Upgrading from iPhone4 to Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket

[MrX8503]

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).

If you're out of warranty, its a longshot to get any kind of service. If you are under warranty, the Apple store would have taken care of you. A friend of mine accidentally dropped his on cement, it of course shattered, and because he was under warranty they repaired it free of charge.

 

[spacejamz]

If you're out of warranty, its a longshot to get any kind of service. If you are under warranty, the Apple store would have taken care of you. A friend of mine accidentally dropped his on cement, it of course shattered, and because he was under warranty they repaired it free of charge.

I just realized that I think I paid for my iphone with my Amex which should add one extra year of warranty coverage. I will check my receipt when I get home tonight. If so, they will reimburse me for $180 to repair it. Wonder how much I can get for it one ebay now...mmmm.....

 

[trmiv]

Glad to hear you like it. Once you go with one of these big screen phones, it really is hard to go back. I had the 4S and went to the store to check out a Galaxy Nexus, and after I left the store I knew I had to get it. The screen size just makes such a dramatic difference.

Nice avatar, btw!

 

[zerocool84]

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.

From what I've read recently, using Juice Defender can actually make your battery life worse.

 

[kyrax12]

From what I've read recently, using Juice Defender can actually make your battery life worse.

huh why would that be? 0.0

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I just switched from a 3gs to a skyrocket and I'm loving it so far. Took a bit of getting used to but I like how I can pretty much do anything. The one thing I don't like (and this isn't the phone's fault) is that the phone came with a ton of bloatware. I posted this in a different thread but I'm a little scared to root it right now and get rid of some of the crap. I'm not sure if I can post a question on the forums about rooting so I'll hold off for a little bit.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

I recently went from a iphone 3gs to a skyrocket and I love it. However, right now I'm thinking about returning it and going with a Note. The note has a HD display 1280x800 vs the skyrocket 480x800. Also the bigger screen. I'm gonna go see if it fits in my pockets at the store and play with it for a few minutes then make my decision.

Food for though for new skyrocket owners anyways

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I recently went from a iphone 3gs to a skyrocket and I love it. However, right now I'm thinking about returning it and going with a Note. The note has a HD display 1280x800 vs the skyrocket 480x800. Also the bigger screen. I'm gonna go see if it fits in my pockets at the store and play with it for a few minutes then make my decision.

Food for though for new skyrocket owners anyways

Note has a different processor than what it should have

 

[intelfan]

Why not better the iPhone 4s with Siri ?

 

[swanysto]

huh why would that be? 0.0

Cause the program is always running.

 

[swanysto]

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.

I think you might like skype once you get used to it. I don't even think I use the spacebar unless I put numbers/smileys in.

The thing with swype is, you need to turn off the automatic correction or it will drive you nuts. You will type something, and it will look right in the text box, but the auto correct will put whatever it thinks that word should be. So if you turn it off, it will give you a list of words, and if you ignore it, it will leave the word as you type it. This is especially vital if you use acronyms or forum speak.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Note has a different processor than what it should have

I would like to hear more about this... I believe the processor is the same as the skyrockets. And from what I hear there is verylittle diference from the snapdragon to the exnyos

I am also concerned about the note screen not being superamoled+ . Some people are saying that matters. Some are saying it does not.

 

[poofyhairguy]

And from what I hear there is verylittle diference from the snapdragon to the exnyos

I don't know where you heard that, but they were wrong.

This gen Exynos DESTROYS Snapdragon. It has a MUCH faster GPU, it is MUCH better at decoding video (as my own tests have shown me), and it is faster clock-per-clock on the CPU (so a 1.4GHz standard Note beats a Snapdragon 1.5Ghz Note on CPU power).

Snapdragon is a HUGE step-down this generation. I would avoid it if at all possible.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

alright thanks for gettin back to me. here's the thing though, I have the skyrocket right now with snapdragon processor and its pretty darn fast. I havent experienced any slowdown at all really. Is the higher resolution screen on the Note going to bottleneck this processor?

I should probably just create a new thread for this but I am seriously considering getting a Note today and I want to know why I shouldnt. Tons of people on XDA forum are saying they are making the switch from the GS2 to the Note. Thats kinda why I started looking into it.

 

[joshhedge]

I don't know where you heard that, but they were wrong.

This gen Exynos DESTROYS Snapdragon. It has a MUCH faster GPU, it is MUCH better at decoding video (as my own tests have shown me), and it is faster clock-per-clock on the CPU (so a 1.4GHz standard Note beats a Snapdragon 1.5Ghz Note on CPU power).

Snapdragon is a HUGE step-down this generation. I would avoid it if at all possible.

Bah, I think you are underplaying the true performance of the dual core Snapdragon SoC.

When rooted and using my Sensations CPU and GPU to there maximum capabilities, the sensations GPU is very close to the performance of the Mali-400 when both phones are running at the same resolution - all be it my GPU is at 320MHz rather than the stock 266MHz. The main difference between the SoC structure is that the Exynos had dual channel LPDDR2 while the Dual-core Snapdragon only has single channel, which is a lovely bottleneck for the GPU performance. Furthermore, the Snapdragon is asynchronous whilst I believe the Exynos is synchronous. Worse for power efficiency but in some cases 'better' performance. Pure CPU performance is very similar, in some cases leaning towards the Sensation.

I am running my Sensation at 1.7GHz with an undervolt of -75mA and its stable and wins all benchmarks except linpack and antutu vs the Transformer Prime. Please give the SoC more credit than you are, its a good piece of kit other than in HTC Sense bloated phones.

My rant is over.

 

[poofyhairguy]

alright thanks for gettin back to me. here's the thing though, I have the skyrocket right now with snapdragon processor and its pretty darn fast. I havent experienced any slowdown at all really. Is the higher resolution screen on the Note going to bottleneck this processor?

No, not the processor. The processor can handle the load. Even though it is worse clock-for-clock than a GNex, it is clocked higher than a GNex with the same screen res and a GNex feels fine.

The bottleneck with the high-resolution screen is the GPU. Heavy 3D games (Shinerunner, ShawdowGun, Samurai 2 Vengeance, etc.) will run like shit on the Snapdragon Note. Also if Android continues to emphasis the GPU in Android updates (like was done with ICS) then the Note could suffer in interface performance compared to something like a GNex. But the Note comes with Gingerbread for which that doesn't matter, and who knows when it will get ICS.

Quite simply if you don't play games you should be fine with the Snapdragon Note. If you do want to play 3D games, avoid it.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Well I do definitely want to play games on it. That wouldnt be my primary use of it but I do want the ability. I wonder if there is a way I can test your theory out in the store. Maybe I can download one of those games you mentioned real fast and check it out?

I havent heard anyone else saying what you're saying about not being able to play 3d games on it though. I would think if this is a big problem that I would be hearing more about it. I have been reading through note forums on XDA and whatnot and havent seen it.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Bah, I think you are underplaying the true performance of the dual core Snapdragon SoC.

When rooted and using my Sensations CPU and GPU to there maximum capabilities, the sensations GPU is very close to the performance of the Mali-400 when both phones are running at the same resolution - all be it my GPU is at 320MHz rather than the stock 266MHz. The main difference between the SoC structure is that the Exynos had dual channel LPDDR2 while the Dual-core Snapdragon only has single channel, which is a lovely bottleneck for the GPU performance. Furthermore, the Snapdragon is asynchronous whilst I believe the Exynos is synchronous. Worse for power efficiency but in some cases 'better' performance. Pure CPU performance is very similar, in some cases leaning towards the Sensation.

I am running my Sensation at 1.7GHz with an undervolt of -75mA and its stable and wins all benchmarks except linpack and antutu vs the Transformer Prime. Please give the SoC more credit than you are, its a good piece of kit other than in HTC Sense bloated phones.

My rant is over.

I disagree with your statement, and personally the current generation of Snapdragon SoCs are an overall disappointment to me.

I too can overclock my SGS2's GPU and CPU and and we can have a benchmark match if you want. Snapdragons have good NEON support and LTE support, but otherwise I think the Exynos wins out.

And no matter what any synthetic bench says, nothing touches Exynos's video support, and I personally think Snapdragon video support is the worst out of the high end of this generation sans Tegra 2. I play a lot of HD files, so this matters a lot to me.

Also don't count out the Tegra 3 based on older benchmarks on the web, Nvidia dropped a new driver package in the latest update that really boosted my scores. I will get mine overclocked again and we can have a benchmark match if you want between all three devices.

 

[joshhedge]

I disagree with your statement, and personally the current generation of Snapdragon SoCs are an overall disappointment to me.

I too can overclock my SGS2's GPU and CPU and and we can have a benchmark match if you want. Snapdragons have good NEON support and LTE support, but otherwise I think the Exynos wins out.

And no matter what any synthetic bench says, nothing touches Exynos's video support, and I personally think Snapdragon video support is the worst out of the high end of this generation sans Tegra 2. I play a lot of HD files, so this matters a lot to me.

Also don't count out the Tegra 3 based on older benchmarks on the web, Nvidia dropped a new driver package in the latest update that really boosted my scores. I will get mine overclocked again and we can have a benchmark match if you want between all three devices.

Let us engage in a benchmarking contest.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Well I do definitely want to play games on it. That wouldnt be my primary use of it but I do want the ability. I wonder if there is a way I can test your theory out in the store. Maybe I can download one of those games you mentioned real fast and check it out?

I havent heard anyone else saying what you're saying about not being able to play 3d games on it though. I would think if this is a big problem that I would be hearing more about it. I have been reading through note forums on XDA and whatnot and havent seen it.

There is a way to test. Easily.

Install this app:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rightware.tdmm2v10jnifree

I think it is the best GPU bench out there. Look at the average FPS at the end. My Transformer Prime has a similar resolution to a Note and gets a 14.64 fps and it plays every games great. I think anything that can pull above a 10 would be fine.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Let us engage in a benchmarking contest.

Sweet.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Please proceed with the benchmarking wars! OK I just got 33.62FPS on my Skyrocket. I'm gonna go into the ATT store later on today and run the same benchmark after closing whatever garbage apps have been opened on the display model. I will hopefully come back with results. If it benches high enough I might just be sold.

 

[zerogear]

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.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/does-ios-crash-more-than-android-a-data-dive/

App monitoring begs to differ.

 

[joshhedge]

Please proceed with the benchmarking wars! OK I just got 33.62FPS on my Skyrocket. I'm gonna go into the ATT store later on today and run the same benchmark after closing whatever garbage apps have been opened on the display model. I will hopefully come back with results. If it benches high enough I might just be sold.

On what sorry?

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

On the app he just linked a few posts ago, Benchmark ES Taiji