All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

From what I understand through people I know that have T Mobile in this area, the coverage is decent in the city but not very good in the suburbs. I guess the worst thing that happens, though, is that I don't like it and decide to take my phone elsewhere, since I won't be on contract.

 

What about Straight Talk or whatever it's called? The Walmart MVNO that operates on multiple networks.
Sounds like it could be a potential solution.

 

That's what I'm looking at now. I've heard some complaints, but AT&T is as big a GSM network as you can get here.

 

At least they made a statement:

The White House responds: phones and tablets should be unlockable

 

I finally decided to pull the trigger on the Galaxy Tab 2 7" 8 GB for 180 at my work. Got a screen protector on it, should I bother wiping it out and getting a custom ROM on it?

 

Just got the N7 Player off of Google Play. For anyone who hasn't tried it, it's a truly, mind-blowingly-good music player. The interface is polished, attractive, engaging, versatile, and--it seems impossible to say this about a music player app, but here goes--fun. It includes desktop widgets, lockscreen controls, equalizer, an effective album-art downloader, and probably a lot of features I haven't discovered yet. You can have a free trial for a few weeks and then it costs $3.50 if I recall correctly. Worth every penny and more.

 

If you haven't put a lot of apps on it yet, I would definitely try CyanogenMod on it. At least that gives you an idea if AOSP will give considerable performance improvement and if you don't like it, a quick ODIN flash will revert it back within five minutes.

Thanks, I see that it supports folder browsing which seems to be a rarity nowadays. PowerAmp is a good player but all the options and adjustment seems too overbearing at times.

 

Part of why I like it is it's got a very simple, user-friendly, visually-friendly UI on the surface. It's got tons of options tucked away if you want to wade into them, but it doesn't barrage you with a wall of options that's completely overwhelming to someone who isn't a tech-head.

 

Good for you. :thumbsup:

Let us know how you like the tablet. Some of us are still browsing for one.

 

(Update) Breaking Down T-Mobile's New Uncarrier, No-Contract, One Rate Plan Fits All Approach | TmoNewsTmoNews

Now it gets interesting...

 

Optimus G Pro Review from Engadget:

LG Optimus G Pro review: a phone that lives up to Note-sized expectations

 

Anyone who hasn't tried it yet, SwiftKey 4 is the best keyboard EVER. The Swype-like "Flow" feature works far better than Swype itself, and the word prediction is nothing short of amazing. Well worth the $4.

 

Thanks, I'm on 10.1 now so should be a little easier. I made a backup and was messing with slim bean 4.2.2 for a day, but in the end went back to CM10.1. Pretty impressed that this old phone is still hanging in there. May play with Helly Bean tonight.

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/JB CM10 via Tapatalk.

 

I find it strange that the Optimus G Pro doesn't have a built-in pen.

 

If that becomes the Nexus 5, I'm getting it.

 

IKR. You'd think since Samsung is partnered with Wacom, and since LG just copies Samsung... they'd at least have an N-Trig or Synaptics partnership.

 

They have their Vu series for that.

 

Ahh... I thought the Optimus G Pro was like a Vu 2.5.

 

Personally, I don't see much of an appeal to having a pen but I know plenty of others do, so I'll agree that it's an odd decision to leave it out. Maybe me not particularly wanting one is due to the fact that the last pen-based device I used extensively was the HTC Touch Diamond. I wonder what they'll do about that T-DMB antenna for the international version.

 

They'll remove the antenna, like always.

 

Is it just me or does anyone else also find the form factor of the OG Pro a bit "odd", namely on the home button? One of the main reasons why I like the N2 is because of the rounded back, makes it much easier to hold... LG keeps copying Samsung, but I don't really care as long as there is no litigation or suing involved!

 

I love LG's idea of the notification LED under the home button... and that they have a home button. lol. It's almost as classy as Motorola's earpiece LED. Cleverly hidden, but incredibly functional and aesthetically pleasing.

It's that kind of design creativity Samsung lacks. Samsung has the internals nailed, just design and materials...

 

Oh yes, the LED in the home button is genius. I really like that idea. Very cleverly put!

I agree. What Samsung has to work on, is a way to bring premium feeling materials into their products while keeping their main features like removable back and SD slot. Policarbonate woupd already help...

Design is alright, I like the Note 2 design, but kind of dislike the S3. Note 2 and S2 are by far the best phones they have designed. IMO ofc.

 

They had premium feel nailed with the Captivate. I feel they could have iterated on that design and kept the same basic backplate functionality. The Captivate is still my favorite designed Android device. Cram what's in the SIII into a Captivate-like shell and I'd buy it in a hot minute. I think if they can get 1080p into a 4.7" device, they can do 720p at 4".

GSIII is great, but the back cover... bleh. Not even textured like the SII. I'll let the Note II get away with it's design because it's just too hard to design an incredibly ergonomic 5.5" PHONE.

 

The Galaxy S III is polycarbonate. It's just not a polycarbonate unibody. They couldn't make it a unibody without losing the removable battery, and they couldn't make the plastic thicker without ending up with a heavy phone like the Lumia 920. But it is polycarbonate.

 

Well I'll be dammed, it is made of polycarbonate: Confirmed: the Samsung Galaxy S III is polycarbonate, not plain plastic

Everyone and their mom (aka..tech press) keeps/kept saying otherwise: "cheap plastic", "plasticky", etc. They should know better.

I think it's more a issue with the HyperGlaze coating. It may make it durable but it has a shine that makes the phone look cheap to some eyes. Ditto the slick feel due to the glaze.

Personally, and i hate to admit it but, I pretty much dismissed the LG Optimus Pro as a Note clone. But after reading Engadget's review and looking at the phone more...it's a very handsome device and I'm interested to see how it fares.

 

I know they won't keep it. I was thinking that they could use the space it was hogging instead of just covering it up but I know chances of that happening are close to zero.

The home button could certainly have been made larger. About the shape... not sure. From a design perspective, I like harder corners than what Samsung tends to use (Galaxy S II is done well). The G Pro is supposed to be easier to grip because of this design decision, choosing ergonomics over style but I will reserve judgement until an actual hands-on.

 

What materials did they use with the captivate?

Woah, really? Then why is everyone complaining so much? That's the same material used in the HOX...

If that ends up the ssme ergonomics as the iPhone in terms of grip, then my judgement regarding rounded corners will mantain.

 

As booboo12 mentioned, the hyperglaze coating is what makes the finish look and feel cheap. If the finish was matte like the black Lumia 920, it would have given the phones more visual appeal at the expense of having any surface damages being much more visible.

 

I don't know if this was recent, but NotebookCheck posted mobile GPUs on their GPU list alongside the norm PC parts. Here's a part of it:

I'd like to know what method they used to rank like this, because the Adreno 220 is way too high on the list (Over the SGX 540 and even the original Mali-400???). I find the Adreno 225 being above the Mali-400MP4 to be questionable as well.

 

Not sure about that either. Tile based deferred rendering GPU's shouldn't really be compared to non. On their chart the SGX554 MP4+ is listed just above an Intel GMA 4500MHD... the SGX554MP4+ completely and TOTALLY squashes the 4500MHD in any and all graphical tasks.

 

I dunno if it's still the case, but even when they just did PC GPU rankings, people said to take NotebookCheck's ranking with a huge grain of salt...

 

Wow. Progress. I certainly wasn't expecting this:

Multiple Congress representatives support cell phone unlocking and look to submit bills

 

Congress: even a broken wristwatch is correct twice per day.

It's not "politics" if it's non-partisan bashing, right?

 

I'll take the whole damn shaker for their mobile rankings.

 

HTC One might get delayed due to components shortage - GSMArena.com news

LOL, they just continue to burn.

 

I've been on holiday so I haven't had a chance to read any Optimus G Pro reviews yet but I've seen a general buzz on here about it.

I have a quick question though, does it actually have anything unique about it?
Is there anything to help it stand out from the inevitable hoard of other near-identically-specced handsets? Or is the buzz about it simply that it's a decent handset that doesn't have much competition yet?

 

Good thing I never even considered an HTC handset, always thought they were overpriced and overrated.

 

The buzz seems to be that its surprisingly well rounded, esp for a LG device that, at first blush, appears to be a Note II clone. Specifically people like the display quality and how it feels in hand. Camera is decent as well.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

That's the impression I had from reading here.
I just wonder if that's enough, whether it would prove successful if equally well-rounded devices with more of a unique selling point ( be it like Samsung's software tweaks or the Xperia Z's water-resistance). Though I'm being a bit unfair and comparing them to Samsung in my mind - I'm sure LG would be more than happy (for now) to fend off Sony and HTC and carve out a clear lead as #2 Android OEM.

 

Yep, looks like another shaky year for HTC. Other than the production issue, the build quality may be in question as well. Some Germans are getting theirs early and one of them got a unit that looks like it missed the QC process.

 

The reviews I've seen compare the OGPro to the Note II, but without pen support, it's not really a completely accurate one.

One of the compelling reasons I got the Note II was the pen support, if I wanted something like the OGPro because of the 1080p screen... I would probably wait for the GS4.

 

GSMArena's battery life figures for the Optimus G Pro:

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The talk time is up there with the Razr Maxx, even beating the Note2. The browsing and video playback times are less stellar as one would expect of a screen of a) that size and b) that resolution.
Standby time is surprisingly low.

 

Now is that a preproduction unit or is that a final consumer boxed unit? I'd give it a pass if it was a pre consumer build unit sent to reviewers or something.

 

These are retail units, Vodafone and O2 Germany has already shipped out their pre-orders.

 

*facepalm*

Well that's disappointing. Granted that's just one handset out of many. Like how every car model happens to have at least one lemon over the course of a particular generation, I'm pretty sure that every device is the same way. I wen't through two early build Stratospheres before throwing in the towel so it's not just a HTC thing.

 

It is kind of just an HTC thing. On paper, and before release it always looks as if HTC has reached a new high for build quality, and then the post-production models have some sort of hardware issue. This started back in the nexus one days, continued with the One X, HTC 8x and now it looks like it will continue with the One. I hate to say it as I have a soft spot for HTC, but I really don't see them lasting in the high-end smartphone market.

 

^This.

Stratosphere was based on Hummingbird and that, while a powerful SoC, had some serious binning issues. Random reboots and voltage issues were a common thing. That has since been fixed, since Exynos 4210. HTC's internals never seem to be that big of an issue, except proper shielding for audio components. It's in the casing that HTC fails. Samsung may be plastic, put it's pretty damn rock solid and light weight. HTC likes to use aluminum and other materials that feel high-end, but doesn't want to/can't afford to put the dollars forward to have an Apple-level precision process... because that's really who HTC is mimicking in materials. Samsung is at a point in the market where if they wanted, they could command an Apple-like build level... nobody else on the Android side can do that, and HTC needs to realize what materials it can afford and start designing around that fact a little smarter.

 

So change of plans, my girlfriend needs an unlocked GSM smartphone for ~300 dollars NEW. Is my only option a Nexus 4? She wants Android, and I can't really seem to find anything else, ridiculous how a Galaxy Nexus costs as much as a Nexus 4..

 

I assume since it's in the android thread she wants a android phone. The Nexus 4 is honestly your best choice there.