All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Agreed, I wouldn't be interested in a Atom powered Windows device but Android does run quite well. As long as you don't live and breathe synthetic benchmarks, I actually preferred the RAZR i over the RAZR M. That device had an amazing standby battery life and oddly enough, it feels much more responsive that the Snapdragon S4, even though it is a single core processor. Bay Trail will be fantastic for Android.

The First is such an oddball device, I was actually surprised HTC allowed the bootloader to be unlocked in the first place. I know that unlocking the One X and the current One's bootloader will wipe the user data and actually remove some HTC apps as well (Calculator, Flashlight, Voice Recorder, etc.).

 

Yep. I've been looking forward to a mass market Bay Trail device... just to see how the market reacts, if nothing else. Intel seems to be able to scale to higher/lower frequencies MUCH faster than ARM can... and there's your responsiveness and battery life in a bag.

Yes it is. ESPECIALLY for HTC. I guess you really can't even call it an HTC device, actually. They were just the hardware OEM, so they got to stick their logo on it.

 

Dear AT&T and Verizon... * just got real.

T-Mobile announces Jump: two phone upgrades per year for $10 monthly | The Verge

 

Signal quality > phone upgrade for most ppl?

 

I guess T-Mobile is just better in the south? IDK. I've never had an issue with their service.

 

Yeah, it'll depend on your location. In LA and the California Bay Area, my friends on T-Mobile consistently get 1-2 bars less than I do on AT&T, which often translates to 0 bars indoors.

T-Mobile's doing a good job of differentiating itself from AT&T and Verizon. Time to see if customers will bite.

 

AT&T has been doing a lot with small-cell technology lately, and it shows. Stick a repeater on this building... stick a micro-cell on top of that dorm building... stick a camouflage tree tower downtown... it makes for amazing blanket coverage.

 

Mulling at the idea of a straight trade with the One for an Optimus G Pro...I sure do miss that big 5.5" screen for reading emails and web browsing.

 

Definitely. In UCLA's dorms just a few years ago, reception for everyone except Verizon customers was flaky, with some dorms being complete dead zones except right by the windows. Halfway through my first quarter there, AT&T added a small-cell on the Hill, resulting in consistently great reception all around the dorms. Same can't be said for T-Mobile, though...

 

Now that you talk about it, I think that'd be very handy to me, specially for school. I kind of got tired of always carying and extra 7Kg on my bag because of my laptop and charger...

I would like a tablet because sometimes when I need to write something asap in landscape, I can't because my fingers are rather too big. I kind of regret buying a laptop in the end, should've bought a tablet and a desktop PC...

Well, Android would be a plus since I'm already deep into the ecosystem, but I think Windows 8 wouldn't hurt as well. When are they coming out?

Always when I tried a Samsung tablet (GTab2) it had immense lag. I don't know if it's due to the review unit, but it was very laggy. Besides, thanks to the latest quality issues on my N2, I'm thinking of going Sony/HTC/ASUS route on my next round of phones/tablets.

Why so? Does it lag a lot?

 

I thought the Gtab 2 was fairly crappy...i think it only had a dual core SOC. Also what about an ultra book. They are fairly fast and weigh nearly nothing. like a 15 ultrabook might be real nice. Also isnt there going to be a Windows 9 Prime book? an ultra book that is haswell with keyboard dock would be best.

 

Unfortunately that'll go over the 500€ prince range I'm looking for, so ultrabooks are too expensive, at least where I live.

 

well no way yur getting a haswell tablet for 500 euros

 

Yes, an Atom Windows tablet isn't really useful for anything other than media streaming and internet browsing. Outside of Flash games and Solitaire, it has nearly zilch gaming capabilities. It's really hard to recommend them right now since you would have an operating system that is capable of running anything your PC can but is unable to actually do so due to abysmal processing power.

IMO, I would get something on a different platform such as an iPad 4 just because of your Note 2. I know you're not a big Apple fan, but to me having an Android phone and a tablet seems quite redundant, as you're not really expanding upon the usefulness of the operating system since you are ultimately enduing up with two identical devices that is capable of the same functions but one just happens to have a larger screen than the other.

If you do insist on having an Android tablet, the Xperia Z tablet is probably the best device right now since there really isn't anything else comparable to its Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC right now. The Nexus 10 would be the runner up, but loses points on the lack of expandable memory, the Mali GPU is a bit underpowered for gaming at 1600p and a lot of apps don't support that resolution either.

 

how is an iPad going tp expand his usefulness though? iPad does not offer a whole lot beyond android.

 

There's apps that are either not available for Android (Many of the good mobile games IMO are still iOS exclusives) and/or the equivalent apps run better on the iPad.

From a business/productivity standpoint, Office suite apps on iOS are a lot better than the Android ones, and it supports native Cisco IPSec VPN.

If he had a smaller Android phone, I could see an Android tablet being a good companion device, but there really isn't anything that he can't already do with his Note II that a Nexus 10 or Xperia Z tablet can provide.

 

have you used office suit pro? they have a great app and i find it really good. the other office one (quick office or whatever) i think blows compared to it

 

Yes, I have Office Suite 7 Pro and definitely agree, it's probably the best office suite for Android. iWork for the iPad and Office 2013 for Windows RT are probably the best office applications I've seen on a non-x86 device.

 

iWork on an iPad is brilliant. For a productivity suite designed from the ground up for a tablet-touch interface, you won't find one better. Office on RT, I find I keep wanting to reach for my mouse.

 

What makes you think that?

If anything, Android tablets have made competing Windows (and Apple) tablets get much cheaper than they used to be.

Although even an Atom Win8 tablet would be okay (just don't use WinRT). For example, the Acer w510 is priced under $500 and is a very capable unit.

 

Yes, a few quirks with the touch interface on Office, but a solid service pack should hopefully fix this (I would like to see a full blown Metro based version as well).

I have to admit, I was quite critical about Windows RT at first but after using a XPS 10 for over a month and it's bloody brilliant. Yes, it can't officially run x86 applications, but you will not find a better internet browser experience and multitasking in any other ARM operating system. For a device with the same SoC as an American Galaxy S III to be able to render webpages exactly like its desktop brethren (Flash and all) without any slowdown and lag is pretty impressive; it does make me wonder why Apple and Google can't do the same with their browsers.

 

@Micaiah:

I think RT is fine as long as you don't spend too much on it. But with true Win8 tablet prices dropping so much, I would pay the small difference to get full Win compatibility.

 

Remember that Windows 8 tablet pricing does not include MS Office and Windows RT tablet pricing does include MS Office. Now that $349 will get you a Surface RT and MS Office including Outlook (a $150 price drop on the entire Surface RT line was announced today), there's once again a major price gap between Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets, and Surface RT tablets present a very good value against other 10" ARM tablets as well.

 

While MS Office is nice, I'm in the camp that I consider it bloatware and can get along with the alternatives available in Windows.

You can buy an Acer w510 (32gb) for $419 on Amazon. For that $70 difference, I'd probably prefer to get a full Win experience than RT.

 

And I'd personally prefer to get the Surface RT and use other machines for x86 software, plus leave with $70 in my pocket. The great thing is, the customer has the choice between multiple options. They're not locked in with just one type of machine or just one OEM's offerings (Apple) or shopping in a market that is increasingly dominated by one OEM (Samsung's increasing dominance of the Android market).

 

Probably 90% of all digital documents were/are created with some form of Office. While I don't like the dominance, Office is FAR from bloatware. When a true competitor to Office comes along, I'd be more than happy to switch though. Sadly, those competitors don't exist.

 

at one time open office was fairly competitive but it is long gone now from what i remember

 

Hmm... I've been getting along quite nicely with LibreOffice... only takes up to 1.5GB of space.

 

Yes, they're not exactly a great value at the original prices, I got my 64GB XPS 10 from the Dell Outlet for roughly $270 including tax.

 

I love my Surface Pro but would not mind the lighter hardware of an RT tablet but I am a sucker for the 1080P and surprisingly the pen is handy at times.

I have been trying to use Google Docs more as an Office alternative on my devices and Chronebook Pixel. Some large companies like Costco are moving to Gmail and Docs.

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The iPad 4 would indeed be a good choice and I got it in my list of choosings! Currently, I'm glancing at the iPad 4, Surface/Pro, Ativ Tab (the smart PC would be nice, but it's 1k€ here), Ativ Tab 3, Nexus 10 and the XTablet Z. I'm more and more leaning towards getting a Win8 tablet due to convenience, an Android tablet would be a waste of money in my position right now. I get pretty much the same functions that I already have in a bigger screen, which is useless.

So does the ARM WinRT run overall better than, say, a Samsung ATIV tab with Win8? Also, if I go with a Win8 tablet, does that mean I can install programs like steam off their website?

I am indeed pondering the Surface/Pro, but I find them at 580€, which is pretty expensive.

 

One of them is like windows phone and another is like an actual windows OS i think. I honestly can't remember. Someone else should know or a quick wikipedia search will tell you

 

Are you sure you mean the Ativ Tab? The Tab is WinRT, it's the Ativ Smart PCs that are full Win8.

The Surface and Surface Pro are the same price?

 

Ativ Tab 3, apologies.

No, the Surface is 580€ and the Pro is 880€, which will not even consider.

 

yea surface RT is ridiculously over priced...surface pro isn't that bad considering the hardware. Still a good $200 over in my book but acceptable if you need/want it. RT....laughable

 

So I should completely forget about WinRT?

 

You should. Also forget about a full Windows 8 OS running on ARM. You would want at least a i3 with Win8.

 

well it runs a tegra 3 -_- You can get equivalent android devices for 200 dollars :/ The fact they charge 500 euros is ridiculous. I wonder how much it would cost in the US. If it was going for like 300 euros sure but 500 hahahahaha. If they refresh with a tegra 4 for 500 maybe worth it.

yea they are making 300-400 euros per device...i thought ipads were over priced...this is a new level of price guaging lol

 

From my local store, the max I can get is an i5 in a ATIV Smart PC with Win8, and that's 800€ :/

 

i5 is beyond an i3...did you mean an i5 is the lowerst?

BTW some i3 are not that much slower than an i5. Best bet is to wait and see if you can snag an IB one on the cheap after haswell is being pushed. You might just also want to jusst bit the bullet and spend a little more. Something you just have to buy the more expensive option to make it worth while. I think looking at an ipad/surface RT vs an actual windows 8 tablet. The 300 more bucks makes it worth it do to the difference in quality/performance/versatility. If i had to choose from a nerfed/slow/over priced $500 device vs an $800 that is 10 times faster and can do 10 times more things than i would choose the latter. Also you can run android on windows and get to play the games too ^^ 2 in 1

 

Via Android VM right?

 

*shrugs* i just know it is possible. Read it on android police. I think it is like windroid or wine or something. Post in XDA or something and someone will know. If you find out feel free and PM me a link. I R LaZy ^^

 

Well "at least i3" means from i3 to whatever is more powerful than that.
Anyway, this is a bit off-topic.

 

but he will run android on it so it is on topic

 

So why get a Win8 convertible then?
Get an Android tablet.
There, case closed! Next!

 

The most efficient way to use your hardware, except for storage space, would be to grab the latest Android x86 iso and install it as a secondary OS. That would of course mean losing out on the ability to multitask between Windows and Android apps, so running Android in a VM or getting an emulator like BlueStacks might work better for you. Google's own Android SDK also includes an emulator.

 

because Win8 tablet with android VM does twice as much and saves time, money, space, and better performance. I think it is valid to talk about it here. Plague the forum with another thread that is about android VM?

 

Moto X: https://plus.google.com/109021179357601394175/posts/ABZ3QuNHxCX

 

I like that wrist flick to open the camera... looks like she's having some kind of episode.

BUT, I WANT THAT GOOGLE NOW VERSION. NOW.

 

I want google now period.

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