Let me start by saying that I own many Samsung products (multiple PC monitors, 40” TV, Fridge and even a one of your vacuum cleaners – I would say I’m a Samsung fan, but all that is changing and fast. Toward the end of last year (mid Nov 2010) I decided to get one of the best and most raved about smart-phones on the market, the Samsung I9000 (Galaxy S). All reviews were great and phone specs looked fantastic compared to other rival phones (HTC, Sony Erikson, Nokia, etc) and it even runs on Google’s Android OS – way cool. Went to MTN and upgraded my contract so I could get my phone. The phone seems great until a few days go by and you start actually testing what the phone is supposed to do. Once you start testing the features you realize a few things that really limit the usability of the phone (these you will find listed below). It is now 13 Feb 2011 (around 2-3 months after getting my phone) and I’ve been waiting patiently like I guess everyone else in SA with this phone, but yet there seems to be no hope.

Problem 1: General phone issues, like freezing (complete lockups or random reboots), sluggish responsiveness, lack of email support (issues with connecting to secure email servers – like my Exchange work email), GPS is not accurate (well accurate within 1km or so – which of cause help you as much as being over here or perhaps over there). I understand that a firmware upgrade (http://www.gsmarena.com/android_22_froyo_is_finally_unveiled_25x_faster_than_eclair-news-1673.php ) would generally resolve some of these issues but as per problem 2 below this is not currently possible.

Problem 2: The phone was released with Android 2.1 (Eclair.XWJM3). To date there is no Android 2.2 (been available on other devices since last year) or 2.3 official upgrade over Kies (Samsung’s PC – phone software). I’m not sure who is the correct company to blame for this one (as I understand it is up to Samsung and / or the local cellular provider (MTN in my case) to customize Google’s Android OS to make an update available for this region (South Africa), however somehow I have not managed to find anything regarding this project on the net, other than a few overseas operators seem to be getting this upgrade. The latest news I’ve found is that Samsung now want to charge some US operators for the upgrade (thus delaying this process even further - http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/01/18/samsung.delaying.android.22.over.upgrade.fees ).
Since December 2010 there have been many unofficial firmware ROMs for Android 2.2 and in mid Jan 2011 for Android 2.3. Why is it that it is easier to create a multitude of unofficial firmware’s but yet not one official firmware can be released. One of the world’s most high-end smart phones by a world leading Electronics Company is now 2 versions behind on firmware. If we root our phones (we lose any warranty) and reloading with an unofficial firmware we stand the chance to brick our phones – this is not an option we would like to chance, so please give us an official firmware.

Problem 3: Because of problem 2 above I have been upgrading my Samsung Kies software every 2-3 weeks as instructed by Samsung’s website, so that I can see when firmware upgrades become available (each upgrade +- 90MB). The latest Kies update (Kies_2.0.0.11014_49_2) took me by a bit of surprise as they have now removed the Tethering (connecting to internet via your phone) functionality away (or made it really difficult to find, because I have still not found it). This was the only decent way for me to connect to the internet via my phone as the alternative (selecting PC internet after connecting my phone to my PC’s USB) does not show my internet session usage (we don’t have uncapped mobile accounts here in SA, thus making it important to check you usage or it could cost you).

Problem 4: Part of the South African (SA) marketing scheme for this phone (as could be seen end of last year in JHB airport and most other places) was that this phone was similar to the Apple I-Phone as it allowed the use of 1000’s of application (apps) available via Google’s Android market place (accessible via the phone). The only thing that everyone failed to mention is that in South Africa we can only download and use ‘free’ apps, while this may seem great, it is only so for a short while. Investigation into this reveals that Google does not support paid applications in South Africa (there was a few rumors that Google was to include paid apps for SA, but as of yet no confirmed due date). As I recall we did not pay the demo price for this phone, so why are we only allowed free (mostly demo) apps. It really limits us as users because if we find an app we like and would like to buy …. well we can’t.
One of the major problems this brings comes with the phone’s great navigation system (assuming the GPS was working accurately). Voice and directional navigation as well as the ability to save locations using Google Maps is only possible if you purchase the add-on Google Maps apps and since we can’t purchase any apps we can’t use these features – this is most disappointing since this was shown according to the marketing campaign as one of the major features of this phone.

Problem 5: Since we can’t use Google’s market place you would expect that we could perhaps use Samsung’s apps (found in your Kies software). However as far as I’ve experienced the Samsung I9000 (Galaxy S) is not supported (only supports your Wave range) by Samsung apps, this is because it’s against a Google policy (according to your onscreen message). Thus we cannot use successfully buy or use apps on our phone. This presents a problem that we cannot use Google’s marketplace or Samsung’s App store, where then do we purchase our apps?

I understand that technology is always improving and that sometimes things don’t work straight out of the box, but something here is not right. From what I can see Samsung’s next generation of mobile phone the Galaxy S 2 is already being prepped for launch (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9100_galaxy_s_2-3621.php ) and look it seems to be running Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread).
Let me just say I’m not impressed with the commitment from any of the companies involved (Samsung for providing the phone with lack of updates for SA, Google for the Android commitment and no paid apps in SA and MTN for selling me the phone that only half works in SA) – if you are going to bring a product to market in SA then make sure that it is fully functional or don’t bring it to market at all. The worst part is that we are your loyal customers - all we ask is that you remain loyal to us and get these problems resolved.