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Will Samsung Transform (2.2) likely be better than Optimus?

R

RazzMaTazz

Android Expert
I want to upgrade me and my family to 3G Android smartphones on Sprint before the $10/month smartphone adder kicks in on 1/30/11. The LG Optimus is getting stellar reviews, and much better reviews than the Samsung Transform, but since the Transform has a more powerful CPU(800MHz CPU vs 600MHz), and a keyboard, dual-cameras, LED-flash, etc.) I'm wondering if the Transform will be better than the Opimus when Transform gets Android 2.2. Anybody have an educated guess at the following issues?

1) Will 2.2 likely make the Transform less laggy and at least equivalent to (if not faster than) the Optimus?

2) Engadget says that Samsung hasn't written a driver to take advantage of the hardware graphics accelerator that's built into the Transform's processor (or at least hasn't written an OpenGL driver), but LG is taking advantage of the Optimus's graphics accelerator. Do you think Samsung will support hardware acceleration in the 2.2 release?

3) Both phones have a 3.2MP camera, but the 600MHz Optimus shoots 640x480 video, whereas the 800MHz Transform only shoots 320x240 (or perhaps 352x288) video. I assume that's because Samsung isn't taking advantage of the hardware graphics accelerator, whereas LG is. Any idea if the Samsung will bring that up to 640x480 (perhaps with 2.2)?

4) Engadget implies that the Optimus gets better reception than the Transform. Any idea if that's true?

I don't know the details about each CPU & graphics accelerator but the Transform's hardware seems superior, so one would think that (with the right OS & drivers) that the Transform would be superior to the Optimus in just about every way (except for screen brightness).

Thanks in advance for any insight!
 
Wow.. all are good questions! You've done your homework! Im interested in this too. Anybody? Better hurry... you got about 2 days! :) Good Luck!
 
IMHO. With this new policy of upgrade discount only every 2 years, both these phones will be a disappointment very soon. Samsung builds good phones on paper while in practice, their support is appalling. The Jan 30 date looks like Sprint's way of pushing to get rid of all 3G phones, majority of which is Samsung junk.
 
I can't speak for the Transform, but I used to own - and was mostly satisfied with - its Samsung predecessor, the Samsung Moment. I am far more satisfied and pleased with my LG Optimus. Can Samsung potentially make their phone better? Yes. Will they? I doubt it.

Signal strength for me is definitely better with the Optimus. I live in a pretty metropolitan area though, where signal is generally good no matter the phone. But my Moment took forever to get a GPS lock, but the Optimus does that in about one second.
 
you did do your research.. but I see you dont listen to your findings.

you are trying to talk yourself into the "better specs". because you want more power. that is natural. but it blinds you to the negative findings.

Samsung phones have always seam to have better specs to the same level phones. They sold 80million phones this year because of this market strategy. General public will follow and will be mostly satisfied. Samsung will not give you the support you think you should get. Drivers and Bug fixes for things in the future... do not use that as your decision making. they may come or may not...most likely not.
For samsung phones, only buy if you love they way they are now; otherwise move on.

between those 2 phones.. I would go with the LG.

Remember.. you will be stuck in it for 2 yrs.
 
If you buy a Samsung phone with 2.1, expect it to be 2.1 for a long time if not until you root and upgrade it yourself. Samsung doesn't have a good track record when it comes to big updates to android software.
 
Coming from a former Moment and current Epic owner, buy the LG. Samsung will have the better spec, but is far more likely to leave you frustrated. There's no guarantee LG will be better, but it's doubtful they'll be worse. OTH, if you like waiting an extra 6months or more for updates and bug fixes (which may never come), go ahead and buy that Samsung.
 
Thanks to everyone who responded. Dan330 cracked me up because he's kinda right that I want to ignore my own eyes (and all the reviews) in favor of the Transform's hardware specs, but hey... that's why I asked the question here. I'm a Silicon Valley electronics engineer who has worked on a lot of consumer products over the years, and so I know that software is every bit as important as hardware. But software can be improved on a device, whereas hardware can't. And therein lies my quandry.

I decided to hedge my bet. On the last day prior to Sprint's $10/month smartphone adder (1/29/11), I purchased 3 LG Optimus's for the family and 1 Transform for myself. Best Buy has a 30 day (no restocking fee) trade-out policy (and Sprint will let me swap the phones for 30 days without incurring the $10/month adder), so I figure I'll try them both for 30 days, see if Froyo arrives for the Transform, (maybe root the Transform if necessary) and then swap them out for the contest winner on day 30. So far, after just a few hours of playing, I'm quite pleased with both, but I've just barely scratched the surface. I'll post the results back here when I make a decision. Though, I think that once both of the 3G & 4G smartphones incur the same $10/month adder (starting 1/30/11), the results of my experiment will be of less interest to many people because it will make a lot more sense to just spend an extra $150 or so initially to get one of the 4G powerhouse phones, like the Evo, Epic, or Galaxy. I just didn't want to spend an extra $40/month ($960/contract) for 4G service for my family of 4.
 
well.. that is great! i look forward to your personal findings.

you can move the phone around the 4 accounts... via your online login. so that all 4 of you can test out the transform. it would be very interesting to see how many of the 4 will want the transform.
 
I had the optimus I went through 4 of them in two weeks they kept deleting apps and would eventually always say fc on everything and it does not make 3 way calls I had to call lg and they said its a defect in the phone. There is no fix for it. I got a transform yesterday and couldn't be happier. I caution you about the optimus.
 
if you get the Optimus S, you can root and install ThundeROM which gives you about 165mb app space in RAM plus whatever you can save to SD card. With deluxe buildprop you can quadrant at over 1000....
 
With double the RAM, the Optimus will be smoother running any version of Android. It's a superior device compared to the Transform. I can't speak to the RF reception, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Samsung is becoming infamous for crappy support. If you're waiting for drivers from them, or a firmware update, don't hold your breath!
 
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