Questions moving from 9900 to Galaxy S2

[esuser]

Im considering moving from the bold 9900 to the Samsung Galaxy S2, but before i fully commit, i have some questions that i would like to have answered. I was wondering if it would be worth it to switch to a galaxy S2 right now with ICS coming soon, or if i should wait. I would also like to know how is the battery life is on the galaxy s2 compared to the bold 9900? i know i have more questions but cant think of them now, so when i do ill post them here later. Any feedback is appreciated, as long as it is productive, thanks

[edyts]

Im also switching to droid, ive been doing alot of research, and i will be waiting for the Galaxy Nexus, it comes preloaded with ICS. ICS looks like its leaps and bounds ahead of the previous android os's. The main attraction to me is that this phone was built to run ics, it looks super fast and buttery smooth, also the os updates will be controlled by google not by the carrier so we wont have to wait months for updates. This phone looks future proof, like i could probably be happy with it for a couple years, and 1280x720 resolution on a 4.5 " screen just blows my mind. Facial recognition to unlock, no bloatware from the carrier or Samsung is a huge draw for me. Just my 2 cents. xda-developers.com has lots of info if you wanna read up.

[Najo]

Originally Posted by esuser

Im considering moving from the bold 9900 to the Samsung Galaxy S2, but before i fully commit, i have some questions that i would like to have answered. I was wondering if it would be worth it to switch to a galaxy S2 right now with ICS coming soon, or if i should wait. I would also like to know how is the battery life is on the galaxy s2 compared to the bold 9900? i know i have more questions but cant think of them now, so when i do ill post them here later. Any feedback is appreciated, as long as it is productive, thanks

I will have both come Monday to do a side by side comparison. As far as ICS I went ahead with the SGS2 because I like the smaller (for Android) size, and they have already stated that it will get ICS, we just don't know when.

[esuser]

Thank you both for your replies, they've been very helpful to me.

edyts, i was thinking of doing the same thing, but the galaxy s2 looks enticing as of right now. I dont know if id want to wait that long, and if the wait will be worth it as opposed to getting a galaxy s2 now, and being able to upgrade to ICS in the future. You do make a valid point however and i am more confident in waiting for it now.

Najo, thats good to hear that it will get ICS, and liek you i like the form of the galaxy s2. Also when u get your SGS2 would you be able to share your thoughts in this thread? Your situation seems similar to mine so i would really like to hear what you think.

thanks again

[Rickroller]

The Nexus Prime looks only to be about a 1/2" taller than the SGS II. Battery life on the SGS II is reportedly good (and from what i've read, as good or better than the Bold 9900), whereas we still don't know what life will be like on the Nexus. BMX has reported it as good, but not great..so take that for what you will. I'll definately be checking out the Prime when it hits..but not sure whether to jump on board or not. I guess i'll have to see how gorgeous the screen looks first

I'm still waiting for Moto to announce whether my Atrix will get ICS or not. I know i'll be able to get a port of some sort via XDA..but if Moto doesn't officially release it, then the drivers and stuff will never be truly optimized for my phone..which has me a little concerned. If they do officially release it, then I'll probably be waiting until quad core phones start dropping, as this phone is still a beast (and still one of the largest batteries in a smartphone @ 1900mAh)

[esuser]

@ rickroller ive heard that the battery life of the sgs2 is good as well from people on the forum, which is what i want. My bold has had below average battery life, therefore im not sure if i should go to the sgs2 knowing what the battery life is, or waiting for the galaxy nexus and having to find out.

Also, what are some major changes going from blackberry to android? like how is messaging and email compared to blackberry, overall operation of the OS, things like that. Ive read conflicting reports from people and would like to be able to get a more definitive answer

[Rickroller]

Some of the hurdles to overcome will just be how you interact with the OS. For example with BB, if you scroll to an icon and hit menu, it brings up other functions. With Android, you have to "long press" on stuff to bring up additional menus. And they don't always have anything additional to offer (depends on the app). Sometimes you have to hit the menu button to bring up the Settings in order to customize stuff. If you want to get rid of an app..you long press on it until a garbage can appears, and then drag it and drop it into there. If you want to uninstall it, you hold it over the garbage can for a little longer and then when you drop it, it will prompt you to uninstall.

There will be a lots of little things to "learn", but there is a thread in here that will help you figure stuff out.

As for messaging and email, imo Android does them all just as well as BB (and in some cases better). Messaging is simple, when you get a new text or IM, it will show up in the notification bar, and you can simply either access the message thru the app itself, or thru the notification bar. There are a plethora of different sms and im apps you can use and customize to your liking, such as Handcent SMS, GoSMS, Whatsapp (IM), KiK (IM) etc. Almost all of these allow you to customize your notification sound but you won't always be able to assign a different tone to different people. Some apps allow you to cusotmize the LED (if your phone has it), but again, none of them worked as well as Bebuzz.

If you run Activesync for email, you may run into some difficulties. This is one area where Android as a whole seems to have issues. Some phones have no problems out of the box with Activesync, whereas alot of them do. There are apps such as K-9 and Touchdown that help address the Activesync issues, and I know lots of people use them and like them. If your just using a standard hotmail or pop account, then it's quite simple to set them up to forward to a gmail account, and get true push this way. I have 3 accounts, 2 work pop accounts, and a hotmail account that I all have forwarded to Gmail. It took a little getting used to at first, but now I enjoy Gmail's layout and setup.

[esuser]

Well from your description it sounds like the transition will be quite easy for me. One question about the email though, if i don't forward my regular email accounts to gmail it wont be push? Again thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions

[Rickroller]

Originally Posted by esuser

Well from your description it sounds like the transition will be quite easy for me. One question about the email though, if i don't forward my regular email accounts to gmail it wont be push? Again thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions

I think it all depends on what your using for email currently tbh. Some can be set up as push..whereas some will only be pull (with which the fastest pull that can be set is 5min). I can't say which are push and which are pull with certainty though..although I'm sure others can.

[GG1]

I have all my emails forwarded to my Gmail account and you can set up Gmail to reply as same account it was sent to. Imo, it is the best way to setup your emails on android as Gmail is push and you get all your emails instantly and also is easy on the battery. As for battery on the SGSII, it is as good if not better than the 9900 , at least this was the case with my testing on both phones. I obviously can't comment on the Prime but I highly recommend the SGSII . Its thin and light weight and it takes whatever you throw at it without hiccups . The fact that it will be upgraded to ICS, won't make this phone outdated for quite a while. Either way, you can't go wrong with either the Prime or SGSII so its a win/win situation.

Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk

[edyts]

Ugh i never thought of the contextual menus on the bb, i think i will definetly miss that, but considering how fast the phones Ive been researching react i think it'll be more key presses, but the same amount of time. Heres hoping!

Esuser, im in the same boat as you, i wanna switch now and was looking at the SGII, also the HTC Amaze. However im gonna try and be patient, after reading so many post about carrier branded phones waiting months for updates i think a phone where google controls updates is the way to go.. Hope i Can hold out.

[cdf3]

Even though the SGSII doesn't have ICS, at least you know pretty much all of the apps in the Market will work on it. The only thing that concerns me about the Galaxy Nexus is, not knowing if certain apps will work correctly on it. Mainly because there's no menu key on the device. The menu key will be within the app, just like on tablets running Honeycomb. I'm assuming it will be able to run ICS and Honeycomb apps.
I doubt it will be able to run some Gingerbread apps. Especially, Facebook. The Facebook app for Honeycomb is still buggy. It crashes every time I try to search for my friends. It's been like that for a while, and they still have yet to fix it. I have to use Friend Caster on my tablet if I want to search for my Facebook friends. Facebook works fine, however, on my phone running Gingerbread.

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[Najo]

Originally Posted by cdf3

Even though the SGSII doesn't have ICS, at least you know pretty much all of the apps in the Market will work on it. The only thing that concerns me about the Galaxy Nexus is, not knowing if certain apps will work correctly on it. Mainly because there's no menu key on the device. The menu key will be within the app, just like on tablets running Honeycomb. I'm assuming it will be able to run ICS and Honeycomb apps.
I doubt it will be able to run some Gingerbread apps. Especially, Facebook. The Facebook app for Honeycomb is still buggy. It crashes every time I try to search for my friends. It's been like that for a while, and they still have yet to fix it. I have to use Friend Caster on my tablet if I want to search for my Facebook friends. Facebook works fine, however, on my phone running Gingerbread.

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This is a valid point with Android or BlackBerry right now, OS 7 users are dealing with app issues now, QNX will be worse, and ICS will have similar issues for awhile. This is one of the reasons I am going with the SGS2 now, the hardware will take me well into next year or two years, and by that time there will be other choices, and those choices will be supported.

[cdf3]

Originally Posted by Najo

This is a valid point with Android or BlackBerry right now, OS 7 users are dealing with app issues now, QNX will be worse, and ICS will have similar issues for awhile. This is one of the reasons I am going with the SGS2 now, the hardware will take me well into next year or two years, and by that time there will be other choices, and those choices will be supported.

I wish Verizon would have gotten the SGSII. I would probably have preferred it, because I know it would be pretty stable. I'll most likely wind up getting the Galaxy Nexus, and hoping app compatibility won't be too bad.

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[berryjunkie]

Reading this thread, I'll be using a gs2 soon (moving from a torch 9810).....I'm really concerned about syncing w/outlook. I think I have everything else figured out......I'll deff be watching for suggestions!

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