I had a meeting with Samsung Technical Manager Chris. The meeting lasted a total of 4 hours – that’s right 4 hours and we discussed everything in the report, point by point.
Update 1: I’ve made a few changes as suggested by Samsung to clarify some of the points.
Update 2: I’ve moved to a new website so you can follow up on the latest comments and updates for this post here
First off I have to say I was thoroughly impressed. The meeting left me with a whole different perspective on things. I’ll go point by point discussing each of the points mentioned in the report and Samsung’s response, so here goes!
Change log for updates: This is available from Samsung on all updates. You can get in touch with Samsung for the change logs.Usually there are hundreds of changes, most too technical for the average Joe to understand. They make an effort to highlight the important things mostly to do with the UI (user interface) because these affect how users interact with the phone.
Updates for all regions: Samsung is continuously making updates. So far, there have been heaps of updates developed for the i8910. Only about 4 (a really small fraction) have been released so far. Samsung has an extremely strict quality assurance team that has to go through each and every detail with great care. The amount detail in each report for each update is staggering. They check everything from spellings to audio quality, to video quality and beyond.
(Updated) Thing is, updates are region/supplier/carrier specific, even for generic firmware. In order for an update to be pushed in your particular region, Samsung in that particular region has to know that you want an update. If someone in the UK for instance complains about a certain thing and an update is available, the update is pulled or requested to resolve the issues for the UK only. If Samsung HQ reckons the update is necessary for all regions, they inform each of the subsidiaries in all regions. Each will then discuss with operators and HQ to decide whether to apply it or not. If you have any problems with your device, contact Samsung in your region so they look into it.
Over The Air updates (OTA): Supported but only for small patches. We’ve only had big updates so we haven’t seen any of these. It also has to do with the carrier; whether they can support updates over the air and they can handle the amount of data required. i8910 firmware typically occupies a lot of memory. Even over WiFi it would take a long time to transfer that much data.
User Data Preservation: For small updates it’s already there. For the large updates like the ones we get, backing up all the data then transferring it back means that the update can take ages. It’s just not practical, so back up all your data before each update and restore it later.
Camera problems: At the time when the i8910 was released, the camera hardware included was the latest and the best. Samsung is aware of the problem with HD frame-rate but says these are the same issues across the board. The same problems can be replicated with other devices.
(Updated) Auto-focus in video is something they are looking in to. There wasn’t enough demand for this feature so they excluded it but it is possible. Even if it is applied, the quality of the video remains pretty much the same so it’s no use.
The settings for the camera were the optimum settings decided on for the i8910. They are looking into the n86 settings discussed in the report.
The feature to activate the camera in video mode has been passed on to product design for consideration.
Web browser: The problems with the web browser were noted and you should be getting a fixed web browser in the next update.
Slow operation: They are working on new methods(algorithms) for the operation of the phone. The old methods used were OK at the time when the phone was in development but they are working on new techniques to keep up with the competition. You should see improved performance in the upcoming update and future updates.
Java(Updated): Java can not be updated. In fact, the process is so complex and time consuming it would be easier to release a whole new device.
Space on C: drive: The solution is just to install everything on mass storage, they can’t free up any more without compromising.
Customization: Things like the options on the bottom row and the swipe programs are nominated with several factors to consider. A large factor is the carriers, each part of the UI is decided upon by the carrier and approved for particular regions. Ease of use and innovative or distinctive features are also favored over practicality. So in a nu shell, they may consider some customization options but it’s not likely to change.
Themes: Fevves suggested Carbide UI plugin and full themes specification. Samsung responded that Carbide is third party software so they can’t guarantee compatibility. Also, there are heaps of compatible themes available in the Samsung Fun Club. Even though, Chris mentioned that they might make a program that’s specific to the i8910 that allows users to make compatible themes. They might, time will tell.
Lack of Support: Pretty much out of Samsung’s hands. The phone isn’t that popular so third party developers aren’t really attracted to it. Samsung admits that it’s really unfortunate and they’ll try to do what they can.
Widgets: They are region specific. Some regions have more than others. They are continuing to work on more widgets.
Kinetic Scrolling: Coming in the next update.
Email Configuration: Not coming, too many changes need to be made. At the time of release the feature wasn’t as common.
FM Transmitter(Updated): It’s there! But it was not developed for the phone. It was considered in early product planning phase, however, due to strict regulations in some regions as Samsung was targeting global launch, it was removed. Samsung has low end handsets which have FM Transmitting, but those product are developed to support FM Transmitting. FM transmitting was never advertised by Samsung.
Screen saver: Battery drain, most manufactures choose not to include any screen savers for this reason.
Physical music controls(via volume rocker)(Updated): Samsung appreciates this suggestion and they will review this concept and apply it for future models.
VoIP: Conflicts with a lot of carriers. There are many free third party apps like Fring that have this feature.
Front camera access(Updated): People rarely use this feature outside of video calls. None of Samsung’s recent models support this as the quality is not great.
Call recording(Updated): i8910 device specification doesn’t include it.
Time-lapse video: They have forwarded this to the development team. They are considering it.
Support of other languages: Samsung doesn’t have enough resources to support as many languages as they would like to. As they expand more, support for more languages will continue.
WMV/WMA support: The formats are quite popular but they are part of the the few that are not supported. Samsung is not promising any future support of these formats.
Video editor(Updated): It was there initially in pre-release firmware but due to time to market, failure rate and not being a must have, it was removed. You can only do so such on a mobile phone, video editing requires quite a lot of processing power. They didn’t feel the feature did justice to the i8910
Portrait QWERTY: It was initially included but feedback from early models showed there were too many complaints. In the end they had to scrape it off.
Voice Commands: Notoriously difficult to implement without problems. There are many accents and a lot of work has to been done developing recognition solutions for each region. Ffor this reason, they excluded it from design phase.
Handwriting Training(upadted): Handwriting recognition in the i8910 is a feature that’s so well developed that there is no need for a training program. Training software was popular in the early days when the technology was still premature. Now it’s not necessary.
VPN (updated): i8910 is not designed for business portfolio, unfortunately VPN is not supported.
Torch function(Updated): Samsung said that this feature couldn’t be accommodated from the design level. Samsung does have many devices which support torch function. For high end devices that have more functions, it’s expected that a torch will consume a lot of battery power so it wouldn’t be an ideal feature. It’s expected and more common in lower end models and generally not found in smart phones. It would be very ideal to fully pack all functionality into a single device, but it’s not practical.
Threaded SMS: They said it’s unfortunate this feature was not available when i8910 was developed. Again it would take a lot to develop something like that. We have to rely on the Free-iSMS forever!
Kies: The Kies Application at Samsung Apps website is not made for Symbian.
Alternative Operating Systems: It is possible to have these on the device. Problem is that the work required to do something like that is equivalent to developing a new product all together. So no, it’s not happening.
Ok, that’s it. If I left out anything please feel free to ask, the meeting was very long and I learnt a lot of things. I must say kudos to Mr Chris Kim for having the patience to listen and address every single issue on the report. I met several other Samsung employees there and the whole experience was simply awesome. Thank you.
As you might know my i8910 is dead. I should have been upgraded to the latest firmware dated 29 December 2009 today. This is the update that will be pushed to everyone very soon, its already there but it’s probably awaiting approval. I was given a loaner so I can try reproduce some of the issues and test drive the new firmware. I haven’t tested it too much but Kinetic scrolling works like a charm.
I now have a deep respect for Samsung and their operations. Their approval/ quality assessment system may be really strict but that’s why their products are really good and generally bug free. I’ll update you on more progress.
(Update) Video of what to expect in the new update firmware update
An important point to note is that Samsung is divided into regions then countries and carriers. I’m based in New Zealand where the i8910 wasn’t even launched. It’s a lot that Samsung even considered what I had to say. If you have issues with your device, make an effort to at least point Samsung in your region/carrier to the report/petition and indicate that you want an update with such and such features in case they are not aware. Updates won’t just come by magic for your region if no one complains. Approach Samsung, they won’t bite.
Cheers Anphase.
Thank u for the update ! and after reading all this I too have more respect for Samsung 🙂
Hi
Check out “http://i8910hd.samsungmobile.com/spec” !!!
Now Omnia HD suddenly has WMV video support and Video editor?
Hope this is correct, and will be available in a future firmware update!
Thanks for great work on the report, i have also sent a copy to Norwegian Samsung support. And i suggest that others to the same; send it to your local samsung support.
And I think this is shocking. Samsung had their opportunity here to get things sorted, but I’m now even more sure that I won’t buy another Samsung phone. The ignorance that they have is simply unbelievable. No demand for FM transmitters? No demand for torch functionality? No demand for call recording? No demand for the video editor?
If there was no demand, why did they include the video editor in the phone’s specifications? If there was no demand for voice recording, why are there people selling their i8910s solely due to the lack of this functionality?
Anphase, this Chris Kim is feeding you utter rubbish, and it seems like you’re swallowing it. Take their supposed ‘quality assurance’ as an example. Do you know how many obvious bugs this phone has? The update that changed the audio codec had a HUGELY BLATANT bug with the browser which was discovered by users less than 20 minutes after release, how couldn’t their ‘strict quality assurance’ spot that?
The camera on the i8910 is SLOW. Why? Because Samsung are too lazy to optimise it. Look at the Sony Ericsson Satio – it has EXACTLY the same hardware as the i8910 yet its camera is literally 4 times faster, while producing better pictures too. Disgraceful.
Anphase, please do not make this seem like a success or a good sign. It’s anything but good. That a high-ranking Samsung employee would meet you, in person, and still try to pull the wool over your eyes makes me absolutely furious and speaks volumes about what is going on inside Samsung.
I totally agree with you. Their answers make no sense.
We did not find a demand! Well why did they include it in their phone specifications and advertising? We should be able to return our phones and get our money back for false advertisment. I will never buy a samsung phone again. I am switching to nokia on my next purchase. Anyways we thank you Anphase for your efforts and representing us !
i totally agree with you, i m not buying a Samsung phone ever again,this is the second time i have had issues with a samsung phone.
I do agree with you, Jesus. This report of the meeting made me lose all hope I still had in getting my phone transformed in something I wanted it to be. (I really hate Apple for not equipping the iPhone with a front-facing camera – the reason why I didn’t take an iPhone!)
What is so disgusting in a torch functionality (let me call it “torch app”) on a high-end phone? On my stone-old Nokia 6280 I had voice commands, and it worked. Why is this “notoriously difficult to implement” on a high-end phone? – What did they put in your coffee, Anphase??!!?
And thanks for the suggestion to ask for updates. You know what happens here in Austria if you complain? They do the same as with you: The let you talk to a representative who explains to you that everything is alright with the phone, and what you want is simply not possible, mostly because it’s someone else’s fault (e.g. the Symbian developers). And, “this phone is just not popular enough in [your-country-here] for more updates of the firmware, or for providing a Bada- or Android-OS for my i8910. I heard this all. They won’t move for us, they already have our money, and they are not expecting to sell more phones of this model.
I’m so unhappy now. Destroyed, really! I wanted a phone that makes me feel happy, now I’m here thinking about how long this relationship will last, and when I will buy a now phone. Damit Samsung! Why do they make me hate this beautiful device?
I agree, the responses were a total cop out by Samsung and you’ve fallen for their spin. Shame on you.
I’m glad I’ve pre-order my Nokia N900, I’ll never buy a Samsung phone again. I was sort of looking forward to the next update just to see what it did before selling my i8910 on to someone else, but now I don’t feel right selling such a “lemon” to anyone.
not to mention the “stop” bug in web browser, freaking lool samsung…..
Jesus,
I know you are on the GSMarena’s satio forum, and know your childish behaviour out there…
How could you even post such a disgraceful post about the Omnia HD here?? you even didnt have one, did you??
AND, while the Satio has lots of problems like the battery weakness, poor xenon flash, firmware bugs, not that great 12mpxls shooter as promised and the list just goes on…
At least samsung listens to their custumers…How about SE??
Nearly all reported problems, remained unfixed,
I should assure you this phone(i8910) havent had any single hardware issues till now. Theres some problems and i admit that, but sooner or later they will be fixed via software updates.
Pls. tell me, can you ever fix your Satio’s battery issue, huh? No way… its not expandable…Same for its poor xenon flash, lack of 3.5mm jack, etc etc…
Do respect of what people have,
Nobody likes you to be on an Omnia HD’s forum…
Go play with your SE toy kid…
Samsung listens to their customers? When did that happened? Giving promises to implement 2 features and correct 2-3 bugs but not getting all of them bugs and features revised, pegged and implemented after nine months is simply incredibly shocking. blah blah second largest phone maker flopped once more with i8910… yes, I will still keep the phone, but that doesn’t mean I’m not angry at Samsung for being such a liar and false marketer without proper approach for its own product support.
And who cares about SE Satio anyways…
Interesting to get a look at how Samsung operates 🙂 And nice to see that they value quality-control highly..this has also been my impression with the official firmware releases.
Good job with the meeting, mate.
Well done. The i8910 is a good phone & has the potential to be a great phone. Your efforts are much appreciated by the i8910 community. Also thanks to Samsung for at least listening to our complaints.
Hearty thanks! It’s still the best phone I’ve had, and will do me for now, after all most of us have long since accepted that a mobile phone isn’t for life hey? thank you again to Anphase and for his meeting with Chris.
I really want to thank you for all you’ve done so far, I thought your report would have been considered by Samsung from the beginning…
keep on the good work! 😉
Please post the video with new firmware that you got from samsung. Could you share that with us.
Done 🙂
Thankyou Anphase for all the effort you have put in on behalf of the i8910. I found your meeting notes extremely informative about how Samsung works. They give me a bit more patience 🙂
“Voice Commands: Notoriously difficult to implement without problems… For this reason they excluded it from the final release.”. Now tell me why every Nokia has voice command calling without any issue! That’s so much important to me I was astonished it was a missing feature of this phone. Not to mention the Java update… I think I’m going to sell it asap.
Couldnt you take a look at the specs as if it supports voice command before the purchase??
Thanks for sharing those informations Anphase. But I must say, I’m completely agree with Jesus and Andrea…The answer “notoriously difficult” or “there is no demand” comes much too often. If there is no demand for FM transmetter, why did they implement it? That has an industrial cost, who’s samsung is making fun of? I’m wondering what is the level of the employees of the “extremely strict quality assurance team” : there are so many obvious bugs, a child could see them!! And why do they wait for “local complains” before updating the software? Shouldn’t they anticipate the consummers complains? Especially when the bugs are the same, europe wide, at least? Anyway, I will sell (if i can find a buyer!) this device asap and i will never ever buy a samsung anymore : xperia 10, nexus one or even iphone g4 are calling….But one more thing Anphase, I’m very curious about : did they put something in your tea cup during the 4 hours?? What was it ;-)) Lol! Sorry for my bad english.
Definitely this phone is incomplete and this is the final update that they are gonna do. From now they will start working on bada. I8910 is a very good phone by model(hardware). But the software….. If this phone had been Nokia N97. We all would be happy with the version 2.0 firmware. I was a big Nokia fan. But i this time i switched over to samsung looking at the model especially for the AMOLED capacitive screen. I have used all the top phones in Nokia never any gripes. But i regret buying samsung. Especially for their customer support. After all this i would say this phone is worth only 350$ for its kind of performance. I am fed up of installing all the modded firmwares. I want to sell away my phone now.
No demand for VPN, Call Record, Torch, FM Transmitter etc.? Now how is that? Where did they do their market surveys?
Question to Samsung: If you only have features that the market demands then how are you guys innovators or visionaries in the field? If you had the FM Transmitter and showed the world how cool it is, then you would have ‘created’ a demand for it. And a phone as pricey as this doesn’t need a VPN client? duh!
Very disturbing points: –
1. Ask for updates in your region (hilarious). One person complaining should be enough. If after so much of hue and cry(thanks to Anphase) they still are wondering if customers have a problem then no one can help them.
2. Samsung implemented supposedly not-so-popular features just to remove them in final releases and popular features which would have been great are notoriously-difficult-to-implement (Sounds like a very lame excuse).
3. For all minor things we have to download a “free app” and for all major things its too late/too difficult.
A suggestion to Samsung, if you want to survive along side Nokia, Google then learn to anticipate the demand and do “difficult things”. When we stretch our budget to buy a flag-ship product we expect no excuses when it comes to quality and productivity.
Having said all that, I will take whatever updates Samsung agrees to roll out. It’s the only thing we can do!
Is there any word from Samsung on how they plan to roll out their new firmware.
– Will it be available to all of us at the same time? What time?
– Will we be able to upgrade ourselves (through PC software)? I read somewhere that we might have to take it to a service center and get it flashed! Please say its not true!!
It will be rolled out via PC Studio as usual. As for the date and time, you”l have to keep checking, they’ve never really specified in all their update releases.
Hi Anphase
First: thanks for your effort. You made a very nice report on the Omnia HD and its lacking features/problems.
Secondly: i feel like most of the people commenting here, that you talked to a salesperson that just gave you the quick answers and relied on you feeling very lucky to be there. In short: They just tried to shut you up!
“Not in demand” is just a bad excuse. In my country they also sold the phone by advertising the FM-transmitter.
I’m also sad that i purchased this phone. But i can olny blame myself. I actually thought the Symbian OS had developed more from v3 to v5. I’ve placed it for sale online, but am not able to get a fair price. The models are being spit out so prices is going down so fast. I cant belive that i now can by the HTC HD2 at a lower price than i bought my Omnia HD (that makes me really sad).
I truely thought this phone could be my companion for at least 2 years. By now it seems it will be replaced within the first 6 months – with a high cost. The phone is by now at half the price here!
When you made the report you really succeded. When you went to the meeting with Samsung you failed. I think you (at least it seems liek that from this short resume) forgot to be critical and realistic, from a consumer point-of-view.
But i guess you felt that you had been heard and that it was a great opportunity to you to get this invitation.
I don’t blame you anything. Rest assured, that you done a great job for Omnia and the community.
Damn, that sound’s so easy if you think about it.
–There’s no need to say thanks for your great effort in writing that report— now,
I totally agree with you all. An answer like “too difficult to implement” “not enough demand” can’t be accepted by buyers of a 500-euros-phone. Samsung is very innovative in the hardware side, but they can’t compete with the software support of (sad to say) Apple or Nokia. AND i think you have been paid (eheh maybe they gave you back the money) or (more probable) hypnotized to express this new, awesome, heaven-like view about their support. Looking from outside? our hopes have vanished totally.
Some of the advertised features (FM transmission & video editing etc.), tipped the scale for buyers when they compared i8910 to other products. They boasted power, technology and intelligence. This is why buyers agreed to pay a premium for this phone. Getting the phone and discovering it’s missing the advertised features, makes you feel like you have been dealing with a street crook that took your (big) money and disappeared.
Voice calling it’s a feature that was available on some very basic mobile phones 10 (ten) years ago. It was shocking to discover this “smart” phone doesn’t have this by now ancient feature.
Do we have to explain to Samsung how useful it is to be able record the directions someone gives you over the phone when you are headed to a place you are visiting for the first time? Not much demand for it?! Can it get any more lame than this?
Now now, Anphase is not to be blamed. Round ONE is done and we gain something out of this soon_to_be_released_FW. Now it’s time for round TWO!!!
Don’t bash Anphase, keep working on elaborating what’s to be fixed/implemented/improved next instead.
Good work Anphase, good work indeed.
I just wanted to make something clear. I do not think anyone posting here even dares to think of bashing Anphase. The effort Anphase put into this, for all of our benefit, cannot be rewarded in words. Samsung should build him a statue.
All the venting is directed at Samsung in a hope that after this 4 hour long meeting, they will have the sense to come back and read what users have to say about their product, right here on Anphase’s blog.
For some reason, Samsung does not seem to get the message. Maybe they ought to learn the hard way a painful lesson: You do not toy with a flagship product – this is your
business card to the world. People who have the money to buy this phone, have the power/influence to make you regret such a mistake.
I have turned away potential buyers simply by mentioning the phone’s shortcomings. The price of the phone dropped significantly since last summer. Owners started selling
their phones… I hope they get the message. Now think of the opposite. Imagine the owners showing off this phone (working properly) every chance they get.
This phone has the potential to sell itself, but it can also contribute negatively to the entire brand name if its potential is not realized.
My phone was built for teleportation, but this feature only works partially or not at all.
Thank you for your hard efforts Anaphase.
I hate to be the umpteenth person to say this, but it seems like Samsung gave you generic salesperson answers.
I brought this phone because it was advertised like a super powerhouse phone… however its not at all. The sad thing is, it has the POTENTIAL to be, but Samsung are failing to deliver.
Yeah… no more hope in samsung techs… never more i buy another samsung object…. i spent alot in this mobile to it run like another phone with half price… shame on you samsung… shame on you…
What a load of Bulls###.
Nokia for me now, think I’ll give the HD to my 10 year old as it will be worth less than my old N95 8 gig now.
Samsung, why oh why did I fall for it again, should have known better !!!!
Dissapointing!!.. They have no plans to improve. All they can do is fool others and make 1000 diff phones which are good for nothing. Should just stay in the low end phones market. They could have made these improvements understanding the demand through us, and then advertised and sold this phone even more. effectively selling a phone the mass asked for!!.. They are dumb..
Hi Anphase.. I REALLY WANT TO THANK YOU FOR THE HARD WORK YOU PUT INTO THIS!!!! YOU SPENT YOUR TIME WRITING UP THE REPORT GETTING FEEDBACK FROM THE PUBLIC WHICH WOULD HAVE TAKEN ALOT OF TIME AND EFFORT!! You went to so much trouble and samsung heard your voice.. Good on you for meeting these people the i8910 is a good phone and if they update it well it will be even better.. JOB WELL DONE MATE!!!!!!!
hahaha, the explainations of this guy from samsung are stupid and ridiculous. I know korean people and I’ve been working with them from over 12 years now. this is their style, and they believe it works. just to give an explaination (no matter if it is a reasonable one…) just to talk, just to give some story as they thought about it,,,but finally decided not to include in phone specification…
the omnia hd report of author was a good job, but how he can be so blind and how he could be convinced by this samsung guy in a very simple way…hahahaha
Thinking all Korean people act and behave in the same way is just as “stupid” and “ridiculous” as your views of the rep’s comments. Instead of allocating blame to an entire nation, better to look at the practices and structure of the business/organization in question. Otherwise your comments have little more relevance than saying the moon is made out of cheese.
dear hyun, i didn’t mean to say any bad word about any nation. i respect korean people, and i think korean companies are so much innovative in hi-tech, and by th way i love korean food… and to be honest I still think that omnia i8910 hd is still top3 of current mobile phones available on the market. what I was thinking of is the respect to clients who paid for ther product. do you think that the answers of this samsung’s technical manager chris are reasonable ? can you believe it ? making so much specification packed phone, how could they omit some simple things like torch, fm transmiter, and as above bugs….? and now his explainations are indeed strange… we planned to include this feature but finally we didn’t….. sorry, I don’t buy this story.. (to make it clear… shortly I want to buy i8910)…
Thank you anphase for all your hard work.
Thanks for the good job of bring the downfalls of this handset to light and hopefully opening Samsung’s eyes.
I don’t think I’ll buy another Samsung handset after this, they don’t have any respect for their customers. This phone has pretty much been sold to consumers under false pretences, I won’t let them do that to me again. For what marketing was done for this handset and I must say it was very very little if at all any, Samsung promised so much and delivered nothing.
I’ve had Samsung handsets for many years since the T100 clamshell I won’t have another. Maybe a petition should be started on how many I8910HD owners WILL NOT buy another Samsung phone, send that to them and see what they say.
Thanks again Anphase, you created a voice for I8910HD owners and for that all owners should be grateful.
hi anphase ive read the notes on the meeting and was the sound on the video mentioned and the optimum levels and all that, cause that is the biggest failure on this phone to have a hd video with terrible sound and distortion from the 1970s is unforgivable
Thanks for your efforts Anphase. You’ve helped enormously in voicing our complaints about the device. However I do agree with many that this PR guy from Samsung was feeding a bunch of horsesh!t to you. Their efforts to improve customer experience have backfired horribly since nobody appreciates the dishonesty. They could’ve taken this opportunity to reach out to consumers and change perception but unfortunately they’ve decided to go the way of the rats. Unfortunate indeed.
thanks a lot Anphase for taking this issue up on the highest level. but i’d like to ask you why are Samsung wanting their customers to ask for an update ? isn’t it their obligation to give the customers the best for their phone ? anyways, what i’d like to ask you is how do i go about contacting the authorities. i live in India (the phone is officially launched here.) so do i go to their website or go to a local samsung mobile store or how do i go about telling them about my problems and that i want an update. any help on this topic would be highly appreciated.
If there’s a new update for any region and if Samsung HQ reckons the update is necessary for all regions, they inform each of the subsidiaries in all regions. Each will then discuss with operators and HQ to decide whether to apply it or not. You can approach Samsung in any way but they can get you the latest update for your region straight away if you go there personally. Otherwise it could be a while before the update is given out.
Well, I don’t expect Samsung to read this anyways, but if they SELL Different operating systems and create devices capable to booting different OSes, they can enter into a market currently unexplored by any competitors yet. Think about it, just by selling OSes, they can get paid for “hard work”. Its shameful to read “too much work”, etc etc that users mentioned above. Samsung should be winning hearts of people instead of puncturing it :p
BY THE WAY, Be sure of one thing, THE NEXT iPhone WILL NOT SUCK! BroadCOM a company very close to all Apple’s devices, has developed a chip capable accelerating 1080p and capturing images at 20MP. The only problem in their way is OLED (where samsung will remain best mostly)
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1566382/broadcom-unveils-mobile-media-superchip
First at all: thank you for the report and all your efforts!
Second: Okay, I have to say it’s my own failure.
They tricked me with their E700, having a very good display (wow, it has colours now!) but compared to my much much older Siemens it missed very basic features.
Being tricked the first time: shame on Samsung.
Now, I replaced my quite old SE K750i with new i8910, and again, I’m missing features that I thought they were standard and I have not to check in specs before buying.
Just one example: the “torch”, for me as a not-program-writer it seems to be not so hard to write an application with two features: “turn the LED on” and “turn the LED off”. And as a very very special feature there could be “turn LED automatically off after x minutes”. Maybe I’m wrong…
Being tricked the second time: shame on me, I should have known it better.
I can tell you for sure I won’t be tricked a third time.
Why SAMSUNG do not try to improve :
1- HD video recording frames from 21 fps to 24 fps.
2- Battery life.
3- Make a universal firmware which has a multilanguage enabled beside a full applications and wedget.
4- Kinetic Scroll.
1. Cause they falsly advertized their phoen as being capable of doing HD recording. AT this point I seriously doubt Samsung even knwos what HD (HD ready) video standard is.
2. yep, gimme 3d task manager (it does not imply 3d tasking is asent!!!) and stupid photo contacts all time active without possibility do disable them and see how good battery drains down to null. Activate wi-fi checking and implement poor mans solution to it and you’ll see it drains your battery lot faster then any Nokia new gen phone… yuck at Samsung. They’re not capable or won’t improve it!
3. As if… they coppied worst things from Nokia and are not capable of realising even their own Corean competitors (LG Electronics) are doing it on their (even) low level touch screen models – 60 and going languages on LG cookie should give a valid example of what I’m saying here.
4. They will give it to us in due time… unless we all die before that happens…
so they haven’t given us s*** then lol
will they fix java or not (i think not)cuz i’am running IF6(i know it’s old still waiting for that universal update thing cuz no new update here) and java games are slow not to mention most symbian s60v5 are java
so samsung plz fix java
First off It’s great to see someone putting so much work into an effort to improve i8910. Thumbs up and thank you even though I don’t own i8910.
I own SGH-i900 Omnia though and it was a bumpy ride for me too.
I learned the hard way how laughable their “strict quality assurance” is. Except it wasn’t funny.
To cut the long story short…My device spend almost SIX MONTHS in Samsung service centers. During that period the phone was returned to me four times. Some things were repaired but others were broken. When they finally decided to replace it with a new one it arrived with dead internal storage. They repaired it but the bluetooth was malfunctioning. So I had it repaired. They said it was repaired. But it wasn’t. As I learned later (from the web, because Samsung failed to notify me) there is a bug in most recent firmware they flashed my phone with. Now it seems obvious that Samsung Poland may not even know of the bug since they don’t share information between regions. Which is an idea so stupid it’s hard to believe. We have Internet, hello? Sending an email isn’t too hard.
It’s appaling to learn that Samsung is so reactive (in other words-lazy) instead of being pro-active and fixing bugs in all regions as soon as single user reports them.
So basically Samsung wants our cash but doesn’t really care about us after we walk out of the store.
It’s logical I will not buy another Samsung product and will not recommend doing so to anyone.
Oh yeah. And I’m selling my Omnia.
совершенно мёртвая встреча.меня окончательно разочаровал i8910.сам телефон хороший,но поддержка просто отстой.В России этот телефон получил обновление всего один раз.Мне надоело прошивать кастомными прошивками.у меня до i8910 была nokia n97 в которой я тоже был разочарован и я отнёс обратно в магазин.но теперь сравниваю как улучшают nokia и samsung прошивки.с каждым днём убеждаюсь что nokia дорожит своими покупателями.я был обладателем x100,но этот телефон не произвёл впечатление надёжного телефона,после него перешёл на nokia.и вот купил этот 8910,наступил опять в то же говно.
спрос на функции,которые по заявлению samsung,не пользуются спросом очень востребованны,а fm трансмитер вообще не заменим.
с такой политикой samsung точно не выбъется в лидеры и те люди которые купили его продукты хоть раз,долго не будут доверять этой компании.больше не куплю samsung,так как без надлежащей поддержки ети продукты от кирпича ничем не отличаются
Russian to English translation
“completely dead vstrecha.menya definitely disappointed i8910.sam phone is good, but support is just otstoy.V Russia, this phone has received only one update raz.Mne tired to stitch me up Custom proshivkami.u i8910 was nokia n97 which I too was disappointed, and I took back to magazin.no now compare both improve nokia and samsung proshivki.s each day convinced that nokia cherishes its pokupatelyami.ya was the owner of x100, but this phone is not impressed with reliable phone, after he moved to nokia.i here bought the 8910, come back to the same shit.
demand function, which statement samsung, no demand is demand, and fm transmitters do not replace.
with such policies samsung vybetsya definitely not a leader and the people who bought its products at least once, a long time will not trust this kompanii.bolshe not buy samsung, because without proper support Kids products from bricks do not differ”
Thanks Anphase,
Man you’re great doing all this stuff…I dont know what to make of samsung…I’ll wait and see just how much they do provide for this phone, which has great potential. Anyway youre a hero and I’ve book marked your blog
Thanks
Peter
hi, can you ask anything about widgets’ laggs? they are so laggy, that it is impossible to use them!
In the update there’s no lag. I’ll try include a demo in another video.
It would be decent for 650€ phone, that they would make these updates to Nordic firmware. It would be more decent if they would take this phone bacj and give my 650 euros back. This is my first and last phone from Samsung.
IF SAMSUNG DOES NOT ENABLE CALL RECORDING AND ADD LEGACY DIVX 3 ABD 4, I WILL NEVER BUY ANY DAMN SAMSUNG MOBILES!!!!!
FOR F***AN’S SAKE ENABLE CALL RECORDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE ALZIMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Anphase,
Kudos to u on ur work!
Seen ur based in NZ, wanna ask u a couple of things, i ve bought the i8910 from parallel imported here n the phone is from poland, would u be able to tell me when the firmware update will be available and how do i go about updating it? when i connect the phone to PC studio and click on firmware update, i get a msg saying PC studio doesnt support firmware update for the phone connected!
This is complete bull! ofcourse i want an update , living in south africa and so does anyone else in he world who has purchased this buggy handset duh!!! y should it be our responsibility to push samsung in our regions for an update???? As for the camera performance i dont know how samsung can advertise those camera specs and then deliver poorly on them!!
“Samsung is aware of the problem with HD frame-rate but says these are the same issues across the board”
Is this supposed to make me feel any better knowing i shelled out so much money!!! Samsung need a serious wake up call…Im not buying samsung ever again!! Rather get Nokia!
links update
I’m glad Samsung actually listen to the public. Hopefully Samsung will learn more from users. They should really focus on the quality (software + hardware, especially the software part) of their mobile phone instead of releasing large amount of them. This is not only affect the quality control, it will also degrade Samsung mobile phones second hand value.
Was there any talk about switching between regular phone keyboard with t9 and the landscape qwerty keyboard by tilting the screen? This is something that would be very useful.
Great work Anphase and thanks for taking your time and effort to bring attention the problems and possible solutions of the Omnia HD to Samsung. Your work is highly appreciated!
I previously owned the Nokia N97 and now I have a Samsung Pixon (M8800) and I was thinking of getting the Omnia HD but I wont do so anymore. It seems it has too many problems that need to be solved and some probably wont get solved by Sumsang because, as they say, “Its too hard to implement”! I mean what crap is Samsung really talking? Why did they bother to put in the FM Transmitter if there is no demand for it? And who said there is no demand for that feature? Oh and what about WMV/WMA support or Email configuration? How can that feature be too hard to implement? Really now, even some Nokia handsets which are not High-end got automatic email configuration. What’s so hard about that which Samsung can’t implement? Last but not least, if Samsung paid attention to Quality assurance then I’m sure they should have fixed that camera frame rate problem before releasing the actual phone! I really love my Pixon and plan on upgrading to a Samsung Pixon12 or perhaps a Sony Ericsson Satio soon.
VoIP – Fring is not compatible.
Anphase – Respect! U have done huge work! But unfortunately Samsung is Samsung
They replace metal with plastic, no adequate
software…
Much easier to use other brand devices. Less problems, more compatibility
Thanks Anphase for all your hard work. I watched your vodeo and follow your blog and I must say you really tried your best for the the i8910. Reading your report about your meeting with Samsung am in a state of shock because I can’t understand a major company like Samsung using the words to hard. Was it hard when they placed that expensive price tag on the i8910? I had the chance to choose between the HTC hd2, the Nexus one, the Nokia N900 and the i8910 and in less than 1hr am going to pick up my package of the i8910 and now am in complete shock, I dont no if I should open the box after all this. Am feeling like I choose the wrong phone. I paid alot of money to get the phone and right now am not happy with your report. I work hard for my money and telling me that the things I paid for are to hard to do is not acceptable. I followed this phone for almost 9 months and felt like I knew what I was getting into. Am going to get my phone and am scard cause for the first time I dont have confidence in the phone. Am always fighting with iphone users telling them the i8910 is better now I dont no what am getting. I will post back later tonight when I have opened the box. Tks
Soulchild, the phone isn´t perfect by any means, but I´d rather have the i8910 than the iphone, hd2, n900, etc. That´s why I bought it. At the end of the day, I´m left with the feeling that it´s a great phone. Sure, some things could use some ironing out, and I´m sure some will be. Just remember that every phone has its quirks or flaws. The above mentioned are no exception.
It’s not about ‘quirks or flaws’, it’s missing and totaly unperfected features per technical papers and above all missing features on flagship piece of hardware like i8910, that lacks and yet are present in low level Samsung models.
I have the Samsung Omnia HD myself, and have had it now for about 6 months.
First I’d like to say I allmost drooled when this phone came out. 8mp Camera, big screen to watch movies on-the-go, 3,5 jack + + +
But,,,,after only a few weeks of using the phone I got really tired of the crappy sound -hello, it’s a phone, should even be a issue-.
I have got 1 upgrade so far, but the sound sometimes gets real bad still. Got a girlfriend living a bit away,,,, and our phonecalls usually ends up with a noisy good bye.
Im from Norway, and i REALLY can’t believe why samsung are making region-specific firmware. To me, this is just plain dump. I liked the symbian os for a while,,,, but found it to be so damn slow and not having the chanve to get good programs for it…
When the google-phone comes to Norway, I’m gonna get that one instead. Kind of more felt for the Android after readin about it.
Samsung had a good chance here to bring a phone GREAT hardware to the marked, but with the rediculous software on the phone I’m afraid this was my first AND last samsung phone.
One solution is to use a good bluetooth headset device ;D
im using my old Nokia the BH-900 and the call quality is much much better than the phone’s receiver…
I have had my i8910 for about 5 days now and I must say that after reading all these postes about the bad things about the phone all of a suddent I was scard and started feeling like I should have gotten the Nexus One. But now after using the phone I have to say that even with all the faults mentioned in the postes this is still by far the very best phone on the market right now. The screen alone is worth the money, its the best screen that I have seen on a mobile device. The camera is great and the touch screen is just as responsive as the iphone. I took the phone to work and in our lounge there is a section the iphone users crowd into and everyday they just kill you with the Iphone talks, so I waited for them to start and in less than a minute it was on. So I stand and said the furture is here and am not talking about the nokia n95 anymore and talking about my new toy feast your eye on a mobile monster. And as I begin to take it out of my pocket everyone stopped and looked and when the screen came on the ones right next to me said wow. Than everyone new something just happened and for the first time in that lounge it was like a moment of silence it was like the iphone had just moved into the past or died. Next to the i8910 the iphone looks like someone turned of the lights and all their screen looked dark and fade out. They bow a hole in every phone that comes in that lounge and for the first time they wanted to know the price and were and how to get one. Then I played a HD movie of Avatar and it was breath taking their was nothing left to say. One guy jumped up and said the iphone will kill you with apps and the rest of them jumped on him and said for a screen like that i’ll give up all my apps. I have never ever seen iphone users agree that something was better than their beloved iphone. Even without the firmware update, even before you add one single app this is still the best phone out right now, I would recommend it to my Mother, my brother, my Antie, my Uncle, the cats, the dogs, the pastor from Jabim I dont care this is truly a mobile monster.
Yea, and when iPhone users get all around borked features fixed in no time, and when Apple support do their work at 110% we i8910 owners can only remain embarased with what Samsung did and keeep (not) doing with i8910. No, I don’t want just a shiny screen and PMP features – I want the advertized product I put my money on and i8910 is just deluding per technical specs and features lists. Last Samsung phone I ever bought is this one, symbian, android or w/e they (Samsung) intend to offer – I’m not buying it anymore.
Anphase will the update be released in New Zealand
thankx
Unfortunately the update will not be released for New Zealand. My phone was imported from Poland so I’ll have to try get the Polish firmware to update via PC Studio.
anphase
I going to get the phone 2mmorrow from trademe.co.nz how to check where is the phone made from
thankz
samsung omnia.. when samsung omnia II arrived in indonesia… no keypad ach so difficult to type
anphase
if u r in Auckland do u knw where i can buy the phone in auckland from
plz help
thankz
Whatever you do, don’t buy it at Expert Infortech. If you can import it from Australia that would be the best.
i was going to buy it from Expert infotech as the phone is only $845 do u knw anywhere else where it would be cheaper or same price in NZ . is there any problem with there phones.
also i want 2 buy it from NZ shop as they will me warranty aswell
thankz
Well, I’ve had problems with all my phones from there (3 so far), they stopped working properly in one way or another and their warranty is really bad. I guess if you want to get it in NZ then might as well get it there. All parallel importers are the same, but I’ve had really bad experiences with E Info. Maybe you’ll be lucky 😉
anphase
is there any difference between 8Gb and 16gb expect from memory like any features
thankz
Nope, no difference. But get the 16Gb if you can. I have the 8Gb and I got it for about $1100 last year. Wish I had waited for price to go down, now the 16Gb is even cheaper 🙁
I re-read the updates today (more closely).
Strangely it looks like Samsung though took the trouble of seeing you in person and acknowledging the defects in the model, I can seriously only see 2 commitments by them in that entire big list of yours, viz. Kinectic scrolling, faster browser. For the rest of them, Samsung have either outrightly rejected bringing in any modifications and a few others have evoked non-commital responses (which I rather feel will tilt towards a No).
I thought Symbian was a tried and tested platform (thanks to Nokia) and Samsung if not reinvent the wheel but atleast could do a cut-copy-paste for most functions but am hugely disappointed (especially for the hefty price tag that this device came along with).
Today Nokia has started giving freebies in the form of voice guided sat navs with all their smart phones – http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_blesses_all_its_smartphones_with_free_voiceguided_navigation-news-1397.php
What does Samsung have to offer me?
Nothing to do with Anphase, he did his homework and is trying so hard to open Samsung reps. eyes. But Samsung is the one to react and blame for all this situation, not the people buying this phone without ever realizing what can happen after all the things we witnessed with INNOV8 and i8910.
And I’m afraid Samsung won’t be dealing i8910 the right way at all after their last FW (UK XXIL5) and eventuall global scale release of that FW.
I’m 100% positive I will never buy Samsung phone again in my life. I don’t have more time to spend on fighting corps which have almost zero respect for their customers,and I won’t give them my money again after such poor treatment they showed toward us, their customers. Simply moving away and buying other product, while they WILL lose their money next time, is the way to go for me, and should be for every unsatisfied Samsung customer.
Twice beaten, once shy…
Hi Anphase,
It is almost the end of Jan 2010 and I do not see any official release of any upgrade for the i8910 firmware. Would you by any chance have any knowledge on this that you could share please.
cheers
Arvind
I was told it’s out in some regions and it should be out in other regions in Feb. That’s what I’ve been told.
Hi Anphase
im from New Zealand just brought the phone 16GB this the firmware no I8910DXIG2 can u tell how to update this phone plz
and what country is this made in.
thankz for ur help
You should be able to update using PC Studio, just connect it, select ‘update’ and you should have the latest update. If you got the phone from Expert Info it should be from Poland. I’m not sure though but mine was.
anphase i got it from digi parllel imported
when i connect to the pc studio it says phone is not supported
plz help
thankz
It means the firmware on your device is mixed up, they probably put English components and mixed them with something else. Best solution is a manual update. There’s a guide here and the latest firmware is here. You’ll have to create a free account with them to download it. Do you really need to update the firmware after just a few days though? It’s a pretty solid phone and it works great. You could also wait for the official update to come out.
anphase
thankz for ur help
how to install widgets on the phone
thankz
You simply copy the .wgz file to the phone then you locate the file using file manager on the phone and run it.
hi Anphase,
I m from NZ too, n have the polish firmware on my phone currently, is the firmware update available for us through PC studio? have u tried updating?
I don’t know if an update for Poland will come. I just updated the firmware the manual way. You could also flash the UK firmware since updates will definitely come for that through PC Studio.
Sorry, Anphase, but u were COMPLETELY FED UP BY SAMSUNG’s LIES!!!!!!!!
Seriously, open ur eyes!
How the hell can u tell that things became clearer if all they told u is either it’s not important to ppl (but IT IS based on comments), or law protected or just plain not possible even if others succeed!
sorry, but u got ur ass whooped, and u thanking them for that. WTF??
But no worries – I am not surprised. In fact, to me, regarding the features of i8910, were quite clear even before HyperX uncovered some of the things in the old firmware, aka from their intentions.
Just sux that u guys had to go through all of that just to reassure urself, well at least it worth a try to ask for more things from Samsung.
I gotta say good find about FM transmitter thou.
as for video editor – i’m no longer interested in that cause u can only edit VGA, I film everything in HD ^^
U sure there is more updates after this big January one?
The way that rep dismissed like everything reads: “no more incoming”….
From what happened with the Samsung i8510 , Samsung will continue to update the i8910 firmware up to the end of the year and maybe a little after. This was only the beginning, not the end. We just have to be a little more patient.
anphase, Please collect all the user feeds and make new report showing users disappointed with samsung’s feedback AND make sure it becomes popular by adding “things samsung guys will NOT work on” list. I hope new report becomes popular at samsungi8910hd forum (where your initial report got popular). Again, only when extremely negative responses are shown, samsung might consider reviewing user feeds.
If not this i8910 then something else in future, they better learn one way or the other.
hey i8910 hd owners…
first of all thank u anapahse for ur efforts,i just bought this phone… i was always a nokia phone user and it’s my first time to switch to samsung, i am afraid to regret it… i faced some problems with my images galleryy … some images are not opening right now and turned to
” POWERDICGLOBAL ” .. DOES ANY ONE FACED THE SAME ISSUE OR CAN HELP ME WITH THIS …. I AM VERYY DEPRESSED AND I REALLLLYYY REALLY NEED A HELP !!!!!!!
PLZ HELP
THX
Hi,
Yes I also had this problem. I hard reset my phone several times but it appears again after some time. Ultimately about a dozen files named ‘contents’ appear in my photo gallery which cannot be deleted, prompting me to hard reset it again.
I discovered today that there is a subfolder named PowerDic within Data folder in Mass Memory (E). This subfolder contains files named powerdicglobal. I don’t know if it has something to do with the problem. I have deleted the folder from my set to see if it helps. I am not sure yet.
BR
Dude,
PowerDic folder containing dat files is ur preinstalled dictionary database and by deleting it ur dictionary app wont respond…
Also it shouldnt has anything to do with ur gallery nor ur images,
Start uninstalling some unnecessary apps one by one and check frequently if ur problem solved or not…I believe some incompatible apps causing these kinda issues…
Re “Torch function”:
Here is a working torch application for the Samsung i8910 HD. (Oh yeah, Samsung, torch functionality will never work, oh yeah. It’s the design level’s fault, you’re sooo right, oh my god!)
“PhoneTorch V2.0” now supports many more models than the old version 1, including our beloved Samsung i8910 HD. I just bought the app, signed it for free and installed it. Works like a charm! It even morses any text (e.g. “SOS”) if you want it to!
Check it out here: (There’s a YouTube movie too)
– http://phonetorch.meh.at/
Yes the i8910 is a bit buggy but I don’t really care about the stuff you guys went on about that much. Yes the video recording is poor and the camera is slow but takes brilliant pictures. My friends ask me if I’m taking courses in photography. There are physical limits to what this beautiful little device can do. To make all you spec hungry people happy, companies would have to design an ugly huge box to carry around. Give Samsung a break. For less than the price of a dumb iPhone, I get superb functionality, decent music quality, decent camera and recorder, decent browsing capability and loads of other functions. There is no perfect phone but for that price Samsung came pretty close. Kudos to them and a pity you guys just see the one thing you don’t have.
Mobile Phone Reviews:
I liked the i8910 because the touch screen is great compared to the nokia express in terms of responsiveness. And with 8mega pixel you get really sharp pictures. But the combination of symbian OS and Orange firmware totally ruin the experience.
http://www.cdmacellulars.com/
You have to flash to a “hyperx” cooked roms to feel true i8910 experience…
http://hx-custom-roms.com/
get rid of that orange firmware
Samsung is upcoming brand and made really awesome handsets.
Good post about samasung.
God rewards the diligent.
Nice information. Thanks. Keep posting. I like the site.
Very nice keep it up and nice site thanx
Well, anaphase you have done great job because of you have made report on samsung. Recently, i have purchased i8910 few days before, now i am getting scared because of peoples feedback related to this mobile which is not good.I am not a Samsung mobile user, i always prefer Nokia on every mobile of other companies.Anyway i had not faced any problem relating i8910 yet.
samsung really rocksss!!!!!
this is really great thnx a lot
vikrant jain
Thank u for the update ! and after reading all this I too have more respect for Samsung:)