Using the S7 on holiday

[pedro_]

Just had a week's holiday in Malta.

Have some good and bad experience with the S7.

My phone battery died so I used the S7 instead, I found it great, much better reception than my HTC Hero.

I had installed the Brut version of Google Maps and downloaded all the tiles I though I would need before we went. It worked fine in the car, I found it absolutely useless in the open air, the display is impossible to see.

Battery life was as predicted - barely an hour in Google maps up to 2 hours emailing.

I felt a lot less self conscious using the S7 sitting on a wall outside a bar using their free wifi, done it before with a netbook and found that rather uncomfortable.

Verdict,
Very pleased overall
Carry spare batteries
Carry a golf umbrella for use in bright sun
Install Brut


Pete, on the move...

 

[xaueious]

I had a trip to Ottawa and was using 3G and GPS a couple of months ago, when I was experimenting with using the S7 has a full phone replacement.

The resistive screen is really poor for use in the winter with bare hands, because fingers get stiff from the cold. It's kind of a trade off, because I found myself poking too hard at the screen. Did not realize it was even an issue until the trip. Should have worn some cloth gloves.

The S7's battery was a bit of a pain, and I found myself too self-conscious of having to turn the screen off to preserve battery life while limiting the S7 to a charge a day. I think the Green Power app helped tremendously in helping preserve battery life. It did hold up for a good 6-8 hours on moderate usage on a single charge, which was still a little bit on the short side.

Using the screen in full brightness drains while using both 3G and GPS battery really fast, but when you are outdoors for navigation you need to use the S7 like that.

You have to be conscious not to use wifi unless you absolutely need to. If you need to, doing so with the phone radio turned off via airplane mode helps lots.

It's great for in-car or indoor use. As long as you can charge between stops, taking it around is not a problem. But getting an extra travel charger or battery is essential for getting the most out of the device if you want to use it on-the-go. The extra screen estate makes it great to have.