All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

I hesitate to do math this late, but the battery is (very) roughly 1/4 smaller. So if that scales to the Nexus 5, battery life shouldn't be that bad. It should still score around 45 hours.

 

I'm glad I checked the GSMArena test again, because I overlooked something important.

Taking that into consideration, the 2300 mAh battery will give the Nexus 5 more than sufficient battery life. The U.S. models have the 3000 mAh battery, so it will actually do even better than what we see here. Now that is impressive.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition) hands-on

I like the physical home button, the S-Pen, microSD support, and the wifi-only model offers the octa-core Exynos.

I still don't like a 16:9 screen ratios, but the 2,560 x 1,600 is such a great resolution for a tablet, I might be willing to try it.

I could care less about the faux leather on the backside. It's not like I'm gonna be staring at the back all day long. I just wish it had the smart cover capabilities like the iPad does.

 

Uhh 2560x1600 (WQXGA) is a 16:10 resolution. 2560x1440 is 16:9. Also the Nexus 10 has 2560x1600 screen too..

 

As much as I'd like to experiment with a pure and virgin android OS like the Nexus 10 has, it has not: microSD support or physical home button. I CAN NOT STAND those damn soft keys. That's the big reason I went with the SGS3 is cause I don't need to feel the side of the phone for the power button to wake the screen. I can just use the home button. That and if there's no microSD support, I'm not on board.

And I prefer a 4:3 screen ratio on a tablet as opposed to a 16:9. In a 16:9, I feel the screen items get scrunched when the OSD keyboard comes up. I've never felt that claustrophobia on an iPad. In landscape mode, it feels perfectly wide to accommodate the keyboard comfortably, whilst not allowing it to take up more than half the screen height.

 

Wait, doesn't that mean they're testing the 3000mah variant? The international variant has a 3000mah.

 

Oops you are correct, went from overlooking to misreading. Good night...

 

Ah, so the South Korean variant has a microSD slot and a non-sealed battery, albeit a smaller one. I feel stupid for thinking they changed the hardware instead of there being two models. Leaked photos of the phone itself and the Korean manual were substantial proof that I misinterpreted. Also, if the G2's international battery is that much larger than what the Nexus 5 will have then I guess it might have its appeal after all.

The Optimus G had some decent development going for it if I'm not mistaken. You could even turn it into a Nexus 4 if you wanted to, but that meant losing out on some of the benefits the G had over the Nexus.

 

That's what people were saying when I wanted 1080p in a phone.

And then again when I wanted 1080p in a 7-8" tablet.

But seriously, 4k would be overkill in a phone... for now.

 

IMO 1080p is already overkill for a phone of 5" or smaller. I've never, ever felt my GS3 lacked pixels, and more pixels just means shorter battery life and more strain on the processor to maintain fluid operation. 4k would be crazy because even with 1080p you can't see the pixels at normal operating distances. What's the point of going even higher? This is "my amp goes to 11" stuff.

 

Yeah but it will never be a Nexus device. Not having removable storage never bothered me, heck look at my current phone....

I'm used to not having a huge amount of space on a tablet, and I don't mind paying a little bit more for more storage. Besides the way NAND is dropping, MicroSD should be going away on flagship devices. I've gotten used to the no physical buttons (Nexus 4, Galaxy Nexus), I was hesitant coming from my Blaze 4G.

 

I hated the soft keys on my Epic 4G. Damn things wouldn't work worth a beans! But I don't see OEMs moving away from microSD anytime soon. It's too prevalent in mobile devices to ignore. If anything, I can see it only being offered in flagship devices and not offered in the lower models. For me it's not a question of capacity, but of reliability. I have seen other's phone/tablet NAND fail...and with it, any data they had stored on it. My Epic 4G didn't have on board storage, but if it did, I wouldn't have worried cause when that phone went bad on my (3x's over 2 years!) all my files were on my microSD card and survived. It doesn't mean it's guaranteed to survive a device's self destruction by any means, but it is less likely to drink the kool-aid if the device's internal NAND goes bad. And I will take "less likely" over 'that's just the way it is" any day.

Plus, I've only had to replace my microSD card once. And that was ~3 months ago because I filled up the 8GB one I've had for ~5 years and had to get a 16GB one. So in my shallow experience, these cards are more durable than a device's internal NAND.

 

MicroSD is all but gone from flagship smartphones. All but two companies have given up on the idea. The flagship smartphones from Samsung and Sony offer it, but the flagships from HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Blackberry, and Apple do not.

 

And which of those companies listed sells a butt-load of phones? Yep.

At least Sony knows who to take after. MicroSD is a defining feature for a LOT of people. I HATE that I had to pay so much for the iPad I have (64GB). The 16GB model is useless, especially on the retina models. IMHO, 64GB is now cheap enough, that should be the default storage option on devices with no external storage options.

 

Since Apple DOES sell a butt-load of phones and Sony does NOT, I don't think the microSD-to-sales correlation is actually that strong. Even limiting the inquiry to Android alone, doesn't HTC outsell Sony by a wide margin?

 

Apple wasn't the answer he was looking for; it was Samsung. He's saying Sony's making the right choice by still relying on expandable storage, just like the very successful Samsung, since it's a big plus to a lot of people in the Android space.

 

Do the newer Windows Phone units have SD cards? I think the Nokias don't.

 

Mitlov is arguing that Samsung must be doing something else right, because even though Sony includes micro SD card slots, they aren't selling many phones. Apple also sells lots of phones and doesn't include a micro SD card option.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

Some have (820 i.e.) and some don't (920 i.e.).

 

Lower-end Nokias do (820 and below); higher-end don't (92x and 1020). HTC's 8X does not, but its 8S does. All Samsung WP8 phones do.

 

Exactly. Samsung is successful and Samsung offers microSD slots, but that alone doesn't establish correlation. If the two were correlated instead of coincidence, you'd expect other companies that do (such as Sony) to be more successful and other companies that don't (Apple, HTC) to be less successful. The fact that Sony can't even keep up with HTC, not to mention Apple, suggests that microSD is not a primary reason for Samsung's success.

 

I didn't think HTC was doing so hot.

HTC also releases CDMA versions of their phones which Sony does not (I remember someone complaining about that in this thread).

So conversely, the correlation of no SD card in HTC products vs Sony products to sales isn't exactly a solid counterpoint.

 

That supports the arguments that SD card slots are not a significant deciding factor when choosing a phone.

Sent from my HTC One

 

Top five handset sellers:

Sony and HTC Smartphone Sales Show Signs of a Rebound in May While ZTE Struggles

If microSD was a primary factor in smartphone sales, LG and Apple wouldn't be leaving Sony in the dust.

 

So now Sony outsells HTC? Now I'm confused.

 

I thought HTC outsold them, but I was wrong when I looked up the numbers. On the other hand, I also didn't know that LG and Huawei outsold Sony. My main point, that Sony is nowhere near the top of Android OEMs, holds true.

 

In the US, HTC is in 3rd place(behind Sammy and Apple of course).

 

Wow. Gone 4 hours and my previous reply seems to have struck a nerve. I feel so accomplished. But uncle duties come before NBR so lets play catch up...

IIRC, Apple never offered expandable storage on any of their iPhones or iPads ever. Their lineup is so successful cause iOS works so well with the hardware and with minimal to no errors (except user errors). I'd bet dollars to donuts though that Apple users wish the iPhone and iPad was microSD capable. It's cheaper to buy a larger memory card than it is to buy the larger capacity iPad. And that is why Apple doesn't offer such a option. Ingenious. Just like Jobs.

HTC used to offer expandable storage in most (if not all) their phones. Then the quality of their devices went south. And they started thinking they could mimic Apple's hardware designs, including "What you buy is what you get" storage. WRONG! That only works for Apple cause iOS isn't some cheap lead based whitewash that poisons the devices like Sense is. Sense never used to be that way. Sense started to go all Miley Cyrus once HTC removed microSD capability from their higher end devices. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

Nokia and Motorola just disappoint me. They make such beautiful devices, but then they have the nerve to remove such candid features like microSD...which seems to be the only wanted feature that review sites are noting as the main con. Again, they're trying to mimic Apple in their no expandable storage policy, when instead they should be thumbing their nose at such a notion. If Nokia or Motorola were to add microSD support to the Lumia 1020 or Moto X, they'd be making money hand over fist more than they are now.

Don't get me started on LG or Blackberry. LG makes such awesome hardware, but then load it up with their own crap version of Android. It's like smearing a turd on their phones and calling it a Nexus.
Blackberry is under hospice care whilst the RIM board harvest it's organs and sell them to the highest bidders. Blackberry will not survive to see 2014, that is for certain.

 

I'm a half iOS user and every day I wish it had an SD card. Might have to invest in one of those Kingston MobileLites.

 

Yet BB has an expandable memory slot.
A shame really, z10 is such a nice device. My sister owns one, and I thought about getting one too.

 

I read that as Mitlov answering HAL with Apple. My bad. I know Samsung offering a microSD slot is a miniscule contributor to them leading the pack but it is a decision maker to some, and ticking as many boxes as possible is important to any manufacturer that wants to wrestle in the big leagues. Sony did tell the press that it "believes that consumers want a flagship that's good at everything,". Having no storage constraints is a desirable quality of a good all-rounder if you ask me. As for how Sony and HTC is doing, Sony sold 9.6m Xperia units in Q2 this year, landing them a net profit of $35m. HTC did not release a breakdown of many devices they sold for the same period, but they did arrive at a net profit of $41m. Although they have a strong brand awareness with the One, their outlook is bleaker.



Sony and HTC Smartphone Sales Show Signs of a Rebound in May While ZTE Struggles
HTC's Q2 2013 results show increased sales, but tough Q3 ahead

EDIT: I missed an entire page before posting.

LG and Huawei traditionally include microSD slots. Apple doesn't have any iOS competitors and I reckon their crowd is generally willing to pay more for storage. That's not to say there's a strong correlation between the inclusion of expandable storage and sales numbers, but I do think it affects the overall image of their phone lineup to a lesser degree. What annoys me is when a manufacturer decides to omit the slot without offering a model with sizeable storage. If you want a 64GB HTC One but live outside of the US, you'll have to import it.

 

I don't see why people are arguing that MicroSD doesn't matter... Most people really don't use a whole lot of storage on their phones, but for those that do, they either pony up the dough for a phone that includes enough, or they get a model with MicroSD. Obviously MicroSD is not the most important feature across the board in deciding on a phone, but it is idiotic to say that it isn't important.

There are two main reasons for a phone not to include MicroSD. Either the manufacturer wants to sell phones with more built-in memory at a higher price point, or the phone's minimalist design really doesn't allow it.

 

I'm an iPhone user, and I don't really care about a MicroSD card slot. I used to have a 160GB iPod with 10000+ songs on it. Guess what? I never got a chance to ever listen to ALL of them. It's so pointless with countless streaming services available, to have such space. Unless you record video and take pictures 24/7, I don't see the point of including MicroSD. And with Google pioneering the elimination of MicroSD, it will inevitable that MicroSD will disappear off Android phones. Oh and by the way, my last phone was a Nexus 4 which is pretty similar to the iPhone in the sense of non-removable storage as well as a higher quality build..

 

I just find it sad that the cloud is becoming the future of storage. Especially with the Whole NSA thing. R.I.P user control over your own data.

On the bright side, my whole Dropbox is just one big TrueCrypt file container. Take that NSA!

 

Here's something that you might not understand, but you aren't everyone. If MicroSD is so pointless because nobody needs storage space, what do you think of manufacturers putting 64 or 128GB on their phones and tablets?

 

I wouldn't have any problem with how you presented that if you would have taken mobile data limits into account. I would say that almost 75-85% of mobile users have data plan limits that prevent them from using cloud/streaming services. Almost the entirety of my family has the 300Mb $20 data plan on AT&T. That's maybe a day of casual music streaming.

Fact of the matter: until data limits are significantly higher, MicroSD isn't going anywhere. Also, it seems only the US/UK bound models are the ones usually devoid of MicroSD. The Chinese market gets mSD on almost all of their phones, and there's no reason that can't happen in every market. MicroSD has a negligible design impact.

 

Do you really care if the NSA is watching the songs you listen to?

 

Wow. Now everyone's getting all riled up.

YES! They can get their own damn playlist.

Get one while you still can then.
BlackBerry hopes to be acquired by November

 

Recent news stories include (1) encryption doesn't stop the NSA, and (2) the NSA has the means to tap cell phones even if you don't use cloud storage. So I don't think the NSA cuts either way on the microSD issue.

 

Encryption definitely does stop the NSA. Most encryption that the NSA can bypass is stuff with known security flaws and stuff produced by companies that provided the NSA with tools or knowledge to bypass encryption. Unless the NSA has full access to jobine72's computer while he is accessing his Truecrypt container, they are never going to get into it.

 

LG D820 probably isn't the Nexus 5: LG D820 is CDMA G2 model, not the Nexus 5 - GSMArena.com news

 

Xbox Music (the service previously known as Zune) just released their first Android app. I find the user interface more attractive than Spotify's, and the PC clients (Xbox Music for Windows 8 and Zune PC for Windows 7) are MUCH better than Spotify's PC clients...though the lack of downloading for offline play is a mark against it right now (it's in the works but not quite there yet; WP7 and WP8 devices could always download, though, so I assume it's coming soon).

Xbox Music brings 30M songs to iOS and Android, adds free Web streaming | Ars Technica

 

I hope LG G2 shows up as an upgrade option for me tomorrow on Verizon Wireless. I'm ready to go. Maybe I will have to make a trip to a Verizon store.

edit: And ORDERED! Should be here tomorrow (Friday)

 

In case any of you live under a rock and missed the news
FCC (Or LG) Royally Screws Up, Publishes Photos Of Next Nexus Phone Under Listing For Verizon G2

Again, I'll more than likely buy this phone when it goes for sale, though I wish it had the same battery size as the G2.

 

2300mah. Say it ain't so.

 

I hope they include some power saving improvements in 4.4. After I flashed franco.Kernel on my Nexus 4, battery life was comparably to an iPhone 5.


Sent from my iPhone

 

Got my G2. So far loving it. But a bit overwhelmed.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

Is LG's software that bad? I played with the Optimus G, it was a bit bloated. I can see lower end phones being bogged down by bloatware, but not top end phones.

 

The Snapdragon 800 is definitely no slouch. Just played an entire round of Super Smash Bros (N64) without so much as a hiccup.

 

Yes.


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