Photon 4G or Galaxy S II

[lafountain]

Well until both are actually on the market, anything that anyone says is based on pure expectations of the device. When both are released, my suggestion would be go into a Sprint store and try both out, or ask again after both are released. We don't know what bugs either phone is going to have yet or how performance is actually going to be on Sprint's network.

 

[coolqf]

believe me i know all about feeling like a beta tester after living with a palm pre all this time. the good thing is that this phone has been out in the market for a while now. maybe no the us but still. so im assuming that any issues that arose from the initial launch has been taken care of for the us.

Stayed with the Pre for this long? My hat goes down for you. You'll love the GSII. I went from the Pre(-) to the EPIC 4G and loved it. To this day, i don't regret the upgrade. The CPU power and screen size alone will be enough to make you happy! And the speed of reading e-mails.... WOW. You'll miss the WebOS integration. To this day, I still prefer WebOS e-mail app than the gmail app for Android OS.

 

[JayWill]

Stayed with the Pre for this long? My hat goes down for you. You'll love the GSII. I went from the Pre(-) to the EPIC 4G and loved it. To this day, i don't regret the upgrade. The CPU power and screen size alone will be enough to make you happy! And the speed of reading e-mails.... WOW. You'll miss the WebOS integration. To this day, I still prefer WebOS e-mail app than the gmail app for Android OS.

I'm still using my release day Pre as well. Since it hit it's 2 year anniversary recently, I'd imagine a lot forum activity lately has been from Pre owners like me ready to upgrade and re-up their 2 yr contracts. When the Galaxy SII hits Sprint stores I'll be walking into one and giving both the GSII and Photon a workout. I'll admit I'm favoring the GSII at this point, but nothing is set in stone. The clear winner won't be known until I've gotten my grubby little hands on them.

I'll also be checking out the Bionic, but it would take A LOT to get me to pay $299 for the device and eat a tiered data plan.

 

[bklyn]

I'm still using my release day Pre as well. Since it hit it's 2 year anniversary recently, I'd imagine a lot forum activity lately has been from Pre owners like me ready to upgrade and re-up their 2 yr contracts. When the Galaxy SII hits Sprint stores I'll be walking into one and giving both the GSII and Photon a workout. I'll admit I'm favoring the GSII at this point, but nothing is set in stone. The clear winner won't be known until I've gotten my grubby little hands on them.

I'll also be checking out the Bionic, but it would take A LOT to get me to pay $299 for the device and eat a tiered data plan.

When my two years with the Pre were up, I got a mint condition Optimus S on eBay for $70. Doing so allowed me to become an Android user while waiting for Sprint to release some more phones. It was also a good way for me to learn how to root without worrying about bricking an expensive phone. The Optimus S is a great little phone, so I am comfortable waiting until a new phone comes along that I feel is worth a two year commitment.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

Is the possibility that the GSII/Within will be a 4.5" handset make or break it for any potential Photon buyers? 4.5" seems a touch too big to me but if the phone is as buttery smooth as the European version it may not matter.

 

[RBrown9180]

It's basically the same height as the photon. You can see the height and width dimensions in the fcc pics. So even if it is 4.5 it most likely will be more screen less area around it

 

[Puzzlegal]

I'm still using my release day Pre as well. Since it hit it's 2 year anniversary recently, I'd imagine a lot forum activity lately has been from Pre owners like me ready to upgrade and re-up their 2 yr contracts. When the Galaxy SII hits Sprint stores I'll be walking into one and giving both the GSII and Photon a workout. I'll admit I'm favoring the GSII at this point, but nothing is set in stone. The clear winner won't be known until I've gotten my grubby little hands on them.

I'll also be checking out the Bionic, but it would take A LOT to get me to pay $299 for the device and eat a tiered data plan.

I'm also using an original Pre. (I waited a week or two to buy.) The phone's lagginess is beginning to get to me, and I'd like access to all that app goodness available for Androids and iPhones.

I mostly use it as a portable email device, and none of the email reviews light my fire, but somehow jumping from one abandoned OS to another (Blackberry) doesn't seem like the thing to do.

I do wonder if the ads, and having a locked-down device, will bug me. But a world phone would be useful. Everyone tells me I should go for a high-end phone, and not something older like the XPRT, although that has a real keyboard.

I may try the Photon while I am away in Germany, and decide if I like it, and who knows, maybe I'll go back to the Pre, or maybe I'll decide I really need a keyboard. I wish Sprint offered a high-end phone with a good keyboard, but I've tried the EVO slider, and its keyboard sucks, and no one uses it. I haven't tried the Epic, but it doesn't seem like its keyboard is used much, either, and that device is getting long in the tooth.

Sigh. If Sprint had picked up the Pre3 (or heck, if Verizon had before instituting tiered data plans) I would have just bougt that, and likely not missed the apps I've never used. But that's not going to happen. So here I am.

 

[mycrownvic02#WN]

Im not really that impressed with the photon so far, as far as response is concerned.. While it did load applications fast, it simply laged scrolling through the home screens. The nexus, and evo 3d seem to feel smoother. With that said, the moto is a decent phone. It feels solid, and actually looks pretty good in person. Root may be neccessary for some if the bootloader gets unlocked.

 

[androidpirate]

I'm also using an original Pre. (I waited a week or two to buy.) The phone's lagginess is beginning to get to me, and I'd like access to all that app goodness available for Androids and iPhones.

I mostly use it as a portable email device, and none of the email reviews light my fire, but somehow jumping from one abandoned OS to another (Blackberry) doesn't seem like the thing to do.

I do wonder if the ads, and having a locked-down device, will bug me. But a world phone would be useful. Everyone tells me I should go for a high-end phone, and not something older like the XPRT, although that has a real keyboard.

I may try the Photon while I am away in Germany, and decide if I like it, and who knows, maybe I'll go back to the Pre, or maybe I'll decide I really need a keyboard. I wish Sprint offered a high-end phone with a good keyboard, but I've tried the EVO slider, and its keyboard sucks, and no one uses it. I haven't tried the Epic, but it doesn't seem like its keyboard is used much, either, and that device is getting long in the tooth.

Sigh. If Sprint had picked up the Pre3 (or heck, if Verizon had before instituting tiered data plans) I would have just bougt that, and likely not missed the apps I've never used. But that's not going to happen. So here I am.

I had the Evo3D for about 28 days, returned it and borrowed a friend's palm pre till the SG2 comes out. my initial impression: I can see why palm pre didn't sell well. the phone is tiny and keeps popping out of my hand when i try to press the power button or volume controls. the build quality is just mediocre. the keyboard is terrible. the keys are way too small and close together requiring me to type with my nails to make sure i don't hit other keys.

 

[Puzzlegal]

I had the Evo3D for about 28 days, returned it and borrowed a friend's palm pre till the SG2 comes out. my initial impression: I can see why palm pre didn't sell well. the phone is tiny and keeps popping out of my hand when i try to press the power button or volume controls. the build quality is just mediocre. the keyboard is terrible. the keys are way too small and close together requiring me to type with my nails to make sure i don't hit other keys.

To each his own. I was just in the Sprint store today, and all the phones look huge. I wonder if they will fall out of my pockets. (Ladies clothes have lousy pockets.) I agree that the build quality of the Pre is medicre at best, and both the power button and the volume rocker have their issues. But I find the keyboard pretty decent, although definitely a notch below my old Treo, and the Pre keyboard is much easier for me to use than most of the landscape keyboards I have tried. I like that I can navigate it by feel, and don't have to look at they keys as I type.

Sigh. The Pre 3 is a little larger, without being quite as huge as the current crop of phones, and is reported to have good build quality and an excellent keyboard. But It's not coming to Sprint, and I don't think I want to jump ship to Verizon or AT&T.

So I guess I'll try one of these no-keyboard devices, and see if I can learn to love them. Most people do seem to get used to them and like them well enough. I only wish the phones weren't so very large.

 

[androidpirate]

To each his own. I was just in the Sprint store today, and all the phones look huge. I wonder if they will fall out of my pockets. (Ladies clothes have lousy pockets.) I agree that the build quality of the Pre is medicre at best, and both the power button and the volume rocker have their issues. But I find the keyboard pretty decent, although definitely a notch below my old Treo, and the Pre keyboard is much easier for me to use than most of the landscape keyboards I have tried. I like that I can navigate it by feel, and don't have to look at they keys as I type.

Sigh. The Pre 3 is a little larger, without being quite as huge as the current crop of phones, and is reported to have good build quality and an excellent keyboard. But It's not coming to Sprint, and I don't think I want to jump ship to Verizon or AT&T.

So I guess I'll try one of these no-keyboard devices, and see if I can learn to love them. Most people do seem to get used to them and like them well enough. I only wish the phones weren't so very large.

well now, you do have choices currently,
HTC Arrive - windows phone 7 OS, 3.7" display, slide out keyboard.
HTC evo shift 4G- android OS, 3.7" display, slide out keyboard
samsung epic 4G- android OS, 4" display, slide out keyboard.

but if you prefer newer technology, i guess you don't have a choice except waiting it out.
but you know, a larger phone is not bad, you'll get used to the huge amount of screen space very quickly and won't want to go back. the same with virtual keyboard-only phones. you just have to give it a bit of time and use the right keyboard (swiftkey). initially you'll hate it, everyone does coming from a physical keyboard.

 

[Puzzlegal]

The salesman gave me a cardboard cutout of a Photon (an ad for the phone, but it appears to be the shape and size of the phone.) It doesn't quite fit in my pocket. That is, I have several pairs of the same shorts that I bought on closeout. I wear them all the time, including this evening. The velcro'd pocket that I keep my phone in isn't quite large enough for the Photon, at least, not if it is to velcro all the way. I borrowed a friend's Droid 2, which is just a tad smaller, and I could close my pocket around it. Barely. So I kind of think that the larger phone really is a negative, even if it's nice to look at the screen. Even an addict like me has the phone in my pocket more often than in my hand.

As for the keyboard, I hope you are right about everyone getting used to the virtual keyboard, because the physical keyboards available on Sprint/Androind aren't very good. I played with a friend's Evo Shift, and didn't like the keyboard. I was in the Sprint store today, and it seemed better in the store than I remembered it. I wonder if there's more than one model? I played with the Epic in the store, too, and hated the keyboard. I've played with both the Evo Shift and the Epic, and I'm not wild about either keyboard. Not that the Pre- has a great keyboard, but it's okay. I'm not sure either of those is even "okay." (The XPRT seemed to have a pretty good keyboard.)

 

[wynand32]

After some positive initial reviews of the Photon, I think I've decided to go for it. My daughter wants a smartphone and so I'm going to give her my Epic and use her subsidy to get a new phone. I was thinking of the Within, but some things about Samsung devices (cheap feel, email client, funky GPS, problems with changing orientation that have never been fixed, etc.) make me want to try a new Android manufacturer.

So, it'll be the Photon for me on Sunday.

 

[jb712]

Just a quick update. I went to my local Sprint Store and they had the Motorola Rep there and he allowed me to play with the photon and I must admit it is amazing. Very snappy intuitive and has a bunch of accessories like the dock and car mount that would come in handy. I asked a buddy of mines who has the Epic 4G and he said he would hesitate to buy a samsung device again because of the Touchwiz software and overall cheap feel of it. Im going to pick up the Photon on Sunday. I picked up the Nexus S because my blackberry crapped out on me so the Sprint Rep told me I could try the Nexus S out for 30 days and it was great. But the Photon 4G is a world phone and was much snappier in response. It felt really great in the hand and was lighter than the EVO 3D and the design was very Star Trekish and distinctive. It didn't feel to obtuse in my pocket so I hope I have a winner on my hands. Also I didn't hate the MotoBlur on it because it was somewhat useful, blasphemy I know lol. Thank you everyone for your advice

 

[mgiven]

This subject is still the big question for a lot of us that can upgrade. Photon NOW or wait for the SGSII and decide then? Is it a good strategy to pick up the Photon now and hope the SGSII comes out in the 30 day return/exchange window? Then you can decide to either keep the Photon or treat this as a trial period and move on to the SGSII if you prefer. What's the cost in the later...your upgrade is put back and you pay a $35 restock fee? What happens if we buy the Photon Sunday and we go 29 days and still no SGSII? Return it and go back to an earlier device to wait out the remaining time (hopefully not much longer)?

Sorry for all the questions, but Sprint finally has (or VERY soon) will have a very strong 4G line-up and it's strategy time for many of us to pick hardware we might have to stick with for awhile.

Thoughts?

 

[Cubfan]

I'm keeping my Evo and springing for the Photon for at least 29 days. Will go back to the Evo if I don't like it, just as I did when I returned my 3D.

 

[mgiven]

I'm keeping my Evo and springing for the Photon for at least 29 days. Will go back to the Evo if I don't like it, just as I did when I returned my 3D.

Just what I'm thinking with the Photon. So my two questions:

1) Do you get your upgrade restored?
2) What feee do they charge? I thought I saw $35 restock

Thanks

 

[Cubfan]

Just what I'm thinking with the Photon. So my two questions:

1) Do you get your upgrade restored?
2) What feee do they charge? I thought I saw $35 restock

Thanks

Wasn't charged a fee, and upgrade was restored. Of course, I bought at Radio Shack. Going to get the Photon at the Sprint store today (they're holding one for me). Radio Shack won't have it immediately.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Sprint store told me they would charge me a $35 restocking fee. I'm okay with that, because I am going to Germany for a week, and I'd like a phone while I am there. I'm thinking of it as a rental charge, with an option to buy.

 

[whatsitsname]

I'm keeping my Evo and springing for the Photon for at least 29 days. Will go back to the Evo if I don't like it, just as I did when I returned my 3D.

As I understand it you can only return/exchange it once. You might ask Sprint if they will allow a return/exchange on the Photon as this will be the second phone.