 2 clean out of the water when it comes to graphic capabilities

Void

Erm Desire is capped at 30fps so not accurate. These are red herring benchmarks you are throwing out. This stuff hasn't even been coded for OpenGL 2.0 A lot of the information around the net on this stuff is rubbish, don't believe everything you read. What is a fact is the Desire runs everything amazingly smoothly, and you can't play Quake on any of these phones that don't have physical keys!! Try it

@spy: Oh that's quite cool, I didn't know that. However.... it seems like a marketing gimmick really Developers are not gonna do Samsung's jobs for them! Lots of people remove the custom skins. Trust me... they haven't released the source that matters (driver source code). This is what will stop the porting.

With the Desire 2.2 leak, it's actually a HTC Evo rom put onto the Desire... the devices are similar enough that it works after a bit of fiddling.

Edit: Just read the above link about Samsung source... it's bollox Contains binaries for drivers and UI. It has "kernel source", WOW.... sourcecode for the opensource linux kernel It does not contain sourcecode for their custom UI at all. Actually... I think it just has all the open-source stuff they are legally obliged to provide anyway. Again: don't be fooled.

wayne040576

Void wrote: »

Erm Desire is capped at 30fps so not accurate. These are red herring benchmarks you are throwing out. This stuff hasn't even been coded for OpenGL 2.0 A lot of the information around the net on this stuff is rubbish, don't believe everything you read. What is a fact is the Desire runs everything amazingly smoothly, and you can't play Quake on any of these phones that don't have physical keys!! Try

With the Desire 2.2 leak, it's actually a HTC Evo rom put onto the Desire... the devices are similar enough that it works after a bit of fiddling.

Edit: Just read the above link about Samsung source... it's bollox Contains binaries for drivers and UI. It has "kernel source", WOW.... sourcecode for the opensource linux kernel It does not contain sourcecode for their custom UI at all. Actually... I think it just has all the open-source stuff they are legally obliged to provide anyway. Again: don't be fooled.

They're not going to release source for the drivers, most manufacturers don't because they aren't allowed to release spec info on the chips that they use. It's the same reason nvidia still release binary drivers for the Linux desktop. And the fact is they've still released more than Htc at this stage.

leahcim

I could see no difference in screen (yes one is supposed to be s-amoled)

The biggest advantage for me in having an s-amoled screen is being able to see the screen better in direct sunlight. Did you compare the screens while outside.

Erm Desire is capped at 30fps so not accurate

But in that benchmark the desire and N1 only reached 26.5 FPS. Whats the point in quoting a refresh rate cap when the device doesn't have the grunt to reach it.

I am in the market for a new android device myself and am trying to decide which to go for, so far the only thing thats turning me towards the HTC desire is that it has a bigger development community for custom roms and becaue it is a very similar device to the N1 it gets a fair bit of attention. I am wondering how long will this last though.

For a good while HTC was the only game in town for top end android devices now that Samsung has started to push them this could change pretty quickly.

All in all its all good for the android platform.

Spybreak

I just played around with a Desire as a co-worker has one. I have to say, in terms of casing and design the desire is way ahead of the Galaxy. It feels more expensive, isn't a smudge magnet and just looks nicer. The plastic back on the Galaxy feels cheap and gets dirty easily. Also the speaker on the back of the galaxy is dented outwards which makes it feel even cheaper as it kind of scrapes against your finger when you rub it over.

The displays are different though, the galaxy has way better black levels and contrast, but on the negative side being larger and having the same resolution makes it look less sharp and it's easier to see the individual pixels which to me detracts a bit from the image quality.

The thing I am most concerned with is general smoothness of the OS and the galaxy seemed to be faster when scrolling. To be honest I am using Launcher+ and the Desire was with stock sense so I imagine they're not really comparable. As for multitouch responsiveness they were both pretty good when pinching to zoom and scrolling sites was a bit smoother on the galaxy (although still not as nice as on the iPhone).

I guess in the end they balance each other out and there is no "perfect" phone. I might still swap my Galaxy for a Desire if the ROM situation doesn't improve, but saying the Galaxy doesn't have an edge over the Desire is just plain wrong. It's not better in every way, but it does have several improvements that for some might make a difference.

wayne040576

Spybreak wrote: »

I just played around with a Desire as a co-worker has one. I have to say, in terms of casing and design the desire is way ahead of the Galaxy. It feels more expensive, isn't a smudge magnet and just looks nicer. The plastic back on the Galaxy feels cheap and gets dirty easily. Also the speaker on the back of the galaxy is dented outwards which makes it feel even cheaper as it kind of scrapes against your finger when you rub it over.

The displays are different though, the galaxy has way better black levels and contrast, but on the negative side being larger and having the same resolution makes it look less sharp and it's easier to see the individual pixels which to me detracts a bit from the image quality.

The thing I am most concerned with is general smoothness of the OS and the galaxy seemed to be faster when scrolling. To be honest I am using Launcher+ and the Desire was with stock sense so I imagine they're not really comparable. As for multitouch responsiveness they were both pretty good when pinching to zoom and scrolling sites was a bit smoother on the galaxy (although still not as nice as on the iPhone).

I guess in the end they balance each other out and there is no "perfect" phone. I might still swap my Galaxy for a Desire if the ROM situation doesn't improve, but saying the Galaxy doesn't have an edge over the Desire is just plain wrong. It's not better in every way, but it does have several improvements that for some might make a difference.

Yeah it took me a while to decide which one to get. I was actually very close to getting the desire, even had my finger on the Buy button on bothe expansys and amazon but decided to sleep on it.
If HTC were to release a rebranded EVO that ran on our networks, I'd get it in a second. But so far it doesn't look like it.

Inquitus

Lads if Samsung were as good at supporting their handsets as HTC, or if the Galaxy S had close to the same dev community as the Desire, I'd recommend it over the Desire, but it doesn't, and very far from it. Neither does it have sense, it has a ****ty Samsung skin over android. There's simply no contest between these two handsets, the desire wins hands down, not because its a better spec, but because overall its a far better package.

Anyone who's owned a Samsung Android phone once won't buy one again, and there's a very good reason for that.

Spybreak

Inquitus wrote: »

Lads if Samsung were as good at supporting their handsets as HTC, or if the Galaxy S had close to the same dev community as the Desire, I'd recommend it over the Desire, but it doesn't, and very far from it. Neither does it have sense, it has a ****ty Samsung skin over android. There's simply no contest between these two handsets, the desire wins hands down, not because its a better spec, but because overall its a far better package.

Anyone who's owned a Samsung phone once won't buy one again, and there's a very good reason for that.

The Galaxy is new and is getting quite a lot of attention. It's being released in almost every carrier in the US and from what I've heard this time they want to really support the devices. I don't have any prior experience with them, but don't you think they might change this time around considering all the **** they got last time?

TouchWiz isn't horrible. It could use some refinements but I've seen way worse.

It's funny seeing all these discussions going in between android devices. I thought that only happened when it came to iPhone vs Android.

wayne040576

I would have got the desire if it had more than 512MB internal storage or if I could install apps on the sd card. I think 2.2 allows that but at the moment, it's not available officially.

Inquitus

Spybreak wrote: »

The Galaxy is new and is getting quite a lot of attention. It's being released in almost every carrier in the US and from what I've heard this time they want to really support the devices. I don't have any prior experience with them, but don't you think they might change this time around considering all the **** they got last time?

TouchWiz isn't horrible. It could use some refinements but I've seen way worse.

It's funny seeing all these discussions going in between android devices. I thought that only happened when it came to iPhone vs Android.

I am just offering my informed opinion. The Desire already has a 2.2 with Sense from the xda community, and has had 2.2 Vanilla for nearly 2 months. The Desire will have 2.2 official with Sense in the next 6-8 weeks, the Galaxy S won't have it from Samsung much before christmas. The Galaxy S will never see official gingerbread, the Desire might.

The fact the Desire is soo close in dna to the Nexus one means it is likely to see updates from the community for far far longer than the Galaxy S ever will.

The Galaxy S is a lovely phone, and its specwise better than the Desire, but for the reasons outlined above I would never buy one.

wayne040576

Inquitus wrote: »

I am just offering my informed opinion. The Desire already has a 2.2 with Sense from the xda community, and has had 2.2 Vanilla for nearly 2 months. The Desire will have 2.2 official with Sense in the next 6-8 weeks, the Galaxy S won't have it from Samsung much before christmas. The Galaxy S will never see official gingerbread, the Desire might.

The fact the Desire is soo close in dna to the Nexus one means it is likely to see updates from the community for far far longer than the Galaxy S ever will.

The Galaxy S is a lovely phone, and its specwise better than the Desire, but for the reasons outlined above I would never buy one.

If you had outlined these points two weeks ago when I started this thread, I probably would have got the Desire but I didn't so...