So I know there is a never ending stream of Nexus vs Rezound threads; so I apologize if this is redundant but for those of you considering switching or moving up to a 4g phone I thought maybe my experience would be of some interest.
I have had an HTC Incredible since launch. Love it especially after rooted and CM7 was added.
And frankly I would have kept it but I was just jealous of all the 4G action and thought the Nexus was going to be so great. Waited week after week, rumor to rumor. and picked it up the morning of Launch.
Almost immediately I was disappointed. Eventually I returned it (reasons below) and but I still wanted 4G and liked the Rezound but it was so thick (at least thats what I read) so I figured I would try the Rezound expecting that I wouldnt like it and I'd go back to the Dinc.
Well I was wrong - I really like the Rezound - it isnt too thick, in fact the GN is too thin (it is really awkward to hold) and it isnt too heavy. It feels frankly amazing in the hand. The way I would sum up my experience (so far) with the Rezound is that it is a super-sized 4G Dinc. And that is no way a knock - I loved the Dinc, think Gingerbread (I use Go Launcher) is terrific and really love the phone. Obviously the camera and sound is far better, and it is much more responsive But on the negative it is locked (so far), I havent figured out yet how to remove bloatware and most odd, alot of the good games I bought are not available for Rezound. so in short great phone with a few little nits
Here is why I got rid of Nexus:
1. UI is frankly terrible. I dont know who all these reviewers are. One of the things that I loved about Android (vs iOS) is Buttons. And ICs tries to eliminate this feature. It isnt so much the soft buttons (although they arent necessary) but it is the loss of the Menu/Options button and the Search button.
Its not like they could eliminate the options button (people complain that it isnt standard enough across apps, but I never found that anyway) instead it is more or less the same button, just placed in different spots all over the UI depending on the app - so f'ing annoying.
And they got rid of the search button - why - it is a great resource and replaced it with a button to show recently running apps. Why - was holding down the home button too complicated??? And the honeycomb screenshots are god awful.
Widgets in the tray - Why? What is more intuitive than pressing the screen and holding it where you want to add something. But that isnt it. You can only slide L/R in tray to go through apps and widgets. Well when you have to go through alot of apps or widgets this requires a million swipes. On every other android version you could just scroll real fast down and up and then stop in the vicinity of the app you wanted. Alas no scrolling option - asinine. and even if you only have a few apps, the widget tray will always have a ton of screens because it gives you a useless preview of each widget and therefore only can fit a few per screen. God help your thumb when you have a widget that begins with the letter Z.
In sum ICS is a disaster IMHO and I predict that when the Kool-aid wears off, reviewers will begin to admit this. (Just like what happened with Honeycomb btw)
2. the phone feels awful - it is too wide, too thin and too slippery. I like to go sans case - except for a screen protector, and there is zero doubt in my mind that the way the phone is, it will be dropped. It is thin in all the wrong places (overall in real life not really that much thinner than the Rezound but where you hold it it just doesnt fit my hand right. One handed typing is impossible and trying it will undoubtedly result in a dropped phone. I think this is a function of the width. Rezound is just the opposite - fits perfectly. case of thickness helps (...thats what she said)
3. battery life is horrific - 5 hours! Look I am an Android guy, I know Battery life is always an issue (seems like Ios 5.0 is joining us) and I am more than willing in fact happy to keep an extra battery in my wallet. But 5 hours really - that is insane. the biggest issue is that there is no way currently to toggle 4g off. On Wifi the thing has reasonable battery life (about 12 hours) but I am used to (and Rezound seems to be same as incredible) 24hrs on Wifi only. And at least on Rezound you can do a rough hack to make it run 3G only - which gets you back to reasonable battery) On the GN - nothing; so unless you are in a wifi area alot - you are looking at unacceptable battery life. Why dont the carriers put a clean toggle on the damn phones (even the rezound isnt a clean switch)
4. Apps dont run. Now this isnt necessarily the phones "fault" but some of my most used apps dont run right. Most distressing is that I listen to alot of podcasts and use Doggcatcher with Presto (to speed them up) - no go - with the screen off it cracks and pops and then eventually it crashes the entire phone. This isnt the only app with issues (although the only one I had that kills the phone) Dolphin didnt run (was updated today), WSJ app didnt run right, etc, etc.
5. No USB Mount - sorry but quick and easy mount is an android feature. MTP is a poor substitute (and took me like 1hr to even get working on my PC)
6. Then there are a few other annoying things I noted.
-wifi reception is very weak (compared to other phones and devices)
-Headphone jack on bottom? USB on bottom. Both placements are bad for me.
-The back plate is cheaply made but it doesnt feel that way - the problem is that when you take it off, getting it back on makes you feel like you will break it - and likely you will (HTC system isnt much better - but it is better)
-Cant shut off the camera shutter sound
-NFC is useless (Verizons fault to be sure but still)
-taskbar notifications are so small you cant see them (I'm not old)
Anyway there maybe a few other things but I think I hit all the points.
To sum it up. I love Android and it seems that (at least with the GN) most of the Android pluses have been killed or mangled with ICS and then put into ill suited hardware. So I am going back to the Android I love in a nice solid package - Rezound.
appreciate your take on the Nexus.
As far as a 3g/4g switch, I think its more complicated than that. There are more than one choice for 3g and 4g, especially with at&t getting lte now. Canada also has at&t. It would have to be device specific for a switch to work.
Now, it would be nice for the carriers to have this as their add on though.
I pretty much agree with you review. I too came from an AMOLED Incredible.
The Nexus feels ok without a case, but far to slippery. I bought the phone with an Incipio case, and that makes the phone feel too big. I like that I can use my Incredible with one hand. Have you compared the screens side by side? I actually like the Incredible's screen more. I find that on the Nexus, even slightly tilting it, a blueish tint shows. Reading text on what should be a completely white background isn't great either.
As far as apps from the market, I've had one that's a little buggy with the task switcher, and one that took a few days to work with ICS. ICS is still new, and I'm sure it'll be a little before it gets better, but I prefer CM7 over plain ICS.
The MTP thing sucks too. This is because we don't have a real sdcard. I tried to copy mp3s to a certain folder, and they ended up in an other folder automatically. So I have to manually move them from the phone itself after.
I don't expect awesome battery life from the Nexus, or the Rezound, but I get 2 full days out of my Incredible on the stock battery.
Not only do I find reception weak compared to my Inc, but in an area with good service, 3G is about half of what my Inc could do. Only plus is wifi file tranfer seems faster. I don't have 4G coverage yet.
I've played a little more with the Rezound, and even with a case on it, it doesn't feel that much bigger than an Incredible 2.
So I might trade for a Rezound, just have to get used to SLCD.
You're making some great points about ICS here. It scares me because these changes seem pretty broad and potentially hard to fix. I guess we will have to see what CyanogenMod eventually does with it.
It seems like the soft buttons were one of your primary concerns with ICS. I wonder... because the rezound still has its 'hard' placed soft buttons, if that will take care of the issue you are seeing with ICS and the gnex. I was also concerned that the complete removal of the buttons actually a hindered the usage, it looks like it does.
I think the rezound with ICS will , by design, solve some of the problems we are seeing with the gnex and ICS. I trust that HTC will do it right.
I agree with the 'too thin' feeling. I had the droid charge before the rezound, so i know the what you are talking about. I constantly dropped the charge for the very reasons you mentioned. too slippery, too thin, the backplate always felt like it was going to break.
I think its a samsung thing to make the phones feel like that..
did you get a chance to try out the GPS, that has been the one thing that has kept me away from samsung more than anything else. Their damn GPS is essentially useless. It takes forever to lock, IF it locks at all.. There were times when I was using the charge that I could not get to the place I was trying to get too becuase the GPS would simply not cooperate (and I had that GPS fix crap too.. worthless)
I owned 4 droid charges in the 5 months or so that I had it, and -ever- -single- -one- had the problems i mentioned.
A friend of mine has the samsung captivate and has the EXACT same complaints. My neighbor has a samsung windows phone (not sure what model), and she complains of much the same thing (hard to hold, cheap feeling) and her GPS is WORSE than mine!!!
Samsung makes great screens, and thats about it. The Gnex should have been made by HTC and then Id be all over it, but as it stands now.. I stay away from samsung devices, they just dont seem to have the same solid design as HTC or even (gasp) motorola
1. ICS is not a disaster, just because it is new does not make it bad. Yes missing a search button is bad but there are already mods out there to correct this. There are two separate sections of the app drawer and if you don't like it get a new launcher, simple as that. ICS will take some getting used to as it is integrating larger Tablets with our smaller phones, things aren't going to be as similar as they were between the older OS's.
2. I actually strongly disagree here, the phone feels amazing in my hand. It is .1 inches wider than the Rezound, I find it hard to believe that that makes a huge difference. Also, the back is textured so I don't get how you think it is too slippery. Just because it doesn't fit right in YOUR hand doesn't mean the device has a terrible design.
3. Not even going into this, you cannot tell a devices battery life in the first week of owning it, it takes time to get it even'd out. Also, the Nexus's battery is almost 10% bigger (In terms of MAh) while still keeping the slimmer profile.
4. Apps dont run. Now this isnt necessarily the phones "fault" but some of my most used apps dont run right. Most distressing is that I listen to alot of podcasts and use Doggcatcher with Presto (to speed them up) - no go - with the screen off it cracks and pops and then eventually it crashes the entire phone. This isnt the only app with issues (although the only one I had that kills the phone) Dolphin didnt run (was updated today), WSJ app didnt run right, etc, etc.
This is going to be the same thing with the Rezound when they update it to ICS. Get used to it until the Dev's start to update their apps. I understand the apps you use don't work on ICS, write the developer and tell them to get their ass in gear, as the Rezound will be getting ICS soon too.
5. No USB Mount - sorry but quick and easy mount is an android feature. MTP is a poor substitute (and took me like 1hr to even get working on my PC)
Can use my phone/USB card at the same time while copying stuff over. I like it. Also, it's plug and play so I don't get how it took you an hour to get it to work.
6:
6.A.Wifi is better than on my old HTC Device (Thunderbolt) but cannot compare to Rezound so you may be right.
6.B.Again another user preference, I prefer them there as it makes it easier to use the device while charging
6.C. Completely agree here, the Verizon rep almost broke my back plate off while putting it on, couldn't even watch while this was going on. Much better on HTC devices
6.D. Sure mods will take care of this
6.E. Just because YOU do not have a need for it doesn't mean other people don't. Used it probably 5 times in the 4 days of owning the device.
6.F. Fine for me, maybe you are?
Some phones just aren't for some people, glad you like your Rezound as it sounds like I am as happy as you but with my Nexus.
Just read someone talking about the useless GPS on the Nexus. Takes me at most 20 seconds to lock INSIDE. Couldn't even find satellites on my HTC phone while inside. Used it today for actual driving and it got me where I needed to go on a 45 minute drive through Pittsburgh.
I tried the GPS once. I let it follow my random driving. It seemed to do ok. I wouldn't say the on screen buttons hinder operation, but they can be inconsistent between apps as far as placement, or if they're hidden for full screen apps. The task/recent button should be configurable in some way. If I use a lot of apps, every single app I used is in that list, even after I closed it.
miketoasty said:
Just read someone talking about the useless GPS on the Nexus. Takes me at most 20 seconds to lock INSIDE. Couldn't even find satellites on my HTC phone while inside. Used it today for actual driving and it got me where I needed to go on a 45 minute drive through Pittsburgh.
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not Useless GPS on the gnex, Useless GPS on samsung devices in general.
i know not all people have the same experiences with things. But you can google for Samsung GPS problems and find more articles on it than you can read.
My buddies captivate.. we can drive for 30 min across town and his phone will search for GPS signal the entire time. If we stop, and dont move for a few min, it will eventually lock, but when we start moving again, it drops.
Hes had 3 replacement captivates and they all do the same thing. I had the same exact problem with my Samsung charge, and my neighbor has the same problem with her winmo samsung phone.
Maybe the fixed it in the Gnex, I don't know. I don't have a gnex, all I do know is that all the Samsung phones I have seen and used have this problem, and it is corroborated by others all over the net.
the gnex might be a totally revolutionary device that has none of the problems of any other phone in the Samsung line. It might be that some people just have different tolerances for things that do or dont work.
for example, a friend of mine has the droid bionic, I look at his screen and it looks fuzzy and grainy and just.. ugly. He things it looks great, and cant stand the look of the rezound screen.
Really, all you can do is go with the masses for overall opinion, and then look at something yourself to make a true determination of what you do or don't like. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and nobody ever wipes good enough
Toasty mike, it's that mans opinion. Why's your tone attacking him? Relax, you like it and he didn't.
Sent from a Rezound, crappie camera included.
miketoasty said:
Just read someone talking about the useless GPS on the Nexus. Takes me at most 20 seconds to lock INSIDE. Couldn't even find satellites on my HTC phone while inside. Used it today for actual driving and it got me where I needed to go on a 45 minute drive through Pittsburgh.
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Click to collapse
20? takes me less than 5 to pickup my signal INSIDE on my rezound.
blestsol said:
Toasty mike, it's that mans opinion. Why's your tone attacking him? Relax, you like it and he didn't.
Sent from a Rezound, crappie camera included.
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If it was hostile I apologize, as I stated at the bottom (Sort of) it is his opinion and I am stating mine. Sorry to the OP, as always, different people have different opinions.
blestsol said:
Sent from a Rezound, crappie camera included.
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you don't like the camera??
~John
jayochs said:
20? takes me less than 5 to pickup my signal INSIDE on my rezound.
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Vid or it didn't happen. Lol, jk. Somewhat stupid remark by me as everyone's "Inside" can be drastically different.
miketoasty said:
Vid or it didn't happen. Lol, jk. Somewhat stupid remark by me as everyone's "Inside" can be drastically different.
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videos are actaully a good idea
I might do that lol. im bored as hell on xmass break
jayochs said:
20? takes me less than 5 to pickup my signal INSIDE on my rezound.
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yeah, I usually have a lock before the map app finishes opening...
jmorton10 said:
you don't like the camera??
~John
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Nah, spoiled by my epic 4g touch.
OK i tested signal and GPS on my Rezound vs the G - Nexus... Here are the conditions and results.
First the GPS lock...
Rezound smoked the gNex, Although I did not measure the time I woudl say the Rezound caught GPS about 15 seconds faster. Not a whole lot. And if your trip is hindering on 15 seconds then you might as well call yourself late... But the Rezound WAS faster....
Next Speedtest.net 4G transfer rate
Once again the Rezound smoked the gNex. Not sure why but the gNex was stuck at 3 to 4megabit download and 3 meg up.
The Rezound was hitting 10 to 12 down and 4 up.
All in all the connectivity on the Rezound is notably better. Just my two cents...
To make it fair I leveled the playing field before I tested:
To test the Nexus I stood right next to a 4G tower
To test the Rezound, I dug 150 deep 12 by 12 whole in my bak yard and filled it with cement... Rezound somewhere in the middle of all that cement... Connected using a remote control app...
Ok maybe thats not entirely the test circumstances...
I was actually in a VZW store and had them side by side, lol
My only other Samsung GPS experience was with the Omnia. With VZ Nav, lock was almost instant, with Google maps, lock was anywherw from 5 min to never.
blestsol said:
Nah, spoiled by my epic 4g touch.
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Hmm any sample pictures? Nvm I'll just google them derp.
Go here if you want to remove the bloat.
Super easy.
http://www.theandroidsoul.com/htc-rezound-bloatware-removal-tool-─-cleantool-1-1/
---------- Post added at 07:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 AM ----------
I like my rezound way better than my nexus.
But I think, from a software point, it's too early to compare the two. This is the first time for ICS. There are going to be a lot of things that need to be ironed out. Google is going to learn a lot from the release of the Nexus. So until these little idiosyncrasies get ironed out you're bound to have some hickups on the nexus.
And sitting here with these two phones I can fully say that the nexus is more a developer phone and the rezound is more a consumers phone.
The nexus is really great for those that want to get in deep with customizing, romming modding whatever you call it. Rezound, with its super high PPI screen and Beats (whether you think its a gimmick or not) was designed for people that like to do a lot of media on their phone and watch videos without that jersey shore orange skin tone that amoleds give you.
There are some things with the nexus I don't get. Like why it doesn't have an SDCard... and why they chose to go with the camera that they did. But whatever... it's not THAT bad of a phone (cheap feeling build aside).
Once there are some more updates to ICS I think the Nexus will come into its own. And those of us that own a Rezound should be thankful ICS is getting a good run on the Nexus before we get the OTA "early next year" (yeah right HTC...)
Related
Ive had the Motorola razr for a couple of days and after frequenting these forums I wanted to sort of write a review, from my perspective.
I was split between the resound and razr, it was the rezounds glitchy feel, htc sense and tiny battery and odd exterior that pushed me to get the razr. I got it at best buy, this way I had a month to swap it for the nexus as soon as it was released.
When I layed eyes on its packaging I was floored. I know it sounds kinda dumb. But damn it, the packaging was sweet! Nice low profile, menacing flat black, it was gorgeaous. I was immediately disappointed that it lacked an hdmi cable and earphones. Seriously, it was 300 $. My atrix came with a bloody hdmi cable atleast.
First time I held it I couldn’t believe how light n slim it was. Although shes packing Kevlar and a gorilla glass display, its so thin it makes u feel as if she were fragile. Not a bad thing, I enjoy slim. The side port can be a beyatch to manipulate, getting my 4g sim in there was a hassle. But thats because I bite my nails, if u don’t share this bad habit u wont have a problem at all. As soon as I fired her up the first time I wanted to shut it down immediately just so I can see the boot animation again! Very very cool. I was also glad to see that it doesn’t use motorolas blur services. And although it isn’t vanilla android, I feel motorolas touches were very welcomed. People here have complained about the camera, and yes it isn’t as great as my nokia n8. But its way better then my nexus s. I discovered, the secret to taking a great shot on this phone, is patience. Phone takes longer then it should to focus. Video recording at 720p is outstanding. 1080p is fine, but it has an odd stutter. It just doesn’t feel as fluid as 720p. many have complained about the pentile screen. And before booting the phone I expected an atrix/bionic like experience. Lemme tell u something. I have perfect vision and I am but a youngin. I don’t see jagged edges, artifacts during scrolling or the pin dots unless the phone is 3 inches from my face!!!!! The screen is beautiful, it over saturates the right colors and provides deep blacks. But it’s not as good as sammys super amoled plus. Either way its an outstanding screen. Motorola added a few things into this rom that I love. The ability to resize a widget. Smart actions. And the way qhd was used to fit more of an email on screen, makes zooming in and out of web pages ALMOST a thing of the past too. I have had zero ghasty reboots, she is very stable. The screen is very responsive, as good as it gets really. Battery life on 3g is super, but on 4g its not so hot. Luckily I can go from 50% battery to about 90% with just an hours charge. Im glad the volume buttons and power button are on the same side. I can imagine how it would suck for leftys though.
Calls were crystal clear, typical Motorola. My bathroom is a dead zone. Sprint tmo att Verizon whatever. U go in there u will lose service. The second I walk in my bathroom I was surprised to see that I was still on 4g. I speedtested and pulled in 3mp DL. Impressive considering my bathroom is a bermuda triangle. Texts come in quick and go out as fast too. So does mms. Indoors I fluctuate between 16mb and 20mb DL. Outside im killing at a steady 22mb. I have yet to drop a 4g signal. My friend with a droid charge cant say the same.
I hate the stock pic gallery and music app. I use quickpic and the google music app. Sounds through my cheapo skull candys (the one that costs more then 15 less then 20$) sound great. I do wish we had more equalizer control, but no biggie.
In conclusion, this phones got me spoiled. I really do like it. I hate the fact that I almost didn’t buy it cuz of people on this forum that over exaggerated the pentile screen. Im glad the rezound sucked hard enough to convince me to get the razr. And to tell u the truth, I doubt I will swap it for the nexus. I like it that much.
If ur on the fence feel free to ask a question on the thread, hijacking is welcomed.
Happy thanksgiving all!
Just remember:
Much more people will come on here to ***** and nitpick over something than the ones who are satisfied. The screen is just fine, some people just have way too much time on their hands.
sheek360 said:
I was immediately disappointed that it lacked an hdmi cable and earphones.
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What? really? This sucks, I am in Canada and we do have an HDMI Cable and earphones with it... Maybe you should double-check if it is included or not, was maybe a mistake somehow.. Especially since here, with a 3-year contract, we get it @ 149$... Besides very nice review, I think like you, she is such a hot girl haha
robstunner said:
Just remember:
Much more people will come on here to ***** and nitpick over something than the ones who are satisfied. The screen is just fine, some people just have way too much time on their hands.
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Should add that those people who're lurkin in our forums and moaning about the razr, doesn't even own the phone.
Nice review btw.
Thanks for the review Sheek. I just switched from t-mobile to verizon, taking advantage of the 1 cent RAZR deal on amazon as well as the "double data" packages on Verizon. You just made me even more excited to receive my new phone!
brianbrain said:
Thanks for the review Sheek. I just switched from t-mobile to verizon, taking advantage of the 1 cent RAZR deal on amazon as well as the "double data" packages on Verizon. You just made me even more excited to receive my new phone!
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I was too impatient for the one cent sale. I promise u, ur gonna fall in love!
Btw I called big v. No HDMI cable or earphones for Americans.
Dang this sucks for you guys
dgiaffe said:
Dang this sucks for you guys
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Yeah..we seem to be getting the short end of the stick these days..thankfully I already have a mini-hdmi cable from my G2X days and some JLab earbuds I doubt I'd replace anyway...still annoying though - earbuds and a cable can't cost more than $10 - that and it's on a device that Verizon is selling for $799 off contract..sheesh.
Don't forget that us poor British get no hdmi and no 16GB microsd!
But we do get some crap looking headphones for our £450
I rate it quite highly a well. I have used many of the motorola phones
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
brianbrain said:
Thanks for the review Sheek. I just switched from t-mobile to verizon, taking advantage of the 1 cent RAZR deal on amazon as well as the "double data" packages on Verizon. You just made me even more excited to receive my new phone!
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Click to collapse
That is exactly what I did...from TMO to Verizon with the penny deal. My Razr is on the UPS truck for delivery tonight. So anxiously waiting....
Yes IMO Pentile is extremely overblown, on the RAZR anyway.
Over saturated colors are overblown. Seeing the 2 screen technologies side by side, I might actually prefer Amoled now, and I used to love LCD's last year.
All the screens have pros n cons. Anyone who complains about the RAZR screen and claim the screen on whatever phone they or want have is perfect or better...is biased. It may be better to them, but its not better overall. None are.
The perfect screen has yet to be invented.
What type of earphones you guys get in UK or Europe? Here in Asia we got the Rokr brand. No hdmi and sdcard though
Great real world review! I've been reading reviews like a mad man but since you said you have had an N8 and an Atrix...and as I'm currently using an Atrix now and had an N8 before that it only seems logical you would be best the best person to ask a few few questions lol. You touched on my main concerns a little but I'm still hesitant for two reasons. 1.Build quality and 2.Battery life. The N8 to atrix jump left me loathing plastic phones and wishing someone out there was smart enough to shoehorn android onto an N8! My bigger concern is battery. 1930 mah + CM7 + faux's enhanced stock kernel = 30 plus hours of light to moderate use. Now I'm not expecting that but comparatively...What can I expect with say 200 or so texts sent and received, a few 5-10 minute calls, about an hour and a half of music and 15-20 minutes web browsing? I will be using the phone on AT&T so no LTE for me. As long as I can go AT LEAST 12 hours with that kind of usage on a stock rom Expansys has my $624.99. I'm not sure but I believe the unlocked model ships with an unlocked bootloader (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's only a matter of time before the roms start pouring down from the devs and this phone gets even better. Thanks again for posting your review. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
filthyfnj24 said:
Great real world review! I've been reading reviews like a mad man but since you said you have had an N8 and an Atrix...and as I'm currently using an Atrix now and had an N8 before that it only seems logical you would be best the best person to ask a few few questions lol. You touched on my main concerns a little but I'm still hesitant for two reasons. 1.Build quality and 2.Battery life. The N8 to atrix jump left me loathing plastic phones and wishing someone out there was smart enough to shoehorn android onto an N8! My bigger concern is battery. 1930 mah + CM7 + faux's enhanced stock kernel = 30 plus hours of light to moderate use. Now I'm not expecting that but comparatively...What can I expect with say 200 or so texts sent and received, a few 5-10 minute calls, about an hour and a half of music and 15-20 minutes web browsing? I will be using the phone on AT&T so no LTE for me. As long as I can go AT LEAST 12 hours with that kind of usage on a stock rom Expansys has my $624.99. I'm not sure but I believe the unlocked model ships with an unlocked bootloader (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's only a matter of time before the roms start pouring down from the devs and this phone gets even better. Thanks again for posting your review. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Battery should give you nice results, especially if you set up "Smart Actions." I usually turn off mobile data (3G/4G) when I'm not using it, because you can still send/receive texts, as well as calls. This makes your battery last a lot longer, so just put a widget somewhere so it's an easy toggle. It's almost a 1,800mAH battery, which is way better than what you'd get on a Rezound (1,600mAH). Build quality is great, so don't be fooled by it's thin profile and think it's a cheap phone. They also sealed the battery for a reason... there are a lot of people complaining about this, but they sealed it to protect against water splashes, as well as the internals. Overall it's a great phone, just sucks that when I received mine it didn't come with the micro SIM card, so now I need to go back to Verizon.
filthyfnj24 said:
Great real world review! I've been reading reviews like a mad man but since you said you have had an N8 and an Atrix...and as I'm currently using an Atrix now and had an N8 before that it only seems logical you would be best the best person to ask a few few questions lol. You touched on my main concerns a little but I'm still hesitant for two reasons. 1.Build quality and 2.Battery life. The N8 to atrix jump left me loathing plastic phones and wishing someone out there was smart enough to shoehorn android onto an N8! My bigger concern is battery. 1930 mah + CM7 + faux's enhanced stock kernel = 30 plus hours of light to moderate use. Now I'm not expecting that but comparatively...What can I expect with say 200 or so texts sent and received, a few 5-10 minute calls, about an hour and a half of music and 15-20 minutes web browsing? I will be using the phone on AT&T so no LTE for me. As long as I can go AT LEAST 12 hours with that kind of usage on a stock rom Expansys has my $624.99. I'm not sure but I believe the unlocked model ships with an unlocked bootloader (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's only a matter of time before the roms start pouring down from the devs and this phone gets even better. Thanks again for posting your review. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
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Don't worry about the build quality. Although its a bit on the light side she feels premium as hell and well balanced.
If the GSM version is identical to the let version I can imagine that your battery life will be better then mine. Hspa battery life is typically better then lte battery life.
how's the battery life? considering is a non-removable battery
jl1030 said:
how's the battery life? considering is a non-removable battery
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If 4g is disabled its outstanding! When on wifi I set my smart action to disable 3g n 4g it yields great results. Sadly, 4g will run this bad boy down.
sheek360 said:
Ive had the Motorola razr for a couple of days and after frequenting these forums I wanted to sort of write a review, from my perspective.
I was split between the resound and razr, it was the rezounds glitchy feel, htc sense and tiny battery and odd exterior that pushed me to get the razr. I got it at best buy, this way I had a month to swap it for the nexus as soon as it was released.
When I layed eyes on its packaging I was floored. I know it sounds kinda dumb. But damn it, the packaging was sweet! Nice low profile, menacing flat black, it was gorgeaous. I was immediately disappointed that it lacked an hdmi cable and earphones. Seriously, it was 300 $. My atrix came with a bloody hdmi cable atleast.
First time I held it I couldn’t believe how light n slim it was. Although shes packing Kevlar and a gorilla glass display, its so thin it makes u feel as if she were fragile. Not a bad thing, I enjoy slim. The side port can be a beyatch to manipulate, getting my 4g sim in there was a hassle. But thats because I bite my nails, if u don’t share this bad habit u wont have a problem at all. As soon as I fired her up the first time I wanted to shut it down immediately just so I can see the boot animation again! Very very cool. I was also glad to see that it doesn’t use motorolas blur services. And although it isn’t vanilla android, I feel motorolas touches were very welcomed. People here have complained about the camera, and yes it isn’t as great as my nokia n8. But its way better then my nexus s. I discovered, the secret to taking a great shot on this phone, is patience. Phone takes longer then it should to focus. Video recording at 720p is outstanding. 1080p is fine, but it has an odd stutter. It just doesn’t feel as fluid as 720p. many have complained about the pentile screen. And before booting the phone I expected an atrix/bionic like experience. Lemme tell u something. I have perfect vision and I am but a youngin. I don’t see jagged edges, artifacts during scrolling or the pin dots unless the phone is 3 inches from my face!!!!! The screen is beautiful, it over saturates the right colors and provides deep blacks. But it’s not as good as sammys super amoled plus. Either way its an outstanding screen. Motorola added a few things into this rom that I love. The ability to resize a widget. Smart actions. And the way qhd was used to fit more of an email on screen, makes zooming in and out of web pages ALMOST a thing of the past too. I have had zero ghasty reboots, she is very stable. The screen is very responsive, as good as it gets really. Battery life on 3g is super, but on 4g its not so hot. Luckily I can go from 50% battery to about 90% with just an hours charge. Im glad the volume buttons and power button are on the same side. I can imagine how it would suck for leftys though.
Calls were crystal clear, typical Motorola. My bathroom is a dead zone. Sprint tmo att Verizon whatever. U go in there u will lose service. The second I walk in my bathroom I was surprised to see that I was still on 4g. I speedtested and pulled in 3mp DL. Impressive considering my bathroom is a bermuda triangle. Texts come in quick and go out as fast too. So does mms. Indoors I fluctuate between 16mb and 20mb DL. Outside im killing at a steady 22mb. I have yet to drop a 4g signal. My friend with a droid charge cant say the same.
I hate the stock pic gallery and music app. I use quickpic and the google music app. Sounds through my cheapo skull candys (the one that costs more then 15 less then 20$) sound great. I do wish we had more equalizer control, but no biggie.
In conclusion, this phones got me spoiled. I really do like it. I hate the fact that I almost didn’t buy it cuz of people on this forum that over exaggerated the pentile screen. Im glad the rezound sucked hard enough to convince me to get the razr. And to tell u the truth, I doubt I will swap it for the nexus. I like it that much.
If ur on the fence feel free to ask a question on the thread, hijacking is welcomed.
Happy thanksgiving all!
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Great job, I am a very happy Thunderbolt owner, S-Off, rooted and running a custom rom of course. Your break down was very good but you left out the most complained about thing on the forums, battery time. I am seriously thinking about picking up this phone but the locked down battery is my only concern. How has it been throughout the day? I am not very happy with the new Nexus hardware, no sd card and coming with only 16 mb of interior memory just isn't going to cut it for me. I think the new Razr with ICS on it would be one hell of a phone.
Thanks,
Go Patriots.
vinnyjr said:
Great job, I am a very happy Thunderbolt owner, S-Off, rooted and running a custom rom of course. Your break down was very good but you left out the most complained about thing on the forums, battery time. I am seriously thinking about picking up this phone but the locked down battery is my only concern. How has it been throughout the day? I am not very happy with the new Nexus hardware, no sd card and coming with only 16 mb of interior memory just isn't going to cut it for me. I think the new Razr with ICS on it would be one hell of a phone.
Thanks,
Go Patriots.
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Click to collapse
I consider myself a very heavy user. My day consists of 20 - 30 minutes wasted on calls. Maybe 15 minutes worth of xxx browsing (lol). Refreshing Google reader every 3 hours and reading my feeds like a fiend. I fb n tweet like crazy. I video chat about 5 minutes a day too. I send maybe 10 mms n a trillion texts. I also IM too much. And I occasionally take the opportunity to Google something.
Oh I have a smurf ville and angry birds obsession.
My wifi is on at all times. But my 4g is off. I remove the phone from the charger at 6am. By lunch I'm already sitting on 80%. My battery hits about 30% or 40% by 8pm.
Because of the screen the battery dips quickly. I refuse to set brightness to 0% dammit!
When I leave the house I turn off wifi n turn on 4g. The phone sips battery very lightly no matter if your on wifi on 4g, it idles very generously.
But once u stomp on it, u can burn 10% battery on 4g in a matter of 30 - 45 minutes.
PS I YouTube a lot too. Maybe 20 minutes a day.
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.'
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
Hey guys.
Some of you may know me from the Evo 3D section. Recently, my 3D's touchscreen started to fail on me (a known quality-control issue) and I evaluated my options on repairing it and came to the conclusion a new phone is a better investment.
I've been researching the living crap out of the Galaxy Nexus and the 4G LTE (The GS3 is waaaay outside my price point). It seems more and more likely that the 4G LTE is simply a better phone.
So now, this thread. Before I pull the trigger, I want the scoop on this phone from the only users I trust; XDA users. Tell me what you love about this phone, what you hate, what to watch out for, whether or not you regret it, anything. As much detail as possible, please
This phone will genuinely have to last me two years (buying it off contract). I need to know that I can count on this in the same way I was able to count on my HTC Hero (which I feel was more dependable than the Evo 3D).
Thanks guys. I look forward to possibly joining you in this forum in the future.
What's up man?! Go ahead and pull the trigger is what I say. I didn't consider it that huge of an upgrade personally but I figured id try it out for 14 days and return then try the GS3 then make my decision. I ended up keeping it and deciding to do so very quickly.Lol. Very 1st thing that got me was the thinness and how great it felt holding.....it felt really nice....and the screen is ike candy for your eyes. My experience with sense 4 and the speed made me question the need to root (blasphemy I know) but I did anyway. I love the camera software and the phone charges fast and really last....the sleeping is incredible. I live everything about it except the shiney black top....other than that in my opion its the best Evo ever and top phone now.
Sent from my htc_jewel using Tapatalk 2
After my first experience with the EVO 3D (3 lemons in under a month), I thought I'd never own an HTC phone again. I went as far as saying I'd never piss on an HTC phone if it was on fire. This phone is making me eat those words. I don't even know why I gave them another chance but I'm glad I did. I wanted a great screen, fast processor, and a relatively "future proofed" phone and this totally fit the bill. It was between this and the Gnex but with the connectivity problems, notoriously weak antennae and glacial charging I rolled the dice on the EVO.
I'm really digging the snappiness overall, running Nova launcher and MeanICS 0.5 ROM. The screen is gorgeous, especially coming from a Photon, and the camera is just about neck and neck with my 4S (work phone). I've been shooting with it for about a week and love love love the pictures it takes.
The only thing I don't like is the car dock has a really finicky usb connector and no sound comes through said connector making it a real bummer when I want to use the phone as an aux music source.
With ROM floodgates starting to open, I heartily endorse this phone to anyone who is in the market. Even stock with Nova launcher works really well, I'm not a fan of Sense but I will admit it was way better than what came stock in the Evo 3D.
Omg we need a Liquid Rom in here! I haven't ran something from you since the HREO CDMA days! Your Sense Rom was the best!
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
I sold my preordered Evo for a pretty penny and bought a Galaxy Nexus for dirt cheap. While the Nexus was good, the battery made it just OK. It just wouldn't last. The screen was nice but put it next to the Evo and nice becomes wtf. The Evo comes with a microSD slot for my 64GB card (huge plus). The battery in the Evo lasts a whole day a whole night and in to the next afternoon. With heavy use, I mean playing with it constantly from games to web to calls it easily can last 12-15 hours. That right there sold me. I had the option for the GS3 as well. I was really thinking I would switch, considering I had the Epic and the Epic Touch. I.couldn't bring.myself.to return it. Too GREAT of a phone. Plus the kickstand is great. I watch a lot of Netflix while waiting for freight. There isn't a single con and a long list of pros. BUY IT!
Sent from my htc_jewel using xda premium
neopolotin75 said:
What's up man?! Go ahead and pull the trigger is what I say. I didn't consider it that huge of an upgrade personally but I figured id try it out for 14 days and return then try the GS3 then make my decision. I ended up keeping it and deciding to do so very quickly.Lol. Very 1st thing that got me was the thinness and how great it felt holding.....it felt really nice....and the screen is ike candy for your eyes. My experience with sense 4 and the speed made me question the need to root (blasphemy I know) but I did anyway. I love the camera software and the phone charges fast and really last....the sleeping is incredible. I live everything about it except the shiney black top....other than that in my opion its the best Evo ever and top phone now.
Sent from my htc_jewel using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
So it feels solid in your eyes? If I grip my Evo 3D even slightly firmly, I can feel the plastic creak. How are you doing on battery life? I'm an extremely minimal user of my phone.
DB13 said:
Omg we need a Liquid Rom in here! I haven't ran something from you since the HREO CDMA days! Your Sense Rom was the best!
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, I've been considering starting up a project like that again.
cunnyrydah said:
I sold my preordered Evo for a pretty penny and bought a Galaxy Nexus for dirt cheap. While the Nexus was good, the battery made it just OK. It just wouldn't last. The screen was nice but put it next to the Evo and nice becomes wtf. The Evo comes with a microSD slot for my 64GB card (huge plus). The battery in the Evo lasts a whole day a whole night and in to the next afternoon. With heavy use, I mean playing with it constantly from games to web to calls it easily can last 12-15 hours. That right there sold me. I had the option for the GS3 as well. I was really thinking I would switch, considering I had the Epic and the Epic Touch. I.couldn't bring.myself.to return it. Too GREAT of a phone. Plus the kickstand is great. I watch a lot of Netflix while waiting for freight. There isn't a single con and a long list of pros. BUY IT!
Sent from my htc_jewel using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's some very promising battery life, especially for my minimal use
soopermarkus said:
After my first experience with the EVO 3D (3 lemons in under a month), I thought I'd never own an HTC phone again. I went as far as saying I'd never piss on an HTC phone if it was on fire. This phone is making me eat those words. I don't even know why I gave them another chance but I'm glad I did. I wanted a great screen, fast processor, and a relatively "future proofed" phone and this totally fit the bill. It was between this and the Gnex but with the connectivity problems, notoriously weak antennae and glacial charging I rolled the dice on the EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, someone who understands the build quality woes of the Evo 3D. In the short year I've owned it, the screen plate near the cap buttons has "sunk" down into the shell, the battery cover has become lose, the outer 'lining' is coming off, and the power button and volume buttons are almost hilariously mushy (never know if they're working).
I'm sorely searching for the build quality of HTC that I used to know, from the days of the Hero all the way back to the original Titan and Apache (those things were amazing). It seems you feel that they've recaptured this "Evo" namesake.
I'm really digging the snappiness overall, running Nova launcher and MeanICS 0.5 ROM. The screen is gorgeous, especially coming from a Photon, and the camera is just about neck and neck with my 4S (work phone). I've been shooting with it for about a week and love love love the pictures it takes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How's the screen at repelling fingerprints? I know that it's supposed to come with an oleo-phobic coating, but do you think it would be worth getting a screen protector?
Great phone; buy it! :good:
What's up liquid I think you should go ahead and get it there's nothing better at this point and to build quality is nothing like the evo 3d. My only issue is the lack of multitasking it reloads tabs almost..but I've heard that has been fixed on the hox...great device..makes the 3d look like a fat pig
LiquidSolstice said:
So it feels solid in your eyes? If I grip my Evo 3D even slightly firmly, I can feel the plastic creak. How are you doing on battery life? I'm an extremely minimal user of my phone.
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Click to collapse
The quality is the best I ever felt......no plastic feel or creak like the 3d......When I first held it I was like WOW. I'm a heavy user when on station and I don't feel tethered to a plug.....it does very well but the way it sleeps is the best.....I can have 80 percent and go do 3 runs and several hrs later it still sits at 80......my 3D would have dropped by 20 lol
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
I've been a happy owner of the 3D for the past year, but after flashing the Virgin Mobile FW and finding out from Sprint that I have a free upgrade, I'm picking up the 4G LTE on Monday. I just figure the time is right to make the jump since as of now there's no downgrade for the FW, no official ICS release, and WiMax is dead. Base on this thread, I'm in!
The phone is awesome even stock I have no complaints could maybe use a radio update but that's it seeing how these dye radios are new I find signal to be acceptable for myself. Love the camera and I have no problems removed some screens tho since 7 is over kill lol
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Just don't put it in your skinny jeans pocket and you'll be fine. Would love to see your work on my LTE.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Also coming from the 3D, I decided to pull the trigger on this phone earlier this month.
Personal pros: Size, feel, battery life
Cons: Wifi/3G dropout, multitasking (primarily Sense reload)
I rooted immediately, switched to Apex Launcher, and tested a few custom ROMS.
Temp bricked it yesterday w/ the S-OFF method, and returned it to BB to swap out in hopes that it would fix the Wifi/3G dropouts. Wifi seems to be better, 3G dropouts still exist, so I'd imagine it'll be a radio/firmware fix in the future. I'd also imagine the aggressive and clumsy multitasking will also be resolved when source is released from HTC and we can get some custom kernels.
SG3 is released for the public on 7/1 @ BB, so I'll go back to play around w/ it a little bit before my 30 day window of opp. is closed. All in all, I'm leaning towards keeping the LTEvo due to the development community and overall feel of the phone.
Lastly, I was going to go right back and root after getting phone #2, but simply installing Apex over stock everything hasn't been bad. I think until source is released, I can deal with holding off on root. The apps I rely on work w/o root, FoxFi works w/o root (even though pointless w/ slow 3G data, but hey..), and honestly, until we can start overclocking, undervolting, etc., the only true benefit w/ root access is being able to F w/ the build.prop for GW purposes, density, and whatever. Not enough of a factor IMO to root just yet, though the ROMS available right now are promising!
Verdict: Go for the LTEvo. Enjoyed your work during the Hero days as well!
For the screen, the fingerprints have been less of an issue than my tbolt, but they are still there. I thought the screen really was "scratch proof" until I had it in a bag with my keys and I saw a little scratch right in the effing MIDDLE of the screen! Needless to say, I ordered a matte screen protector and will see if it kills the awesome-ness of how the screen looks and displays.
I honestly cannot agree more with what has already been said about this awesome phone. After coming from my tbolt with a rezound battery (i still use it to this day) and it's crappy battery life to this phone has totally restored my confidence in using smartphones. Instead of thinking "if i play this emulator or watch this video, I'll have to charge it again", I say "I will play this emulator or watch this video and not care because the battery WILL last". I know I sound crazy here, but the battery really is that good. In fact, it's that reason that I haven't rooted and put on a custom ROM because I'm afraid something will happen.
Performance wise, it is just plain sick. It runs the PSXEmulator tons smoother than my TBolt and sense is just awesome. I would consider rooting just for the dual-core mod where the second cpu is always running except for when the screen is off, but again, bye-bye insane battery life (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Physical feel of phone is sweet; the thinness is good and the material is nice; except for that bloody top back shiny cover that drives us OCD guys nuts with fingerprints :O But I did order a case because I'm afraid if I drop it, it will go bye-bye.
I researched heavily this phone and the galaxy nexus and from what I could tell, the nexus didn't have the same power as this phone and because of that, people complained that it ran slower than it should. Also the battery was only so-so.
I have yet to look back and do not regret the money I spent
firmbiz94 said:
What's up liquid I think you should go ahead and get it there's nothing better at this point and to build quality is nothing like the evo 3d. My only issue is the lack of multitasking it reloads tabs almost..but I've heard that has been fixed on the hox...great device..makes the 3d look like a fat pig
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read that this was due to aggressive minfree values to keep Sense running smooth. Custom ROMs have already tweaked it, but I actually see this as a plus. I've always used extremely (read: ludicrous) aggressive minfree and OOM values, because I damn near never multitask, I only ever do one thing at a time.
neopolotin75 said:
The quality is the best I ever felt......no plastic feel or creak like the 3d......When I first held it I was like WOW. I'm a heavy user when on station and I don't feel tethered to a plug.....it does very well but the way it sleeps is the best.....I can have 80 percent and go do 3 runs and several hrs later it still sits at 80......my 3D would have dropped by 20 lol
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is very, VERY nice to hear. I look forward to that
NYG140 said:
I've been a happy owner of the 3D for the past year, but after flashing the Virgin Mobile FW and finding out from Sprint that I have a free upgrade, I'm picking up the 4G LTE on Monday. I just figure the time is right to make the jump since as of now there's no downgrade for the FW, no official ICS release, and WiMax is dead. Base on this thread, I'm in!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yuck, I'm sorry you had to go through the Virgin FW mess. I thankfully was late in finding out about it and hence managed to see all the problems that came with it before I flashed, so I skipped it. Glad to hear you're getting an upgrade!
ckoadiyn said:
The phone is awesome even stock I have no complaints could maybe use a radio update but that's it seeing how these dye radios are new I find signal to be acceptable for myself. Love the camera and I have no problems removed some screens tho since 7 is over kill lol
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Radio update? Are signal woes really a concern?
BrianBaker said:
Just don't put it in your skinny jeans pocket and you'll be fine. Would love to see your work on my LTE.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, no skinny jeans on this boy, don't worry. I might delve back into it again, we'll see.
pwrmedia said:
Also coming from the 3D, I decided to pull the trigger on this phone earlier this month.
Personal pros: Size, feel, battery life
Cons: Wifi/3G dropout, multitasking (primarily Sense reload)
I rooted immediately, switched to Apex Launcher, and tested a few custom ROMS.
Temp bricked it yesterday w/ the S-OFF method, and returned it to BB to swap out in hopes that it would fix the Wifi/3G dropouts. Wifi seems to be better, 3G dropouts still exist, so I'd imagine it'll be a radio/firmware fix in the future. I'd also imagine the aggressive and clumsy multitasking will also be resolved when source is released from HTC and we can get some custom kernels.
SG3 is released for the public on 7/1 @ BB, so I'll go back to play around w/ it a little bit before my 30 day window of opp. is closed. All in all, I'm leaning towards keeping the LTEvo due to the development community and overall feel of the phone.
Lastly, I was going to go right back and root after getting phone #2, but simply installing Apex over stock everything hasn't been bad. I think until source is released, I can deal with holding off on root. The apps I rely on work w/o root, FoxFi works w/o root (even though pointless w/ slow 3G data, but hey..), and honestly, until we can start overclocking, undervolting, etc., the only true benefit w/ root access is being able to F w/ the build.prop for GW purposes, density, and whatever. Not enough of a factor IMO to root just yet, though the ROMS available right now are promising!
Verdict: Go for the LTEvo. Enjoyed your work during the Hero days as well!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems as though I might not need to root for a while either. I've actually not needed to tether in a long, long time with my 3D. Root was soley for performance desires. These connectivity issues are getting a it worrying though...
And thanks! I didn't realize my Hero ROM had such a reputation haha.
pogibry said:
For the screen, the fingerprints have been less of an issue than my tbolt, but they are still there. I thought the screen really was "scratch proof" until I had it in a bag with my keys and I saw a little scratch right in the effing MIDDLE of the screen! Needless to say, I ordered a matte screen protector and will see if it kills the awesome-ness of how the screen looks and displays.
I honestly cannot agree more with what has already been said about this awesome phone. After coming from my tbolt with a rezound battery (i still use it to this day) and it's crappy battery life to this phone has totally restored my confidence in using smartphones. Instead of thinking "if i play this emulator or watch this video, I'll have to charge it again", I say "I will play this emulator or watch this video and not care because the battery WILL last". I know I sound crazy here, but the battery really is that good. In fact, it's that reason that I haven't rooted and put on a custom ROM because I'm afraid something will happen.
Performance wise, it is just plain sick. It runs the PSXEmulator tons smoother than my TBolt and sense is just awesome. I would consider rooting just for the dual-core mod where the second cpu is always running except for when the screen is off, but again, bye-bye insane battery life (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Physical feel of phone is sweet; the thinness is good and the material is nice; except for that bloody top back shiny cover that drives us OCD guys nuts with fingerprints :O But I did order a case because I'm afraid if I drop it, it will go bye-bye.
I researched heavily this phone and the galaxy nexus and from what I could tell, the nexus didn't have the same power as this phone and because of that, people complained that it ran slower than it should. Also the battery was only so-so.
I have yet to look back and do not regret the money I spent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like the battery usage will be insane for me. All these use-cases appear to be with heavy usage and good battery life, so I can't wait to see what my mild usage will result in.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm loving reading all these experiences!
No signal is fine for me as I'm in a well covered area. I could be a tad stronger but that's about it.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
ckoadiyn said:
No signal is fine for me as I'm in a well covered area. I could be a tad stronger but that's about it.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 3D would always kill itself trying to find signal where I live. I'm hoping that won't be an issue with the LTE.
Amazon has some great prices on this phone in and out of contract.
pogibry said:
For the screen, the fingerprints have been less of an issue than my tbolt, but they are still there. I thought the screen really was "scratch proof" until I had it in a bag with my keys and I saw a little scratch right in the effing MIDDLE of the screen! Needless to say, I ordered a matte screen protector and will see if it kills the awesome-ness of how the screen looks and displays.
I honestly cannot agree more with what has already been said about this awesome phone. After coming from my tbolt with a rezound battery (i still use it to this day) and it's crappy battery life to this phone has totally restored my confidence in using smartphones. Instead of thinking "if i play this emulator or watch this video, I'll have to charge it again", I say "I will play this emulator or watch this video and not care because the battery WILL last". I know I sound crazy here, but the battery really is that good. In fact, it's that reason that I haven't rooted and put on a custom ROM because I'm afraid something will happen.
Performance wise, it is just plain sick. It runs the PSXEmulator tons smoother than my TBolt and sense is just awesome. I would consider rooting just for the dual-core mod where the second cpu is always running except for when the screen is off, but again, bye-bye insane battery life (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Physical feel of phone is sweet; the thinness is good and the material is nice; except for that bloody top back shiny cover that drives us OCD guys nuts with fingerprints :O But I did order a case because I'm afraid if I drop it, it will go bye-bye.
I researched heavily this phone and the galaxy nexus and from what I could tell, the nexus didn't have the same power as this phone and because of that, people complained that it ran slower than it should. Also the battery was only so-so.
I have yet to look back and do not regret the money I spent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running the nocturnal Rom and it has the dual core going but honestly I haven't noticed a difference. ....you should check it out.....it's been the smoothest for me so far
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
I dont mind the killing of apps as much as I do the tabs in the web browser..sometimes esp. With online banking I run into issues..it happens pretty much instantly..I've adjusted my min free settings as well as flashed about every rom besides aosp and my phone still kills apps like that's its job..I would just like the option to adjust it or have it ignore my web browser as I'm pretty good about closing things out..buts that's my only issue and it will be fixed..the build is bar none and battery is sick..camera is on par with top cell phone cameras and the UI in the camera app is best in class..i never miss a shot ..it will be good to see u in here liquid..to defend against the trolls and fanboys LOL
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
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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
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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
Click to expand...
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..)
Got the phone a couple days ago, wanted to share some first impressions as everyone (or most) here has been so helpful.....
1. Screen
One of the major reasons I upgraded. Obviously much sharper, rendering the nytimes in desktop mode is my de facto test and is quite glorious compared to the s3 indeed, though chrome seemed to have difficulty rendering the smaller text. I have the display set to dynamic, auto adapt off, auto correct tone off and the white point with these settings is definitely preferable to the s3. Initially I looked at my s3 and my first thought was, WOAH !, that the s4 screen was way too warm but then I looked at my desktop lcd and realized the s4 screen was very similar to lcd white balance. I guess our brains, or mine at least kind of calibrates to different white sources.
I was a little concerned about the brightness when browsing sites with high APLs (mostly white pages) as Samsung seems to have programmed in a bit of trickery with the auto brightness to save on battery. I can definitely confirm that firefox has a substantially brighter white luminance than either the stock or chrome browsers. Much brighter than I was able to achieve with the s3. It's nice to be able to crank it and hurt your eyes once in a while when your on the couch lol.
Outdoor viewing was surprisingly good considering it's an often used attack on the amoled screens, a notch or two better than my old s3, and that one was no slouch either.
Oh yeah, and the screen is dead black at night, kinda freaky as I feel like the phone if off, the s3 kinda gave me a vague glow in similar conditions.
2. Battery
Yeah, my s3 was giving me problems with this for some reason. I could get 2-3 hrs screen time max. Yesterday I got around 5 with high brightness, mostly wifi, and only a few of the samsung features turned on. Today was a bit more of a mix 80% wifi, 20% 4g, mostly max brightness and I am at 2 hrs 45 min with 45% remaining. I am cautiously pleased so far, especially considering all of the downloading and installing that was going on.
3. System interface :/
So I am using nova prime and that's helping a lot but like a few others here, I am noticing some strange hiccups/stutters in daily use that are pretty foreign to me coming from the s3. After turning off the samsung feature set, maps of all things is still hiccuping along when zooming or moderate panning. This is worse with a tilted satellite view but still noticeable even with just the road layout. Viewing photos in the gallery has a slight chop as well, using quickpics has been a temporary solution. I hoping for some kind of software update.....
Not a huge of the fan of the redesigned dialer, contacts list. Black themes should be a mandatory option (lol) with these oled phones.
One of feature that originally generated some excitement which was mercilessly quashed after reading reviews but then rekindled with the unit in hand was air hover. Using this in mail, messages with the haptic setting on is surprisingly smooth and useful, not to mention pretty cool. Your finger doesn't even need to be particularly close. Not sure about the air gestures, they seem pretty consistent but need to be used to add different functionality. I can imagine some neat implementations if developers decide to hop on board.
Design
Well I think I need some time to adjust to this but I can tell you that my observant roommate (who is a techie and just got the one) hasn't realized i got the new phone yet and I've been talking about it for a while. Even with all the installation beeps and ringtones that come with a new phone and him sitting on a nearby couch for hours he hasnt said anything. I ll see how long I can pull this off.
For me it definitely feels different in hand, not as slippery due to the less tapered edges which is good but also a bit less curvaceous and flirty (which I kind of liked in the s3). This feels more like a passat and the s3 more like a jetta I guess. Let me say that I do appreciate really well designed things in general and this phone doesn't make me cry so......
Last thing, I bought this phone off contract at full price and my purchase experience at the verizon store was really bizarre. Of course they must make less money when someone buys it outright but the salesman was like," why do you want to upgrade from the s3??" ,"The battery might be a bit better than your used to but don't count on it."..."So you're gonna like play around with the screen "(in mocking tone cause I told him I was interested in the new display) . That place sucks and the one out in the surburbs was even worse. Like used car salesman or something...
. Anyone else have this kind of experience?????
Also, anyone using lightflow with this device? In case you haven't guessed I love to freakin tweak thingszzzz...
best to yall.....
I came from the s3 yesterday.. picked up the s4 and couldn't be happier. I've had the phone for about 24 hours.. first thing I noticed was how clear the screen was. Not much if a difference over the s3 but it's there. Battery life as been great on stock un rooted rom. Compared to my s3 which was rooted running slim bean and a custom kernel overclocked and uv. I wanna say s4 is better. I like the feel of the s4 better other than the s3's rounded edges. Overall I'm happy... Will root soon!
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
I just upgraded yesterday as well. So far I am liking it. Initially I wasn't impressed but I shattered my s3 screen and figured since I had an upgrade on my other line I would go ahead and get it instead of spending $100 just to get another s3. I have already rooted and froze most of the bloat with titanium backup. I have never flashed any roms but since my s3 is still functional, I plan on using it to learn. I am already having fun with the irblaster changing channels on random TVs lol. Overall I'm happy so far.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Battery and other things
The battery is like night and day. Yesterday around dinner time my battery was at about 85%, and I use my phone constantly. On my SIII, I'd be lucky if it went the whole day without dying. That is one feature that I did not think would vary as much as it did, and am very happy with that.
I love the screen. It seemed a bit flickery (that's the best way I can describe it) for the first couple of days, but whatever was causing that (perhaps my imagination) has stopped.
The infrared sensor is much more useful than I had initially anticipated. Aside from being able to use it with multiple TV/set top box setups, I can screw with people in restaurants. :silly:
As a smartphone in general I have been very impressed so far.
Why would using Quickpic be temporary? First thing I do is set Quickpic as the default and hide gallery.
Frankly, I never really notice the stutters that other people talk about. When using an app that is reflowing from the net, there is no way to separate device issues from network issues, and I always notice it is these sorts of apps people complain about (maps, browsers, etc.).
yeah, quickpic was actually my goto image app on the s3 now that I think I about it....
The stutters and what not are definitely a little more pronounced on the maps app with the s4 than the s3 on the same
wifi network. Maybe it's the fact that the s4 is moving 2.5 times the pixels, maybe it's an early bug yet that will be fixed shortly,
maybe it's the way the snapdragon throttles the cpu too aggressively according to some thread I remember reading over or maybe I am just expecting too much buttery perfection
yeah just tried the ir blaster. 3 of my housemates were so seriously into watching the final episode of "top of the lake" about an hour ago and I was tempted to spoil the moment but I hadn't programmed the phone for that tv. oh well......
I've been skeptical of purchasing a samsung device because I don't generally fall for overly marketed items. That being said, I went ahead and pulled the trigger coming from HTC Rezound and I couldn't be happier about this device. It is no doubt a winner among users as long as you root and get rid of the bloat coming with it.
I love this phone... I mean love this phone, but had I not been having mad GPS problems with my S3 I would never have made this upgrade. It's just not a compelling upgrade over the S3, which is still an awesome phone. Most of the new features are very gimmicky. I have pretty much everything with the prefix "Smart" turned off and almost everything with the prefix "Air" turned off. The hovering trick is pretty much the only one I don't feel is a gimmick.
About Quickpic - that has been my go-to gallery app since the Thunderbolt but I actually like the S4 gallery better. The GUI is very slick and the hover image preview is actually useful.
I agree with a few of the topics covered coming from the S3
The screen is awesome, definitely noticeable to me, battery life seems to be up, GPS works perfectly, and the camera is pretty awesome; really like the wider angle on the front camera as well. Pretty motivational upgrade if you ask me..
However, I am noticing some UI lag, as mentioned maps as well as chrome. This could be that I was using cleanrom on the S3 and that rom is amazing! made the phone much snappier and fluid. Its out for the S4 now so will be giving it a try soon. Also apex launcher helped some.
and little things like the smaller notification led seems cheaper. the colors dont mix well. the power button isn't as clicky as Id hope for either.
I'm really happy with the battery life. My galaxy nexus went tops 4 hours on a charge. I can easily to 8 - 9 on this.
I have a lot of apps running that kill battery for me specifically Touchdown for work which It hink is one onf the biggest offendors. Maybe i should download gsam and follow it a little more closely.
I agree that the display is amazing, and the camera too, but the device seems no faster and radios no better.
From normal viewing distance, the display does not stand out either, but is better if you view closer. It is the size of the display that minimizes the higher def effectiveness.
I only have 6gb free on my S3 32gb, so do not see enough improvement to sacrifice the storage. I still want the S4, but only if a 32gb is ever released.
orangelight99 said:
Last thing, I bought this phone off contract at full price and my purchase experience at the verizon store was really bizarre. Of course they must make less money when someone buys it outright but the salesman was like," why do you want to upgrade from the s3??" ,"The battery might be a bit better than your used to but don't count on it."..."So you're gonna like play around with the screen "(in mocking tone cause I told him I was interested in the new display) . That place sucks and the one out in the surburbs was even worse. Like used car salesman or something...
. Anyone else have this kind of experience?????
best to yall.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, I got mine with a new contract (Coming from Sprint, never had Verizon before). When the guy asked me if I wanted the insurance for $199 and I told him no, he was straight-up BEWILDERED. He literally could not comprehend how in the world I would not want to pay $200 to replace my phone if I smashed it. And then he was like, "Well, let's go look at cases now," as if he had just assumed I would, of course, want a case. But I didn't want a case. He was so flabbergasted. His eyes went as wide as possible and he just stared at me for a good 10 seconds before saying, "What if you drop it? What then?!"
It was more funny than weird, to me. I've never bought insurance for any phone I've ever had, and I've never regretted it. I honestly could not tell if the guy was seriously just that crazy, or if it was just some really stupid sales technique that, of course, did not work on me.
Ayesuku said:
Haha, I got mine with a new contract (Coming from Sprint, never had Verizon before). When the guy asked me if I wanted the insurance for $199 and I told him no, he was straight-up BEWILDERED. He literally could not comprehend how in the world I would not want to pay $200 to replace my phone if I smashed it. And then he was like, "Well, let's go look at cases now," as if he had just assumed I would, of course, want a case. But I didn't want a case. He was so flabbergasted. His eyes went as wide as possible and he just stared at me for a good 10 seconds before saying, "What if you drop it? What then?!"
It was more funny than weird, to me. I've never bought insurance for any phone I've ever had, and I've never regretted it. I honestly could not tell if the guy was seriously just that crazy, or if it was just some really stupid sales technique that, of course, did not work on me.
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Click to collapse
Because one out of five people react to the bewildered face and get the insurance They ARE sales people, you know.
jimmiem said:
I love this phone... I mean love this phone, but had I not been having mad GPS problems with my S3 I would never have made this upgrade. It's just not a compelling upgrade over the S3, which is still an awesome phone. Most of the new features are very gimmicky. I have pretty much everything with the prefix "Smart" turned off and almost everything with the prefix "Air" turned off. The hovering trick is pretty much the only one I don't feel is a gimmick.
About Quickpic - that has been my go-to gallery app since the Thunderbolt but I actually like the S4 gallery better. The GUI is very slick and the hover image preview is actually useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to get quickpic to show the pics in internal memory without being rooted? I'm only seeing the pics on my SD card.
Super Sam Galaxy said:
I love the screen. It seemed a bit flickery (that's the best way I can describe it) for the first couple of days, but whatever was causing that (perhaps my imagination) has stopped.
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Click to collapse
When you saw the screen flicker, were you outside by any chance?
I have noticed that when I am inside then step out into direct sunlight, the screen flickers while it ramps up to full brightness, then it stabilizes.
mutelight said:
When you saw the screen flicker, were you outside by any chance?
I have noticed that when I am inside then step out into direct sunlight, the screen flickers while it ramps up to full brightness, then it stabilizes.
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Actually, I hate to say it as I'm sure this will not help you diagnose any issues you may have been experiencing, but I don't think that I was. If I remember correctly it was mostly when I was in my apartment. I remember this because I have an overhead light that is florescent and I remember at least on one occasion wondering if that was what was flickering.
Sorry if that doesn't help.
Super Sam Galaxy said:
Actually, I hate to say it as I'm sure this will not help you diagnose any issues you may have been experiencing, but I don't think that I was. If I remember correctly it was mostly when I was in my apartment. I remember this because I have an overhead light that is florescent and I remember at least on one occasion wondering if that was what was flickering.
Sorry if that doesn't help.
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Click to collapse
Oh, no worries! The only time I have seen the screen flicker was under the scenario I described or if I look down at the display with a pair of my active shutter 3D glasses.
I can see the PenTile dithering in the display however, so my eyes are fairly sensitive.
mutelight said:
Oh, no worries! The only time I have seen the screen flicker was under the scenario I described or if I look down at the display with a pair of my active shutter 3D glasses.
I can see the PenTile dithering in the display however, so my eyes are fairly sensitive.
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Oh, I see! Well I would assume in my case it was just the fluorescent lighting. My eyes are not all that sensitive, so I may not notice small flickers like that. The part that confused me is that it stopped! But I think that also suggests it's just the light, because sometimes they seem to flicker depending on how they are sitting, and if you tap them a bit they stop. Either that, or it actually was flickering, but to such an unnoticeable extent that I got used to it very quickly. It was one of those undefinable things where you feel like you saw it flicker but if you have to explain exactly what part flickered, you wouldn't really be able to.
elucid said:
Is it possible to get quickpic to show the pics in internal memory without being rooted? I'm only seeing the pics on my SD card.
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Click to collapse
I didn't install it because I like the S4 Gallery better. You should be able to, though. Just poke around in the settings and look for included folders.