All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

I'm done. 100%

 

Recommend me a phone/tablet/phablet guys:

Needs: Good display, reading stuff on the go, some apps like Anki, 5inch+ display; loud alarm clock.
Desirable: Phoning (can a tablet be used as a semi-mobile phone?)

Lower price is a huge plus

Currently I am considering:
Nexus 7 2013 (can this be used as a phone? With a SIM card?)
Xperia Z Ultra (cons: very expensive, and I do not need this full power now)

 

Galaxy Note 8.

Done.

 

Does "5 inch+" include 5.0 inches? Because the Nexus 5 does all that, including being a phone, for a very affordable $349.

 

iPad Mini Retina. Done.

/trollend

 

NO iPad mini should not be used as a phone Tsuname!

SHAME ON YOU!

Dex, you're gonna have to choose between an phone or a tablet. Getting a phablet to use mainly for a phone is tricky. It almost requires two hands to hold up to your ear. Unless you plan on using a handsfree all the time. If that's the case, go with the Sony. It's damned expensive, but boy do they make a nice smartphone. If you're looking more towards budget, then the Nexus 5 as Miltov said has a good 5 inch screen that's very usable. And no, the Nexus 7 2013 is classed as a slate, so it doesn't support cellular voice services (at least it says it doesn't in it's specs). It does use a SIM card, but I think that's for the 4G LTE.

 

Not really. 5.5-6" is perfectly manageable* so if he wants a phablet he should go with the Z Ultra, which is one of the best current devices.

*being a man is required

If you want a tablet though, I'd recommend the Nexus 7 or the iPad Air/Mini Retina. It's up to you which OS you'll go with.

 

Yes indeed.
I would so buy the Nexus 5 for $349, but, in the EU the 32GB version costs $540 (the 16GB version costs $470).
Compare this to the Nexus 7 which costs $365.


Phones/tablets are rapidly advancing these days, there will be better models next year. So, if I buy an expensive device this year which will be kinda obsolete in 1.5 years, I would be paying a lot of $$$/day to use it. In US the prices are much lower, so that tilts the decision towards getting a more recent phone. in EU where the prices are very high, price is an issue.

Some of you might remember, I was looking towards a getting a cellphone 6 months ago, and in the end I went with a used crackberry for $60. Kinda glad I did because now there are so much better phone models around

OS: Set on android.

Cellphone issue: I can live with a humongous size as I do not plan on using the "phone" much.
I would like to have the phone feature though in case of emergencies (the darn ringtone sound on the crackberry has again stopped working, but phone voice works)

Are there not so expensive 7" tablets with a good display with phone capabilities?
This is something which would be nice to have, but is not a hard requirement (i can get a cheapo $40 phone).


PS: After shipping plus tax, isnt the 32 version of the Nexus 5 more like $450, and the 16GB version $400?

 

Thanks, Will keep in mind. Wish it had a higher res screen.

The issue is that its an in between kind of device. For €150 more, I can get the Xperia Z ultra with a better screen, faster processor, and better form factor

 

I found, with my brief time with the Togari, that it's awkward in the worst way... it's not big enough to be used as a tablet, but it's obscene to be used as a phone. Plus the camera leaves much to be desired.

IMO, it's either buy a phone with a decent sized display, or buy a real tablet with phone capabilities. The Nexus 7 doesn't have voice capabilities. Nor texting. If you want something decently sized with tablet AND voice capabilities, the Note 8 is about as good as you're going to get right now. If you want a phone, the Note 3.

 

I am currently using a Note 10.1 that has phone/text capabilities; It's an excellent device all-around but I'm not sure if it's a feasible choice with the Europe pricing concern (Model is SM-P601 for 3G only or SM-P605 if you want LTE). The Note 8's cheaper variant, the Tab 8.0 3G, is worth a look as well if you don't mind the slight performance drop and don't care for the stylus function.

ASUS has the Fonepad series which is supposed to be competitively priced, but you get stuck with an Atom processor which may hurt app compatibility.

 

Looking at the Note 10.1 2014 edition, its way too expensive with 4G.

H.A.L. 9000, now you are giving me second thoughts about the Xperia Z Ultra.

I had briefly physically looked at a Note 2 from one of my friends, and that seemed perfectly manageable to me.

EDIT: Xperia Z ultra seems to be going for €460 on ebay. Hmmm....

 

I have a Note 2 and it's awesome. The Note 3 is awesom-er.

 

How bad is the atom processor in the Asus fonepad?

 

I was at the store today, and I kind of see what you mean. The xperia Z ultra might be too big to fit into pants pocket with an external case.
If I plan to store the phone in the backpack, a 7" tablet-fone is not much different in usage.

 

I have yet to find a tablet or slate that natively supports cellular voice. Most of them the only way around this is to use Google Voice...but that's just me. The way I am, I like a large tablet (10") and a smaller phone. My Galaxy S3 will be the largest I will ever get.

That's for damn sure. If I get a tablet, it will only be with wifi. I can always hotspot my phone if I need the tablet to go online away from wifi. That's a plan B you should consider too.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 - Full phone specifications

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 - Full phone specifications

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 N5100 - Full phone specifications

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) - Full phone specifications

All have native cellular voice and data capabilities in various models.

 

Lemme rephrase: I have yet to find a tablet or slate that can do voice calls on sprints network. But I take back what I said earlier.

The voice calls support on the Galaxy Tab 3 is a nice surprise. I have serious reservations though on the Galaxy Note 10.1 supporting it fully. I get the sneaking suspicion that cellular voice functionality will be firmware locked at the request if the carriers.

Dex: HAL's absolutely right. The Galaxy Tab 3 supports gsm voice calling.

 

They are. All the models HAL listed are international versions.

 

Bleh... who buys a tablet from a carrier?!

 

Apple users...who else?

 

Buying an iPad from a carrier is no different than buying it from an Apple store. They're unlocked wherever you get them. Just pop in the sim of whoever you want service from.

 

Apple devices... unlocked?!?

SURELY you jest...

 

Not really much of a surprise.
Every 3G-capable Android tablet Samsung have ever produced has supported voice calls, right back to the original Galaxy Tab.

 

How can I verify whether a model supports cellular voice?

EG, take: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-7-inch-White/dp/B00FEH161Q
or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-8-inch-White/dp/B00FEAP0YW/

 

Oh, there's a difference. Being cellular voice call capable is far different than supporting cellular voice calls.

Nexus 4 owners can attest to this difference.

 

If anyone still does modding of Android, what APK compiler do you use? APK multitool is no longer working for me with newer apps.

 

Nope. All iPads are unlocked. Whatever bands the iPad supports, it'll work on... with whatever carrier SIM you want to use with it.

If it's a Galaxy Tab and it's 3G capable (and not a US carrier model), it supports telephony/SMS. All the international models are capable.

Did you mean Nexus 7?

The tablets that don't support telephony usually have modified baseband firmware that purposefully exclude those features.

Eclipse.

 

REALLY?

Well, that makes sense since Apple doesn't create a single model version for each carrier. The baseband is only tailored and locked in iOS then I guess. I wonder if the Sprint and Verizon versions have a SIM card slot as well (I assume Yes for Verizon).

Actually I was referring to the Nexus 4's LTE capability but lack of support in all but Band 4.

Thank you for that option...I will see what it can do immediately.

 

Eclipse gave the same series of errors. Any other suggestions?

 

Well, Eclipse is the one included in the Android SDK and it should work without any problem. But you can use any other one as long as you have the necessary libraries.
For java development I've been using Netbeans, it's very well made but it is heavier (ressource wise) than Eclipse.

 

Need recommendation for big screen MOM phone.

budget below 300 , used or new, keyword C/P !

 

Lumia 625 10char

 

So the following one does not support telephony?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-8-inch-White/dp/B00FEAP0YW/

Its says 4G, but I do not see 3G anywhere.

 

Note 2 should be around that price used...

 

That one does have telephony function.

 

But how can one tell?

 

I looked at its instruction manual. See page 40:

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...M-T315_UM_EU_Jellybean_Eng_Rev.1.3_130809.pdf

 

Aha. Thanks!!!!

 

Whatever you're modifying sounds like it has dependencies.

 

It did. I finally said FTS and uninstalled Android SDK, APK Multitool, Eclipse, and started over from scratch with all thems. This time I also pulled the Framework-Res from a Nexus 5's Deodex stock ROM zip...that way the API will be the latest meant for 4.4. Voilà! No xml parameter errors. Guess the values Yahoo had written into their xmls was meant for API 18 and higher.
Now onto the new set of problemas. Namely, the sidebar icons I replaced are showing up as white silhouettes instead of the full color PNG. Time to hunt thru the styles XMLs for the culprit.

 

My phone is trying to talk me into using Google Hangouts instead of "Messaging" for text-messages. For someone who solely text-messages and doesn't do any other sort of chat via hangouts, is there any advantage or disadvantage of switching from Messaging to Hangouts?

 

That's the way I use it... it just looks nicer. Aside from the "Send my location" option, there's no difference really.

 

Not really. It's just Google trying to be like Apple.

 

Apparently Hangouts can't pull thumbnail photos from Facebook, just Google+. Since everyone I know is on FB and almost nobody is on G+, Messaging is a lot nicer because everyone has their thumbnail photos, even though the Hangouts UI is much prettier.

 

guys, I'm going back to android world, I remember when I bought one of the first 6h of charge android phones of the launch year, and thus Im fairly outdated on android.

so the question is, what phone should I get? currently I'm thinking on the moto x.

remembering that this is brazil and we are extremely pricy when it comes to electronics of any sort, what are your recommendations?

Im not going to buy any samsung phone, aside that the s4 is 2.5k here, thats U$ 1.136. If I were to pay that for a phone I would be brain dead

and we don't have HTC nor the nexus 5 available.

so far I'm using this guide from ars

The State of Smartphones in 2013: Part I of the new Ars Ultimate Guide | Ars Technica

having fiddled with most of the phones there I can say that I wish they were a bit thicker, they would rest better in my hands, but the moto x is the most comfortable one

 

The Moto X and Moto G are both good options. You shouldn't have to worry too much about software updates.

 

My friend had a the Moto X and he loves it to death. It does feel really nice in the hand and it's a good size (if you're not used to massive phone screens)

 

I find the screen on those phones pretty darn huge, its almost the same size as my ereader.

well a phablet wasn't in the possible options its too unwieldily large