So who is buying the Samsung Intercept?

[DaveG]

I'm going to check it out tomorrow. Does this seem like the right phone for me?

• This will be my first smart phone.
• I don't like the large size of the EVO or the even larger size of the Epic. I want something a little more 'pocketable'.
• A 3G only phone is fine because 4G it isn't in my area. Savings of $10/month because I won't have to pay that bend-over monthly fee.
• The 3G connection is the slower EVDO rev 0 (not rev A) but I'm thinking that since this will be my first smart phone, I probably won't be able to tell if it is much slower.
• Seems like the hardware won't be able to run Adobe Flash. I could care less about Flash. I'm not much of a gamer and flash is commonly used for ads on the web, anyway.
• I don't have a use for a camera flash on a mobile phone.
• It seems like the Intercept should be able to run most if not all of the apps in the Android market.

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[baddubbin]

Personally, I would rather have a moment and deal with the data lockups.
Moment will give you a larger screen with a more common resolution. Intercept will probably have almost no support from samsung, all of their focus will likely be on the galaxy s series since it is on all 4 carriers.

Also, I rarely use my camera flash for taking pictures, but constantly use it as a flashlight.

Just some of my thoughts. Intercept will still be a decent mid range android phone. I just think I would rather deal with the moments issue than give up screen size, rev a evdo and flash. Also the odd resolution might cause issues with some apps.

 

[DaveG]

Thanks for your response. I'm assuming that the Intercept WILL get an upgrade to Android 2.2 and then if I want Gingerbread I'll likely be able to find a custom 3rd party ROM to install somewhere. I doubt that the phone would be able to handle anything (hardware limitation?) beyond Gingerbread.

I'm not too familiar with the data lockups on the Moment, I suppose I could do some searching around. Although I'd think that those types of issues would be resolved in the Intercept's initial firmware. Maybe that is just wishful thinking?

Most importantly, with regard to the odd resolution.
- First, is this totally confirmed that the resolution is 'odd'?
- How would the resolution suffer from app incompatibility?

 

[baddubbin]

The data service on the samsung moment lockups occasionally. How often varies by phone and usage. Usually it happens more often after using wifi. Some people have been able to avoid them by restarting the phone after using wifi. I rarely get them unless I use wifi. Intercept shouldn't have this lockup issue, I would hope samsung wouldve tested for it.

The intercept uses the same processor as the moment. It is not especially powerful so depending on requirements for gingerbread it may or may not be possible to port to intercept or moment.

SDX has ported alot of 2.2 features for use on the moment. So you never know with gingerbread what might happen.

The original resolution for android is 320x480(moment/g1/hero use this res).

All other resolutions that I have seen have been higher.(droid/evo/etc)

Intercept is confirmed to have 240x400. I dont know how android handles resolution with apps but some apps might not be able to operate properly at that size without an update(not sure just guessing). Some article I read but cannot find again mentioned there might be issues like this.

Also, some are thinking that intercept has a rev 0 evdo instead of rev A because the data lockups with the moment were hardware based issues so they switched to rev 0 to solve it. Sounds reasonable, but once again just guesses.

I currently have a moment, probably switching to EVO or Epic. But if my choice was between moment/intercept I would go with moment. It also has a reasonable size community behind so if the hardware is capable of gingerbread they will probably get it on it.

Those are just all my rambling thoughts

 

[lgmayka]

This is the best review I have seen of the Intercept, by Mobile Tech Review. Although the reviewer bends over backwards to forgive the Intercept its severe deficiencies, she nevertheless illustrates that:
1) Sprint TV is unwatchable because rev 0 is too slow.
2) YouTube is unwatchable except in low-quality mode, again because of rev 0.
3) Many Android apps in the market will not run well (or perhaps at all) on the Intercept's low-res 240x400 screen. Even some apps provided with the phone do not run well, displaying dialog boxes off-screen that require flipping between landscape and portrait mode.

 

[thelonewizard]

Alright. The EVO is pretty large, yeah. but the Epic is a little smaller, with full physical QWERTY. This phone, is supposed the be the "upgraded" Moment, but when the Moment sucked, how much better will this be? I've already read people complaining about it. I personally wouldn't recommend this as your first smartphone. I'm still torn between the EVO and the Epic.

 

[lgmayka]

This phone, is supposed the be the "upgraded" Moment, but when the Moment sucked, how much better will this be?

Due to the slower data speed and lower screen resolution, the Intercept is a downgraded (actually, brain-damaged) Moment. On Sprint's own web site, in their community forum, a Sprint Admin explained that the Intercept is meant to be an upgrade for the Rant, not the Moment:
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It is hardware EVDO Rev0 with WiFi B/G. Not a Evo killer, but a great upgrade for the Rant or Rumor user. Lower end specs, lower price.
---

 

[backdown]

Thanks for your response. I'm assuming that the Intercept WILL get an upgrade to Android 2.2

Never assume Samsung will do anything. I had the moment for 7 months, and i was told that we would be getting android 2.1 for ages. I guess they finally got it once i got rid of it for the Evo..



Honestly, i would wait for the Epic 4g and see how that turns out (if you don't need a cell phone right now). I really, really, really hated the moment. The thing constantly lagged left and right, and it would just randomly lock up. That was with stock and custom ROM's, and just doing basic internet searching (facebook). I thought the evo would be to big for me, and i use to hate all touch screen phones (reason for the moment, as i came from the instinct to the moment), but its honestly the best phone i have ever had right now.

 

[catpowrd]

What happened to digital TV that the moment 2 was suppose to have? It seems this phone turned out to be a downgrade from the moment at the same price.

 

[itmike]

I'm jumping to the intercept from the moment. I can't handle the data lock ups anymore it's ridiculous. Then my phone has to live on the charger, I'm a heavy texter and the moment just can't handle the usage. I'm considering going back to a dumb phone and carrying a netbook. I mean these phones are cool and all but you can only get so much out of them on those twit sized batteries. Ive even borrowed the stores demo evo and it is just as bad on the battery. I would rather just carry a simple phone that I don't have to worry about where the nearest outlet is at this point and be carry a netbook that will do my internet usage better than any smart phone. But then again my phone spends more time out of the pocket then it so that may be an issue.

 

[vbetts]

The only thing the Intercept has(Correct me if I'm wrong by the way) over the Moment is it has mutlitouch. Other than that, keeping the moment.

 

[lgmayka]

The only thing the Intercept has(Correct me if I'm wrong by the way) over the Moment is it has mutlitouch.

This article claims that with Android 2.1, the Moment does now have multitouch. Do you know that to be incorrect?
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In addition, "pinch-to-zoom" multi-touch has been added to the web browser, photo viewer and maps applications...
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[baddubbin]

This article claims that with Android 2.1, the Moment does now have multitouch. Do you know that to be incorrect?
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In addition, "pinch-to-zoom" multi-touch has been added to the web browser, photo viewer and maps applications...
---

2.1 has multi touch capability but the moment does not have multi touch even with 2.1. No one has even confirmed that the screen is capable of multi touch.

 

[kevinrs]

What happened to digital TV that the moment 2 was suppose to have? It seems this phone turned out to be a downgrade from the moment at the same price.

no one ever said that was happening, there were some test units that were modified to get 1 channel in a limited area, but they were moments, not moment 2/intercepts.

 

[lgmayka]

The January announcement of TV on the Moment was very optimistic:

Samsung Moment Becomes First Free US Mobile TV Phone | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

But we can now see that it all fizzled.

Here is a video of the ill-fated technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJMKPNnjKEg

It looks to me that the need for a separate antenna killed it.

 

[kevinrs]

1. there's no port or blank spot for an antenna port on the moment that went to market.
2. though the guy in the video was optimistic, it was being tested in baltimore and washington areas only, had 1 station as far as I know.
3. the video looks to have processing bandwidth issues, looks very blocky and freezes.
4. notice it's plugged into power. video reception, processing and display likely would kill the battery in an hour or so, a charger might be able to keep up with powering the reciever, but might not even be able to add to the charge while tv is on.
I wouldn't have been as optimistic as some were about the prospect, based on what I can see in this video.