Well, I have been waiting, and I'm not impatient, but ..........
I have been an iphone fanboy for 3yrs running, and only researched the Galaxy Sll a few days ago. I felt hypocritical not giving one of these devices a try, (how would I ever know which one was really better for me)?
Now then, you really have put me right back on the fence about what to do
If I get a GalaxySll, I can try it out for up to 30 days, (and not put up with the swarms trying for the iphone5 on the 14th and days after).
On the other hand, I have been using a piece of crap 3g for 3 years, and really want to get my hands on a 5 right away. (tried a iphone4 in July, but the reception truely sucked, I was shocked and forced to returned it).
Has anyone on this thread had the chance to use a GalaxySll, whatta you think?
I did the 30 day thing with my Atrix. Even ordered it online, got the full upgrade price (only ~8-9 months into my current contract!), used it for 25 days, returned right back through the email with the supplied return labels. My account "reset" like I hadn't used an update, and the credit was posted on the following months CC statement.
After the issues with my Captivate, I kind of put Samsung on the s***list That being said, I had a chance to mess around with the SGS II, though keep in mind it was the international version (the "native" version isn't here yet). A friend of mine had a chance to score one for a decent enough price outright that if he decides to bail on it, he'd probably break even.
This is my ~30 minutes or so assessment, since I looked at it when we met up for drinks with some friends, didn't want to spend too much time fondling a phone
Seems very quick. The Samsung IU wrapper is not great, but you can at least drop on an alternate launcher like ADW or Launcher Pro, the default setup is just a mess of design, color, etc. Looked at a few pics that were shot with the camera, pretty decent (based on online postings, the camera is good, I think the iP4 is better from my humble amateur photographer perspective).
The display is very good. The move from a Pentile sub-pixel config like the Captivate, Atrix, Bionic, etc., make a huge difference in small text clarity. The color is good, but I find it over-saturated, I'd probably dial it back a little. It seemed put together really nicely.
He was unhappy with the battery life but I think there's some tweaks/root/hacks/firmware that improve it quite a bit. FWIW, he's waiting to see what the iPhone 4 brings too.