Droid X vs Samsung Galaxy S

[Deleted User]

dude..... fascinate has 16GB onboard.....

Really? You bumped an old thread to post incorrect information?

In any event, I think that the issue of Samsung's historic lack of support is a moot point here. Samsung is clearly making a big statement about the Galaxy S line, releasing it to all major carriers. This is definitely putting a stake in the ground for them, and I seriously doubt you'll see them walk away from this line of hardware.

 

[ZXMustang]

Has anyone actually seen the captivate/facinate SAMOLED screen? My friend has a captivate from AT&T, and the screen is simply breath taking. I would trade my X for the facinate in a second. Its the sharpest and most vibrant display I have ever seen. Makes the X look like a 1990 crt monitor. I was really taken back by it. I suggest you see one before making judgements. Not to mention its a 4" screen phone and that seems to be the best size. Not to small, and not too big.....juuuust right.

 

[ckochinsky125]

dude..... fascinate has 16GB onboard.....

Yeah actually fascinate comes withb a 16gb card. That's not onboard memory so maybe look around and post actual info for people who don't know don't just spout off stuff

 

[ckochinsky125]

If I wanted a galaxy, I would have stuck with T-Mo. After their last issue with their Behold 2, I would not touch another samsung phone again.

They pushed a 1.6 update stating no more updates and the 1.6 update made my phone a POS. Even the retention department tried to offer me the phone at $149 when I was cancelling, I still turned it down to place a lot more money on the droid and deposit for VZW.

Edit: I noticed how you said it already has root. That statement is wrong.

What doesnt have root? Because the galaxy S has root

 

[Old Man]

In any event, I think that the issue of Samsung's historic lack of support is a moot point here. Samsung is clearly making a big statement about the Galaxy S line, releasing it to all major carriers. This is definitely putting a stake in the ground for them, and I seriously doubt you'll see them walk away from this line of hardware.

I've seen several people use this logic and I'm not sold on it yet. Having some fairly significant problems with the Galaxy S phones that have been out for a couple of months now with apparently no resolution until hopefully some time next month is not a great start. But besides that, I think people are looking at it as though it was simply a large number of a single thing when I don't see it that way.

For one thing, in the US there are four phones based on the Galaxy S being released and they are all different. This seems to introduce the potential for having issues that may be specific to any one version as well as issues that are common to all four. I can also envision that rather than an update for a general problem, there may have to be four different updates to address the differences between the phones and carriers.

This leads into the issue of updates and information for the Galaxy S being applicable to all phones or accepted by all carriers. Apparently Vodafone customers that used the provided Samsung Windows software to apply a Galaxy S update it indicated to be available were subsequently told that this update was not approved or supported by Vodafone and thus voided their Vodafone warranty. Apparently this has been resolved for the particular update in question but it does hint at the potential challenges in supporting a large number of carriers and hardware versions.

Put simply, I think that although their is a common thread with the Galaxy S family, there are unique challenges in supporting a device with such widespread distribution and varied form factors. The question may not be as much about Samsung's support for the Galaxy S in general but rather about their support for the Verizon version called the Fascinate. Might Samsung 'walk away from' a specific device or carrier even if they otherwise support the Galaxy S?

 

[Deleted User]

So, I can't specifically speak to issues with Vodafone, or potential future issues in what could be a somewhat fragmented platform with the different versions. However, I agree with your concerns.

What I will say, though, is that such a push is a huge investment of time and dollars on the part of Samsung. Consequently, I don't think the assumption that they will be supporting this product is without merit - it is a rare company that will make such a giant global push and then immediately wipe their hands of it.

Whether this means specific versions could be obsoleted faster, it is impossible to say. However, despite the differing versions, the underlying hardware is all the same with the chief hardware difference being the presence of a flash. The other differences are primarily the case they've been stuffed into, and the installed memory, neither of which affect the OS.

None of this brings concrete answers to your concerns. However, it should at least mitigate some of the fears that have cropped up around Samsung's history. Also, I'd be wary of holding up issues seen online without resolution as the benchmark: the phones have not been out that long, issues are always magnified on forums like these, and there are "significant" problems with many phones that have not yet been addressed.

 

[Foolish Mortal]

Had a Samsung phone a while back (the Glyde)....worst touch screen ever. It was honestly such a bad experience I will NEVER buy a Samsung phone ever again. Ever. In my life.

Ugh!

I had that phone too! It was terrible...

It sucked inside the 30 window, but I thought that the firmware update was going to fix the issue. That was in the days when I actually believed what Verizon's tech support said. So, the update arrived, and the phone's touch screen got worse! Luckily, Verizon allowed me to turn it back in after the 30 window, with no restocking fee, because it was such a lemon of a phone.

I got the LG Dare. (lol)

 

[schizrade]

Having had a few Samsung phones in the past, I am content in knowing I have the better phone in the long run.

 

[Foolish Mortal]

Having had a few Samsung phones in the past, I am content in knowing I have the better phone in the long run.

You didn't have the Glyde, then.

 

[bugeyeblue]

You missed that the X has 8GB of internal memory. The Galaxy S only has 2GB.

See reason #13.

 

[CriticalMass]

They should have made 1 phone and put it out on all carriers instead of tweaking the hardware for this carrier and that carrier. etd. The issue with updating the phones is they will have to update for the minimum specs of the lowest end phone which will slow down their update process unfortunately.

And sadly I think they went with a one phone for all platform to speed UP their update process. heh.

 

[Doubledee90]

They should have made 1 phone and put it out on all carriers instead of tweaking the hardware for this carrier and that carrier. etd. The issue with updating the phones is they will have to update for the minimum specs of the lowest end phone which will slow down their update process unfortunately.

And sadly I think they went with a one phone for all platform to speed UP their update process. heh.

Updates are for software, just because the hardware is different the software (besides the bloatware added) is all the same. So I think having different hardware was a good idea so carriers could compete. Im assuming when they do get updated, the update will be released at the same time, just the carriers will slow it down. I personally am sticking with my X, its just too amazing of a phone to give up.

 

[krichek]

I've seen several people use this logic and I'm not sold on it yet. Having some fairly significant problems with the Galaxy S phones that have been out for a couple of months now with apparently no resolution until hopefully some time next month is not a great start. But besides that, I think people are looking at it as though it was simply a large number of a single thing when I don't see it that way.

For one thing, in the US there are four phones based on the Galaxy S being released and they are all different. This seems to introduce the potential for having issues that may be specific to any one version as well as issues that are common to all four. I can also envision that rather than an update for a general problem, there may have to be four different updates to address the differences between the phones and carriers.

This leads into the issue of updates and information for the Galaxy S being applicable to all phones or accepted by all carriers. Apparently Vodafone customers that used the provided Samsung Windows software to apply a Galaxy S update it indicated to be available were subsequently told that this update was not approved or supported by Vodafone and thus voided their Vodafone warranty. Apparently this has been resolved for the particular update in question but it does hint at the potential challenges in supporting a large number of carriers and hardware versions.

Put simply, I think that although their is a common thread with the Galaxy S family, there are unique challenges in supporting a device with such widespread distribution and varied form factors. The question may not be as much about Samsung's support for the Galaxy S in general but rather about their support for the Verizon version called the Fascinate. Might Samsung 'walk away from' a specific device or carrier even if they otherwise support the Galaxy S?

The Vibrant was the first Galaxy S class phone released in the U.S. and has been out exactly as long as the X has, which is a bit over a month now.

Motorola and Samsung did the exact same thing, both phones released with an issue that the manufacturer later admited and then said would be fixed in a patch. Both patches are due roughly at the same time. Sounds like bias if you give one company the benefit of the doubt and not the other.


HTC has been releasing similar phones with carrier specific "customizations" for quite some time and people seem to be ok with that. The thing most seem to miss is that since the core hardware is the same their is the potential to share different software features between the various models, which is a plus in my opinion. I do think the Epic 4g and Fascinate were screwed in terms of internal storage customization tho.

I'm kinda failing to see the relevance with the Vodaphone issue, since it isn't a Samsung problem. Finally, even "if" Samsung walked away from the Fascinate, the phone is considerably more "hackable" then the X. I have no doubt the community would step in and deliver whatever Samsung failed to give them specifically.

They should have made 1 phone and put it out on all carriers instead of tweaking the hardware for this carrier and that carrier. etd. The issue with updating the phones is they will have to update for the minimum specs of the lowest end phone which will slow down their update process unfortunately.

And sadly I think they went with a one phone for all platform to speed UP their update process. heh.

The "minimum specs" are the same across all devices. I doubt very seriously a hardware keyboard, flash, or differing radios is going to matter much when it comes to getting out updates. None of the customizations alters the core hardware at all.

 

[Droidable]

Since this thread got bumped ill throw in my 2 cents. The Fascinate has 2GB onboard memory. You can probably put 1000 apps on that. Froyo is going to give you the ability to move apps to the sd card so its really not an issue IMO.. Just put apps, music, pics whatever on the card if youre worried and enjoy the phone..

 

[SirKronan]

Samsung is just like any manufacturers trying to compete and try to come up with ways to improve a product that has been already made such as an Apple iPhone. Don't need to hate..

You would think that was the case, but I'm worried about the Fascinate when I read multiple places saying it's only going to have 2GB of RAM. Why would they gimp it like that???

 

[Foolish Mortal]

What's so funny about these conversations is that 3 months from now, everyone will be looking at the next great thing. Our phones will be old news.

I could brag on a phone that's coming out a few weeks/months from now, but what's the point? I got what I got, which was the best when I got it. I'm using it now, and I'm loving it. I guess that I could choose to never actually buy a phone, that way, I could always win bragging rights on the phone that I don't have yet, but then, what's the point?

I'd rather hold on to a phone for 6 months or so, and then revisit all of the conversations I had with owners of other phones that were bought at the around same time. Then, we'll know how our phone fared.

If you're bragging, and you don't have the phone in your hand, then what are you bragging about? Stats? Really? Many things have great stats, you buy them, and they end up being a turd. My Samsung Glyde was a great example of this. It looked great on paper. It looked great in the display. A month later, people were returning them by the truck load. It flat out sucked, but people didn't know that until they had it in their hands for a while.

 

[_Aardvark]

Come on people, let's stop fighting amongst ourselves! Don't forget that the real enemy is Apple!

 

[Doubledee90]

come on people, let's stop fighting amongst ourselves! Don't forget that the real enemy is apple!

yes!

 

[BigCiX]

I look at both of these phones as pretty much the same. The "real" difference is the 4.3 inch screen and the Super AMOLED. Other than minor things they are both damn good phones!!!

 

[mac16]

I dont understand where everyone says Verizon is way more exspensive then Sprint or T-mobile. I am on a family plan with 2 buddies and every plan I priced out was almost the exact same.

 

[krichek]

I dont understand where everyone says Verizon is way more exspensive then Sprint or T-mobile. I am on a family plan with 2 buddies and every plan I priced out was almost the exact same.

Don't take this as an insult because I do not intend it that way in the least.

If you keep coming up with Verizon as your cheapest option then you are not comparing similar plans. Either that or you receive a discount from Verizon that isn't available to you from the other carriers.

 

[SgtBaxter]

Check the Quadrant Professional benchmarks...
Hummingbird won in the processor column by a very slight margin.

People really need to stop beating off to benchmark scores like Quadrant, which are inherently flawed when comparing different architectures. If there is anything the battle of Intel/AMD/PowerPC on the desktop should have taught us, it's that there have been plenty of examples over the history of computing of benchmark programs favoring one architecture or another, but real world app performance didn't pan out the results.

The only worthwhile comparison is multiple real life apps performing multiple real life tasks. But, these are phones. So until we have something like cinema 4D to render out test scenes, or actually use the phones for that, who really gives a rats nuts?

Speaking of which, when I was in Radio Shack they had the Samsung out on display playing Avatar. The screen was gorgeous. The annoying pause in the video every 2/3rds of a second the entire time it was playing was not. It almost made me want to have a seizure.

 

[ckochinsky125]

People really need to stop beating off to benchmark scores like Quadrant, which are inherently flawed when comparing different architectures. If there is anything the battle of Intel/AMD/PowerPC on the desktop should have taught us, it's that there have been plenty of examples over the history of computing of benchmark programs favoring one architecture or another, but real world app performance didn't pan out the results.

The only worthwhile comparison is multiple real life apps performing multiple real life tasks. But, these are phones. So until we have something like cinema 4D to render out test scenes, or actually use the phones for that, who really gives a rats nuts?

Speaking of which, when I was in Radio Shack they had the Samsung out on display playing Avatar. The screen was gorgeous. The annoying pause in the video every 2/3rds of a second the entire time it was playing was not. It almost made me want to have a seizure.

Well supposedly there is a fix for the lag issue and if you look at the epic reviews they say their is no lag whatsoever. I do agree though people put too much into what the phone got on quadrant

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

Now that I know the Samsung Fascinate is coming out in early/mid September and I know it is within my 30 day window with the Droid X, I am seriously thinking of swapping for the Fascinate. I'll have to go to Verizon when it comes out and play around with it first. Although I have played with the Captivate and loved it. The Fascinate will essentially be the same thing but with LED flash. I'm just hoping GPS works on the phone out of the box.

 

[duc916]

People really need to stop beating off to benchmark scores like Quadrant, which are inherently flawed when comparing different architectures.

Agreed... better to beat off to 3D benchmarks, otherwise what's the point of all that horsepower?

GLBenchmark 1.1 Result Database

they had the Samsung out on display playing Avatar. The screen was gorgeous. The annoying pause in the video every 2/3rds of a second the entire time it was playing was not. It almost made me want to have a seizure.

Then it was a defective unit. Never judge a phone by a demo unit... There's nothing laggy about my stock Vibrant. Here's a sample clip I made with a Vibrant against the iPhone4. Despite the iPhone's far more advanced IPS LCD than your Droid-X's TFT LCD, the Vibrant summarily destroys it.

YouTube - Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) vs. iPhone 4: Monsters, Inc. clips