i920 Owners Read This.

[Guest fire3element]

Well this is my first post. Hello to all. Been a long time lurker, just never had a reason to speak up. I pretty much just read what the others have to say, and mind my peace.

Now is my time to speak to the world. I, along with many others have been angry/upset at the performance of the i920. In particular the Program RAM ISSUE !!!

Today was not a good day. I am so sick of the way Samsung has treated this phone that I am at the point of no return. I either want the RAM issue fixed or I WANT MY MONEY BACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So today, I made a few phone calls. First I spoke with Verizon on the problems with this phone. Of course I got the usual response, "We can replace it with a Certified Warranty Replacement". That means a REFURBISHED phone. ABSOLUTELY NO WAY. I have a 300 page book that I could write about my last Verizon 2 year contract experience. Had a simple LG VX8700 that was nothing but trouble after the first refurbished replacement. I went through 8-9 of that handset and even had to pay Verizon a $50 Warranty Fee due to their screw up. I ended up with the last phone that would not receive a phone call on over 50% of the calls, randomly called people, randomly opened camera and took pics with the phone closed, randomly changed background pics, and on the ever so too often convenient occasion DELETED ALL MY CONTACTS !!!!!!!!!

So if you think that a "Certified Warranty Replacement" is good as a new phone, WATCH OUT.

Now on to the i920. Samsung has refused to reply to any question regarding the low RAM issue with this phone. I find the phone quite useless. My old beat up Omnia 1 does way better at web browsing.

First off, the VerizonWireless.com website clearly states that the phone has 208MB of RAM. That is not possible since RAM doubles in size at every increment. So it either has to be 64, 128, 256, or 512 MB. Verizon's mistake on that part. The other side is that Samsung Level 2 Tech Support argues with me that the real specs on the i920 is 64 MB of RAM. I said, "Excuse me, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!!!!" <<< More on that in a second

Next phone call I made was to Samsung Tech Support. I was on the road at the time and I didn't have my phone with me. But I did manage to get my foot in the door with this 35min long phone call. I argued with the guy for a while, and basically taught him what the physical make-up of the phones memory was. He simply did not understand what RAM was. He kept trying to tell me about the ROM. I explained it once if not 10 times to him that the RAM and ROM was not the same. I do not know if he ever did comprehend what I was telling him, but the phone call ended with I would be elevated to Level2 Support once I called back with my i920 in hand. I said ok, and was never happier to end that brutal phone call.

So I get home at 6:30ish (Central Time) and made the next dreaded call with the i920 in hand. First I went through the Level1 Support and explained to the lady that I already had an open troubleshooting ticket, and that I was to be elevated to Level2. Of course she insisted that I tell her the problem so that she could help me resolve the issue. I wasted no less than 40min in the Level1 Pit Hole. And of course she was Indian or whatever as was the guy from the previous call. They barely understand that the Phone has a Power Button, much less anything of technical detail. I expected this already, but what a waste of my cell minutes.

I finally get to the Levev2 Dungeon. Lady was nice, but was a drone like the rest. She kept telling me that the i920 only had 64 MB of RAM. I didn't know if I should laugh, cry, or PULL EVERY LAST FRIGGIN BODY HAIR OUT. She obviously was not a "Tech Support" much less a level 2 ! Why don't they call these Level1 PC Monitor Reader or Level2 Online Instruction Manual Translator. I mean C'Mon.

Back to the topic. I spent around 20min in the Level2 Trench plus the 15min hold time to get there. I kept explaining to her that 64MB was technically impossible. She didn't understand a bit about it. Level2? Really? She insisted that I go to Verizon and get a Refurb or send in the phone to Samsung for repair. The repair consisted of reflashing the phone to the last update. I told her that it was not a problem that could be fixed with a flash. It was a defect from the development of the phone. She kept insisting that I take the routes that she mentioned earlier. I insisted and stood my ground.

LEVEL 3 - The Wizards Lair.

So I didn't give up. Lady from Level2 said she would elevate me to Level3. I said "Bout' Time". The wait time was much less for this level. I finally got though to a very nice lady (english spoken none the less) who's name I will not mention yet. She was very kind and understood the situation. On top of that, she actually understood the architecture of a phone. WOW I sayz. I once again explained the situation to her, but this time without the school lesson or repeating myself every other breath. I finally got her to agree to contact the developer to get some answers about the software and RAM issues. She apparently knows the guy and kept referring to him as a close associate. She took my email down and told me to give her 24hrs and she would have some answers for me. I do hope that we get to the bottom of this and solve my $300 paper-weight problem.

_END Phone Call 1:19:20_ ( that is 1 hour and 20 minutes)

Sorry I know that was long, but please read it all if you didn't already. Besides, it makes for a good bedtime story. LOL

This is why I don't post too often. I do hope that the wasted time was worth the effort in the end, besides that this is LOOOOOOOOOOOONG Over Due.

I will keep you guys updated with what I find out. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Guest achugar]

Interesting. Im live in Uruguay (south america if someone doesnt know). After reading your post and others in the past i have to say that im surprised about customer care of major corporations. I had the impression that here in my country, especially in the south end of south america we have horrible companies in terms of customer care or attention (wetheaver is named). But after your post and others i realize that a lot of hugh compnies around the world have problems with the attention that they provide to us (the customers). It is a global problem.

About the problem itself. Yes you are right about some things about this phone, especially the RAM problem. And i think you are right to call them. It is incredible (for me) that companies like Samsung or Verizon create problems instead of solutions even with stupid problems. For example, i think that the touch player software that samsung create for the omnia 2 is almost useless, when you have more than 500 mp3 files is soooo laggy that desesperates me. And i think is incredible that a company like Samsung couldnt make a decent player in 2010.

One more thing, i know that is a lot of work make this companies to answer you but keep in mind that lou live in the US, probably the best country in terms of customer cares. Think that here is much much difficult even with problems that are much evidents

So keep us updated about what happen. Sorry for my english.

[Guest azza6]

_END Phone Call 1:19:20_ ( that is 1 hour and 20 minutes)

Wow. Epic post dude, hope you can help the rest of us out through this! :)

[Guest blaziblade]

So... How much free RAM do your i920 have exactly?

[Guest fire3element]

Yes I believe that the USA is the best country on earth. At the current rate that our government is taking, we will be worse off than the UK in just a few short years, but that is another topic for another day.

This in not my first run-in with Samsung customer service. I bought a $2400 52" LCD TV around 2 years ago that Samsung never fixed. I ended going back to the Sears store I got it from and selected another model, which cost me $450 more. No problems with that one so far. So to say the least, I had a little leverage to work with.

On the RAM. I believe on the stock WinMo rom I had somewhere around 50ish MB with the TouchWiz and Widget stuff running. After I turned those off, I got around mid 60 MB range.

The problem is that the phone was advertised to have 256MB and the WinMo settings show that it only has 148MB. Where is the rest? Does it even exist? Can we use it? This is the aim of my phone excursion.

I will keep you guys posted on my findings. Peace out...

[Guest sinancetinkaya]

fire3element

I understand very well what you're feeling right now. Contrary to your thought, I8000 really has 256 mb ram. But huge amount of ram is allocated for hardware processes like Phone chip, Hardware acceleration unit, etc.

I agree with you, most of smartphone companies are deceiving us. When any company says that our product has 256 mb ram memory, I expect the free ram to be around 200 mb, not 60-80 mb :@

[Guest ED2O9]

In my experience, your best shot at a resolution is with Verizon... and it's probably not the answer everyone here would like. If you've been a Verizon customer long enough (6 years for me) and have a spotless record of paying your bills on time, they will bend over backwards to make you happy.

Edited October 8, 2010 by ED2O9

[Guest micmac]

Wow. Epic post dude, hope you can help the rest of us out through this! :)

yes would like to read all of the outcome pls :D

[Guest fire3element]

Yes, I am overall happy with Verizon's customer service. However, at times I am not so impressed with Verizon. Especially when it cost me money out of pocket due to their ignorance. They probably have a 50 page log of info from the last 2.5yrs of phone calls from me. I have made some pretty large waves in the customer service department.

Funny you mention the Droid X. I am posting from it as I speak. This is the phone I really wanted from Samsung, but with WinMo. Verizon let me upgrade to it a few months early due to the known problems with the Omnia 2. I am more than happy with Verizon at the moment. But even though Verizon let me get this phone, I still have the $300 door stopper to stare at me in my nightmares.The Droid X phone is great minus a few set backs. The camera is not as robust or crisp as even the Omnia 1. For my line of werk the text photo feature of the omnia was perfect. I frequently take pics of data tags on A/C units and kitchen equipment. The omnias excelled in the camera department hands down. The Droid X has a 8mp camera so the size is large enough to make up for the loss of clarity, but it could have been better.

The other issue is the battery life. 1 day life at best. Main problem is all the crapware that Moto runs in the background. You can't kill the stuff or uninstall it. That's where I miss my WinMo.

Anyone want to help me port WinMo to the X? LoL

Still no email from Samsung. They gotz 3hrs and counting. If no reply in 24hrs, she said to contact her via email and request an update. I might give her till tomorrow since she was so helpful.

I am not out to make enemies (yet). I just want some answers.

(this post brought to you in 15min, by Swype on the DroidX)... Yeah itz that good :)

[Guest Echo30]

Wow. Epic post dude, hope you can help the rest of us out through this! :)

[scruffy_second.jpg]

Good stuff fire3element, I'm very interested to see how this turns out. The performance on this device is horrid at best.

Edited August 4, 2010 by Echo30

[Guest fire3element]

Thank you my friend.

Well I just got off work and no email yet. It is 8:45pm now,and she said give her till 6:30pm.

As I stated above, I will give her till tomorrow afternoon. If no email by then, I will contact her for an update.

Will let you guys know as soon as I find something.

P.S. I don't give up easy!

[Guest geebox]

You guys would be better off installing a custom Rom from here rather than waiting on some answer from corporate will respond with a real solution.

[Guest Echo30]

You guys would be better off installing a custom Rom from here rather than waiting on some answer from corporate will respond with a real solution.

It's not that simple.

A ) Not sure how many others, but personally I have no idea how to do that, and don't want to risk bricking my phone as I would be device-less if I did.

B ) And with that in mind, flashing I'm pretty sure voids both your warranty and the insurance I pay for every month

As it stands now, it's just above the line that I can put up with it, so I'll just look forward to minor tweaks and hopefully an answer from Samsung while I wait out the time before I can afford another device, or for that matter one comes out that I want to get.

Edited August 4, 2010 by Echo30

[Guest ED2O9]

Even with the leanest ROM available, running a frontend like Titanium or iPhoneToday, the most RAM I have available is around 70MB after a soft-restart. That will dwindle down to less than half within a normal day of use. CleanRAM set to level 3 will restore some of it, but not all. So, even taking steps that the average Omnia 2 user wouldn't, I have to do a soft-restart at least 2 or 3 times a week. How often does an Android or iPhone user have to jump through these hoops just to keep their device operational? I have to wonder how many people who have no idea how to reset their Omnia 2 (or even have the slightest clue what RAM is) are walking around with a $200 paperweight because of this issue.

[Guest Omega Ra]

Even with the leanest ROM available, running a frontend like Titanium or iPhoneToday, the most RAM I have available is around 70MB after a soft-restart. That will dwindle down to less than half within a normal day of use. CleanRAM set to level 3 will restore some of it, but not all. So, even taking steps that the average Omnia 2 user wouldn't, I have to do a soft-restart at least 2 or 3 times a week. How often does an Android or iPhone user have to jump through these hoops just to keep their device operational? I have to wonder how many people who have no idea how to reset their Omnia 2 (or even have the slightest clue what RAM is) are walking around with a $200 paperweight because of this issue.

okay, all of this has nothing to do with the O2 specifically...this is a problem with WM..has been for years. WM has bad memory management, specifially gwes.exe and unfortunately there is nothing we can really do about it. AMD Zero has come out with a ROM or two that has slightly better memory management, giving around 90-94MB free RAM at boot, and it releases a little better. But his ROMS are only for the Verizon i920. Basically this is just how WM works, but WP7 is a start from scratch thing and will hopefully be better.

[Guest ED2O9]

I know that the memory leak is a WM 6 problem, but I thought that it was more of an issue for the Omnia 2 due to the limited amount of memory to start with. Do HTC phones have this same problem? I don't know since I've only owned Samsung Windows Mobile phones.

In regards to AMDzero's ROMS, they were the ones I was referring to as the "leanest". Although, I've never had more than 80MB on any of his ROMS, even after a reset. It will launch at around 83MB, then starts to drop. S2U2 kicks in and it settles around the mid to low 70s. He just released a couple new ROMS this week with better initial memory, but I haven't had the chance to flash one yet.

[Guest Echo30]

I know that the memory leak is a WM 6 problem, but I thought that it was more of an issue for the Omnia 2 due to the limited amount of memory to start with. Do HTC phones have this same problem? I don't know since I've only owned Samsung Windows Mobile phones.

In regards to AMDzero's ROMS, they were the ones I was referring to as the "leanest". Although, I've never had more than 80MB on any of his ROMS, even after a reset. It will launch at around 83MB, then starts to drop. S2U2 kicks in and it settles around the mid to low 70s. He just released a couple new ROMS this week with better initial memory, but I haven't had the chance to flash one yet.

The only HTC I've had was the original HTC Touch running wm6.0 (later got a refurb with 6.1).

It was worse than the O2. But that was HTC's first real push so it may be better now.

All I know is once my O2 is done with, I'll be going the Android route. And the lag problems mean I'll most likely be avoiding Samsung devices in the future (attribute it to Windows sure, but it's still a Samsung device).

[Guest fire3element]

Well, steal no werd frum tha sammy lady. I ges i am gonna hafta eeemail er'. I will sind er' eh messge n a momint.

I ceep u guyz postdead.

(and yes, that is proper engrish) LoL

Edited August 4, 2010 by fire3element

[Guest Omega Ra]

Well, steal no werd frum tha sammy lady. I ges i am gonna hafta eeemail er'. I will sind er' eh messge n a momint.

I ceep u guyz postdead.

(and yes, that is proper engrish) LoL

sadly I could actually understand that...

[Guest tedkord]

The only HTC I've had was the original HTC Touch running wm6.0 (later got a refurb with 6.1).

It was worse than the O2. But that was HTC's first real push so it may be better now.

All I know is once my O2 is done with, I'll be going the Android route. And the lag problems mean I'll most likely be avoiding Samsung devices in the future (attribute it to Windows sure, but it's still a Samsung device).

Samsung makes great hardware, but they're awful with software/GUIs. TouchWiz was crap on the Omnia, it's even worse with TW2 on the Omnia II. HTC makes nice hardware (usually), but it feels cheaper (less soild and well built). However, their GUI's are awesome, and they take pains to optimize them on their hardware. Sense/TFT3D/TFT2D always run buttery smooth on the device they're native to.

I've had a number of Samsung phones - dumb and smart. Hardly an issue with any of them. I had an LG VX8300, and went through 4 of them before I got one that was defect free. Even tried upgrading the the VX8600, but it was total junk. .

The Omnia and Omnia II are great, but they take some work. Custom ROMs from the incredible chefs we're lucky enough to have here, better Today programs (SPB Mobile Shell 3.5, Sense ported over, etc...), and performance tweaks all made both phones 3000% better than stock. My buddy at work has had iPhones since the original. He alwys comes to me if he need internet access on his laptop at work - the iPhone won't tether. My Omnia did with WMWifiRouter, and my O2 does with CM Internet Sharing. I can download pretty much any video/music file online and watch/listen to it on my phone. He needs to go through iTunes, and the files have to be in the format the iPhone only plays.

[Guest tedkord]

Anyone want to help me port WinMo to the X? LoL

Ask that on the XDA forums, and you'll get the same kind of funny looks as the guy who ported TouchWIZ to other devices. Why? It's like trying to port DSL speeds onto my cable modem. :)

I know what ya mean, though. I also like WinMo - but can admit it's looking pretty long in the tootk compared to the competition. iOS4, WebOS, Android. they all have it all over our WinMo.

[Guest ED2O9]

Still, no response from your Samsung contact? Please don't tell me you're throwing in the towel already!!!

[Guest fire3element]

No, I'm not giving up yet. I shot her an email back on Wednesday afternoon, and have not heard back since. I tried to call Samsung today, but I missed their Level3 daily business time by an hour. (it is 9:00-6:00pm EST).

I get so busy during the day that I forget to call early on. I simply did not have a chance to call today, otherwise I would have done so.

DON'T LET ME FORGET GUYS. I will be "hot on the trail" on Monday. (if I can remember) LoL

[Guest azza6]

Well.. It's Monday today. (In Australia) So... Remember! lol.

[Guest fire3element]

QUICK !!! EVERYONE GO TO THE VERIZONWIRELESS WEBSITE AND NAVIGATE TO THE I920 SPEC PAGE. ONCE ON THAT PAGE, SAVE THE PAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER.

I will explain why later. PLEASE WE NEED AS MANY PEOPLE TO DO THIS AS POSSIBLE!!!