All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Figures

 

Same here... got a cheap TPU case and no screen protector. Sits in my pocket with keys and coins... and not a mark. I got that free mint green Samsung Flip Cover... won't use it an ANY setting.

Used to have a screen protector on my old iPhone 4... but took that off after a year and no problems with that either (for almost 2 years).

 

I've gotten enough scratched screens on allegedly scratch resistant devices to always spend a bit extra on a screen protector. Suits my OCD nicely to know that any scratches on the protector itself aren't permanent.

 

Thank you for your input on them. I'll pass it on to the potential buyer.

In regards to screen protectors, directly touching the Gorilla Glass feels a lot better than swiping across a plastic film. Smudges also seem less appearant. I've been using my phone with no other protection than a leather sleeve without any scratch issues, and I do not intend to change that habit when I get my hands on an S4.

On an unrelated note, the rumours of Samsung's upcoming 6.3" phone having more pedestrian specs were true. No need to fear the Note name being fouled.

Samsung Galaxy Mega Hands-On Review | Ubergizmo

 

That thing is huge. At that point, it's well past being a phone and starting to enter the realms of being an extremely portable tablet with voice call capability. The specifications are not bad at all though, the screen could be bumped up to 1080p and the 1.5 GB RAM is odd, but the Exynos 5250 could run anything at 720p without breaking a sweat.

 

It's definitely a capable performer but not something you'd pit against the latest flagship phones. The rise of 6"+ phones is an interesting phenomenon. I'd very much like to handle a device of that size. Not to own one but to see if I could live with something that large.

There's a certain shock factor when people see someone pulling out a Note II for their first time, and whenever I mention wanting a 5" screen people generally feel inclined to believe that's too big for them. I have to wonder how small a niche market 6"+ devices marketed as phones will be, especially when the current crop will have to say goodbye to enthusiasts not willing to settle for anything other than a top-of-the-line spec sheet.

 

I'd take a 6 inch phone for the keyboard. That and it would let me not have to carry a additional device a la tablet.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

It's great for reading, but 2 of the 3 classes I take aren't really with tech friendly profs' this time around so I can't really use it in class. When I'm in my dorm I'm on my PC and the phone (despite how crap it is) is with me too.

While I should be able to justify having a device around with the latest Android for the blog I help write, I'm too cheap to be able to.

 

It's funny how many comments on the Mega are asking for a 1080p screen... yet we can't even get 1080p mainstreamed on notebooks smaller than 15" screens.

 

Wolfson Microelectronics signs Samsung microchip deal

 

I expect HAL to be jumping in joy as soon as he sees this.

 

It's a shame Samsung couldn't get those DACs into their Snapdragon variants as well for the S4.

 

Samsung has no control over QCOM. They can't mandate what they will put in their SoCs, unfortunately. It's up to QCOM on what DAC to choose in Snapdragon.

 

I'll be getting an new phone very soon and I'd like your opinions please. US Verizon service choosing between the Galaxy S3 now priced at $99, or holding out a bit more for the S4 at $250. I'm not a heavy phone user, however, would you consider the upgrade to the S4 well worth the extra $150?

 

Depends. It has amazing new features, namely air view, but it also has a great camera which according to reviews, beats the S3's by a long shot. Battery is also much improved and the US version carries a great SoC. It's up to you if you'd like the software features bounded in and the improved camera for $150 more.

 

I would suggest waiting for and paying extra for the S4. The S600 will perform admirably, and the Adreno 320 GPU is proving to be quite a beast both in benchmarks and gaming. The S600 variant will also have more dev support as well and there are quite a few pros over the S3, such as the large array of sensors which could be used for future apps with that extra dev support, a better version of SAMOLED, IR LED, GG3, better battery life, far better camera etc. Apparently the DAC used on the S600 is very good too, not quite as good as the Wolfson, but not far off according to GSMArena.

 

The chances of them suddenly moving away from Wolfson DACs for their own SoCs were slim but guarantees are always nice.

 

I would hold out... if not for the 1080p screen alone... and the fact that it's a bit smaller than the S3 is a bonus.

I think most of us gadget junkies will probably always recommend the latest and greatest.

 

I'm going to suggest the S3 then. Spend $150 on something else you're really enthusiastic about.

* The S4 has a 1080p instead of a 720p screen, but a casual user probably will never look at a 4.8" 720p screen and say "gosh, the pixels are just too darned big!"

* The S4 has a faster processor, but doing everyday smartphone tasks, you will NEVER say "gosh, my S3 is too darned slow!"

* The S4 has a 13 megapixel camera instead of an 8 megapixel camera, but the limiting factor on smartphone camera quality isn't the pixel count.

* The S4 has a 0.2" bigger screen and marginally-smaller length/width/height dimensions, but good luck noticing the differences without holding the two phones back-to-back.

For someone who wants the latest-and-greatest, or someone who does a lot of gaming or other high-performance stuff on their phone, the S4 is worth the extra. But for someone who does email, text messaging, directions, social networking, and instragramming with their phone, the spec bumps on the S4 aren't going to make a difference in day-to-day usage.

 

Best bet is to wait and try them both yourself.
It's unlikely that the S3 will get any more expensive after the launch of the S4 and there's always the possibility that prices could drop further.

Personally I'd say that the S4 is worth the extra money and there's also the longevity factor to consider - whilst the S3 will continue to be supported by Samsung, it's unlikely to keep getting major Android updates for the next two years, whereas the S4 is all but guaranteed to.
There's definitely something to be said for having the latest phone in that respect.

 

While I think the S3 will likely receive the next major Android update (as the GS2 did to ICS), support would probably be effectively discontinued beyond that. After the S4 launches, however, I wouldn't be surprised to see some good "free with two year contract" deals for the S3. Unless you need a new phone immediately, it might be a good idea to do as Step666 suggests and wait to try both out in person.

 

It's been confirmed that the S3 will receive KLP.
I'd also expect it to receive the next version after that, though I doubt it will be a major update, it's more likely to be a JB-esque update.

The S2 has received updates to ICS and JB 4.1 and will get JB 4.2 before support ends, taking it to over 2 years worth of updates since launch.

 

Yes it is.

Actually, they do. It's just that Qualcomm already includes a DAC. Adding a Wolfson DAC to APQ8064/T would just push the cost up for no justifiable reason.

Don't get me wrong... Qualcomm's DAC has decent sound and some very clean output. The only thing is that you can't push volume to an acceptably loud level. The charge pumps on the Qualcomm DAC for headphone power output are extremely limited. Wolfson's aren't. Wolfson DAC's can go MUCH MUCH louder.

 

I've been wondering about this for a while but does anyone think that the physical home button has been one of the reasons why Galaxy phones do so well? Does it help with those iPhone people who are used to that physical home button to switch?

 

I personally don't think so, in fact, most of the people I talk to regarding Android phones seem to think Samsung should lose the physical button. I'm sure not everyone feels the same, but this is what I've been hearing most when this topic is brought up in forums I frequent. Personally, I don't really mind either way whether a phone has a physical home button or not.

 

I don't think a physical home button makes any difference. I personally prefer the soft keys over dedicated buttons, be they physical or capacitive.

 

I think Android users may not care either way... but what about iPhone users who are used to the tactile response of a home button?

Quite honestly, when they were doing the variations of the SII and none of the US models had the physical home button... I was disappointed. But then again, the first Android phone I bought was because it had the physical keyboard (Moto Xpert).

I think for the sake of simplicity, a physical button helps.

 

Thank you everyone for all of your info, advise, and input. I'll most probably get the S3 this weekend since in my mind the S4 is not revolutionary in either features or design, not being a heavy user, and I have a Thunderbolt right now (say no more). 60% cheaper is a bonus as well. The most compelling reason for me to consider the S4 would be the better update support- future proofing it if you will. Thanks again guys and reps to follow.

 

I think the mixing-and-matching of one physical button and two capacitive buttons does more harm than good when it comes to iPhone users or new users. My mother (an iPhone owner) knew where the home button was, but freaked out when she touched the bottom-left corner of the phone and menus started popping out. I think Samsung should either go all physical buttons (like the Lumia 710) or all capactive instead of one physical and two capacitive.

And even after a month, I find myself sometimes stroking the home button instead of depressing it because I expect it to be capacitive.

 

The S3 will be supported for quite a while. And after official support ends, I suspect it'll be supported for quite a while after that (especially with the US Snapdragon models) by XDA.

Like I was saying in the Blackberry thread... it just comes down to muscle memory. I, personally, love the physical home button, and I've disabled the backlighting on the capacitive buttons so it really doesn't even look like they're there.

 

Yeah, I think it's probably split. My dad, brother, and I (Note II and Galaxy S3s) all like the home button, because it's easier to wake up the device when it's sitting on a table. Instead of having to press a button on the side/top (which requires the entire hand), it only takes a finger.

That said, it's rather annoying having to long-press the home button to bring up the multitasking menu or to access Google Now, but I've set gestures in Apex Launcher for those.

 

I felt the same way when I was running TouchWiz Home as my main launcher. Now that I've Nova Launcher Prime and a single-finger swipe up anywhere on the homescreen opens multitasking, it's not an issue anymore.

 

Has anyone else seen the articles about the US Galaxy S4 having 4GB of RAM? That's kind of insane.

 

That's kinda crazy, more RAM then some friend's laptops. :|

 

3.5Gb of it is probably taken up by a bitmap of your eye.

 

It also sounds like total BS.

The US is getting the same LTE model as most of the rest of the world, there's no reason for it to have any more RAM.

 

I just picked up a Verizon Galaxy S3. They are claiming the S4 will be out May 29th and they seem to think it will be $200 instead of $250. I paid $70 for this phone. I'll play with this for two weeks and see. But good chance I'll upgrade as well.

 

April, surely?

 

He said May.

 

Samsung said they were launching it on 327 networks in 155 countries by the end of April - I'd be shocked if the US wasn't included in there.

Could be wrong though.

 

This is Verizon though. They always launch their phones after everyone else. AT&T will be the first in the US.

 

If I'm not mistaken Verizon released the S3 three or four weeks after everyone else last year.

 

It appears HTC has come up with a new nasty mechanism for the First that reverts any changes to /system partition back to factory default when the phone reboots. Another owner managed to discover a temporary root that allows us to write/delete to that partition but so far it has undone everything we've hit it with. Bootloader is unlockable and I've spent the better part of the day compiling a CWM recovery for it, but the phone is reverting anything being flashed through the recovery as well.

Another HTC phone with great hardware ruined by draconian software.

 

It's almost like HTC doesn't want to sell phones to anyone.

 

That's exactly what the Playbook does. You can gain temp root, but on reboot a checksum is done of the system and data partitions. Anything altered gets canned on boot.

 

Moves like this raise further questions as to why HTC seems to be preferred by so many Devs.

 

Meh, I'm done with this thing. A locked down Android device is complete oxymoron and a having an unlocked bootloader doesn't do you any good when you can't even write to /system. This thing's going back tomorrow.

Someone leaked an internal Staple document that gave away the Galaxy S 4's release date in the U.S. April 26th for AT&T, May 1st for T-Mobile and not surprisingly, May 30th for Verizon to give them extra time to place their logo in fifty billion different spots on the phone and load it up with bloatware.

 

No need in keeping a headache causing device if you don't have to. I would do the same.

Sidenote: I just love it when "Recognized Contributors" on XDA rip off my stuff as their own, only changing a word here or there for teh lols.

 

Really? Being an RC myself, I find that odd. At least my team/"posse" doesn't do that.

 

Keep them in line Phistachio.

I'm not going to get into what it was, because it's undoubtedly helping a bunch of people learn about linux and Android... and I could say the same with several other copy-pastas of my stuff that have been done on XDA. That's mainly the reason I don't frequent that site, but when I do it's always funny to see my stuff everywhere.

 

Report them.
Someone who behaves like that shouldn't be an RC.