Galaxy S vs Droid Incredible

[birthofahero]

Is there a way to dump the samsung camera app to allow us to have some more customization?

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Is there a way to dump the samsung camera app to allow us to have some more customization?

I have a ROM dump with all the apks from the Galaxy and I've tried to install them on my Incredible.

I wanted to install the video codecs so I could play DIVX files.
I wanted to install the music player w/ EQ and surround sound.
I wanted to install the camera app, the SMS app
but no luck.

If I can get it to install, I'll share it.

I don't think the cam app would work because it requires the correct drivers.

 

[birthofahero]

I have a ROM dump with all the apks from the Galaxy and I've tried to install them on my Incredible.

I wanted to install the video codecs so I could play DIVX files.
I wanted to install the music player w/ EQ and surround sound.
I wanted to install the camera app, the SMS app
but no luck.

If I can get it to install, I'll share it.

I don't think the cam app would work because it requires the correct drivers.

Hmm I would be very interested in having those on my phone. Any idea why they wouldnt work?

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Another tid-bit I found out today for prospective Galaxy buyers...

The Galaxy S has a Wolfson audio processor. let me repeat that again, it has a Wolfson WM8994 audio processor.

Wolfson Microelectronics | Wolfson?s innovative ultra low power audio hub selected for Samsung's latest Bada and Android smartphones


HOT DAMNNNNNNN

That is why the audio playback thru the headphone sounds so gooooooooood.
That is high quality audiophile stuff right there.

I think this is the most impressive thing about the phone.
I may not return this phone and use it without a SIM card/data. Just use it as a media PMP for my car.

 

[smacky]

I'm telling you guys, your next phone needs to be a Samsung phone. The parts used in their top-notch phones are..well...top-notch. And considering the Galaxy S on the VZW (forget its name) will most likely retail at $199 with a two-year contract, you'd be dumb to buy any thing else.

Samsung does everything in-house. And it truly shows. Their GPUs are where it's at, although the Hummingbird CPU is pretty kick-ass as well.

I'm done with Qualcomm's offerings. It's TI (Moto) or Samsung or bust. At least from a rooter's standpoint.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Hmm I would be very interested in having those on my phone. Any idea why they wouldnt work?

Here is a link to all the APKs on xda.

Samsung Galaxy S apps on Desire - xda-developers

Good luck trying to install them. Many people want some of those Samsung apps. I think people are trying so bookmark that thread.

I just got DLNA working. Hot danng, I'm able to stream movies,photos,music to my TV and pull videos/photos from my media center.

 

[mttfrog13]

many thanks to mrspeedmaster for giving us all of this useful info. Ignore all the people who get their panties in a bunch at any hint of support for the iphone 4(or any other phone than the one they purchased for that matter).

I am switching to at&t next week and leaving my droid inc and verizon behind. Not because I'm itching to have the best phone(at least my fav) out there, but I have to get off my mother's family plan because she cannot afford it anymore even tho i pay my portion. I'm gonna sell my inc to help pay the termination fee. Basically I can get any phone on any carrier. I plan on getting the samsung captivate so I found your posts really helpful. I didn't want the big screen on the evo or droid x and also prefer the super amoled vs lcd. Also, the evo is way to thick for me, given it's already huge size. I like that the the captivate is shorter and thinner than my droid inc and is only wider when looking at it from the front. The reason I'm not waiting for the fascinate is just because I like the exterior design of the captivate better and i think i can survive without flash on the camera.

My only 2 concerns switching to the captivate from my droid inc is the kind of coverage I will get, and the gps issues. There are rumors of the gps being fixed with an update, so I can just use the navigation in my car until then. It's a 2002 car, with maps from 2005 tho so sometimes the roads aren't correct.

For the signal issue, I NEVER get more than 2 bars on my droid inc and just had a dropped call yesterday. Also a lot of times the first 10 seconds of calls involve the whole "can you hear me" thing. at&t can't be that much worse, can it? My friend has a constant 4-5 bars on his iphone 3g in my area.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

For the signal issue, I NEVER get more than 2 bars on my droid inc and just had a dropped call yesterday. Also a lot of times the first 10 seconds of calls involve the whole "can you hear me" thing. at&t can't be that much worse, can it? My friend has a constant 4-5 bars on his iphone 3g in my area.

Your mileage will vary. I'm not gonna say which carrier is better because it depends on location. I always got 2 bars on my Incredible but after the OTA leaked update,I now get 3-4 bars and less roaming. It now matches the original Droid in terms of signal bars.

I think the update will fix many of the reception problems on the Incredible.

 

[Eazail70x7]

Honestly, no offense to mrspeedmaster

I don't begrudge these phone comparisons as much as I just don't see the reason to have them sometimes.

Moto X vs. Inc? Fair enough, its another Verizon Android device with various differences in specs from a different manufacturer than HTC.

Inc. vs. EVO? Sure, I get it...its the cousin to the Incredible and came out a little after the Incredible.

Speaking just for myself, it kind of wears on me when I login to the Incredible forum to discuss the phone I have and maybe try to help out once in a while but see comparisons to other phones.

Its further exacerbated by the fact that these types of threads seem to reside on the main page ad nauseum while questions and research done on the actual Incredible get relegated to sub forums where they quickly fade or get little to no attention.

Not sure about anyone else, but in my opinion, I think page one of this forum could use a little less comparison to other devices and little more Q&A on the actual phone in the title!!!

Gonna go make a Dinc vs Fascinate thread right now

 

[BlueSnake01]

VPhone is looking great!! I'm just not a fan of samsung phones. About the updates, the new Htc Froyo updates should be better then the leaked/early update that came to the Inc. It has been said that the audio should be a lot better in recording and the 720p recording should be improved compared to the other early update. Another thing I don't understand, the snap dragon processor is capable of doing a lot of great stuff and the differene against the Omap (from what I've seen) are small. The leaked benchmark of the X in 2.2 was slower than both the N1 and the X in 2.1. The GPU is not as great as the newer Android phones but I have yet played a game in the market that stressed the crap out of the snap dragon. My Ipod 2nd Gen played games flawlessly and some 3d games with lil to no lag and we all know how much better the snap dragon is compared to it. Its the devs that need to make it more compatible and better.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

About the updates, the new Htc Froyo updates should be better then the leaked/early update that came to the Inc. It has been said that the audio should be a lot better in recording and the 720p recording should be improved compared to the other early update.

Looking at the EVO forum, the 720p recording hasn't improved nor the audio.
With 2.2, it does now have h.264 in 800x480 wvga and the users there prefer the lower-res; higher quality bit-rate over the 720p video. 720p is still horrible on the EVO so that is our indication. Both phone uses the same BSI Omnivision sensor. Heck, I will gladly take the improved non-HD video recording in the 2.2. It take the better 800x480 recording what we have now so that is good news. The Samsung records 30fps 720p h.264 regardless so it is reigning Android champ.

Another thing I don't understand, the snap dragon processor is capable of doing a lot of great stuff and the differene against the Omap (from what I've seen) are small.
My Ipod 2nd Gen played games flawlessly and some 3d games with lil to no lag and we all know how much better the snap dragon is compared to it. Its the devs that need to make it more compatible and better.

The Samsung is not an OMAP. It is a hummingbird cpu and a better GPU. It has the same core designed by Intrinsity as another CPU named after an Audi car (people don't like me to mention a certain name).

For gamers, the hummingbird is faster. In Neocore benchmarks, the Samsung will eclipse it by a few seconds. In Quadrant, the frame-rate is 45 vs 9-12 on the HTC Incredible.

I'm not a gamer so it doesn't matter to me. But, I do watch videos. Any videos will play smoother on the Samsung. Even with Rockplayer (paid version) on the HTC Inc, it drop frames and audio loses synch. The Samsung is rock-steady. It plays native 720p files blue-ray rips with no problem.

 

[kyler13]

As an Incredible owner, the Galaxy S phones intrigue me. I like what AMOLED brings to the table over LCD, but the whole pentile matrix thing annoys me. If Samsung can work out the manufacturing and/or reliability kinks and move to even pixel size, true resolution AMOLED, they will blow away the small LCD market. The lack of sharpness is probably the only downside to AMOLED right now with their pixel arrangement, though it it's small downside for me.

 

[rushmore]

I would dump my Inc for the Epic if on VZW, simply for the keyboard (mainly) and bigger display. Hard to play the great Oid and PSX emulators to their maximum abilities with a VK (need a real keyboard). Ditto for about 90% of Flash game content- whenever Galaxy gets 2.2, of course.

BTW, 2gb of built-in memory on VZW version is mega-lame. I would gladly take the 16gb built in over a camera Flash... on a phone. Then again, why not both? Samsung's differentiation plans seem fueled by crack.

 

[rushmore]

As an Incredible owner, the Galaxy S phones intrigue me. I like what AMOLED brings to the table over LCD, but the whole pentile matrix thing annoys me. If Samsung can work out the manufacturing and/or reliability kinks and move to even pixel size, true resolution AMOLED, they will blow away the small LCD market. The lack of sharpness is probably the only downside to AMOLED right now with their pixel arrangement, though it it's small downside for me.

Yep, but Inc suffers the same pixel tricks and is why text does not look as sharp as most LCD's.

Added: Assuming camera parameters are optimally set for both devices, the Galaxy kicks the Inc's butt in the pics above. No contest.

 

[kyler13]

Yep, but Inc suffers the same pixel tricks and is why text does not look as sharp as most LCD's.

Yes, I know. I was hoping that Samsung was pushing out true res displays on their own phones. My wish list for a phone next summer on Verizon includes 4G, front facing camera, and true resolution AMOLED.

 

[Eazail70x7]

I'd rather just have 960 x 640 (or higher) resolution. With a res that high, even the sub pentile can't mess it up can it??

 

[BlueSnake01]

Looking at the EVO forum, the 720p recording hasn't improved nor the audio.
With 2.2, it does now have h.264 in 800x480 wvga and the users there prefer the lower-res; higher quality bit-rate over the 720p video. 720p is still horrible on the EVO so that is our indication. Both phone uses the same BSI Omnivision sensor. Heck, I will gladly take the improved non-HD video recording in the 2.2. It take the better 800x480 recording what we have now so that is good news. The Samsung records 30fps 720p h.264 regardless so it is reigning Android champ.

The Samsung is not an OMAP. It is a hummingbird cpu and a better GPU. It has the same core designed by Intrinsity as another CPU named after an Audi car (people don't like me to mention a certain name).

For gamers, the hummingbird is faster. In Neocore benchmarks, the Samsung will eclipse it by a few seconds. In Quadrant, the frame-rate is 45 vs 9-12 on the HTC Incredible.

I'm not a gamer so it doesn't matter to me. But, I do watch videos. Any videos will play smoother on the Samsung. Even with Rockplayer (paid version) on the HTC Inc, it drop frames and audio loses synch. The Samsung is rock-steady. It plays native 720p files blue-ray rips with no problem.

Didn't mean to sound like a noob.... I know the differences from all the three phones. Again thought, HTC said the leaked update is a different rom than the official so things might change, so here is hoping that it will. The snap dragon is capable of viewing vids in 1080p @30 fps from what I've heard, the problem is the drivers, same goes for the camera and sound. The reason why I brought the omap reference was because ppl make it seem that the snap dragon is a pos yet it is still leaps and bounds from older Android phones and iphones, etc that ppl still use and love up to date. I agree that in 3D games the humming bird will slaughter and has the snap dragon in gaming but like I said there a lot of great games in both 2d and 3d in my 2ng gen ipod that play flawlessly. It has be up to the devs to make them better. I mostly use my phone for the web which you said that the inc beats it, gaming soooo far I have no complaints plays the psx games that I like good. Reminds me of the 3GS and iphone 4 (sorry guys), if I had the 3GS I wouldn't go to the store to buy the 4th. The changes are better, but not huge enough to be able to do stuff that I normally can't do. If I was coming from an Eris or mytouch, etc, I wouldn't think twice of getting the S.

 

[smacky]

Didn't mean to sound like a noob.... I know the differences from all the three phones. Again thought, HTC said the leaked update is a different rom than the official so things might change, so here is hoping that it will. The snap dragon is capable of viewing vids in 1080p @30 fps from what I've heard, the problem is the drivers, same goes for the camera and sound. The reason why I brought the omap reference was because ppl make it seem that the snap dragon is a pos yet it is still leaps and bounds from older Android phones and iphones, etc that ppl still use and love up to date. I agree that in 3D games the humming bird will slaughter and has the snap dragon in gaming but like I said there a lot of great games in both 2d and 3d in my 2ng gen ipod that play flawlessly. It has be up to the devs to make them better. I mostly use my phone for the web which you said that the inc beats it, gaming soooo far I have no complaints plays the psx games that I like good. Reminds me of the 3GS and iphone 4 (sorry guys), if I had the 3GS I wouldn't go to the store to buy the 4th. The changes are better, but not huge enough to be able to do stuff that I normally can't do. If I was coming from an Eris or mytouch, etc, I wouldn't think twice of getting the S.

I agree with what you're saying. But the S also has the advantage in rendering photos on the screen because of the superior GPU. The GPU is what Samsung really kills the other phones, not so much the CPU. It's more efficient which may make it perform better despite being 200+ Mhz short.

 

[euph_22]

I hope everyone considering the Galaxy S understands Samsung's historical business model.

They spend their money making their phones look great on paper (high specs, etc), but they tend to cheap out on engineering (poorly integrated, not ironing out the kinks). Also they have demonstrated that they don't see the value in providing long term support for they're devices. (also they have the WORST UI for android. Although some people supposedly LIKE TouchWiz 3.0, I still say it's horrible.)

Of course, these are just historical observations. It's possible that Samsung has changed the way they do business, but that would be a change. I would DEFINITELY warn against early adopting this one. Wait for real world reviews...professional tech reviews get mesmorized by higher stats. Find out what's it's like to live with before taking the plunge. Especially since this will almost certainly be the last of the 1ghz generation of flagship phones.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

I agree with what you're saying. But the S also has the advantage in rendering photos on the screen because of the superior GPU.

It renders photos better because it has a 24 bit screen vs our 16 bit screens. 16 million colors vs 65,000 (OTA says it is now 262,000) colors. They reserve the best screen tech for themselves.

I hope everyone considering the Galaxy S understands Samsung's historical business model.

I absolutely agree with you. Their track record is not good but this is a big launch all over the world. Every carrier will have this.

They spend their money making their phones look great on paper (high specs, etc), but they tend to cheap out on engineering (poorly integrated, not ironing out the kinks).

Sounds like Sprint & the EVO 4G.

 

[smacky]

It renders photos better because it has a 24 bit screen vs our 16 bit screens. 16 million colors vs 65,000 (OTA says it is now 262,000) colors. They reserve the best screen tech for themselves.

I've been saying that. In addition to having the better chipset over the iPhone 4, their technology in general is superior. Which is why the Galaxy>>> the DInc.

I know several people overseas that do not have a problem with the phone. Motorola had a shit reputation before the Droid. How did that turn out?

A company can turn it around fast. Especially with Android. I have never heard excessive amounts of bad stories about Samsung products, so...

 

[jroc]

I got a Droid X and I'm intrigued by the Samsung phones...If I try one and it gave me the same or better reception than the X.....whew.....lol I got burned in the past with 2 Samsung phones and reception...I thought something was wrong with Verizon at the time......

I need to hit the lottery for real......lol

I'm envious of the TV Out feature with the Samsung phones. Even tho rooting and custom ROM's wont sway me from getting a phone.....that would be another plus.

I know some ppl get tired of these type of threads, but they do help when its informative. Even with the iPhone 4 references, it was fine to me...

And a HATE Apple right now for that antenna BS they just did..

 

[rushmore]

I'd rather just have 960 x 640 (or higher) resolution. With a res that high, even the sub pentile can't mess it up can it??

For the eye's perception that would be correct, but the pixel maps still perceive the resolution, so a lot of apps would run into problems with the higher res (not to mention more hardware creating more fragmentation).

 

[vasilator]

I love my incredible but if I was purchasing a new phone right now I would no doubt be seriously considering the Samsung. I like to watch video's on my phone and the Inc. (and Droid X) for that matter seem to do a much better job of this.

 

[ikediggety]

I'm telling you guys, your next phone needs to be a Samsung phone. The parts used in their top-notch phones are..well...top-notch. And considering the Galaxy S on the VZW (forget its name) will most likely retail at $199 with a two-year contract, you'd be dumb to buy any thing else.

Samsung does everything in-house. And it truly shows. Their GPUs are where it's at, although the Hummingbird CPU is pretty kick-ass as well.

I'm done with Qualcomm's offerings. It's TI (Moto) or Samsung or bust. At least from a rooter's standpoint.

now if only they could build a decent GPS into their phones.

as much as i'd love better audio and camera quality, i take too many road trips to not have my phone do GPS as well as HTC's do. i can live with audio that's merely good and a camera that's merely average.