Nexus S: Unabridged Review

Back in 2002, when I was investigating E39, I found this interesting comment:

Cupholders suck. The rest of the car is fine.

It turned out to be a pretty accurate description (seven years down the road and counting). So let me plagiarize it a bit and say:

The only major annoyance is lack of notification LEDs, even for charging - the phone is just laying there like a brick.

The rest of the phone is fine.

Samsung Galaxy S: Even More Sour Plus

[Part one]

[Part two]

Like I was planning to, I returned the phone to Costco where I bought it. And found myself in a trap: the way relations between Costco and T-Mobile are set up is such that even though I returned the phone before the end of 14 days grace period, I would not be eligible to buy a subsidized phone sold at Costco for next two years.

UPDATE (2010/12/16): Nor at any T-Mobile third party reseller.

"That's the way the system works", Costco rep told me. "Nothing I can do about it - T-Mobile reps look at account notes and can override things, but for us the computer simply won't let me do it".

I guess my days of early adoptions are over. And Samsung is much less likely to get my dollars next time, even though the screen on that phone is truly grand.

UPDATE: Samsung reports that the fix is on the way.

Well, good for them. However, I've already returned the phone, and it's their problem to deal with it now, not mine. Two days too late. Should've spoken earlier.

Vote with your dollars, folks. It works.

Samsung Galaxy S: Even More Sour

[This is a followup to earlier message]

All right, a week into the game.

GPS is still broken

Not only it is broken, the Internet is full of copy & paste of a bogus advice on how to improve it (bottomline: MS Based GPS, which, let's be honest, is not quite that GPS).

Worst of all, Samsung is mum on the issue. Had they said or did something along the lines of what Motorola did when the screen issue with Droid X was discovered, I'd calmly wait until they either issue a firmware fix or replace the phone. However, nothing happened, and, as a result, both phones will most probably be returned before the end of 14 days grace period. Maybe people returning phones will teach Samsung what the value of listening to the customer is.

Historical note: back at the beginning G1's GPS performance was as bad if not worse. It did get fixed, though, and today it is a very usable and reliable GPS source. Too bad if Vibrant's GPS problems are of software nature.

Car charger does not produce enough power to keep the battery up when Navigation is active

Yes, you've read that right. The battery charge goes down, even though the phone reports itself as "charging". A deal breaker for heavy Navigation users.

The phone reboots the UI when GPS activity is present

MyTracks is particularly vulnerable to this problem. Start recording a track, walk around, you're very likely to have the phone partially rebooted in a few minutes. Those Linux enabled will realize that it's the UI layer that is getting restarted.

GPS activity causes the phone to lock up

Again, start MyTracks and watch the phone freeze, sometimes for tens of seconds at a time.

Multiple SD Card Issues

At least under Windows XP (hasn't tried Linux yet, but that's kinda irrelevant), connecting the phone to the computer produces two drives, both of which report "Please insert disk into Drive NN" when you try to click on them.

After every other reboot, or an attempt to mount drives to a computer, the Media Scanner runs and in a short while reports either "Blank External SD Card" or "External SD Card Damaged". Of course it isn't - a reboot or plugging/unplugging the USB cable fixes the issue. Half of the time.

The Verdict

No go. Both phones go back to the store before the end of grace period. Real shame, it's a beautiful phone, with nice build quality, very good otherwise, with a screen that has no rivals.

Deal Breaker

Let me emphasize again that the reason for making a decision to return phones is lack of reaction from Samsung. For this much money, ($100 for the phone + $30/month for 24 months = $820, multiply by two = $1640) they better be listening. If they don't, I'd rather take my money somewhere else - HTC Ace, maybe?

Samsung Galaxy S' Sour Notes

Good

As usual, if you want to read positive reviews, use Google. If your heart works normally, there's no reason for you to notice it.

Bad

I'm afraid most of these things are caused by the Android UI "adaptation" by Samsung known as Touchwiz. We'll see what Froyo brings.

• The phone is making an obnoxious noise when it boots up;
• The phone is making an obnoxious noise when it shuts down (did they ever think that most often the phone needs to be shut down in an inconspicuous way?);
• There is no way to put a shortcut to Navigation directly onto the home screen (my venerable G1 can do that with no problem) (Maps update took care of that);
• Contacts & Dialer are like Siamese twins separated at birth and trying to get together again;
• There are "Groups" in both Contacts and Dialer, but I wasn't able to add a contact into a group yet, having spent quite some time;
• The meaning of "link the contact" escapes me, need to RTFM TFM doesn't have an answer;
• There is no indicator light when the phone is connected to the charger. If your charger is accidentally unplugged, you're screwed;
• When you press the on/off button, the phone feels like it's about to slip out of your hand;
• Did I mention the phone is extremely slippery? I'd much rather have a plain non-slip surface like my G1 has than a shiny accident-prone one if an ambiguous aesthetic value. Good thing there is a spare cover in the box, I might want to experiment with painting it;
• There is a "TV Out" feature, but no TV connector came in the box, TFM has no mention of it, either;
• Given the power socket/USB placement (top left), it is clear that connecting the phone to a car mount would be cumbersome and the cord is going to stick right up into your field of vision if placed vertically (that's the way I prefer it). The only cure against that that I can think about is a dedicated cord with an angle connector;
• The user manual sucks - none of questions asked above have an answer there.

Ugly

• No notification lights - a real turnoff;
• I wasn't able to find a way to assign a custom ringtone to a caller - basic functionality. Not a show stopper, but definitely very annoying;
• The phone makes a sound when connected to a charger. Very inconvenient for many people, for they plug the phone into the charger when their SO is already asleep a meter away;
• The "USB Connected" notification stays on after the USB is disconnected, there's no way to evict it other than a reboot;
• Windows XP is able to see mounts offered by the phone, but is unable to read them ("Please insert disk into drive X:"?);
• Worst of them all: GPS is broken and unusable for navigation (takes forever to acquire GPS signal, loses it on a whim, the location is often off by a block or more). Apparently, a quick fix exists (yet to try it and see if it helps), but it doesn't work - it's a crutch and not a real fix, at least for my phone. 2 (most of the time) to 4 (sometimes) satellites out of 11 are locked on Vibrant, vs. 6 to 10 on G1 within a meter.

Fugly

The picture above represents the travel path of a "fixed" (see above) phone left running MyTracks for half an hour while laying immovable on a table.

The picture above shows the Vibrant's GPS readings against G1's. Click on the picture and read the notes.

Back to Good

Having said all that, it is a very good phone overall (hardware is above criticism, and software has a chance to get fixed). Worth noticing:

• Ability to create a shortcut for a navigation destination. Very convenient;
• Slide right to call and slide left to message on a contact in the contact list is nice;
• Ability to send back an SMS when responding to a call is commendable (though "I'm driving" response looks kinda silly there);
• Fast feature switching (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Silent) from the notification bar is absolutely cool (though an ability to configure this would be even better, for example, GPS and Bluetooth are never switched off on our phones, but we need more fine grained control over notifications).

The Verdict

Bought two phones, no regrets so far from neither end user (one of them former Blackberry, the other former G1 user) UPDATE: probably going back to the store. Hasn't been fourteen days yet, though. And it remains to be seen if Samsung can fix the GPS issue OTA, or it is a hardware problem.

P.S.: The best feature? The phone fits perfectly into the pouch that came with G1.

UPDATE: Added a note about broken GPS.

UPDATE: And another note about broken GPS.

UPDATE: Added a picture of the GPS deviation.

UPDATE: And one more, comparing Vibrant GPS against G1.

Voting With My Dollars

Today's actors: Sony vs. the world, Amazon vs. Newegg.

I've been buying Sony products for many years. Back in 1998, the first big thing that I remember was their CPD-200ES, couple of years later - CPD-420GS, then, in about 2001, their WEGA KV-40XBR800 (I'll skip smaller things to reduce clutter).

Been happy with all of them since - both monitors have outlived their usable life, the 420GS was dropped off the truck by a sloppy mover and survived about 6ft fall (thanks to original packaging), Wega is still working just fine (after being promptly replaced on a 32rd day due to catastrophic tube failure, though). I would've continued buying Sony products for their quality, if not for issues that have been cropping up for a long time now, and eventually became a deal breaker.

The first serious sign of trouble was the rootkit scandal. As an avid music lover (the word "audiophile" has become somewhat derogatory recently, thanks for sheer stupidity of some specimens of that crowd), owning countless CDs, and having spent a small fortune on decent audio equipment, I didn't think I should be treated that way. I am not a thief. So I said, "basta, I'm not buying any Sony products from now on".

Arrogant remark that Thomas Hesse, President of Sony's Global Digital Business, allowed himself to broadcast ("Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"), didn't help Sony to win my favors at all.

The next sign of trouble was the BluRay version compatibility scandal (excerpt from the article: "quite the slap in the face to consumers who paid several hundred dollars for players that won't able to be updated to take advantage of the 1.1 profile, much less the upcoming 2.0"). This happened long after I vowed not to buy Sony again, so it wasn't much of a surprise - but still, it's quite disappointing since BluRay is now the only HD standard, and I have to bite the bullet and skip on players altogether (and the question that is still open - "am I paying Sony every time I buy a BluRay disc?" - and the answer is "yes").

I am not even talking about obnoxious vendor lock-in that Sony is pushing on its paying customers (MemoryStick, anyone?).

Since then, I've bought 4 monitors - one from Samsung, three from Dell, one HDTV from Panasonic, ultraportable camera from Pentax, DSLR from Nikon, DVD readers and writers from Plextor and LG. I do not own a BluRay player, nor I plan to have one - there are other ways to get the HD content on your screen. If an HD standard alternative to BluRay comes up - I'll be there the next day. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to calculate the lifetime loss of revenue (due to marketing and strategic stupidity) that Sony would've otherwise have (due to technical excellence).

Am I suffering? Not really, I'm quite happy with products from the competition.

Is Sony going to notice? Myself only - of course not. But the last straw broke the camel's back, and as long as I can help it, I will keep doing it that way - if enough people are doing it, Sony will either notice it, or go out of business - nobody is invulnerable, just take a look at history of Sears and you'll see what I mean.

---

Now for the other fun part.

I have *just* bought the HDTV couple of days ago. Same model was available from Newegg and from Amazon, for about $130 less. $130 is nothing to sneeze at, but, remembering awful shipping that is quickly becoming the Amazon's trademark, I decided that I will still buy the product from Newegg, despite higher price.

You can only imagine how pissed I was today, when I went there to check on shipping schedule and saw that in two days the price dropped $100.

Decided to call Newegg and ask them for adjustment. Lo and behold, they did it without asking any questions. That definitely made my day.

It also brought the difference in price to $30, which is a very, very good price for the peace of mind.

If there'll be a comparable choice from Newegg and Amazon in the future, guess which way I will go...