A Look into Gingerbread on Galaxy S

Maybe this is the first time I am writing an article about the Android platform. Which is a pretty neat OS!

I wanted to blog about this as soon as I got the phone back, but withheld it due to an issue with their font, which will be explained in the post later.

Got my phone updated to the latest Gingerbread Android release by the customer service people at Dhoby Ghaut on Monday! I called into the hotline to know that they released it a week ago! =( Why didn't they tell me???



Anyway, the say you got to go down to the service centre as there is an issue with the Kies detecting the new firmware.

Compared to the service centre at Jurong Point, this one larger and more comfy! No pictures to show cos I sent my phone into them mah!

Anyway, here is my take on the Galaxy S's Gingerbread update.

[caption id="attachment_1302" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Gingerbread on Galaxy S - Phone Information"][/caption]

Nothing much changed, you will not really notice the small differences here and there.

First of all, the status bar! The status bar icons becomes cleaner and smaller. Cleaner icons (less colour) to the new icons. It is either grey, white or green.

[caption id="attachment_1301" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Android 2.3 on Galaxy S"][/caption]

The download manager is now an icon in the app drawer!

The boot-time, interface and running of programs are significantly faster. Usually my facebook app will hang when I try to run it, now it loads within 5 seconds.

Not much changes after all.

Things that fall short of my expectations:

The option in settings for USB mode "Ask on connection" is gone!!!! =(

Active market downloads, Winamp status all are using black font. Bad contrast. For this, I made two trips down to Samsung Service Centre @ PS, only to find out that this is default with Android. The stupid CSC agent on Samsung Call Centre tell me to go down, go down, go down, to the SSC but proves to be a wasted trip.

[caption id="attachment_1303" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Bad Contrast"][/caption]

Plus, I was expecting the "Hubs", Live Panel, and other improvements that touchwiz 4.0 was offering in SGS II but it isn't there!

MY TAKE: For those using Galaxy S, stick to Android 2.2. This upgrade is not worth it if you are not really into slight speed and simple cosmetic improvements. Nothing significant has changed. If touchwiz 4.0 (the same version used on SGS II) is used for SGS, this will be a better upgrade.