All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Definately nice having a big battery. Here is a screen on time screenshot.

Spoiler

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk 2

Trying to kill my battery 100% and then do a full charge.

Currently the battery is 9%. Total uptime is 2d 5h 33m
Screen on: 5h 42m
Wifi running 18h 41m

 

Admission of failure? How?

Plus you have to remember that this is actually on a 32NM process, instead of 40-45NM. Tegra 3 is 40NM. S4 is 28NM SoI, while Samsung's is a superior process... HKMG. More power savings with HKMG.

The only thing that's worrying me is the Mali-400MP4. It's a bit long in the tooth with everyone else using PowerVR SGX543 MPx. The Mali-400 does the job though, and it was class leading last generation. I'm not going to even get into Adreno right now, though. lol.

 

Because it's really not enough to warrant such a huge delay compared to the competition.

I know the 4412 is a 32nm SoC and I know that even if that's all they go for, it's still going to put the new handset up there with the best of the rest but it's hardly going to kick [ donkey] and take names either - it'll be good but it won't be head-and-shoulders above the competition like the Galaxy S2 was.
All that hype and all that waiting and it won't stand out on paper as far as the average consumer is concerned.


Samsung have done really well to extricate themselves from certain messy situations ( the US Galaxy S Gingerbread updates etc) and position themselves as the top Android OEM.
But you just have to look at HTC to see how quickly complacency can translate into serious problems and a Galaxy S3 with a 4412 SoC seems complacent IMO.

Not to mention, if someone's going to really try and take on Apple, it's got to be Samsung and with a completely re-designed iPhone all but guaranteed this year some time ( and maybe not that far away now), a 'me too'-specced Galaxy S3 won't cut it.


Basically Samsung have backed themselves into a corner by waiting so long after MWC, now they have to do something special and the 4412 isn't special.

 

The 4412 is still pretty good. Better than anything on the market... Anything is better than friggin Tegra lol. I feel bad for all the HTC One X people, that thing is loaded with bugs and glitches too. The One X forum on XDA is a nightmare. I've had around 10 HTC devices, but unless Samsung completely underwhelms with the GSIII, I'm definitely moving to Samsung. HTC is no longer the most dev friendly either, Samsung is.

 

Yeah. My main gripe with moving to a on screen keyboard these days is that half the screen will be gone when I attempt to type something, though I guess one could get used to that. I use a mix of on screen and physical qwerty in day to day use anyway.

 

xda-developers - View Single Post - Galaxy S III Specs/Price Revealed!? Shipping May 2012

Take a look. Benchmarks for a December 2011 prototype are quite nice.

Damn nice battery! I barely get 20h

Also, if I'm not mistaken, isn't there already the 3.0.9 kernel available for the Captivate and phones like the GSI?

 

Interesting. By those benchmarks, it meets or exceeds the iPad 3's scores in everything but 720p offscreen rendering. And even then it's not too far off.

Spoiler

 

The Mail400MP4 in the Galaxy S2 couldn't match the GPU in the 4S, we all know that - let alone try and match the new iPad with double the cores/performance.
Yet that thread is claiming that with a ~50% OC it's suddenly better than an SoC more than twice as powerful than the old model.

I don't buy it.

 

A new firmware has fixed most problems with OneX, and i am sure we got more updates in the future.

I am very happy with my X for now

Alittle update

The last days the One X has behaved buggy and deffently goes back to the dealer for a replacement

 

What are the best roms for the Galaxy Nexus? I'm sure this question has been asked a million times, but I just got back into the rooting game and I haven't messed around with custom roms since I had my OG droid. I really don't feel like flashing every ROM to see which is best. I'm currently using bugless beast because i always got the best battery life and stability on my og droid with pete's roms. I'm a little disappointed since I cant really customize much, not that there's much that I'd wanna change since ICS already uses the minimalistic style and color combinations that I always wanted. Is cyanogen still as buggy as it used to be? Who else makes a solid rom? Oh and I don't like MIUI...

 

You can't really go wrong with AOKP.

 

Imagine how happy I was when I was in the airplane and the other 2 passengers in my row had both a GSII with stock ICS and a nook colour And them, being husband and wife, had a black and a white GSII

 

Props to the husband.

Sent from my HTC Vivid

 

Kind of weird though, I never experienced any of those bugs posted there that I wasn't able to fix (wifi issues with my router and screen flicker a couple of times which disappeared after charging the phone), I really do think a lot of people on the one x forums in xda are nit picking their devices..

 

Phones are expensive, and for most people it means getting stuck with the same device for two years. I wouldn't consider it nit picking...

 

Samsung is announcing something big tomorrow morning. Anybody see the countdown on the new domain?

Sent from my HTC Vivid

 

Yep.
Been trying to get back to the site now the countdown has finished, it doesn't seem inclined to load.

 

Must be too many people trying to access it. Epic fail, Samsung.

Sent from my HTC Vivid

 

Is it though?

That's kinda like saying it's an epic fail on Apple's part when the new iPhone sells out on launch day.
If there are that many people trying to access the site, it speaks to the demand and anticipation of this handset - which I maintain means that Samsung need to do something more special than just the Exynos 4412.

 

Google back in the smartphone sales game: unlocked Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ (GSM) available for $399 -- Engadget

$399 for an unlocked nexus directly from google. Pretty amazing deal.

 

I know the EVO 4G is pretty old by today's standards - but is anyone aware of a ROM that allows the use of 4G while being rooted?

The 3g around my area sucks. Bad. It's consistent, but it's consistently slow too.

 

Any ROM will allow 4G, as long as it isnt listed in the bug list as not working.

 

Has anyone used "Browser for skydrive" app? How well does it work?

I tried yesterday but couldn't even login into the skydrive account (though user reviews in Google Play are pretty 'rave' for this app).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NnVU8R6mAU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Samsung is just GENIUS. The "iSheep" reference is hilarious.

 

Is anyone here using Google Drive on Android yet?

 

Still not ready to use yet.

 

Not ready to use?

 

Nope but I just upgraded my Skydrive to 25GB for free.
Well, reinstated the full 25GB I guess.

 

Google Drive is tempting... since I already pseudo use it with Docs... it's just that I just started Dropboxing everywhere.

 

But... how's the Android integration of SkyDrive?

I've been holding off on getting into cloud storage in anticipation of Drive (or Google cloud storage). So far Google has the best integration of anybody out there. Box is 50GB, but integration blows comparatively... even though I pay for it and have clients for all my platforms.

 

*shrugs*
I've literally never used it but free storage is free storage...



I have a question that maybe someone here will be able to answer - why does my phone suck at downloading stuff?
Especially .apks.

I don't mean the speed, I mean that so often the files download but the download is unsuccessful.
It happens both via wi-fi and HSPA.

For example, if Apex launcher notifies me of a new update, on my Tab I can download the new version first time with no issues.
On my phone, even if it's connected to the same wi-fi network, it fails - I have to download things 3, 4, 5 times or more before I'm eventually able to do so successfully.

 

^On the Nexus?

 

Yeah, the Nexus.

 

Possibly an MTU issue. IDK why, but that's a common issue with Android. The network stack doesn't negotiate the correct frame size with the router, then when packets start arriving en-masse from a download they have checksum errors, causing the download to cancel/fail.

 

Google isn't activating it for everyone. I just got mine today, the Android app looks just like....Docs.

 

AnTuTu pegs Galaxy S III as most powerful Android device, potentially reveals its specs -- Engadget

Well, that's wrong.

There's no way the 4212 ( dual-core 1.4GHz A9) would out-perform Tegra3 ( quad-core 1.5GHz A9) or the MSM8960 ( dual-core 1.5GHz Krait).
For it to be dual-core and topping the benchmark tables, it would need to be the 5250 ( dual-core A15) but that's clocked at 2GHz, not 1.4.

 

The 4212 was the original designation for Samsung's next gen SoC. It was renamed to 4412 to denote the 4-cores.

Samsung had a little grey area a while back with regards to Exynos' naming scheme.

 

The only mention of the 4212 I could find was of it being announced as a dual-core SoC end of September last year.

 

Yea. The original Exynos was the 4210 @ 1.2GHz for the GS2. That was going to be re-released on a more-mature process at 1.4GHz and be designated the 4212. But Samsung scrapped the name change and just left it 4210 and bumped up the GHz.

4xxx Series = A9
4210 - OG 1.2GHz dual-core A9
4212 - scrapped name for the OC'd 1.4GHz 4210 dual-core A9
4412 - next generation quad-core A9

5xxx series = A15
5250 - Dual-core A15 for smartphones
5450 - Quad-core A15 for tablets and larger devices that can accommodate a larger TDP rating

 

Is the TDP on the 5450 really that high that it's going to be an issue?
I mean, is it going to be any higher than, say, Tegra3?

 

Yep, but it won't necessarily be an issue. It'll be higher though. The 5450 will be in the ballpark of 5-7W TDP when stressed. 5250 will be 3W max.

 

Samsung announces 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad as basis for Galaxy S3 -- Engadget


(A better class of meme)

 

Hopefully on the 32nm process it at least gets better battery life than Tegra 3... *yay optimism*

 

No embedded LTE as far as I can tell.

 

What's so disappointing with the chip in the S3?

 

Rumors had been circulating that it'd be Cortex A15. But Samsung seems to have played it safe and stuck with a proven architecture while switching to a new process (a "tick" in Intel parlance).

 

As for a chip itself, still don't see what the disappointment is from. Maybe it's that everyone else had too much hope on these rumors.

 

It's disappointing because it shows a lack of ambition.
I'm not saying it'll be a bad phone/CPU but to your average consumer, it's the same specs that HTC already have on the market.


Now, if we want to talk ambition:

Verizon's Summer / Fall 2012 smartphone roadmap - BGR​

 

This.

Samsung has learned a few things in the semiconductor business. Mainly that you need your own fabs and that it's not always about the newest thing. Qualcomm's Krait architecture is great and all, but what good is it if they can't manufacture them at the needed quantities? Qualcomm is having trouble meeting demand for S4 because: 1.) the process they wanted wasn't, and still isn't, ready and 2.) their design is having issues with the process they had to settle with which is SOI.

So while Krait is a poly-Si design, Samsung has a serious leg up with High-K. Power savings, less gate leakage, higher TDP limits, higher clock frequencies available... You won't be able to OC/UV S4 like people did with the MSM8x55/8x60 series.

Good things take a bit more time. Something that NVIDIA and Qualcomm will have to learn the hard way I guess.

 

These must be extremely recent lessons as they were happy to release previous handsets with SoCs that they had supply issues with.

Also, comparing Qualcomm to Samsung is pretty pointless.
Qualcomm are supplying other companies, Samsung are producing chips for their own use - completely different situations.


And I have to ask - why do you think Qualcomm not being able to meet demand is a bad thing?
If demand out-strips supply, prices go up. Simple economics.




Jumping back a bit, I don't understand why the TDP of the 5450 is so high.

The A15 hard macro has much the same power efficiency as the A9 hard macro, so how come a quad-core A15 chip 1/3 faster than Tegra3 has a TDP like 2-3 times higher?