ATIV S - 6 weeks later.

anon(5571020)

New member
Jan 10, 2013
47
0
0
Visit site
My observations of the ATIV S after 6 weeks of ownership. These are MY observations and relate to ME; YMMV and all that. . .

Pros
Nice looking if not outstanding
Removable battery
SD-CARD slot
great screen
large capacity battery


Cons
buttons - volume button could do with a little dot on to help feel it - for me its a bit too flush with the body of the phone.

buttons - stupid positioning; volume on opposite side to the power button resulting in volume being changed when switching phone off. Net result over a few hours is that volume is left a very low levels. Missed calls and reminders. This is one of the most irritating things about this phone. The power button should have been on the top or the volume buttons should be on the same side as the power (like the Lumia 920)

headphone socket - in normal use I put my phone top down into my pocket (so when I take it out its in the correct orientation for use) - having the headphone socket on top of the phone means I can't do that (like I did with my HD7)

no audio DSP - seems like a glaring ommission. How can anyone make an audio playback device of any kind that doesn't give you audio settings (base and trebble at an absolute minimum)?

no offline navigation - although this is now solved to an extent by Nokia Drive Plus and isn't really Samsung's fault per se. Drive plus is a far cry from the likes of Tom Tom or Co Pilot, on android or windows mobile but at least its there and is offline.

SD-card problems - may be a WP8 issue, but this is my biggest bugbear with this phone. It has soured my experience of it completly. One of the two main reasons I bought the thing is the sdcard slot (the other being the removable battery) and its all but unusable. If I get away without sdcard "corruption" ** for more than two days I feel like I'm living on borrowed time until it craps out and lets me down. **its not corrupt just seems to have the "removed unsafely" bit set and the only way to fix this is have a Windows PC scan it. PITA.

Slippery! - solved by putting a ($30!!) Zagg invisible protector on the back so it no longer wants to slip out of my hand every time I pick it up.

Camera lense - this just confuses me in that I cannot for the life of me figure out why they built it like this. . . when you put the phone down (on its back as you will because face down is chancing scratching the screen!) the thing that protrudes the most from the phone is the plastic cover for the camera lens!!!! Why is this not recessed to avoid surface contact (like and HD7) and thus damage/scratching? Its not like Samsung have never built a phone before . . . are all their phones like this?


Would I recommend this phone to anyone else? No I wouldn't. It doesn't live up to my expectations. That being said, I will stick with it in the hope that MS/Samsung fixes this seriously irritating sdcard issue and because there's nothing else with similar specs that has a removable battery (I find just having two fully charged batteries at my disposal a much better and easier way of dealing with battery life issues. It saves the usb port, hunting for charger, will it make morning with this charge? issues. I guess a Lumia 920 with charge plates at work, home, in car etc would do but that's a higher cost and not as portable as just carrying a couple of batteries.

So overall, love WP8 but don't like the phone. Perhaps I'll try a Lumia 920 and see how I get on with that....

-Griz
 

martinmc78

New member
Oct 30, 2012
2,745
0
0
Visit site
It does seem that all the phones now have the headphone input in the top of the phone. Coming from an HD7 like yourself i do find it really annoying and its a shame that HTC have followed the crowd and put the headphone input in the top on the 8X.

I was going to wait for the ATIV-S originally but after playing with an 8X on launch day and then playing with a colleagues GS3 i knew i would find the ATIV too big to be comfortable after a while. Its good to see a review from someone thats used it extensively for their main device for over a month. After reading your views it doesnt seem like it would have been worth the wait for me, kinda glad i went with the 8x
 

mms-pc

New member
Dec 26, 2011
184
0
0
Visit site
>>no offline navigation
Speaking of Nokia Drive, I just downloaded Nokia Drive Beta from marketplace, as I clicked to use, it simply came up with a message saying SD card unusable, and the only thing I could do is to exit it. Is is possible that I dedicate my SD card for video/music/images storage?
 

HeyCori

Mod Emeritus
Mar 1, 2011
6,860
67
48
Visit site
Microsoft and Samsung are teaming to tackle enterprise. Maybe MS/Sammy will add some exclusive business related apps to make the Ativ S more unique.
 

conanheath

New member
Sep 10, 2012
450
0
0
Visit site
What in the world is the problem with W8, RT, and WP8 and removable storage? I see problems all over the place with Nokia and Samsung SD card problems. And the whole RT situation with SD card. Is this a permanent issue or a MS dragging their feet? I was hoping to get Ativ next only for SD card support. Thanks for ruining my dream. 😂

Sorry, didn't mean to high jack thread. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
 

crystal_planet

New member
Jul 6, 2012
1,018
1
0
Visit site
What in the world is the problem with W8, RT, and WP8 and removable storage? I see problems all over the place with Nokia and Samsung SD card problems. And the whole RT situation with SD card. Is this a permanent issue or a MS dragging their feet? I was hoping to get Ativ next only for SD card support. Thanks for ruining my dream. 

Sorry, didn't mean to high jack thread. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Like anything else, this affects some users, some not. I have a 32 gb card in my Surface and run movies from it without issue, I have a 16 gb card in my Ativ, again without issue.
 

zaneiken

New member
Jan 23, 2013
7
0
0
Visit site
I have a 64GB Sandisk micro SD card in mine and have never had an issue.
Being in Australia, I don't have access to Nokia Drive+ beta yet, but Samsung AU did provide us with Navigon for free.
 

anon(5571020)

New member
Jan 10, 2013
47
0
0
Visit site
Navigon for free is awesome. Its ?72 here in Europe! I can buy a decent dedicated satnav for that! I like the look of Navigon and wrote to them asking if there was any chance they'd bring the price down. No was the reply.

the only advantage that I can see that Nokia Drive plus has over navigon is that its maps are also available to other apps that are installed on the phone. Other than that Navigon has better "standard" navigation app features.
 

travisel

New member
Sep 9, 2012
292
0
0
Visit site
Last edited:

conanheath

New member
Sep 10, 2012
450
0
0
Visit site
From what I'm reading, a lot of people are having issues with class 10 cards... SanDisk, in particular.

I read somewhere that the red/gray 64gb sandisk had a high failure rate. I also read that before you use card, copy a huge amount of data to card to see if it gets hot. It will get warm, but should not get hot. I have two 64gb sandisk bought at amazon and have had zero issues running them in any if my devices. If the card checks out, format and use. If Nokia won't run them, I would say its a problem with Nokia or MS.
 

slalom

New member
Dec 17, 2012
13
0
0
Visit site
I like my ATIV....much better battery life than galaxy or any ios.

Headphone jack and volume buttons are slight annoyances. I have a 32gb MicroSD that seems to work without any problems.

Bigger issue for me is lack of apps, and although I'm sure more apps are being added all the time, none of the ones I need are.

Looking for RBC (hey, doesn't matter what device, but if your bank doesn't have an app, it sucks!), Scene (Cineplex), and Waze would make it a better experience for me.
 

travisel

New member
Sep 9, 2012
292
0
0
Visit site
I used my brothers' Samsung 64GB micoSD Class 10 for a week no problems with Samsung micoSD brand! "Work awesome in my brothers' Samsung Note 2 as well!" 😁

I own a Samsung 32GB micoSD class 10 with no problems! 😎

So people before you accuse ATIV S with a micoSD problem it maybe the brand your using could be faulty or a bad yield problem!

Samsung make's it's own 20nm memory and micoSD cards.

Who makes the memory in SanDisk micoSD cards? Maybe we can figure out who has yield issues.
 

tboy2000

New member
May 29, 2012
279
0
0
Visit site
I am happy with my Ativ S but agree the placement of the volume buttons in line with the power button is stupid and frustrating. In order to press the power button, say to do a screenshot with the home button, you need support from the left side of the phone. Am constantly accidentally pressing volume keys at the same time. Arghhh!
 

Ray Adams

New member
Jul 3, 2012
993
0
0
Visit site
You ruined my idea to exchange HTC 8X to ATIV S. I hate HTC because of stupid power button on top of the phone. And I thought that Samsung will have better button positions. But volume level buttons, problems with SD card! Oh my goodness. :(
I didn't buy Lumia 920 because I don't need stone brick in my pocket ! :(

There is no perfection in the world.
 

tboy2000

New member
May 29, 2012
279
0
0
Visit site
You ruined my idea to exchange HTC 8X to ATIV S. I hate HTC because of stupid power button on top of the phone. And I thought that Samsung will have better button positions. But volume level buttons, problems with SD card! Oh my goodness. :(I didn't buy Lumia 920 because I don't need stone brick in my pocket ! :(i have zero problems with sd card. Yes button placement is not perfect, but all still doable. There is no perfection in the world.
 

travisel

New member
Sep 9, 2012
292
0
0
Visit site
You ruined my idea to exchange HTC 8X to ATIV S. I hate HTC because of stupid power button on top of the phone. And I thought that Samsung will have better button positions. But volume level buttons, problems with SD card! Oh my goodness. :(
I didn't buy Lumia 920 because I don't need stone brick in my pocket ! :(

There is no perfection in the world.

All the WP8 phones that came out Q4 2012 are all first generation and if you wait till Q2 2013 second generation WP8.1 phone's are coming + Microsoft official Surface Phone WP as well. 3rd wave of WP should be around Q4 2013.

I have the ATIV So awesome! Very happy coming from WM6.5 to WP8....bye bye LG IQ!.... Hello Samsung ATIV S. 😎
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,913
Messages
2,242,887
Members
428,004
Latest member
hetb