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Author Topic: Samsung VIBRANT info? Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 07-29-2010 11:13 PM                        I have been with T Mobile for many years and very happy with their service and I have a service plan with them that is fantastic. Because of my loyalty with the company, I am now enjoying a plan that provides me with unlimited minutes for $49.95 a month. It is too bad iPhone is locked in with AT&T because I want one but not enough to drop T Mobile with their generous plan for the Apple phone. If I went with AT&T, my basic monthly plan could be over a hundred dollars with limited minutes. My T Mobile rep told me today about the Samsung Vibrant and how similar it is to the iPhone with a nice crisp display that is a little over four inches. I went online to read the reviews for this phone and the comments has been mostly positive except the battery life is not that good. Does anyone here have the phone and if you do, would you recommend I get it or consider something else? I work with a Mac and I was told, the VIBRANT is compatible with Apple and there will be no problem downloading pictures into the unit with my computer USB but how about downloading music and movies when the VIBRANT does not support iTunes. Is there another way to do it with my Mac without iTunes? -Claude  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-29-2010 11:39 PM                     btw, it's entirely possible to unlock the iphone to run on tmobile.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 07-29-2010 11:48 PM                        Yes, I know that but I chose not to do go that route especially if something goes wrong and I lose warranty service on the phone. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-29-2010 11:49 PM                     In the past, Samsung has been known to use a lot of proprietary file and data formats that don't play well with others. Regardless of your computer platform, it would be wise to check into this to be sure that you'll be able to transfer data back and forth between your computer and your phone without using special software or otherwise having to massage your data.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-29-2010 11:52 PM                     Buyer beware, Claude. Buyer beware.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-30-2010 10:20 AM                     quote: Claude S. Ayakawa I work with a Mac and I was told, the VIBRANT is compatible with Apple and there will be no problem downloading pictures into the unit with my computer USB but how about downloading music and movies when the VIBRANT does not support iTunes. Is there another way to do it with my Mac without iTunes? When it comes to smart phones isn't iTunes totally exclusive to the iPhone? I can't tell if the Samsung Vibrant will support iTunes AAC format music files. If it does, you should be able to just connect the phone via USB to your Mac and then drag and drop music files to it (if iTunes or the Mac OS Finder will let you). In the end you have to ask yourself if it's really worth it to pay a big price increase to leave T-Mobile in order to get an iPhone. What features are you gaining for the price hike and are those features worth it? If it was my choice I would probably stick with T-Mobile and get a new iPod touch instead. My smart phone can do pretty well playing music, but I didn't buy it for that. My primary portable music player is still a Sansa Clip+. It's a great, little device perfect to wear while working out or doing lots of other things. The Clip+ costs less than an iPod shuffle but does a lot more things and supports more music formats. I see plenty of people work out while wearing iPhones strapped on their arms. Nevertheless I think there's too much of an opportunity to break an expensive device like that in a weight room. I'm not going to sweat it so much if I crunch a $50 MP3 player.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-30-2010 01:27 PM                     quote: Bobby Henderson When it comes to smart phones isn't iTunes totally exclusive to the iPhone? There are a couple pieces of software out there to allow itunes to sync to generic music players, mass storage devices, etc. But they don't work with drm-wrapped files afaik. So I don't see why this wouldn't work with a smart phone.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 07-30-2010 06:43 PM                        Bobby, When I realized it was not practical to switch to AT& T for a iPhone, I did the next best thing by buying a iPod Touch because it is practically a iPhone without the phone. The reason I am considering getting a Samsung Vibrant is for the photo display features and it must also be a reliable telephone that I could use just as easily as my current Nokia telephone that has Bluetooth and a fairly decent camera and nothing else. I am not getting it to listen to music because I already have a iPod Touch and a iPod Classic. The photo display feature on the Vibrant is very important to be because it will give me the opportunity to show strangers some example of my work when they realize I am a photographer and curious about the kind f work that I do. I managed to use the iPod touch for exactly that purpose but there have been many times when I did not have the player with me and had to do without it by trying to convince the interested person I do excellent work. Since I never go anywhere without my phone, it will be great if the device will be like a iPhone and allow me to store some of my best work and show them to people on a four inch screen the Samsung Vibrant features. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Matt Johnston Film Handler Posts: 37 From: Fort Myers, FL Registered: Oct 2009 posted 07-30-2010 07:27 PM                     The Vibrant is part of Samsungs new Galaxy S line. Sprint is getting the Epic, AT&T got the Captivate, Verizon got(getting) Fascinate. All are essentially the same phones with minor variational differences. As far as transferring photos, music, movies, etc. It's easy to do as long as you are "fluent" with computers. You basically just drag and drop it onto the SD card on the phone and access it through the photo/music app on the phone. I would thoroughly recommend going to AT&T or Verizon and playing with the other versions of the phone and seeing if it's something that you like or not. For what it's worth, it's an android phone and android isn't as user friendly as the iphone, but once you get used to it you'll imagine how you ever used anything else.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-31-2010 04:58 PM                     I think Samsung has some sort of UI layer on top of the Android OS, similar to the HTC Sense UI for HTC-brand Android phones. HTC Sense is pretty easy to use. Don't know about the Samsung UI, but I hear it's better than a vanilla Android OS UI. The Samsung Vibrant's AMOLED-based screen is one of its big selling features. Very good color/contrast quality. To be fair, most new smart phones do a very good job of displaying graphics.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-08-2010 07:03 PM                        I finally bought a Samsung Vibrant yesterday from Costco at a a terrific price. The T Mobile store sitlll wants two hundred fifty dollars plus tax up front with a two year renewal. The only good thing about their offer is a mail in $50.00 rebate. Most other stores representing T Mobile including Best Buy are selling the phone for $99.99 plus tax with no rebate. Costco is selling the phone for $150.00 plus the tax for the full price of the phone and the total comes to about $170.00. The best part of Costco's offer is a $100.00 mail in rebate and I got a nice case and a car battery charge for the phone. After the rebate, the out of pocket cost was about $70.00. None of the other stores give you a case and the charger including the T Mobile store. I originally wanted an iPnone but I have enjoyed the service T Mobile had provided me since 2002 and because of my loyalty, I have a plan that provides me with unlimited minutes for about $40.00 and unlimited wireless internet service for another $40.00. With the wonderful T Mobile service I have been enjoying, it was not worth switching to AT & T for a iPhone. I am glad I had waited because my new Vibrant looks exactly like a iPhone and does everything I think a iPhone does. Loading photographs and music from my iPhoto and iTune library into my new phone was not as difficult as I thought it would be after the young man at Costco who sold me the phone had downloaded some software into my new phone.. All I had to do was to just drag what ever I want downloaded on the phone into the Vibrant Icon on my computer desktop. The only think I now have to learn is how to use some of the other usual applications that came with my phone. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-09-2010 05:01 PM                        I am extremely happy with my Samsung Vibrant except the sound when I listen to music. Compared to the excellent sound I get on my IPod Touch and Classic when I listen to music with my Shure noise canceling headset, the sound from the Vibrant really sucks. I do not know if my phone's sound setting is not set properly or the sound is really that bad. You would think since Samsung went to all the trouble creating a great phone with a lot lot of cool features, they wold make sure the sound will also be fantastic when listening to music with a high quality noise cancelling headset. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-09-2010 06:21 PM                     Check your sound codec and bitrate. Many sound files obtained through iTunes Store and ripped from CD via iTunes are coded in the AAC format. (Advanced Audio Codec) IIRC, it is supposed to be a lossless format but I think the bitrate can affect quality. Regardless of the technical details, if your music files are obtained from the iTunes store they might be coded in a format optimized for the iPod. In which case, another non-Apple device might not give optimal playback. I'm not sure but this is my first thought. I'm not familiar with the Vibrant but there might be a setting that can be changed but I don't know for sure.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-09-2010 07:43 PM                        Thank you, Randy, After playing around with my Vibrant phone today, I did find a way to adjust the sound quality. The simple way is to select the type of muisc I listen so I selected Classical. When I did, the sound quality was very good but my two iPods still sound better. I think I will play around with the stereo sound equalizer on the phone tomorrow and perhaps I can get my Vibrant to sound just as good or even better than my iPods. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-10-2010 07:10 PM                        It looks like there is no more interest in this thread anymore but I would just like to sign off on it by saying that I was able to get my new Vibrant to sound better. Not only is the sound better, it is now comparable to my iPod Touch or just slightly better and sounds awesome!. Now that I got the problem solved, it s time to download a lot of my favorite music from iTunes into my new phone -Claude  |  IP: Logged

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