Estimates on product life for GSII?

[whitenack]

I know this is difficult to estimate, but help me think through this next upgrade.

I am coming off 18 months or so with my HTC Aria. Before that, I had a Palm 680. I found a great deal on Wirefly for $0 plush $80 in bing cash back! Moving to android was like night and day. Push email, better touchscreen, better battery, full internet. Wow! There was talk of an upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2, which was supposed to blow the doors of the performance. Months went by as I waited patiently for an upgrade. All sorts of other phones were released or updated to 2.2, while I sat and waited on AT&T to push out the upgrade. Finally, the upgrade came and other than wiping my phone back to factory settings and giving me a few other capabilities, not much was noticed. As time moved on, though, I quickly outgrew the Aria. I found that I didn't have enough storage to keep all the apps I wanted. The underpowered processor and RAM meant sluggish performance. The small screen was, well, small. But, at the time I got the aria, there wasn't really any other choice in android phones, so I can't complain that much.

But now it is time to upgrade...

I am thinking of going with the AT&T GSII because I don't need LTE (may be many more years before my area gets it) so the Skyrocket doesn't interest me, and it looks like the battery may be better in the GSII. I could hold out for the One XL or the Skyrocket HD, but I'm not sure I'll value spending the extra money for the HD screens.

So, am I making the same "mistake" in going with the GSII? Will I quickly outgrow it? 18 months is a long time. I'm not one that has to have the biggest and best phone, but I would like something that I am able to use during my time with it.

 

[j510]

Hearing about the gs3 news today, doesn't even phase me. Great phone, get it! the current exynos chip is butter.

Sent from my HTC EVO View using Tapatalk.

 

[konazxiii]

My 16 month old Captivate (was NIB) and my 3 month old GSII (was refurb) are both flawless, so far.

 

[mrakifa]

Pick it up...nice device.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Entropy]

If you rely solely on AT&T - you will be disappointed. They have done a poor job of maintaining this device.

Samsung has released numerous firmware updates for its international sibling, the I9100, which require almost no effort to run properly on the I777. However, AT&T's last official release was the horribly broken UCKK6 firmware.

Just like the Captivate and Gingerbread, you probably won't see an official update to ICS for many months for the I777.

If you're willing to install custom community firmware, the Captivate and the I777 become much better devices thanks to their similarities to their international siblings. I hope to have Android 4.0 nearly fully functional on the I777 by this weekend.

 

[PSUGradAtl]

Overall, I think the GSII is an awesome phone. However, I have had it for about 4 months and came off a Samsung Black Jack II so I may be easily impressed. Also, I bought my GSII as a refurbished unit for $0.01 so I just feel I can't go wrong.

I am disappointed in the battery life since the last update. I have applied some settings changes recommended here on the boards which have provided marginal improvements. Although I am tempted to mod / flash / root etc, I have kept with the stock phone as I really don't won't to spend any time dinking with it right now (I used to be a mild to moderate tinkerer / hacker but not anymore).

The new phones I see coming out really seem to offer zero to minor improvements over the GSII. Plus, I like that the GSII has been widely distributed (although with slight to moderate carrier-specific changes). This should assist with economy of scale benefits with accessory availability and support. Although as the previous poster pointed out, AT&T seems very slow in supporting changes.

 

[erwaso]

I'm coming from an aria also but my upgrade isn't until August. If it were now and i didn't care for lte i would get the sgs2. It's a great performer overall and is $9.99 brand new on att website now!

Since i have until August I'm holding out for the Sony ion or the skyrocket hoping lte is in my city by then...