the bigger of the two problems was my battery life. it showed significant drains after half a day of average use. patch now shows accurate power level which means my phone won’t shut down with a half loaded battery.

other people made references to the gps eating up battery cycles, and i’d noticed it appearing to struggle to get a signal whenever i had it active. now, it doesn’t continuously probe for satellite signals anymore and seems to pinpoint my location promptly.

the battery fix is why i upgraded and has made my experience with the moment so much better. and i was hoping this patch added over the air (ota) abilities for future upgrades.  brighthand posts that if i want to get upgraded early, i can take it into the store.  ota upgrades will come a couple of weeks later.  if i can get the upgrade this coming week, i’d spend some time in the sprint store.

pros:  the screen is very nice.  there are a bunch of apps that have been already built for android.  plus i can get an sdk to build app myself.  i like having a better browser to hit the net compared to a stripped down version on my rumor.  google maps plus the device’s gps is a great combo.  i found a nice secure shell (ssh) app which drops me right onto any unix/linux box for which i have credentials.  integrating my google calendar with my device’s calendar is a huge time saver.

cons:  the camera is a little delayed to taking pics, as i have read–still adjusting to that.  i have to get used to plugging in my phone to keep it active in the twenty-four.  i am still learning to be more careful with it since the screen is very important.

i am also hopeful that the change in plan to accommodate the new phone will resolve the billing issues i had with sprint last time i made adjustments.  at this point, i’m good with things.  all is finally good.  this makes me happy with sprint again.

some of the other things i find gloat worthy:  i had cut/copy & paste from day one.  i can run multiple apps at once…from day one.  have better coverage than, say, at&t from day one.

i’m happy with this purchase.

the videos below demonstrate the unboxing of the moment and an initial review of the phone.  the phone is reviewed having android 1.5 (cupcake).  there is integrated gmail and google calendaring support, youtube video application, exchange server connectivity (which i probably wouldn’t use), and an exceptional amoled display.  he does give the keyboard a bad rating, but this guy doesn’t seem to have used a phone with a slider keyboard before.  having the separate row of keys for numbers is way better than having to hit some shift key to type them.  having to do that currently is not convenient.

samsung moment for sprint (part 1 of 2)

samsung moment for sprint (part 2 of 2)

you can get some more details and some pics on engadget’s mention of the moment.  it comes out on november 1, next sunday.  outside dealing with sprint’s sales people and current contracts, i hope to make a smooth transition to this phone.

this past week as i was looking over my sprint bill, i found that instead of adding a line to share the minutes, sales lady had added a second phone plan to my account!  i was being charged over $75.00 for that particular line.  so, i found sprint’s chat feature and started conversing with a customer support representative.  when i told her what had happened, she checked on things, found we should have been sharing minutes, and told me she could fix this. my blood had started to simmer when i first saw the bill.  this turned down the pressure.  but then she told me that the best she could do was to adjust this amount down to $25.00 per month for the line, not back down to $15.00.  it seems the system they use won’t allow for those adjustments.  i asked for a manager.

i was transferred and proceeded to explain my situation to him.  he looked things over and told me the same story that the previous customer service rep had just told me:  the best he could do was $25.00 per month for this line and the system wouldn’t allow for any lower.  they will make an additional $120.00 this year if this cannot be changed because their system prohibits them?  in addition, they technically are in violation of the verbal agreement i made back in november.  and if they are technically in breach of this agreement, i could get out of my contract sans penalties.  the sales lady screwed up and screwed me.

he kept asking me if the reduction was something i wanted to do.  what i wanted sprint to honor the agreement they made to me.  since that wasn’t going to happen with these two employees i told him i’d accept the price adjustment down to $25.00 and the reimbursement for the overcharging and to put a note in the ticket that i was not pleased with this solution and would further pursue holding them to the promise.  having done this in a chat session, the whole conversation is logged.  my mistake was calling them to handle ordering the phone in the first place without recording the conversation.  from now on, i will either deal with the sales reps over a chat technology, in person at the sprint store, or using some recording method (like skype) when i must call over the phone.