The official Samsung i7500 'Ask Paul' thread

[Guest Paul]

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" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340">So far the world of Android has been dominated by HTC, but there's now a new player on the scene... Samsung, with their i7500!

Specs wise the i7500 looks good with it's awesome AMOLED screen, 8GB of onboard storage and 5 megapixel camera with flash. On the flipside, it is very much a 'plain' Android implementation (although this is not necessarily a bad thing) and the device is slightly lacking on the RAM front, matching the HTC Dream and Magic rather than the better equipped Hero.

Check out the unboxing video posted here, and if you have any questions, feel free to post below!

P

[Guest Vap1d-]

Hey Paul,

I know you have built a custom rom for the device and I was wondering, what all is involved in doing so? I moved to the Galaxy from the T-Mo G1. As a long time G1 user (since a few weeks after it's release) I have been using custom roms for quite some time, but have never delved into the creation or modification of one. In particular I am curious what it would take to port a custom rom developed for the G1 to the Galaxy. I really love Cyanogen's rom and the Donut features he has included.

Point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[Guest ccsnet]

He he.... lock key.... I cant belive I was sat there going its on the side Paul.... no not that one :)

Design wise I still think this looks load better than the Hero and the OLED vs Transflective in the Hero is defintly brighter although I have heard it can look at little washout out in the light.... I may be wrong.

I'd be really intrested in how the 8gb looks to the phone.... eg I know its only got a 192mb ROM so is it 192 + 8gb or 8192mb that it sees ? Even more so when you add the SD card in......

Apart from that a nice box but I cant help thinking the HTC one is better for the enivorment.... eg I bought a HDMI splitter this week,... only a small one but the box was solid card ( thick stuff ) with a glossy front which flipped up to show this little thing through a window..... the box even had a magnet to hold the lid..... OVER KILL....

I spose where I am going with this is on future reviews perhaps take enviromental impact of the packaging in to accout on the review.... just a rambling thought.

Terran

Edited September 23, 2009 by ccsnet

[Guest BandedHawk]

I'm slightly worried that its graphics platform might not be exactly up to the task. I understand the developers of Speed Forge 3D have noted that the frame rate is slow (2FPS) and the game leaves graphics artifacts on screen for the i7500. They're working with Samsung on the problem - but it doesn't bode well for OpenGL games at this point. They might just have an older or buggy implementation of the OpenGL library (we hope). I guess we'll know more. I'm hoping people who have one can comment on it's ability with 3D games and other applications that might push the boundaries.

[Guest Paul]

He he.... lock key.... I cant belive I was sat there going its on the side Paul.... no not that one :)

Design wise I still think this looks load better than the Hero and the OLED vs Transflective in the Hero is defintly brighter although I have heard it can look at little washout out in the light.... I may be wrong.

I'd be really intrested in how the 8gb looks to the phone.... eg I know its only got a 192mb ROM so is it 192 + 8gb or 8192mb that it sees ? Even more so when you add the SD card in......

Apart from that a nice box but I cant help thinking the HTC one is better for the enivorment.... eg I bought a HDMI splitter this week,... only a small one but the box was solid card ( thick stuff ) with a glossy front which flipped up to show this little thing through a window..... the box even had a magnet to hold the lid..... OVER KILL....

I spose where I am going with this is on future reviews perhaps take enviromental impact of the packaging in to accout on the review.... just a rambling thought.

Terran

The data partition is mapped to 1GB of the 8GB, the other 7GB appears as '/sdcard', and the real SD card is '/sdcard/sd'. Quite strange!

P

[Guest ccsnet]

The data partition is mapped to 1GB of the 8GB, the other 7GB appears as '/sdcard', and the real SD card is '/sdcard/sd'. Quite strange!

P

Very.... Cheers.

Terran

[Guest yosnoor]

Can you tell us what the AMOLED screen looks like outdoors? All the brochureware states that it's supposed to be great in sunlight, but all the implementations so far have had really poor outdoor performance. Is this one any different?

[Guest shambolic2000]

Hiya, just a couple of questions -

Is there a firmware release after H8?

Do you think there'll be a way to get Divx functionality on the phone?

Any news on a stable HTC sense port?

Thanks

[Guest pegasus21]

Hiya, just a couple of questions -

Is there a firmware release after H8?

Do you think there'll be a way to get Divx functionality on the phone?

Any news on a stable HTC sense port?

Thanks

There's the II5 firmware that was just released.

As for divx, probably 3rd party software.

I wouldn't put my hopes on the sense but i assume it would run right if there's the swap.

[Guest danimar]

Hi Paul, props for your custom Galaxy rom! In the few days that new firmware II5 has been out I've heard that it improves notably battery life, but I also heard that the 1-click rooting process does not work anymore with it. My question for you was, while I wait for your custom rom based on II5, would it be possible for me to take the stock II5 firmware and simply swap the included recovery.img for the hdblog.it modded version and then flash it as normal? If it worked (it seems to good to be true), would the "enable root" command included in the modded recovery.img work as it did with IH8?

I want to keep using SetCPU (to enhance a little bit more battery life by underclocking) and Autostarts (to disable apps on startup) so rooting is key.

Thanks for all your hard work for the community!

Edited September 28, 2009 by danimar

[Guest Tisti]

Hi Paul, props for your custom Galaxy rom! In the few days that new firmware II5 has been out I've heard that it improves notably battery life, but I also heard that the 1-click rooting process does not work anymore with it. My question for you was, while I wait for your custom rom based on II5, would it be possible for me to take the stock II5 firmware and simply swap the included recovery.img for the hdblog.it modded version and then flash it as normal? If it worked (it seems to good to be true), would the "enable root" command included in the modded recovery.img work as it did with IH8?

I want to keep using SetCPU (to enhance a little bit more battery life by underclocking) and Autostarts (to disable apps on startup) so rooting is key.

Thanks for all your hard work for the community!

You could always permanently flash the recovery.img?

[Guest danimar]

You could always permanently flash the recovery.img?

Will the actual modded recovery.img always be compatible with all future firmware versions?

[Guest oo03sjw]

I find the side screen lock really annoying, is this only me?

Can this be configured to bring back the normal screen lock and use the button for something useful?

Great work!

[Guest zic68]

Hi, Paul.

Could you help me? I am in trouble..

I realised that my Galaxy does not recognise the internal memory(8GB), it says only 31mb left.

However, if I connect to PC, I can access the internal memory as a mass storage.

I brought Samsung repair centre, but they refused it with funny reason.

I checked its firmware it says I7500XXID3, not sure how come...;)

I thought it might be a firmware..so I tried to flash with Odin

but not successful as it says <1> e - big partition size!!

Also, I tried fastboot flash but I stuck at

C:\tools>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

sending 'recovery' <2966 KB>...OKAY

writing ' recovery'.... FAILED <remote: flash write failure>

Thus I am wondering about whether you can help me.....?? please.

cheers

david

[Guest kam187]

Hi, Paul.

Could you help me? I am in trouble..

I realised that my Galaxy does not recognise the internal memory(8GB), it says only 31mb left.

However, if I connect to PC, I can access the internal memory as a mass storage.

I brought Samsung repair centre, but they refused it with funny reason.

I checked its firmware it says I7500XXID3, not sure how come... ;)

I thought it might be a firmware..so I tried to flash with Odin

but not successful as it says <1> e - big partition size!!

Also, I tried fastboot flash but I stuck at

C:\tools>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

sending 'recovery' <2966 KB>...OKAY

writing ' recovery'.... FAILED <remote: flash write failure>

Thus I am wondering about whether you can help me.....?? please.

cheers

david

Try to mount the internal storage and format it with the PC. Also try a factory reset.

Check out androidforums.com, and you'll find the new k4 firmware and odin instructions. The big partition size usually means the tar was damaged or you used a wierd program to remove the CSC. use jzip to remove the CSC if you dont want it.

D3 is a very very old firmware version. WTF did you get this phone? D3 = April build 3, before the phone was even anounced!

[Guest zic68]

Thank you for your reply.

I got it from ebay, I tried to contact the seller but no response. After I googled it, it seems this firmware was for a sample at the announcement.

I will get back to you once I try your solution.

cheers

david

Try to mount the internal storage and format it with the PC. Also try a factory reset.

Check out androidforums.com, and you'll find the new k4 firmware and odin instructions. The big partition size usually means the tar was damaged or you used a wierd program to remove the CSC. use jzip to remove the CSC if you dont want it.

D3 is a very very old firmware version. WTF did you get this phone? D3 = April build 3, before the phone was even anounced!

[Guest adamedoe]

I have the same problem. By using a partition software, I can see that the phone's storage capacity is actually 8Go, but I can't access it from the phone or by using the samsung software, and Odin tells that something's wrong with the partition size, I guess because it can't use it or something.

My question is, what should be the internal storage format? I mean, if I wanna format it myself, which one should I use?

Another detail ~ when I mount the internal storage, it gives me an empty folder. Should I find something inside? is it normal to be empty?

Thanks for your help!

Edited December 31, 2009 by adamedoe

[Guest gioack]

Hi Paul and hi everybody i want to put the nexus one rom onto my galaxy... anyone knows how to do it?

thank you.