All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Galaxy Note 3: bigger screen, smaller size, windowed programs, flipboard-style Blinkfeed competitor, and faux-leather backing instead of slick plastic. While some aspects may be cheesy (faux leather and flipboard-style blinkfeed competitor), I'd take a textured back over slick plastic any day, and overall it looks like a great device. It's coming to US Cellular and I might replace my GS3 with one next summer.



Samsung Galaxy Note 3 preview

 

free for iphone, $2.99 for android. bah.

 

So the advertising company went full ad.

 

I'm not saying they're evil or nothin', but if Google were doctors, the skin grafts they'd apply would come pre-tattooed with logos from Coca-Cola and Pfizer. Just sayin'.

 

Interesting. I will have to poll our resident Galaxy Note user and see what he thinks of the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch. It's an interesting concept, to say the least.

Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch Is a Companion for Note 3 (Phone Scoop)

 

I have a htc jetstream. I am wondering if anyone has rooted & installed a good ROM for this device? From what I have read, the ROMs in the past were causing problems with the camera app (8M camera is the main attraction). HTC won't update it so it is stuck at 3.1 which is honeycomb? I think.

 

So the faux-leather on the Galaxy Note III isn't actually soft-touch. It's just as hard as any other Samsung plastic case and it's still made out of that greasy-feeling plastic. It's just textured instead of smooth. How can a company capable of such excellent engineering work continually screw up so severely on basic questions of aesthetic and tactile pleasure?

 

Cost. By not putting full blown faux leather, they spare some money that can go into profits, RD or marketing. Absolutely understandable from a economic POV.

 

Setting aside luxury materials like real wood, exotic metals, whatever, how much money do they save by using that greasy-feeling hard plastic instead of the soft-touch plastics you find on the Kindle Fire, Blackberry Z10, etc? Ten cents per $700 phone?

 

Talking of Pfizer, I think that 69th Android version should be called Viagra. By the time it comes out, most of us are gonna be pretty old and gonna be needing some of it .

 

I completely agree with this. How can one sell a premium flagship phone and then slap on a crappy plasticky feel. Nexus 4 feels like a premium phone for under 400 unlocked.


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Well, right in that it's still just marketing, because both those TI chips are just DSP's. One for NC another for active signal processing. There's still nothing special about the SoC itself... just more chips on the board. Matter of fact, if you count DSP's as "cores" all quad-core Android phones would be penta-core. It's just none of the other OEM's use the active NC as part of Google Now or any OEM voice recognition apps.

 

I'm struggling to see whether Samsung is some weird sort of genius or some weird sort of behind - when everyone else drops imitation stitched leather in the UX, they make it a key external feature.

 

And after seeing how cheap it looks, I'll have none of it. I mean, I think I'd rather have hyperglaze. And I think I feel the same way about the new flip covers... extremely tacky looking.

If Sony can make an Al/Mg unibody phone, surely Samsung, with all their infinite manufacturing resources, could do better than faux leather and plastic stitching.

 

I think it would look a lot better if Samsung omitted the stitching. The S4 Active's semi-gloss back finish would have worked out very well for the Note 3.

 

Verizon Confirms LG G2 Launch for September 12, Priced at $199 – Droid Life

No mention of internal storage, but most likely 16GB. LOL @ the small Verizon logo on the front.

EDIT: AT&T launches the following day.

 

Yeah, it really looks out of place, asymmetric, and just BAD, but with those tiny bezels they couldn't fit it anywhere else, and darn it if they didn't need their name on BOTH sides of the phone AND the lock screen. We can't have people forgetting which carrier they have, can we?!

 

I've owned Verizon phones for 6+ years and all LG phones I owned had the logo.


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I'm curious whether the LG G2 will come to US Cellular. It's CDMA-capable (as proven by being on Verizon), so it theoretically could. I like its camera performance a lot better than the Moto X's, and I like it's hardware and UI a lot better than Samsung's recent offerings...and the only higher-end smartphones currently on US Cellular are the GS4, the Note 3, and the Moto X.

 

U.S. Cellular operates on the same bands as Verizon, so it's a bit of a gamble in whether or not they will allow a Verizon phone on their network. You can try to have a support representative change the ESN without telling them it's a Verizon phone and perhaps they can do it without any problems.

Verizon really needs to simplify their logo if they want to plaster it all over their devices. AT&T was quite bad about this in the past but since they stuck with the globe logo, it's gotten better. This is carrier branding done tastefully:



I was going to wait on Honami but I think I will pick up a G2 from AT&T next week. It's gotten some highly praised reviews and I've had good experience with LG phones so far.

 

I didn't mean to suggest buying a phone from Verizon and using it on US Cellular's network; I was just hoping US Cellular would add it to their lineup of subsidized phones in the near future. US Cellular's subsidies are great; my plan is cheaper than the one I had on Verizon before I switched, AND I get a new device about every 15 months by spending my reward points (for paying bills on time) on an "upgrade accelerator" that allows you to buy phones at subsidized prices significantly more often.

The G2 looks very quality, though if I was in your shoes I'd wait for the Honami. That device is SEXY (totally subjective), and it has a microSD card slot and waterproofing (substantial objective benefits).

 

Not only do they offer poor service and delayed arrivals for new phones; they want you, a customer that they should value, to double up as a walking billboard. Pretty hilarious prospect for an outsider that's not forced to rely on them.

Since this is Micaiah we're talking about, I reckon not waiting for the Z1 means picking up the G2 in the interim.

 

So the Moto X is coming to Sprint for $199. Guess what else is probably going to be $199? The LG G2. Hmm... tough choice.

/s

For the same price, the G2 will mop the floor with the Moto X.

 

You'd think, but seeing the sort of people who use Samsungs beyond the Android nerds I'm left in only some doubt that Samsung knows their target market.

On a related note it's interesting and predictable to see the tech press skew re the Smart Watch: An Apple watch wouldn't work with anything but Apple hardware, and the question 'will it work with x' won't even be raised by them - and yet the press gets all semi-rational once they leave an Apple keynote and go "Smart Watch doesn't work with anything but newer Galaxy's", all the while even previously writing how Samsung are trying to use the Android app market as a crutch to carve out an ecosystem of their own.

 

Why is the Moto X so expensive on contract? There's a plethora of better phones for the exact same price, even as that almost Nexus device, the price isn't too appealing,


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US Cellular is selling the Moto X for $124+contract whereas flagship phones like the Galaxy S4 sell for $199+contract. It blows my mind that other carriers aren't doing the same, that Motorola didn't instruct other carriers to do the same, etc. I think the Moto X is a very nice phone, but with lower specs and an iffy camera, it's hard for it to stand toe-to-toe at the exact same price with much higher-spec phones like the G2.

 

I know what you're going for there... but I just wanted to add that it'll only work with the newer Galaxy phones initially. Once 4.3 rolls out to the S3 and Note II, it'll work with them as well seeing as how they have the same network capabilities (except AC, and that doesn't apply). Bluetooth 4.0+LE was added into kernel source with 4.3, even though almost every phone launched in late 2012 and all of 2013 support standard BT 4.0.

 

The G2 is definitely looking like a nice device.

Also, I got the Nexus 4 in today due me drowning my One in the pool. It is an insanely nice device for the price. Smoothest Android phone I have ever used. The screen and speakers of my One are the only two things I miss. It is weird seeing the digitizer on the screen. Never have seen one before.

 

Honestly I'd pick the G2 over the Sony...don't shoot me.

 

Hey, I had an Optimus G for an entire month and the Lumia for nearly as long!

I was dead set on the Honami as well but let's just say the speakers are not very loud and the camera is still hampered from Sony's sporadic post-processing woes. The screen is vastly improved over the Z/ZL's but it still doesn't quite measure up to HTC's S-LCD3 (Viewing angle is still not quite as good being a standard TFT versus IPS). The only thing I can peg the G2 from the get-go is the volume buttons being in an odd location, but that's something I can adapt to.

EDIT: This, however, could throw a big rusty wrench in my plan.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/05/lg-nexus-5-fcc/

It looks like this phone will run on any CDMA/GSM band short of Verizon's LTE.

 

As well. The G2 is 27g lighter, 5.5x3.1mm smaller. Though it is .4mm thicker. It has a .2" bigger display in a smaller frame. It weighs much less with an equal size battery. Sony has micro-SD, water resistance, and Android 4.3 (with better support). I guess it really comes down to what you want.

On the other side: I like how the Galaxy Note and 10.1 look. At least it's removable, even if you don't care for it's looks. That means any factory in China could make you a different back if you don't like it.

 

Forgot to mention that when I went to the AT&T store today to get my nexus 4 setup, the guy said they were supposed to be selling a Nexus device. I asked if it was the nexus 5 and he said that he thought so. He said he didn't know when however.

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Please help a tech illiterate like me decode this. So...can I get one on US Cellular and run it fine at 3G speeds, just not 4G?

 

At the very least, it supports US Cellular's LTE bands.

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Correct, Sprint/Verizon/US Cellular all operate on the same PCS bands for CDMA/EVDO (3G) but Verizon (Band 13) and US Cellular (Band 12) 700 MHz LTE spectrums are not on the list.

 

Doesn't US Cellular mainly use like 3 other bands for LTE?

At any rate, that's what happens when I try to do research on a tablet after midnight.

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Their primary deployment LTE spectrum is band 12; they also owned a block of band 4 but sold it to T-Mobile.

 

Don't know; they're primarily 3G where I live so it doesn't really matter that much to me. Southern Oregon ain't exactly a metropolis.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 now available for pre-order on AT&T, expected to ship 'around' October 1st for $299.99

Good news: Lowest storage option is now 32GB.
Bad news: $299 for a two year contract, $725 off-contract.

 

The Note 2 launched at ~$700 off contract at launch, so it should range the 650€ in EU.

 

Looks like I'm getting the G2.

 

Argh... I feel like those people in the Best Buy commercials: "But I just got this!"

I like how technology moves so fast but hate how obsolescence goes along with it. Just got the Note 2 in December but I want the Note 3 because of the 1080p.

Gah... maybe I'll wait for the Note 4 with the 4k screen.

 

Until I came across a free Droid RAZR, I was still rocking my 3+ year old Galaxy S Captivate. but if this RAZR works when I get home, I may pass on getting another phone until the next Galaxy comes out. S6 maybe? but yeah it moves way to fast and gets expensive.


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My assumption was based on you still wanting the Honami, which I can see is no longer the case. Picking the G2/Nexus 5 over the Z1 is a perfectly respectable choice if you ask me. I like what LG have had to show since the Optimus 2X, with the exception of their software which often feels inadequate. My slight disappointment in the G2 stems from it being too Nexus-y. I think it would have been better if they separated it more from the Nexus 5 by using a more eye-catching design, adding capacitive buttons, and including a microSD slot. The Optimus G was more appealing to me than the Nexus 4 because it had more bells and whistles hardware wise while the G2 won't be in a similar position.

 

Good choice!

 

Now its just waiting for next Thursday to order it! Wonder if Verizon will have it up early next week to pre-order.

 

That is quite impressive. I foresee LG making a bit of a dent in Samsung's domination if LG keeps up this way. Innovative design, but the sotware screams "ripoff" from Samsung.

I'll try my best to get money and get a Z1 for xmas. Waterproof, excellent camera, screen, and Sony quality is a money grabber for me. BUT, the Note 3 on the other hand is an amazing contestant this year, software is amazing, far from gimmicky, and I personally love that back.

Same! When we get the 4.3 update in October-November, we'll be pretty much having a Note 3 without the screen or the other hardware of course.

4k screen is just wishful thinking tho

 

I always felt LG's "stock" software is quite inferior to the top manufacturers...the Optimus G felt slower than my Nexus 4 despite sharing the same SoC. I think I shall pioneer all devices be sold with stock Android...only acceptable image.

 

I'm worried about the Nexus 5 now, since it's rumored to have a 2300mah battery.

 

LG's UI still isn't as polished as Sony's or HTC's Sense 5, but it's getting there. The Optimus G was originally launched with Ice Cream Sandwich and its Jelly Bean OTA update improved it quite a bit. I think the most difficult task they're facing is trying to break away from mimicking Samsung's designs (Both hardware and software) to make their products more distinguishable.

Yes, quite a drop in battery size. Hopefully having 4.4 will yield battery life comparable to at least the current Nexus 4, which is decent enough...but oh my, almost 12 hours of web browsing or video playback on a charge is quite impressive given its screen and specifications.