Galaxy S II difference between models

[12Chris34]

I've been waiting for the new S II Skyrocket, and now decided to go with the previous one. ATT corporate stores don't have it. Best Buy has it, but different models are listed - Model: i777  and Model: SAM T989 Galaxy S II. What the difference between these two?

[arienette]

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12Chris34 wrote:

I've been waiting for the new S II Skyrocket, and now decided to go with the previous one. ATT corporate stores don't have it. Best Buy has it, but different models are listed - Model: i777  and Model: SAM T989 Galaxy S II. What the difference between these two?

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Pretty sure the I-777 is the non LTE version for AT&T, and not sure about the other one. 

[foxbat121 ACE - Master]

Any model starts with T is a T-mobile version, not AT&T version. For Samsung Smartphones on AT&T, it always starts with SGH-ixxx.

[12Chris34]

I was waiting for the LTE version cause AT&T pulled all the S IIs from their stores. It's just too dang big. Both of these are on the Best Buy site - their the previous versions - not LTE.

[foxbat121 ACE - Master]

The non-LTE version is SGH-i777. The LTE version is SGH-i727

[Wild Banchi ACE - Master]

I can easily see how someone would get confused by this. Samsung should have named the Galaxy S II LTE something else. Perhaps the "Attain", for which the original S II was going to be called.

Releasing these phones within weeks of one another does not help much, either. It will likely be difficult for people to distinguish which variant of the Galaxy S II they have - the original one, or the LTE version.

[raiu]

Will the original s2 stil get ICS?

[foxbat121 ACE - Master]

Of course, probably before Skyrocket.

[raiu]

Why do you say that? What are you basing your comment on? You think Samsung is not going to abandon the Org S2?

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foxbat121 wrote:

Of course, probably before Skyrocket.

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[Entropy512]

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raiu wrote:

Why do you say that? What are you basing your comment on? You think Samsung is not going to abandon the Org S2?

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foxbat121 wrote:

Of course, probably before Skyrocket.

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The original GS2 is their flagship device.  The I777 - not quite, but it's about 95%+ identical to the I9100.

The Skyrocket, along with the T-Mobile T989, are abominations that are completely undeserving of the Galaxy S II name.  There's a reason the T989 wasn't even allowed out of the lucite box at the August GSII launch event.  The T989 and I727 had their design compromised to fit nonstandard radios - instead of Samsung's own Exynos, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon that needs to be clocked significantly higher (1.5 GHz) to even match the Exynos at 1.2 GHz.  Higher clock means more power consumption - remember the Pentium 4, the chip that ran hot and didn't perform that well compared to the Pentium M or AMD Athlon XP/Athlon64?  The Snapdragon is the same deal.

The Skyrocket is fat, heavy, poorly performing, and a niche device with no commonality with anything else on the planet except for the T-Mobile T989.

The I777, on the other hand, is 95%+ identical to Samsung's international flagship, the GT-I9100.

Supposedly the I9100 is going to get ICS in December or January.  Expect unofficial ports to the I777 within a few weeks of that.  Now official upgrades from AT&T - don't get your hopes up, but that's another reason to avoid the Skyrocket.  No commonality means no other device to leverage for update sources.

[raiu]

Thank you! That made my mind up about calling in and letting them have it.

I just bought the Org S2 2 weeks ago. I was wondering if I should call to switch it out. I live where there is currently no LTE so thats a big push to keep what I have as well.

[davidusr]

Abomination is pretty harsh.
The Skyrocket is great for anything you want to do with. If you want to change ROMS, you should go with the OGSGII because the Skyrocket wont have much support. But im pretty sure, the average user wont notice much, if any difference between the two. Unless your in an LTE market and run data speed tests.
Most people are clueless to "quadrant scores" or Antutu. Im familiar with and still went with the Skyrocket, mainly because im in an LTE area. The few games I play... No performance difference between the two. But, this only my opinion.

[foxbat121 ACE - Master]

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Entropy512 wrote:

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raiu wrote:

Why do you say that? What are you basing your comment on? You think Samsung is not going to abandon the Org S2?

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foxbat121 wrote:

Of course, probably before Skyrocket.

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The original GS2 is their flagship device.  The I777 - not quite, but it's about 95%+ identical to the I9100.

The Skyrocket, along with the T-Mobile T989, are abominations that are completely undeserving of the Galaxy S II name.  There's a reason the T989 wasn't even allowed out of the lucite box at the August GSII launch event.  The T989 and I727 had their design compromised to fit nonstandard radios - instead of Samsung's own Exynos, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon that needs to be clocked significantly higher (1.5 GHz) to even match the Exynos at 1.2 GHz.  Higher clock means more power consumption - remember the Pentium 4, the chip that ran hot and didn't perform that well compared to the Pentium M or AMD Athlon XP/Athlon64?  The Snapdragon is the same deal.

The Skyrocket is fat, heavy, poorly performing, and a niche device with no commonality with anything else on the planet except for the T-Mobile T989.

The I777, on the other hand, is 95%+ identical to Samsung's international flagship, the GT-I9100.

Supposedly the I9100 is going to get ICS in December or January.  Expect unofficial ports to the I777 within a few weeks of that.  Now official upgrades from AT&T - don't get your hopes up, but that's another reason to avoid the Skyrocket.  No commonality means no other device to leverage for update sources.

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I agree. I will never wait AT&T for an update. Leaked ROMs are my cup of tea. For example, I have leaked AT&T GingerBread ROM on Captivate before last summer. Now I alreayd sold my Captivate and the official GingerBread release is still no where to be found from AT&T. I'd expect the same for ICS release. I will get leaked ICS ROMs long before AT&T release them. And I'm confident i777 ROMs are easier and quicker to come by thanks to its 95% resemblence to i9100.

[12Chris34]

Oh jeesh, I went to the AT&T store today and decided to get the Skyrocket, mostly because it is a lot less expensive than what is was said to be, is LTE ready, and didn't seem as cumbersome as the specs seemed when I read them. The original S II costs twice as much! AT&T corporate stores don't even have them.

What determines when Android is upgraded on any particular smartphone?

[Ann154]

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12Chris34 wrote:

Oh jeesh, I went to the AT&T store today and decided to get the Skyrocket, mostly because it is a lot less expensive than what is was said to be, is LTE ready, and didn't seem as cumbersome as the specs seemed when I read them. The original S II costs twice as much! AT&T corporate stores don't even have them.

What determines when Android is upgraded on any particular smartphone?

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A) if the specifications can handle the android update and B) whenever ATT decides to release the update. The kicker will be part "B" and its time schedule.

[Entropy512]

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12Chris34 wrote:

What determines when Android is upgraded on any particular smartphone?

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Many factors influence it.

1)  Manufacturer themselves - some aren't good about updates, however Samsung themselves are great about it if external factors don't come into play.

2)  The device itself - if it is a major flagship device with lots of sales, it's more likely to get updates.

3)  Carriers.  Some carriers delay updates more than others.  AT&T is notorious for being the worst carrier in the United States in these regards, and United States carriers generally have a bad reputation compared to the rest of the world.  We're about the only market where major carrier customization/mangling is common.  As an example, someone did an analysis of what Android devices received Android 2.2 (Froyo) in 2010 - AT&T was dead last with ZERO Froyo upgrades by the end of 2010.

The AT&T delay issue is why I no longer touch devices that don't have a high degree of commonality with an international flagship version.  The Infuse was a nightmare, porting firmware from the I9100 to I777 is EASY.

AT&T claims that they hold back updates like this for quality reasons, but that's clearly not the truth, considering how any AT&T variant of firmware is full of bugs NOT present in the original international versions.  For I777, as an example - AT&T bloatware apps, AP Mobile widget, PIN pattern timeout bug, battery life - it turns out that even after a massive and aggressive debloating of AT&T stock firmware, there's STILL something in there that eats battery.  It's not huge (on the order of half a percent an hour in good signal, 1-1.5%/hour in weak signal) compared to the battery capacity, but compared to what the device can do when running a hastily ported XXKI3 ROM from the I9100, it's massive - The I777 running an XXKI3 (I9100 ROM ported to I777) is the first device to achieve drain less than 1%/hour at my desk at work (which has extremely weak signal) - it's usually 1.5-2%/hour there.

[Entropy512]

More bad news for the Skyrocket:

AT&T put Carrier IQ into the thing.  Enjoy the spyware, Skyrocket owners!

[raiu]

Yep, to log every site, place and app you go to:

http://www.carrieriq.com/overview/mobileservice/index.htm

"We know you don't just want data, you want to solve business problems and identify new business opportunities. The IQ Insight application suite uses data from the MSIP to deliver true Actionable Intelligence, tailored to specific business areas. From the performance information to support the launch of a new phone or service to historical information to understand in detail customer behavior and usage patterns, the IQ Insight suite cuts through the complexity to allow you to focus on critical business issues, create and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and all in the knowledge that the data is measured at the point the customer experienced it – in the phone."

[raiu]

oh and this too looks really invasive:

http://www.carrieriq.com/overview/IQInsightServiceAnalyzer/index.htm

Visualize Service Quality and
Performance as Delivered to Users

IQ Insight Service Analyzer delivers the next level of visibility into mobile service quality and performance. Based on Carrier IQ's leading Mobile Service Intelligence Platform, IQ Insight Service Analyzer uses data directly from the mobile phone to give a precise view of service performance as experienced by the subscriber of clear insight into the detailed interactions between the service and device.

With services becoming more diverse and complex, monitoring and systematically improving performance is increasingly challenging. Sampling techniques such as focus groups and drive tests provide localized data only, not the detailed view of the services as delivered to the whole customer base that you need. IQ Insight Service Analyzer delivers quality and performance information, measured at the point of delivery – in the mobile phone – to provide an unparalleled level of quantitative information on which to base business

[davidusr]

Carrier IQ is probably here to stay. I've never heard of it until now, but, you can bet it will probably be in most, if not every smartphone from here on out. So, unless you plan on staying with the OGSGII, you'll have to deal with it sooner or later.

[12Chris34]

This is just to enhance the smartphone experience...not. Isn't that special. So ya think this is gonna be integrated in the next version of android? How conveeenient!

[mylasher]

Not only every site, place, and app, but every launch, tap, activity, and close while in those apps, secure or otherwise.

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate]