My overall impression of the phone is a good one. I had a 3GS iPhone a while ago and had since been looking for a phone that could operate as smoothly. I can honesly say that this phone is the closest I've ever been to that level of smoothness. Lag is almost non existent. The only place I ever see lag is in the browser. I attribute the lag to flash. I honestly dislike having flash on a phone because I think performance suffers too much.
The 3D is way cooler than I thought it was going to be. It really took me these couple of days for my eyes to adjust to the 3D and to quickly find the most suitable viewing angle and distance.
My major gripe with the phone, which has be contemplating the Photon or SGSII, is the 2D camera performance. The camera interface is extremely slow, and I've noticed that it has been like this on many android devices. I find it annoying that a decent camera app hasn't been produced yet. Anyone else experience this?
The 3D cameras are also sluggish but, for new tech I guess its acceptable. It's almost impossible to take a 3D picture of my son because of his erratic movements. It's a little difficult to capture even a 2D picture at times.
Low light performance is bad, resulting in grainy photos. By low light, I don't mean moonlight. Even in normal house lighting I find it difficult to take a great shot. The flash is completely overbearing. It would be nice to have some control over its brightness.
This phone is beautiful! It is very solid and has great weight to it. I love how it feels in my hand. For me, a phone can never be too heavy. It gives it a higher quality feel to me. After watching videos of the Photon and SGSII, I am not even remotely convinced that either phone will match the EVO in build quality. They both look very plasticky to me.
Battery life has been fantastic for me! I am impressed. I will not require a second battery.
The Otterbox is amazing. I love how rugged it looks and how protected it is. I love being able to cover all ports. When I had my iPhone lint and dirt would constantly clog my headphones jack, and dust would work its way under the screen. If I had purchased an Otterbox, there wouldn't have been an issue. I highly recommend it. Got mine at BBY, which surprised me because i didn't think they'd have it.
Reception has been perfect, unlike the NS4G I exchanged. Call quality is great and, I am not experiencing tinny or otherwise distorted sound. The speaker is acceptable.
The camera is my only gripe. Hopefully a future update can improve camera performance, or perhaps a custom ROM can help eventually? The 3D is great, the OS is super smooth, especially after installing Launcherpro. I just hope HTC comes through on their bootloader promises soon. I want to see this baby OC'd.
Overall, I think this phone has been underrated by the blogging and tech communities. Engadget gave it a 7/10. I would give it an 8 to 8.5 out of 10. In the future this 3D may prove itself even more with YouTube going 3D and hopefully Netflix following suit...
Related
I have had the Photon for a couple of weeks now. It is rooted and I mostly love it. However, I think the camera is substandard......or mine is defective? When in camera mode and I'm just looking at the video on the screen (viewfinder), there is a lot of video noise, especially around the edges. The resultant picture is "grainy" looking. Is this normal? Is there an app that can help clean this up? I want to love this thing completely, but the camera is not even close to the quality of my old Epic. I'm beginning to wonder if I should trade it for the new SII, but I hate to.....
Really? I thought it was pretty good compared to my evo 4G and 3D.
I'm currently using an inspire but there are a few things I dislike about it.
1) camera
2) external speaker
3) weight
4) screen is just average
5) gps is inconsistent no matter how many gps tweaks i do
i can't see to find a sgs ii in a store to check out. i can only find the LTE version, the skyrocket or whatever it's called. anyone here come from an Inspire? how do they compare? pro's cons?
how is the developer community here? i'm quite satisfied with cm7 on my inspire and the devs are hard at work trying to get ICS running. It seems like the international sgs ii is the one that's getting the most dev support and rom's made for that phone are not 100% compatible with the AT&T version.
Much faster than my inspire, touch wiz is very different. GPS seems better but I think it's just my area. Screen is worlds better so is speaker, but I like the srs on the inspire better for headphones. Camera is much faster too.
The phone just feels much more responsive. Weights feels about half the inspire. I love the sgs2 better than the inspire even with a few things I miss from sense.
Sent from my Samsung GT-I9100
AntwanL said:
Much faster than my inspire, touch wiz is very different. GPS seems better but I think it's just my area. Screen is worlds better so is speaker, but I like the srs on the inspire better for headphones. Camera is much faster too.
The phone just feels much more responsive. Weights feels about half the inspire. I love the sgs2 better than the inspire even with a few things I miss from sense.
Sent from my Samsung GT-I9100
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95% of the time i'm listing to podcasts. 5% pandora. how much does the SRS make a difference? i don't think the inspire is impressive with sound on a headset, i just think it's normal. wouldn't the type of headset you used make a bigger difference than srs?
The gs2 is a far superior phone hands down. Not bashing the inspire,,, just stating a fact. Its even better than the skyrocket, hardware wise. I love this phone and trust me when I say you won't regret it. I happen to work for att and I have quite a few in stock..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
@substance12
You forgot terrible battery life. Those inspires were beyond help for bad battery. So happy with battery life for this phone.
And screen is much better. The inspire's is almost as bad as the atrix, but with lower resolution.
Not to mention terrible to work on. I hate hate hate working on inspires. So many things are so easy to break.
As far as dev support, look through it. There are so many great roms, and with entropy512's hellraiser I would say at minimum 75% and up of the international's roms are compatible with this phone. Many here use them as their day to day use they're so stable.
Sent from my páhhōniē
I haven't tried cheap headphones so idk. 5.1 dolby is nice, no doubt about it. I like srs. That's only in the stock music apps though. If you don't use that than disregard it. The screen is slightly bigger on the inspire. Not a big deal.
If you're rooting it than the ui launcher isn't a big deal, like sense vs touchwiz. The sgs2 is like an entirely different device in terms of performance. Better battery life too ime.
You will not regret the switch at all.
Sent from my Samsung GT-I9100
1) camera - Decent, havent really compared to my older phone.
2) external speaker - Nice and loud almost to loud
3) weight - light, kinda feels like its a toy and not a phone (not a bad thing)
4) screen is just average - screen is very average (was pretty disappointed honestly)
5) gps is inconsistent no matter how many gps tweaks i do - In my experience the GPS is NEVER accurate, ever.
I am still learning about this phone, i dont dislike it, but my personal advice would be to wait till something better comes along.
AntwanL said:
I haven't tried cheap headphones so idk. 5.1 dolby is nice, no doubt about it. I like srs. That's only in the stock music apps though. If you don't use that than disregard it. The screen is slightly bigger on the inspire. Not a big deal.
If you're rooting it than the ui launcher isn't a big deal, like sense vs touchwiz. The sgs2 is like an entirely different device in terms of performance. Better battery life too ime.
You will not regret the switch at all.
Sent from my Samsung GT-I9100
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The screen is the same size on both
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA App
I switched from the Inspire to the SGS II. I couldn't be happier.
sgs2 is the way to go for sure , i returned my skyrocket to get the s2 ...
and as far as ispire goes .... 2 words to make the switch alone ...
SUPER AMOLED
DKS128 said:
1) camera - Decent, havent really compared to my older phone.
2) external speaker - Nice and loud almost to loud
3) weight - light, kinda feels like its a toy and not a phone (not a bad thing)
4) screen is just average - screen is very average (was pretty disappointed honestly)
5) gps is inconsistent no matter how many gps tweaks i do - In my experience the GPS is NEVER accurate, ever.
I am still learning about this phone, i dont dislike it, but my personal advice would be to wait till something better comes along.
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That's weird, b/c my thoughts are:
1) camera - excellent both in speed and pics and video, right there with the 4S (maybe a slight edge to 4S in certain conditions) which both are about as good as it gets for a camera on a phone right now
2) external speaker - agree, it's very nice and loud, and clear... better then my iPhones
3) weight - yeh it's very light, my iphones feel like mini bricks in comparison, but I love the lightness of it. Everyone that first holds it that's the first thing they comment on "damn it's light".
4) Screen - not sure what you mean by avg? This screen is flat out gorgeous, I even prefer it over the Retina on my iPhone4. It's bright and sharp and "pops" like hell. Even looks better now after I downloaded an app that let me play around with contrast and few other settings.
5) GPS - must be where you live or hardware/software issue with your phone, b/c the GPS on mine is fast and very accurate.
surf1 said:
That's weird, b/c my thoughts are:
1) camera - excellent both in speed and pics and video, right there with the 4S (maybe a slight edge to 4S in certain conditions) which both are about as good as it gets for a camera on a phone right now
2) external speaker - agree, it's very nice and loud, and clear... better then my iPhones
3) weight - yeh it's very light, my iphones feel like mini bricks in comparison, but I love the lightness of it. Everyone that first holds it that's the first thing they comment on "damn it's light".
4) Screen - not sure what you mean by avg? This screen is flat out gorgeous, I even prefer it over the Retina on my iPhone4. It's bright and sharp and "pops" like hell. Even looks better now after I downloaded an app that let me play around with contrast and few other settings.
5) GPS - must be where you live or hardware/software issue with your phone, b/c the GPS on mine is fast and very accurate.
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this^^. I have owned A LOT of high end devices. way too many to list. This is hands down the best device ive ever owned. and i dont know what screen your looking out that had you disappointed, but if you were, ID LOVE TO KNOW what you were comparing it to, IMHO its the best BY FAR on the market. In terms of resolution, maybe, but everything else, your bugging.
DKS128 said:
1) camera - Decent, havent really compared to my older phone.
2) external speaker - Nice and loud almost to loud
3) weight - light, kinda feels like its a toy and not a phone (not a bad thing)
4) screen is just average - screen is very average (was pretty disappointed honestly)
5) gps is inconsistent no matter how many gps tweaks i do - In my experience the GPS is NEVER accurate, ever.
I am still learning about this phone, i dont dislike it, but my personal advice would be to wait till something better comes along.
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Troll.
OP, just ignore this post.
creepyncrawly said:
Troll.
OP, just ignore this post.
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lol, dude deleted his account. what a douche.
the only problems I have: horrible audio quality in expensive headphones and the mhl cable dropped the connection while I'm playing movies. I have the mhl cable on my counter near the trash and use my laptop hdmi for movies.
So,after a week of waiting it finally arrived !
And now,I can barely look at my iPhone 4,it's so small
Haven't played with it much but my first impressions are
1)Fantastic build quality.The unibody construction is just awesome and it feels great in hand
2)The screen is fabulous.The colors look great and vivid.The viewing angles are very good and trust me,you won't be bothered at all with the WVGA screen.(I've had an iPhone4 for a year).
Only in sites with small texts(completely zoomed out),you'll see pixels but when I put it side by side with my iPhone,I couldn't read it on the iPhone either since it was too small. But on other sites,the text is completely readable.
IE9 is very fast and IMO,the pinch to zoom is faster than 4.
3)The camera is great and is hugely better than iPhone 4.However,after the battery got too low,it didn't let me capture pics with flash which is kinda odd.
I tested the flash in the "flashlight" app and the video camcorder and it worked fine but didn't work while taking pictures.
4)The power button is fine(At least for me).I don't have any problems reaching/pressing it;furthermore,I can work pretty easy with one hand which is great especially for such a huge display.
The on screen keyboard also rocks,I made a lot of mistakes w/iPhone but I barely make any mistake with Titan
5)Call quality is excellent. way better than my iPhone ! I had heard some static noise with my iPhone but I haven't experienced any issues with thr Titan.
Overall,it's an awesome phone.One of the best HTC has ever made !
If anyone's interested,I can do a video review/comparison with iPhone 4
The camera flash issue was because of the battery life. When the battery is too low,the flash doesn't work for taking pics
Glad to see your liking it- i got mine a few weeks ago and i agree it really is the best phone available - especially the speaker during calls is incredebly loud and clear
just make sure you turn off the sound enhancer settings - as it may cause freezing in video's and games
I did a comparison with a Lumia 800 a little while ago in store (i was considering switching from the titan to that) and while the hardware was equally as solid feeling - the loud speaker is emberassing on that phone - and the worst audio quality ive ever heared on a phone - i tried playing the same ring tone on max volume with both phones - and the titan destroyed it. both in terms of loudness and quality
Titan really is the best WP7
Titan also has better battery life/camera,slightly faster CPU and a better build quality than Lumia;furthermore,when you go 4.7",you can't even look back.
Oh and thanks for the tip.The first thing I did with my Titan was actually disabling the sound enhancer app
I can get this phone for about $60. Only issues with my 3D are the Virgin Mobile firmware junk (I don't think this affected me as bad as others), and the somewhat crappy camera. I don't use the 3D function, but the camera and video recorder still seem lower grade to me. Took a bunch of pics and video of my lil guy's preschool graduation, and was not impressed by the quality from a not so far distance. Besides that this phone still rocks. Just wondering what the thoughts are of people who came from a E3D?
Performance in general is much better (get quadrant scores of 5000 on the LTE), and so is the camera. I was running ICS on my 3D, so general functionality is pretty much the same for me.
I liked getting rid of the extra "3D toggle" button since I never used 3D anyways. the LTE is slightly bigger, but considerably lighter. Call quality/signal seem about the same unfortunately. Maybe once the "HD voice" is available that will change.
jaswolf said:
Performance in general is much better (get quadrant scores of 5000 on the LTE), and so is the camera. I was running ICS on my 3D, so general functionality is pretty much the same for me.
I liked getting rid of the extra "3D toggle" button since I never used 3D anyways. the LTE is slightly bigger, but considerably lighter. Call quality/signal seem about the same unfortunately. Maybe once the "HD voice" is available that will change.
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I agree with this
I actually used the 3d feature alot (went as far a ripping my 3d BD-roms to ms SDcard to watch without glasses)
I purchased my Lte for $158 and I am overly pleased with its performance and feel but the Camera is a night and day difference... My 3d had overly muted colors and it was usually full of noise and when your using the camera to take pictures of kids you get blurring alot. I've had mine a little less than a day but the battery is awesome to boot so if you can upgrade do so
Awesome. I figured the regular camera mode on the 3D would be sufficient, but I'd have to agree on the noise and blurring. Thanks for the comparison input guys.
Awesome. I figured the regular camera mode on the 3D would be sufficient, but I'd have to agree on the noise and blurring. Thanks for the comparison input guys.
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I only had the 3D for about a week before my LTE came, but it feels way better than the 3D ever did. It was a great phone, but I am more satisfied with the ELTE in every way. Screen, native software, camera, processing power. I can't think of a single thing that this phone can't beat. That's because it's much more new, but this was also my switch to Sprint, and your HTC selection has always been far superior to Verizon's, so I'm pretty geeked over this phone.
It all comes down to how you feel about your current phone. If you're satisfied, stay where you are, but if you're not, this phone is a great way to fix it.
Tapatalked from my shiny new HTC Evo LTE
The screen alone makes it worth it.
Bonus: camera, kickstand, lightness, and battery life
I couldn't be happier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30COabYrr64
The colours are too saturated, the camera wobbles and skips just as much and the mic sounds poor compared.
Surely a software issue?
Have no clue what cnet is trying to do there but the actual quality is much better.
Sound recording is really impressive and the OIS is working well too as one can see in the following videos from xsever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loxDegj3fFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ7pAF1JsWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AvFi08yNk
I want to see a video of him walking around, I'm seeing that weird jelly effect still in those though and he is only sitting or standing still and moving the camera side to side. The colours still look so fake........
Not the smooth video they showed in the press confs.
I will be shooting another video today with White Balance set to Daylight and as I walk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GBupRpL_3Io
Even they say the iPhone 5 cam is better.
Maybe some software related issues? Like allways when new phone comes out...
http://reviews.cnet.com/nokia-lumia-920/
Yeh cnet confirm the camera being overhyped in the review.
Good in low light, not as good in day time.
I really don't trust cnet. I seen the video and it looks like they were favoring the iphone 5. They went to 4 solo shots of the iphone 5 while they only had 2 for the lumia. I'll just have to wait on xserver to test it because his trying his best to provide everyone with a fair review.
Conspiracy: apple paying cnet
Sent from my LG-P930 using xda app-developers app
Here are direct photo comparisons between different phones and the Lumia 920. The is part of a CNET review for the US version in their US office, which is more favorable of the camera.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-57...0-camera-vs-htc-windows-phone-8x-vs-iphone-5/
And more direct comparison picks from Slashgear
http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-hands-on-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-01255193/
Frankly I can't decide whether this camera is good or bad based on these pictures. It wins some, but not by much. It can lose pretty bad though, especially with how unsharp and vague a lot of images look. It's not the winner Nokia was touting. Indoor shots are better in some instances, worse in others. Night shots are "brighter" but not necessarily better. I can edit the photos of a competing phone by turning up the gamma and get close to the same thing that Nokia produces. The smooth video also isn't as great as I once thought. It makes me nauseous, and details are still very lacking even if there isn't any major instances of blur.
The reviews on the phone are contradicting. The verge review shows great pictures, much better than cnet's or slashgears and their unit is not even on final software. The camera performance just doesn't seem consistant.
Well I'll judge myself when I get mine next week.
It seems to me Nokia focused too much on low light photos because the day time photos lack detail.
I added many more videos with different settings here: http://forums.wpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=200158
A Nokia French community member has confirmed on Twitter that there will be an camera update soon.
Actually, I'm very happy with my phone anyway