All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Yes!

The UK is finally getting LTE...

 

About damn time. lol.

 

Preaching to the choir

Even better, it should apparently go live before the end of the year and it's my network who will be first to provide it - and my upgrade's due in October.

 

Well that's just good news all around!

On a different note... anyone run Google's new JS Benchmark called Octane? My GS2 on JB gets 1422. My little e6220 gets 12689. lol.

 

Well then the Galaxy S III won't be any good as it doesn't support LTE in the EU due to the quad core processor?

 

IIRC there's a Exynos powered GS3 variant with LTE.

Edit: yes: http://m.engadget.com/2012/07/05/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-lte-korea-launch-date-july-9th/

 

Would that be available to the US? I was kinda pissed T-Mobile offered the Galaxy S II for free a couple weeks ago after I got my Galaxy S Blaze. And T-Mobile doesn't even support LTE :|

 

I was never going to get a Galaxy S3 anyway.
The new Xiaomi phone should be the first in a wave of handsets that blow the current top models out of the water.

 

Taiwan's Central Bank Wants The Government To Help HTC Out - That Doesn't Mean They're On The Brink Of Collapse

I really, REALLY hope HTC doesn't fall. I'm an all-Samsung guy, but I LOVE HTC devices and HTC. They are really good in terms of build quality, and they're perfect for people like businessman. Losing HTC will be a huge blow to Android.

 

Well, yes there is. But I'm not sure if it will be band compatible with EU spectrum. I haven't looked into the EU spectrum sale at all... I'm slacking. :/

 

Everything Everywhere will be using the 1800MHz band initially, which make it compatible with the One XL, the Galaxy S2 LTE and the S2 HD LTE as well and also the LG Optimus True HD LTE ABC 123456 XYZ or whatever exactly it's ridiculous name is...

Then there'll be licences for 800 and 2600MHz spectrum some time next year as well.

 

We'll see. Before the One X and One S, I hadn't seen a compelling device from HTC for a long time. Hopefully, they have more phones in the pipeline that push the design envelope like those two phones did: only then will they stand a chance against Samsung's huge array of phones covering everywhere from the budget segment all the way to the top end.

 

i have 2 HTC 4G LTE phones and they're awesome!!
i'm still wondering why they name their new phones One A-s-s and 1X. Normally we get 4G LTE everywhere in the city. When there's weak signal in a remote area on the interstate going somewhere far away it becomes 3G or worse 1X !!

 

The whole S-On/S-Off mess is primarily the reason I stay away from HTC handsets. It's a shame too, because I think the One X is a marvelous device.

 

This. And it's also a reason why I'm always staying with a Galaxy S device : unlocked bootloader from factory. To root, all I have to do is flash a rooted kernel in 5 secs, and that's it.

 

I traded my Meizu MX for a Lava Xolo X900. It's an Intel Atom powered Android phone. I like it. It runs almost stock Android. It feels like a more pocketable Nexus.

Sent from my X900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Spec-wise, that seems like almost a straight swap.


As for the HTC thing, I cannot fathom why they're held up as an example of a company listening to it's customers because the introduced the bootloader-unlocking site.
If they gave a damn about their customers, they'd never have started locking them in the first place.

To be frank, the only use HTC seem to have now is to force Samsung to keep improving.

 

I can get a Galaxy Note 10.1 from work for only $280 bucks. Very convincing, looks like an awesome tablet. I wonder if development will pick up for it soon...

 

I have liberated my friend's HD2 from it's Windows Mobile confines. Liek a bawse. CyanogenMod 9 Stable. Runs like a champ, even on the OG Snapdragon and Adreno 200 which is surprising.

 

I still love my HTC Desire Z/G2. It's still a nice phone. Getting a bit long in the tooth, however... I am hoping for HTC to have a quadcore Krait soon. Too bad they went with no microSD slot in the One series, that really irks me.

 

Indeed, that and the GS3's improved battery lifetime were the primary reasons my brother and I chose the GS3 over the One X.

 

I just bought an AT&T HTC One X. It was cheaper than an S III, and I really dislike the physical home button on the Galaxy.

 

Any info on phones coming out next year? My contract is up in may, and I'm excited to see whats going to be coming up.

 

At $99, the One X is an exceptional deal. If it had been sold at that price when I was up for a new phone, I might just have looked over its few shortcomings and just gone with it.

Given how fast the Android environment changes, I'd say it's a bit early to say

 

Yeah, guess I'll have to wait for CES. haha

 

I bought it off contract for $360. My family has been using prepaid for about a year and a half. My mom and I are the only ones to have purchased decent smartphones to use. I'm going to use my One X with Straight Talk.

 

Oddly enough, I really really really super hate software buttons. lol.

Physical > Software

IMO, anyway.

 

So you must not like touchscreens... that's ALL software buttons.

I actually felt the same way which is why I prefer physical qwerty devices but as I've used my iPhone more and more, the soft keyboarding has become more natural and I will eventually get rid of my keyboarded XPRT to get a screen only Android device.

But... having a physical button for main functions seems to help (like the Home button on the iPhone and now the physical button for the Galaxy S3) because sometimes you tactilely need to know that you pressed that button more than once or are holding it down.

 

I'm 50/50 - software buttons make for a sleeker-looking phone but they take up room on the screen.

Personally, if I'd designed the Galaxy Nexus, I'd've made it so that the notification light was touch-sensitive and it toggled the on-screen buttons.

 

I like the iPhone home button since it's flush with the phone. The Galaxy S III's home button sticks up like a wart.

 

Well its back to gingerbread for me. Sold my evo lte and am back with samsung on an epic 4g.

Pluses are: wimax is plentyful around here, physical keyboard/buttons, much smaller and ability to swap in a fresh battery.

Cons are: no ICS, touchwiz, NOT ICS, battery life stinks compared to the evo lte, lower res screen (realy not an issue), no kickstand and the camera is a HUGE downgrade.

Despite all I lost I feel the gains more then make up for most of it and it was time to get my head out of the clouds and be more realistic...plus I needed some cash.

I couldn't gree more. Ill take a hardware button and added width over edge to edge screen and software or hell even capacitive buttons. Thankfully my "new" phone has hardware buttons on the keyboard.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm a huge fan of physical buttons. My G2 has these barely functional capacitance buttons. My brother's Droid X2 has some nice physical buttons, in my opinion.

 

I've owned the Verizon twin to the Epic 4G, the Stratosphere, for a short time. Decent phone overall, great keyboard (those physical shortcut keys are cool indeed) and the 4 inch screen is still nice due to super amoled.

Only issue I had is poor hardware quality control. I got two units in a row with random soft reboot issues out of the box. Adding software just made it worse. Needless to say I ended up ditching it for the more stable Motorola alternative.

They have a official Samsung extended battery (iirc 3000 MaH) for the Strat that might fit the epic...might be worth checking out if you plan to keep the epic for a while.

There's ICS builds on XDA for the Epic as well IIRC.

Finally, it looks like Verizon's had reasonable success with the Stratosphere so they've ordered up a successor. Dunno if Sprint's asked for one for the Epic 4g, but if they did it'll probably have a "Q" attached to it as in "Q for qwerty"

 

There's always the Motorola Photon Q if you want ICS and the speed of Galaxy S III but need a physical QWERTY keyboard.

 

I actually owned this phone a long time ago (launch day buyer) and I loved it minus the battery life with the standard battery. But mine broke and I was told it would be cheaper to get the evo shift then pay for a replacement under warranty so I went with the evo shift.

Overall the keyboard on the epic 4g is amazing! 5 rows and great feedback which is a relief from the evo shift where I had a 4 row (albeit great board) and required a combo to use numbers. As it stands I have 2 3500Mah batteries from seidio and 4 standard batteries so for now I think Im OK. Although I wish I had a kickstand case with the extended battery its not a big deal.

As far as an epic 4g successor they still technically sell the epic 4g (online only and stores that still have stock) so when they discontinue it I dont know about a replacement as sprint speculation is well HORRIBLE!

Ill have to look into some ICS builds for the epic and see how well they work. Right now GB is working fine, and since I really only use the phone for texting, email and tapatalk I dont really have much of a need for anything special software wise, although ICS was a beauty. As far as hardware goes Im noticing a difference but the screen is pretty good which makes up for it a bit. The biggest loss is the camera. The evo LTE had an AMAZING camera with a TON of features. The epic is so so but at least has a functional dual stage button. I will VERY much miss the multishot camera and the quality of pictures, but hey the wife still has her evo lte so maybe Ill just let her take the family pictures.

If money wasnt an issue I would have gotten this. But since it is Im back on the epic 4g. Not a bad phone so no real complaints. As for the photon q well had I known a "high end" slider was coming out for sure I would have waited. But sprint speculation has ALWAYS let me down. Oh well nothing I can do about it.

Plus doesnt the photon Q have a built in 1750Mah battery? If so that wouldnt work for me unless they made the phone perform as well as the evo LTE yet run more efficiently as the battery life was amazing with the evo. But again it had a slightly bigger battery.

 

So, the power button on my Galaxy S II T989 was acting flaky. If I barely touched it, it would turn off. It would also just start vibrating with the screen off, and wouldn't stop until I pulled the battery. I sent it in to Samsung, and they claimed it had liquid damage and wasn't worth fixing. The liquid sensors on the back and battery are both white. I opened it up, and there's no evidence of liquid damage(that I can see), except for three red, arrow like stickers. I don't think the arrow stickers are usually there. I found a few pictures of other T989 mainboards, and they don't have these stickers.

 

^There are also internal liquid damage indicators... though I don't remember quite where they should be on the T989. There's usually one on the battery, one inside a little "circle" that is visible with the battery cover off and another inside the plastic casing that's not visible without disassembly.

 

As for the arrows, they're used in macro photos of affected areas, to make it clear where the problem is.
I'm a little surprised you didn't get a copy of them.

Proper engineers don't need the moisture indicators, they'll be able to tell moisture damage from the actual damage to the components.
The stickers are merely there to try and speed up the process but are by no means conclusive.

 

Well I'm seriously considering running cyanogenmod 9 ICS on the epic. I saw a video of how easy its loaded up and running smooth. VERY tempted...

Reminds me of when I had to repair the pre power button.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

 

LG Optimus G revealed: 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, ICS, LTE, 4.7-inch screen with in-cell touch -- Engadget

So what do you guys think?

 

It's an LG, so straight off that's a tally in the 'Cons' column.
To be honest, aside from LTE, I'd go with the Xiaomi instead.

In many ways, the most exciting thing about those specs are that if that's what LG can produce, Samsung and HTC should have something better up their sleeves.
The likes of the Note2 and HTC's long-rumoured 5" Note competitor are the handsets I'm hoping to see announced at IFA.

 

I agree with the overall sentiment of it being an LG kind of making it a fail, but I am sure the screen on it will be spectacular, and it isnt a bad looking device.

 

You mean the aesthetics? Or the specs on paper?

 

Both. Though I do agree with you that it is only a matter of time for Samsung and HTC to release products with similar if not better hardware, and much better software support

 

Once LG figures out their market, it's going to be awesome. Minimal overlay with LG's awesome AH-IPS panels and APQ8064 is a winning combination. But they will undoubtedly screw the software up, like usual.

LG's "copy of a copy of a copy" skin needs to end. Now.

 

it does have a stink of LG about it but hopefully LG's software support is better than in the past.

I will say that their UI seems to be much improved, it's got that going for it.

 

Yeah but you're forgetting LG's sub-par build quality and reliability.


Also, did anyone else see this?

Samsung sends Canadian a truly unique Galaxy S III, guarantees a loyal customer - Engadget​

Somehow I don't think I'd get a free phone if I sent Samsung a drawing.

 

US court will let Apple apply for Galaxy S3 sales ban

 

This whole thing is reaching infuriating levels of stupidity.

I want to smash my coffee mug through my monitor.

 

Apple has patented the coffee mug-monitor collision interface. They might sue you