[Vibrant General] Poser:
So I ditched WinCE for iOS... and now I have ditched iOS for Android. The Vibrant is my first Android device (and my first foray into a Samsung Mobile device... I am an unabashed HTC Fanboi). What has struck me, after sifting through numerous forums and entertaining a myriad of debates... is the wide of array of problems users have encountered... and their utter surprise (and sometimes outrage). Now, far be it for me to judge any other persons experiences... but I feel that I should remind everyone that most if not all Hi-tech product launches are plagued with some issues (some major, some minor) and that the burden (and duty) of early adopters is to wade through these issues and help mature the community and product. Now if these issues prove to be a hardware failing or unacceptable QC...then carries and manufactures should be held responsible to make things right. However, software issues (which is what I would attribute to most if not all the Vibrants problems to)... are ALWAYS going to be fleshed out with greater acuity and action by a large, well-informed and ambitious user base. We are just better suited and more motivated to do so than Corporate programmers... who are usually on deadlines and have more than one project cooking.

With that said, if you are unhappy with the device... by all means, return it. That is your right as a consumer (and is protected by the 14 day remorse period).

Anyway here are some facts about my user experience... since they seem to have been more favorable than a lot of other peoples:

1. I purchased my Vibrant on launch day, with a ship date of 7/8/2010

2. I did in fact have flaky GPS out of the box (1-3 min initial locks, not always... but enough to be considered an "issue")

3. The compass is for all intents and purposes unusable (however, the fact that it has been identified as an issue between raw and polled/avg data can be overcome with software coding).

4. I did not experience what I consider to be lag (coming from iOS or WinCE... I know lag)... however my App base is still rather small (20 non-stock)

5. I have yet to root my device... but did not have market issues on either 3g or wifi (yet)

6. I did apply GPS fix ( with multiple configs... eg: standalone plus new supl data, hot v cold start, ms based...etc) and did find that it did provide faster locks... but still, would not consider it a true "fix")

With all of that said and all that I read (righteous indignation and all) I almost succumbed to popular sentiment and swapped my device for a new one.

Instead, I went with a factory reset and had the following observations:

1. The device did seem snappier... but this may just be perceived rather than actual.

2. Stock settings on GPS have all of a sudden performed much better. I did not perform fix and I am getting consistent lock under 25 sec, navigation works exceptionally well, and both GPS status and test apps confirm 2-4 sats in use. Now again, this is still sub-par performance and a fix needs to be pushed OTA ASAP.

3. 3G and wifi perform the same (which is flawless... so no complaints)

Ultimately, I think TW 3.0 was not fully baked... and given the hardware on this device, it begs for Froyo (or GB beta ;) ). Given time, some serious empirical testing and enough research... I truly believe all issues are faulty firmware and not a Hardware or QC problem. Now I could be wrong... only time will tell.

But when it is all said and done, I love my vibrant... and Android is the shizzzz.

When I root, I will post any issues that result.