All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Well it's clearly not a finished model but, yeah, that does seem very low.

I sincerely hope the design is real, the specs I could take or leave depending on what CPU is used etc.

 

Indeed, the design is very catchy. SE did a nice job on the LEDs. Great idea.

 

Any one else noticed that when you click a few times on your android version (in the about phone menu), you get a zombie drawing?! Its pretty weird

 

Yeah, a while back, sorry.

 

LOL, i saw that picture before when i was editing my framework-res and was like what the hell? now i know.

 

About to pull the trigger on this:



For 40 bucks...I can't beat that price with a baseball bat.

 

Be smart... initial hardware price isn't the huge cost...

 

1.) Nope. Those rely on the TouchWiz UI frameworks.
2.) Those mDNIe settings aren't a part of CM7. Those color profiles have proprietary libs that interface with the kernel to function. Supercurio is working on a new Voodoo Color for the GS2 that will work on CM7, but until then... sorry.

That _is_ one very nice design. I've always liked the Arc, and this looks like an evolution on that design language.

If this is indeed a 720p screen, and they have a Snapdragon MSM8260 running the show, I wouldn't really be surprised at that score. The Adreno 220 just can't pump out the needed framerates at 720p in a phone type device. They can upclock it in tablets and such to where it's competent, but...

The upcoming die shrink to 28nm and the introduction of the Krait CPU cores and the Adreno 320 will go a LONG way towards remedying the performance gap.

That, sir, is called an Easter Egg. Every time Google releases a new OS they hide one somewhere...

 

Yeah, I know...I do realize it's a gamble. I'm confident it'll get ICS though due to how recent it was released, but one can never know. While there's not a huge dev community yet, the phone has been rooted successfully and people are working toward ROM's so that's promising, especially for a device that has only been out for about 2 weeks.

I'm pulling the trigger now for the following reasons:

*Price: Amazon has the Stratosphere for a steal of a price for upgraders: 39 bucks. That's a amazing deal for a 4G phone, hell the D3 is still 175 bucks or something. My "Nexus" fund got eaten up by my car sadly.

*Reviews: Only Mobile Burn's review was a bit negative due to several characteristics of the device (It tries to get you onto Wi-Fi whenever possible so you don't use up your data if you're on a capped plan. You can disable this though. He also didn't particularly care for the action of the slider mechanism but I prefer a stiffer mechanism tbh. I also think his unit was defective due to some random bugs that I haven't seen anyone here notice or report.) everyone else said it's a decent device even if it's not a top tier phone. I can live with that.

*My Droid 1: My power button wasn't getting better, quite the opposite to be exact. I tried to flash a new ROM to try and solve some performance issues and was frustrated with the button not working in Clockwork Mod recovery. (Power button acts as a back button in the menu) I was also sick of having to tap it just right to get the screen to turn off, or end up accidentally pulling up the Power Options menu sometimes when I'm doing other things.

I also got tired of the random reboots: I tried to fix by flashing via the PC with a .sbf file (which apparently cleans out more junk then just wiping via CWM) but the stupid power button struck again preventing me from doing it. I managed to flash a froyo rom I had on a SD card but now the phone powers off randomly. I was experiencing random reboots before all this though in the camera, and anytime I was in the bootloader, it'll reboot if I don't complete the steps fast enough. It all became too much.

Having the button completely break until i whacked the top edge of the phone on a desk while in CWM and trying to back out of the menu was the breaking point.

Finally, my headphone jack is broken very bad. I hate not being able to use my phone for a mp3 player.

Ironically the D1 on even this somewhat broken Froyo install is snappier than Gingerbread. Oh well, time to move on from my 3 year old phone.

I've played with the phone at a Verizon kiosk. It feels snappy enough, and the keyboard is great. I've come to realize that, although I consider myself an enthusiast, I could probably live with a *gasp* "midrange" device for a while if it has the features I want. Is the Nexus a great phone? Of course, but the Stratosphere's decent too.
,

 

I'll post you up a video in a bit so you know what you can expect out of Hummingbird.

I'll run through the usual 1080p video test and all that... I have the Atrix and a Droid X I'll also put in the video, side-by-side.

 

Awesomesauce, Thanks HAL

EDIT: People are still getting the 480p and 720p camera spec confused. When a phone's camera options say 720 X 480 as a option, does that mean it's a 720p video camera?

 

Nope... you always count vertical lines. 720x480 is 480p. 1280x720 is 720p.

Video should be up in about an hour. Just a spoiler though, the Atrix really doesn't like playing back video. Blame NVIDIA.

EDIT: Postponement: Camera battery is dead. *le sigh*

Mean Quadrant:
Infuse: 3300
Atrix: 3200
Droid X: I can't get it to run through Quadrant on CM7. On stock firmware it's around 14-1500.

In web browsing, the Infuse finishes first, then the Atrix, then the DX after a lengthy load. (Tested: Engadget, The Verge, and The New York Times)

Video tests:
Infuse: 1080p, 720p, and 480p all playable at full framerate up to 40Mbps High Profile @L4.1.
Atrix: 1080p, 720p, and 480p all playable at full framerate up to 12Mbps Baseline Profile.
Droid X: 720p, and 480p both playable at Baseline Profile. 720p will have frame loss.

Hummingbird is easily capable of keeping up with Tegra 2. The only thing I'm not certain about is if Samsung used LP-DDR2 memory in the Stratosphere instead of Hummingbird's original LP-DDR1. The DDR2 enables 1080p playback and much faster RAM caching. If they didn't use DDR2, you're looking at quadrant scores of 2-2200 with your device overclocked... and you'll see noticeable slow down when thumbing between apps.

 

Ahh gotcha. Makes sense then, and not a bummer.

 

had some bad luck today. was listening to music off my phone over a P.A. system at work today, and when cleaning up I pulled on the cord my phone was attached to (It was 7 A.M. and I only had4 hours of sleep the night before) and it fell. The headphone jack is now broken. All it'll do is make a popping noise a couple times a second when I plug it in, music plays out the phones speaker.

It really ticked me off how stupid I was. had the phone less than a month too.

 

Awesome. Thanks for doing those tests. AnandTech found that it IS using LP-DDR2 memory: AnandTech - Samsung Stratosphere: LTE and QWERTY for $149 [UPDATED]

So obviously that's a good thing.

 

Even the less striking handsets like the Ray are actually very nice when you get up close with them.
In fact, to be honest, I think I prefer the Ray to the Arc overall.

What sort of Quadrant scores does the Rezound get? Has anyone seen anything? Because if it's the same CPU/GPU, that should give us an idea as to whether what we're seeing from Nozomi is reasonable or not.
Also, I thought you said that a decent Kernel made all the difference and that's why Samsung get better performance out of the same chips as HTC? If so, I reckon DooMLoRD would get this new handset sorted out pretty sharpish - he's produced replacement Kernels for all the 2011 Xperia handsets.

The early Krait models only use Adreno 225 GPUs, then 305, then 320.
The first model with a 305 doesn't sample until Q3 next year apparently and the MSM 8974 ( the first MSM SoC with an Adreno 320 GPU) is looking at a sampling date in 2013.

Maybe they'll go for ST-Ericsson's NovaThor SoCs - the current models basically the same as the Exynos 4210.
Or better yet the A9600 - dual Cortex A15 cores and a PowerVR 'Rogue' GPU. When it was unveiled at MWC this year, they were talking 2011 sampling dates...

 

1) So the .apk only installs in the presence of a TW UI framework? Because I was thinking of installing the contact app as a normal app, but use it as a default app.

2) Awww damn it... Any ETA when VooDoo Color is going to strike the Market?

Yeah, the Arc design is the best I've seen, but if you notice, the Nozomi looks more like the Xperia Duo...

Wait, it's only a MSM8260? SE is still a long way behind... If they used the OMAP 4470, the whole Android world would be all over them, I'm sure of that

Mmmmm... What's the Easter Egg of the Honeycomb OS? Can't wait to see what's ICS's Easter Egg is going to be

 

Actually, I haven't seen anything from the Resound. It should closely mirror the SE device though if it's 720p. And yes, a nicely optimized kernel could eek out a bit more performance... in Samsung's case they're using hardware accelerated UI rendering where HTC doesn't. It seems a lot more powerful because everything is silky smooth. BUT if you notice, even Exynos takes a performance hit with HD resolutions, as evidenced by the Galaxy Note. The Note no longer bumps against the vsync cap like the 480x800 GSII... and the Mali-400 is several orders more potent than the Snapdragon's Adreno 220, especially in 2d rendering.

@Phistachio... the reason SE uses Qualcomm is because it lets them have a higher profit margin for every device sold. If you only have one chipset in your devices, that means less work and more profit since you don't gave to custom build Android around all types of SoC's. That's why, IMO, you won't see anything but Snapdragons in SE devices, at least for the next few years.

@Step666... I'm very interested in ST-Ericsson's new platform. The current one uses Mali400 but only in an MP2+ capacity, instead of Exynos MP4+. This upcoming one has me genuinely interested. I'm a sucker for PowerVR. Stick a respectable audio DAC with it and color me impressed.

Sorry for no quotes... CM7's browser doesn't like the advanced editor.

 

If SE would stick the A9600 NovaThor in a handset with an HD version of their current LCD screens, they'd give anyone a run for their money.

They've got the cameras spot-on, the screens are as good as any LCD out there, the UI is very smooth, firmware updates are decently quick, bootloader unlocking is available and CM7/MIUI support is there.
It's really just the CPUs and RAM they need to improve IMO.

 

Ouch, that really sucks

 

Yep. I don't really use the haedphone jack much, I use my MP3 player, but it's nice to have Pandora and netflix on my headphones...

 

Don't you have the GS2? I think I remember you saying that somewhere...

 

I thought he had the OG Droid...in which case the headphone jack randomly imploding would totally be normal.

EDIT: http://www.xda-developers.com/android/it-is-illegal-for-verizon-to-lock-some-bootloaders/

That's pretty interesting...

 

yes. I have the Galaxy S2. A foot and a half drop and the headphone jack is gone. I was surprised.

 

100% truth. I've been wondering about the double standard for quite a while now. None of the Samsung Android devices come with locked bootloaders, and Samsung said they never will. But then, Motorola depends on Verizon too much, so they have to do what Verizon says or else risk loosing equipment contracts.

Bringing the whole Block C argument into this is pretty witty. Verizon will undoubtedly use the "fair network management" clause, but I want to see what they say when that's turned down in light of the double standard of bootloader locking. None of AT&T's LTE devices, so far, are going to be locked...

If I'm not mistaken, repairing/replacing the jack itself on the GS2 is a fairly simple procedure. Since this is accidental damage you probably won't be covered by warranty. All it requires is a soldering iron and a steady hand.

EDIT: or you can just replace the whole piece. Shouldn't be too much, since there's really nothing else of importance on it:

EDIT2: or yours simply could have come unsnapped from the internal connector.

Spoiler

 

I don't think I could (or would try) to do something like that myself. Just have to suffer with no headphone jack for 1 year 11 months.

 

12 days, 17 hours, 32 minutes, 50 seconds....

Enjoy.

 

The article starts out wrong and just stays there.

For a start, and I would say this is a pretty important and basic point, the international version of the Droid RAZR doesn't ship with an unlocked bootloader, it's unlockable.
Ditto for HTC, SE etc.

They're not changing anything about the phones compared to if you buy them on a different network or even SIM-free, all of them come with a locked bootloader out the box.
So straight off Verizon have an argument there that they're not forcing the manufacturers to lock the bootloaders, that's just how they come from the manufacturer.

And the fact that the Thunderbolt isn't one of the handsets that you can unlock the bootloader for doesn't prove a thing, not to mention quoting HTC's BS about being 'committed to assisting customers in unlocking bootloaders' just proves how little impartiality/perspective the writer has - HTC chose to start locking bootloaders and they also chose not to make the unlocking method universal, yet try and pass the blame to the networks.


It's the whole tethering crap all over again.
The guy writing the article is looking to prove Verizon are breaking the law because it suits his views, ignoring/dismissing things that don't gel with his own view.

 

If it gets the topic stirred up, then I don't see any harm in it. That needs to be officially addressed by Verizon (both the bootloader policy and the C-Block inquiries). The C-Block stipulations are very straightfoward, yet Verizon is doing all they can to cloud them up. Somebody needs to call them out on it.

 

If someone's going to call them out, they need a far more cogent argument.

I basically don't know the first thing about the C-Block regulations, until about 10 minutes ago I didn't know they existed or even what the C-Block was.
But that hasn't stopped me undermining the guy's entire post first time I've read it because it's based on inaccurate information.

And stirring stuff up for the sake of it does no-one any good - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially when you have angry stupid nerdy-types involved.

 

Bluetooth headphones?

 

Is there a better way to input text? Anytime I type the input box scrolls up and can't see what I'm typing, usually in forums. Plus I have a hard time choosing exact cursor location. Arrow keys would be great but I don't see any way to get them. Thanks (tipped from my Android).

 

Well, I forgot which Android version you have. But only Gingerbread introduced the cursor placement handles... I really don't know what to say. If you didn't know though, you can press back to hide the keyboard.

(shooting out random suggestions)

 

The cursor handle things aren't great IMO.

Your best bet would most likely be some sort of alternative keyboard that includes arrow keys.

 

You mean in landscape? If so I might have a solution for you...

 

Oh... do tell! I've been having that issue for a while now.

It's always been an issue for Android though... IDK why the hell it just doesn't like forums.

 

Wait a minute......maybe I am missing something? I was referring to more the input box taking up the whole screen thing.

 

ugh i HATE that! I use Thumb Keyboard to disable the full screen crap

 

I was gona suggest give " SwiftKey Tablet X" a try. Works on my phone, so hopefully it will work on yours too! Plus for the landscape keyboard, you can have a split setup.

 

Heard good things about that!

Yeah I need the split my phone is too big to reach the middle comfortably... XD

 

I'd recommend Thumb Keyboard myself.
I used Swiftkey Tablet for a while on my Galaxy Tab and it was nice but nothing special IMO, whereas this one is much more configurable - it includes a load of different keyboard layouts designed for different-sized screens but you can over-ride it and manually set which one you use in each orientation.

 

Same here i love it The themes are great and lots of options.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I decided not to quote you all, but it happens in landscape or portrait mode, doesn't matter. The text in the text box disappears, and trying to place the cursor where you want it too is a PITA.

Also if either of those keyboards require a rooted device I can't use it because my device is not rooted yet, and so far seems no straight forward way to do it with my Gingerbread 2.3.5. But I'll take a look and give it a shot.

The problem is I really like swipe now, it's quick and easy. Can it be compatible?

 

QFT. The handles are awful, I actually have better luck selecting text on Froyo by dragging a'la Win Mo

That is another annoyance. I go into landscape to enter text virtually and the cursor will jump somewhere else....frustrating.

You can install keyboards from Android Market, no root required.

Have you considered picking up Tapatalk? It's free on GetJar's App Store and well worth the download. While there's no built in multiquote, it's easy enough to copy and paste your quotes into a reply and then reply to each one.

EDIT: Whoops, I forgot...it's not on NBR yet...my bad.

 

I think I've had that problem before but cant remembering it happening any time recently, and ive recently switched to Dolphin HD, so give that a try might fix it.

 

Thanks, that's what I'm using (Dolphin HD).

For NBR I've tried setting it to Mobile, vBulletin, and New NBR Style and all with same result.

 

Do you use the quick reply option?

 

Quick reply works (sometimes) but if I quote definitely not.

 

Still counting the days until the Galaxy Nexus release. I have $800 set aside for it...

ICS+ Mango= <3

 

Mango Ice Cream Sandwich... Does not sound like a good flavor.