Samsung Moment First Impressions

[Edaze55]

So I did it. I returned my HTC Hero and picked up the Samsung Moment today. I know Im not the first Moment owner, and hopefully I wont be the last. Since I have only had my phone for all of about 15 mins, my personal review of the unit will have to wait.

However, for those of you that received yours earlier and have had time to mess around with it. I'd like to hear about it.

First thing I did after syncing my Gmail stuff was to add Lock 2.0. Paid version. In my mind, its tons better then that bland boring old lock screen. Well worth the money.

Pandora will be next. Followed by some homescreen replacement. I grew used to having 7 home screens. I'd like to get back to that. So I will be playing around with that and reporting back which one I like the best. I know openHome has a Hero skin version that I will probably check out.

So lets hear what everyone else has to say about the Moment.

 

[pwabbit]

After owning a Pre for a few months, I decided to buy the Samsung Moment.

The things I like about the moment are: a) The screen is outstanding. It is amazing how vibrant the colors are on the screen. The clarity is better than I had hoped. b) The phone is easy to hold with the soft grip back cover. c) The capacitive touch screen is very responsive. d) The slider mechanism is very well made. e) Phone has a flash. f) The volume of the speakerphone and earpiece is definitely loud (love it). g) Lots of apps for the Android OS. h) Virtual keyboards in both landscape and portrait views.

The things I don't like about the moment are: a) The Android OS has a long ways to go to be as user friendly as the WebOS. b) The blue parts of the physical keyboard are difficult to see. c) The usb connector is placed on the side of the phone. A better place is on the bottom so it can be utilized by the car holders. d) The sound quality of the calls is not that great. Sounds a little tinny.

 

[thefley]

I am with what pwabbit said about the moment (the dislikes) I have both Hero and Moment and I do like somethings about the Moment to tho. I like the voice commands something I don't have on the Hero. and a few little things.

I still like the Hero over the Moment at the moment.

 

[Deleted User]

Only complaints so far are related to the Bluetooth. When I turn on my headset, it doesn't auto-connect. I have to go in and turn it on...not sure why, maybe I'm missing something.

The other thing (which has been reported before) is that the Nuance voice control does not come through the headset. Other than that, no problems. Even the battery life is enough to get me through the day, unless I play 3 hours of Robo Defense....

 

[ad5os]

I played with one at the store today... I thought the screen was sensative but a bit off.. I played bejewelled and like every fourth or fifth screen wipe was off...

Also the FPS when moving from screen to screen seemed to me a bit jittery.. The hero doesn't seem to have that same issue.

The camera's autofocus was pretty decent up close.. sometimes it wouldnt work quite right but whatever.. it took a good pic I thought for a phone.

Didn't really try the keyboard much but DAMN this thing is THICK! its like 2x as thick as an iphone. At least it feels very solid when you type.. just with the screen part of it was much flatter.

The screen is just awesome.. I actually had a really hard time seeing any individual pixels. No mater what angle I held it at it was perfect.... I heard it sucks in sunlight but I would think it was WAY better in sunlight than a backlit TFT.

so yea the droid has some 3D chip added I think... what apps make use of that? will that ever be used?

 

[aznsmith]

Edaze55, i'm eager to hear your thoughts on the Moment after you spend some time playing with it. i'm still sweating the debate on whether to exchange my Hero for the Moment.

 

[CaptFan]

I made the switch from the Hero to the Moment a couple of days ago and think that both phones are great. Both phones have their pluses and minuses and personally I could be happy with either phone. The Hero is slimmer and fits better in a pocket but I like the feel of the Moment better when holding it. I really like HTC's Sense UI but the stock Android UI is very responsive on the Moment and very customizable. Even though HTC did a good job on their touch keyboard I would fat finger a lot when typing. One nice thing is that the predictive text would correct a lot of my mistakes but definitely not all. The physical keyboard on the Moment if very nice but takes a little getting use to with the space bar set in between the v and b keys. I can type a lot faster on the Moment's keyboard and hardly make any mistakes which is great when using email. The social networking integration with the Hero is interesting but I personally like to keep things separate. If I want to check Facebook "there's an app for that!" This might sound dumb but my main complaint with the Moment is that it doesn't have a notification light. I really miss not having the visible cue that I have a notification on my phone. All in all I really love the HTC Hero but I'm glad that I made the switch to the Moment. I find that with the amount of typing that I do on my phone I really appreciate having the physical keyboard. Also I'm hoping that with the virgin Android running on the Moment Samsung will be able to release Android 2.0 sooner than HTC will for the Hero because of the integration with the Sense UI.

 

[Deleted User]

Didn't really try the keyboard much but DAMN this thing is THICK! its like 2x as thick as an iphone.

31.25% thicker actually, so not quite double the thickness... but close?

iPhone is 0.48" thick and the Moment is 0.63" thick accoriding to my Google search.

 

[pwabbit]

The screen is just awesome.. I actually had a really hard time seeing any individual pixels. No mater what angle I held it at it was perfect.... I heard it sucks in sunlight but I would think it was WAY better in sunlight than a backlit TFT.

so yea the droid has some 3D chip added I think... what apps make use of that? will that ever be used?

I heard the same thing about the screen. However, I can easily see the screen in bright sunlight. It is the best phone I have had for sunlight use, the screen is just amazing.

I read that the Moment also has a 3D chip on board. It sounds like the Droid and Moment are very similar in hardware capability.

I like the feel of the Moment better when holding it.

The physical keyboard on the Moment if very nice but takes a little getting use to with the space bar set in between the v and b keys. I can type a lot faster on the Moment's keyboard and hardly make any mistakes which is great when using email.

My main complaint with the Moment is that it doesn't have a notification light.

Also I'm hoping that with the virgin Android running on the Moment Samsung will be able to release Android 2.0 sooner than HTC will for the Hero because of the integration with the Sense UI.

The Moment feels solid in the hand. Seems well built.

The physical keyboard is such a time saver. I make a lot of mistakes on the virtual keyboards but not so much on the physical KB.

I miss the notification light too. There will probably be some hack to flash the "home-menu-back" light to create the notification light. I have no idea on the battery draw on that.

One would think that the vanilla Android would be far easier to update to 2.1 than the HTC custom Android.

I measured the Moment's thickness: .66" thick

 

[flyjbaker]

I remember on the Instinct, there was no indication/notification "light". In one of their updates, they made the menu/home/back keys blink when you had a notification. Might do the same with this rig! You would think they would have learned.

 

[ggoldfingerd]

@Edaze55 Please let us know after you had time to get a fell for the Moment. I know you had the Hero, so I would like to hear your thoughts. I am still having trouble debating on which phone to get.

 

[Edaze55]

I will have much more to say about it after I play with it for a full day or two.

Right now, and I know the battery is still being conditioned, the battery is my biggest compaint. It seems to eat a lot of power. Of course I also havent put it down since I got it so Im sure thats a huge part of it. Been too busy setting it up just the way I want it.

Its currently got openHome on it with the a very Sense UI look. Beautiful widgets. Google Voice. Pandora. Lock 2.0. Twidroid. Advanced Task Killer.

 

[pwabbit]

Additional reviews here:
Moment Feedback

 

[methoderik]

Cmon Edaze55, your feedback is going to be a factor for me. Is the battery and GPS good enough or do I stick with the hero?

 

[pwabbit]

The battery is fine. The phone's battery meter sucks. See this link:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-moment/13783-possible-battery-quirk.html

I went to Sprint today with my Moment to compare it to a powered Hero. The Hero is very nice but the Moment has a smoothness to it. The keyboard, screen, cpu power and battery life makes the Moment a winner. I am keeping mine! (I would own a Hero if it weren't for the Moment.)

 

[Edaze55]

The battery is fine. The phone's battery meter sucks. See this link:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-moment/13783-possible-battery-quirk.html

I went to Sprint today with my Moment to compare it to a powered Hero. The Hero is very nice but the Moment has a smoothness to it. The keyboard, screen, cpu power and battery life makes the Moment a winner. I am keeping mine! (I would own a Hero if it weren't for the Moment.)

Im starting to agree with this. It seems that at 15% battery life the phone lasts a good long while.

Im currently in the process of trying to fully deplete the battery. Streaming Pandora and sending/receiving texts from a friend. I started this at 15% and currently sitting at 3%. Ive never really seen it do anything but 10's until 15%. I wonder how long it will go at 3% while streaming.