[kaushik_s]

My friend has already got the iPhone and without any contract from apple store. Yes, it's available now at apple stores without signing any contract with AT&T but the phone is still locked for AT&T(atleast that's what is written on the phone). It's available for approx 27.6k. Really good price considering it's around 40k+ here on the grey market.
Found some links for unlocking the iPhone 4. Please let me know if they are correct,
Jailbreak iOS 4.0.1 on iPhone 4, 3GS New Bootrom with JailbreakMe 2.0 Star [How to Guide Video] | Redmond Pie
Unlock iPhone 4, iOS 4.0.1 with Ultrasn0w 1.0-1 [How to Guide] | Redmond Pie

[extreme_torque]

Got a chance to play with my friend's Samsung Galaxy S for 1.5 days and I am not very impressed. My current phone is an iPhone 3GS on iOS 4.0.1 and the Galaxy S was running the 2.1 build.

Samsung Galaxy S likes:
1) The screen is awesome. The best redention of 'black' on a mobile phone screen.
2) The form factor is nice and the 4 inch screen is a perfect compromise as far a portability and usability is concerned.
3) The phone even though built entirely plastic feels pretty high quality. I would have preferred some metal though.
4) Micro-SD card slot.
5) 720P video recording
6) Nice pre-installed Applications.
7) Automatic text scroll in browser if you double tap the screen.
8) Live wallpapers

Dislikes:
1) The much touted browser is choppy compared to my iPhone 3GS. Kinetic scrolling is there but iPhone has inertia kinetic scroll which is far far more usable in my opinion.
To give you an example: If I want to go down a webpage and I flick upwards to scroll, on Galaxy S the browser will not stop and keep going on until it reaches the bottom. What is the point of Kinetic Scrolling if I have to scroll using my fingers all the time to reach where I want to.
2) The pinch to zoom gesture isn't well implemented, more so in the browser where it stutters.
3) The phone gets hot with extended usage.
4) The screen becomes a pain after sometime because the contrast and color saturation is way too high. You sort of loose sense of contrast and saturation both.
5) Autofocus in the cam is not as snappy.
6) The interface is disjointed and does not feels like 'one' as in the iPhone.
7) Photo gallery takes a lot of time to open and the camera interface isnt as fast as well.
8) It has more settings for everything but the iPhone lets you do all those things and more without fiddling with too many settings.
9) For all those hardware specs - 1 GHz processor and the most powerful GPU on a phone, the phone feels decidedly slower than my yesteryear 3GS which has a 600 MHz CPU and an inferior GPU.
10) I am not a fan of Samsung or Android widgets. I feel they clutter the screen and are a drain on the battery. If I want some information I can always click the icon and get it
11) No way to close applications. If you come out of the application, it continues to run in the background and the same thing happens for upto 6 applications. If you open 7th one and come out, it will close. You have to install a separate app to close applications.

I have no idea how much of an improvement is the 2.2 Froyo build in terms of interface and how everything is wound together. I know the browser is fast but if gestures are choppy, I am perfectly happy with my iPhone which will open the same webpage some 10th of a second slower.

This is all I can remember as of now but will update if I am able to recall something else. As of now if you ask me to decide between 3GS and Galaxy S, I would pick up the Apple anyday. iPhone 4 I feel would be head and shoulders above.

[kaushik_s]

^^ May be you should've made this review on the Android phones thread instead of the iPhone thread as it was an Android phone review. Just an observation.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

My friend has already got the iPhone and without any contract from apple store. Yes, it's available now at apple stores without signing any contract with AT&T but the phone is still locked for AT&T(atleast that's what is written on the phone). It's available for approx 27.6k. Really good price considering it's around 40k+ here on the grey market.
Found some links for unlocking the iPhone 4. Please let me know if they are correct,
Jailbreak iOS 4.0.1 on iPhone 4, 3GS New Bootrom with JailbreakMe 2.0 Star [How to Guide Video] | Redmond Pie
Unlock iPhone 4, iOS 4.0.1 with Ultrasn0w 1.0-1 [How to Guide] | Redmond Pie

Yes contract less phone is available, but is it 4 or 3GS? I was not aware of 4 without contract.

Anyways look at iClarified - Apple News and Tutorials for latest updates and how to for JB and unlocks.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

^^ May be you should've made this review on the Android phones thread instead of the iPhone thread as it was an Android phone review. Just an observation.

Since its also a comparison with iPhone I thought it should be here as well.

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Yes contract less phone is available, but is it 4 or 3GS? I was not aware of 4 without contract.

Anyways look at iClarified - Apple News and Tutorials for latest updates and how to for JB and unlocks.

Even I got surprised but it's iPhone 4 and it was available without contract and for such a good price. I don't know what the catch here. I'm eagerly waiting to try the phone. I love the iPhone 4 for it's looks but can/will never buy one in Indian price which is/will be just way too overpriced. May be I will also get one later just for the heck of it if I get a good deal(like my friend got).

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Since its also a comparison with iPhone I thought it should be here as well.

Aah ok, that's also right. Yup the Galaxy S has some issues but many of those will be solved with the Froyo upgrade. I even had a crash when the phone stopped responding. Had to remove thhe battery to reboot. But as per usability is concerned I'm not finding any issue compared to iPhone 3GS. And even after all the smoothness of the gui in iPhone I feel the iPhone interface is due for a change now. May be it's about getting used to a phone, I'm now used to SGS interface and you are for iPhone interface. Infact many of my iPhone 3GS owner friends are now thinking of getting SGS And that's solely based on the fact that it can serve as an awesome portable media player.

BTW, I thought of getting the iPod Touch new gen but I was disappointed not to see the similar iPhone type form-factor :( I was expecting it to look similar to the iPhone but they've decided otherwise.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Aah ok, that's also right. Yup the Galaxy S has some issues but many of those will be solved with the Froyo upgrade. I even had a crash when the phone stopped responding. Had to remove thhe battery to reboot. But as per usability is concerned I'm not finding any issue compared to iPhone 3GS. And even after all the smoothness of the gui in iPhone I feel the iPhone interface is due for a change now. May be it's about getting used to a phone, I'm now used to SGS interface and you are for iPhone interface. Infact many of my iPhone 3GS owner friends are now thinking of getting SGS And that's solely based on the fact that it can serve as an awesome portable media player.

Its very hard to explain. Some very small details that I can show rather than write about but I will try with an example below.
As an example take screen rotation or orientation. In iPhone the object on the screen moves and and re-orientates itself on the screen while on the Android the screen blinks and the object appears in the correct orientation.
Similarly take kinetic scrolling for example. The iPhone implementation is far far better because it also implements inertia while Android one is patchy at best.
Compare pinch to zoom on the browser. Its very patch on Android even though it has much much better hardware than my iPhone 3GS.

Its the optimization where Apple is still the king. The only annoying thing is that you have to use iTunes for everything. That is the biggest negative as far as iPhone is concerned.

And all this when I actually wanted to like the Galaxy S and Android.

[kaushik_s]

Oh ok, got the point and even I was talking about the same thing when I talked about the smoothness of the iPhone GUI.

[Harbir]

I am very sorry to be asking a question that has surely been answered somewhere in this thread but I went nuts browsing through the 131 pages before I gave up and just thought I'd ask the question like a noob.

i have just returned to India for good from the US a few days ago. I have my iphone 4 and so does my wife, and I brought an unlocked one for my dad as well. I've jailbroken and unlocked mine.

my challenge is that I can't figure out where to get high speed good quality data service for our phones. We also have two 3G iPads, so I am rather keen to get data services figured out.

I learned that 3g is offered in india only by BSNL (MTNL in delhi), but people advise me that MTNL connectivity and coverage is horrible.

So what are my options. Who has the 2G data and voice performance? if I want to do 3G, is MTNL still worth pursuing or should i stick to 2G with Airtel, etc?


help!!

[FlyingSpur]

Harbir, welcome back did you bring back a car with you?

Guys, my brother just got an iPhone 4 and on startup, it says please enter a valid SIM card to continue. When connected to iTunes also it prompts for "activation". I was under the impression that it can be used as an iPod even without a SIM card in it. How do I figure out if it's factory unlocked or locked to a carrier? Also, I couldn't figure out how to use the SIM ejector tool. Just push it in? Was scared to apply too much force.

Going to Alfa today to get the SIM cut and a few accessories like screen guard, Capdase case etc.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by flyingspur

Harbir, welcome back did you bring back a car with you?

Guys, my brother just got an iPhone 4 and on startup, it says please enter a valid SIM card to continue. When connected to iTunes also it prompts for "activation". I was under the impression that it can be used as an iPod even without a SIM card in it. How do I figure out if it's factory unlocked or locked to a carrier? Also, I couldn't figure out how to use the SIM ejector tool. Just push it in? Was scared to apply too much force.

The phone I am afraid is locked. If it was unlocked, even without the SIM it should have booted to the spring board. You will have to wait for the unlock.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by Harbir

I learned that 3g is offered in india only by BSNL (MTNL in delhi), but people advise me that MTNL connectivity and coverage is horrible.

So what are my options. Who has the 2G data and voice performance? if I want to do 3G, is MTNL still worth pursuing or should i stick to 2G with Airtel, etc?

If you want high speed connection then BSNL 3G card is the only option, coverage is pretty ok in BLR. Or wait for Airtel to launch 3G services, though they already have microsim's which you can plonk in to your device and work with 2G speeds.

Originally Posted by flyingspur

Guys, my brother just got an iPhone 4 and on startup, it says please enter a valid SIM card to continue. When connected to iTunes also it prompts for "activation". I was under the impression that it can be used as an iPod even without a SIM card in it. How do I figure out if it's factory unlocked or locked to a carrier? Also, I couldn't figure out how to use the SIM ejector tool. Just push it in? Was scared to apply too much force.

You will know if its locked or unlocked only after installing a sim and connecting to iTunes. If its locked then it will say invalid sim. So first you need to get a microsim or chop and exist sim to microsim size.

Push the sim ejector tools pointed end into the sim tray and the tray will pop out. You dont need to use much force for this.

[FlyingSpur]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

The phone I am afraid is locked. If it was unlocked, even without the SIM it should have booted to the spring board. You will have to wait for the unlock.

Originally Posted by Jaggu

You will know if its locked or unlocked only after installing a sim and connecting to iTunes.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Went to Alfa today and got the SIM chopped. On the box of the phone, it says HK so basically it was factory unlocked. Phone is up and running perfectly now, all it needed was to be connected to iTunes to "activate". It's running on 4.1, which I guess means no JB for now.

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by flyingspur

Thanks for the replies, guys. Went to Alfa today and got the SIM chopped. On the box of the phone, it says HK so basically it was factory unlocked. Phone is up and running perfectly now, all it needed was to be connected to iTunes to "activate". It's running on 4.1, which I guess means no JB for now.

Hey where did ur brother get it from and how much. I am planning to get one from Hongkong. It is costing around 35k there.

[AbhiJ]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

The phone I am afraid is locked. If it was unlocked, even without the SIM it should have booted to the spring board. You will have to wait for the unlock.

Thats incorrect..

Even factory unlocked iphones boot up to the "connect to itunes" logo. Insert any SIM, connect them, and the apple "activates" the phone.

Have done the same procedure for a 3gs and 2 iphone 4's