back to article Samsung Galaxy S Advance mid-range Android

Things sometimes change fast. Take the HMS Lord Nelson, a fine battleship when laid down in 1905 but almost instantly rendered obsolete by HMS Dreadnought, laid down just a few months later. Or take HTC’s One V. A 3.7in single-core LCD Android phone now up against a dual-core 4in OLED-screen device for the same contract price …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You'd think

    That it would come with ICS as standard?

    But no, will there be a promise of an upgrade?

    I think it's down to they laziness of the manufacturers.

    1. Stuart 22

      Re: You'd think

      Or is it just addresing two disparate markets?

      If you want something that just works with all the Android Apps you have ever known - then Gingerbread brings a better user experience. If, on the other hand, like most of us if you want to run stuff you never could, and in more innovative ways - then the latest version, if not a beta of something - is more attractive. Even if it means you can no longer run something or - have to CHANGE something. We love change. Other people hate it.

      1. Anonymous Coward 101

        Re: You'd think

        "Or is it just addresing two disparate markets?"

        The shaving device belonging to Mr. Occam just called. It said that laziness is the more probable answer.

        My Galaxy Note is a fine device, but Apple do not compromise on regular updates for their devices.

    2. DrXym

      Re: You'd think

      I think the candidate reasons are:

      a) Samsung prioritised the SIII first and the ICS based version of their phone will deploy to other devices over time.

      b) It's a cynical attempt to put some differentiation between this phone and the SIII and to get people to buy up.

      Probably it's a bit of both.

      1. Danny 14
        Go

        Re: You'd think

        ICS is available for the S2 but after all the reports of issues with ICS I have stayed with gingerbread. It is fast and reliable, probably no need for ICS.

        For the price this is one hell of a phone.

    3. David Hicks
      WTF?

      Re: You'd think

      You would think that, given their other new-ish offerings at the moment come with ICS (or are ICS upgradeable). It's very odd that it doesn't.

      If this had ICS I would have got one. Instead I'm now awaiting delivery of the Note :)

  2. Silverburn
    Happy

    This is what counts as a midrange phone these days? Holy crap, I need to try and keep up...

    1. The Serpent

      I think by mid range they mean that the phone is priced mid-way between the traditional £500-£600 early adopter shafting launch price that some idiots seem willing to pay and it having no real value at all. Once it has dropped by £100 or so then it will be down where real 'punters' can see some realistic value in their lives (as opposed to the kind of 'punters' Samsung invent to rank yourself against and persuade you into an early purchase)

  3. annodomini2
    FAIL

    One S

    Can be had for £16/Month.

    1. Rameses Niblick the Third (KKWWMT)
      FAIL

      Re: One S

      Awesome!

      Except they are comparing it with the One V...

      1. annodomini2
        FAIL

        Re: One S

        Hence the fail on the Article, comparing a dual core phone with a single core phone.

        The One S is a dual core phone, I'd like to see the comparison then!

        1. Jonathon Green
          FAIL

          Re: One S

          Even when the dual core handset is available at the same (£23 pm) contract price point?

          I call Fail on your Fail :-)

          1. annodomini2
            FAIL

            Re: One S

            The One S is cheaper.

        2. Al Taylor
          Alert

          Re: One S

          I thought it made more sense to draw a comparison with the V based on the similar contract price from the main high street vendors rather than with the S which shares the same number of CPU cores.

          If you can find the One S on a similar price/allowance tariff I'd suggest you buy it.

  4. Whitter

    "longer bars are better"

    Non-3D bars are better still.

  5. Jason Hindle Silver badge

    No Ice Cream Sandwich

    What were they thinking? If I were in the market a new phone in this bracket (I'm not - mine's the one with S3 written on it), it would have to be a 1s or better still a (now heavily discounted) Galaxy Nexus.

  6. thefutureboy

    Pseud's Corner Calling...

    ...they would like that opening paragraph, please.

    Looks like a handy little phone, I wonder if not having ICS is a deliberate strategy from Samsung to differentiate it from their higher end models?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Speaking personally

    I like a man who knows his battleships.

  8. Sordid Details
    Happy

    Battery life

    I've been using one of these phones on a trial for a few months. Let me tell you that the battery life belies the specs. I don't know what Samsung have done to this phone, but it's the first (sensibly-sized) Android phone I've had that will last for more than one day between charges. You will get two days comfortably out of this phone, and it's nice to get to the evening with 50% battery left and no need to panic. That, and the speed and storage, makes it a winner in my view.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Battery life

      Lower drain perhaps? the high end phones tend to push the envelope more. The midrange phones benefit from not needing to run the faster most powerful hardware.

  9. Alex C
    Thumb Down

    S2?

    Its £337 at Amazon these days. Surely the massive spec improvement means that at only £70 more than this it's still preferable to go for the older brother?

    IIRC you gave that 85% as well, which makes it even harder to justify this review. It's a little smaller, it's heavier, it has a worse screen, worse CPU, it has less RAM, it has less storage space, it has a now pretty old version of the OS which suggests it won't be particularly well supported.

    Sure it's mid-priced - but it's about a year too late to justify the difference.

    I do like that they're playing with not just making bigger and bigger phones every time though.

  10. gautam

    Shouldnt it be cheaper....

    ..at about £150 at the most, now that these phones are commoditised?

    IF Huawei could do the San Francisco at 100 (OLED screen mind you) at £100 more than year ago, surely Samsung could do better?

    Greedy bastards I'd say.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Shouldnt it be cheaper....

      The San Francisco only had an OLED screen for the first month or two. Then it went back to an OK-ish LCD one. Not that I wish to suggest skullduggery, but after all the great reviews had come out, they made the phone worse, for the same price...

      It may just have been a manufacturing cock-up, or supply difficulties though, and they went back to OLED. My brother got one of the no OLED ones, and it was OK for the money, but not great.

    2. Bassey

      Re: Shouldnt it be cheaper....

      "IF Huawei could do the San Francisco at 100 (OLED screen mind you)"

      ZTE did the San Fran but your point still stands. Samsung also do the Europa (i5500), a cracking little smartphone that can be had, SIM Free, for £60. I would have said £180-200 for this. Particularly with the Nexus available for £280 and the Nexus S for only £30 more.

  11. the-it-slayer
    Facepalm

    Again, a step behind the times and boring

    I really don't get Samsung and anyone who've adopted Android. Why load an older OS in a new phone? Beats me. Still adds to the many clones/droned phones out there.

    Next please :).

    1. Alex C

      Re: Again, a step behind the times and boring

      On the subject of Android and older OSes, I remember from my fruit loving days that I'd keep my OS up do date and my wife would neglect hers. By the time the contracts came up for renewal her iPhone was several iterations behind mine in OS but generally felt a lot less clunky to use. I think it behoves a hardware manufacturer to nudge it's users (particularly when they are tied into the brand with apps, contact data etc) towards new hardware every so often, as the iPhone 3G empirically proved (granted with a very small test group).

      In this case though there's no excuse not to be using ICS - can't fathom why they didn't do it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Again, a step behind the times and boring

        iPhone 3G ran really badly with iOS4. Probably down to limited RAM and the OS increasing in size.

        My iPhone 4 is feeling a bit sluggish at times now.

  12. SiempreTuna
    FAIL

    What were they thinking?

    No ICS, no sale, baby

    24 months with a phone that starts off WAY out of date.

    The HTC One S is looking better and better ..

  13. h3

    I would buy one of these in a heartbeat if it was a dual sim phone. (That is what I want).

    Don't want Touchwiz though at all.

    Don't get it stock ICS is just great. (Less effort than backporting newer touchwiz versions etc anyway).

  14. Richard Lloyd
    FAIL

    ICS essential for corporate use

    Staggeringly, Android phones prior to 4.0 cannot add a proxy server to particular wi-fi connections (at least not without rooting and a special app), making them fairly useless for corporate environments (yes, you could NAT through and avoid a proxy, but that's not clever [e.g. would bypass any corproate proxy logging/filtering]). Hence, if for that one reason alone, releasing a new Android phone in mid-2012 with Android 2.3.X when several other older phones in your range already have 4.X is puzzling beyond belief.

    Yes, the 4.X upgrade will hopefully eventually come to this phone (and if Samsung had any pride, they'd announce exactly when 4.X will be available), but is that 100% guaranteed to a) actually turn up and b) turn up in a timely manner? It does surprise me that this review made no big deal out of this phone coming with Android 2.3.X - heck, even my ancient HTC Desire runs that!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ICS essential for corporate use

      Your company allows mobile devices on their network?

      Sorry if that's a ridiculous question, and I'm sure my radar is a little off after spending the last few years working with companies with seat counts in the healthy 5-figure to low 6-figure range... but most companies I know just leave them as an external device ( i.e. on the carrier's network while in the office).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: ICS essential for corporate use

        Quite a few large companies will run guest wi-fi networks - our entire office is fitted out on 7 floors with them. It allows user devices to access the web through a proxy but without hitting the main corporate network as well as allowing vendors/salesmen to demonstrate at users desks or when suitably fitted offices aren't available and still be able to VPN into their office networks.

        1. Danny 14

          Re: ICS essential for corporate use

          we use android gingerbread on our network. They use an authenticated proxy just fine (squid). Use WPAD via DHCP and they will work just fine, saves configuring individual handsets too.

  15. Jim Coleman
    Meh

    Perplexed

    It perplexes me how Android is the only OS of the top three that has phones available that aren't either already on the latest OS version or immediately updatable to the latest. Both iOS and WP phones always ship with the most up-to-date OS version, in fact sometimes WP phones ship with a version that hasn't quite been released to existing phones - for instance the Lumia 610 shipping with Tango which is due out shortly for all existing handsets.

    Having said that, the dominance of Android in the sales charts appears, oddly, to suggest that your average punter doesn't actually give a shit about the version of their OS or indeed whether it's upgradable. Ho-hum.

    1. Anonymous Coward 101

      Re: Perplexed

      People buying high spec Android devices certainly care; low spec Android buyers (the majority) don't care.

      I think the high spec Android manufacturers need to publicly state that their devices will be supported and updated for the next 2-3 years. They are competing with Apple.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Perplexed

        They're not though, Android phone manufacturers are competing against Apple and other Android phone makers.

        Apple makes money on the hardware and the media and software for the phone. On Android the phone maker only makes money on the phone and there is huge competition in phone making. Google or other application stores owners make the money on the software.

  16. Kyoraki

    No ICS?

    Really Samsung? That's just pure laziness. All of HTC's new phone including the dinky low end Desire C have Android 4.0 and Sense 4, there's absolutely no excuse to shove out outdated software.

    1. Jason Hindle Silver badge

      Re: No ICS? Bingo!

      I'm surprised at the negative press HTC get at the moment bearing in mind they are actually very competent.

  17. Anonymous C0ward

    Google's blessing is required for the Play Store, GMail etc. They ought to refuse said blessing to any Android hardware that isn't running the latest version out of the box at the time of release.

  18. PaulR79

    Galaxy S Advance vs One V? Fair? No.

    Forewarning I prefer HTC handsets but I also know an unfair comparison when I see one.

    If you want to compare similarly priced phones a better comparison would probably have been the Galaxy S Advance and the HTC Sensation XE. The One V is the budget handset of the One series whereas the Galaxy S Advance is an updated former flagship phone so comparing them, despite both being new and costing similar amounts per month, is hardly a fair comparison. The Sensation XE is a dual-core phone, it has a qHD resolution and has a larger capacity battery. I have nothing against the Galaxy S Advance but come on, be fair.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Galaxy S Advance vs One V? Fair? No.

      Surely if two phones cost the same, it's fair to compare them. Unless they have radically different feature-sets, and are aimed at different parts of the market. So far as I'm aware, these are 2 bog-standard mid-price Android phones.

  19. Danny 14

    £23?

    Problem is, you can get a galaxy S3 on tmobile 1.5gb data for £26 a month (free phone) from buymobilephones.net Id rather have the S3

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