Anyone interested in picking one up this Thursday?

[rickhamilton620]

Sooo, I've been bouncing between 4 to 5 different choices to upgrade from my Droid 1:

• Samsung Stratosphere
• Galaxy Nexus
• Droid 3
• HTC Merge

*from most preferred to least*

The Stratosphere seems to be the best choice just because it's LTE. PC Mag said they'd take the Charge (which is basically this minus the keyboard) over the more powerful D3...the speed improvement with LTE was that impressive. I'm just a bit bummed that the CPU and RAM didn't get a spec bump from the Epic 4G...that and it looks a bit dated.

The Galaxy Nexus is likely a stunner...but the curved shape ...not feeling it. That and I'd have to force myself to like typing on screen, and I hate how the keyboard covers up the screen.

Personally I like the D3's physical design a bit more than Stratosphere and the display on the Bionic I looked at was totally fine, but I'm sick of 3G. The encrypted bootloader's a bit of a downer as well.

The Merge would be killer just for the "wow you got one" factor /nerd moment. The keyboard looks the roomiest/best out of all the keyboard options I listed too. The internals though are dated, there's no LTE, the bootloader's encrypted, and the dev community for the VZW version is next to non existent.

So, after thinking about all of that, I'm thinking Stratosphere. If something better comes along, I'm sure I could flip it for a decent price on eBay. Anyone else interested?

 

[ramireh3]

I'm interested. It's a little bit dated now compared to the new phones coming out but coming from a INC1 I'm still mesmerized by the screen on Samsung phones. My contract isn't up though so I'm not sure if it is worth pulling the trigger.

 

[tkong]

I may. I've got a Droid Pro and i'm still in my 2 week trial period. 4G will definitely be an upgrade from the 3G of the DPro. The other bells and whistles are nice as well (the bigger screen, forward facing camera, bigger slide out keyboard, etc).

 

[bast525]

May I ask how you would obtain a Merge? I wanted that phone for the longest time. I stopped by an nTelos store and they had them... I wanted to look into how hard it would be to hack to work on Verizon... if it'd even be possible, but haven't found anything useful

 

[RoninX]

The official Stratosphere page is up on Samsung's website.

Accessories include a 3000 mA battery, which is impressive...

 

[rickhamilton620]

I may. I've got a Droid Pro and i'm still in my 2 week trial period. 4G will definitely be an upgrade from the 3G of the DPro. The other bells and whistles are nice as well (the bigger screen, forward facing camera, bigger slide out keyboard, etc).

Nice! I was thinking about Droid Pro a long time ago, but the keyboard = too small haha

May I ask how you would obtain a Merge? I wanted that phone for the longest time. I stopped by an nTelos store and they had them... I wanted to look into how hard it would be to hack to work on Verizon... if it'd even be possible, but haven't found anything useful

I dunno about the US Cellular or Alltel variants. Those might not be able to work on Verizon. Third party Verizon stores sell Merge, not corporate ones. You'll find those in the store locator on VZW's website: the non corporate store don't have this:

next to their listing.

The official Stratosphere page is up on Samsung's website.

Accessories include a 3000 mA battery, which is impressive...

I too spotted that battery, looks like it might be a good upgrade.

EDIT: I'm hoping this has all the TouchWiz widgets: The internal leaked spec sheet only listed a few but I'd love to see Social Hub on there.

EDIT 2: The Stratosphere manual: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...t%2Fdownloads%2FSCH-I405LKAVZW&token=62AJqmJU

 

[KoukiFC3S]

My biggest complaint about the Epic was the build quality. The slider felt loose and started to wobble after a few months.

 

[rickhamilton620]

My biggest complaint about the Epic was the build quality. The slider felt loose and started to wobble after a few months.

I played with a friend's Epic when he got it shortly after launch. the spring assist mechanism I wasn't too keen on. Compared to the non assisted one on the D1, it seemed idk...less sturdy.

Apparently it's all been tightened up for Stratosphere, according to Phil's video on the AC homepage:

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pms9CdH_XBA[/YT]

 

[tkong]

I have two main concerns:

1) with any slider phone, I worry the slider mech would become problematic later on (especially after my warranty runs out); and,
2) I've had a Samsung previously and the GPS was horrible. It couldn't locate me on a major street in my city. The GPS on my Droid Pro has no problem finding me within 50 ft in a storm.

@rickhamilton620 - the keyboard did take some getting use to coming from the monster 4.3 touchscreen phones but I had no problem banging out emails and messages on it within a few days.

 

[KnightCrusader]

I know I am. I have been waiting for this phone since the blurry cam pics leaked out for it.

I had the Droid 2 until the Gingerbread update leaked and I discovered it had all kinds of data-monitoring services, and I wanted none of that crap... so I went out and got the Thunderbolt to see what 4G was about. I was hesitant, as all my PDAs and smartphones since the beginning have had physical qwerty keyboards of some kind. Devices like (in order): HP Jornada 680e, HP Jornada 720, NEC MobilePro 900c, HP iPaq 4355h, Samsung SCH-i760, HTC Touch Pro2, and last Motorola Droid 2.

I thought it would be a good time to try to shed the keyboard and see if I could live without it. BIG mistake! I've missed the keyboard since day one... my fat fingers can't hit the keys right on the screen. I tried Swype and can't get the hang of it either. The TB is a great phone (when using CyanogenMod 7), just missing the keyboard for me and I can't shake the feeling of needing it.

So, if you are still with me, you can understand how excited I was when I heard more info on this phone being leaked. Having a Super AMOLED screen, keyboard, and 4G? That's heaven right there. And a bootloader that is unlocked? Even better! I am going to miss the Thunderbolt's SVDO though. I'm also hoping that the battery life is better on the Stratosphere compared to the 'bolt, but I've gotten used to the battery hog that 4G is.

Sure its not the powerhouse that is the Galaxy S2 phones, or even the new Nexus coming out or any of the other dual-core, 1GB phones, but my Droid2 and Thunderbolt's 1Ghz single-core processors have handled everything I've thrown at them. They both have less than a GB of RAM too, so no problems there. Sure it might be outdated faster, but who cares? I get a new upgrade every 5 months so it will hold me until the next 4G QWERTY hotness.

I just hope we see CyanogenMod on this. And maybe UnBrickable Mod. And any other community support.

 

[bast525]

I dunno about the US Cellular or Alltel variants. Those might not be able to work on Verizon. Third party Verizon stores sell Merge, not corporate ones. You'll find those in the store locator on VZW's website: the non corporate store don't have this: Click to view quoted image
next to their listing.

Have you actually seen them for sale? I had heard this before, about non-corporate stores having them. I called three non-corporate stores in the area back in August, none of them had it, two out of the three didn't even know what it was. I see them on eBay occasionally, but the postings tend to look shady.

If I could find an actual Verizon brand Merge for a decent price I'd buy it.... I still love my HTC Incredible, but miss a physical keyboard. I'm not a big fan of Samsung phones. The merge is pretty much the Inc with a keyboard....

 

[joelmic24]

You can buy the Merge at most indirect stores. Some are giving it away free.

 

[goomer722]

Since Stratosphere is supposedly a business phone, does it have less bloatware than comparable 4G phones?

 

[joelmic24]

what makes it a business phone?

 

[rickhamilton620]

Since Stratosphere is supposedly a business phone, does it have less bloatware than comparable 4G phones?

It doesn't have the full TouchWiz 3 (imo it's 3.5 since it incorporates some changes that are seen in tw4) experience: There's only about 9 Samsung widgets (most of them various clock styles...) + there's no social networking widgets/apps like Social Hub. (bummer, as Facebook for Android still sucks...) The only Hub that is on the phone is Media Hub.

It retains the rest of TouchWiz's enhancements like the GPU accelerated browser, notification shade "power control' toggles, etc.

The phone comes with the following VZW bloatware apps:

Backup Assistant, City ID, Guided Tours, IM (Don't use this...it uses text messages for IM and iirc only works on the cell network....wayyy better options in the Market), Mobile Hotspot, My Verizon Mobile, VCast Suite (Media, Music, Tones, Videos) oh and NFL Mobile and VZ Navigator

Non VZW specific bloatware include:

Kindle, Blockbuster, Lets Golf 2, Need For Speed Shift, Slacker

what makes it a business phone?

The Samsung Stratosphere is the first 4G LTE smartphone from Verizon Wireless equipped with a five-row QWERTY keyboard and designed with Samsung's four-inch Super AMOLED? display. Additionally, the Stratosphere supports enhanced B2B-enabled connectivity services from Cisco?, the most comprehensive mobile implementation of Microsoft? Exchange ActiveSync? (EAS) and support for secure remote device management from Sybase ? Afaria?.

Ideal for the business professional, the Samsung Stratosphere offers robust data management support. The Stratosphere will support Samsung's Enterprise Platform enhancements such as VPN, encryption and Mobile Device Management (MDM). EAS includes features such as direct push, email, calendar, contact sync and Global Address List (GAL), as well as EAS policies including storage card encryption, device encryption, and simple and complex password support, all essential for streamlining business on the smartphone.

It does make more sense why the full TW social experience was left off this device then. Still, why leave all the games and crap on there then?

 

[goomer722]

Thanks for the information. I should explain that I bought a Pre+, upgraded to a Pre2, and then watched HP throw everything away. With no reasonable hope of new webOS phones, it's time to move on.

With regard to what is there: I read that much of the bloatware on the Droid 3 could not be uninstalled. Is the same true for the Stratosphere?

Thanks to all for your insightful comments.

 

[RoninX]

2) I've had a Samsung previously and the GPS was horrible. It couldn't locate me on a major street in my city. The GPS on my Droid Pro has no problem finding me within 50 ft in a storm.

I've heard the original Galaxy S phones had a lot of problems getting a GPS lock, but I also heard that Samsung fixed this. If anyone does pick up the Stratosphere, I'd be interested in hearing how well the GPS works. I rely on the GPS in my Droid 2 (which works very well), so having a wonky GPS would be a deal-breaker for me...

 

[KnightCrusader]

Crap, I forgot that Verizon is moving to 4G MicroSIM cards. Is this going to have one of those too? It looks like it from the manual illustrations, but the manual refrains from the use of the word micro when talking about the SIM card.

 

[rickhamilton620]

Thanks for the information. I should explain that I bought a Pre+, upgraded to a Pre2, and then watched HP throw everything away. With no reasonable hope of new webOS phones, it's time to move on.

With regard to what is there: I read that much of the bloatware on the Droid 3 could not be uninstalled. Is the same true for the Stratosphere?

Thanks to all for your insightful comments.

Bloatware uninstallation without the need to root the device is still relatively new. Sprint's the only major carrier to really push it into the forefront and even there some devices let you remove more apps than others. VZW has started letting people uninstall bloatware on some devices, I'm not sure if Stratosphere is one of them tbh.

The good news is that with TouchWiz on Stratosphere, you can create a folder and shove all the bloatware into it if it can't be uninstalled, cleaning up the app drawer until root is obtained.

I've heard the original Galaxy S phones had a lot of problems getting a GPS lock, but I also heard that Samsung fixed this. If anyone does pick up the Stratosphere, I'd be interested in hearing how well the GPS works. I rely on the GPS in my Droid 2 (which works very well), so having a wonky GPS would be a deal-breaker for me...

As far as i can tell, the Charge (which is also a Galaxy S phone, just not sub branded as such like Stratosphere) has no GPS issues. Still i'd be curious to find out whether Stratosphere does have issues. Like you GPS is essential to me...not being able to rely on it would be a deal breaker.

Crap, I forgot that Verizon is moving to 4G MicroSIM cards. Is this going to have one of those too? It looks like it from the manual illustrations, but the manual refrains from the use of the word micro when talking about the SIM card.

It uses a standard SIM card. The card in the manual looks a lot larger than the one used in iPhone 4.

EDIT: Whoops, Wirefly says it uses a micro-sim, and that it's the first VZW phone to have a micro-sim

 

[rrhartjr]

As far as i can tell, the Charge (which is also a Galaxy S phone, just not sub branded as such like Stratosphere) has no GPS issues. Still i'd be curious to find out whether Stratosphere does have issues. Like you GPS is essential to me...not being able to rely on it would be a deal breaker.

Samsung used to use an ST-E GPS chip on the original release of the Galaxy S phones.. more recently though they have switched to an SiRF chip that, by all reports, works much better.