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I was waiting for months for the Galaxy Nexus to come out.
I was using a Droid Charge that was all tweaked out (custom ROM, imoseyon 4.0 kernel, fuju tweaks, Launcher Pro Plus, etc etc etc) that I absolutely LOVED but my Wife wanted that phone and I had at least two lines with upgrades available.
I originally bought the Rezound with the full intention of returning it as soon as the Nexus came out. I have until January 15th to return it and I figured for sure the GN would be out by then. I had a RAZR briefly and absolutely hated it, so I passed it on to a coworker. She uses a phone for more of a cosmetic accessory than an actual tool, so the RAZR was perfect for her but I can't own a phone with four hour battery life and no removable battery.
Now that I have been using the Rezound for a while, I cant see any way I'm returning it. I absolutely love the thing. It's not perfect, I absolutely hate the
flush power button and like everyone else I would like to flash a custom ROM but the phone runs well enough stock that I can live with the stock ROM.
My Charge was almost as fast as the Rezound (mid 2000 quadrant scores) totally lag free and has a screen to die for. I was afraid I might be disappointed with the Rezound as it actually has a slightly smaller screen than the Charge and I do wish it was a little wider, but the Rezound kicks butt in every other way.
Comparing to the Charge, the Rezound GPS locks WAY faster and the radio is way better. The Charge swapped from 4g to 3g so often I had to leave it locked in 3G 99% of the time so it wouldn't kill the battery. I stream audio all day at work using either iheart radio or sirius online and the Charge could not make it through an entire workday on one battery even using the 3500 batteries.
The Rezound has been making it all day plus, doing the exact same things using a 2750 battery and leaving it in 4g all day. I also like the way HTC did the extended battery much better than the Charge setup. The curved back and a silicone cover make it seem like it came from the factory that way.
I have always liked Sense (except it annoys the hell out of me that landscape doesn't work with the home screen) and it runs great in this phone. I also installed Launcher Pro Plus and that REALLY runs well. I swap back and forth between the two when I get tired of one or the other.
After watching all the reviews of the GN and playing with a coworkers Galaxy I don't even want that phone anymore. I will still check it out if VZ ever actually releases it, but I can't imagine switching at this point.
~John
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I just finished playing with the Galaxy Nexus today and I wouldnt trade my rezound for it either. The Gnex is nice, has a nice screen but not as nice as the rezound. Overall feel I like the rezound although I will say the Gnex is a much lighter phone and that is one things i liked about it. I am not a fan of vanilla android though.
I came from a totally tweaked out charge too. But I am a teckie junkie. Got my rezound and I am loving it! Don't get me wrong...I loved the charge too, but the GPS and the camera really are awesome on the rezound. That right there had me sold. I actually like the crisp screen. Hubby has the continuum, I still find myself checking out his screen once in a while.
No regrets here whatsoever. The only thing I never really thought about was having to wait to root and customize this. I got the fascinate after it was out a few months, root access already gained. I got my charge in aug, and had it rooted within 2 days.
But the way this is running stock....personally, I feel that it is faster than the charge running stock.
Now if I could just change the fonts LOL
Quadrant scores mean nothing in terms of performance imo. I don't know why people/reviewers even bother to run it. The scores are easily manipulated and it's not an accurate gauge on how well a phone can run. I can agree running it for fun, but definately not as a "this score means this is how fast your phone will run". You must of have had a good Charge, I returned mine after using it for a few days. Only good thing about that phone was the screen, AMOLED is nice yes, but I feel the colors are too saturated and cartoony. I love the screen on this phone, and the Gnex doesn't have anything on it. The screen on Gnex has been reported as grainy and pixelated for text/browsing. Media they stated not so much of an issue. Now if the Gnex had Super AMOLED + HD instead of some pentile submatrix then it would be in business. But overall I feel this phone is higher quality than the Gnex.
I know that quadrant means little, I just post it because everyone else seems to.
When I say the Charge was damn near as fast as the Rezound that is after comparing the two side by side. I obviously got a good Charge and I'm sure there are some bad ones out there (name a phone that you can't say that about)
What is most important to me is camera quality, sound quality and screen quality. I'm sure the GN will have a nice screen but everything else seems like it will be second rate in the GN.
~John
I came from a "totally tweaked out" Thunderbolt and absolutely hated the thing a side from all the roms available(I enjoyed switching from rom to rom almost every day).
this Rezound is really nice, I just wish it was a bit bigger & didn't have sync issues playing 720P .mkv files.
p.s. I always hated Sense & hope to allah/god/supreme deity/etc that CM9 will come soon.
voxigenboy said:
I came from a "totally tweaked out" Thunderbolt and absolutely hated the thing a side from all the roms available(I enjoyed switching from rom to rom almost every day).
this Rezound is really nice, I just wish it was a bit bigger & didn't have sync issues playing 720P .mkv files.
p.s. I always hated Sense & hope to allah/god/supreme deity/etc that CM9 will come soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have issues playing 720p .mkv files? I had no synching issues while playing a 1280 x 720p mkv.
Hi,
Have any of you bought the One X, and then switched to the SIII? Reasons why?
Except for the battery life, pretty pleased with the One X. But boy is the battery life atrocious, and I am afraid that it won't be fixable.
And if it is slightly fixable, it won't come until six months later.
I have both devices and if its going to cost you money to switch don't bother apart from expandable storage and better/removable battery life there ain't much difference worth loosing money over
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA
I have both too. Well I know you mentioned it already, but the battery life seems many many times better than the Hox. I couldn't bear getting only 3-4 hours approximately. Aside from that lag doesn't exist at all on my .sg3...whereas on my hox it just seemed pretty laggy and barely like it had four cores at all! Think HTC failed with it.... oh.. and don't get me started on the picture compression.. images looked dreadful!
I had HTC one X
Disadvantages:-
1. You can't expand the memory size !.
2. The screen light is too bright while S III is really feels natural.
3. Battery consumer.
4. Too complicated in applying custom roms , you need to unlock it and S-off it.
5. Easily screen scratchable.
6. Hardware performance is a way behind S 3.
I had it for almost a month before i returned it and got the SGSIII instead, why?
Because:
1. Battery Life.
2. Screen was too painful on my eyes.
3. i hated the way the phone rested on the camera, so i had to get a case for it and it became too bulky for my liking.
4. it took close to 4 hours to charge.
5. non expandable memory.
6. It used to get hot enough to keep my pants warm on a cold day.
I do miss that matt premium feel, senseUI and the choice of roms that became available for it, oh and THD games like shadow gun and riptide, but then again the phone is just out it will catch up in both criteria soon enough im sure.
I've had my One X on AT&T for a couple of weeks now, I quickly fell in love with the design and build quality of the hardware. The screen is simply the best I've ever seen. The camera and camera app are great. I'm coming from a Captivate so of course everything is an improvement. But there are a few minor but important to me things that are really bugging me, I was wondering if S3 owners could let me know how they are. I'm trying to stay with the stock ROM this time around.
First, I was looking forward to finally having a notification LED again. But the HOX's is utter crap. It's tiny, dim, green only, and dismisses itself after a few minutes. Is the S3's easy to see in a well lit room? Can you customize the colors for different notification types?
Second, the vibration is absurd on the HOX. It's too strong and too loud and completely uncustomizable. Can you change the vibration intensity or the pattern for notifications or other things on the S3? Is it noisy when it vibrates?
Lastly, I am surprisingly disappointed in the battery life. I feel like Anandtech's review really led me astray here. It seemed manageable for the first few days but now I really feel like I have to curb my usage during the day so I won't have to immediately plug it in when I get home. I've even tried to set it up for power saving but it seems like after 12 hours off the charger with pretty moderate usage (maybe 2hrs of screen time) it is begging to be plugged in. Any thoughts on the S3 in this regard?
Thank you for any input. I'm not looking forward to having to pay the restock fee or cover the price differential (got the One X for $120) but I'll do it if it will alleviate these little things that constantly bug me through the day.
My thoughts...
Short answer. It depends.
I had the One S for two months before switching to the T-Mo version of the S3. Though the One S and One X aren't identical, they're pretty similar in terms of hardware, UI, and features.
Modding
Though I can't speak for the One X, if you frequent XDA and love to tinker with your phone, I think the S3 is going to offer more opportunity. Its the same exact phone with all carriers so there will probably be more development. There weren't a ton of One S developers and the phone had already been out for some time. That being said, if you're less inclined to tinker, I really feel that Sense 4.0 has come a long way. Its clean and well put together (especially compared to the Touchwiz UI on the S3). Touchwiz has a thousand features you'll never use and misses features you'd always use (like being able to change a song on the lockscreen as opposed to having to unlock the phone).
Storage
Lack of expandable storage sucks. Even with Dropbox, if you're on a 6 hour flight (which I am frequently), streaming doesn't help. If you're one that can live without your whole media collection with you and don't mind streaming, I'd give the edge to the One X, but if you (like me) fly alot, the S3.
Battery
My brother in law has the One X, and I had the One S. Perhaps it was the smaller screen, but I never had an issue with the battery. It would last 18 hours commonly and seldom needed a recharge. I doubt the S3 battery is much better, but the fact you can carry around other batteries helps. Though.. IMHO, Duracell and others make a USB charger that you can plug in to your phone for a charge. Is it better to carry one of those around or a spare battery? Either way it sucks because you have to carry something. I'd say this is a draw.
Audio
I'm sure many will flame me and disagree, but the audio absolutely sucks on the S3 (at least the US version since we were robbed of the Wolfson chip). Bland, bass-less. Its like listening to music with a tin can on your head. I think this will get better over time as devs make modifications (like Voodoo sound), but for now, its crap. People around here seem to dislike Beats audio, but I gotta say.. It sounds significantly better than the stock S3. Hopefully that gets fixed, maybe it never will.
Camera
This is a tough one. I loved the camera on the One S (and presumably, One X). PM me and I'll send you some shots I took with it. You would have a hard time believing its not a DSLR. The S3 camera is good... It has some nice features. I'm not sure it holds up as well in low-light and I'm not sure it captures color as well as the One series. Just MHO. Both are great, but I felt with the One S the quality of picture I was getting eliminated my need to carry a second camera. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the S3. Pictures still seem like they were taken by a camera phone...
I'm not gonna lie... I've had the S3 for a little over a week. I like it. But there are still so many things I miss about the One series. I'm hoping as the dev community grows for the S3, eventually I'll be happy I made the switch.
Hey thanks for your thoughts on this. Pretty much what I was thinking... they're both great but each does some things better than the other. It's funny you mention the audio, I did think the One X sounds pretty impressive when I loaded some music on it. Hopefully I can find a demo S3 in store so I can find answers my nitpicky questions about the notification LED and vibration functions.
The LED is pretty bright, and stays on. I can easily see it from across the room.
not sure about the vibration, I rarely use it and have never experienced the One X
Battery life is surprisingly good one the S3, and as mentioned you can always get a second battery, I got a battery charger from Samsung and it came with an extra battery for $50 between those two I never run out.
I know you said you would like to stick with the stock ROM but if you are willing to load a custom ROM this one: http://goo.gl/WP6TC is giving me much better battery life than the stock one.
a coworker has the EVO 4G LTE (Sprints version of the One X) and it is pretty nice and feels a bit more solid but I like the removable battery and SD card slot on the S3 and considering Samsungs bootloaders are unlocked and they make the source code available immediately I knew there would be more development for the S3 than the One X.
both phones are awesome but the grass is always greener on the other side so I'm sure whichever one you go with you're gonna want the other, at least that's how I am.
I've been pretty happy with the S3 for the <2 weeks I've had it. now I just need Sprint to hurry up and flip the switch on LTE in LA.
Good Luck Man!
The only reason I would consider getting a One X over my S III is the screen. Not a fan of the PenTile display and its much dimmer than the One X. However, I'm keeping the S III because of a massive developer base.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Swapped my HTC One X for the SGS3...and absolutely love my decision. Best feature of all is the eye tracking, the fact that when im reading the phone and the screen never turns off is worth it alone. Then you have better battery life, I can actually get an entire day out of a charge on this phone unlike the HOX, I get better signal here in ATL and have less drop calls, then you still have the replaceable battery and expandable memory...and finally NFC
Like I said, got rid of my HOX for the SGS3 and LOVE IT!!! Do it today, tomorrow, yesterday
PS- I personally think the screen looks so much brighter and better than the HOX
I had the evolte this blows that out of the water hands down. The evolte really should have sold for $150 not $200 this is a $200 device
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
I bought the HTC One X and held onto it for 29 days, then returned it for the SGS3 (which i preordered a couple weeks before it came out).
I liked many things about the HTC One X. The screen quality was a little bit better on the HOX, but its smaller. The SGS3 uses a pentile display, which means that even at the same resolution as the HOX, you can still see the pixels, but its something that most people wont notice. The SGS3 is seems like its a little bit brighter than the HOX too, but not enough that the average phone user would ever even notice the difference.
They both have the same processor, but the SGS3 has 2GB ram vs the 1GB ram on the HOX. Now most people wont notice a difference with the RAM, but for all that multitasking, it really does help! Oh speaking of multitasking, the HOX cant do it and the SGS3 can! If you go to the task list on the HOX and click on a screenshot of a program you had open, it is what it is.. just a screenshot... The HOX literally runs the program again rather than holding it in memory, so you never get to keep your position when multitasking...
When it comes to audio, the HOX stock is definitely better with Beats Audio, and the phones speaker seems to have a little better sound as well, but it wasnt as loud as my GS3 is.. When it comes to headphones or streaming to your car stereo, or even your in home stereo, the HOX is definitely better, but for the SGS3 and even the HOX, you can download equalizers from the play store that brings the balance back to the SGS3 when compared to the HOX. Also, the device you have it connected too probably has its own equalizer or somewhat of one that helps as well.
Memory is a huge issue on the HOX, you have 16GB and nothing but 16GB. If you want or need more, too bad... SGS3 has the MicroSD slot so you can expand up to 32GB (or was it 64?). And for giggles, you could carry multiple microsd cards with you if you wanted!
Battery was ok on the HOX, and its significantly better on the SGS3, especially with bloatware removed and an active task killer (i've always had great luck with these, i dont understand how some dont see a difference?). I typically get around 20 hours with medium use of my SGS3, but my HOX would have to be plugged in by the end of the day, or by bedtime if i barely used it...
Speaking of the battery, the day i got the phone, it froze on me... Every possible combination of buttons and hooking it upto the computer in every possible way, running certain programs, adb, nothing would reboot the phone or turn it off.. Ended up waiting over 7 hours for it to die after i spent 3 hours trying to shut it off. I can not live without a removable battery!!! F U HOX! Anyway!
Overall, i think the SGS3 is a better phone. Not MUCH better, just better. The LED light is bigger, brighter, and the ear piece speaker doesnt block the it like the HOX. The battery is bettery, the removable battery and external storage is a huge plus, but the HOX's screen is barely better, has better stock audio, and Sense 4.0 is definitely better than Touchwiz, BUT!!! I dont use either... I typically install Apex or LauncherPro and use one of them. The HOX has a nicer looking lock screen, but the SGS3 lock screen features and the way it works is much nicer.. I prefer the watery stuff over the orb thing. And i like being able to say "Hi Galaxy" or whatever i choose to unlock it hehe
When it comes down to the decision, your not really caring about custom roms and things like that, so your decision should come down to the size of the phone. The SGS3 is bigger, but has a bigger screen, and with a case is even bigger. The HOX is smaller and has a smaller screen. Feel them both in your hands, and play with the screens. It wont take you long to decide which you prefer. Either way, if i were you i'd go with the SGS3 because if you decide in the future to root and install custom rom's, you'll have much less of a hassle with SGS3 than the HOX.
1: the led on th s3 is a lot stronger ive tested
2: havent compared vibrations so i am not sure
3:the battery life is a lot nicer on th GS3 so i would switch if i was you not to mention the GS3 has rremovable battery and external SD slot so battery and storage are better...
modding wise the SGS3 is known as a great phone for developers. if you ever want to not use the stock rom, there are many options for roms out and most developers havent had the sgs3's delivered yet! within weeks there should be a fix for just about any problems you encounter with the phone.
switching to the sgs3 would be a good choice as the it is better in about every criteria you mentioned. one problem is though, the super amoled pentile display is darker and a bit more saturated than the HOX unless you like that. hope i helped
Wow, tons of good info! Thanks everybody. I was leaning towards just keeping the One X, as several people have told me even if I switch, the grass is always greener on the other side. But from what people are consistently saying, battery life may be reason enough to switch. I don't like having to curb my phone usage to make it till evening without running on fumes.
I don't agree at all with the statement regarding the SGS3 screen being a bit brighter. I had an EVO 4G LTE (ONE X Clone) and returned it for a SGS3. The first thing i noticed is how much DIMMER the SGS3 screen is compared to the EVO 4G LTE. It is almost unviewable on a sunny day. The SGS3's max brightness is like 75% on the EVO 4G LTE. Also auto brightness is really bad on the phone. It defaults to a setting that is way too dim. I'm still undecided if I should return the phone or not. Unfortunately, i'm not really impressed with either phones. Both have their flaws.
PMad said:
I bought the HTC One X and held onto it for 29 days, then returned it for the SGS3 (which i preordered a couple weeks before it came out).
I liked many things about the HTC One X. The screen quality was a little bit better on the HOX, but its smaller. The SGS3 uses a pentile display, which means that even at the same resolution as the HOX, you can still see the pixels, but its something that most people wont notice. The SGS3 is seems like its a little bit brighter than the HOX too, but not enough that the average phone user would ever even notice the difference.
They both have the same processor, but the SGS3 has 2GB ram vs the 1GB ram on the HOX. Now most people wont notice a difference with the RAM, but for all that multitasking, it really does help! Oh speaking of multitasking, the HOX cant do it and the SGS3 can! If you go to the task list on the HOX and click on a screenshot of a program you had open, it is what it is.. just a screenshot... The HOX literally runs the program again rather than holding it in memory, so you never get to keep your position when multitasking...
When it comes to audio, the HOX stock is definitely better with Beats Audio, and the phones speaker seems to have a little better sound as well, but it wasnt as loud as my GS3 is.. When it comes to headphones or streaming to your car stereo, or even your in home stereo, the HOX is definitely better, but for the SGS3 and even the HOX, you can download equalizers from the play store that brings the balance back to the SGS3 when compared to the HOX. Also, the device you have it connected too probably has its own equalizer or somewhat of one that helps as well.
Memory is a huge issue on the HOX, you have 16GB and nothing but 16GB. If you want or need more, too bad... SGS3 has the MicroSD slot so you can expand up to 32GB (or was it 64?). And for giggles, you could carry multiple microsd cards with you if you wanted!
Battery was ok on the HOX, and its significantly better on the SGS3, especially with bloatware removed and an active task killer (i've always had great luck with these, i dont understand how some dont see a difference?). I typically get around 20 hours with medium use of my SGS3, but my HOX would have to be plugged in by the end of the day, or by bedtime if i barely used it...
Speaking of the battery, the day i got the phone, it froze on me... Every possible combination of buttons and hooking it upto the computer in every possible way, running certain programs, adb, nothing would reboot the phone or turn it off.. Ended up waiting over 7 hours for it to die after i spent 3 hours trying to shut it off. I can not live without a removable battery!!! F U HOX! Anyway!
Overall, i think the SGS3 is a better phone. Not MUCH better, just better. The LED light is bigger, brighter, and the ear piece speaker doesnt block the it like the HOX. The battery is bettery, the removable battery and external storage is a huge plus, but the HOX's screen is barely better, has better stock audio, and Sense 4.0 is definitely better than Touchwiz, BUT!!! I dont use either... I typically install Apex or LauncherPro and use one of them. The HOX has a nicer looking lock screen, but the SGS3 lock screen features and the way it works is much nicer.. I prefer the watery stuff over the orb thing. And i like being able to say "Hi Galaxy" or whatever i choose to unlock it hehe
When it comes down to the decision, your not really caring about custom roms and things like that, so your decision should come down to the size of the phone. The SGS3 is bigger, but has a bigger screen, and with a case is even bigger. The HOX is smaller and has a smaller screen. Feel them both in your hands, and play with the screens. It wont take you long to decide which you prefer. Either way, if i were you i'd go with the SGS3 because if you decide in the future to root and install custom rom's, you'll have much less of a hassle with SGS3 than the HOX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say go for it. I was all HTC and then they dropped the ball on quality and overall build. I made the switch to Samsung phones and won't go back.
There's a reason why Samsung's SIII was more anticipated than any HTC phone out there. It wasn't just marketing.
spydc said:
I don't agree at all with the statement regarding the SGS3 screen being a bit brighter. I had an EVO 4G LTE (ONE X Clone) and returned it for a SGS3. The first thing i noticed is how much DIMMER the SGS3 screen is compared to the EVO 4G LTE. It is almost unviewable on a sunny day. The SGS3's max brightness is like 75% on the EVO 4G LTE. Also auto brightness is really bad on the phone. It defaults to a setting that is way too dim. I'm still undecided if I should return the phone or not. Unfortunately, i'm not really impressed with either phones. Both have their flaws.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...
I turned up the brightness on both devices. You have to look at the same picture. The S3 is much more vibrant. It's not dimmer at all. With the black backgrounds on the E4GL, it looks flatter. Your decision is biased.
Since I don't think I saw anyone mention it. I the vibration is not too loud or too strong. You can also customize it with a few patterns. I think I there are like five or six to choose from. Also you can't customize the LED but it is plenty bright.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
benzin84 said:
Since I don't think I saw anyone mention it. I the vibration is not too loud or too strong. You can also customize it with a few patterns. I think I there are like five or six to choose from. Also you can't customize the LED but it is plenty bright.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the G S III its pretty prominent and audible. You can also create custom patterns.
There's a pp called light flow, but its currently being re-worked for the G S III, but you can change it.
chrischoi said:
I'd say go for it. I was all HTC and then they dropped the ball on quality and overall build. I made the switch to Samsung phones and won't go back.
There's a reason why Samsung's SIII was more anticipated than any HTC phone out there. It wasn't just marketing.
...
I turned up the brightness on both devices. You have to look at the same picture. The S3 is much more vibrant. It's not dimmer at all. With the black backgrounds on the E4GL, it looks flatter. Your decision is biased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WRONG. It is MUCH dimmer.
Turn the screen to white on both in a store and compare. You will be sad.
AMOLED has severe flaws. One is it's just plain dim especially on whites.
Also PenTile sucks. It's not too bad with such a high resolution but it's still noticeable to me even at arms' length.
The S III screen is sh!t even compared to an old Droid. Everything else about it is awesome. Except Wifi dropping which is also a pretty big deal but other than that it's great.
But the screen is important to me. I'm having serious thoughts about keeping my VZ S III. I just ordered it mainly because of the unlimited data going away and S III being "the phone" of 2012. I'm so disappointed on the crap screen.
macdroid01 said:
WRONG. It is MUCH dimmer.
Turn the screen to white on both in a store and compare. You will be sad.
AMOLED has severe flaws. One is it's just plain dim especially on whites.
Also PenTile sucks. It's not too bad with such a high resolution but it's still noticeable to me even at arms' length.
The S III screen is sh!t even compared to an old Droid. Everything else about it is awesome. Except Wifi dropping which is also a pretty big deal but other than that it's great.
But the screen is important to me. I'm having serious thoughts about keeping my VZ S III. I just ordered it mainly because of the unlimited data going away and S III being "the phone" of 2012. I'm so disappointed on the crap screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your crazy dude. I LOVE the screen in the s3. I took my evo lte back. I much prefer the screen on the s3
I had the [email protected] one x for 3 weeks and brought it back for the S III. Reason: swappable battery, sd card and 4.1 upgrade this fall.
Yes, the one x has a better screen for outside, and the format factor is slightly better but the above won me over. Wifi and 4G speeds are the same. Quadrant score is also higher on the siii for some reason.
The ui on the siii really isn't bad considering and I don't regret my decision.
Someone mentioned the Siii having a dimmer screen. That's because the default brightness is lower than the default on the one x. Yes the one x can get brighter (not really viewable at that point) but not for what I saw. Once I made changes to equal the one x they were equal.
This from a guy who has had two HTC android phones previously.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
I had one for 3 weeks too, but i was already worrying about space when the drop box promo was killed... I was upset and left without enough storage on my HOX for what I wanted, especially music. Multitasking was pretty poor too, it reloaded most apps most of the time, even swapping between just two normal apps.
Removable storage, battery, and proper multitasking/ram for the future sold me. I wasn't thrilled with the design when the GS3 was launched, it looked bad really. I still prefer the One X's sexy body and screen, but this is much better than I expected. Easily a solid 9 to the HOX's 10.
Accessory selection will be MUCH wider for the GS3 vs the AT&T One X. Higher numbers sold, more carriers carrying it, and matching versions around the world mean big things for cases, docks, etc.
Vibration feels a lot more higher class than the One X which almost felt like something was rattling . The LED light is diffused a lot to make a big light up area as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
Sweet, thanks for the input on the LED and vibration. Things aren't looking so good for my One X. Still hoping to find a working demo S3 to try out before making my decision.
I had the international One X and T-Mobile One S, I like them both but the deal breaker for me was lack of sd card and the kinda poor battery life. Not to mention the LED notification light was a joke.
Sent from my S3 using xda premium
Because I promised
Quick background: I've had iPhones until earlier this year when i took the plunge and nabbed an Unlocked Galaxy Nexus GSM, Great phone, but some things with it I just couldnt get past (16gb of storage and the EH audio amplification...Also i want fond of 4.2 on it) which lead me to search for another phone, Tried the Galaxy S3 but was disappointed and returned it, And now about a weekish or so ago I got myself the One X+, So lets delve into my opinion on the device for anyone on the fence
First Impressions, Build, Ergonomics and Screen
The build of the One X+ is fantastic, Far better than the S3 or Galaxy Nexus, it feels nice solid and most importantly for a $200-on-contract smartphone, premium, The grippy texture to the finish makes it a delight to hold and I never feel like im going to drop the bloody thing at the drop of a hat, The Capacitive buttons are also in my opinion much nicer than the hard button on the S3 (One of the major stumbling blocks with the S3 was the fact i found that button WAY too hard to work) Though I think the Galaxy Nexus' on screen buttons are still the most elegant solution... If I had one little complaint in regards to the ergonomics its that the volume buttons sit flush and undefined on the chassis of the phone, which has taken me a bit to get used to, Id prefer them to be raised a bit, but its a minor complaint. Overall the fit and finish of the phone is the best of any other phone I've ever owned, it feels solid and like its going to hold up to 2 years of use
Moving on, the screen is one of the most important bits of ANY smartphone and the One X+ doesnt disappoint, its easily got the nicest screen I've ever seen on a smartphone (And i did LOVE the AMOLED on my GNex so thats high praise!) its big, its bright, colors are saturated and the black level is nothing to scoff at, Albeit not as inky black as an AMOLED, Text is sharp and easily readable as well, and unlike the AMOLED screen on my GNex it doesnt chug my battery flat, it also stays looking nice even at lower brightness levels, The multitouch on it works well and accurately... Other nice things are the nicely beveled edges at the screen which makes swiping, say to another page of the homescreen or to move icons from one screen to another, a real treat and the fact it stays pretty clean and comes clean easily (Its not a fingerprint magnet the way my iphone or the S3 was, The S3 was actually terrible because i couldnt clean the fingerprints off worth a darn...)
Sense/Software
This is my first experience with Sense and only the second Skinned android version I've used and I gotta say I'm in the group that likes Sense, I get the reasons folks dislike it, but I'm finding I actually prefer many aspects of it over stock Android, in particular I do like the messaging app on it which just seems to work a bit better than the one on my GNex, and I do rather like more than one of the widgets it comes with (The small 4x1 Weather + Clock widget for instance) but I do see how these things could drain the battery or processor... I like how it asked me after dismissing one tutorial if i wanted it to keep bringing tutorials up and when i said no it never brought up another one (Unlike Touchwiz which would NOT stop bringing up tutorials even after i told it to knock it off)
The music app has rapidly become my favorite music app, I just like it, I dont like Google Play Music and Doubletwist had its problems in my opinion (Namely it tended to mess up if someone sent me a text or called me and wouldnt resume playing until i completely exited it and reloaded it, Not to mention it did NOT play well with 4.2, also the random thing i had to toggle on and off a few times everytime i started played music or it just continued the same "random" assortment of songs from the last play through..) by comparison the Sense music app just works better, looks pretty attractive and is easy for me to navigate, Also the included ringtone maker is a VERY nice touch that removed the need to install an app to do so...
The phone and Calendar apps are also very very nice, far better than the stock Android counterparts.. I love how the lock screen works as well with only ONE complaint, I dont think theres a way to launch Google Now from the lock screen... (If you know a way please tell me)
Google Now is better than it was on the GNexus shockingly, it transcribes my voice a lot quicker and more accurately than my GNex ever did..
I pretty much disabled all the AT&T crapware on my One X+ as soon as I got it, and I recommend you do as well, I know from many reports here one of the apps will chew up your battery if you dont disable it so yeah, The only ATT App I have on there and use is the Visual Voicemail one, Beyond that theres a demo of Mass Effect Infiltrator installed which is actually nice, its a game I bought on a friend's iPad and while I liked the concept, their old iPad ran it like junk and i felt the game was more suited to a phone screen over a tablet, Im not sure I'll drop $3.99 to unlock the full version, but as a demonstration of what the Tegra 3 could do in terms of graphics I found it a lovely demonstration
The stock browser is pretty nice as well and supports flash, Performance on it is VERY good, Seems on par with my Flash-browser of choice on my GNex (Dolphin) theres a really stupid and annoying toolbar enabled by default but 5 seconds in the settings menu banishes it to nothingness, Of course for non-flash sites I use Chrome, but the stock browser is the nicest stock browser I've ever used
About the only complaint i can throw at Sense is the keyboard, Which is pretty bad for me personally, Lots of typing errors and problems... But to be honest thats a minor complaint given how many alternate keyboards there are for Android
Performance
Performance wise this phone is a powerhouse, I have not had any issues with it stuttering, slowing down or anything no matter how hard i push it, No games have had noticable framerate problems (The GNex had problems with a couple games I played) the interface works smooth and buttery and it definitely feels like the most powerful Android device I've owned, Flash works smooth and buttery and gives me no issues as well which is VERY nice
Gaming I havnt found a single game it cant run perfectly(Albeit, i havnt done TOO much gaming on it)
As for other performance, the radio and antenna seem to be excellent, Unlike the S3 my One X+ doesnt hop on and off between HSPA+ and LTE every 2 seconds schizophrenically (Which made my S3 lose 20% of its battery in a 20 minute long errand and signalled the final nail in the coffin that lead me to return it), My One X+ hasnt lost connection even when I've taken it to the places I know have poor coverage so I'm quite happy with that bit of it
LTE performance will vary on your area but I get around 8mbps in my house (Which is 2-bar bordering the edge of LTE territory) to a high of 36mbps i got when i was out of the house at a 4-bar LTE location, Which is certainly nothing to scoff about, Wi-Fi works well for me, and I've yet to notice any problems with my Wi-Fi dropping at night or when its been locked for a long time like other users have reported...
Call quality is excellent, People are loud and clear, The speakerphone is also the first one i've found i can actually USE in a car and hear the person...
Camera
I'm the worst person to ask about camera quality on smartphones, For what I use them for even the "Bad" Galaxy Nexus camera was great for me, I carry my EOS 7D with me just about everywhere so if I want to take a nice picture I will pull that out instead..
That said, the cameras are very nice, I love how responsive it is with pretty much no shutter lag, it focuses quickly and very accurately and tends to do a good job with exposure as well, Photos have a good amount of detail to them and skintones are rendered pleasingly, Theres plenty of artsy filters if thats your thing as well, Only complaint is the focal length of the front facing camera seems a bit long for a self portrait, i have more problems framing it than with other smartphones I've owned, But the quality is also far superior to the other phones I've had
The stock sound effects for it are REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING however
Audio Quality
Obviously one big reason I picked up the One X+ was to get something with better audio quality than the GNex, The GNex isnt THAT shabby, but it does lack "oomph" and struggled to drive even my mobile headphones (I had to have it cranked to 100% all the time to get them decently audible and even then it was eh...) Volume+ helped a bit but 4.2 broke Volume+ leaving me in a bit of a rut...I also personally felt it made the phone sound "Strained" at times to deliver the volume i desired... The external speaker was also frequently barely audible, I usually heard the phone vibrating over the actual ringer...
Thankfully the One X+ is worlds apart from the GNex in that department, The external speaker is LOUD and easily heard, its also of surprisingly good quality and is actually one of the best little built in speakers I've heard, it also has a good amount of "depth" to it and renders low frequencies admirably for what it is, Overall the external speaker impressed me
But that pales in comparison to the headphone output, Which has simply left my jaw on the floor and exceeded my expectations, the headphone output is easily the best I've heard of any smartphone or MP3 player I've owned, it has exceptional clarity and detail to it with or without the Beats optimizations on... Speaking of those optimizations I was actually shocked I liked them and I did find they made a very noticeable difference in the output quality, Now note... they are simply a set of equalization curves they may not work for everyone due to differences in music and headphones... but in my case they've worked well and further enhance the music and video watching experience
For the record I've tried my One X+ with three sets of headphones, a set of Shure IEMs, a pair of Klipsch Image Ones and a pair of Sennheiser HD280s, Only the HD280s gave it a bit of trouble... they still sounded good, albeit not to their full potential (For the record the HD280s are a set of cans that REALLY need something meatier than a smartphone to drive them..) My primary music listening is Rock and Metal, with a bit of electronic, pop and other things thrown in there for good measure, So far I havnt found anything that the One X+ doesnt excel at playing back
Oh and the headphone output will also go VERY loud, I dont even turn it up past halfway except with a couple very low volume songs i have...
Battery Life
And now onto the massive elephant in the room whenever folks talk about the One X+... Battery life... The best way I've found it is "Jekyll and Hyde"... Let me explain
Use the phone normally, for phone calls, text messaging, maybe reading a webpage or checking email and the battery life is superb, Even some light gaming, like a little Cut The Rope or some such and the battery is VERY good and should easily get most folks through a day, Even watching a youtube video or two, either using the Youtube app or the stock browser and desktop youtube website doesnt excessively drain the battery...
....But fire up say, Mass Effect Infiltrator and watch your battery life burn...
Which seems very "No crumb sherlock" but it was definitely surprising to me after coming from the Galaxy Nexus where the screen, not the processor, was the worst offender to my battery life, Which simply means it didnt much matter what i did on the GNex if it involved the screen, the battery was going to drain at the same rate
Truthfully in my experience, the One X+ is as good as the S3 I had, Primarily because of that aforementioned issue the S3 had with staying connected to a tower, Its actually equal to my GNex's stock battery as well, which is very impressive considering this phone is packing LTE and a Quad Core processor in its svelte package
In terms of numbers, according to GSam my average battery life is 14h 40m, The most I've run it for was 16h with almost 3 hours of screen on time, To me, this is perfectly fine considering the rest of the phone and for most folks, you should easily be able to get through the day without a problem, I am connected to Wi-Fi pretty much all day, but even using LTE didnt seem to impact the battery life all that much...
Now a note, I dont really try for battery saving either... I have my phone syncing to gmail, syncing to google now, location services on, GPS on, i have that little weather widget thingy i mentioned up above on too which uses battery.. Screen is fixed at 33% brightness.. I just use it, like i usually use it, so a mixture of a bunch of things depending on what im doing that day...
One nice thing I also noticed is unlike the GNex, when the battery hits 20% its not a panic moment, 20% on my GNex meant "Find a charger in 20 minutes or im dead, Jim", on my One X+ 20% means i still have a few hours left and theres no need to rush... Which is nice, I had to buy an extended battery for my GNex, for this? I dont really feel I need one (I might get a battery case however)
Do I wish it had a 3500mah battery? Of course, But it doesnt, and thats fine, For me its an acceptable sacrifice
Quick Comparison To Other Phones For AT&T and Why I Didnt Buy Them
Galaxy S3, I technically actually bought one of these and returned it, theoretically it has better battery life, but only a dual core phone, also it runs TouchWiz which i found naggy annoying and way too like iOS for my tastes, it has a MicroSD slot, but that just adds an extra $20 to the price tag to get a 32gb card (and if you want 64gb you're looking at an extra $60 to that price tag) , not built as well and ergonomically it was a pain in my hand and i constantly felt i was about to drop the dumb thing when i was using it, in my case the battery life was completely atrocious because it could NOT hang onto a signal and would scizophrenically bop between HSPA and LTE every 2 seconds which made doing things on it virtually impossible, I also didnt feel it was all that fast over the GNex running 4.1 (At the time however, the S3 only had 4.0 so.. I guess this isnt entirely fair) Also I feel the blue color looks like someone colored it with a Bic pen... Really my ownership of the S3 went from initial jubilation over a brand new shiny smartphone to finding problem after problem before i even got home with the darned thing...
Galaxy Note II, Bigger screen, bigger battery, cool S Pen features, but it runs TouchWiz which I consider worse than Sense and the ergonomic problems I had with the S3 are even worse because of it, its also a bit too big to fit in my pocket comfortably and I was way too worried Id end up dropping it, I tried it out in the store even and it just wasnt comfortable for me, and a bunch of the things i just rattled off about the S3 are likely true about the Note as well... So yeah
LG Nexus 4, Better processor, stock Android 4.2, better battery life (I think?) and a great price ($350 no contract) however it only has, at best, 16gb of storage and that just wasnt working for me as it was, Plus theres no LTE on it as well which is a negative when you have LTE available where you live
Summary/TL;DR
Overall the One X+ is easily my favorite smartphone on the market right now, I'm immensely happy with my purchase and I dont see another phone I'd rather have right now, it would be my number one recommendation to anyone looking at a phone on AT&T, it just has a great combination of features and in my opinion the only real big drawback is the so-so battery life, But even then I'd call the battery life "Average" and not bad, The only phone I've seen with truely spectacular battery life is the Droid Razr Maxx HD.. Which isnt available on AT&T... Personally I can live with the battery life, Im never too far from an outlet and even if i was, the phone seems to do just as good as most of the other smartphones I've owned, I've tried so hard to find little problems with it and honestly, I gave up, I'm really not having problems with it (Well except the bloody keyboard..) and just constantly finding new things to love about it...
The only reason I'd caution against it for some folks would be if they were really intending to play intense 3D games on the thing constantly, Because thats going to murder your battery stupidly fast... And people who do need VERY good battery life are best looking at a different phone as well, or considering a battery case for it...
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Dottcent said:
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
KenjiS said:
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say 99% of us enjoy reading positive reviews of our fave devices, so the longer the read and more in-depth info the better.
KenjiS said:
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
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Click to collapse
You posted in the right device thread so you'll only get positive criticism here
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium
I found the radio in the SGS3 to be pretty poor myself. HTC seems to make phones that can catch and hold a signal when you're out in the boonies and I've only found Motorola radios to be better. And the better it can keep a signal, the less battery you loose so all the better!
As for dumping on the SGS3 and the Note 2, you are preaching to the choir here Kenji, but your review puts it through the same paces as the bigger tech blogs. We like our HOX+ here and, while you can always argue for the Samsung phones because they are good in many ways, they're just not "right" for folks like me.
Thanks guys
I'm kinda regretting not applying when one of the Android blogs recently put up a Google+ Post saying they were looking for writers
As a side note, I installed Swiftkey, I'm enjoying it, though im really not used to auto correction (It DOES work very well in this instance because its learning some of the stuff i type)
Second note is that today's battery life is currently at 2.5 hours screen on, 13 hours 18 minutes total, 17% left (Roughly another 2-3 hours standby/light usage for me) I really have to say the battery life is not atrocious and thats more than enough to last me the day obviously (Took it off the plug at 9:30 this morning, its now almost 11 at night..) That included some Radiant Defense in there (Not the most demanding game, but i enjoy it! Its a shame Neon Defense which was my favorite now doesn't function 100% right because OpenFeint is no more... At least thats what im assuming is the problem...)
I wonder if my lack of using Facebook/Twitter on my phone is why im getting such great battery life..
Anyways, my only debate is to sell my Galaxy Nexus (Which likely will cover what i paid for my One X+) or keep it around as a modding toy...
Now this is me being VERY bad with my battery:
Basically nothing but Youtube and PlagueInc for 3.75 hours.. Not really sure how many other phones would beat this (Even my GNex with the extended battery might, MIGHT have gone to 5 or 6 doing this, but still, Thats with a 3500mah extended..)
I decided to go with the Alpha (Exynos) rather than the Nexus 6 for two reasons. First, having had a Note 2 and then a few phones later an LG3, I am tired of having a big phone, especially since I use a tablet to browse on the train. Second, I have always been jealous of the iPhone crowd having such nice looking phones.
The Alpha is the nicest Android phone to hold that I have ever had, and I have owned a few....
The pictures don't do it credit. The screen is simply beautiful. The metal feels fantastic. The whole feel is, to use a cliché, premium.
On the first day, I did a lot of remote desktop access and playing on the internet. It got very hot. Much hotter than the LG G3. Battery didn't last the day. What was worrying was that I if I used it for a short while, it got very hot very quickly.
On my second day, I turned battery saving on but only to limit the CPU (ie I left screen normal and location on). Totally different phone. Doesn't get hot at all and battery life much better ( I didn't have enough screen time to say I tested it properly - 83% from 9am to 9pm with minimal use).
Slowing the CPU made no difference to the ui. No lag and apps work fine.
As far as Touchwiz is concerned, it is OK. I have owned most of the Nexus phones and flashed many Cyanogen Roms and if I had a choice I would have preferred a GPE phone. However, once you get past the OCD about stopping all the Samsung bloatware draining the phone, you realize the ui is fine and you concentrate on the apps rather than the launcher. I switched off all the Samsung bells and whistles too....and there are a few!
I am waiting for the wireless charging back cover to arrive. Once I have that, I might disable the battery saving and see how it goes but on the other hand, I might just leave it on. I don't play games on my phone so I don't need a Ferrari engine to surf the internet or read my emails. And the heat it generated before can't be good for the phone or the battery.
All in all, very happy with the phone. I get a kick out of just holding it and looking at that screen... Sad! As a guy who changes phones every 3 to 4 months, I can give this phone a huge compliment: this is the first phone I really don't want to replace since my HTC HD2.
Update: After having used the phone for a few days, I am happy to report that the battery life is more than adequate. Starting at 7am, using 4G mobile hotspot for an hour, checking and responding to emails and making about three to four calls, I still have around 60 to 70% battery by 9pm.
I have the same situation and i pick alpha over any flagship fone for same reason Iike yours. Now Im waiting for spare batteries to be available in amazon or e abay, so I just swap the batteries if I run out... Instant 100% charge
you just say whats in my heart , i got many phones and they were awesome last one was the beast LG G3 and i was hating samsung phone due to many apps that included with UI touchwize but then when i saw galaxy alpha everything changed in my mind and i bring one as to be my long last phone to use each day , really smooth device even using battery saving mode and fits great in hand , you will love it more each day you will use it
I'm loving the look and feel of this phone I'll probably keep this one for awhile. I was upgrading from the nexus devices every year but the nexus 6 was a bit too big for me and I prefer the form factor of 4.7 inch phones.
It sems that we cant open ART in Developer option on Alpha,only Note 4 have this possability for now
And how is Your experience with galaxy Alfa and how it compare to Galaxy S5?
I just got an AT&T Alpha for $352.65 from eBay, which is supposed to be new but I think the seller lied (the home button has quite a number of scratches) but no big deal. I have to say I love this phone the most out of all the phones I've ever owned (iPhone 3G, 3GS, 5S, HTC EVO 4G, EVO 3D, S3, Note 2, Note 3, Note 4, Moto X). It's because of the look and build - very handsome and attractive, the size - I think it hits the perfect sweet spot of size for me, removable battery, and reasonably fast performance. I can now stop wanting to change my phone for a long while. Samsung should have continued with the Alpha and keep improving on it.
My first impressions :
1. Excellent design and feel
2. Powerful with 0 lag!!!
3. Very good screen ( super amoled in HD resolution is great for 4.7 inches )
4.Very good camera
5.Very good deep sleep of the battery
It's the first time i can't find something negative to tell about a smartphone. :good: Keep in mind that i don't play heavy games or surf the web a lot, so the small capacity of the battery is something that will not affect my opinion about Alpha.
Great work Samsung I was a hater all these years. Now i love you
Wow, sounds like a few of us are the same, I had the LG G3 but sold it. Probably the worst phone I've ever used, laggy, bad battery life and terrible camera. Planning on ordering an Alpha in the next few days, $300 brand new isn't bad. Can't wait!
Edit: its $260 new on eBay!
YOu know what I like about the ALpha is it square design, the ohter Galaxy devices are more rounded off and I think looks more childish instead this Samsung device looks more professional for my taste also it lays better in the hands wish it was a little bit smaller in the wide and it would have been perfect but then again I got woman hands ... I'm really happy with this phone except the finger scan kinda sucks, bcz it works half ass ...
But I'm on a big dillema now I received an email they gonna fix my Sony Z3 compact when I put in water but the sleeves werent closed off enough ... Anyway I don't know wich device I will keep now, I loved my Xperia bcz it fitted me better to the hand except it's little thicker and it's kinda plastic also the sound sucks ... Now the alpha dropped with 100 euros I can't ask as much as I wanted anymore don't know how much the Xperia dropped mean while ... I'm leaning more towards the Xperia bcz it's more compact to my woman hands But I love the design of the ALpha Really difficult choices to make also the price of selling the device will come in mind with this ...