Upgrading from iPhone4 to Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket

[spacejamz]

Getting fed up with home button issues on my launch day iPhone4...(went to the Apple store yesterday and they said my only option was to pay $180 to fix it. I didn't want to get a 4S as this would have made me ineligible to get the 5 when it comes out later this year).

The reviews I have read (other than than battery life) have been pretty good for this phone.

Walmart.com has the skyrocket for $140 (with 2 year renewal) and Frys has it for $150, but Frys now matches online prices so I am going there at lunch today. I am still grandfathered on the unlimited data plan for the iphone (which I have used since the original one came out).

The Dallas market has LTE so that is the main reason I am even considering this.

Anything I should know or any tips for my new purchase? I plan on getting an extra battery from Amazon and screen protector from Best Skins Ever (like theirs better than the cheap plastic ones that get all scratched up in a month or so)...

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Just wondering, but what was the home button issues you were having?

 

[spacejamz]

Just wondering, but what was the home button issues you were having?

It doesn't respond...have to press it 7 or times to get it work....this is turning out be a big problem...there is a 40 page thread in the apple support forums about it...or just google iphone home button issue.

I opened a thread here about 2 months ago and the problem has gotten progressively worse...

 

[Spoooon]

Won't you become ineligible if you get the new phone at the subsidized price?

 

[kyrax12]

Man I think it would be quite a big jump for you.

Depending on where you live.. LTE speed and an one inch increase in display size is a huge jump. Android is quite different than iOS. I.E: Not as stable so some crashes would be expected.

 

[ponyo]

Won't you become ineligible if you get the new phone at the subsidized price?

That's what I was wondering as well. As for the home button, my sister and my cousin both have the same problem on their iPhone4. It's very common problem.

 

[spacejamz]

Won't you become ineligible if you get the new phone at the subsidized price?

Yes...I would be jumping off the iphone bandwagon that I have been on since they came out...

Apple's inability to deal with the button issue is becoming too frustrating for me to deal with. Knowing my luck, the day the return period for the Skyrocket is up, they will announce some kind of 'fix' program for it...

 

[Spoooon]

Get a used phone if you can find one at a good price, see how you like it, and then upgrade to the Android phone of your dreams or iPhone 5 whenever it comes out.

 

[VashHT]

Another option is to take apart your iphone and replace the home button, it's not too hard and the parts are pretty cheap for it (like 12$ or something). I'm pretty lucky, my home button still works perfectly fine, but I've taken apart another ip4 for repair and it isn't that bad really.

 

[pm]

I personally would do what VashHT suggested. You could take it apart and fix the issue yourself for less than $10 on Ebay and an hour or two of your time. There are YouTube videos about how to swap the button on an iPhone 4.

But, I can understand your frustration and I'm sure part of your motivation is the principle of the thing.

I switched from an iPhone 4 to a Samsung Galaxy S2 (not the Skyrocket, the older one) about a month ago. I wanted an unlocked phone for international travelling. The transition was mostly smooth, and my new SGS2 does most of what I want and I don't have a lot of complaints. The screen is gorgeous (and even better on the Skyrocket), the phone feels good in the hand and it's not too big in the pocket, call quality is very good, I love having an SD card slot. The battery life initially was disappointing, but after a couple of weeks of use, it got much much better and now I'm very happy with the battery life (although I downgraded from 2.3.6 to 2.3.4 and maybe that helped...?). From a hardware perspective, it feels to me like a solid upgrade from an iPhone 4.

I recommend DoubleTwist (http://doubletwist.com/) for syncing from iTunes to Android. For apps, I generally recommend the Google versions of things to replace the iPhone apps. So the "stocks" app on iPhone, I replaced with "Google Finance". You can get "visual voicemail" by using the free AT&T messaging app for Android.

About the only annoying thing that I don't like about the SGS2 on AT&T - and you will run into this too - is there's a lot of AT&T junk that you can't delete without rooting or flashing a custom ROM. And AT&T versions of the SGS2 - like the Skyrocket - do not have great custom ROM support. And the Skyrocket isn't running "Ice Cream Sandwich" (ICS) - which is the Android equivalent of iOS5 and has a lot of significant improvements over Gingerbread.

If it was me, I'd fix the button and if I didn't want to do that, then I'd still wait a bit longer and would get an Android SGS2 (or SGS3) running ICS. You are less than a month away (I think) from AT&T releasing an ICS Samsung phone... I personally would wait... because I've used ICS a fair bit and it's a great upgrade and who knows when Samsung will release ICS for the Skyrocket (my guess would be May or June... we are months away I think).

 

[alent1234]

Yes...I would be jumping off the iphone bandwagon that I have been on since they came out...

Apple's inability to deal with the button issue is becoming too frustrating for me to deal with. Knowing my luck, the day the return period for the Skyrocket is up, they will announce some kind of 'fix' program for it...

i doubt it

best way to deal with iphone issues if you have launch day phone is to wait until a few weeks before you warranty is up to complain to the genius. like everyone else apple tracks repair issues and does silent hardware changes

it's most likely hardware, but have you tried to restore as new? a lot of times restoring from an older version iOS backup is flaky

 

[pm]

Yeah, that's true, Alent1234, the genius bar is also a good suggestion if you have an Apple Store nearby.

My neighbor had an iPod Touch that his daughter broke that was out of warranty but only by a little bit. Online customer support said "out of warranty" and told him to send it in and get it fixed for an amount that was close to the price of a new one but I suggested the genius bar and my friend made an appointment and the "geniuses" swapped it out for him on the spot without really questioning anything. They said something like "yeah, it's out of warranty, but it's close enough" and they gave him a new one.

There's an element of luck to it, but the guys at the genius bar seem to be trying for extremely high customer approval ratings. Just make sure to make an appointment. Walking-in can be an exercise in major frustration.

 

[spacejamz]

Yeah, that's true, Alent1234, the genius bar is also a good suggestion if you have an Apple Store nearby.

My neighbor had an iPod Touch that his daughter broke that was out of warranty but only by a little bit. Online customer support said "out of warranty" and told him to send it in and get it fixed for an amount that was close to the price of a new one but I suggested the genius bar and my friend made an appointment and the "geniuses" swapped it out for him on the spot without really questioning anything. They said something like "yeah, it's out of warranty, but it's close enough" and they gave him a new one.

There's an element of luck to it, but the guys at the genius bar seem to be trying for extremely high customer approval ratings. Just make sure to make an appointment. Walking-in can be an exercise in major frustration.

I went to the Apple store yesterday...I was surprised that the wait was only 30 minutes...

When I talked to the Apple guy, as soon as he was asked how the old the phone was and I told him it was a launch day iPhone4, he immediately said it was out of warranty and it would cost $180 to fix. He never even looked at the phone (it was in my pocket the whole time).

I have been using iphones since they came out (this is my 4th one, all of them were new phones ordered from ATT/Apple) so I thought maybe they might take that into consideration...

 

[spacejamz]

i doubt it

best way to deal with iphone issues if you have launch day phone is to wait until a few weeks before you warranty is up to complain to the genius. like everyone else apple tracks repair issues and does silent hardware changes

it's most likely hardware, but have you tried to restore as new? a lot of times restoring from an older version iOS backup is flaky

I didn't have any issues with the phone when the warranty period was expiring...

 

[spacejamz]

On a side note, since Fry's price matches authorized Internet merchants, Amazon has the Skyrocket for $99...Going there after work to pick one up...

 

[Red Storm]

I went to the Apple store yesterday...I was surprised that the wait was only 30 minutes...

When I talked to the Apple guy, as soon as he was asked how the old the phone was and I told him it was a launch day iPhone4, he immediately said it was out of warranty and it would cost $180 to fix. He never even looked at the phone (it was in my pocket the whole time).

I have been using iphones since they came out (this is my 4th one, all of them were new phones ordered from ATT/Apple) so I thought maybe they might take that into consideration...

That's because you knew too much. You need to play the part of someone who doesn't know much at all about the product, then you might get the free help.

I'm only half joking.

 

[zsdersw]

Android is quite different than iOS. I.E: Not as stable so some crashes would be expected.

Android is perfectly stable. It's the carrier overlays (Sense, Motoblur, TouchWiz) that cause 99% of the problems, beyond those related to specific apps (in which case it's the app that has a problem, not Android).

 

[pm]

Android is perfectly stable. It's the carrier overlays (Sense, Motoblur, TouchWiz) that cause 99% of the problems, beyond those related to specific apps (in which case it's the app that has a problem, not Android).

To echo this comment, after a month of use on my SGS2, I haven't seen any stability problems beyond apps closing themselves (but I can find flaky apps in iOS too). The phone OS has been perfectly well behaved. And TouchWiz has been fine too.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Something to consider, the Skyrocket is a T-Mo T989 with an LTE radio. IT lacks the performance of the Exynos based SGSII.
And if you are or plan on putting custom ROMs on your phone, the support in the Dev community is very low for the Skyrocket/T989, IE Ice Cream Sandwhich is an unknown for those devices.

 

[ilkhan]

And AT&T versions of the SGS2 - like the Skyrocket - do not have great custom ROM support. And the Skyrocket isn't running "Ice Cream Sandwich" (ICS) - which is the Android equivalent of iOS5 and has a lot of significant improvements over Gingerbread.

The Standard ATT SGSII is an exynos SoC, its only the skyrocket / skyrocket HD that have the snapdragon SoC.

 

[KK]

On a side note, since Fry's price matches authorized Internet merchants, Amazon has the Skyrocket for $99...Going there after work to pick one up...

I picked up a skyrocket from Amazon for 99. So far I like it, of course before I had a blackberry so anything was better than that.

 

[spacejamz]

Overall, I am liking this phone alot....the LTE speed is just insane...trying to figure out how to best organize everything...

 

[spacejamz]

can i use my iphone wall charger for this samsung (just plug the usb cable into it)?

Not sure of the voltage differences between the samsung and the iphone chargers are...

edit: only reason I asked was that I have one at work for my old iphone4...not sure if it was okay to use or not...

 

[McWatt]

Man I think it would be quite a big jump for you.

Depending on where you live.. LTE speed and an one inch increase in display size is a huge jump. Android is quite different than iOS. I.E: Not as stable so some crashes would be expected.

iOS apps crash much more often than Android apps. Bonus: it's not just an anecdote. Citation: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/does-ios-crash-more-than-android-a-data-dive/

 

[spacejamz]

I have had my phone for a week now and I am pretty pleased with it...

The only thing that bugs me is the battery life...I get about 10-12 hours of use (fully charged at 8AM and down to 15% by 5 or 6)....Just regular every day stuff, mostly emails, txt msgs, facebook, a few light games (words with friends, etc)...I have Juice Defender, brightness is set to 20%, and screen time out at 30 seconds)...I ordered 2 extra batteries from Amazon so that should help.

I love the screen size, the LTE speed is awesome and the overall responsiveness of the phone is great (compared to my iphone4)...I thought I would have a hard time adjusting from the smaller iphone to this one (it just seemed almost 'too big' one I first looked at it), but that hasn't been the case...

I am using Go SMS to address the issue of pictures that are received via MMS being played back as a video (Whose bright idea was that???) and the ICS keyboard app (the space bar on the stock keyboard was too small and I kept hitting the period button all the time)...might need to learn how to swype...I tried for a minutes and didn't have much luck...heard you need to use it for a day or two before you get good at it...

Anyway...that is my 2 cents worth...

I am definitely keeping the phone.