Posts by The Stickman

Samsung under fire over copy-paste bricking

Re: Wow @ Obviously!

Interesting. I think Samsung does a crap job with Android, and after 3 phones, all of which they rapidly abandoned despite thousands of easily findable cases of users complaining of major issues (e.g. no GPS satellite locking at all on the Vibrant), I decided to go with the Nexus line. I have to say, updates have flowed seamlessly (now on 4.2.2).

And yes - I DO use it for VPN. I have also used my Nexus 7 to remote into Windows boxes when the normal VPN failed at the site. Media streaming? Absolutely all the time, and I get better speeds with the Nexus 4's 4G (t-mobile) than my cable home service.

But I decided to go with a Google-branded device specifically because of the necessity for Google to ensure those devices always had the best-functioning Android versions out there. And they seem to be doing that.

Re: Bad about updates? I think not...

Not really. They abandoned users of the Vibrant when their GPS, for 1000's of users, didn't work *at all*.

And my LG/Google Nexus 4, only about 3 weeks old? Bought with Android 4.2. A week later: 4.2.1. And today: 4.2.2.

That's as many updates as you had in a year - in about 1/15th the time.

After personally experiencing Samsung's customer anadonment, in favor of new models, on no less than 3 models/phones in a 2 year period, I went with a Google branded product on the theory that Google at least would assure the most advanced update schedule. So far, that has seemed to be the case.

Not the first time

With their Vibrant phone, an Android 2.x phone a couple years ago, thousands of people had problems with GPS. And by problems, I mean it didn't work, unless you had 20-30 minutes to spare for it to get a tenuous lock on satellites... maybe. And then have your location off by 100-300 meters. That was the BEST they could do, after a year of many complaints, to "fix" the problem. Basically, they never fixed it.

GPS is one of the core features of modern phones, and they screwed it up (apparently due to incorrect antenna design), never tested it well, and simply left all their customers adrift.

I don't see that changing with newer phones. And with the 6 month (and less) product lifecycle that Samsung seems dedicated to, I wouldn't expect them to be getting better at this.

That's why, in my last upgrade (about a month ago) I went back, after 3 Samsung phones, to looking at LG and HTC, and bought the Nexus 4, which has met and exceeded expectations far. As delicious as the S3 and upcoming S4 sound, I'm not buying it. The Vibrant was also touted as a great phone. Reviewers clearly either get carefully selected handsets, or simply are very poor at testing phones.