Related
So I just notice that everytime that I put the palm of my hand on the back cover of my phone, the reception decreases. Is this happening to anyone else? Could this be a death grip going on my phone. I am kind of worried and I might have to take it back.:confused
Doesn't happen to me.
Yea happens to me in both wifi and regular data. Take your hand from off the back and reception goes back to full. Definitely death grip.
Sent from my 3rd Dimension of Evolution
Its called tower bouncing. I get perfect 6 bars for 3 seconds them I'm off to 3-4. Then sometimes I'm down to 1 bar. I do believe Sprint needs to finish these tower updates but I shall be patient. They are getting over their capacity levels and toss you off. How it chooses who to toss off I wish I knew cause the near tower is not hooking me up at all.
"You're holding it wrong."
Signed, Steve Jobs
phewww, good thing I am not the only one. When I use to have my evo 4g the reception was pretty decent at my workplace, now that I have my evo 3d it just decreases every now and then. But I wouln't trade this baby for anything and I still love my evo 3d.
Cubfan99 said:
"You're holding it wrong."
Signed, Steve Jobs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha good days.
Gimme a couple a days to come up with a new sig that is cool.
Don't think there's a death grip, but the radios could use an update
Bussin Caps n 3D
This is not to start a flame war, I was really looking forward to my evo 3d when it was coming out but now I'm leaning to the SG2. This is to list grievances of my new evo 3d that I believe make it sub-par.
- Very poor 4g service, I live about 1 - 1.5 miles away from a Clear tower and I get 0 bars of when the 4g wifi symbol is on, my 4g speeds are around 2.5 Mbps, thats impressive 3g speed but for 4g, come on. When I have plenty of bars the most I can get is 5-6 Mbps....
- Super light leakage, along with never dimming capacitive buttons - I have a huge lip of light leakage from the capacitive buttons that bother the hell out of me, I can see it in daylight and the buttons never turn off even when I'm watching a movie or netflix
- I really was looking forward to the 3d, but honestly, I don't care about it at all haha.
- Very thick phone, feels like a brick imo
I'll probably take it back and wait for the Galaxy S II, and if I don't like that, hell I'll wait for the new Nexus phone, do any of these things I've listed bother you?
This thread bothers me
Sent from my 3rd Dimension of Evolution
Xencer said:
This is not to start a flame war, I was really looking forward to my evo 3d when it was coming out but now I'm leaning to the SG2. This is to list grievances of my new evo 3d that I believe make it sub-par.
- Very poor 4g service, I live about 1 - 1.5 miles away from a Clear tower and I get 0 bars of when the 4g wifi symbol is on, my 4g speeds are around 2.5 Mbps, thats impressive 3g speed but for 4g, come on. When I have plenty of bars the most I can get is 5-6 Mbps....
- Super light leakage, along with never dimming capacitive buttons - I have a huge lip of light leakage from the capacitive buttons that bother the hell out of me, I can see it in daylight and the buttons never turn off even when I'm watching a movie or netflix
- I really was looking forward to the 3d, but honestly, I don't care about it at all haha.
- Very thick phone, feels like a brick imo
I'll probably take it back and wait for the Galaxy S II, and if I don't like that, hell I'll wait for the new Nexus phone, do any of these things I've listed bother you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1: 4G is very very spotty everywhere. That's a sprint thing, not necessarily an Evo 3D problem.
2: Light leakage... I don't really care, i have the Seidio case and it covers the edges, but when it was naked, it didn't really bother me. I had the OG Evo and got used to it there. (OG Evo leakage was BAD)
3: 3D is kinda cool, but, like many other gadgety things, is very limited and gimmicky.
4: I don't agree here. I LOVE the feel of the naked phone, I wish I didn't need a case for it, but I'm afraid for it. Haha.
All in all, it's your phone, if you don't love it, don't keep it. It's going to be as much a part of your life as your car.
As for my opinion? Sure, the phone has it's flaws, but it's an amazing piece of hardware, and coming up in a few months we will be able to make it do WTF ever we want with root/unlock.
Just keep in mind that everyone is going to have gripes about any phone they get, so just make sure you don't get your hopes up for the SGS2 to be perfect, cause it probably has some issues too.
I'm dissatisfied with this thread....do I make a topic about it nope... Man up and return it or exchange it... Or shut up.. these are all know problems with almost every early "stage" phone (hardware 002)
3D > iClone
1) my 3G is pretty bad, oddly my 4G is significantly more stable and faster than my 4G,
did you do the wimax and 3g tweaks yet? and the data reset?
2) no leakage at all (unlike my g2X which was terrible, when I had tmobile)
3) I wasnt feeling the 3D either, till encoded some movies on my own, now i like it a lot
4) weird I think the 3D is too slight, and light in comparison to the 4G,
I certainly say get what you want though...better hope CM7 hits the GSII, since they sent him one, otherwise a great phone will never get updated
the evo is already full steam ahead, and the bootloader hasnt even been unlocked yet
might want to take that into account
Xencer said:
This is not to start a flame war, I was really looking forward to my evo 3d when it was coming out but now I'm leaning to the SG2. This is to list grievances of my new evo 3d that I believe make it sub-par.
- Very poor 4g service, I live about 1 - 1.5 miles away from a Clear tower and I get 0 bars of when the 4g wifi symbol is on, my 4g speeds are around 2.5 Mbps, thats impressive 3g speed but for 4g, come on. When I have plenty of bars the most I can get is 5-6 Mbps....
- Super light leakage, along with never dimming capacitive buttons - I have a huge lip of light leakage from the capacitive buttons that bother the hell out of me, I can see it in daylight and the buttons never turn off even when I'm watching a movie or netflix
- I really was looking forward to the 3d, but honestly, I don't care about it at all haha.
- Very thick phone, feels like a brick imo
I'll probably take it back and wait for the Galaxy S II, and if I don't like that, hell I'll wait for the new Nexus phone, do any of these things I've listed bother you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
take it back stop your tears and be gone
Amd4life said:
1) my 3G is pretty bad, oddly my 4G is significantly more stable and faster than my 4G,
did you do the wimax and 3g tweaks yet? and the data reset?
2) no leakage at all (unlike my g2X which was terrible, when I had tmobile)
3) I wasnt feeling the 3D either, till encoded some movies on my own, now i like it a lot
4) weird I think the 3D is too slight, and light in comparison to the 4G,
I certainly say get what you want though...better hope CM7 hits the GSII, since they sent him one, otherwise a great phone will never get updated
the evo is already full steam ahead, and the bootloader hasnt even been unlocked yet
might want to take that into account
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the movie part, watching 3d movies is pretty nifty. there would be no reason to watch movies on a phone if it didn't have something my regular tv didn't, 3D.
as for the light leaking at the bottom, it is annoying. my 3G speeds are slow as well, so at work i have to use 4G and carry a charger to charge in the middle of the day. the ear speaker quality is pretty bad. it's crackly and not clear at all and the back speaker is a bit low. the capacitive buttons not dimming do annoy me a lot as well, especially when i watch a movie. I downloaded screen filter app which has helped but it doesn't seem to work with Aldiko.
besides that, the phone is pretty snappy barring some slight stutter in the marketplace and when using live wallpaper (for a dual core phone, that is pretty sad). I could be happy with this phone if I had to keep it (if they are able to somehow fix the ear speaker clarity).
mattfmartin said:
This thread bothers me
Sent from my 3rd Dimension of Evolution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
10charact
Some of this sites members are starting to bother me...and the thread...if only I was a mod sigh
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Amd4life said:
1) my 3G is pretty bad, oddly my 4G is significantly more stable and faster than my 4G,
did you do the wimax and 3g tweaks yet? and the data reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did the wimax tweaks (the faster reconnect/scanning) and that improved my 4G performance, but what 3G tweaks are out there? I'm noticing my 3G is really crappy too. It drops data a whole lot more than my Evo 4G - almost to the point that I'm thinking of returning the 3D to get my 4G back.
Unfortunately there are a fair amount of feeble members who can't take anyone wanting to express dissatisfaction with the 3D.
Issue is whether or not the discussion is solution-oriented or not.
Yours ended with 'does this bother you' implying you just came to ***** and see what kind of response you got. You were fortunate to get some constructive suggestions... Either follow up on them or move on.
pezhore said:
I did the wimax tweaks (the faster reconnect/scanning) and that improved my 4G performance, but what 3G tweaks are out there? I'm noticing my 3G is really crappy too. It drops data a whole lot more than my Evo 4G - almost to the point that I'm thinking of returning the 3D to get my 4G back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There ARE 3G tweaks involving removing proxies via the ##3282# mod. I'd say 75% of folks found it to help. Search 3G speeds
Another Bull**** thread... Whats annoying is not someone expressing thier opinion, but someone starting another thread on this. That's what gets people going. If you read peoples replys thier identical to other posts. Just post in a thread, don't start a new one. We get your upset about it, but everything the OP states is CLEARLY stated in other threads. It's like everyone what's to whine and get thier thoughts heard upfront......
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
I actually think the phone is small and light, looks and feels smaller/lighter than my Evo 4G. Everytime I look down at it I think of my-coworkers Incredible. I bought the phone for the processor and the screen resolution, and didnt expect the 3D to be very impressive or something that I would really ever use. I gotta admit that the 3D is VERY impressive and I was totally shocked at how far things came out of the screen. Search "3d" on youtube and watch "youtube player in 3D". The sword and the fishing lure come away from the screen pretty far! Very impressive in my opinion. Aslo, Assasins Creed 3D looks pretty awesome to me as well... Every one can have a different opinion but I absolutely love my E3D. Maybe the fact that I wasnt expecting much from the 3D graphics is the reason that I am so pleased, but every one I have shown that video to was blown away that a phone could do that and said that they now wanna get the phone too. Oh, and 2900 plus Quadrant Advanced scores arent bad either
Can we go and litter your forums when you move to this new phone? Thanks, see you there.....
beyond882001 said:
Another Bull**** thread... Whats annoying is not someone expressing thier opinion, but someone starting another thread on this. That's what gets people going. If you read peoples replys thier identical to other posts. Just post in a thread, don't start a new one. We get your upset about it, but everything the OP states is CLEARLY stated in other threads. It's like everyone what's to whine and get thier thoughts heard upfront......
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with this. I don't mind people having a negative opinion on the phone which sometimes can lead to me finding out something new. But really another new thread about it.
And again, why do people keep acting like they can switch to a SGS2? The thing has not been announced by Sprint so acting like it is going to be out any day and easy enough to switch to is just ludicrous.
Lastly, this thing is going to be rooted. It might be another couple months before that happens but when it does almost all of the complaints will be addressed. 3G will get better, battery life will improve, capactive buttons will turn off or any of a number of things. No phone is going to be perfect. If you think the SGS2 is going to be great, you really need to reevaluate your wants. The new Nexus phone (which won't be here until 2012) will have issues as well. And by that time, the 3D will be rooted and still be one of the best phones on the market.
I have a question.. Can anyone explain to me why prior to returning a phone people feel the need to post it here? If a person does not feel the phone is for them they go to Sprint, return the phone and its done. Whats the announcement on the board for?
Gawwd... I hate everything. The phone sucks, 3d is a dumb gimmick, I just bought it for its lame dualcore that sucks at benchmarks, which are impossible to see because the screen is at such a low resolution of 960x540 its pitiful. And I can't see the screen when in direct 109° sunlight.
Speeching of which. Gawd the sun is too bright. I'm disappointed in its brightness. And when I stare directly at it. It burns my eyes. Why even make it do that. That's stupid
And I sweat when it's too hot. Jeez... I don't see why they couldn't have just made me not do that or made it cooler or something. People don't sweat in Antarctica. I don't see why they can't do that here. It can't be that hard right?
felacio said:
Gawwd... I hate everything. The phone sucks, 3d is a dumb gimmick, I just bought it for its lame dualcore that sucks at benchmarks, which are impossible to see because the screen is at such a low resolution of 960x540 its pitiful. And I can't see the screen when in direct 109° sunlight.
Speeching of which. Gawd the sun is too bright. I'm disappointed in its brightness. And when I stare directly at it. It burns my eyes. Why even make it do that. That's stupid
And I sweat when it's too hot. Jeez... I don't see why they couldn't have just made me not do that or made it cooler or something. People don't sweat in Antarctica. I don't see why they can't do that here. It can't be that hard right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe you can chime in on my thread...this is getting out of hand
ppcpirate said:
I agree with the movie part, watching 3d movies is pretty nifty. there would be no reason to watch movies on a phone if it didn't have something my regular tv didn't, 3D.
as for the light leaking at the bottom, it is annoying. my 3G speeds are slow as well, so at work i have to use 4G and carry a charger to charge in the middle of the day. the ear speaker quality is pretty bad. it's crackly and not clear at all and the back speaker is a bit low. the capacitive buttons not dimming do annoy me a lot as well, especially when i watch a movie. I downloaded screen filter app which has helped but it doesn't seem to work with Aldiko.
besides that, the phone is pretty snappy barring some slight stutter in the marketplace and when using live wallpaper (for a dual core phone, that is pretty sad). I could be happy with this phone if I had to keep it (if they are able to somehow fix the ear speaker clarity).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried this?
http://www.android.net/forum/htc-evo-3d-faq/62158-improve-voice-quality-your-evo-3d.html
Has any one notice if you hold the phone on landscape and cover the left side of the phone it loses one signal bar from a already weak 4g signal.
Most phones have some signal loss just be glad we don't have "death grip" like the sensation...
Phones I've tested by holding in landscape and lost WiFi/wimax 4G
Nexus s 4G
EVO 4G
Epic 4G
G2x
Sgs2
Vibrant
G2
HD2
G1
nexus one
Most of them had some sort of "signal loss". And a few had known issues some were worse than others... If you feel dissatisfied take it to the local repair center and have them look it at to see if you have a bunk radio
3D > iClone
shook187 said:
Has any one notice if you hold the phone on landscape and cover the left side of the phone it loses one signal bar from a already weak 4g signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, it's possible to weaken the signal with your hands with pretty much all phones, especially if the signal is already weak. It's like covering your ears.....can't hear quite as well when you do that can you?
I never notice it on my Epic, but maybe I didn't care cause my Epic picked up the 4G signal so much better
shook187 said:
I never notice it on my Epic, but maybe I didn't care cause my Epic picked up the 4G signal so much better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again each phone I've owned has some signal loss when holding it with two hands in landscape...
**** even my razr would lose signal if i held the top screen to see it in Sun light
3D > iClone
Your holding it wrong.
I am just glad we don't have problems like the iphone 4.
aimbdd said:
Your holding it wrong.
I am just glad we don't have problems like the iphone 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol cuz no one is as stupid as apple to make a metal bezel and back case and "integrate" the antenna into it :/
3D > iClone
I've noticed this a couple weeks ago & even started to to make a thread on it. Before doing so I called sprint to see if it was any known issue if this happening on the E3D and the rep couldn't find any. By the way many people have been complaining about this phone (light leakage, titled screen, etc) I would of thought for sure someone would complain about the slight signal loss if it was really big issue in regards to defective handsets. It's still sort of nagging watching it slightly lose signal. I was actually testing it in landscape mode right before i clicked on this thread, how ironic. Due to my experience with this phone, even though it happens I see no speed decrease while on 4g. Still dropping at least 4mbps with a high of 8mbps on a regular. By reading some of the post above, I now know for sure, for sure its not a big deal. Thanks.
My ''xDU4L C0R3 SH00T3Rx'' shot you down in 3D!
Just got the 3d and noticed a few things, its really warm at around the camera on back, sprint network is trash can't even watch a YouTube video smoothly thru always stops to load, coming from tmobile nexus one then nexus s just wondering anyway to improve the data speeds? Beside that screen is beautiful phone seems very smooth as it should be but I really wish to step me data speed up...
*Any way to protect the camera lens Im worried about when I put the phone on a table...
How would I go about using tethering?
Get a gel case off Amazon or eBay for +/- $3 if your worried about the cameras , also the screen could crack if you dropped it. Better safe than sorry.
Proxy hack
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1140870
to improve your data speeds, you'll need to call sprint and ask for your MSL.
For some reason on the evo 3d, the youtube app is **** (wifi, 3g, 4g) and nothing loads very fast. So I use the browser and go to youtube. It loads instantly.
Oh and just root and install a rom that allows you to tether (Read as:ALL roms here)
3G is very very bad... I can't do anything on 3G. Thankfully the 4G in my area is great.
fmedina2 said:
3G is very very bad... I can't do anything on 3G. Thankfully the 4G in my area is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a profile reset.I just did a speed test over 3g right now and got 1300kpbs.... I get anywhere from 1-1.8 mbps depending on where i am in Orland Park.
I also have lots of problems with the 3G, and it seems to be unique to the Evo 3D. It sorta just goes out sometimes.
" *Any way to protect the camera lens Im worried about when I put the phone on a table..."
I use the case from tpu-cases.com as it protects the camera (see pic below). FYI it also fits in the HTC Car Dock with the insert removed so for me, it works and looks great.
Wow thanks guys for all the responses really appreciate it, any one notice that if you hold the phone with your right hand the service immediately goes down to like 2 bars is that were the antenna is?, an nice case up there bro how much bulk does it add also have a pic of it on the phone if its not to much trouble
The top half of the phone contains all of the electronics while the bottom half is pretty much all battery. With how many antennas this phone has it is easy to block them, but most of the time just sliding your hand down a bit is enough to get a full signal back. 4G on the other hand... it's always temperamental unless you are lucky enough to live in an area that is completely saturated with it.
+1 for the TPU case too, I got one to hold me over until the kick stand case came out but I'll probably end up sticking with it now. If you check in the Accessories section there should be a thread in there with a bunch of info about them
I can't even put my right hand near the in a heartbeat lessens the signal bars to 2 smh anything u can do?
(getting frustrating really fast smh)
Cool thanks^^, it may be just my phone but i am tethering as we speak when i send a message the 3g logo turns invisible an I lose allvmy bars for just a sec is thus normal?
It may be dropping down to 1x to send it, I don't know why it would need to but if it treats it like a call then it has to drop 3G for a split second so it can connect.
carlost24 said:
I can't even put my right hand near the in a heartbeat lessens the signal bars to 2 smh anything u can do?
(getting frustrating really fast smh)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just means your in a lower signal area... It happens to all phones.
Sent from my HTC Evo 3D.
clules94 said:
Do a profile reset.I just did a speed test over 3g right now and got 1300kpbs.... I get anywhere from 1-1.8 mbps depending on where i am in Orland Park.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's in Orlando, FL. Not Orland Park, IL.
I know where he's coming from. I'm Orlando as well, and 3G is pretty ****ty. I've got full bars and only got .85Mbps down and .39 up. But, my Hero was even worse, so I'm not complaining.
eXplicit815 said:
He's in Orlando, FL. Not Orland Park, IL.
I know where he's coming from. I'm Orlando as well, and 3G is pretty ****ty. I've got full bars and only got .85Mbps down and .39 up. But, my Hero was even worse, so I'm not complaining.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You think that's ****ty? I only get .3 Mbps... now that's ****ty.
spencer88 said:
You think that's ****ty? I only get .3 Mbps... now that's ****ty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get .3 if I'm lucky. Luckily, 4G is pretty good around here.
Here's a pic of the back of the camera area with the tpu-cases. There's plenty of height above the cameras so that when you lay it flat on a table that it will be protected. IMO, it is as thin as your going to get and it will hold up for everyday use. It was never intended for the high impact stuff so obviously you have to go with the otterbox/Seidio Convert-type cases for drops and abuse.
BTW, I'm up on a hillside (L.A. area) notorious for bad reception but calling and 3G works great, when 4G is available it's incredibly fast on my EVO 3D. As you probably know, it's like that with all carriers, cell service will work better than others depending on where you are. If it's bad maybe you should consider asking for a Airwave/Airvana.
Hope this helps.
carlost24 said:
Just got the 3d and noticed a few things, its really warm at around the camera on back, sprint network is trash can't even watch a YouTube video smoothly thru always stops to load, coming from tmobile nexus one then nexus s just wondering anyway to improve the data speeds? Beside that screen is beautiful phone seems very smooth as it should be but I really wish to step me data speed up...
*Any way to protect the camera lens Im worried about when I put the phone on a table...
How would I go about using tethering?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have 30 days to evaluate the service. After 30 days don't complain.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Installing juice defender has really saved battery life and lessened heat around the camera. At least for me
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
If there really was a serious reception issue, like excessive dropped calls and such, Id expect HTC would address the problem and either push out an update or offer to repair the phone, not just deny or say "your holding it wrong" like another company would.
I'm currently on 1.11.651.3 a message popped up saying that I should upgrade to 1.13.651.3 but im hesitant to do so as I dont know how that would affect my signal since I've heard some people say that upgrading their software messed up their signal, any insight on this?
I had been watching the Nexus for some time before it's launch. My Droid X in all honesty was probably fine - it was overclocked, undervolted and running the latest MIUI built on ICS - but I had my mind set on the GN as the next big thing. I was travelling for work on launch day, but was able to swing by a Verizon store and pick one up late in the afternoon.
First impressions after getting a chance to check it out in my hotel room were extremely positive. The 4.65" display is immediately eye-catching. Colors just pop off the screen, and some of the more colorful icons against a black app drawer background were really great looking. This was my first 4g phone, and the speeds were pretty amazing too. Driving back from our meetings, I was playing with the phone (I wasn't the one driving!) and downloading apps off the market. I lost 4g a couple times, but I was in a mid sized city with lots of surrounding rural area. I live in DFW, so I wasn't too worried about the ability to hold a 4g connection there.
Now, I had seen the Rezound prior to the GN coming out. I can remember reading about it before it's release and thinking 'Oh great, another HTC phone that looks like every other HTC phone, but slightly faster'. I wasn't interested at all. But after going to see it in person, I really liked the phone. Comparing it to the then newly released RAZR, it was much nicer to hold. Phone felt solid, not as chunky as I had thought, and overall impressed me. But I was set on the GN!
Preamble out of the way, the GN had some flaws that I soon noticed. Nothing huge at first, but they became more apparent as time went on. Ultimately the reception or signal strength killed it for me, and I made the switch to the Rezound. I'll break it down into a comparison below to give you guys my take:
Form factor and physical
There has been a lot of talk about the GN's cheap build quality. I would disagree. The phone was plastic, yes, and it was really light, but to me it felt solid enough. There is also a lot of talk about the battery door, but again while it is flimsy on it's own, it snaps into the phone well. The door has 10+ points it snaps into, and once it's in it feels like a smooth, seamless part of the back of the phone. Especially with the extended battery. The downside is this is a pretty slick surface to hold a phone. Add in the width of the phone, which was slightly too big for me to hold one handed comfortably, and I was constantly worried I'd drop it.
The Rezound does feel a little more solid. It has a nice heft to it. With the extended battery, it has a significant heft to it. To me, the Rezound is easier to hold with either battery. The buttons are more flush with the phone and mounted in the traditional places, which I think I prefer. You don't accidentally hit them, but they're not hard to hit either. The downside, the big downside, is the creaking! Both my battery doors creak. For all the crap I've seen people give the GN for the battery door, at least it didn't creak every time I hit the left side of my keyboard.
The final decision here really comes up to screen size imo. The physical dimensions look close on paper, but the extra width and height are extremely noticeable when actually using the phone.
Screen
I talked about how the GN has that 'wow' factor. And it does. Some people call it over saturation, but man it looks good. Well, it looks good until you play with a Rezound for 10 minutes. When I was at the VZW store thinking about switching my GN for a Rezound, I was not as impressed by the screen on the Rezound at first. And I think the reason why is Sense or Gingerbread. The UI, wallpapers, notification bar, font, etc. all are much more professional and attractive on the GN. The Rezound looked terrible in stock form IMO. Giant ugly fonts, widgets with cartoonish graphics, nothing took advantage of or looked good on the Rezound screen. But comparing the same websites and applications side by side, and the Rezound quickly became the clear winner. Colors are much more clear and natural looking. On a forum app I use often, I could not tell the difference in alternating dark blues used on alternating posts. On the Rezound it was clear as day. And after getting the Rezound setup by removing Sense and getting Go Launcher, it eliminates a lot of my initial distaste. I have the Rezound as the clear winner here. However, the difference between 4.65" and 4.3" is big. If you don't mind the AMOLED tech, the bigger screen might win you over. I did find it funny though that with the on screen buttons, I could see a good bit more vertically of every web page on the Rezound.
One last thought, I read on my phone a lot. Kindle app using white text on a black background. The blacks of the AMOLED are amazing, but text is not as crisp as on the LCD.
Software
I'll be brief here. ICS has some bugs or kinks to work out. This should be expected with it's first release. It's got a lot of good things going for it too though. If it were an option on the Rezound, I'd take it. Sense it's too invasive for me, and part of me buying the Rezound was due to my research here knowing that I could easily remove Sense (thanks Scott's Roms!). The Rezound does have some nice touches though. I like the lock screen more. The camera software is great and the shutter lag is close to the GN's. Dismissing or going into calendar reminders from the lockscreen is really good too. Overall the GN wins, but the Rezound with a little tweaking beats the GN in some areas while falling short in others. This was closer than I would have first guessed.
Battery
I didn't test either phone extensively with the stock batteries. With my short use on the Rezound's stock battery, I was impressed it was able to seemingly last a good amount of time with only 1650 mah. That battery size is too small for a LTE phone IMO, and with the physical size of the battery I think HTC could have given us something better.
The GN with the 2100 mah extended battery lasts all day. At 24 hours off the charger, I would typically be between 10 and 20% battery life left. Not too bad for an LTE phone, but I think software hurts it here. Looking at my battery usage graph, there is a lot of 'awake' time where my screen is off. This seems to be somewhat common with the GN, so there may be some process keeping the phone awake. Lots of people suggests disabling some sound options (sound on keypress and something else I think), which I did, but did not notice an impact.
The Rezound, with the 2750 mah extended battery kicks the crap out of the GN. Not really apples to apples due to the larger size, but I unplugged 31 hours ago and have 58% battery left. The awake time and screen time match up almost perfectly, which is also probably giving the Rezound a healthy edge here.
Camera
I'm not much of a camera person, just not that good at it and I don't know how to adjust ISO and other camera settings to make the shot better. With everything set to auto, the Rezound takes better looking pictures, at least in the situations I was snapping photos in. Pretty much 100% in doors. With a pro behind the lense, I'm not sure how that would change.
Reception
This is the big one for me, the one that made me spending several days reading about these phones and ultimately trading the GN in. Once I got the GN home to DFW, I was a little surprised at the reception. Just going by the bars at first, it seemed low at my house and 'okay' at work. While at my house, I booted up my Droid X and did some side by side testing. The DX was hitting -88 to -93 on average, while the GN was above -100 everywhere, at times hitting -113!
Now, after some reading online, I discovered that the GN was giving me the LTE signal, while the DX was giving me the CDMA signal. But by setting the GN to CDMA only, it would report the CDMA signal to me, giving me a better comparison. After doing this, the GN range dropped down to -93 to -103. Not great at all, but enough to hold a signal in 3g. The problem though was how slow the phone switched radios. Going from 4g to 3g would take up to a minute. Further testing lead to some cases of dropping a 3g signal, altough surprisingly it did hold onto the 4g signal despite the worse signal strength. I ran the SpeedTest app multiple times every night for 10 day, and the highest speed I saw was 8,200 kbps down, 4,400 up.
An even bigger shocker though was the wifi performance. I have a weight bench in my garage, and like to listen to Pandora on my phone while working out. The GN had zero bars of wifi (but would stay connected...mostly) and would take 10 seconds between tracks to buffer. My DX had 3 bars of wifi (I know, bars are not apples to apples and sucks as a measurement) and would play Pandora seamlessly. My house is small, the router is pretty high end and not that far away. Bad 3g, bad 4g and bad wifi had me feeling pretty bummed about the phone. To be fair, I never had a great signal on the DX at my house either, but as the above numbers show, it was better than the GN.
To sum up the GN, I travelled for Christmas and visited some areas with marginal service and some areas that should have had good service, according the VZW's coverage map. I had my brother's cheap-o Samsung Android Sprint phone to test side by side. The GN lost or tied every time. The kicker was when we were in downtown Bryan, TX, which is right next door to College Station and should have had great coverage. I had no signal at all the entire time we were in Bryan. This was not during VZW's 4g outage. My brother had a signal in the -80's on his Samsung.
That was what sent me to the VZW store Christmas eve to check out the Rezound. They had it right next to a display GN. I tested all three phones in terms of signal. They would fluctuat slightly, but the high/low for both my GN and the display model were the same. -78 to -83. The Rezound was -66 to -72. Both GNs were set to CDMA only. At this point I'm thinking 'Okay, the Rezound is better. It's only 10 or 12 db, but that would put me in a much better spot with the numbers I was getting at my house.' Then I decided to run the SpeedTest app. I used both display models for this, and made sure they were hitting the same server. The results were consistent between runs. The Rezound hit 24,000 down and 11,000 up. The GN hit 14,000 down and 6,000 up. I repeated this again and again. Obviously both phones were switched to 4g for this test. I then repeated the GN results with my phone, and walked over to the VZW rep and said 'Hi I'd like to return my GN for a Rezound please'.
I haven't done extensive testing on the Rezound since being back home (unpacking, catching up with friends... you understand). But I ran SpeedTest right when I got home. 30,600 down and 9,900 up. After that I just smiled and felt fine about doing more testing later. What I can't make out though, is why so many online reviews and articles seem to thing there isn't a problem with the GN. Maybe it's a problem with only some GNs? Anandtech articles I respect very highly. They know their stuff, and always have a great technical analysis. Their article on GN signal issues just confused me, because it seemed to say there was no problem. I don't know, I did a lot of testing with the GN. I wanted to keep it! I won't bore you with all the details, but I lost signal five miles from DFW airport in a busy shopping center. I did many, many side by side SpeedTest runs with my buddy and his Bionic. I feel like I gave the GN every chance to perform. I will say that at work my GN was -93 to -100 on 4g signal, and at times I'd hit 24,00 down, which was very close to what the Bionic was pulling.
My take-away was that with a great signal, the GN will perform. With a poor signal, the GN does a good job of holding on to that signal. But the GN radio just can't get a signal as well as some other phones, and the Rezound gets a great signal in comparison.
Miscellaneous
The GN is quick. Transitions are seamless, apps open fast and market downloads install in no time. The Rezound is also quick. As quick? Not really. There's still some slight hesitation here or there. I'd say it's more software than hardware. If you put any stock into benchmarks, the GN did 5,850 in Antutu and the Rezound did 5,640.
The Rezound is chunky with the extended battery. But I like it better than the GN in terms of feel in the hand.
Um...if you made it this far, anything else you want to know?
Cliff Notes:GN and Rezound are both good devices. The GN had signal issues that prevented it from being something I'd want to own and use. The Rezound is better than it looks on paper and as a whole package works really well.
Wow, you really put a lot into this. Good read.
Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk
I noticed the same thing about the graphics and text in the status bar and other areas of the OS. When you view something that really takes advantage of the screen it's quite impressive, yet HTC didn't put much thought into really exploiting one of the phone's main selling points. It seems like an odd oversight. The colors don't even look subdued to me when you view something that actually has bright colors in it, and that's after using a Droid Charge for awhile which is heavily over-saturated. Most of the included wallpapers are pretty dull with the exception of one or two, and a few of them aren't even sharp.
jasoncd said:
I didn't test either phone extensively with the stock batteries. With my short use on the Rezound's stock battery, I was impressed it was able to seemingly last a good amount of time with only 1650 mah. That battery size is too small for a LTE phone IMO, and with the physical size of the battery I think HTC could have given us something better.
...
That was what sent me to the VZW store Christmas eve to check out the Rezound. They had it right next to a display GN. I tested all three phones in terms of signal. They would fluctuat slightly, but the high/low for both my GN and the display model were the same. -78 to -83. The Rezound was -66 to -72. Both GNs were set to CDMA only. At this point I'm thinking 'Okay, the Rezound is better. It's only 10 or 12 db, but that would put me in a much better spot with the numbers I was getting at my house.'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic review, thanks Jason!
So the dB numbers and speedtests above were all captured w/the Rezound's extended battery? Were you able to perceive any change in behavior (esp. w/3G) when you replaced the stock battery?
jasoncd said:
Miscellaneous
The GN is quick. Transitions are seamless, apps open fast and market downloads install in no time. The Rezound is also quick. As quick? Not really. There's still some slight hesitation here or there. I'd say it's more software than hardware. If you put any stock into benchmarks, the GN did 5,850 in Antutu and the Rezound did 5,640.
The Rezound is chunky with the extended battery. But I like it better than the GN in terms of feel in the hand.
Um...if you made it this far, anything else you want to know?
Cliff Notes:GN and Rezound are both good devices. The GN had signal issues that prevented it from being something I'd want to own and use. The Rezound is better than it looks on paper and as a whole package works really well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using the Rezound stock there are two well three factors here that would make it hesitate/lag. #1.) Sense - I'm not sure if it's just this release but yeah it's nowhere near as smooth as it should be for the hardware on this device. #2.) GB - The device is still on Gingerbread and I think the transitions/animations do not properly utilize the GPU, that and there's the lack of overall HW acceleration. #3.) Store demos are always laggy due to all the crap it probably goes through at the store. Yes it is just the software in this case and I can attest to that. I put ICS on my old Droid 3 and that sucker flew. No transitional/animation lag thanks to the proper GPU utilization + HW acceleration. I've gotten 6k on my Rezound on Antutu before, so I really wouldn't use a benchmark to gauge performance here.
Thanks for the feedback guys. This was a big purchase for me, so I did a ton a research. I really went from GN all the way, to loving the Rezound and respecting the GN for what it is. It's just too flawed to be the game changer I thought it would be.
kgbeezr1 said:
I noticed the same thing about the graphics and text in the status bar and other areas of the OS. When you view something that really takes advantage of the screen it's quite impressive, yet HTC didn't put much thought into really exploiting one of the phone's main selling points. It seems like an odd oversight. The colors don't even look subdued to me when you view something that actually has bright colors in it, and that's after using a Droid Charge for awhile which is heavily over-saturated. Most of the included wallpapers are pretty dull with the exception of one or two, and a few of them aren't even sharp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You hit it with the status bar comment. The blue icons of ICS might not be for everyone, but they're a damn sight better than what HTC/GB gives us. They're just...overblown? Comical? Meh, I don't know, it's fine just a little more attention to detail here could have helped push the Rezound up in reviewers minds imo.
Blue Biker said:
Fantastic review, thanks Jason!
So the dB numbers and speedtests above were all captured w/the Rezound's extended battery? Were you able to perceive any change in behavior (esp. w/3G) when you replaced the stock battery?
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Click to collapse
Thanks man! You are correct, all of the numbers I posted were with the Rezounds extended battery. I almost thought your question could be answered with 'No way, they perform the same!'. Which is what I've been reading.
But I decided to take a slow walk around the house with both the extended and standard batteries in. This included going in bathrooms, closets, the garage, etc. Basically every part of my house.
The extended battery was between -85 and -95 db. The living room was the worst at -95. I changed out for the standard battery, and right off the numbers were a little better. It was -81 to -90. What's funny is with the extended battery the garage was a solid -90. Every part of it. With the standard, it was the same solid number but -85 instead of -90.
I will note that when I put the standard cover back on, there was very very little creak to it. It fit very flush. My extended battery cover have a fairly large creak on one side. Maybe it's not making the best contact? Or maybe it's just not as good?
I might order a new extended cover from HTCpedia and see if that fits any better, and if it has an impact compared to the one I have now.
Sigh, I was afraid you were going to come up with results like that. I've been chasing this down here in XDA (and also in AF) with several people claiming plenty of antenna material on the extended cover, just that it's covered up instead of visibly copper on the standard cover. They probably are correct, but it also seems to be true that there is some level of signal sacrificed by the extended cover.
So will I accept a 5dB signal loss to achieve 70% more battery? Going from an excellent connection to very good? It feels dumb to admit, but my answer's probably yes.
Thanks again for all of your legwork and analysis. I was also obsessively following the GNex for many months and only hopped on the Rez at the last minute. Hope I can share what I've learned as well.
BTW, creaking covers seems to be common w/Rezounds (although not mine), so others may have suggestions for how to reduce it.
Blue Biker said:
Sigh, I was afraid you were going to come up with results like that. I've been chasing this down here in XDA (and also in AF) with several people claiming plenty of antenna material on the extended cover, just that it's covered up instead of visibly copper on the standard cover. They probably are correct, but it also seems to be true that there is some level of signal sacrificed by the extended cover.
So will I accept a 5dB signal loss to achieve 70% more battery? Going from an excellent connection to very good? It feels dumb to admit, but my answer's probably yes.
Thanks again for all of your legwork and analysis. I was also obsessively following the GNex for many months and only hopped on the Rez at the last minute. Hope I can share what I've learned as well.
BTW, creaking covers seems to be common w/Rezounds (although not mine), so others may have suggestions for how to reduce it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both my original and extended battery cover creaks pretty bad. HTC sent me a new back cover and it didn't change a thing. The only way I found to reduce it was fold a piece of paper a couple of times and lay in on the battery before you put the cover on it. It does not completely get rid of it but it did reduce it.
yeah, the creaky battery door definitely sucks. mine just started creeking more on the left side from taking the back cover off a lot, but with a TPU, i don't notice it that much. oh well; i should try to complain to get another door out of them lol
Thanks for this GREAT review. It really solidifies my decision on whether to let my Rezound go for Gnex.