Galaxy S hardware longevity and buying from abroad

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vortex_mak

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HI,

I have been thinking of buying HTC Legend | Desire or Samsung Galaxy S
I wanted to know whether I can get warranty support if I get it from Singapore or US with bill, ideally they should as the phones have been or will be launched here.

Although Galaxy S' hardware is quite powerful, what about its dependability, for example the Samsung phones dont last as long as Nokia's. What I mean is how is Samsung's track record with respect to the build quality and longevity of its hardware ?

Thanks
 
^^ You have to inquire about global warranty with respective manufacturers. Most brands do not offer global warranty (not at least in India). Its easy for them to check if a phone was not sold though official channels in India and then deny warranty.

As for durability, I am not sure how the newer high end Samsung phones fare, but I have one Samsung clamshell at home and it has been working flawlessly for the last 8 years.
 
Thanks nemesis,

i was thinking of going in for the Desire or Nexus One. Although the desire will cost me 25k instead of n1s 24k. I will surely buy the desire if I can get warranty in India for a phone bought from the US.

My friend bought an LG cookie from Singapore and his display was changed when he faced some problems by the customer center here.

The only problem is that HTC customer care will surely say No, if I ask them directly. I want to know if anyone's had a real world experience.

Although the Samsung Galaxy S really scores with respect to 3D performance, I doubt developers will make application which can run only on the SGS. Plus 1-1.5 years down the line samsung might not support the phone anymore, just like SPICA, Galaxy i7500, whereas HTC G1 updates are still being put out by modders.

Thanks
 
^^ I think the desire is a good choice. Do let me know where are u getting the desire for 25k & N1 for 24k.....

:)
 
Plus 1-1.5 years down the line samsung might not support the phone anymore, just like SPICA, Galaxy i7500, whereas HTC G1 updates are still being put out by modders.
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There are already a couple of ROMs for the Galaxy S (Modaco and another stock ROM on XDA). Remember that this phone has been on the market for just a month. All the minor problems WILL be fixed by devs, if not by Samsung. Also, since Samsung has open sourced the entire source, more ROMs will surely be released in the coming months.

That being said, its sustained support by the community will depend on how well it sells. And it does seem to be well on its way - Samsung Wave sales reach 1M, Galaxy S keeps the pace - GSMArena.com news
 
Yeah, Galaxy S is selling like hotcakes, same goes for Wave, it has the same hardware. It would be good if someone was able to port Android to Wave :)

In any case, 28.8k is too much for SGS (I was going in for SPICA earlier@12k :D ), I will wait for 2-2.5 months to see if anything progresses on the wave front, desire is launched or SGS prices drop.

Any ideas about HTC international warranty ?

nehaladsul- These are US prices. I was thinking of getting it from the US.
 
It will depend on your use. If you use carefully, anything can last long. I have sold phone 1-2 years old which were still in perfect cosmetic and functional conditions.

About hardware. You can be certain that even mighty Galaxy S will get outdated in terms of hardware in 6 months. Dual core And higher Mhz chips are due this year. This is with any phone except iPhone which will be new for 1 year min :P

About the warranty. It is very little known fact that HTC carries International warranty. Even service center guys may try to refuse it, but HTC terms and conditions clearly say that HTC will provide warranty where ever that particular product is sold as long as phone is HTC branded. ( and not network branded like T-Mobile, Verizon, Orange, O2 etc. ).

So you can buy unlocked unbranded (HTC branded ) HTC phone from say Singapore, and if that model is also sold in India, HTC India will provide the warranty provided you warranty. You can confirm this by downloading HTC warranty statement on HTC's website.

So if you buy Desire or Legend from outside, you will get warranty ( Desire will be serviceable when it becomes available here officially from HTC.)

I got my white Hero's trackball replaced here few months back from HTC India free of cost. The product was bought from UK ;)

They initially refused, but when I showed them printout of their Warranty terms, the rep went inside, talked to someone and came out, took the phone in for repairs. Sure it took 2 weeks for them to fix it, but it was done.

Dont know about samsung, but Galaxy S is already priced very low compared to International market price here in India. So no point in buying that from anywhere else.
 
^^ Support is completely at the discretion of the dealer. The Manufacturer/local distributor will not offer any support. The dealer may choose to provide dealer warranty for a period of time at his discretion. So if something goes wrong in that period you have to take the product to the dealer. The dealer will either repair or replace it at his discretion.
 
They did, ofcourse I had contacted HTC before hand through email. I did Customer Care Escalation before even going to service center. They emailed me 2 days after the email directing us to the service center here and told us that product will be serviced.

I had already sold that phone to my close friend. But we went to their local service center prepared with printouts of original UK bill, email and their terms.

This phone was actually purchased in UK. Not from some ebay dealer.
 
Nemesis, you are talking about the Grey market bought phones right ?

Shripad, I mailed HTC customer care and they replied that Global Warranty is not applicable in India. Of course, you were able to convince them, otherwise there is not official policy. It really pisses me off when these companies treat Indian buyers like beggars.

Here we have to be at the mercy of the manufacturers while in the US, the manufacturers can jump through hoops if the customer says so.

And you are right, the SGS is costlier in the US and UK.

HTC better not price the desire more than 25-26k considering it has lower spec'd hardware.

I was leaning towards HTC Desire but even if I ignore the graphics chip, GS has a better screen and more powerful proccy. Ill give the Desire a pass if they price it above SGS.
 
HTC always tends price its handsets higher than their worth. Only Samsung is known to be liberal in pricing.
 
vortex_mak said:
Nemesis, you are talking about the Grey market bought phones right ?
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Yes, I was replying to your query about Grey market, not to Shripads post. Shripad posted a couple of min before me, so there was a loss of context.

vortex_mak said:
Shripad, I mailed HTC customer care and they replied that Global Warranty is not applicable in India. Of course, you were able to convince them, otherwise there is not official policy. It really pisses me off when these companies treat Indian buyers like beggars.
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Spot on, I think Shripad got lucky, others may not necessarily get the same kind of treatment depending on who they are dealing with.

Dhanan said:
HTC always tends price its handsets higher than their worth. Only Samsung is known to be liberal in pricing.
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Samsung manufactures most of the hardware in their phones. So I guess they can afford to be more liberal than others. Wave itself is proof of how cheap they can sell Galaxy S. I think they can sell it at 20k and still make a considerable margin over the hardware and R&D costs. HTC on the other hand while being a OEM itself, they still have to get most of their hardware from outside. They have to get the SoC's from Qualcomm and the AMOLED displays from Samsung.
 
Thanks for the info Nemesis.

Heh.. looks like Samsung is hogging most of the AMOLED displays for its own offspring.

Hmm...guess I should be careful and spend a few k extra here rather than getting such a high priced handset with no warranty from the US.

I dont like Samsung as a brand but I gotta hand it to them for their GPU, Hummingbird and SAMOLED in the Galaxy S. Since the chances of Desire being priced lower than SGS are very slim, I think Ill go for the SGS after 2-3 months when the price has gone down a bit and hiccups have been ironed out.

Thanks guys
 
Lord Nemesis said:
Yes, I was replying to your query about Grey market, not to Shripads post. Shripad posted a couple of min before me, so there was a loss of context.
Spot on, I think Shripad got lucky, others may not necessarily get the same kind of treatment depending on who they are dealing with.

Samsung manufactures most of the hardware in their phones. So I guess they can afford to be more liberal than others. Wave itself is proof of how cheap they can sell Galaxy S. I think they can sell it at 20k and still make a considerable margin over the hardware and R&D costs. HTC on the other hand while being a OEM itself, they still have to get most of their hardware from outside. They have to get the SoC's from Qualcomm and the AMOLED displays from Samsung.
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There is a procedure. You need to upload the bill/payslip with serial no while contacting HTC (the facility is provided on HTC's website. ) Once you do that, they will contact you either by phone or email.

This is not the first time I got my imported HTC hardware serviced locally within warranty.

They are good when it comes to customer care. Arguing with service center guys is pointless, but do write to HTC. Last time I actually got a phone call from their executives to ensure that I did not face issue with my RMA because phone was imported. You just need to read the fine print. And if there is provision for getting support, you need to talk your way through these people to get things done. And EULA

It almost never fails. :P

Yes, it does take time and is not instant as email communication takes few days. But HTC asia and even HTC Europe has one of the most liberal EULA and Warranty Terms. They might take long time to get the things done once its gone for repairs, but if you follow the proper procedure, you will get the support you should get.

if you write to HTC India asking if they will provide support for the product that you intend to purchase from outside, the reply will probably be no.

Write to them telling them you have the product which according to their warranty terms needs to be serviced in India and then see their reply :P
 
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