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NZtechfreak
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  #344129 22-Jun-2010 12:49
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Weather-wise its been plenty bright here since yesterday, I've found the sunlight performance really good, basically equivalent to regular LCD as far as I can tell.

Shame about the pentile though, I definitely notice the difference - if there are others here who find pentile displays quite noticeably less clear than others I'd suggest taking a look at a Galaxy S before committing. Its not too much of a biggy for me, for the other display characteristics I'll live with it, but your mileage may vary.

The loudspeaker seems decent enough, the criticisms seem a little over the top to me.

The build quality is fine, its light and plastic construction, which doesn't give a particularly favorable impression, but its solid and nothing creaks. I think I saw one person suggesting its build quality was better than the Desire, but that seems delusional to me.

Unconverted video looks great, plays perfect, quite nice via TV-Out cable too (excellent portable media player). Music quality is simply top-notch, and the music player is the best I've seen yet on an Android device. I find the scanning for media files very slow on my 32GB card, the Desire was very quick to index everything, presumably on the basis of only looking for new stuff once the initial search was done, whereas the Galaxy S seems to build the index from the ground up every time.

Connecting to Samsung Kies software is a PITA. Got it working by going to Settings-->About Phone-->USB Settings and choosing "Ask on Connection". Rather non-intuitive place to have that particular setting if you ask me.

Reception wise the phone seems very good, I'm getting by far the best 3G speeds in my home that I've ever had.

I wish I could say more about the phone, but unfortunately my Google account seems to be one of those affected by some mystery issue that prevents any download from the marketplace succeeding, which is proving a significant downer.




Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org




kyhwana2
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  #344133 22-Jun-2010 12:59
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NZtechfreak:
Unconverted video looks great, plays perfect, quite nice via TV-Out cable too (excellent portable media player). Music quality is simply top-notch, and the music player is the best I've seen yet on an Android device. I find the scanning for media files very slow on my 32GB card, the Desire was very quick to index everything, presumably on the basis of only looking for new stuff once the initial search was done, whereas the Galaxy S seems to build the index from the ground up every time.
.


How are you playing unconverted video? What kind of video was it?

There doesn't seem to be anything on android that will play .avi/.mkvs, except for that demoplayer, which doesn't play 720p video very well..

n4

n4
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  #344136 22-Jun-2010 13:18
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NZtechfreak: I wish I could say more about the phone, but unfortunately my Google account seems to be one of those affected by some mystery issue that prevents any download from the marketplace succeeding, which is proving a significant downer.


I had this issue with another Android phone. What finally worked for me was:

Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications:

1. Market -> Clear cache > (BACK)

2. Download Manager -> Clear data

I might have cleared data/cache for all Google Apps for good measure as well (it restores from the cloud anyway).




Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees




NZtechfreak
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  #344141 22-Jun-2010 13:29
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Samsung have an inbuilt player that plays divx/xvid/mkv perfect, even 720p. Very nice.

I already tried clearing all those caches but alas no joy (I've tried every other fix suggested on the interwebs too, to no avail...).




Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org


n4

n4
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  #344207 22-Jun-2010 16:08
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NZtechfreak: I already tried clearing all those caches but alas no joy (I've tried every other fix suggested on the interwebs too, to no avail...).


Bugger. Frustrated me for weeks. Having to find downloads for apps and doing manual installs really takes the joy out of it. I even tried using another gmail account but that didn't help, it wasn't until I did the Download Manager data clear on top of the other cache clears that it finally worked. Then a week or two later the phone started rebooting - but thats another story and why I'm waiting for the SGS. As a matter of interest, does the size of the app matter? In my case (before it was fixed) it worked but only for apps < 100k.




Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees


NZtechfreak
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  #344241 22-Jun-2010 17:34
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Apps <400k install relatively reliably within a few attempts. Annoyingly many apks won't install directly either, and I can't even install the Samsung Apps that come with the device! Very annoying, like getting close to returning the device annoying. Wouldn't bother me so much except it seems like a fantastic device if the Market were working properly...




Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org


lanks
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  #344243 22-Jun-2010 18:01
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@NZtechfreak How does it compare to the HTC Desire?

 
 
 

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.
NZtechfreak
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  #344248 22-Jun-2010 18:15
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Well, screen is better, sound quality via headphones is better, music player is better, TV Out and divx/mkv/xvid playback is great to have, battery life is looking to be better also, larger storage space for apps, big enough that it shouldn't become an issue, WiFi tether, some small things like being able to set the screen to stay on when charging are nice.

Build quality is worse (plastic construction, fingerprint magnet), but definitely decent in its own right.

UI wise overall I still like Sense more, but TouchWiz certainly has some good points (WiFi/BT off/on switches in the notifications tray is really nice for instance) - I think mostly the leap view and HTC Widgets make Sense better for me (you can always use a launcher replacement like ADW Launcher or Launcher Pro to replicate this though).

Cable connectivity is definitely worse, a bit flakey and non-intuitive, OK once you realise what to do, but still requires the extra step of choosing to mount the SD card in mass memory mode.

Exchange capability is worse, but you can have multiple exchange accounts.

Similar degree of social network integration, but the widget is fugly and I miss Friendstream because of that.

Bluetooth implementation is better, but no bloody HID profile, so won't work with my bluetooth keyboard (tends to play nicer with bluetooth gear than the Desire though).




Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org


n4

n4
959 posts

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  #344251 22-Jun-2010 18:19
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NZtechfreak: Apps <400k install relatively reliably within a few attempts. Annoyingly many apks won't install directly either, and I can't even install the Samsung Apps that come with the device! Very annoying, like getting close to returning the device annoying. Wouldn't bother me so much except it seems like a fantastic device if the Market were working properly...


Have you tried doing a factory reset and/or using another gmail account? At least before returning it, anyway...




Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees


kyhwana2
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  #344255 22-Jun-2010 18:31
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NZtechfreak: Samsung have an inbuilt player that plays divx/xvid/mkv perfect, even 720p. Very nice.

I already tried clearing all those caches but alas no joy (I've tried every other fix suggested on the interwebs too, to no avail...).


Ohh, wonder if anyone has pulled that out into a .apk


NZtechfreak
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  #344257 22-Jun-2010 18:40
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I've done about a dozen factory resets, interesting thing is that I get the com.android.vending process ended unexpectedly error at startup after a fresh factory boot, which makes me wonder if the Market is corrupted on the ROM.

Before sending I'll definitely try using another Gmail account, its no solution for my problems, but its interesting in an academic kind of way :)




Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org


ancalag0n
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#344273 22-Jun-2010 19:45
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First time poster, long time lurker. I've been following all the Android handset threads/posts for some time now and have a question regarding the Samsung Galaxy S

NZtechfreak: Can you please confirm how the Galaxy S compares to the HTC Desire with regards to GPS. There's a thread on phandroid.com (Which I think you may have posted on) here:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s/104872-gps-issues.html

Do you have your findings at all :D

NZtechfreak
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  #344293 22-Jun-2010 20:43
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Can't install anything to use GPS on unfortunately, the pre-installed version of Google Maps seems fine in terms of lock speed, but I can't speak to accuracy for the present time.

Tried a new Google account - no go still. Market place errors from the get go. This ones going back.




Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org


n4

n4
959 posts

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  #344314 22-Jun-2010 21:18
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NZtechfreak: Can't install anything to use GPS on unfortunately, the pre-installed version of Google Maps seems fine in terms of lock speed, but I can't speak to accuracy for the present time.

Tried a new Google account - no go still. Market place errors from the get go. This ones going back.


That's a real shame. I guess you don't want to risk the warranty/returns policy by flashing a new firmware to see if that fixes it?




Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees


nofam
1094 posts

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  #344443 23-Jun-2010 09:25
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NZtechfreak: Can't install anything to use GPS on unfortunately, the pre-installed version of Google Maps seems fine in terms of lock speed, but I can't speak to accuracy for the present time.

Tried a new Google account - no go still. Market place errors from the get go. This ones going back.



Sorry to hear that NZTF - Not a good start for Samsung.  I'm sure Clove are good with RMA's though?

Out of interest, were there any apps on it that couldn't be uninstalled?

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