Quite suprised about that, they dont mention the screen or battery life in comparison..
Samsung i7500 (Android)
- Thread starter Christo
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Quite suprised about that, they dont mention the screen or battery life in comparison..
Soldato
Well.... (I still have both hero and samsung to compare)
Both Hero and Samsung are really well built (As in no loose bits, bits going to hang off or fall off). No rattling or anything like that on either handset. The USB plugs are solid on both too. The hero has some wierd gap around the screen, people complain of, same on mine. Depends if you're OCD about these things.
The Hero feels like a solid piece of metal - heavy in a good way. The Samsung feels really light, a bit like nokias and other samsungs. Put it this way if u dropped both, the hero would most likely get a dent in it, the samsung would probably bounce! I have to say u hold the samsung and u think eh, this can't be good, u press the unlock button (another thing i love about it, one button on the side to lock/unlock), the screen turns on and u go WOW! Thats when you realise this is one amazing phone! (it looks nicer physically too in my opinion, but the weight is misleading at first)
Battery, both have the same problem, the battery goes down like a cup of water with a hole in it! [Remember the samsung has a 1500mah battery and the AMOLED screen, the Hero has a 1350mah battery.] This is an android problem, but its easily fixed. In increasing order of battery affect.
- Turn off autosync - saves a lot of battery, but it won't auto sync to google. Who cares tbh. I'm sure there is a widget to put in the home screen to sync, or to set manual sync every 30 mins or hour like every other phone on the planet. If you have a time where you are expecting some important emails, just turn auto sync on. I expect google will improve this with new builds. Blackberry and MS for example use a keep alive to keep the connection up, and let the far end tell u when there's new stuff. I don't think google do it this way
- Turn off background data - This saves a lot of battery, especially if you use a lot of widgets that you can't control the data with. It also stops some other wierd background data that autosync doesnt. Again i expect google will fix this with new builds.
[Put it this way with those two on, the battery dropped 40 odd % overnight, with autosync off, it dropped 23%, with background data off it dropped 3%]
- Turn off 3g (use 2g only). This is universal to all phones. It saves battery particularly when you have syncing left on because if you leave 3g on, you waste a lot of power on 2g <-> 3g handovers. You'll thus notice a bigger battery drop if you're out travelling around for the day than if u have it sitting at work for 8 hours in one place. Also for talk time it makes a big difference. Again use a widget to toggle this as and when u need it.
[With 3g off it dropped from 100% to 99% overnight]
- Remove unwanted widgets. A good trick i found was to install task killer (and add the taskbar widget that comes with it). You can use it to kill all tasks and save RAM (a great tool). But you can also check you're phone after about an hour and see which programs launched in the background and were probably using battery and data. This is how i found that the BBC news app was draining battery, even when not using the widget. I got rid of it!
[above % figures were with all these silly widgets that suck battery off]
One area the Hero is better tho is the RAM. It has about 93mb free with touch UI running. Samsung has about 43mb free.
Real RAM differences are 93mb in the samsung vs 192mb with the Hero (available for apps). Its only the touch UI which brings the free RAM closer between the two. Even when my free ram drops to 7mb (loads of widgets running) i don't notice any slow downs. Android seems to handle it and close some widgets by itself. I actually notice more slow down with the Hero even when there's loads of RAM free. This is definatly the touch UI and not the Hero's problem.
The Samsung comes with one of those plastic covers on the screen. Its not a real screen protector, but its really well stuck to the screen, so you can easily use it for a few weeks while you organise a real protector if you're into that kind of thing - i removed it right away
Samsung also comes with a case - the kind u see people with blackberry's with. Its good enough for immediate use, but i'll probably get a better quality one soon.
Hero comes with nothing at all. I personally HATE the chin when its in my pocket.
General speed is about the same. The samsung manages memory pretty well. I think the touch UI makes things slow, and after you get over it and start using real widgets you'll probably remove it. I didnt yet.
I havn't synced any music yet as I'm pretty busy and just use an ipod for now. Its just sheer laziness on my part to transfer the music! Also i was previously worried about the battery draining so fast as it was - but now that's sorted.
I tried it with a few music tracks just to see, and as I mentioned in another thread, tunewiki seems to be the best. You can use the 'call' button on the headphones to pause/play. I dont think it supports double click to shuffle tho. Surely thats a tunewiki feature we could request!
The sound quality on the samsung is 1000% better than my ipod. Yeah i was shocked too. I use the ipod almost daily while traveling so i noticed it right away. The only thing i dont like is that the samsung comes with those headphones with the rubber mushroom on the end which sticks right in your ear. Its comfy but drowns out all background noice. Ok that's good and bad - for me i prefer to be able to hear stuff when i'm walking or on the tube.
fyi iphone headphones don't work. They only play through one speaker, and when u hold the button u get the other speaker - different wiring there for sure.
Any other questions please ask. Now that i've used both for a bit I can answer most things.
It comes with both. I was told mine was unbranded, but then another forum user said sotel only had branded ones. I checked again, and my box has a red O2 sticker on the side saying 'recomended internet pack M'. You can remove the sticker easily. There's zero branding on the box or phone, and it picks up english off the sim card right away. The only thing i noticed was that the voicemail number defaulted to the german O2 one in the notifications menu the first time.
Just to explain a bit better.. When you get a voicemail u get a notification saying
'new voicemail'
'call +49<german on number>'
When you click it it dials your real voicemail number from you're sim. On next reboot, it now displays your real voicemail number. No biggy.
There's a 2 year EU waranty - u use the nearest EU waranty point. In fact thats a EU regulation. No worries there. If you bought outside the EU technically they can mess you arround (HTC tried to do this with the diamond way back)
Yeah i think its because samsung havnt pushed this phone. They are concentrating on the JET, i think because more networks have it and its at a bettery price point for the networks. Hey if you're using WM6 you'll fall over when you use android.
I've used WM a lot over the years, i always get sucked into a new WM phone thinking it must have improved only to regret it
OMG i forgot to talk about the screen...
For some reason the default background has a wierd paterning affect to it. I thought it was the screen but its not! I downloaded 'backgrounds' (an app that u can choose through thousands of backgrounds from the web - well categorised and doesnt waste space on your phone).
The best comparison is to use a scenic wallpaper or a cartoon one, and words cannot describe how clear the samsung screen is. You almost think OMG this much be killing my battery! But even when the auto brightness kicks in its really clear.
At night when you're out it almost looks like a printed piece of paper!
The HERO screen is VERY nice for what it is, but its no AMOLED. I'd say its marginally better than my ipod display, but when the auto brightness kicks in it becomes washed out and rubish - much like the WM phones you may be used to.
Any questions feel free to ask.
For some reason the default background has a wierd paterning affect to it. I thought it was the screen but its not! I downloaded 'backgrounds' (an app that u can choose through thousands of backgrounds from the web - well categorised and doesnt waste space on your phone).
The best comparison is to use a scenic wallpaper or a cartoon one, and words cannot describe how clear the samsung screen is. You almost think OMG this much be killing my battery! But even when the auto brightness kicks in its really clear.
At night when you're out it almost looks like a printed piece of paper!
The HERO screen is VERY nice for what it is, but its no AMOLED. I'd say its marginally better than my ipod display, but when the auto brightness kicks in it becomes washed out and rubish - much like the WM phones you may be used to.
Any questions feel free to ask.
Oh one more thing... I didnt notice any random reboots anymore, or the calls dropping. I'm sure this is related to some wierd syncing stuff going on. I know that when you're on a call and a sync happens while on 3G and wifi on, it gets confused and drops your 3G connection (and so you're call too) before it initiates the sync over wifi.
Its a bug in the new update - hopefully they'll fix it soon!
Its a bug in the new update - hopefully they'll fix it soon!
Oh and the camera...
I didnt use it too much to be honest. I found that the samsung works better with things like shopsavvy, as in it takes less time to grab the bar code. I guess that's an illustration its a better camera? one of the bar code apps freaked out tho, it turned the flash on periodically - wierd.
The few pictures i did take, just to test, i noticed the samsung performs much better (mainly because of the flash), but the flash seems to trigger slightly too soon. I think this is to prevent the flash flooding affect, but it should be configurable imho. I guess thats an android thing tho.
The HERO performs like most other phone cameras - good outdoors (my front garden
) but dull and washed out inside with low light (a lamp on in the corner - just to test it)
I think both phones needs some settings to control the auto focus agressivness - but again that will have to be an android function - hopefully added later.
I didnt use it too much to be honest. I found that the samsung works better with things like shopsavvy, as in it takes less time to grab the bar code. I guess that's an illustration its a better camera? one of the bar code apps freaked out tho, it turned the flash on periodically - wierd.
The few pictures i did take, just to test, i noticed the samsung performs much better (mainly because of the flash), but the flash seems to trigger slightly too soon. I think this is to prevent the flash flooding affect, but it should be configurable imho. I guess thats an android thing tho.
The HERO performs like most other phone cameras - good outdoors (my front garden
) but dull and washed out inside with low light (a lamp on in the corner - just to test it)I think both phones needs some settings to control the auto focus agressivness - but again that will have to be an android function - hopefully added later.
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Thanks Kam, i was so set on the Galaxy, then read the review and was unsure if it was the right choice, but its nice to know you have both and prefer the Samsung 
My mind is now made up again! Roll on the 14th!
My mind is now made up again! Roll on the 14th!
Thanks kam187, looks like I'm pretty much set to order this thing.
What 3G bands does this device actually support? On each site I see different ones listed and haven't managed to piece much up myself. Just wondering since it'd be great if it worked in Japan...
What 3G bands does this device actually support? On each site I see different ones listed and haven't managed to piece much up myself. Just wondering since it'd be great if it worked in Japan...
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Thanks for that Kam.
"One area the Hero is better tho is the RAM. It has about 93mb free with touch UI running. Samsung has about 43mb free. "
Interesting, so we can deduce that the Sense UI is using about 50MB of the 100MB extra RAM it has over the Samsung - meaning that for usable memory, the Hero is better off by 50MB.
How does the Hero keyboard compare to the stock Android one?
"One area the Hero is better tho is the RAM. It has about 93mb free with touch UI running. Samsung has about 43mb free. "
Interesting, so we can deduce that the Sense UI is using about 50MB of the 100MB extra RAM it has over the Samsung - meaning that for usable memory, the Hero is better off by 50MB.
How does the Hero keyboard compare to the stock Android one?
The sound quality on the samsung is 1000% better than my ipod. Yeah i was shocked too. I use the ipod almost daily while traveling so i noticed it right away. The only thing i dont like is that the samsung comes with those headphones with the rubber mushroom on the end which sticks right in your ear. Its comfy but drowns out all background noice. Ok that's good and bad - for me i prefer to be able to hear stuff when i'm walking or on the tube.
Your still using stock ipod headphones
No wonder you thought the mushrooms sound 1000x better! I'd be very supprised if the quality was actually better though, ipods are renowned for having an excellent balanced sound!Probably yeah close to 50mb. The Hero rom is a little different, i can see in the settings menu things like the APN settings have different options. So its also possible the total Hero rom with slightly diffferent settings and their drivers etc uses more space than the samsung rom.
Also i noticed on the samsung ROM animations for transitions are turned off by default. I turned them back on without any affect on performance or memory, but i didnt like it, so i switched it back off. Its a bit like in Vista, it looks nicer but the 50 milisecond delay while it scrolls/animates gets anoying when you're actually after a sub sub sub menu.
I don't like the stock android keyboard on the samsung. The keys are a bit too close together and it takes some getting used to. The HTC one is much better. There are some third party keyboards u can install tho (like 'better keyboard') but they cost a few quid.
The HTC keyboard is much better. If you've seen the HTC diamond series, its pretty much like that. I have to say i didnt use it for an extended time so maybe it has some anoyances, but my immediate reaction was wow this is what the samsung keyboard should have beeb like!
BTW turning on haptic feedback really helps. Oh and in landscape mode the stock android keyboard is fine.
Your still using stock ipod headphones
When i'm on the tube etc, then yes. Its because it has the 'call' button to let you skip music. I also have some sony headphones I carry around in my bag for when i'm traveling (in a plane, lounging on holiday etc). You're probably right that the difference between the sony headphones and the samsung probably isnt that great. I'm sure the 'in ear' side of the samsung helps with the low end.
When the volume is right up, it has a kind of hollow sound. Its not the sound itself, but more I think because the speaker is very loud and there's a tiny bit of echo from the sorounding plastic. I don't mean echo, as in the voice repeats notyicably, but that the low frequency part of the sound is echoing so making it sound more hollow.
I read that review, and i'm not really sure what they're talking about, because at 80% volume its totally fine, just like any other phone. Even at 100% its way way more than usable.
One thing I would say is the new firmware they released has made call connections a bit funny. Sometimes i'll answer a call and the voice will blank out for a few seconds. This is a known problem with the new firmware tho, so they should fix it very soon.
Thanks again for the info.
I was pretty set on getting one anyway, but getting one from a US retailer online or off so far has proved impossible. I contacted a few stores in Germany about policies for selling and shipping world wide and the only one that replied so far I was hesitant to work with as they stated they would only accept bank transfer which offers me no protection part way round the world... I have been trolling ebay almost constantly, missed an auction yesterday by minutes. Got one this morning tho! I am really looking forward to getting my hands on this device.
I've been using a G1 / Dream on T-Mobile here since a few months after it's release. After the i7500 arrives I'll try to do a comparison of some sort to that as well. I've learned to deal with poor battery life with the G1, and don't really have a problem with it. The feature set and functionality, for me at least (my company uses gmail / google apps for domains and I personally use google voice) has been worth the trade off.
I just really hope it doesn't have the new firmware!
I was pretty set on getting one anyway, but getting one from a US retailer online or off so far has proved impossible. I contacted a few stores in Germany about policies for selling and shipping world wide and the only one that replied so far I was hesitant to work with as they stated they would only accept bank transfer which offers me no protection part way round the world... I have been trolling ebay almost constantly, missed an auction yesterday by minutes. Got one this morning tho! I am really looking forward to getting my hands on this device.
I've been using a G1 / Dream on T-Mobile here since a few months after it's release. After the i7500 arrives I'll try to do a comparison of some sort to that as well. I've learned to deal with poor battery life with the G1, and don't really have a problem with it. The feature set and functionality, for me at least (my company uses gmail / google apps for domains and I personally use google voice) has been worth the trade off.
I just really hope it doesn't have the new firmware!
I think i know which retailer you mean! I didnt go with them for the same reason. You could try misco or sotel otherwise. Both should ship worldwide. But they use the postal service which is really useless if there's any customs/duty involved - it'll sit there forever. Try to get them to use DHL, fedex or ups.
I dont think your's will have the new firmware. It seems samsung have pulled it now. People are getting 'you have the latest firmware' in NPS with the old firmware now.
At least we know samsung do know the new firmware has serious problems - enough to pull the update!
It has the same memory as the G1 (192mb) but is running at 528Mhz instead of 384Mhz the G1 does. It also has a 1500mah battery instead of the 1150mah one the G1 has - probably why they are able to clock it at 528mhz now.
I dont think your's will have the new firmware. It seems samsung have pulled it now. People are getting 'you have the latest firmware' in NPS with the old firmware now.
At least we know samsung do know the new firmware has serious problems - enough to pull the update!
It has the same memory as the G1 (192mb) but is running at 528Mhz instead of 384Mhz the G1 does. It also has a 1500mah battery instead of the 1150mah one the G1 has - probably why they are able to clock it at 528mhz now.
The auction I bought today did specify DHL Paket International. Not sure how long that will take to get to the US, but DHL is a name I've seen around here so trusted it.
I haven't really noticed any speed issues on the G1. I have seen an app for rooted devices that will let you manually set the clock speed. If I root I may just have to install that and clock down to the G1's speed for better battery life.
One thing I am afraid I am going to miss greatly is the xda developer community. The rom on my G1 right now is way faster than the vanilla T-Mo 1.5 one is. It is also nice to have that many people in the community developing multiple roms concurrently.. Being able to pick and choose what *I* wanted out of a rom and having many to choose from ruled. I haven't really seen any development avenues for the i7500 other than the rooting info on hdblog.it. Too bad I don't speak Italian!
Also too bad xda is htc devices only. ><DHL is just like UPS and fedex - reliable and acurate tracking. Its more known in europe, but those are the BIG 3 so don't worry there. Its not like EPS or USPS or anything
Yeah the xda dev thing is to bad. There's a few german forums tho that seem to be picking up the ball. Also some italian ones.
I've also found in the past if you ask inteligent questions about how to do certain things xda dev will still help you - they need to be slightly technical questions tho
Maybe i should start a forum!..... hmmmm
Yeah the xda dev thing is to bad. There's a few german forums tho that seem to be picking up the ball. Also some italian ones.
I've also found in the past if you ask inteligent questions about how to do certain things xda dev will still help you - they need to be slightly technical questions tho
Maybe i should start a forum!..... hmmmm
I ran across this site a couple of days ago- http://www.i7500world.com/ too bad they don't have forums, the url works
I've seen a couple of updates since I first found the site as well. Hopefully it grows.
Or you could start them for us
I've seen a couple of updates since I first found the site as well. Hopefully it grows.
Or you could start them for us