The "I Just Bought" thread

Originally Posted by txa1265
Which is, to me, one of those wonderful customer-hostile Android things. If a friend tells me he loves the Galaxy S2and my carrier is now getting it - at best I should get the identical phone. At worst the case styling should be slightly altered. Anything beyond that is essentially bait and switch … sort of like how I got something that has a huge screen but is clearly inferior in some ways to 'other' S2 versions.

Not sure if I'd go so far as to call it bait and switch. All the carriers clearly list the phone specs of their particular version, and most of them have different names anyways. i.e. Sprint's Epic 4G Touch, AT&T's Captivate, etc. If a consumer chooses to ignore those things, then he/she has no one to blame but themselves.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Not sure if I'd go so far as to call it bait and switch. All the carriers clearly list the phone specs of their particular version, and most of them have different names anyways. i.e. Sprint's Epic 4G Touch, AT&T's Captivate, etc. If a consumer chooses to ignore those things, then he/she has no one to blame but themselves.

'Clearly list specs'? Beyond screen size, camera, memory and possibly a speed/core … there is nothing.

Screen size is clear. But AMOLED vs. Super AMOLED Plus vs. AMOLED Plus vs whatever else .. not so much.

And at what point should we stop expecting consumers to know. Should they know the difference between a dual core 1.4GHz Exynos and 1.5GHz Qualcomm vs. 1.25GHz whatever? The clear and ONLY answer is … NO.

And anyway, none of that has anything to do with any of my issues.

Originally Posted by txa1265
'Clearly list specs'? Beyond screen size, camera, memory and possibly a speed/core … there is nothing.

Then what other things were you talking about that are supposedly so different it could constitute as bait and switch?

Originally Posted by txa1265
Screen size is clear. But AMOLED vs. Super AMOLED Plus vs. AMOLED Plus vs whatever else .. not so much.

And at what point should we stop expecting consumers to know. Should they know the difference between a dual core 1.4GHz Exynos and 1.5GHz Qualcomm vs. 1.25GHz whatever? The clear and ONLY answer is … NO.

I would hope the average person nowadays is savvy enough to simply look those things up. If not, well…

How is that any different from any other spec listing for any hardware product?

When a random consumer goes and buys, say, an iPhone - are we now claiming Apple are great at informing the user about all technical specs and restrictions for usage?

The Smartphone market is a completely ridiculous and hellish jungle if your objective is to make an informed decision about the perfect phone for you. I fail to see how Samsung is negatively set apart in that way.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Then what other things were you talking about that are supposedly so different it could constitute as bait and switch?

Antenna, signal strength, app compatibility.

Let me be clear - having 6 different products with the identical name, some wih silly carrier tag names attached, with a variety of features and screens and so on … is confusing, but not illegal in any way. As DArtagnan says "Smartphone market is a completely ridiculous and hellish jungle". So very true.

But if I can get a Samsung Galaxy S 2 model SCH-R760, the same model phone as other people, and have different signal levels, different app compatibility, and so on … there is just plain something wrong.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
How is that any different from any other spec listing for any hardware product?

The Smartphone market is a completely ridiculous and hellish jungle if your objective is to make an informed decision about the perfect phone for you. I fail to see how Samsung is negatively set apart in that way.

What I have generally seen is that a phone model is generally the same internals and screen, with potentially a minor tweak for carrier differentiation and naming schemes beyond absurd. So the LG Optimus might have had crazy names at different carriers but the underlying model is unique. Samsung is unique in using a single moniker to describe multiple phones.

The S2 is a great example - my 4.52" version is amazingly fast at many things, and has a great build quality and great screen. I have seen others from AT&T that are a$$. They wouldn't win best of anything. Yet it is a Galaxy S2.

As for Apple … they are terrible about these naming things. I mean, last week I got an iPad. I also got an iPad in 2010. So I have 2 iPads and an iPad 2. The difference is that they do this on a generational basis, not side-by-side.

Originally Posted by txa1265
But if I can get a Samsung Galaxy S 2 model SCH-R760, the same model phone as other people, and have different signal levels, different app compatibility, and so on … there is just plain something wrong..

It's not the same model though… that's my point. They're different models based on the S2. I'm not sure why anyone would expect them to be exactly the same.

There is a disconnect in this discussion. If the phone has the same name (including the "model SCH-R760" part) it should be the same phone. Otherwise, they should tack on a version number or something else in the name. It's a matter of proper identification.

PS. I wouldn't be surprised if sloppy marketeers, sales people, or web designers leave off model versions in the product name.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
If the phone has the same name (including the "model SCH-R760" part) it should be the same phone. Otherwise, they should tack on a version number or something else in the name. It's a matter of proper identification.

I agree with that, and most of the carriers do indeed have different names for their Galaxy S2 models.

Sounds like there are few carriers who leave off the model-numbers?

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Sounds like there are few carriers who leave off the model-numbers?

There are apparently 17 (!) variants, some with no descriptive number difference, some with a letter difference at the end of a 10 digit descriptor, some with the same number in different order.

Basically, no 2 are alike. So when someone says 'Samsung Galaxy S2 is the best smartphone', it is like saying 'HP laptop is the best laptop'.

NO ONE else has that much of a f*ckshow when it comes to abysmal product confusion. Worse yet, it is brand dilution - as people hear good things about the S2 and buy it they might get one of the half-dozen or so crap models and never buy Samsung again.

It's pretty stupid marketing. iPhone "seems" better, the 4s series has the memory size in the name (I think).

Also, widely customizable products are leading us down this crazy route. Geeze, shopping and researching PCs is a nightmare with the constantly changing model numbers.

All this carrier stuff sounds like an additional nightmare. AFAIK, we have no such issue here in Denmark. At least, I've never heard of the actual hardware being different based on carrier around here. I'm almost positive that you can only buy one kind of any given model - and the carrier has little or no influence on that.

It could be ignorance on my part, though, but I don't think so.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
All this carrier stuff sounds like an additional nightmare. AFAIK, we have no such issue here in Denmark. At least, I've never heard of the actual hardware being different based on carrier around here. I'm almost positive that you can only buy one kind of any given model - and the carrier has little or no influence on that.

It could be ignorance on my part, though, but I don't think so.

It is similar here to retailers of dishwashers, laundry machines, refrigerators and so on - even computers! Everyone gets a slightly different model number with a tiny hardware tweak for 'differentiation' … and also so they don't have to price match each other!

Sounds like yet another horrible result of extreme opportunism.

Or rapid deployment and improvements.

You should be on some marketing team.

LOL! Well let's just say I've had to learn to live with the rapid prototyping mentality for much of my working career. Continually underfunded projects…

Originally Posted by txa1265
It is similar here to retailers of dishwashers, laundry machines, refrigerators and so on - even computers! Everyone gets a slightly different model number with a tiny hardware tweak for 'differentiation' … and also so they don't have to price match each other!

Say that to Intel - because of their processors and mainboards. So many sub-models ! Bah !
And everyone else imitates that !

There's so many different mainboard models out there which are differenciated only by really tiny bits that even the hardware magazines can select only a few for tests !

The new Ipad + iCade.. yes, very geeky stuff

I hope it came with a supply of quarters!!