Jelly Bean update for Stratosphere II???

[jeffw_00]

Does anyone know whether there will be a JellyBean update for this phone?

Need to know before my 14d runs out. (foolishly I believed sales guy, but I can't prove it in a web search)

thanks!
/j

 

[acejavelin]

Does anyone know whether there will be a JellyBean update for this phone?

Need to know before my 14d runs out. (foolishly I believed sales guy, but I can't prove it in a web search)

thanks!
/j

There is no current JB update for the Strat2, it may come in the future but if you are within your 14 days drop it, drop it like a flaming potato!!! I would recommend going to a Motorola, (a more common) Samsung Galaxy device, or HTC device. The Stratosphere 1 had a horrible history, and because of that the Strat 2 is tanking although technically it is a decent mid-range phone, but the numbers just won't be there for further upgrades of any significance from the Samsung or third party developers.

 

[jeffw_00]

Wow - that's a strong statement. I suspected something like this when they dropped the price to $29.99, but unfortunately Verizon doesn't offer any other options with a physical keyboard (except the about-to-be-end-of-life's droid4 - I don't want that phone because the battery is non-removable and they have been having a lot of problems with batteries going bad - my son went through two droids before he switched to a Strat II). Coming from blackberry, I thought I would need the keyboard, and even though i've had the phone only a week, and I've -tried- to use the virtual one, everytime I need to type out more than 25 characters or so I give up and bang it out on the physical one. So this may still (unfortunately) be my best option. Given how recent the Strat II is, do you really thing there won't be a single OS upgrade? (and actually, given that I'm at best a casual user who uses it mostly for Email and occasional web-browse, and given how carriers have been crippling JB - do I really have good reason to care?)

thanks!
/j

 

[acejavelin]

Wow - that's a strong statement. I suspected something like this when they dropped the price to $29.99, but unfortunately Verizon doesn't offer any other options with a physical keyboard (except the about-to-be-end-of-life's droid4 - I don't want that phone because the battery is non-removable and they have been having a lot of problems with batteries going bad - my son went through two droids before he switched to a Strat II). Coming from blackberry, I thought I would need the keyboard, and even though i've had the phone only a week, and I've -tried- to use the virtual one, everytime I need to type out more than 25 characters or so I give up and bang it out on the physical one. So this may still (unfortunately) be my best option. Given how recent the Strat II is, do you really thing there won't be a single OS upgrade? (and actually, given that I'm at best a casual user who uses it mostly for Email and occasional web-browse, and given how carriers have been crippling JB - do I really have good reason to care?)

thanks!
/j

I am sorry, but the original Stratosphere was (to most people) a disaster of a phone, riddled with problems and lack of development or even fixes for verifiable OS issues. This has unfortunately caused the Strat 2 to be kind of a dead horse out of the gate because of it's name and relation to the previous model, not because of the device itself (professional reviews of the device seem to be decent for a mid-range phone).

Do I think the device will see an OS upgrade? Probably, the hardware is more than sufficient to handle it and the phone is fairly new, so I would say the chances it will see JB are 60%-70%. The time frame may be an issue though, I doubt it will see it in the next month but possibly this summer. Part of that would fall on Samsung, as it would be focusing development on newer, more largely distributed, and higher-end devices, then it will have to go to Verizon, which is notoriously slow at distributing upgrades.

Now, the last question, do you even care? Probably not, since you are not a power user and likely do not have a use for multi-user profiles, ICS is very stable, feature rich, and widely supported. If it does everything you need and isn't holding back the hardware (like GB to ICS) then there is no real benefit to just being on the latest OS.

As far as physical keyboard goes, I was a previous BB Pearl user and owned several non-smart media phones with physical keyboards. The transition to a virtual keyboard was hard but with Swype/Trace keyboards, Google Voice typing, and using landscape mode keyboards I quickly moved on from there, not to say your experience would be the same but just some input. Now I would not buy a phone with a physical keyboard, one thing I learned is that the less mechanical movement the longer the life of the device and sliding a keyboard in and out is lots of physical movement. Also, since the phone is essentially split in two, the options for cases is very limited.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I am sorry, but the original Stratosphere was (to most people) a disaster of a phone, riddled with problems and lack of development or even fixes for verifiable OS issues. This has unfortunately caused the Strat 2 to be kind of a dead horse out of the gate because of it's name and relation to the previous model, not because of the device itself (professional reviews of the device seem to be decent for a mid-range phone).
...
As far as physical keyboard goes, I was a previous BB Pearl user and owned several non-smart media phones with physical keyboards. The transition to a virtual keyboard was hard but with Swype/Trace keyboards, Google Voice typing, and using landscape mode keyboards I quickly moved on from there, not to say your experience would be the same but just some input. Now I would not buy a phone with a physical keyboard, one thing I learned is that the less mechanical movement the longer the life of the device and sliding a keyboard in and out is lots of physical movement. Also, since the phone is essentially split in two, the options for cases is very limited.

I'm not sure I'd agree with the first part of this. To be sure, there have been lots of complaints about the Strat I on the Verizon Android forum. But do we know that that represents "most people"? After all, a forum like that naturally draws complaints, not compliments. I've owned a Strat for over a year, and it's been fine for me, on the whole. Not super-duper, but no major problems (other than some 4G connection issues that I attribute to network issues more than the phone itself). I would agree that Samsung could have done a better job of quality control (there was a significant number of people who had problems) and development. But on the whole I've gotten some fine work and play out of this phone.

I do also agree about the lack of cases, holsters, and even high-end screen protectors. But I like the physical KB, and have never had a comfortable experience with a virtual KB. Swype just mystifies my fingers. I've tried several KB apps, and there are some quite good ones (I love Smart Keyboard Pro, which I got for its multilingual support), but they're still not great for my particular digits. As for a landscape-mode virtual KB, Smart KB Pro can do this, but then I can't see much of the screen. I probably could make more use of voice input, I admit. But frankly, I'm looking forward gloomily to when I'll need to replace the Strat and there won't be a physical KB left to choose from.

 

[acejavelin]

Fair enough, some of this is my opinion especially in comparison to the other phones I can get hands-on at work which is mostly Motorola, HTC, Apple, and a handful of higher-end Samsungs, but even if you look at most sites ratings, it is on average rated 20%-30% lower than comparable models in the same time frame by users (not reviewers). There is probably some truth to the fact that we usually hear more of the bad than we hear of the good, but this follows through with almost anything.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I wonder, in fact, if maybe Samsung did a somewhat sloppy job of quality control on the Strat knowing that people who want a physical KB have few choices. Why not put their QC resources into phones where there's more competition? A "business decision"? Well, I'm speculating, and as I say, I've had good service from my Strat on the whole. Maybe by the time I replace it I'll be getting a phone with a screen so huge the onscreen KB will work for me.

 

[bigrb]

So much for early summer, my wife and I both got our 4.2 update today....looks like verizon is pushing them out now...
Samsung Stratosphere II Jelly Bean update going out in phases starting today | PhoneDog

 

[JoeFresco]

So what do you think of it? Are there any downsides?

 

[JoeFresco]

From a little reading, it looks like FoxFi will likely stop working in Jellybean. I'm holding off on the upgrade for now for that reason. If we had root, we could fix it.

 

[Rich Scholl]

If you've not gotten the Jelly Bean update yet -> don't do it! My Strat II ran like a top with amazing battery life. As soon as the JB update installed, email is 2-3x slower and the battery dies in less than a day of work. Looks like there's no way to root it either.

 

[JoeFresco]

I'm not sure anyone can avoid this update. I tried to, but after 5 days, VZ forced it on me. If I could have rooted the phone (all efforts failed), I could have stopped it.

Fortunately for me, FoxFi wifi tethering still works, the keyboard software is slightly better, battery life is about the same, and I haven't had any wifi issues so far. I am finding Google Now to be kind of interesting. It also seems to have solved some crashing problems I was having.

All in all, I'm rather pleased with the new version (thankfully).

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I've heard, WRT earlier Android OS updates, that it actually takes a couple of days for the update to fully propagate through your phone. Don't ask me why, but it makes sense of why battery life, for instance, may be shortened in the immediate aftermath of an update: there are things going on in the background when the phone seems to be idle (i.e., you're not doing anything on it). If that's the case, the battery life might improve again after awhile.

 

[JoeFresco]

Oh, and I should add that the music app is MUCH better, allowing shuffle between all the albums of an artist. The screen brightness slider is now in the notification bar, which is also welcome.

 

[acejavelin]

If you've not gotten the Jelly Bean update yet -> don't do it! My Strat II ran like a top with amazing battery life. As soon as the JB update installed, email is 2-3x slower and the battery dies in less than a day of work. Looks like there's no way to root it either.

Did you do a factory reset after getting the upgrade? This is common with Samsung (and most other devices as well) that "left-overs" from the previous versions cause all kinds of issues. It is highly recommended to do a factory reset after any OS upgrade to a phone.