All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

As someone who just recently looked at droid options and dived into the android pool, I can say that battery life pretty much sucks across the board compared to blackberrys - the more feature rich your phone is (which means the more you want it) the worse the battery life is. It is by no means terrible (unless you are running some known offending apps that suck up juice and run in background), but I don't think my Nexus S could survive to the 3 day mark that I pulled off on the ol' BB; after a bit of calibration and monitoring the "about:battery" screen gives me a 5.5 hour estimate while playing angry birds, and 18 hours estimate for text/talk/wifi, without 3g data use. With 3g data on I'd wager that figure would drop a ton, to maybe the 12hr range. I dunno about standby, my phone is never really down and out of usage for more than half a day.

HTC phones are built pretty solid imo, samsung (the NS I own is a samsung!) does feel cheap when it's naked, but I have my phone in a case anyway so I can't even tell the difference. The NS screen is pretty damn awesome though, and since this is pretty much all you see of the phone with the case on that's what is important.

On the topic of battery life does anyone have tweaks/apps/tips? I actually don't want to root my phone and run CM7 because it sort of nullifies the advantage of the NS (stock gingerbread 2.3.4, fastest OTA updates of any market phone) so that's not an option right now.

 

There are many (MANY) Android phones with superior build quality. Most HTC's have a very solid construction, and even though Samsungs handsets are mostly plastic, they are extremely solid.

As far as changes in a phone, I was talking about aesthetics. what can yuo change besides general shape of the phone, Color, and what buttons and where. And of course you can change screen, and nothing tops Sammy's SAMOLED+ screens.

Battery Life IS quite a large problem in most phones. I haven't seen anything compare to a BB in that area. WiFi is a good way to go if at all possible.

Just remember, the iPhone may look sleek, but it has it's fair share of problems too (fragile, dropped calls, no customization).

 

On Galaxy S devices, moving to Samsung's Gingerbread builds and stock kernel images, battery life has more than doubled. With Eclair/Froyo normal battery life the way _I_ normally use a phone (brightness on auto, WiFi always on with sleep on screen off, 3G always on, and a stock kernel with no OC/UV) was around 18 hours on a good day. On Gingerbread, I get upwards of 40+ hours of normally usable battery life. That's true of the Captivate and Infuse. The Galaxy S2 is no different, battery life wise, under Gingerbread.

Now, I work at AT&T, and you can bet your bottom dollar I use my phone quite a bit throughout the day. Normally, and I've tracked it, my GS2 doesn't go over 800MHz. When a dual core is in use, you have two cores that can split the workload without having to raise the core voltages. That is what is amazing though, because usability wise, you'd never know you're not even hitting 1GHz. Everything is like silk. Smooth as butter.

Now, the GS2 is being ramped for a US release on several major US carriers, but you're not going to have one in hand by the 7th of July. Verizon's data plan deal is a REALLY good thing to take advantage of right now, because it's usually the data plans that pay for the phone subsidies. What I suggest to those of you guys looking to get in on the deal... it's hard to suggest what to do. What I would do is get a phone, a cheap one, and save for an outright purchase of the one you really want, the GS2. It WILL be making an appearance on VZW, and you'll really love an unlimited data plan.

 

Get the iPhone.

 

Interesting.

 

He'll never be happy with Android.

He doesn't actually want an Android handset, he's just decided he doesn't want the iPhone4, despite the fact that his post almost reads like an advert for iOS.

 

Interesting, so you're saying just keep the unlimited data plan now and purchase the GS2 for full retail price when it comes out? I don't think that will allow me to lock in to unlimited data, I'm pretty sure they'll make me switch to the new tiered plan when I call to activate as those will be the only plans available. But if I can do that, then that's what I'll do.

Never is a strong word. I'm obviously open enough to try it, and yes forgive me if I don't want a phone that's a year old despite the appeal iOS has to me. But thank you for your extremely helpful post.

 

If you buy a handset off contract and want to activate it on your current service plan, by law they can't make you change anything because you're not signing into a new contractual agreement. If you're signing a new contract for a phone subsidy then that's when they can _make_ you do something...

I know that's law under our service agreements, but I'm not sure about Verizon's service agreements. I can call a collegue this evening, at VZW, and make sure for you though.

 

I just read this article [via Phandroid] on how current VZW subscribers may be able to avoid the tiered data plan. I hope this is true. Tiered data is like buying an apple, but being allowed to only take certain number of bites off of it.

EDIT:
Btw, do you guys think that there also will be a small data plan like AT&T has 200mb plan for $15 a month?

 

I'd appreciate that, thank you so much. Wow, that would be amazing. I'll just stick with my BB till the GS2 drops then! That phone looks incredible. Sounds like battery life is good with Gingerbread, is that the latest Android OS?

And if current VZW subscribers can keep unlimited data somehow with new contracts, that would be even better.

 

Yep! .

 

You really want the iPhone5, right?
But you can't wait for it because of the change to the data plans.

So why not buy an iPhone5 off-contract after it's released the same way HAL is suggesting you do with the Galaxy S2?

 

Either/or. It would work the same. The activation of the iPhone would just be a little different than an Android handset, since it gets activated through iTunes.

But yea, if you want the iPhone, then get it... if you want the GS2, then get it instead... buying off contract has nothing to do with your plan, so by all means, get the one you like most. When it comes out, head to a VZW corporate store and use each of them, and see which one you would rather put down the $$$ for. Buying either of those would be a major investment, IMO... so make sure you like it!

I called my friend at VZW, and he pretty much confirmed what I said earlier. Buying a handset off contract cannot affect your plan specifics at all, if you don't want it to. He said the people on the phone will be very pushy, trying to push you into all of the new tiers. He said just be friendly but stern, and you can keep what service you have now. He's getting back to me about the iPhone activation though, since it has it's own service plans and data packages. It may not be the same as activating an Android phone.

 

Thanks! We'll see about the iPhone 5 vs GS2 when both come out I guess. I'll have to compare them both in hand so I'll be waiting until that happens. Not a huge Apple fan by any means, I just happen to like iOS and the aesthetics of the iPhone when compared to Droid phones. But whichever phone is better is the one I'll get.

Pretty excited to upgrade from my dinosaur Blackberry Bold though lol

 

My new lockscreen:



WidgetLocker ( my own theme), SMS Unread Count widget bottom left and right ( my own icons).

 

^Damn! Nice! Minimalistic!

NP!

Upgrading from a Blackberry to either iOS or Android is a B.I.G step.

EDIT: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/verizons-tiered-data-plans-wont-affect-grandfathered-customers/

 

Best Buy replied to my post on their wall: Bad news Verizon users: - Android Forums

(yes i was so desperate that i asked Best Buy Mobile directly on facebook... )

One would think that I'd know what to get now but I honestly don't know. I'd lean toward Galaxy S II but want the security of unlimited data...so I'm thinking of a 4G device.

I could hold out and buy a Galaxy S II on ebay i guess...but who knows if I'll have to change to the new data plan a'la what VZW did when they got rid of the ability to activate smartphones without a data plan a few years ago: After a certain date, any phone released after that point requires a data plan. Its why if I wanted to, I could use my Treo 700W without a data plan yet I can't use my Omnia i910 or Droid 1 without one.

It wouldnt surprise me if Verizon treated this plan change like they did the first one...which is why I'm considering getting a 4G phone now.

All this is factoring in if I stay with verizon...i might bail for sprint. In that case I'd either choose the Epic or Evo Shift (which is a slightly smaller screened Merge but with WiMax and a modified keyboard)

Decisions, decisions.

 

This is what I'm worried about. I'm quite certain Verizon wont let you stay with an unlimited plan regardless of whether you buy a phone through contract or not.

 

Details on new VZW data plans are out! [via Engadget]

It actually turned out to be not that bad for existing customers, as we can keep our unlimited data if we already have unlimited data, even if we upgrade our phone. Also, as two of my family never use data more than 40mb per month, we can opt out to that 75mb plan and look forward to saving $10 a month.

@Step666: That lockscreen looks so cool! I also like the wallpaper. Where did you get it?

 

Honestly, maybe I'm being paranoid but I don't trust that one bit. I'm sure Verizon will find a way to screw the existing customers as well.

 

I think I am now down to either the Incredible 2 or the Samsung Charge. Don't need the 4G though but it would be nice to have if the battery life is adequate. Thoughts?

I just need my phone to last me one full day of heavy use (mostly texting/emailing, light calling, light to moderate app use).

 

If battery life is important, get the Incredible 2. Its a good, solid, reliable phone, and VZW's 3G doesn't feel slow, even if it's less fast than ATT or T-Mobile

 

Verizon's new data plans broken down in complete detail | Android Central

Holy crap...erm I might be off the phone market for a while if we'll be able to upgrade w/out changing from the unlimited plan. Interesting as it didnt' work like that last time...

 

I personally would go with the charge. SAMOLED+ is amazing.

 

It worked for me last time when I wanted to grandfather a voice plan like... 6 years ago. All I had to do was ask. Hopefully this works through third-party retailers such as wirefly or amazon wireless.

I would've already gone with Charge if it didn't have mechanical buttons instead of the capacitive buttons.

 

Off of deviantArt somewhere but it's been sat on one of my HDDs for years and I can't remember the title or the name of the person who made it.

 

So I hear, that screen sounds great. I'm gonna check out both phones in person sometime this week.

Just a side note, is there like a "clean wipe" option for Android phones like there is with Windows systems so I could get rid of all the bloatware and keep only what I want?

And how exactly does the customizable aspect (not just moving widgets/setting up homescreens, I mean really tinkering with the OS to make it faster, etc) of Droid phones work? Like can I get rid of the TouchWiz stuff? Lastly, is Gingerbread available for Incredible 2/Charge yet? Like HAL mentioned, Gingerbread should make the Charge battery life better as well right?

 

Floated the idea of going to sprint to my stepmom...she'll have none of it even though it's me who's switching everyone and adding lines to his account A shame because at least by my calculations it is a great value for our specific situation.

If anyone's on sprint, feel free to chime in.

If we dont go with sprint, I'll probably upgrade to the charge or hold out for galaxy s II since I'll be able to keep unlimited data.

Root the phone then you can uninstall most carrier added software.

You can get rid of the main thing people complain about TouchWiz (the launcher) by installing a replacement like LauncherPro or ADW. Both are available in android market. The things like the quick settings in the notification bar, gpu accelerated browser, etc. that TouchWiz brings are harder to get rid of (although you could just use something like Opera or Firefox for the latter) beyond installing a custom ROM that doesn't include them IIRC. However many find those customizations (and others) pretty handy, its just the Launcher they dislike.

Dunno about Gingerbread availability with Charge or Incredible 2 in terms of Custom ROM's. I'm fairly confident that both phones will get official carrier/manufacturer sanctioned updates to GB though.

 

There is no built in "clean wipe" option, but it is easily achieved anyways. All you have to do is root the phone and delete/move/freeze the apps. This can be accomplished with titanium backup pro, root explorer, or others. Not all phones have root though (yet).

Customizing an android phone is really easy, but can also get complex, like when you are using clickable background files and customizing individual apps for the home screen. Regarding removing skins like touchwiz, motoblur, or sense, that can be semi-accomplished with home replacement apps like ADW or Launcher Pro. To fully remove the manufacturer skins, you'll have to run a custom rom, like Cyanogen 7 (phone has to be rooted).

Gingerbread isn't availible for the Incredible 2 or charge yet, but the Incredible S in Europe has gingerbread (same phone as Incredible 2) so the Incredible 2 should be getting gingerbread shortly. As for the charge, I have no idea, but I would guess probably Q2 or early Q3 of this year.

Hope this helps, and if you want more information browse this site Android Forums

Stradevarius

EDIT: Seems booboo12 beat me to it!

 

Thank you guys, much appreciated. Seems like I'll be doing a lot of rooting and whatnot. Can Gingerbread be obtained through non official means?

Are custom ROMs recommended and is there a consensus on which one to get if I wanna really hack my phone?

EDIT: I think I get it now. I guess the custom ROM depends on your particular phone and who releases it and the feedback it gets.

 

You got it. Custom ROM's are created by users and enthusiasts. There can be more than one custom ROM for your device. Some are very popular and are available across multiple phone models, like Cyanogen Mod 7 and Ultimate Droid, while other's are phone specific.

 

Hmm.

Now I'm wondering whether I should edit this slightly so that the slider 'lights up' when it's being dragged - a bit like this.
Plus I need to find a way of adding a torch/flashlight function to my lockscreen without ruining the aesthetic of it...

 

:lol: you're really getting into this aren't you?

Perhaps a small outline of a flashlight in the bottom center space would work...tap to turn on..tap to turn off.

 

... or make the entire screen flash in white upon unlocking, like waking up from a dream or smt.

 

It's actually quite fun once you get past the frustrating part.
And I have past form of dabbling in customising interfaces.

I couldn't put the flashlight shortcut there, the unlock slider slides down into it.

I was thinking of having an identical grey bar further up the screen that I could use as a horizontal slider to switch the light on and off.

The app can't do that.
I only just found out it was possible to have the sliders 'glow'.

 

Common thing I see you did there, is to use Droid as a term for Android... the Droid phones are no different than any other Android phone on the market, they're just marketed that way. The OEM is what determines what is possible with the device you buy, because each has different policies concerning hardware and software. Take Motorola for instance... They keep a tight ship. They lock AND encrypt their bootloader, thereby preventing anyone from flashing a custom kernel, and the kernel is almost as big of a part of a community modified OS as the OS itself. Samsung, on the other hand, leaves their bootloader unlocked and un-encrypted, allowing anyone that knows how to flash a kernel to do so. Also, Motorola crafts their software a bit differently, as compared to other OEM's like Samsung or HTC. An example of that would be to look at the UI presentation of Motorola's Atrix versus the Galaxy S... In terms of smoothness of UI Samsung has even Apple beat, where Motorola's UI is choppy with no smooth or elastic scrolling. Motorola has minimal UI transition animations, where Samsung has a LOT of UI transition animation.

It's all in the details with Android, and it's OEM's. To buy an Android phone isn't a hard or complex task, it's just one that you have to think about what you're looking for in an OS and it's hardware, because pretty much everything is on offer, just not with every OEM.

Now about the "clean wipe" option... Most every Android device that I've used has had a default OEM flashing utility, like RSDLite for Motorola, or ODIN for Samsung. The community understands that a LOT of people actually like the included software and value how the phone came, and not really want to make any customization's to the software. So they modify the OEM software OS images to get rid of the "bloat" and leave everything else intact, and using ODIN or RSDLite you can flash the "customized" OS to your phone in an almost effortless way, unlike most highly customized ROM solutions where there are quite a few steps you have to take to flash a ROM.

And yes, the Charge is technically a Galaxy S device, just with an LTE baseband radio and a nicer screen panel. It has the same Hummingbird internals, and Gingerbread dramatically increases the battery life of every Hummingbird device I've used it on so far. Adding a minimum of an extra 6-10 hours of runtime.

I also think you should get the Charge. The reason being that there is an app that you can get that will disable the 4G radio if you don't need it ATM. With 4G disabled, normal battery life will just about double. Then if and when you _DO_ need it, it's there. The Samsung also offers the S-AMOLED+ panel which is amazing. It also comes with an unlocked/unencrypted bootloader, so later on if you feel like you have a feel of how things are done and _want_ to modify your phone, you can.

(Plus I just happen to think that Samsung's software is just better than other OEM's, because Samsung focuses on UI smoothness. But that's a personal opinion...)

Exactly. The popularity of the phone usually tells you how you can expect the "custom" community to react to the device... in terms of custom ROM's and recovery software. Popular devices will usually have MANY custom ROM's and a very wide variety of options on tap...

 

Thank you HAL, greatly appreciated.

Now I'm just obsessed with the Galaxy S2 so I may just take the chance and wait until that comes out. Hopefully I'll keep my unlimited data plan. If not, then Samsung Charge it is!

 

NP! And nice choice!

On a different note... Motorola has unlocked the Atrix's bootloader with the 2.3 Gingerbread update. I can confirm it first hand.

THIS. IS. HUGE.

I might actually start using my Atrix now... (as something more than a dev phone)

 

Ooo nice. I might consider it in the future when it drops to budget price range.

 

That was my original plan... but... You know how that goes. LOL

BTW, in case anyone is wondering how it's unlocked, it's done through fastboot.

 

Yeah pick up a cheap dock, almost like having a spare computer. Saw it on a local listing for $325 or so the other week. Was so tempted.

And, I see. So almost like the Nexus phones where you unlock the bootloader via adb? Or you mean that fastboot commands are now 100% available because it is unlocked?

 

Very insightful as usual, if only i could give you more rep haha.

So with the Charge there's now like 4 Galaxy S I "spinoffs" in the states? I know that technically every Galaxy S device here is a spinoff of the original, but I'm talking more of a physical nature, like the odd duck Continuium that I see absolutely no one using XD or the Epic 4G.

 

Indeed. Almost exactly like a Nexus device, except you have Motorola logos.

LOLs.

And yea... there's like 26 different GS1 spinoffs. Samsung literally has Hummingbird chipsets running out their ears. GS 4G, Vibrant, Captivate, Mesmerize, Fascinate, Epic 4G, Charge, Continuum and some others I can't seem to remember ATM... All technically Galaxy S devices.

 

Motorola Atrix 4G bootloader reportedly will be unlocked with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update | Android Central

Very interesting.

EDIT: Damn you HAL! You are too quick

 

Bwahaha! I'm good like that.

 

What are the odds of that happening with the Triumph, whenever it ends up being released?

 

Depends. Motorola is kind of an unknown in the prepaid Android market.

 

I think they announced already that theyre not doing encrypted bootloaders anymore, so it should be unencrypted from release.

 

I'm sure they said the Photon would be unlocked but I don't remember reading anything one way or the other about the Triumph.

 

Actually, I think initially some reps said that the Photon would be unlocked, but it was later confirmed that it would still have an encrypted bootloader.