All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Isn't that the ICS battery life test?
With JB it scored like 50 hours.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yes, but it was also for the Exynos version. GSMArena never did a re-test for the Snapdragon variant with Jelly Bean.

 

Ok, so the First has a truly awful camera.

Level of irony? <9000

 

It's an HTC product,

 

It's like they're going backwards. The One X(L) had a decent 8MP f/2.0 camera. HTC's software ruined it somewhat, with SUPER aggressive noise cancellation. Now we have the First with it's abhorrent little 5MP sensor. Stevie Wonder could take better low light pictures with a grilled cheese. Then we have the One's 4MP sensor.

 

This. The HTC Titan II's 16-megapixel shooter was, by all accounts, the best camera ever put on a WP7 phone.

 

Just in case anyone was curious where all of those lofty 3DMark scores are coming from...

HTC One gets overclocked with LN2, gets boost in 3DMark score :: TweakTown

 

^I don't understand the point. From 1.7GHz to 1.72GHz.

Plus LIQUID NITROGEN for a 10% performance improvement. Legit lol. If they want to see how S-600 handles at higher frequencies, just wait for the S4 at 1.9GHz.

 

....its a phone....

 

I've seen people OC'ing the Note 2 to stable 2GHz with a few voltage tweaks. Why is that liquid nitrogen needed? It's only 200MHz.

 

Because liquid nitrogen is fun.

 

I believe this was done to keep the quad core Krait from throttling moreso than the slight frequency bump. 3DMark and Real Racing 3 is pretty harsh on the phones, and all the S4 Pro phones I've gotten my paws on (ZL, Nexus 4, Optimus G, DNA) will start down clocking to 800-1200 MHz within ten minutes of running either of those apps. I'm quite curious to see if Samsung has overcome this quirk with the S4 Pro/S600.

 

I've known that the Nexus 4 throttles... and quite easily. But I've not heard of any of the other S4 Pro devices throttling. Interesting.

 

When you handle the device and it's hot, it's not the heat generated by the chip that you feel, it's the battery. None of those phone's CPUs went past 45C but their batteries will get past 50C fairly quickly; it's not throttling because of the SoC overheating, it's doing so because the battery is getting too hot because the SoC is drawing more power than what the battery is capable of discharging continuously. These SoC are advancing in speed and raw power much faster than what the current battery technology can provide.

At times, I really feel like the quad core processors in these phones are being wasted. Outside of benchmarks, the performance scalability of SoCs past two cores nose dives and the vast majority of apps in the Play Store doesn't utilize all four cores. With every major iteration of Android utilizing the GPU more and more, IMO the ideal SoC would be a highly clocked dual core with a powerful GPU. If given the choice, I would choose a device with a 1.7 GHz dual core Snapdragon with an Adreno 320 over a 1.5 GHz quad core Snapdragon with the same GPU. Unless Key Lime Pie's framework is optimized to utilize multi-core CPUs more efficiently, I truly think the ideal CPU for today's Android platform is a dual core.

 

And it's for science!

It's a Failbook phone, meaning that most of the (l)users will be using Instagram anyway. Why make software ruin your pictures when you can implement it on the hardware level.

 

Boo...so now it runs directly into the Galaxy S 4's launch date. Great execution HTC.

 

Saw an HTC One demo model today... very nice looking phone... but I would still choose the S4 (even though I haven't seen one in person yet).

The Home button the right is strange to me considering everyone else is putting Home/Window/Etc in the middle.

HTC should consider a One Plus version that eschews the unibody design to add in removable battery and SD card (and an upgraded camera). That would help turn stuff around (IMO).

 

Everyone I know who has even tried one ends up pressing the HTC logo.
That was such an unnecessary thing to do.

They did that with the One X and all it did was add to the already-confusing branding.
Doing that with the One would cause similar confusion, not to mention it would basically be an admission that they'd made a series of mistakes in the design of the One.

 

That's why battery chemistry is changing. Plus we now have higher voltage batteries. It's funny though, I've never even felt my Note II get warm. If they would put the GPU in 5410 into 4412, I would be over the moon.

There was a One X with removable battery and SD slot?!

 

No, sorry.
I can see how it reads like that but I just meant there was a One X+ which only served to add to the confusion surrounding HTC's One branding, without really offering much of an improvement over the One X.

 

I just got an update from LetsTalk stating my Dev Edition will be shipped tonight and be at the doorstep on Monday afternoon. I went to grab an AT&T One and the store had three left, and I have to say the quality control on these phones are terrible. All three of them had some sort of defect; one had a large gap on the top between the speaker grille and the side frame, the second one had the same top speaker grille assembly overhang past the plastic side frame so much that your finger can catch it if you run over it. I took home the third one, which had some jagged edges on the top right corner of the side frame.

If that Dev edition has build quality issues, it will be returned and I'll hold on to this AT&T one to use as an exchange for the Galaxy S 4. I am extremely disappointed with HTC.

 

Ahh. I c.

I actually viewed the One X+ as a step down from the One X. And what was it, like less than 6 months after the One X that the X+ was launched. Horrible timing.

I kind of wish HTC's supply chain was as big as their ambitions, though, because the One is a superbly designed handset (except for that HTC logo where there should be a home button).

EDIT: I guess it's not superbly designed... ^

 

Aesthetically, yes. Quality wise, no. That $350 BLU phone I toyed with a while back had better fit and finish than this.

 

Well, I guess Apple really is the only one who can master glass and aluminum. :/

Also, everyone always complains about Samsung's plastics... but I've yet to have a single issue with build quality.

 

Don't you know, plastic = bad build quality

 

I been googling but I can't find the answer, for some reason my Maps app on my Note II keeps blinking or refreshing. I tried turning off layers, clearing cache, data, uninstalling updates, updating to latest... all to no avail.

I'm not rooted... just runninng 4.1.2 and updated to May 12, 2013 version 6.14.3.

So weird.

 

Yeah... I did that... hehe.

Then call it the HTC Two.

 

I remember some bogus gizmodo article (it may have been another tech blog) that said smartphones with aluminum builds have poorer reception cause the aluminum casing interferes with the radio antennae, which is why most OEMs choose plastic for their smartphone cases. I heard this same claim for carbon fiber and fiberglass but have yet to see any proof. Any thoughts?

 

You have to have a very detailed and very well planned RF design on aluminum devices. Look at the antenna design on the One. With plastic designs, you can basically put the antennae anywhere you want.

 

How about the HTC We Never Should've Moved Away From Using Desire For Our Flagship Handsets, At Least That Was A Recognisable Brand.
Granted it's a bit cumbersome but no worse than having a One S, One V and a One SV

The effect is called a Faraday Cage and it's definitely real. It would apply to metals but not carbon fibre or fibreglass AFAIK, as they're non-conductive materials.
Far less bogus than the numerous comments you see online about phones having poor build quality simply because they're made of plastic.

Build quality and choice of material, whilst related, are not one and the same - as HAL attested, you can have handsets made from plastic which are far better built than ones made from more 'premium' materials.

 

What everyone is calling plastic on the Galaxy phones... isn't that polycarbonate?

 

Yes, it is. And I'd much rather have a polycarb handset with perfect fittings than a slapped together aluminum one.

 

Aye.
Same type of plastic used in the One X, yet it was never referred to negatively as 'plastic'.

It seems to be reserved for Samsung handsets in particular, perhaps due to there being very little else they can be criticised for.

 

Considering how easily some aluminum dings up or gets scratched... I much prefer the light/strong "plastic" called polycarbonate on a phone (and it allows for a removable back and a removable battery... yes... still beating that dead horse).

 

Honestly... This is completely true. Aside from a small creek under the volume buttons (in the chrome part), I have nothing to complain about Samsung products. At all. Speed is there, quality is better, screen is there... Pretty flawless really.

I'd love to trade my Note 2 for an S4 tho Dat 13MP shooter...

 

I honestly think that what trips people up with the Samsung handsets is the glossy Hyperglaze coating and the battery door.

If the phone was made of matte/rubberized "soft touch" plastic like the Lumia's, One X, etc, I think it'd be well received + hide fingerprints and such that can make a device look/feel cheap.

The battery door thing I think people are just silly for criticizing. It's as if they forget that a more rigid battery door feels like you're going to snap it in half when you remove it. That's the case with the rigid plastic door on my D3.

You WANT a more flexible door for easy removal, IMO.

 

I always felt like I was gonna break the battery door on my Droid.

 

You hit the nail right on the head with that right there. The hyperglaze coating is why Samsung phones look cheap, compared to say the HTC One X. Most of the complaints I hear about Samsung poor quality is not in regards to build quality, but quality of the fit and finish. They just plain old look cheap, compared to even other polycarbonate phones like the One X that didn't have that generic cheap look with their Matte Polycarbonate.

 

The fit and finish is fine. Materials don't really matter when you can't fit pieces together correctly.

 

No idea what you're talking about, but, I respect your opinion about the fit and finish being fine to you. It's definitely not fine to a lot of people though.

 

Talking about the fact that so many HTC Ones are poorly put together. I think a well built polycarb phone looks a lot better than a poorly built aluminum one. I just don't understand the complaint about polycarbonate. Apparently PC is only ok when Apple uses it like they did in the 3g/3gs.

 

I personally don't mind the material, I just find that to me, hyperglaze makes it look cheap, I've heard a lot of others say this as well. I liked the polycarbonate on the One X, it was matte and looked quite good to me.

 

Interesting note on the matte finish of the One X: you can tell if a One X has been in circulation since its launch date by looking at the area of the phone where a person would hold it with their hand will begin to have a glossy appearance. Best comparison would be an often used keyboard; certain keys that are used more than others will have a glossy finish.

 

Until the matte finish wears off.

 

That's unfortunate about the wear.

Matte does look better to me than hyperglaze though, perhaps a good carbon fiber material could be implemented in Samsung phones to get rid of hyperglaze while keeping a wear resistant/wear free matte look.

 

*sigh*

I went into the at&t store (third part "spring mobile") I always use, because they always give me discounts and they let people upgrade a month early. I'm about to purchase the HTC One (planned on testing it out then returning before the 14 days return period is up for the s4 if I didn't like it), and the guy checks out my account and goes "oh.." with a pained expression on. I ask him what's up and he told me at&t cracked down on them on week earlier on letting people get their upgrade early. So now I have to wait til may first so I can see the phones side by side, then i can finally purchase and get off this old dumbphone I've been using for two months.

 

^At least it is soon. :thumbsup:
I would personally go for the S4, but I am sure you have your reasons.

 

Oh. Um...

New app puts "touch" in long-distance romance

 

Hmmm, my Note 22 has started to creek a bit more in the top (near the 3.5mm jack) and near the volume button. Not major bt definitely noticeable.

Also, I flashed the XXDMC3 fw. Just wow, this thing flies now. Samsung did indeed hire new software engineers, because the software just gets better and better. It's very smooth and rock stable.