Is it just me or is the sgs2 over-rated?

[gkh77]

I've had the sgs2 now for 2 weeks and despite some positives I've got to say that I'm not blown away with what is universally acclaimed to be the best handset on the Market.

The screen is beautiful no doubt and it's lightning quick but the software seems really buggy and the integration with my media has been a nightmare. Here are some of my main issues so far;

1. Integration with iTunes - I've yet to find a way for the phone to recognise m4a tags. I have 40 gig of music stored in iTunes in m4a format and when copied to my sgs2 it will not read the artist name or album name. The only way I've worked out a solution is to convert most of my music library to mp3 which has been massively time consuming. Coming from an htc desire hd I didn't have this problem before. For a company supposedly competing for Market share with apple you would've thought that samsung would have the basic compatibility that other Market leading android handsets seem to have.

2. 3G signal seems to be intermittent at best and again not as good as my htc. Same with wifi which doesn't seem to be strong.

3. The standard music player keeps resetting and will not seem to work with the supplied headphones. Play/pause does not work when the screen is turned off. I've downloaded double twist and this player works fine. Again seems like buggy samsung software.

4. Kies is crap. Keeps crashing and won't sync music or photos properly ( kies air is good tho)

5. The social hub will not log me in to Facebook for some reason.

These might seem like minor gripes and I'm sure that there are workarounds or the problems can be solved by updates. In my opinion however if the phone doesn't work properly out of the box it cannot be justifiably called a 5 star market leader.

This is where apple are way ahead of the game. Their stuff might not be open source but it just works out of the box!

Anyway.....I've vented and feel better now.

Thanks!

 

[daivik]

Are you previous iPhone owner by any chance?

 

[gkh77]

Nope. Htc hero and htc desire hd before this one. I'm a big android fan like I say. I'm just not sure about all of the excitement with this phone. At least in my experience.....

 

[lotus49]

On balance I do really like this phone but you have hit on some of the drawbacks.

The desktop integration is absolutely crap. I had all the same problems with music as you (although converting tracks only takes about 5 mins of effort if you do it right). iTunes did all my syncing (calendar, contacts, music, videos, podcasts, device backups) smoothly and easily. I never had to work out how do sync or back up, it was all obvious. SGS2 syncing sucks utterly. Kies is a complete pile of poo.

I do occasionally have signal problem (3G only not wifi) but I'm hoping a firmware update will sort that - I don't think it's the hardware but I could be wrong.

I haven't had any of the other problems you mention.

I had an iPhone and I much prefer my Galaxy (screen and speed are the killers) but desktop integration on the SGS2 is a disgrace, especially for a top of the range phone. Samsung really need to sort this out. It's so bad I would have thought twice about buying the phone if I had known what I do now.

 

[mrvirginia]

Nope. Htc hero and htc desire hd before this one. I'm a big android fan like I say. I'm just not sure about all of the excitement with this phone. At least in my experience.....

wow really? you're coming from a Desire HD and you aren't blown away???

i'm pretty baffled at that statement. everyone has a different opinion, though. i'm coming from an Evo and it's very superior. what don't you like about your new SGS2? screen is better than your old phone, GPU is better, CPU is better... it's thinner... records 1080p @ 30fps... just an all around sleek phone. it has lived up to all of my expectations and then some, tbh.

we're basically comparing an HTC Thunderbolt (here in the US) to the SGS2, regarding your Desire HD. i promise you, anyone who knows what this phone is would pick this one over that lol.

even comparing a new dual-core, such as my gf's new Droid X2... her screen looks washed out when putting them side by side and her's has a good deal of lag as well. also heavier and thicker than mine. not another phone out now, or coming out in June or near future for that matter, that i'd trade this one for. no way!

 

[Irate]

i admit these thing are annoying (especially poor pc intergration) but imo they are not big enough to even claim it is over-rated

when new phone come out early adopters will always bare the brunt of bugs of any device ask the people who bought the iphone 4 when it came out with its antenna problem where it failed as it primary function as a phone if you held it wrong. other new phones have had similar problems after release but where fixed in time

seriously go try another new released top end phone im almost certain there will be bugs and youll find the SGSII will be a the top most times

 

[eclap]

1. don't you know to stay away from apple products?
2. wifi is fine on my gs2, not as strong as it was on my blackberry bold but it's on par with my mates' iphone 3gs. the next gingerbread update should improve wifi...
3. never had problems with the stock player although I use player pro now, but I used the stock player for a couple of weeks without a single issue.
4. I don't see a single reason to use Kies. Kies air maybe for a quick wireless data transfer but Kies itself is pointless...
5. Social hub - frozen on my phone. so are the other hubs. can't see one reason to use them.

about iphone working better out the box... well it's like programming a game for a console. all the iphones are really similar to each other (hardware wise). android is a lot more open and a lot of different phones of different capability use it. it's a lot harder to get it right. All in all, sgs2 is great. it's super fast, it's stunning, does everything I ask it to. the sgs2 is a 5 star belter as it does so much more than say iphone4 and it does it all faster and on a bigger better screen.

Yes, I'm an apple hater, have been for good 20 years now (for good reasons).

 

[matttye]

The SGS2 is the best handset on the market right now... hardware wise. Nobody said anything about the software being amazing as far as I know, which is what most of your gripes relate to.

If I ever get an SGS2, it will be a long time down the line when there's a one click root program and a wealth of custom ROMs to choose from. No way do I want a phone with Touchwiz, it's a horrible UI imo..

1) Install poweramp. It costs about

 

[mrvirginia]

I've had the sgs2 now for 2 weeks and despite some positives I've got to say that I'm not blown away with what is universally acclaimed to be the best handset on the Market.

The screen is beautiful no doubt and it's lightning quick but the software seems really buggy and the integration with my media has been a nightmare. Here are some of my main issues so far;

1. Integration with iTunes - I've yet to find a way for the phone to recognise m4a tags. I have 40 gig of music stored in iTunes in m4a format and when copied to my sgs2 it will not read the artist name or album name. The only way I've worked out a solution is to convert most of my music library to mp3 which has been massively time consuming. Coming from an htc desire hd I didn't have this problem before. For a company supposedly competing for Market share with apple you would've thought that samsung would have the basic compatibility that other Market leading android handsets seem to have.

2. 3G signal seems to be intermittent at best and again not as good as my htc. Same with wifi which doesn't seem to be strong.

3. The standard music player keeps resetting and will not seem to work with the supplied headphones. Play/pause does not work when the screen is turned off. I've downloaded double twist and this player works fine. Again seems like buggy samsung software.

4. Kies is crap. Keeps crashing and won't sync music or photos properly ( kies air is good tho)

5. The social hub will not log me in to Facebook for some reason.

These might seem like minor gripes and I'm sure that there are workarounds or the problems can be solved by updates. In my opinion however if the phone doesn't work properly out of the box it cannot be justifiably called a 5 star market leader.

This is where apple are way ahead of the game. Their stuff might not be open source but it just works out of the box!

Anyway.....I've vented and feel better now.

Thanks!

On balance I do really like this phone but you have hit on some of the drawbacks.

The desktop integration is absolutely crap. I had all the same problems with music as you (although converting tracks only takes about 5 mins of effort if you do it right). iTunes did all my syncing (calendar, contacts, music, videos, podcasts, device backups) smoothly and easily. I never had to work out how do sync or back up, it was all obvious. SGS2 syncing sucks utterly. Kies is a complete pile of poo.

I do occasionally have signal problem (3G only not wifi) but I'm hoping a firmware update will sort that - I don't think it's the hardware but I could be wrong.

I haven't had any of the other problems you mention.

I had an iPhone and I much prefer my Galaxy (screen and speed are the killers) but desktop integration on the SGS2 is a disgrace, especially for a top of the range phone. Samsung really need to sort this out. It's so bad I would have thought twice about buying the phone if I had known what I do now.

you can't fault the phone for not recognizing something that is associated with Apple lol c'mon now that's being a bit picky guys. Samsung didn't set themselves up to take away directly from Apple, but every handset manufacturer. this is why i stick with MP3's... because they are universal!

regarding 3G... mine has kept H+ up top and only sometimes will drop to 3G. i've never seen E for edge except when i was messing with some network settings that i shouldn't have been tinkering with. also, wifi is as strong as my Evo. no problems there.

i have to agree with you on the music player. not sure why Samsung decided to make their own app and WITHOUT a widget. i mean, why remove an app that has that feature and replace it with one without??? anyway, i just downloaded the new stock music app from the market

if Kies is crashing, sounds like an issue with your PC/drivers/how it was set up, not the software. lots and lots of us have had great success with Kies, including myself. i would uninstall and re-install.

can't comment on the social hub. i'm not a facebook kid anymore.

you can't expect Kies to work like iTunes. it may look sorta similar, but it's not the same. you guys must remember that Apple made portable music devices before they jumped into the handset market. some will argue that iTunes is utter crap. believe me, i have friends that think i'm crazy for using it lol. Samsung's syncing seems new. i didn't know about Kies before this device and at one point i tried out an Epic 4G for a month. give 'em time guys.

since i got rid of my last iPhone (3G then 3GS), i've kept an iPod Nano. why? because no one does music syncing/organizing, imo, like Apple. some will argue the Zune HD is awesome, but the player itself is lacking some features that my iPod has.

i know you don't wanna hear this, but you'll all save yourself some frustration if you stick with an Apple product if music is important to you and you are used to that type of environment. no one is gonna do it exactly the same, ever.

 

[mrvirginia]

1. don't you know to stay away from apple products?
2. wifi is fine on my gs2, not as strong as it was on my blackberry bold but it's on par with my mates' iphone 3gs. the next gingerbread update should improve wifi...
3. never had problems with the stock player although I use player pro now, but I used the stock player for a couple of weeks without a single issue.
4. I don't see a single reason to use Kies. Kies air maybe for a quick wireless data transfer but Kies itself is pointless...
5. Social hub - frozen on my phone. so are the other hubs. can't see one reason to use them.

about iphone working better out the box... well it's like programming a game for a console. all the iphones are really similar to each other (hardware wise). android is a lot more open and a lot of different phones of different capability use it. it's a lot harder to get it right. All in all, sgs2 is great. it's super fast, it's stunning, does everything I ask it to. the sgs2 is a 5 star belter as it does so much more than say iphone4 and it does it all faster and on a bigger better screen.

Yes, I'm an apple hater, have been for good 20 years now (for good reasons).

i agree, don't see the point to Kies except updates but i am aware you can use Odin instead.

to OP, i apologize if my posts came off as rebuttals. they were meant more as suggestions and giving my personal experience, especially regarding the whole music thing. i feel your frustration here. seriously, stick to iPod's for that lol

 

[matttye]

you can't fault the phone for not recognizing something that is associated with Apple lol c'mon now that's being a bit picky guys. Samsung didn't set themselves up to take away directly from Apple, but every handset manufacturer. this is why i stick with MP3's... because they are universal!

regarding 3G... mine has kept H+ up top and only sometimes will drop to 3G. i've never seen E for edge except when i was messing with some network settings that i shouldn't have been tinkering with. also, wifi is as strong as my Evo. no problems there.

i have to agree with you on the music player. not sure why Samsung decided to make their own app and WITHOUT a widget. i mean, why remove an app that has that feature and replace it with one without??? anyway, i just downloaded the new stock music app from the market

if Kies is crashing, sounds like an issue with your PC/drivers/how it was set up, not the software. lots and lots of us have had great success with Kies, including myself. i would uninstall and re-install.

can't comment on the social hub. i'm not a facebook kid anymore.

you can't expect Kies to work like iTunes. it may look sorta similar, but it's not the same. you guys must remember that Apple made portable music devices before they jumped into the handset market. some will argue that iTunes is utter crap. believe me, i have friends that think i'm crazy for using it lol. Samsung's syncing seems new. i didn't know about Kies before this device and at one point i tried out an Epic 4G for a month. give 'em time guys.

since i got rid of my last iPhone (3G then 3GS), i've kept an iPod Nano. why? because no one does music syncing/organizing, imo, like Apple. some will argue the Zune HD is awesome, but the player itself is lacking some features that my iPod has.

i know you don't wanna hear this, but you'll all save yourself some frustration if you stick with an Apple product if music is important to you and you are used to that type of environment. no one is gonna do it exactly the same, ever.

M4A = MP4 = the successor to MP3 and better in every way. Smaller files with better sound quality!

MP4 is VERY widely supported these days. MP3 is old, outdated technology.

The fact that a cutting edge phone doesn't support MP4 is nothing short of ridiculous, but luckily alternative apps exist

 

[eclap]

M4A = MP4 = the successor to MP3 and better in every way. Smaller files with better sound quality!

MP4 is VERY widely supported these days. MP3 is old, outdated technology.

The fact that a cutting edge phone doesn't support MP4 is nothing short of ridiculous, but luckily alternative apps exist

mp3 @ 320kbs sounds good enough to me. and if I fancy that extra bit of quality then I just play .flac

the 16gb internal with a micro sd card slot allows for a lot of storage. I have a 16gb msd card in the sgs2 and that takes the total storage up to 32gb. plenty for now. there's also usb otg if I'm going away for a weekend and think I'll be taking a lot of videos and photos, I'll plug in my usb stick (another 16gb). I can't really see how lacking the one format makes the phone an underperformer. it plays everything that I'll ever want it. Hell, not even Windows 7 play .flac and .mkv out the box. sgs2 does. and also many others. you guys are nitpicking...

 

[matttye]

mp3 @ 320kbs sounds good enough to me. and if I fancy that extra bit of quality then I just play .flac

the 16gb internal with a micro sd card slot allows for a lot of storage. I have a 16gb msd card in the sgs2 and that takes the total storage up to 32gb. plenty for now. there's also usb otg if I'm going away for a weekend and think I'll be taking a lot of videos and photos, I'll plug in my usb stick (another 16gb). I can't really see how lacking the one format makes the phone an underperformer. it plays everything that I'll ever want it. Hell, not even Windows 7 play .flac and .mkv out the box. sgs2 does. and also many others. you guys are nitpicking...

MP4 is probably one of the most popular formats in the world right now.. it's not really nitpicking to complain that it doesn't fully support it.

From what I understand, the OP was saying that the phone plays the files it just doesn't read the tags. That is a silly omission that should be sorted out with a software update. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bug.

Also, even if MP3 sounds fine to you, you're not going to complain about getting better sound quality in smaller files, surely?!

 

[eclap]

MP4 is probably one of the most popular formats in the world right now.. it's not really nitpicking to complain that it doesn't fully support it.

From what I understand, the OP was saying that the phone plays the files it just doesn't read the tags. That is a silly omission that should be sorted out with a software update. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bug.

Also, even if MP3 sounds fine to you, you're not going to complain about getting better sound quality in smaller files, surely?!

no, but it's absolutely not a dealbreaker. it's a minor fault for me. I prefer listening to flac anyway, but that's just me...

 

[mrvirginia]

M4A = MP4 = the successor to MP3 and better in every way. Smaller files with better sound quality!

MP4 is VERY widely supported these days. MP3 is old, outdated technology.

The fact that a cutting edge phone doesn't support MP4 is nothing short of ridiculous, but luckily alternative apps exist

very true. you got me there lol
i would think this could be fixed with an update, though...right?

old heads like myself are still stuck on MP3's. they're easiest to find around the web, as well. BUT, if anyone would like, i can check what prog i have at home that can mass convert files where you can click and leave until it's done.

 

[Nightsabre]

3. The standard music player keeps resetting and will not seem to work with the supplied headphones. Play/pause does not work when the screen is turned off. I've downloaded double twist and this player works fine. Again seems like buggy samsung software.

Had the exact same problem today... repeatedly resetting, and even caused the phone to reset on one occasion.

Downloaded Winamp... problem now solved!

Am I blown away with with GS2? Coming from an HTC Hero... absolutely!!!

 

[mrvirginia]

here's the stock music app also if anyone is interested
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.music&feature=search_result

def prefer that over Samsung's

 

[eclap]

very true. you got me there lol
i would think this could be fixed with an update, though...right?

old heads like myself are still stuck on MP3's. they're easiest to find around the web, as well. BUT, if anyone would like, i can check what prog i have at home that can mass convert files where you can click and leave until it's done.

that would be handy, yes please mate!

 

[matttye]

no, but it's absolutely not a dealbreaker. it's a minor fault for me. I prefer listening to flac anyway, but that's just me...

Never said it was a deal breaker, just said it was silly for Samsung not to support that format in its' entirety

I used to have my entire music collection in both FLAC and AAC (M4A/MP4) but because of the lack of FLAC support and the fact I couldn't really tell the difference between the two formats on the speakers I had, I deleted my FLAC copies.

FLAC is good if you have a really good set of headphones, but if you don't it's just wasted space

 

[mrvirginia]

that would be handy, yes please mate!

alright will do! should be home in about an hr
ironically, i used it for converting flac files to mp3 haha

 

[eclap]

Never said it was a deal breaker, just said it was silly for Samsung not to support that format in its' entirety

I used to have my entire music collection in both FLAC and AAC (M4A/MP4) but because of the lack of FLAC support and the fact I couldn't really tell the difference between the two formats on the speakers I had, I deleted my FLAC copies.

FLAC is good if you have a really good set of headphones, but if you don't it's just wasted space

obviously, flac is useless if you don't hook it up to decent speakers/headphones...

I'm happy with mp3 funny enough. that's why I said I personally don't mind the funky mp4 integration. to me, the sgs2 is pretty much perfect. I know it might not suit everyone, but then they shouldn't buy it if it doesn't suit them

 

[matttye]

that would be handy, yes please mate!

alright will do! should be home in about an hr
ironically, i used it for converting flac files to mp3 haha

You can do it using iTunes

Load all of the files you want to convert into iTunes, select them all, and then right click and go to "Create AAC version" - this will create a copy of the files in the AAC format.

 

[daivik]

Tbh, the iPhone was pretty damn awesome...but no longer.

I think many people need to stop comparing the iPhone to other phones, because it simply isn't that OMG-iPHONE IS SO SERIOUSLY AWESOME - ZOMG any more.

Desktop integration. Isn't Apple the only one that manages to do it properly. Not surprising seeing as they pioneered in making MP3s before moving onto a phone... Oh lets not forget being stuck to iTunes which lags on Windows (well mine anyway, and I have an i7@3.3Ghz, 6GB RAM so it's not my pc that's the problem there) Furthermore, we have to use that annoying cable and NOTHING ELSE USES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD (bar Apple of course)

There are alternatives and OF COURSE they take a little time, and a little effort, but after that, boy does Android shine.

And also isn't that where the direct wifi sharing and "putting the URL into your browser" thing comes into play? The first time (when you copy all the music onto it, the cable is better) but after when you update the odd song, or odd album, would the browser URL thing not be sufficient? <---that's a question btw, because not a 100% if you can copy or only manage files?

And it is true that some of the software is buggy, from what I've heard, but unlike Apple who put a dodgy antenna in their phones, Samsung/HTC/Motorola?/LG? put the solid hardware in because software can be updated, hardware can't. But then again if Apple did that, there'd be no reason to flock out in masses and get their latest phone, so Apple would never do that - and something which HTC has started doing recently! :-O

And although my post seems very aggressive (sorry, didn't mean to make it) and you may accuse me of being a fan-boy of Android, it is very anti-Apple because don't get me wrong. Their products are pretty damn good. They're sleek and they do look nice - but I really do hate, what (in particular) Steve Jobs has created for Apple and the legacy he will be leaving behind. It's unsustainable, to dumb things down that much and make people so dependant. An example of this is with MacDefender. "Ohh look it's got MAC" in it. Let's just give it all my details...it must be safe. And there's more, but I don't wanna go off topic!

 

[kariya1]

BUT, if anyone would like, i can check what prog i have at home that can mass convert files where you can click and leave until it's done.

Please let me know. I need to convert some. Thanks!

 

[matttye]

obviously, flac is useless if you don't hook it up to decent speakers/headphones...

I'm happy with mp3 funny enough. that's why I said I personally don't mind the funky mp4 integration. to me, the sgs2 is pretty much perfect. I know it might not suit everyone, but then they shouldn't buy it if it doesn't suit them

"MP3, OGG, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB
AMR-WB, WMA, WAV, MID, AC3, IMY, FLAC, XMF"

AAC is quite clearly listed as one of the supported audio formats, so somebody would buy it thinking that it does suit them

Not trying to say that the SGS2 isn't an amazing phone because it clearly is, just pointing out a shortcoming. No device is perfect mate!