Re: samsung i5700 or i7500 ?
Now coming to my initial thoughts on 2.1 after using it for a few hours
Since I haven't rooted my phone yet, I'm using screen shots from Sameer Prabhakar's blog. Hope he doesn't mind
At first I noticed boot up is faster and a boot screen with Phone model name is added, in this case " Samsung Galaxy Spica I5700" is shown. Once booted you are welcomed with the new Pantheon Home screen.
*4.bp.blogspot.com/_hboAAPcQdIU/S4Qag7OGWwI/AAAAAAAACSI/vB2Ta3zW_7U/s320/Home.png
Only three wallpapers are pre-installed this time and no live wallpaper!!! I have read some where that I should root and install live wallpaper.apk
Checked the widgets, both Samsung and abdroid widgets, regular widgets are given like clock,etc etc, But what's interesting is the new "Power Control Widget". It has toggles for wifi, bluetooth, gps, autosync and a three step brightness toggle button which saved me almost 3 widgets, though it uses up most of the screen, its quite handy since it is preinstalled, Switchers is also present so its up to you, which one you want to use.
Clock widgets are cool too.
*1.bp.blogspot.com/_hboAAPcQdIU/S4QajjoQOHI/AAAAAAAACSQ/oUG0Lntite8/s320/LeftPane.png
Now fiddled around settings, found a lot of added functionalities for existing options. It even shows battery usage of apps, listed app wise. Synced with my account, got all my contacts back.
At this point I opened market and thankfully it listed all my previously downloaded apps so installing them was easy.
*2.bp.blogspot.com/_hboAAPcQdIU/S4QbbXvKR8I/AAAAAAAACT4/iSRTqazDAiE/s320/Market.png
I found the application menu & scroll lists to be a bit laggy, but overall speed has improved, applications are loading faster and even free ram has increased by almost 15-20 MB and now it shows almost 75-80MB free
A file manager is bundled this time. Also noticed Layers app, which I presume is the augmented reality app.
But the major changes were in Camera, Maps and Music apps.
Maps had an update ready(4.1 I guess), so installed it immediately and started fiddling around, boy the new functionalities are quite good
, use of layers has given more options to play with maps and it even has a lab addons, similar to gmail labs and a few useful experimental addons. Ahh Finally after this update I was able to use my personalized Private maps from my google maps account. Still there are a lot of options which I'll explore later.
Now coming to the camera app, Image size, brightness level, ISO levels Scene modes can be customized. Zoom button & self timer are added too.
*3.bp.blogspot.com/_hboAAPcQdIU/S4Qh8XuXZdI/AAAAAAAACUg/rktpyacUy-g/s320/Camera.png
Music app seems to have copied straight from Apple
Interface is quite similar to iPhone. Looks like even the horizontal album art scrolling is copied from, turning the device changes the interface to iPhone type album art scrolling, the only difference being the album arts move in circular fashion as opposed to horizontal scrolling in Apple.
Even the now playing menu mimics Apple, same exact functionalities, but is very sluggish. Equalizer is added with both fixed and customizable eq's .
*2.bp.blogspot.com/_hboAAPcQdIU/S4QbdCBfrTI/AAAAAAAACUA/06l9aR4-pJs/s320/Music_Player.png
Voice recorder is bundled, which I think was not in 1.5. Search widget is now extended to search user files and contacts.
The most important thing is Battery back up time has improved vastly, almost doubled or tripled(even more
) for me when compared to 1.5.
Overall I feel that I have a whole new different phone in my hand. It's cool, Its fast, uses less battery, added lots of functionalities, animations. Now I feel I made a right decision by skipping I7500, those who bought it now will definitely feel bad about it
OMG I have been writing this for 2hrs
Anyways this is it about my initial thoughts on 2.1, Now I have to try the new 2.1 apps which were not available for 1.5 and have to fiddle more and have fun
---------- Post added at 08:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 PM ----------
Thanks to kalpik thread name is changed now
