Samsung Galaxy

[TRNCVaughan]

Taking into account the favourable Euro exchange rate, where is the best place to buy a genuine (not copy) mobile phone? North or South?

[Keithcaley]

eBay!

Have it shipped to a P.O Box in the South (You do know someone who has one!)

[Johnny Lee]

Try Laconic , Lapta/Alasncak, near to Flower Fairy, I fetched one recently from UK and saved very little.

[karmels]

I have just purchased a Samsung s5. I also was worried about copies so chose to buy it in the South and get the full EU guarantee.
I purchased mine from the phone shop in the Ikea mall, you could also look in Public upstairs.

Keith.
If you look at Ebay they sell these phone from all sorts of countries in the far east and your guarantee is not worth anything.
If you had watch the programe Watch Dog they covered this problem just before Christmas with a new Samsung s5 which should have 16meg had only 4meg which the average buyer would not know, plus a lot of other problems with this model.

[terry2366]

Bought all my phones from ebay without problems. Buy from reputable dealers their feedback is on view, read the wording carefully and pay by paypal. It's the safest money back guarantee on the planet.

[Keithcaley]

karmels,

I didn't watch the programme, and sadly, it wouldn't have done me any good because I bought my S3 mini in July last year.

The dealer had a high rating, with 100% positive feedback, and is still listed on ebay and is based in UK.

The 'phone was described as '8GB' and it never occurred to me to check that it actually did have 8GB.

Of course, now that I've had a look, I find that it's only got 4.5GB total space listed under 'Device memory'! - unless I can't read properly

You live and learn, don't you?

At least that was a comparatively cheap lesson, and to be honest, the 'phone works fine with ~4GB.

I will report the situation back to ebay, and to Paypal, and to the seller, although it may be too late to start going down the 'complaints' route.

Ho hum... I'll let you know how I get on.

Listen to your old uncle karmels, folks!

[karmels]

The other thing Keith is if these devices go wrong it is a problem getting it back to the UK.
The Samsung s5 is the same price ( nearly ) across the board if they are a lot cheaper I would be very careful even if the seller has a good track record.
I use Ebay for shopping but draw the line when something that cost hundreds of pounds. I like a reliable guarantee.

[Keithcaley]

Well, Paypal don't want anything to do with it, as it is now over their 6 month cut-off time.

So much for the "safest money back guarantee on the planet"

I've attempted to contact the seller via ebay, although he doesn't appear to be selling anything at the present time...

Let's wait and see.

[CatalkoyChris]

4.5 gig could be what is left after the OS and apps have taken up space

[Keithcaley]

Chris, I think that you could well be right.

I looked at a 'review' site, and it did say that on this 'phone, although it is called 8GB, there is only about 4GB available for the 'User'.

Egg on face time, methinks

It is rather weird, though, that the 'phone reports 'Total space' under 'Device Memory' as 4.55GB, rather than reporting 8GB, and showing the amount taken up by the operating system on the pretty (pretty useless ) coloured bar chart...

I think that I'll go back to the old wind-up 'phone, at least you could have fun electrocuting people with the ring tone generator !

Now if only they'd bring out a Taser App for mobile 'phones...

[erol]

Chris, I think that you could well be right.

I looked at a 'review' site, and it did say that on this 'phone, although it is called 8GB, there is only about 4GB available for the 'User'.

Egg on face time, methinks

It is rather weird, though, that the 'phone reports 'Total space' under 'Device Memory' as 4.55GB, rather than reporting 8GB, and showing the amount taken up by the operating system on the pretty (pretty useless ) coloured bar chart...

I think that I'll go back to the old wind-up 'phone, at least you could have fun electrocuting people with the ring tone generator !

Now if only they'd bring out a Taser App for mobile 'phones...

Well it is showing those parts of your storage you can actually do something about. So it does not show what is being used by the android OS itself because you can not just remove or delete this. The other categories you can do something about. So it splits these into different categories under different colours and if you touch the relevant category (like apps for example) it then lists the apps that are using the storage from the biggest to smallest, and from here you can just touch the relevant app and uninstall it. Likewise with the other categories , pictures - audio - downloads etc. I think it is a pretty good interface for managing storage on an android device. It only shows 'things' you can do something about and then it categories and list those in a sensible way and gives you means to remove them once you have identified them.

As for taser app have a look here - may not be legal in your jurisdiction however.

http://www.thehomesecuritysuperstore.co ... uns-sub=39

[Keithcaley]

Thanks Erol,

I can see the logic behind it - reluctantly! - and yes, the bar 'thingy' does have its points...

Your link made me laugh out loud, 'cos I started imagining holding one of those up to my ear, accidentally pressing the wrong button, and Zapping my head!

I'll still be eating humble pie though, if the ebay vendor deigns to get back to the numpty who complained...

[erol]

I'll still be eating humble pie though, if the ebay vendor deigns to get back to the numpty who complained...

Nothing 'numpty' about it as far as I can see. Manufacturers and vendors should be a lot clearer about how much space is left for the user when they quote storage sizes. At least you are not looking to sue Samsung or the amazon vendor. (ps beware this link has an advert on it with some pretty horrible music - so maybe turn your volume down before clicking on it)

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/02/technol ... e-lawsuit/

[karmels]

Hi Keith, I received a update on my fairly new s5 today. I am running 4.4 ?? kitkat version of the operating system the new version is 5.?? lolipop.
I googled this and found it is not all that good, low battery life, phone gets hot ect ect. Needless to say I will stick with the kitkat version.

[sophie]

Oh deary, deary me. So glad I went "independent" and didn't follow the lemmings who believed there were only two choices of phone i.e. Apple and Samsung. I've known from date one what I had so have no illusions as to its capability.

[Keithcaley]

Oh deary, deary me. So glad I went "independent" and didn't follow the lemmings who believed there were only two choices of phone i.e. Apple and Samsung. I've known from date one what I had so have no illusions as to its capability.

That's really helpful, thank you so much.

And I'm so glad that you are all right (Jack)