And so it begins... The SIM-free Samsung i8910 HD arrives in the UK

Madcypher wrote:My friend, the global trend for widescreen has been underway for many, many years now. Movies have ALWAYS been widescreen, DVDs advanced the widescreen format and HD (broadcast, Blu-Ray, etc) is the icing in the cake. Cell phones are just starting to catch up within the last few years.

Widescreen is and has always has been the screen ratio of choice, if you were up on your latest phone specs, the majority of mid to high-end phones released in the past few years have widescreen displays.

Just a little fyi my friend.

Madcypher

It's really only on recent windows mobile and s60 5th edition we're seeing widescreens really, perhaps some feature phones and I'm not sure about the blackberry Storm. The majority of WinMo devices, Iphone, android, Palm Pre(webOS) are all 4:3. So really, the percentage of smart phones with widescreen is still very low.
But don't get me wrong, I'm all for widescreen. My tv and both my laptops are widescreen. And movies should always be widescreen.
But on the phones show? I'd wager alot of people watch in on their phones, and steve doesn't seem to have problems fitting both himself and the phones he's holding on a 4:3 video.
I won't complain or mind it if he goes widescreen. I just don't see it being worth the hassle.

for the most part, you've listed annoyances and irritations, with a few bugs. This does not add up to stability issues, so don't write such crass overblown statements. If you loathe the browser to this extent, then move on and get your iPhone. I'm sick of your continuous whining and moaning.

capitaine wrote:for the most part, you've listed annoyances and irritations, with a few bugs. This does not add up to stability issues, so don't write such crass overblown statements. If you loathe the browser to this extent, then move on and get your iPhone. I'm sick of your continuous whining and moaning.

If you don't want to hear other people opinions and experiences then you are the one who should move on.

I've owned the phone for a month now more or less and while I don't have the exact number of times I've had to remove the battery I can tell it's more than it should be.

And yes, I do focus alot on the browser. Because it is very important to me.

If you want other more "serious" problems there is the Java implementation. It's very slow and for some reason java apps doesn't get enough memory. So Opera mini for example functions very poorly after a short while and also crashes alot.
Sometimes it will just start getting smoking hot in my pocket and drain the battery in a matter of hours. It's litterally died on me before I got home from work(8 hours). And I can't seem to make sense of it either. My n95 will also die quickly under heavy usage. But at least it doesn't use alot of battery when not used.
DLNA is almost worthless. It can't seem to find videos I share on my home computer, there isn't enough bandwidth to play the "HD" videos I've recorded on my PS3 without have stuttering. When I use it to stream episodes of 24 for example from my phone to my ps3 it works fine for about half the episode, then it disconnects itself from the network and I have to start over.
The Asphalt game included clearly does not use the 3D accelerator.

On a brighter note it runs quake 2 and 3 like a champ. Clearly proving there really is power under it's beautifull hood. But again samsung manages to screw me over again by not providing a bluetooth keyboard driver. I managed to hack the phone and install nokias driver, which worked fine, but this is not good enough.

Samsungs phone suite completely crashed on my windows 7 machine. When I try to install a newer version it says that it can't because It's already installed. When I try to uninstall the old one it just tries to reinstall itself but failing because, again, It's already installed.

The ambient light sensor is placed so that when I use the phone in landscape my thumb will cover it and the screen constantly turns dark and bright.(Hmm. that was actually a hardware issue :P)

I actually have another hardware issue. They were as stupid as apple were with the first iphone. The 3,5mm jack is recessed into the phone. So the cable from my stereo wouldn't fit. Very bad.

There. Lots of serious, non browser related issues.

Good response Tenkom, and you seem to be quite fair with your views. I'm considering an i8910 in the future as an optional upgrade to touchscreen from my N86, but I'm wondering if I should hold off for another future Samsung (they seem to be making some quality devices nowadays)

Tenkom wrote:It's really only on recent windows mobile and s60 5th edition we're seeing widescreens really, perhaps some feature phones and I'm not sure about the blackberry Storm. The majority of WinMo devices, Iphone, android, Palm Pre(webOS) are all 4:3.

rvirga wrote:That's some major misinformation. The iPhone, Palm Pre, and Android are 3:2 (480x320, to be precise), which, while not 16:9, it's wider than 4:3 (1.50 vs. 1.33). Most LGs touchscreen (too many to mention) including the low-cost Cookie, and the Samsung i900 Omnia, are 400x280; again, while not 16:9, still wider than 4:3. The SE Xperia X1, HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch Pro II, HTC Touch Diamond 2, Samsung Omnia II, Samsung Omnia Pro, are both WinMo and WVGA (hence 16:9). The Samsung Jet, Samsung Pixon12, and LG Arena are also WVGA, albeit not WinMo devices.

I stand corrected.
My ipod touch still had black bars on widescreen videos tho. But I guess it would have black bars at the sides(albeit smaller ones) at the sides if playing true 4:3 content.

I really didn't do my math on that one. :/
Many of the phones you mention aren't even out yet tho.

JohnnyN wrote:Good response Tenkom, and you seem to be quite fair with your views. I'm considering an i8910 in the future as an optional upgrade to touchscreen from my N86, but I'm wondering if I should hold off for another future Samsung (they seem to be making some quality devices nowadays)

Seeing as the only advantage is touch screen, bigger screen and 720p video recording I'd recommend you wait. If not you can always buy mine 😊
It's an unlocked 16GB with italian firmware, looks almost new.

Maybe if you wait a few months samsung will have turned it into a really sweet device. The hardware is there. Just needs some software love.

slitchfield wrote:Umm..... 'review'??? This was an unshamed set of very initial impressions. When we do a 'review', you'll know it because it'll be thousands of words long and (probably) in 3 or 4 parts. Give me a break, I'd only had the phone for a few HOURS!!!

The N86 didn't get this treatment...

JohnnyN wrote:Good response Tenkom, and you seem to be quite fair with your views. I'm considering an i8910 in the future as an optional upgrade to touchscreen from my N86, but I'm wondering if I should hold off for another future Samsung (they seem to be making some quality devices nowadays)

If you're waiting anyway, we'll have to see what's available by then. But for now, the I8910 is really unparalleled for media. The screen is just incredible. And it's such a difference that you can play random xvids out of the box. I'm amazed that Samsung doesn't choose to market it this way.

And the audio quality is fantastic - when you tweak the volume using the debug menu and you use some decent earphones. Btw I have no problems with the jack being recessed, it's only slightly so and the space around it is quite sufficient.

I've attached an image to show the problem. It will probably not be a problem with 90% of all headsets. But it's still silly. And it did cause a problem for me.

stuclark wrote:Exactly my point. There's people you know who have had the phone for MONTHS, so why not check some of your negative "findings" with them first???

Would you like to come to my house and WATCH me demonstrate the repeatable bugs in IG2 firmware? I do think the i8910 HD could be a GREAT device - it's just not stable enough yet. Web browsers should not crash on a whim, for a start...

Apart from the crappy java stack and the browser ( which I have spend hours on end surfing on without it crashing) You still haven't mentioned what other bugs there are, I personally haven't found any, and everything works as it should, most of it 10x better than a 5800 or an n97

Tenkom wrote:
I've owned the phone for a month now more or less and while I don't have the exact number of times I've had to remove the battery I can tell it's more than it should be.

Tenkom wrote:
If you want other more "serious" problems there is the Java implementation.

java is only implemented as a plus, an addon not for the usual day to day use. yes, nokia does have a better implementation, but nontheless. if you buy a symbian phone use symbian applications. java-applications are slow and do need more ressources as necessary as trade-off for being multiplattform enabled.

blame opera for not updating their browser on symbian and not samsung for not running an application on their phone that was never thought to be running there. would opera have liked symbian users to use their java version, why did they even develop a symbian opera ? lets face it. opera just wants to earn money and since every symbian phone comes with a pre-installed browser no mobile phone manufacturer will give money to opera to develop one for their phones to have a good browser. in the end opera does not give a fuck about phones they do not earn a penny with and THAT is why you can not use opera on your i8910 hd and not because Samsung are the bad guys that like to make you mad.

the old symbian 8.65 opera does run pretty well on symbian and since i am not a spoilt iphone kid i do not see how the new opera is anything better. kinetic scrolling ? you got to be kiddin me... this is really just the result of marketing, i did not even notice opera mini on my pocketpc had it, before i read from it and honestly no it is not some magic that makes life so much easy. people did use browsers without kinetic scrolling for ages, i do not see the problem.

Tenkom wrote:
Sometimes it will just start getting smoking hot in my pocket and drain the battery in a matter of hours. It's litterally died on me before I got home from work(8 hours). And I can't seem to make sense of it either. My n95 will also die quickly under heavy usage. But at least it doesn't use alot of battery when not used.

search engines are your friend.

Tenkom wrote:
Samsungs phone suite completely crashed on my windows 7 machine. When I try to install a newer version it says that it can't because It's already installed. When I try to uninstall the old one it just tries to reinstall itself but failing because, again, It's already installed.

the new samsung studio does work well on vista now (the older version did not) so it does support even the latest windows operating system that is used on workstation/enduser computers today.

Tenkom wrote:
The ambient light sensor is placed so that when I use the phone in landscape my thumb will cover it and the screen constantly turns dark and bright.(Hmm. that was actually a hardware issue :P)

"you can create an idiot safe device and the human race will bear an even greater idiot that will have problems with it"

again i am not trying to insult you, all i want to say is, that you can not create a device where everything is built so that you can not find something to moan about.

Tenkom wrote:
I actually have another hardware issue. They were as stupid as apple were with the first iphone. The 3,5mm jack is recessed into the phone. So the cable from my stereo wouldn't fit. Very bad.

v1rtu4l wrote:why do many other people state that they do not even get one crash since they updated to IG2 ? perhaps you just remember the crashes from the earlier firmware or do not even have the latest one (yes, i read you THOUGHT you had the latest one, but didn't seem to be sure)

that is actually funny. you do know that this phone runs symbian, don't you ?
then why the hell do you insist on using java applications ? it's like moaning about windows xp not running your dos applications properly.

java is only implemented as a plus, an addon not for the usual day to day use. yes, nokia does have a better implementation, but nontheless. if you buy a symbian phone use symbian applications. java-applications are slow and do need more ressources as necessary as trade-off for being multiplattform enabled.

blame opera for not updating their browser on symbian and not samsung for not running an application on their phone that was never thought to be running there. would opera have liked symbian users to use their java version, why did they even develop a symbian opera ? lets face it. opera just wants to earn money and since every symbian phone comes with a pre-installed browser no mobile phone manufacturer will give money to opera to develop one for their phones to have a good browser. in the end opera does not give a fuck about phones they do not earn a penny with and THAT is why you can not use opera on your i8910 hd and not because Samsung are the bad guys that like to make you mad.

the old symbian 8.65 opera does run pretty well on symbian and since i am not a spoilt iphone kid i do not see how the new opera is anything better. kinetic scrolling ? you got to be kiddin me... this is really just the result of marketing, i did not even notice opera mini on my pocketpc had it, before i read from it and honestly no it is not some magic that makes life so much easy. people did use browsers without kinetic scrolling for ages, i do not see the problem.

symbian phones do afford some time to get to know them. if you had just taken your time and just one day searching for solutions for your problem than you would not have to write such stuff. there are two probable reasons for that symptoms and both causes can be rectified pretty simple. i wont spoil you the joy of finding out by yourself via google or bing.

search engines are your friend.

yeah, i totally agree that Samsung should have tested their software on an operating system that is not even STABLE/RELEASED and declared as "release candidate" for obvious reasons. you do not even want me to get started about people downloading illegal operating systems (in this case not even released ones) and then blame anybody but yourself for you using warez or unstable software that are not thought to be used in production enviroments.

the new samsung studio does work well on vista now (the older version did not) so it does support even the latest windows operating system that is used on workstation/enduser computers today.

i do not want to insult you, man but there is a wise saying and it goes something like this:

"you can create an idiot safe device and the human race will bear an even greater idiot that will have problems with it"

again i am not trying to insult you, all i want to say is, that you can not create a device where everything is built so that you can not find something to moan about.

you not supposed to stick a transformers penis in there, but ear speakers

Opera MINI is "thought" to be running on any phone with java support. It has worked fine on all my recent phones, nokia e65, SE P1i, Nokia n95 8GB, Touch diamond and touch hd. If it doesn't work properly on the samsung than that is samsungs fault. Go read on my-symbian.com forum. Alot of people are complaining about the Java issue. If you don't care about java then that's fine. But please get your head out of your ass and try to understand that some people do.

I like how you say you don't wanna insult me followed by calling me an idiot. When I hold the phone in landscape with both hands, which is the most comfortable way of holding it. Because the sensor is placed at the lower left corner of my phone my thumb will cover it. I could hold it with one hand. But that get's somewhat uncomfortable after a while. Plus I tend to use both thumbs when typing. If the sensor was placed at the the uper left corner it would be fine. This is a minor concern, and it's quite possible that they placed it there because it would have been difficult to do otherwise.
But your argument that it's impossible to make a perfect phone so we should quit moaning is RIDICULOUS. It's always possible to make things better. And people moaning about problems is a way for samsung to make it better next time.

Oh, and speaking of "The google". try googling windows 7. The release canditate is available for download from MICROSOFT. Completely legal. And don't make excuses for samsung. Nokia pc suite works fine on windows 7. As does most other software. Alot of people are downloading windows 7.

I've used symbian since the p800 and none of the other phones required me to use google to fix the battery so it lasts a full day.
And FYI, I did google it. And tried the things I found. E.G. turn off video sharing, set packet data to "when needed"(which seems to be the default setting on the firmware I have now). Perhaps you have found other methods that work better. But since me dissing your phone seems to have triggered some kind of nerd rage you'll probably keep it to yourself.

Why does people feel the need to get personal with me? I'm reporting what I have found with MY phone. If your phones are more stable than just say so. But it seems at least steve's phone shares my problems.

EDIT: Oh, and if had bothered to check my previous post than you would see that you don't need a transformer penis to run into trouble.

Heh, don't worry about v1rtu4l's ramblings - he can't even spell his own login name without resorting to silly numbers... And he keeps resorting to insults. And..... well, dismissing Java outright had me in stitches 8-)

Chill, everybody, Samsung will get there in the end. But they're not 'there' yet by some way.

He's actually right on most points, Of all the gadget blogs I visit, this is the only one that insists that java is worthwhile, it actually isn't. That's not the point of paying top dollar for a smartphone only to have weak java apps, If I wanted that I'd just buy a dumb featurephone.

on IG2 firmware, the phone doesn't lock up once. it used to do so in XXIE4 firmware, but on IG2 the firmware is rock solid, I'd really like to know what you guys are doing to get it to lock up, because I can't bring it to its knees and ever since I installed IG2 I've never had to take out my battery.

The light sensor issue is a hit and miss, I personally just turn it off, as the battery is big enough to warrant having the brightness on full all the time, unlike my ipod touch or an iphone.If it was placed elsewhere people would probably still complain..

and tenkom I don't know how the hell your 3.5mm jacks are, but I've plugged in my monitoring headphones which were intended to use a 6.2mm jack, so the pin is quite big, I don't know how they can get any bigger than this.

you're obviously doing something wrong with yours mate.

stuclark wrote:Exactly my point. There's people you know who have had the phone for MONTHS, so why not check some of your negative "findings" with them first???

The N86 didn't get this treatment...

From my experience the N86, from launch, had a very stable firmware considering problems with previous handsets. The only problem I encountered was a little slowdown and the startup freeze bug (In which both have been fixed with V11 a couple of weeks after launch).

mCrem wrote:He's actually right on most points, Of all the gadget blogs I visit, this is the only one that insists that java is worthwhile, it actually isn't. That's not the point of paying top dollar for a smartphone only to have weak java apps, If I wanted that I'd just buy a dumb featurephone.

on IG2 firmware, the phone doesn't lock up once. it used to do so in XXIE4 firmware, but on IG2 the firmware is rock solid, I'd really like to know what you guys are doing to get it to lock up, because I can't bring it to its knees and ever since I installed IG2 I've never had to take out my battery.

The light sensor issue is a hit and miss, I personally just turn it off, as the battery is big enough to warrant having the brightness on full all the time, unlike my ipod touch or an iphone.If it was placed elsewhere people would probably still complain..

and tenkom I don't know how the hell your 3.5mm jacks are, but I've plugged in my monitoring headphones which were intended to use a 6.2mm jack, so the pin is quite big, I don't know how they can get any bigger than this.

you're obviously doing something wrong with yours mate.

Did you see the picture I uploaded? That is the cable I've used to connect phones/computers/ipods and even a mini disc player. But this is the first phone I can't do it with.

Over the past 2 months with the i8910, it has been interesting for me to see (and feel for myself) what emotions a mobile handset can evoke! I am not sure, though, as a manufacturer that I would want to read some of those associated with the i8910.
My brief statement is this:
In recent years, I have owned roughly one handset/PDA per year. All have been WinMo. The i8910 has been my first Symbian foray ever, and I was apprehensive in risking it, in fact. [Last year I decided to try the iPod touch 2nd gen, and keep my (stable) WM6 device at that time]. NONE of my previous devices from the past 7 years have ever required a firmware update and I have never updated them. I have been technically capable of updating my devices, but never needed to, even from day 1 of ownership. In the past 2 months I have flashed the i8910 6 times on two occasions. I felt I had to, as I was suffering from user-non-fixable battery drain problems and the only other option was to return the i8910 and acquire another handset.
That is the state of Symbian for me. I wish the OS good luck for the future.

My main headphones are the Shure E4c, which require an adapter for the iPhone, having one of the fattest 3.5mm plugs I've ever seen. Yet they fit nicely into the i8910 without modifications or the the use of an adapter.
Tenkom, from the picture it looks clearly that you're doing it wrong, possibly on purpose. While most jacks fit the i8910 even keeping the cover only half-open like you do in the picture, for the E4c, and others with similarly humongous plugs, you have to rotate it so it's completely open (parallel to the speaker hole). While it's possible that yours will not fit no matter what (but I doubt it), I'd be interested in seeing you at least trying to do it correctly.
And even if it doesn't fit, judging from the cheap, toy-like plastic in the photo, I doubt that's a �250 set of headphones we're talking about here, so shaving the plug a little to make it fit shouldn't be this big moral dilemma.

My headphones are Sennheiser HD125. They're big. Even the plug is big. But they fit.

rvirga wrote:My main headphones are the Shure E4c, which require an adapter for the iPhone, having one of the fattest 3.5mm plugs I've ever seen. Yet they fit nicely into the i8910 without modifications or the the use of an adapter.
Tenkom, from the picture it looks clearly that you're doing it wrong, possibly on purpose. While most jacks fit the i8910 even keeping the cover only half-open like you do in the picture, for the E4c, and others with similarly humongous plugs, you have to rotate it so it's completely open (parallel to the speaker hole). While it's possible that yours will not fit no matter what (but I doubt it), I'd be interested in seeing you at least trying to do it correctly.
And even if it doesn't fit, judging from the cheap, toy-like plastic in the photo, I doubt that's a �250 set of headphones we're talking about here, so shaving the plug a little to make it fit shouldn't be this big moral dilemma.

Even if the plastic cover hadn't been there the plug would hit the raised plastic on the sides of the port and wouldn't go all the way in(but the plastic cover IS there. And no matter how I turn it it won't go clear of the plug. Seriously, how stupid do you think I am?). It may be easier to see in real life, but to be honest. Looking at the picture it's pretty clear to me. Take a closer look maybe?
Why would I make this up? Anyways. If you'd read the post you'd know I never said it was a 250 euro headset but the cables to my stereo. Yes, they're big. But none of my other phone has any problem with it. And as far as cables goes. They're not THAT cheap. :P

OMG, have we been discussing all this time a 3.5mm to 2xRCA stereo cable? I'm sorry you overpaid it, but they sell them for 5 euros or less at any electronics store.
If you don't want to shave the plug, I have even a better solution for you. Take the tv-out cable that came with your i8910, connect the white and red jacks to your stereo, leave the yellow one unconnected. There. Problem solved.

rvirga wrote:OMG, have we been discussing all this time a 3.5mm to 2xRCA stereo cable? I'm sorry you overpaid it, but they sell them for 5 euros or less at any electronics store.
If you don't want to shave the plug, I have even a better solution for you. Take the tv-out cable that came with your i8910, connect the white and red jacks to your stereo, leave the yellow one unconnected. There. Problem solved.

There wasn't a tv-out cable in my box 😞
And no, we haven't been discussing my audio cable. We have been discussing a potential design flaw with the phone. I said I'm sure 95% of all headphones will fit. I've only had problem with this one cable. My headphones DO fit. But say I went ahead and bought a ridiculously expensive headset(as some people do) and it turns out I couldn't fit it in the phone. That would be a problem. And adaptors suck.

And stop with the "I'm fine with it so you should be too" arguments. They are stupid. This IS a weakness with the design. It won't be a problem for everyone. But it was a problem for me.

Just like the iphone's inability to play divx. If you were to bring this up to an iphone owner he could easily dismiss it with "All my videos are mp4 so it isn't a problem". And he could be right. Maybe all his videos are mp4. But if your videos are divx than you would run into trouble and this is a weakness with the iphone.

Edit: While I'm on this rant I should probably point out that there is an obvious advantage to this design too since the cover thingy does provide dust protection and gives the phone a cleaner look when closed.

In fact. Maybe I have been to negative about this phone. There are things to love here.
I love the screen, best screen on a phone ever.
I love the speakers. I thought the n95 had good speakers. But these just sound so much better.
Touch screen is nice and responsive.
Camera is excellent.
Once I managed to hack it and get quake 3 running the graphics are really stunning. Better than anything I've seen on the iphone(Keep in mind it's also running it at a much higher resolution than the iphone).
16GB internalt + 16GB memory card = Alot of memory.
VERY good build quality. No creaks, feels like quality(even if it's only plastic).
The GPS software that came with the phone was really good and the the lock times and signal strength was excellent. Much better than the n95.

The thing is, it's a phone, it was designed to be portable, not to be connected to your stereo at home, any type of headphones that cost an arm and a leg will fit the i8910HD perfectly. the problem here is you. Phones were made to be carried out not stay at home/car connected to your stereo 😉

mCrem wrote:The thing is, it's a phone, it was designed to be portable, not to be connected to your stereo at home, any type of headphones that cost an arm and a leg will fit the i8910HD perfectly. the problem here is you. Phones were made to be carried out not stay at home/car connected to your stereo 😉

Expansys UK are now advertising the UK version of the 16GB model as being in stock. When I called them to confirm it was the UK version and not the French, Italian etc they assured me it was as supplied by Samsung UK. When I called Samsung UK they told me the only version of the i8910 officially released in the UK was that for Orange.

So what is going on?

Ive just been looking at Steve's video sample with IG2 firmware and it looks impressive and I like the sound, Ive only had my I8910 a few weeks which I got from paris.

My biggest gripe has to be the lack of video quality, mine is so juddery / jerky when panning from left to right even slowly. the firmware I have on the phone says software version I8910XXIf9
version date 15/6/2009 custom version I8910XEFiF1. I wonder if you steves sample video would be better then mine if he did a panning shot with the firmware he is using???

So what do I do now with my phone, its in locked do I wait to see if there is a new firmware coming for my phone via samsung studio, or try installing one from somewhere else, suggestions welcome. Ive got loads of videos ive taken with my phone in HD mode to show how bad this problem is, just not sure where to post them too yet. I was thinking I should post them to the samsung mobile sales site, so potential customers can see how bad the HD video is Hmmm

According to the usual Samsung Facebook page, the new firmware update is going to be released next week.
Steve, if you can, please hold off your review until this update becomes available; or, if you can't, at least write a short follow-up with your opinions of the new fw.

More good news from Samsung:

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_mobile_phones_sales_increase_by_14_percent_in_q2-news-1040.php

I'm sure if this was Nokia it would make headline news and sticked to the top for eons...