Help USA: Should I wait?

[Yugami]

A couple of months ago when I started researching what phone to buy I decided on the i7500. I've been hearing that it was probably going to come out in November, but I haven't heard anything new about whether this is true.

Now the Hero is coming out on the 11th and with no new word on the i7500 I'm very tempted to go for it. One of the big reasons I wanted the i7500 over the hero in the first place was because of the headphone jack, which is apparently on the US version of the Hero.

Is there any reason I should still wait it out for the i7500? Hopefully there will be some kind of announcement by the 11th about its US release.

 

[jvme]

Hi,

My advice is definitely to wait to buy a Samsung i7500.

I've bought a i7500 in the beginning of September 2009 and the device and the supplied New PC Studio software is full off problems!

1. The device crashes at least one time in a day. The only way to switch it on again, is to remove the battery and place it back!

2. Bluetooth doesn't work, I cannot use my car handsfree kit!

3. The supplied PC software (= New PC Studio) does not connect to the i7500 (= Unknown device). There is no workung USB driver for the i7500 neither on Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP2.

4. Ik cannot make a data connection (Internet) on the 'smart'phone! I can only make or receive a phone call!

I use my old mobile again.
Today the i7500 is rubbish

Best Regards,

jvme, Belgium

 

[tisti]

Hi,

My advice is definitely to wait to buy a Samsung i7500.

I've bought a i7500 in the beginning of September 2009 and the device and the supplied New PC Studio software is full off problems!

1. The device crashes at least one time in a day. The only way to switch it on again, is to remove the battery and place it back!

2. Bluetooth doesn't work, I cannot use my car handsfree kit!

3. The supplied PC software (= New PC Studio) does not connect to the i7500 (= Unknown device). There is no workung USB driver for the i7500 neither on Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP2.

4. Ik cannot make a data connection (Internet) on the 'smart'phone! I can only make or receive a phone call!

I use my old mobile again.
Today the i7500 is rubbish

Best Regards,

jvme, Belgium

1. haven't had those problems in quite some time now that I've flashed H8 on the phone.

2. dunno

3. sure there are usb drivers. Samsungs software is just not compatible with the phone, not that it matters that much.

4. I've made it more than a few time manually. Get the correct settings from your provider.



Not that many problems, the worst thing that bothers me is that it only displays 16bit colors atm, since Android does not have 24bit color support and thus it downmixes them to 16bit.
Oh and no indication light But I rather have a LED flashlight than that indicator light.

 

[integra891]

I bought this phone off of ebay in september. I have tmobile, so i am using 3g on it. After some initial issues, the answers i found on this forum, the phone is working just as any other android phone. I do however have some persistent issues.

1 my location in google maps isnt always accurate without the use of GPS. 2. every time a firmware upgrade comes out, i loose the ability to access certain location specific programs on the marketplace. this hasnt been a big deal since the programs i use arent location specific, but this might become an issue in the future.

the others i corrected on my own by reading this and other forums. This phone isnt supported by tmobile so youre on youre own in figuring things out, but i sort of enjoy that sort of thing hence me purchasing it.

 

[kam187]

Hi,
I've bought a i7500 in the beginning of September 2009 and the device and the supplied New PC Studio software is full off problems!

Download the latest 1.3.0 H4 pc studio from the net. You might have to go to the germal website. What region is your phone? Where did you get it? If its germany you'll see the I5 firmware available in NPS!

1. The device crashes at least one time in a day. The only way to switch it on again, is to remove the battery and place it back!

Fixed at least in H8, possibly H4 too.

2. Bluetooth doesn't work, I cannot use my car handsfree kit!

That might be a compatability issue with your car kit i guess. How do you mean it doesnt work? Doesnt connect? Doesnt see it?

3. The supplied PC software (= New PC Studio) does not connect to the i7500 (= Unknown device). There is no workung USB driver for the i7500 neither on Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP2.

Download the new NPS. Turn on USB debugging (This forces windows to enumerate the device as a composite device). Point the drivers the USB drivers directory in c:\program files\samsung\USB drivers

All the drivers will install except 1 (this is the debug driver). ignore that one, unless you will be using adb - in which case you will find that driver in the SDK directory when you install it. If you don't know what adb is, just skip that driver!

4. Ik cannot make a data connection (Internet) on the 'smart'phone! I can only make or receive a phone call!

You have incorrect APN settings for sure. Look up the settings for your network on the internet and fill them in in the settings section. (go to APN, then press menu and ADD apn). You have to do this on every phone! You're network is able to send you an SMS with the settings on some phones (like nokias etc), but not on android.

I use my old mobile again.
Today the i7500 is rubbish

I think you gave up too soon! All your problems are easily fixed

1 my location in google maps isnt always accurate without the use of GPS.

That's normal. It uses the cell tower to estimate your position. This doesnt use extra battery and is good enough for most location based apps like weather. If you want accurate positioning you need to turn on GPS. Its not a bug, its just how it works

2. every time a firmware upgrade comes out, i loose the ability to access certain location specific programs on the marketplace. this hasnt been a big deal since the programs i use arent location specific, but this might become an issue in the future.

This is a google issue. The device has a fingerprint which tells google what phone it is, what firmware its on, and the region you're in (take from sim card). This is used to show you the correct apps for your region.

If the fingerprint - device type or version - isnt on googles whitelist it will not display some apps.

Every time a new firmware comes out the build version in the fingerprint gets incremented. It takes a little while for google to update on their end. Its anoying and happening on all android devices at the moment.

You can get around it if you root and edit the fingerprint yourself (this also gives you the advantage to use market enabler to change your region - allowing you to install US only apps for example)

 

[KlaymenDK]

kam187,
the APN thing is buggy, on all versions I've tried. For some of us, the APN settings just disappear every now and again, and new ones can be created but not saved.

Yugami,
the phone is wonderful ... in theory. The display is brilliant and the weight is excellent. But the software --oy veh!-- is beta quality at best.

If I knew then what I know now, I'd have kept on using my Palm Treo for another half year at least.

 

[kam187]

I only noticed the APN problem appear when you partially update. A clear sign is all your data didnt dissapear after the update.

 

[integra891]

That's normal. It uses the cell tower to estimate your position. This doesnt use extra battery and is good enough for most location based apps like weather. If you want accurate positioning you need to turn on GPS. Its not a bug, its just how it works

I know its a raw estimate and on other phones its been pretty accurate, but when i have no gps signal and am using cellphone triangulation, i usually end up in bellevue washington?!?! (home of tmobile usa) when in fact i am in illinois. what the heck is that? thats not accurate at all.

Also, another issue i just realized, is that when i use wifi, it cannot triangulate my position at all, i thought your IP address was used to find your position when wifi is on?, this was not a problem with my g1.

 

[kam187]

Hmm strange. Its pretty accurate here, but i'm in the uk.

[Position from your ip address is always rubish because it can only lookup the address of the company that the range is assigned too. That usually means it thinks you're at one of ISP's main colo hubs.]

 

[kabbie_mcfeely]

I know its a raw estimate and on other phones its been pretty accurate, but when i have no gps signal and am using cellphone triangulation, i usually end up in bellevue washington?!?! (home of tmobile usa) when in fact i am in illinois. what the heck is that? thats not accurate at all.

Also, another issue i just realized, is that when i use wifi, it cannot triangulate my position at all, i thought your IP address was used to find your position when wifi is on?, this was not a problem with my g1.

WI FI will do nothing to find your location.
Its not accurate enough and its range is to limited.

If you use "use wireless networks" and you give it a few minutes to update, it will get to within a short distance of where you are.

If you turn off "use wireless networks", turn on GPS and you give it a few minutes to update, it will get to within a few feet of where you are.

No matter what system you use, you should give it a little time to update your location.

 

[briany]

I live in the US, and personally I didn't wait. I bought my galaxy a few weeks ago, and I think it was worth getting. But it may depend on what you want of your phone to decide if you should wait. At the moment, it doesn't look like the i7500 will be coming to the US, but it's certainly not impossible. There's rumor of a Samsung Galaxy Lite showing up on a US network some time, but from what I've seen of that it'll be quite different (like Sprint's HTC Hero is different from the original HTC Hero). I don't know much about the Sprint HTC Hero, but I'm sure it's a good phone. So far, there are only a few confirmations of Android phones being released in America. Srint's Hero is one of them. T-Mobile has another one. There are some other legit rumors. But as for the Galaxy, there's nothing definite yet. Are you on the Sprint network? If so, it might be worth it to get the Hero. If not, I'd say wait for the Galaxy, or buy it unlocked. But that's just me. If I were you I'd do some research on Sprint's Hero and decide whether you should get it or not. But I'm not expecting the Galaxy to be released anytime soon..

 

[jvme]

quote=kam187;57855]Download the latest 1.3.0 H4 pc studio from the net. You might have to go to the germal website. What region is your phone? Where did you get it? If its germany you'll see the I5 firmware available in NPS!

Where can I find the latest 1.3.0 H4 pc studio on the net?
Do you've a link?

Fixed at least in H8, possibly H4 too.

Where can I find the H8 firmware on the net?

That might be a compatability issue with your car kit i guess. How do you mean it doesnt work? Doesnt connect? Doesnt see it?

My gsm car kit is a standard option with my new BMW (2009).
The car's gsm system tries to connect to the i7500, but the i7500 doesn't connect to the car's gsm system
I use now my old Motorola V500 gsm again, which connects without problem.

Download the new NPS. Turn on USB debugging (This forces windows to enumerate the device as a composite device). Point the drivers the USB drivers directory in c:\program files\samsung\USB drivers

I'll try as soon I could connect to the i7500 with the new NPS.

All the drivers will install except 1 (this is the debug driver). ignore that one, unless you will be using adb - in which case you will find that driver in the SDK directory when you install it. If you don't know what adb is, just skip that driver!

What means adb?

You have incorrect APN settings for sure. Look up the settings for your network on the internet and fill them in in the settings section. (go to APN, then press menu and ADD apn). You have to do this on every phone! You're network is able to send you an SMS with the settings on some phones (like nokias etc), but not on android.

I've bought the i7500 via Smartphone, Pocket PC & Ultra-Mobile PC Winkel - eXpansys Belgique in Belgium, I'll mostly using the i7500 in Belgium with the provider Proximus.
What does APN means?
I don't known where I can find the APN settings on the net for my provider.

I think you gave up too soon! All your problems are easily fixed

If you buy a 'smart' phone for 500 EURO's, then you may expect that it will work. Samsung is simply not able to deliver a stable Android device.
I feel I'm beta testing the i7500 from Samsung!

That's normal. It uses the cell tower to estimate your position. This doesnt use extra battery and is good enough for most location based apps like weather. If you want accurate positioning you need to turn on GPS. Its not a bug, its just how it works



This is a google issue. The device has a fingerprint which tells google what phone it is, what firmware its on, and the region you're in (take from sim card). This is used to show you the correct apps for your region.

If the fingerprint - device type or version - isnt on googles whitelist it will not display some apps.

Every time a new firmware comes out the build version in the fingerprint gets incremented. It takes a little while for google to update on their end. Its anoying and happening on all android devices at the moment.

You can get around it if you root and edit the fingerprint yourself (this also gives you the advantage to use market enabler to change your region - allowing you to install US only apps for example)[/quote]

 

[Rastaman-FB]

If you buy a 'smart' phone for 500 EURO's, then you may expect that it will work. Samsung is simply not able to deliver a stable Android device.
I feel I'm beta testing the i7500 from Samsung!

im sorry but i think youll find that samsung are not responsible for apn settings, you are and the network you use are. this is standard on all gprs and 3g phones that you need to input them. if you buy from a network then it should work out of the box, if you buy from a retailer that has no network ties then you need to put in the info. thats not samsungs fault

My gsm car kit is a standard option with my new BMW (2009).
The car's gsm system tries to connect to the i7500, but the i7500 doesn't connect to the car's gsm system
I use now my old Motorola V500 gsm again, which connects without problem.

as ive said before bluetooth is a nightmare, everyone keeps changing standards. carkits are generally out of date even if they are new, the likeliness is that its not compatible with android bluetooth implementations at the moment

Where can I find the latest 1.3.0 H4 pc studio on the net?
Do you've a link?

have you even read the forums? its been posted numerous times but eitherway you can get it here Support - Software & Manuals - Software - Samsung Mobile

Where can I find the H8 firmware on the net?

in these very forums, there are also other versions available

Belgium, I'll mostly using the i7500 in Belgium with the provider Proximus.
What does APN means?
I don't known where I can find the APN settings on the net for my provider.

google is a great tool, took me 2 seconds
GPRS settings for various networks worldwide