All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Yeah, I am.

They used it on the i8510, then the pre-production i8910 units had it but the final design had changed to the whole back sliding off instead, which is/was far flimsier.
And then it was a gradual descent to the prise-off plastic covers on the likes of the i9100, Galaxy Nexus etc.

The latch-style system is so much better than that, genius in it's simplicity.

The bottom section slides down allowing you to just lift the battery cover off?

 

Indeed it does. And I agree 100%. Simple, but so good.

You can see it here...

 

If I ever meet whoever's in charge of designing Samsung's handsets, I think I'm liable to murder them.

Why are they wasting their best design on the US ( and before anyone takes offence, it is basically a waste as the US is one small part of Samsung's worldwide sales - the i9000 will have sold many times over what the Captivate did).

 

Well, film it with your Nexus...

I've ALWAYS thought that design feature should have carried over into other models, but no. It must be a more expensive design or something. They could even make the battery door plastic, just leave the sliding latch design.

 

If Samsung are serious about taking on Apple, saving a few pence by opting for a flimsy battery cover shouldn't even cross their minds.

At least if they do go for some sort of ceramic design, it won't be a prise-off battery cover.

 

Yes. Exactly. Apple has one thing that no other OEM has been able to match: build quality. Durability is another matter entirely, but I don't hear people whining about the iPhone's. They just buy a case, like you should.

I'm really anxious to see what Samsung's design looks like for the GS3. It better be good. And I don't want to hear them say it's got a battery less than 2000mAh... DO. NOT. If they want to compete with Apple, they need to at least be playing on the same field.

 

The RAZR MAXX pretty much raised the bar...there's no excuse about thinness and battery size anymore IMO. If Moto can, anyone else claiming the status of a "top tier" brand can.

 

Yeah.. that was my favorite thing about the captivate. Loved the battery cover mechanism. Wish Samsung would have continued to use that method

 

what do you guys think about the new HTC One X ?

 

Indeed. But Samsung obviously just says... trololololol...

I really do love Samsung's products, but sometimes their design decisions make me facepalm IRL.

Actually, for once, the US version will have a leg up on the Intl. version, since it's got S4. BUT sadly the US version will likely have a slower update rollout schedule, so whatever edge we might have had is gone.

I still think it's a pretty damn awesome device though, lack of external storage notwithstanding.

 

Unnamed Samsung exec says quad-core Exynos inside Galaxy S III, LTE on-chip -- Engadget

So I take it that means the 4412?
Or the 5450 and Christmas has come early?

 

Chips, chips, chips!

 

Free apps eat up your phone battery just sending ads.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...t-up-your-phone-battery-just-sending-ads.html

 

What about the HTC EVO 4G?

 

... ? EVO 4G is just about as dated as they come ATM. It's basically the Nexus One with much less battery life.

 

Damn! Two A15's. WANT. Next will be four A15's

 

Yes, but it was HTC's flagship model when it was new.

 

I don't understand what you are trying to say about the Evo 4G. It's still an old model and it's not going to get anymore updates. By today's standards, it's about as fast as an entry level phone. The E4G is really just a phone on it's own. An exclusive for Sprint, there were no directly comparative international model unlike the One X.

 

Two A15s with a Mali GPU - DO NOT WANT!
Why not next-gen PowerVR?

 

Keyword is was. Back then the Desire would be the equivalent flagship phone from HTC outside of the US. The EVO out-spec'd it.

 

Not really since the Desire and Nexus One were both available in the US. Like I said, it was an one off model. The only thing that was close at the time I suppose was the HD2 (WinMo 6.5).

 

Samsung released kernel sources!

CM9 GSII has been updated to the official kernel, and we can expect everything up and running in just a few weeks

But still, according to Xplodwild, the sources are dirty and he's going to clean them and optimize them...

 

If you take into consideration that the Desire was released a few months earlier most places outside of the US (May at earliest I think?) you'll probably understand what I'm getting at. With the EVO being released in June and the US Desire in August there were a few months where the EVO was the US flagship and the Desire seemingly was the international alternative.

 

Are there any 4" or sub-4" phones coming out this year? Android phones seem to be growing to a point of ridiculousness. I'm starting to think I may be forced to get the iPhone 5 just because of this.

 

If you try one of the new recent 4.3" phones with 16:9 aspect ratio, it's not much bigger than a 4.0" phone. At least physically. Give them a try. ^^

 

I don't think a phone should go bigger than 4" because any bigger than that, you need to start calling it a tablet. Maybe 4.3'' will work depends on how the phone is shaped (longer than it is wide).

 

Sweeeeeeeeet

Ah yeah true, Samsung should switch back to PowerVR.

 

Samsung licensed both the Mali T604 and PowerVR Series 6 "Rogue". The Mali T604 should be quite good in performance and should have support from ARM itself. I don't think going for Mali was a bad idea, considering it has Direct3D 11 support it cannot be a slouch. Unless you're a huge fan of PVRTC, I don't see any reason to favor PowerVR 543/544MP over Mali T604.

 

I don't even know what you just said

Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

 

Indeed. Specially we haven't seen any charts of the T604's raw power. The 544MP should be only 20% better than what's in the iPad 3 (SGX543MP2) and the T604 is promised to have 5x better performance than the 400M. I say we should wait for charts/comparisons/benchmarks before we say "Samsung should've gone with PowerVR"

 

Why are you comparing the Mali T604 to the PowerVR SGX5XX models?
No-one ever said take the current PowerVR GPUs over the next generation of Mali, did they?


The SGX543MP2 (dual core) is nearly twice as powerful as the Mali400MP4 (quad core) that Samsung used in the Galaxy S2.
The SGX543MP4 (quad core) doubles the performance of the MP2 - meaning it's nearly 4 times as powerful as the Mali400MP4.

So if the Mali T604 is 5 times better than the 400, that means it's basically only catching up with where PowerVR already are ( the SGX543MP[x] models aren't even their top designs - they have the 544 and 554 as well; not to mention 8- and 16-core designs).

 

On a completely unrelated note, I presume that Samsung's firmware is regional, with different languages etc in the same way that other companies do?
If so, can someone tell me about I9100XXLPQ_I9100OXALPQ_XEO?

I've just been reading about someone complaining that they flashed this in Odin and now their keyboard's screwed up ( it's in QWERTZ layout, though the poster seems to be unaware such a thing exists) - so I'm thinking it's the wrong region or something like that.

 

Well... the iPad 3 is using the "MP4" part. Double what the iPad 2 is using... though it's probably downclocked.

The reason Mali is looking more and more appealing to OEM's is because of the fact that Mail is VERY VERY easy to implement, front to back. It's simple on a die level and the driver model is super simple to implement/update. This driver-transition that's happening with ICS has been very trying on a lot of OEM's since they've had to go back and re-write/optimize their drivers. Mali, of course, had to go through the same thing, but it was much easier done from the people I've talked to. I, myself, know from kernel development that Mali is a very clean design on the kernel level... very well thought out and implemented. PowerVR/Adreno is also mostly a clean design, but it's almost completely closed off.

Yea, if you look at that last bit on your I9100 package name, (XEO), that is the CSC that goes with said ROM. It's a localization file. It presets languages, keyboard configurations, text direction (hebrew, arabic, etc).

 

And once again, we find ourselves in a situation where I have to say 'and that's why they'll never beat Apple'

Samsung are the only Android OEM who get close to Apple in terms of the quality of their handsets IMO but they'll never bridge that gap if they insist on taking the easier or cheaper options.

You wouldn't happen to know what the XEO represents?


On another unrelated note, my NFC-related shenanigans have had a minor setback - the place that I wanted to order the tags from (due to the superior range of styles available) has a minimum order quantity of 300.
Yeah... no.

 

The ICS version I'm using CS9 and it seems messed up when it comes to notifications. Its either sound or nothing. No vibrate for anything but haptic feedback. I don't normally use ringtones, but just keep my phone on vibrate for everything. Anyone else have this ?? And when typing anything here the haptic feedback is so laggy it drives me nuts.

 

XEO is Poland. In general, you would want XEU or multi-CSC to avoid region related issues.

 

ugh...im due for an upgrade within the next few days and can't decide between the vzw galaxy nexus w/ an extended battery or a droid razr maxx. i'd really like to be able to use my 32gb micro sd, but ICS is just so tempting. help.

 

Nexus. You know for sure that long after Google discontinues support for the phone, developers will keep it alive and well. The battery life is disappointing, but you should be able to stretch it a bit more with a good custom ROM and kernel. It's got a better screen, faster GPU, and geek cred.

 

Unless you absolutely have to get a new handset the very day your upgrade is due, it's probably worth holding off.

Now is the worst time ever to buy an Android phone - BGR

 

My first impression of that articles was that there was a virus or an inbound threat that could brick all Android phones because of that picture, lol.

I agree... But I'm happy with my GSII for now, I'll wait for the GSVI, because IMO, quad core is only going to be fully used and "appreciated" in the end of 2012-2013.

 

i'm coming from a droid x. would really really love to get on a 4g phone as i had tried out the droid 4 but didnt like it. not to mention the fact that the price of the galaxy nexus on wirefly/amazon wireless is very very attractive @ $99 dollars that i'm 99.8% sure i can vzw online or in store to price match.

 

The comments on this page are why I'm ashamed of the community ATM...

Instagram opens signup page for Android port, release date still unknown -- Engadget

So disgusting.

 

The RAZR and the Nexus has the same SoC. The benefits with the Nexus over the RAZR is the 720p screen and the native AOSP ICS ROM.

If I'm not mistaken, the Droid Fighter is due to launch in two weeks. Basically a RAZR with a larger 720p screen and ICS.

 

That droid fighter looks beastly. I just don't know if I could switch to moto though... For some reason I have a hard time trusting them, and I've heard how crappy motoblur is. I've always been a HTC guy, a couple Samsung's along the way too.

Sent from my HTC Vivid

 

I thought ICS was supposed to help with battery life and the RAZR was supposed to have optimizations for better battery life (the original non-MAXX one)... what's going on?

 

I was under the impression that the RAZR used the OMAP 4430, while the Nexus used an underclocked OMAP 4460.

 

Locked bootloader = no more moto for me, but I do miss my og Droid sometimes... That thing was a tank

I believe you're correct sir.

Sent from my Sensation using Tapatalk

 

Well, not under-clocked, the 4460 is available in configurations between 1.2 and 1.5GHz.

But all the difference between the 4430 at 1.2GHz and the 4460 at the same speed is the 4460 has a slightly faster GPU.
I'm sure the 4430 could easily be fiddled with to match the 4460.

Then again, with a lower-res screen, the Razr wouldn't need as fast a GPU as the Nexus.

 

Nope. OMAP 4460 on the Nexus. 4430 on the RAZR.

The main differences between those two are the voltage tables required for the higher GHz operation. OMAP 4460 can clock higher on less voltage, since it's a higher bin.

IMHO, I will never buy another Motorola product again. The have pitiful support, pitiful software, and locked bootloaders so you can't change the horrible software/kernel. Some ROM's use a bootstrap that will allow you to change the software, but without a custom kernel it's not doing much.

 

I've never been dissatisfied with ATT, but it's really starting to suck now that I'm looking at Android phones. Their LTE selection is pitiful compared to Verizon.

HTC One looks pretty awesome. Just wish the One S was LTE. One X which does have it is humongous.