[3GScottishUser]

Well after getting the message by text from Vodafone I could not wait to download the latest firmware to upgrade my Galaxy S.

The usual nonsense with Samsung Kies (the bloated hellish software you have to use to perform a firmware upgrade) as it could not find the phone! After several reboots and upgrade of Kies it got it and as my work uses a proxy server I had to use my Vodafone USB Dongle to get Internet access to download the upgrade file. Pretty respectable it was too with speeds of up to 4Mbs but it's a big file (190MB) so it probably cost about £3 in data but who cares!

The Galaxy S is a fabulous product. It's display is fantastic and it has some brilliant featues but Android Eclair was slow and painful at times to the point where frustration made you shake the thing when it froze thinking about stuff.

The good news is that the upgrade to Froyo (Frozen Yougart - all Android releases are named after deserts) was easy and straightforward. After the upgrade was installed it took only a few minutes for the handset to reboot and get down to business. You have to replace all your shortcuts on the display screen but after that has been done it's business as usual.

What a difference Froyo makes to the Galaxy S. It's now faster and so far it has not stalled or hung even when using the apps store whaich was a real pain with Eclair.

Flash is now integrated so you can view BBC News videos directly from the website and there have been some other useful tweaks including colour on the settings icons and a GPS button on the status screen.

The Galaxy S now behaves quite differently with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and seems to be able to handle multi-tasking much better than before. I also notice the battery drain is less since the upgrade.

All in all, a nice upgrade and I'm looking forward to 'Gingerbread' which should improve the experience even more.

[Ben]

I'm glad to hear you've finally joined the 2.2 ranks ;) There's no doubt in my mind that the Galaxy S is a fantastic value proposition now that the latest, albeit rather old now, version of Android is available to you.

Samsung appear determined to be the new Nokia of the smartphone age. They have access to pretty much the same processor as Apple, their own didplay tech, and Flash galore. I just hope they keep the Android updates coming... the software side is their biggest vulnerability.

[chaslam]

Hhmm Ive just gone to check mine, and it says "this phone cannot be updated" which is strange seeing as its an unlocked generic version of the phone!

[The Mullet of G]

When it comes to Samsung and updates there is always going to be issues. They did the same with their Symbian phones, they tend to send a phone out into the wild and abandon it. Hopefully they will improve, as they definitely have the hardware.

[Ben]

When it comes to Samsung and updates there is always going to be issues. They did the same with their Symbian phones, they tend to send a phone out into the wild and abandon it. Hopefully they will improve, as they definitely have the hardware.
I have to say, this is my impression of Samsung also. Buy for what it is now, not what it could be.

[3GScottishUser]

My experience with the froyo Update has been very positive. I liked the Galaxy S before with Eclair but it had a tendancy to stall and that was very frustrating at times.

Froyo seems not only to have addressed that issue, as the response times are now noticably much faster, but has also massively improved battery life on my handset.

Seamless viewing of BBC and other embedded video on websites is another major benefit and improvements have been made to simplify the connection of the handset for data transfer using Kies (the Samsung bloatware).

All things considered I'm impressed so far and have been using the phone's facilities more comfortably since the upgrade.

[miffed]

The usual nonsense with Samsung Kies (the bloated hellish software you have to use to perform a firmware upgrade) as it could not find the phone! After several reboots and upgrade of Kies it got it and as my work uses a proxy server I had to use my Vodafone USB Dongle to get Internet access to download the upgrade file. Pretty respectable it was too with speeds of up to 4Mbs but it's a big file (190MB) so it probably cost about £3 in data but who cares!


WTF ?? Seriously you can't just perform OTA upgrades ? Every other Android I have had does ?

[3GScottishUser]

WTF ?? Seriously you can't just perform OTA upgrades ? Every other Android I have had does ?

No you can't and just as well as it's a 180MB upgrade! That would be a huge chunk of the 500MB many Mob Ops have as their 'Fair Use' Allowance.

Samsung only allow firmware upgrades via their software.

[miffed]

Does the Galaxy S have Wi-fi ? - I agree , I wouldn't really want to do an upgrade over 3G - but not over wi-fi either ? ... and not option to chuck an update.zip / update.pkg on the SD card and flash manually ?
....And people call the iPhone "locked down" :D

[Ben]

OTA updates are one of my favourite things about Android - my Nexus One has never been connected to a computer! Quite right too.

[3GScottishUser]

Samsung seem to have opted for the Kies upgrade method to ensure that contact data and other files have a backuip facility. They have gone one step further and not only offer a backup to your PC but to their own server but that has privacy issues and is not something I feel comfortable with.

The Froyo upgrade should be managable by most with even a modest knowledge of PC use but I agree that over the air upgrades would be far less hassle allbeit a tad more risky.

[Hands0n]

The problem with Kies is that it is only available for the Windows OS. There is no variant for Mac, Linux or anything else. Ok, fair enough, Samsung are going for the bigger market. But to take a mobile device OS that is predicated on OTA for its updates and limit it to using their own proprietary PC OS only increases the fragmentation of Android.

But at least there is a world of choice in respect to Android devices. So thats okay then :)