D.T.
macrumors G4
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.
TV is one iOS-based product. Hopefully, a new part number of it shows up soon too.