Related
Okay, trying to find out all of the relevant things about this phone is a lot more difficult that it sounds, getting some real world experiences from the XDA community makes more sense. I am coming from a Samsung Vibrant, a device still without 2.3 from the manufacturer, that has always had pretty bad GPS, and leaves a lot to be desired..
Feel free to offer any of the positives/negatives you've found switching from your old device, compare, contrast.. anything goes. A few of my specific questions:
Battery life? Under heavy use, not just because you have a million apps with notifications every 5 minutes..
The ease of rooting and recovering if something goes wrong? I've never came close to bricking my old phone, but we have software we can flash(odin) the original software with in download mode-- does this phone have protections like that?
Development and community support? I've never owned an HTC, so I am wondering if they are better about updating devices? Does the dev community here have difficulty getting drivers and such to create new roms(or upgrade to ICS)?
Think about the concerns you had before you upgraded to this phone(for those who actually think things out, not the "oh, shiney!" crowd), did this phone fill your expectations, is there another phone you wish you had bought(or one coming out you would hold out for) that works with T-mobile?
The only thing this phone seems to be missing is NFC, and I'm unsure about how the screen quality is versus my amoled galaxy S. The only other phone I'd consider that is out now is the S II, but something about it leaves me underwhelmed..
Please, be positive, no flaming, no telling me I should spend hours/days using search to find outdated answers to my questions- this has the potential to help other people considering the device!
Silentbtdeadly said:
Okay, trying to find out all of the relevant things about this phone is a lot more difficult that it sounds, getting some real world experiences from the XDA community makes more sense. I am coming from a Samsung Vibrant, a device still without 2.3 from the manufacturer, that has always had pretty bad GPS, and leaves a lot to be desired..
Feel free to offer any of the positives/negatives you've found switching from your old device, compare, contrast.. anything goes. A few of my specific questions:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my signature. This phone suits my needs. The others have been good for what I needed them for (Sensation: similar but the Amaze has better everything; more RAM, better backlit illuminated camera, 2mp front camera, NFC, dedicated video/camera button), (Galaxy Note: has everything I needed, but camera was slightly slower and I have Tmobile and I couldn't handle the EDGE data only) I don't regret getting the Amaze. It is slightly heavier and thicker than the Sensation, but its solid.
Silentbtdeadly said:
Battery life? Under heavy use, not just because you have a million apps with notifications every 5 minutes..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery life is not that great if you are a power user. I have 3 batteries and it gets me through the day. I usually do not need to use the 3rd battery. I use the phone for practically everything. Gaming: Shadowgun 30mins-45mins, texting: 30-50 msg, Netflix streaming: Yo Gabba Gabba 30mins, Music playing via bluetooth headphone 1hr at the gym, phone calls via car bluetooth for 30mins, regular phone calls 30mins-1hr, surfing the web 20-40mins, xda forum for 30-40mins. With all those things, I use 2 batteries. If I cut the activities in half, I can use 1battery and it will last me around 12-14hrs. (My rooted sensation did better at 16hrs, but I don't mind the 2hrs sacrifice)
Silentbtdeadly said:
The ease of rooting and recovering if something goes wrong? I've never came close to bricking my old phone, but we have software we can flash(odin) the original software with in download mode-- does this phone have protections like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use the search button: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1324177
Silentbtdeadly said:
Development and community support? I've never owned an HTC, so I am wondering if they are better about updating devices? Does the dev community here have difficulty getting drivers and such to create new roms(or upgrade to ICS)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This phone is roughly a little over a month old. Don't expect the community to be brimming with new things, especially with the announcement of ICS. Most developers do not want to dev something that will last only 2 months and then have replaced by a totally new firmware (ICS). So there will be a slight lull during this couple of months. But there are some great developers like Xboarder56, NRGZ28, mike1986 and Revolution that is keep this phone relevant. I really appreciate these guys.
Silentbtdeadly said:
Think about the concerns you had before you upgraded to this phone(for those who actually think things out, not the "oh, shiney!" crowd), did this phone fill your expectations, is there another phone you wish you had bought(or one coming out you would hold out for) that works with T-mobile?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The build quality is top notch (at least initially) for HTC phones. IMO it is definitely better than the current Samsung phones out now. The Galaxy Note was a nice phone but you can totally tell that it did not use premium material for the overall phone. The glass looked nice, but it did not have Gorilla glass.
Silentbtdeadly said:
The only thing this phone seems to be missing is NFC, and I'm unsure about how the screen quality is versus my amoled galaxy S. The only other phone I'd consider that is out now is the S II, but something about it leaves me underwhelmed..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This phone DOES HAVE NFC. Check the specs. (Near Field Communications)
http://htc.t-mobile.com/amaze-camera-phone#/Specs
Having come from the Vibrant:
Great battery life-QS1.5.1
Great build quality
Great camera
Easy to root
Easy to backup
Easy to flash
[CWMR]
you can't really brick this phone because we're stuck with s-on. Usually bricking occurs when you mess with bootloader and radio. However, with s-on we can't change that unless its through an OTA update.
Rooting takes a minute, recovery is done with CWM recovery, so it should be familiar.
btw the vibrant sucks balls.
however the gs2 is supposedly a huge upgrade to all their crappy predecessor so you can check that out too if you're afraid of the change from samsung to htc.
You can always invest in a mytouch 4g or sensation to see how it's like. They're both AMAZING phones har har but of course they lack in hardware specs, but they're both better than any other samsung phones out there except the latest ones.
Best T-Mobile phone going right now!
Let me start by saying I have been with Android since day 1. Started with the G1, then Mytouch 3g, the Nexus One, the Vibrant, the Mytouch 4g, and now the Amaze. I have not had a problem with any HTC phones and they are all still running today. The only phone I had any issue with was the one Samsung (also still running). I am not an HTC "fanboy" if something better came along I would certainly buy that.
The Amaze is the best phone T-Mobile offers right now. Compared to your Vibrant you'll be blown away with the quality of the phone the fact that everything works as it should.
HTC has a good track record of updating their devices OS's (Even the Mytouch 3g got Froyo before the Vibrant) and they do it OTA, no Kies. HTC's have always been quickly adopted by the development community for their relative ease of rooting and overall usage of "common" hardware that allows you to make ROM's for several different devices with very little modification.
Gingerbread is not a huge leap from Froyo. Most everyday users would be hard pressed to find a real difference. What will be different is going to HTC Sense from Samsung's TouchWiz interface. This will be a case of "It's up to you" totally depends on your own personal taste. I personally couldn't stand Touchwiz.
Battery life has been a little better than my MT4g was and seems to be about on par with or maybe a little better than my Vibrant. I have not owned a phone since my Palm Treo 650 that I didn't have to charge at least daily so I don't think there will be any surprise for you here.
Lastly, the screen. It is very nice and smooth. The resolution is higher than SGS2 therefore making it very crisp. It is not AMOLED, however, so you will not have the vibrance and deep contrast of the AMO screens. Your blacks won't seem as black and your bright colors will not jump out of the screen at you like the AMO screen does. Once again this is somewhat of a personal preference but compared to the Samsung devices this may be the only slight disadvantage.
This phone has the best camera ever offered in a smart phone. It has as much or more computing power of any phone on the market. The device is very solid, it just feels high quality and it has all of the bells and whistles that any smart phone out now has including NFC. I can't imagine this phone not exceeding any expectation you would have for a smart phone, unless you need a phone with a battery that lasts several days between charges, then you my friend have un-realistic expectations. Ha!
In a nutshell..
Good -
Sharp and Bright screen. Blacks levels are ok light bleed makes it worse. Still better than GS2 screen because of sharpness and IMO color accuracy.
Very fast camera. Dedicated buttons for camera and camcorder. They also wake the phone which is a huge plus IMO.
Eye pleasing . White model looks great IMO. If this were a super light/thin phone itd be a no brainer.
Bad-
Just big , heavy, and Fn bulky. Simply doesnt feel as good as other phones in the hand.
Lack of support. I give nothing but credit for wonderful work by Xboarder and others but take a gander at GS2 forums , or when Galaxy Nexus drops there forum. I just dont expect this place to ever be buzzing with the number of great tweaks , enhancements , and features other phones may get. ICS ROMS will likely be on other phones much sooner than Amaze.
Galaxy Nexus and its HD screen are going to be available soon. Just something to consider. HD screens will be more prevalent and the Amaze fast camera and gorgeous screen wont be as impressive by weeks end.
Love my Amaze
I've had a Nexus One for over a year (prior to that it was a Droid). I've also used the original Galaxy phone as well as the Evo.
I've been waiting patiently for a Galaxy Nexus for months as a replacement for my Nexus One. After seeing the camera shots - which are identical in shot quality to the (poor) camera on my Nexus One, I knew I could not possibly get a Galaxy Nexus. For me, camera quality is very important, since my phone *IS* my point-and-shoot, and the Galaxy Nexus camera simply blows. So I gave up waiting to get a GN.
I went into the T-Mobile store to play with the GSII side by side with the Amaze. Both are very good. For me, I went with the Amaze.
1. Build quality, IMO, is top notch. Yes the phone is heavy. To me it has a really solid feel. It's like comparing a S300 Mercedes to a Fiat - both may actually provide similar reliability, but the Mercedes feels far better built.
2. The screen is excellent. I suspect the GN will be better, but side-by-side with the GSII the Amaze had the better screen IMO. The GSII's AMOLED "pops" more but the improved resolution on the Amaze made the real difference.
3. The camera on the Amaze took better photos, and I liked the software better. The flash is amazing for a camera phone.
4. Battery life has been a huge improvement over my N1/Cyanogenmod phone. In normal use I go all day easily without charging. If you aren't playing games or heavily using Maps, I suspect you'll never need to "top up."
5. Great network performance. I haven't benched the speed, but the network feels 3X faster than my N1.
6. The new Sense is much better than TouchWiz IMO.
I want to say this is some great quality feedback, definitely hit everything I asked then some. I have a multitude of reasons for wanting to upgrade from my vibrant besides the "oh, shiney!" factor. Not a huge fan of touchwhiz, poor gps performance, lack of updates, no camera button, etc.. The biggest issue I have right now is price, I'm not willing to go contract with tmobile, and I don't want to pay the current full price like I did with my vibrant-- so if anyone decides they want to get a different phone and knock a fair chunk off of their amaze to get rid of it, bookmark me(I'm looking at you deleriousbb!)
The best points for me I've read about so far:
picture quality, I do want a good camera in my phone since it is the device I have with me always, who knows how many pictures I've lost by not having a dedicated button too..
I forgot it DID have a NFC- that was the original thing I was looking for when looking for a phone, trying to find one that is a little more future proof, this phone being the only one that I could find with hardware specs that sounded good.
Hell, it even has FM radio, something I wish I had a few times now..
Heavy- I actually LIKE this, my vibrant felt far too light, I want to have a solid feeling phone, and if it can double as a brick to be used for self-defense-- so be it.
Overall this sounds like a phone worthy of upgrading to(I really want to make sure I am upgrading) from my vibrant, more or less future proof.. the only thing it doesn't have that I see in the near future is a quad core processor, and those only interest me because of the battery savings they are supposed to offer.
I don't know about the s-on thing someone mentioned, that locks the radio too? That would be the only downside I've seen so far, changing radios has been the way I get the best battery out of my phone thus far, but I suppose I can deal(and have something to research). I also don't know much about how the qHD led screen compares to the vibrant, I was looking forward to better battery life because I know amoled screens use more power than most and using black reduced that..
I guess the only question that didn't get answered is if there is a phone out or coming out that people wish they had held out for? I am not impressed by the galaxy nexus- no external sd, no camera button, lower mp camera(yes I understand better quality sensor), and a few other things.. but I am a hardware guy, and this phone is superior in specs, and the feedback makes me feel good about that.
Also, is there anyone who thinks they may be trying to sell their phone anytime soon? I see myself buying this used rather than going contract(I hate contracts), so I am going to have to wait till there is a price I like more..
Thanks again everyone for the great info, besides everything about the phone that sounded so great, it sounds like you guys are pretty friendly, supportive, and overall helpful!
Check out XDA's market there are some pretty cheap phones there. usually range about $400 for amaze. So you can sell your vibrant for iono $150? on CL and pay $250 more for an amaze.. on contract you already pay $200?
So anyways I actually have a gs2 in hand right now so i'll add some things, although it is similar to what manmythlegend said.
the gs2's connectivity is actually on par with the amaze. I would say amaze's gps is slightly faster but gs2's wifi connectivity is a bit stronger and has quicker connection time.
amaze's camera is better, GS2 appears to have more options on the camera and has their own scenes to choose from, BUT it does not compare to the amaze's scenes at all. BTW I love how the amaze's dedicated button works even when phone is locked.
Screen. the super amoled compared to the amaze's screen reminds me of mt4g good and bad displays. gs2 looks awesome when you view it from every angle. Amaze reminds me of an old LCD when you view from different angles the blacks become like gray. However, I hate how gs2 looks all stretched out and it's not as sharp. think iphone 2-3 vs iphone 4. Amaze is defintely more uhh pretty, its like the UI and icons actually pop out at you compared to gs2' where everything looks blended in a bit.
Another factor, I do not like gs2's blue tint when viewing websites or anything with a white background, it actually feels bad for my eyes. oh and amaze's color seems to be more true.
But remember this, Amaze's battery right now is SO SO, so if you're a heavy user make sure to carry a spare or your charger around.
This may seem like a bias review, but I'm actually pointing out what I normally use on a daily basis that the gs2 would not do for me as the amaze would.
keypoints
1. CAMERA (love amaze's camera and its scenes)
2. Web browsing or anything that has to do with a white background (XDA APP ahem), blue tint is no go for me..
3. base on user preference. I like the weight of the amaze. It tells me that my phone is in my pocket and that it's sturdy to carry around. The amaze's curve body makes it feels better in my hand.
There's something about the gs2 that just doesn't feel right. probably the width or depth of the phone, not exactly sure. I have about an average adult male size hands and the width of the phone might be the thing that is bothering me or that it's actually too thin that makes it feel weird, idk grip both phones, you'll see what i mean.
things that will bother you on the amaze:
the light bleed from the bottom (fixed with screen filter or other ways) and possibly the mediocre battery life.
GREAT GREAT reviews here. Just what I was looking for.
My G2 has some wear and tear and TMo said they would do an early upgrade where I could get the Amaze for $250. I went to the store and played with the Amaze, and it was a pretty nice looking phone at face value.
I, too, wanted to wait for the Galaxy Nexus to drop on TMo, but I despise Samsung. If I had to use Odin every time I flash, I'd be pissed. HTC is perfect for people who love to flash roms, and I am that guy.
Really thinking I should do this...only thing that had me thinking, was whoever said that development for this phone would be weak. xboarder is a BEASt, though - dude was in the G2 forum for a few months and had things going.
Should I do this?
enserio said:
GREAT GREAT reviews here. Just what I was looking for.
My G2 has some wear and tear and TMo said they would do an early upgrade where I could get the Amaze for $250. I went to the store and played with the Amaze, and it was a pretty nice looking phone at face value.
I, too, wanted to wait for the Galaxy Nexus to drop on TMo, but I despise Samsung. If I had to use Odin every time I flash, I'd be pissed. HTC is perfect for people who love to flash roms, and I am that guy.
Really thinking I should do this...only thing that had me thinking, was whoever said that development for this phone would be weak. xboarder is a BEASt, though - dude was in the G2 forum for a few months and had things going.
Should I do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the SGS2 uses CWM recovery to flash too, you only need odin to install the recovery, after that you're golden.
I'm testing out the sgs2 for the day, and i'll update my opinion on it by the end of the day... so far battery life is good, camera is definitely no comparison to amaze, camcorder seems better though. wifi and bt connectivity is definitely stronger and connection time is quicker on the sgs2. HD games, amaze is better (more details). anything with fonts/texts goes to amaze.
It does support NFC btw, and also AT&T 4G bands.
Screen resolution is great, and its better than the S-AMOLED of the SGSII (which has some discoloration issues it seems).
The SGSII S-AMOLED has a very bright and saturated screen so the colors are shot at you, but if you are a pro as I think you are, and not a "oh, shiny!" fella... You know that definition is better and more important than brightness.
Unless you don't care, then that's different.
4G on the phone is pretty fast, and so its installing apps.
The 1.5 dual-core does not score that high on quadrant as the SGSII (especially the Exynos) does, but you know that they are to be taken with grano salis, and in everyday usage its pretty fast.
Camera is amazing, period.
Video quality is great, but sound recording should be much better on a device like this.
The HTC phone itself however, does have downsides:
Reception (its fair, but not amazing).
Battery, with heavy usage on 4G, will last you few hours. On 2G, a bit more. Phone does get warm by the way. Its not something that should worry you, but it is bothersome when you are on the phone playing a video or what have ya, you get a phone call and have to talk to a distance of the device.
The worst aspect is the earpiece. It is UTTER TRASH. It literally silences itself when you talk, and will "turn on" when the other party speaks, however, when that occurs, it will "eat" the first few milliseconds and you will get a broken up phrase (from the other party), 99.9% of the times. Seems to be an HTC issue btw.
The touchscreen is tricky. It seems pretty responsive overall, but I did have doubts sometimes. But overall no big issues for me so far.
The phone also does have an heft. It doesn't seem that big a deal, until you place this 4.3" monster phone in your pocket. Its bothersome, at least to me.
Final words: I am trying to sell the HTC Amaze 4G. It is a great media device, but an horrible communication device. This solely depends on you. I have been using a BB 9700 for the past two years and I went back to it after 8 days of impossible phone calls with the Amaze, battery that lasts nothing (on the Amaze of course), and I personally suck and can't stand typing on screens. Sure, the Amaze thrashes my 9700 on so many levels, but for what I need, the 9700 does a far superior job than the Amaze.
Hope this helped.
Capitan Totti said:
The worst aspect is the earpiece. It is UTTER TRASH. It literally silences itself when you talk, and will "turn on" when the other party speaks, however, when that occurs, it will "eat" the first few milliseconds and you will get a broken up phrase (from the other party), 99.9% of the times. Seems to be an HTC issue btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have a defected phone or earpiece. From what I know the amaze doesn't come with an earpiece. I use my old mytouch 4g one and i do not get this issue. well good luck with your deals!
edit: that sounded sarcastic lol, I wasn't trying to be haha
The reception on my amaze is light years ahead of my old samsung galaxy s 4g. I would have one bar on the highway to town and the amaze has a full signal. (2g) just amazing.
The worst aspect is the earpiece. It is UTTER TRASH. It literally silences itself when you talk, and will "turn on" when the other party speaks, however, when that occurs, it will "eat" the first few milliseconds and you will get a broken up phrase (from the other party), 99.9% of the times. Seems to be an HTC issue btw.
I don't have this issue at all. It sounds to me (like someone else mentioned) like you have a defective Amaze.
Teo032 said:
Sounds like you have a defected phone or earpiece. From what I know the amaze doesn't come with an earpiece. I use my old mytouch 4g one and i do not get this issue. well good luck with your deals!
edit: that sounded sarcastic lol, I wasn't trying to be haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By earpiece I mean the speaker part.
FranzDages said:
The worst aspect is the earpiece. It is UTTER TRASH. It literally silences itself when you talk, and will "turn on" when the other party speaks, however, when that occurs, it will "eat" the first few milliseconds and you will get a broken up phrase (from the other party), 99.9% of the times. Seems to be an HTC issue btw.
I don't have this issue at all. It sounds to me (like someone else mentioned) like you have a defective Amaze.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, what do I do now? Can I go back to the store and try another one? And see if its defective or not?
Capitan Totti said:
By earpiece I mean the speaker part.
So, what do I do now? Can I go back to the store and try another one? And see if its defective or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should have a minimum of 14 days to exchange it from where you purchased it. After that you might have to send it in to HTC for repair/replacement.
enserio said:
GREAT GREAT reviews here. Just what I was looking for.
My G2 has some wear and tear and TMo said they would do an early upgrade where I could get the Amaze for $250. I went to the store and played with the Amaze, and it was a pretty nice looking phone at face value.
I, too, wanted to wait for the Galaxy Nexus to drop on TMo, but I despise Samsung. If I had to use Odin every time I flash, I'd be pissed. HTC is perfect for people who love to flash roms, and I am that guy.
Really thinking I should do this...only thing that had me thinking, was whoever said that development for this phone would be weak. xboarder is a BEASt, though - dude was in the G2 forum for a few months and had things going.
Should I do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have obviously owned a Nexus S. We don't use Odin. Anyone who uses Odin on any Nexus (from Samsung) is a moron. Rooting and flashing recovery is all performed via fastboot and then make a clockwork backup like normal. The Galaxy Nexus will be the same way. All you need is fastboot.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
Capitan Totti said:
So, what do I do now? Can I go back to the store and try another one? And see if its defective or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep if you can't exchange at store anymore then call Tmobile to do an exchange.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using XDA App
14 days are now gone guys...
And when I went back and told them, they said that I had to pay $50 dollars... which I found ridiculous... So I didn't do anything apart from trying to sell the phone.
Hello everyone, this is my first post and I'm happy to finally become a member of this community after shedding my buggy LG touchscreen phone.
I got this Amaze 4g on Monday at the T-Mobile store since they had very limited phone stock and the sales reps highly recommended it since they had dropped its price to the same as the SGS2. This is my first smartphone but I'm now disappointed to find out that the Galaxy S2 has much more dev support and is a bit better for gaming and power-using. I keep seeing youtube videos that hail the Amaze 4g as the winner in most if not all head to head reviews.
I'm now contemplating returning this for a Galaxy S2 since gaming is a big part of my spare time, but I'd have to pay a damn $50 restocking fee. Is the Galaxy S2 that much better to justify paying the $50? Am I really missing a lot?
I would love to hear more from gamers using the Amaze 4g. Most reviews of heavy games on the Market like Modern Combat 3 and Dead Space have reviews of SGS2 users, and I could find no Amaze 4g users among the reviews. I'm not really much of a picture taker, so the camera on the Amaze isn't something I would miss too much. I'm not looking to start a flame war or anything of the sort. I just want to make sure that I have a capable phone to play these games before I buy them.
They have the same processor so gaming shouldn't be too different performance wise.
The reason your seeing more reviews for the galaxy s 2 is because the gs2 is a more popular phone world wide compared to the amaze.
I work for tmobile and the most popular phone people ask for is the gs2, maybe due to proper ads by Samsung where HTC kinda stopped with advertising their flagship phones since they roll out a new one every month.
So don't worry, u got urself an amazing phone!
Sent From My HTC Amaze
howhi50 said:
They have the same processor so gaming shouldn't be too different performance wise.
The reason your seeing more reviews for the galaxy s 2 is because the gs2 is a more popular phone world wide compared to the amaze.
I work for tmobile and the most popular phone people ask for is the gs2, maybe due to proper ads by Samsung where HTC kinda stopped with advertising their flagship phones since they roll out a new one every month.
So don't worry, u got urself an amazing phone!
Sent From My HTC Amaze
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey.. leak out some kernels and phone info so we can grow the development...
Just stick a usb in.. copy, paste, and no one will ever know.
Just get a Galaxy S2 and feel good about it.
It's your choice not mine and if you don't feel like just get a right one for you.
You are stuck with this phone for Maximum 2 years.
Get a phone you want to use for 2 years.
I am a bit of a heavy user on my phone when it comes to games, all i use my phone for is games, facebook, text, and some other things xD haha. that said, i havent recieved my Amaze yet BUT i played Deadspace and Eternal Legacy (big game, over 1GB) on my Sensation and they ran butter smooth. now with the CPU underclocked and less RAM it would obviously not run as smooth as the Amaze.. the sgs ii will run just as smooth as the amaze in games. they have the same CPU/GPU/amount of RAM.
I'll vouch for this, I had the SGSII for a week and I hated every minute of it...the resolution is lower even though its a amoled screen, I don't think the colors are even that much better to be honest, the blacks are just darker, thats all.....I hated everything about it, the camera, how big it was, how big everything on it was...I did a direct sunlight test, and HTC IS better even though they advertise that super amoled is better, its BS. it has more dev support becauses samsung doesn't put as much restrictions on their phones as HTC does. That's the reason.
Camera is immensly better on the HTC. I absolutely hate Touchwiz, where as Sense seems much better.
Its ultimately your choice
Just to be clear when you're talking GS2 are you talking the GS2X with the Snapdragon or S2 with Samsung's more powerful Exynos processor?
Either way the Amaze has the upper hand in terms of resolution and Camera, keyboard if you're using stock Sense keyboard vs TouchWiz IMO. Game play goes to the Amaze if you're comparing Snapdragon's but if you're looking at the Exynos I'd give gaming to Sammy.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Love my Amaze, although I don't like the feel in my hand. My hands aren't that big so the curved back makes it difficult to hold it tightly.
Actually wished it was squared off more, like the SGS2, but it's a minor issue.
Held the DROID RAZR and that thing holds very nicely, but no removable battery (and not being on T-Mobile) kills it for me.
Overall, very satisfied with my Amaze, although it took installing LauncherPro & disabling a bunch of preinstalled apps using ADB using ZergRush 1-Click Temp Root.
I love the amaze as well.
Did a lot of researching before picking one up, but so far it's been worth it (other than battery life, and possible video recording issues.). Got a nice score of 1057 on Vellamo, so I'm plenty happy about performance. In terms of hardware specs, it's pretty much one of the high end ones, with a balance of storage and features. (Unlike a couple of other options out there.)
Hasn't locked up/random reboot on me yet!
Of course, I came from the Motorola xt720 (extremely buggy at times), which was my first android device. So my experience isn't as great as some others.
Currently on stock ROM, but it's unlocked and rooted. Just waiting for a nice stable ICS build to come along!
I came from an SGS1 and I loved that phone, especially since it had so much development. To be completely honest, if WIND Mobile had the SGS2, not a single doubt in my mind that I would've gotten that handset instead of the Amaze, simply because the SGS2 is leaps and bounds ahead of the Amaze in terms of custom ROMs and whatnot.
That being said, I still love my Amaze because it is by no means a bad phone. It's just a lot newer than the SGS2 and it's a shame that HTC is making it harder for developers to get into coding for the Amaze.
I love HTC I guess you could say I'm a fanboy so take this with a grain of salt. My friend has the Samsung C(r)aptivate and my mom the Samsung Galaxy Tab (1st gen), and when ever I upgrade either one I f**k it up in some way or another, because for some reason I always have to go back to stock before I do anything but having an HTC I forget this. I don't know about the SGSII since I've never rooted/flashed one but I love my HTC Amaze it should be better than the SGSII by a bit since it is clocked faster stock, however SGSII have an accelerated internet browser so it is a bit faster in web browsing. So all in all it is looks, feel and preference. I love the heft of this phone and the way it feels in my hand, Sense is the best interface other than AOSP although it is a bit heavy, IMO TouchWiz is garbage. So they are pretty damn similar phone (unless it is the SGSII Hercules which is exactly the same). As mentioned before Samsung has better development since it is a joke to root it and have no Nand lock etc...
WikusVanDeMerwe said:
Hello everyone, this is my first post and I'm happy to finally become a member of this community after shedding my buggy LG touchscreen phone.
I got this Amaze 4g on Monday at the T-Mobile store since they had very limited phone stock and the sales reps highly recommended it since they had dropped its price to the same as the SGS2. This is my first smartphone but I'm now disappointed to find out that the Galaxy S2 has much more dev support and is a bit better for gaming and power-using. I keep seeing youtube videos that hail the Amaze 4g as the winner in most if not all head to head reviews.
I'm now contemplating returning this for a Galaxy S2 since gaming is a big part of my spare time, but I'd have to pay a damn $50 restocking fee. Is the Galaxy S2 that much better to justify paying the $50? Am I really missing a lot?
I would love to hear more from gamers using the Amaze 4g. Most reviews of heavy games on the Market like Modern Combat 3 and Dead Space have reviews of SGS2 users, and I could find no Amaze 4g users among the reviews. I'm not really much of a picture taker, so the camera on the Amaze isn't something I would miss too much. I'm not looking to start a flame war or anything of the sort. I just want to make sure that I have a capable phone to play these games before I buy them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 2cents worth, the Amaze has only been out a few months, the Devs are working on it, so custom roms are slow coming out. Personally I really like the Amaze, and have never had a Sammy, so can't say on that. Finally it's all up to you and your preferences.
You my good sir did not mess up... The amaze is waaaayyyyyy better than that sgs2. First, just look at how the amaze is made compared to the same old plastic on the sgs. Second, the camera, don't even get me started, this phone has the best camera I've ever owned to be honest, I don't buy expensive cameras, infact I've only owned one camera. Third, there is more developement on sgs2 because its pretty obvious, Samsung has managed to put their galaxy line in the mainstream, popular enough to be competing head on with the iPhone. And remember that HTC doesn't release their phones the same way everytime, they change how their phones are made every few models, take a look at the sgs line and its pretty much the same. Also the amaze has a qhd screen, the sgs has has a 480p screen if I'm not mistaken, and when I look at the sgs it looks all pixaleted if you know what I mean. And finally, the dev here is still in its baby steps, its all about patience.
And as for gaming, my experience has been great, I've been playing gta3 with no fcs no lag, I've also played asphalt 6 and worked awesome.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using xda premium
Plus, the Amaze is one of the few to receive the ICS update (hopefully this month). And once that drops, I believe development for the Amaze will pick up substantially.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using xda premium
someone mentioned that the gs2 has lower clock speed, i think for the original one.. yes. but the tmobile hercules t989 it has the same clock speed.
anyways, there's too much exaggeration that the tmobile gs2 development is light years ahead of us. they do have a few devs, but they're not light years ahead of us. a lot of their devs are leaving, and its mostly just tweaked touchwiz, like how ours is tweaked sense. Yeah there are some asop roms, but don't think by having a gs2, you'll be flashing roms like crazy.. because you're not (yet).
I've had the amaze for 2 months before switching over to the gs2. Don't get me wrong, the amaze is a beautiful and fast phone with the better camera... much better. The only thing that bothered me is the battery life. the battery life is simply okay.. this could be fixed by running something other than sense or having a spare or two (one should be enough). but yes sense kills the battery. if it wasn't for the battery life, i would still be using the amaze.
listen to everyone else about the screen. the washed out screen isn't as bad as it sounds. you won't notice it at all when playing games. i played games on both phones. the amaze will give you more details and it will pop out more with more accurate colors. like i said on one of my breakdowns of the two phones.. if you're a gamer, you would want to go with the amaze simply because the games look better. functionality is the same for both phones. You're gonna kill your battery playing games on either so buy a spare anker and you're good to go.
As far as gaming the amaze is pretty bad as far as touch screen compared to the SGS2. i noticed this on few games that my buddy at work(who has t-mo sgs2) informed me about where multi touch gets faulty the more you play or longer you go with out rebooting you phone. This is not the case on his galaxy.
few games that come to mind are jelly defense, jet car stunts, flick golf, also on GTA3.
Well, I'm happy to hear more people have been gaming on the Amaze 4g. I've downloaded Zenonia 3 and Dead on Arrival and they make my phone's left side of the screen really hot. Yesterday whenever I would quit Zenonia 3 and go to the Task Manager, the phone would lock up and do a restart. It did this consistently 3 times! On the last time it switched off the mobile network by itself which was very frustrating.
I find the Amaze to be a bit laggy when navigating menus, especially regarding the touch-screen's feedback. I have yet to take a pictture with this greaest of cameras. Can Sesnse be removed? I just would love to know if this will get better but it is more of a gamble than anything. I hope when ICS comes out things get better. If the T-Mobile store doesn't get a SGS2 by next monday I'll have to stick with the Amaze.
Thank you all so much for the comments and advice.
I did a lot of soul searching when I was deciding on SG2 or Amaze.
What I like in the Amaze:
1) Camera buttons
2) Notification Light
3) Better form factor, SG2 feels too wide and square (personal preference)
4) Higher resolution
5) Solid/higher quality build perception
What I like from SG2 is:
1) AMOLED screen
2) Better battery life out of the box
3) Better benchmarks (bragging rights but doesn't translate into better everyday use)
4) Lighter feel
5) Better brand recognition
I initially ended up with the Amaze because they were out of SG2. I don't regret it after comparing it with two of my friends with SG2. I can still return the Amaze but I guess I'll keep it. The only thing I hate so far with the Amaze is the softkeys light bleeds onto the screen. Battery life so much better after I rooted and custom rom.
You guys shouldn't regret having the amaze, I am not happy with the sgs2. I use to have an amaze I really miss my amaze its impossible to get use to this stupid resolution. More devs don't matter when the roms aren't up to quality a lot of them haven't been updated in a long time. Juggernaut is the best so far IMO but the amaze feel is better x makes quality roms. No notification light is annoying to now I have to use bln.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
ebatr8 said:
You guys shouldn't regret having the amaze, I am not happy with the sgs2. I use to have an amaze I really miss my amaze its impossible to get use to this stupid resolution. More devs don't matter when the roms aren't up to quality a lot of them haven't been updated in a long time. Juggernaut is the best so far IMO but the amaze feel is better x makes quality roms. No notification light is annoying to now I have to use bln.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed with every point. the amaze community is much better imho... that explains why we're still over here lol. I would most likely be back to the amaze in a little bit.
Long story short... leaving my family's unlimited everything plan (my bro just got married, fiancee getting moved into the plan, thus, kicking me out of Sprint...Stupid max of 5 lines). I am OK with this, since I need my Evo3D has got a busted screen - so I get a new phone, and I love Tmobiles 4G speeds in MN. So, I am jumping on my GF's family plan.
Long story longer... I had the Epic 4G, and told myself I would never buy a Samsung product again (long update times, awful battery, etc) But, after looking at ICS upgrade time frames for the SG2 and the Amaze 4G (same ICS dates as E3D), I think I may be leading to the SG2 based completely based off of that. SG2 is supposed to be Q1, but my guess is Junish.
Anybody played with both and have solid opinions on these two devices?
I am going to miss the unlimited everything from Sprint. But, I really never utilized it to the full potential anyway.
Thoughts?
HTC all the way for me. I wont touch another samsung product. Im very happy with my amaze. Do not regret it at all.
Amaze or s2? thread #13984938737399765087 LOL
Go with Nokia!
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App
My gf has the galaxy s 4g (I know its not the s2...) But it tends to freeze a lot and not deliver messages etc. I haven't had many problems with the amaze and I got it recently (Sunday) and I'm loving this device. Very smooth to hold, very responsive and its a great phone. I'd go with the amaze all the way
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App
It's a matter of preference so I'll just sum it up for you, short and sweet,
Samsung Galaxy S2
- bigger screen
- flashing ROMs is easier
- Touchwiz is lighter than Sense
- Thinner and lighter than the Amaze (noticeable difference)
- Super AMOLED screen will result in more vibrant colours and blacker blacks
- Known to have common screen defects
- Able to use Samsung Galaxy S2 SkyRocket ROMs
HTC Amaze 4G
- Better build quality
- S-On, bootloaders can still be unlocked
- Notification LED
- SLCD screen with higher resolution
- Capacitive backlight bleeds onto the screen
- Better camera
- Sense UI is more eye-candy but takes up more resources
I'm pretty sure both are getting an official ICS release, but that being said, Xboarder is developing an AOSP ICS for both of these phones.
adslee said:
It's a matter of preference so I'll just sum it up for you, short and sweet,
Samsung Galaxy S2
- bigger screen
- flashing ROMs is easier
- Touchwiz is lighter than Sense
- Thinner and lighter than the Amaze (noticeable difference)
- Super AMOLED screen will result in more vibrant colours and blacker blacks
- Known to have common screen defects
- Able to use Samsung Galaxy S2 SkyRocket ROMs
HTC Amaze 4G
- Better build quality
- S-On, bootloaders can still be unlocked
- Notification LED
- SLCD screen with higher resolution
- Capacitive backlight bleeds onto the screen
- Better camera
- Sense UI is more eye-candy but takes up more resources
I'm pretty sure both are getting an official ICS release, but that being said, Xboarder is developing an AOSP ICS for both of these phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help on this one.
I thought both devices had the same CPU, but I may be wrong here.
Very true on the S-ON.. I am coming from an EVO3D.. and the Hboot 1.5 has been a bit of a sore subject. I guess I will have to play with them and make a game time decision.
Sucks I dont have any spare tmobile phones laying around so I could just wait for the One S... and there is no way I could live with a flip phone for 2-4 months. Oh well, F me right?
If you don't want screen bleeding issue, washed out picture while taking it with flash in night, having wifi with a foil mod, and a camera that you need to put a black electrical tape, plus blue strips of line if your in a direct sun light then go with the GALAXY.. plus S-Off is still haven't achived yet..
If you don't want a plastiky feeling that it might easily broke and gps locking on minimal satelite a bad camera compare to AMAZE then go with the AMaZE
the amaze is built with confidence and durability while samsung just think ''uhh ok lets put our big screen in our recycled plastic casing.." the amaze has a plus and negative side so is the galaxy.. the galaxy has a lot'of development and mods while amaze has at less development so it is up to you to decide and pick what suit you most...
hyperkamote said:
If you don't want screen bleeding issue, washed out picture while taking it with flash in night, having wifi with a foil mod, and a camera that you need to put a black electrical tape, plus blue strips of line if your in a direct sun light then go with the GALAXY.. plus S-Off is still haven't achived yet..
If you don't want a plastiky feeling that it might easily broke and gps locking on minimal satelite a bad camera compare to AMAZE then go with the AMaZE
the amaze is built with confidence and durability while samsung just think ''uhh ok lets put our big screen in our recycled plastic casing.." the amaze has a plus and negative side so is the galaxy.. the galaxy has a lot'of development and mods while amaze has at less development so it is up to you to decide and pick what suit you most...
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Click to collapse
i don't have half the problems you're referring too... lol, only the capacitive button "screen bleed" (which has multiple software fixes now), and the back cover squeaks...
the reason why i chose the amaze over the galaxy is cuz, like most people, i hated samsung's ridiculously huge screen with low resolution that they decided to combine for the galaxy...
and i would gladly make that choice again if i had to, however in hindsight, i would say go for the htc sensation, similar phone with tons more development, which the amaze is lacking...
Bdix said:
Go with Nokia!
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! Get a nokia. That way t-mobile can go from "exceeding expectations" to "Record selling" with 1 more person buying it!I kid.. I kid!
smatthew45 said:
i don't have half the problems you're referring too... lol, only the capacitive button "screen bleed" (which has multiple software fixes now), and the back cover squeaks...
the reason why i chose the amaze over the galaxy is cuz, like most people, i hated samsung's ridiculously huge screen with low resolution that they decided to combine for the galaxy...
and i would gladly make that choice again if i had to, however in hindsight, i would say go for the htc sensation, similar phone with tons more development, which the amaze is lacking...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha i forgot about the squeaking back since I'm on Kraken case by trident.. yes i know there are fix for that but for me i still go with htc,, i have line up htc from mytouch 3g to nexus one, to hd2(which has a lot of mods, development and customization) and so on..
If you asked me, I would go with the Amaze 4G.
I just switched to TMobile when I get my IRS loot. I was on Sprint at first, and the phone I sold before going to TMobile was the Epic Touch (GS2 on Sprint).
A couple things to note is that the Sprint version of the GS2 has a Exynos CPU. The TMobile version is Snap Dragon "I think". The Sprint version was very snappy and no lag at all through out the whole phone. Mine was with root and custom rom though. The Samsung UI is plain compared to Sense UI that you find on HTC phones such as Evo / MyTouch ect....
Even though the screen has better color it also has a downgrade in the resolution department compared to the Amaze \ Evo 3D. Not to mention the camera is better on the Amaze also. When I say better I mean NIGHT / DAY better. The GS2 has a beautiful camera in the quality apartment but the Amaze is like times 2 of the GS2 camera.
I sold my Sprint GS2 and picked up an Amaze off Craigslist and using the prepaid 49.99 plan.
Long story short...... Both phones are good and both have a resale value of at least $350+ I would go with Amaze 4G
@The O.P......
Look,
WHY bother with either since the HTC X is coming out?
Furthermore, IF you really don't need a smartphone,
Why not wait until Google's design (3 virtual buttons instead of 3-4 physical buttons) shows up on HTC's phones probably later this year?
I made the mistake and bought the Amaze 4g only to find out this crap about Google and it's "virtual button" phone...soon to take over the market in another phase.
My 2 cents,
stefnuts
IMO if you have to chose between them, i think the amaze is a bit better, i love my amaze, had a i9000m which i loved aswell. dont bother with one x, its garbage Tegra 3 blows! go with one s which has a s4 chip (rapes tegra3 in performance.)
ed116 said:
IMO if you have to chose between them, i think the amaze is a bit better, i love my amaze, had a i9000m which i loved aswell. dont bother with one x, its garbage Tegra 3 blows! go with one s which has a s4 chip (rapes tegra3 in performance.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Big shock! The tegra 2 in my galaxy tab 10.1 sucks pretty badly.
buy a cheap phone on CList and wait for the new phones to come out.
Rumored to get the One X, we are getting the Blaze. Hopefully the Lumia 900 variant as well
I tried a Galaxy S2, and liked many things about it, but finally went with an Amaze. The Samsung has several points in its favor. It has a larger AMOLED screen (no backlight/button bleed at all) and the battery life is nothing short of amazing (for an Android). I can't comment on the camera because that's not something I'm particularly interested in, even though it's one of the Amaze's main selling points.
What sorely disappointed me about about the Galaxy was how dreadful the audio output was through the headphone jack. I listen/watch to a lot of music and music videos and audio quality is high up my list of priorities for a cell phone. With default settings the Amaze sounds great, and is even more impressive with SRS turned on. The qHD display also is very sharp, though the contrast seems too high (darks are too dark and brights are too bright.)
Disappointments with the Amaze so far have been the capacitive button bleed (easily fixable), the amount of bloatware and the truly alarming way video playback chews up the battery. I'm loathe to root it just yet, as I'm not fond of nuking my warranty, but I may have to if I keep getting annoyed by Slacker and other junk running in the background.
I hated my G1
Liked my G2 a lot
LOVE MY Amaze 4G. I just cant put it down.
Have seen GS2 in peoples hands, although the colors are superb, the low resolution bugs me, its not as clear as the Amaze. Also Samsung has customized the hell out of the OS to a point that as an Android user since 2008 I couldnt do simple tasks like putting a shortcut to a webpage on the screen and opening the app drawer.
Don't really have any of the problems that most people seem to have with the Amaze (no squeaks, WiFi works great). My only current beef with the Amaze is that we don't currently have S-OFF, which is keeping a lot of developers from making roms for this phone. I buy Android phones because I like rooting and trying out new roms...I'm getting bored with this phone already.
MildewMan said:
Don't really have any of the problems that most people seem to have with the Amaze (no squeaks, WiFi works great). My only current beef with the Amaze is that we don't currently have S-OFF, which is keeping a lot of developers from making roms for this phone. I buy Android phones because I like rooting and trying out new roms...I'm getting bored with this phone already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally understand, when I had my G2 there was new roms every other day. I flashed them all and I just loved all the amazing roms
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using XDA App
So, I have an Amaze and like it enough. Don't love it, don't hate it. I like it. I want something new though and I am tired of waiting for ICS to drop. I am thinking I want to buy a Galaxy Nexus. Am I crazy? Has anyone here used the Galaxy Nexus and went back to the Amaze? Or is something else that will work on 4G with T-Mobile coming out really soon? Carrier branded or not.
I played around with my friend's Window's phone on 7.5 and it worked really nicely. I couldn't find any "high-end" Windows phones that I liked that work on T-Mobile 4G. Maybe I should stay away from those. Thoughts about a WM phone or the Galaxy Nexus?
Thanks for your input.
tedya said:
So, I have an Amaze and like it enough. Don't love it, don't hate it. I like it. I want something new though and I am tired of waiting for ICS to drop. I am thinking I want to buy a Galaxy Nexus. Am I crazy? Has anyone here used the Galaxy Nexus and went back to the Amaze? Or is something else that will work on 4G with T-Mobile coming out really soon? Carrier branded or not.
Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/02/htc-one-s-review/
this
edit: yes, you are crazy for wanting a overpriced phone that is already outdated lol
No you're not crazy man, Just don't switch to a new device just because it has a newer Android OS on it
and lol whenever i see the One S I see an Amaze with a new processor and screen
edit: Widows Phones are fun, I have an HTC Radar and can say that was a great phone, but its just too boring for my tastes, and the lack of classic emulators was disturbing, my HTC Inspire with similar specs ran an NES emulator better than the Radar
I was thinking about for a week. And finally made my decision. Keeping my amaze. The galaxy nexus is sexy but the amaze WILL get ics aosp and sense versions EVENTUALLY. Just be patient. I was looking at galaxy nexus on eBay and they're sooo cheap I was so tempted to click "buy it now". But the amaze is simply better except for the screen (which is arguable) and operating system (which we will get eventually) and probably running smoother than the galaxy nexus.
I'm keeping my amaze until around October
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using XDA
Pulsewave said:
No you're not crazy man, Just don't switch to a new device just because it has a newer Android OS on it
and lol whenever i see the One S I see an Amaze with a new processor and screen
edit: Widows Phones are fun, I have an HTC Radar and can say that was a great phone, but its just too boring for my tastes, and the lack of classic emulators was disturbing, my HTC Inspire with similar specs ran an NES emulator better than the Radar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
much better camera(s), much better processor, much better os, much much better build, thinner, lighter, much better screen.. I could go on lol, its definitely worth the upgrade (if you have the money). also all the accessories HTC is making for the ONE series is worth the upgrade.
If you don't have money to waste id stick with the amaze though since its not a bad device at all really. im probably upgrading to the Nokia Lumia 900 though I miss me some WP7
edit: how does nes run on wp7? is it playable
---------- Post added at 03:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:39 PM ----------
fuego77 said:
I was thinking about for a week. And finally made my decision. Keeping my amaze. The galaxy nexus is sexy but the amaze WILL get ics aosp and sense versions EVENTUALLY. Just be patient. I was looking at galaxy nexus on eBay and they're sooo cheap I was so tempted to click "buy it now". But the amaze is simply better except for the screen (which is arguable) and operating system (which we will get eventually) and probably running smoother than the galaxy nexus.
I'm keeping my amaze until around October
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using XDA
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Click to collapse
the galaxy nexus looks amazing, the camera is a deal breaker for me though =l
NES runs ok on the Radar, about 3/4 speed with the sound on, it should run the same on any WP7 phone with a 1Ghz processor and 512 RAM
and lol i read that the S4 smokes the tegra 3s so I can give you that, and I don't factor OS revisions when I look at newer phones simply because Android = portable most of the time nor accessories either. I just look at build quality and specs and work from there, for the longest time i saw "1.5 dual core, 1 GB RAM, aluminium build, no AT&T 3.5G bands"
gonna inject a lil bias here: I HATE pentile screens, everything looks like its through a fishnet to me lol, and samsung scared me away from any AMOLED screens thanks to their crazy color saturation
camera: More megapixels are great but how good the image sensor is is what counts, Amaze is better in both regards
Edit: call me crazy but I like a slightly heavier phone, helps give me a sense of how durable a phone is, even if it has nothing to do with durability
Pulsewave said:
NES runs ok on the Radar, about 3/4 speed with the sound on, it should run the same on any WP7 phone with a 1Ghz processor and 512 RAM
and lol i read that the S4 smokes the tegra 3s so I can give you that, and I don't factor OS revisions when I look at newer phones simply because Android = portable most of the time nor accessories either. I just look at build quality and specs and work from there, for the longest time i saw "1.5 dual core, 1 GB RAM, aluminium build, no AT&T 3.5G bands"
gonna inject a lil bias here: I HATE pentile screens, everything looks like its through a fishnet to me lol, and samsung scared me away from any AMOLED screens thanks to their crazy color saturation
camera: More megapixels are great but how good the image sensor is is what counts, Amaze is better in both regards
Edit: call me crazy but I like a slightly heavier phone, helps give me a sense of how durable a phone is, even if it has nothing to do with durability
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the lumia 900 should handle it better. RAM doesn't really matter in WP7. i still would prefer 1gb though
benchmarks don't really mean anything. if the hardware isn't optimized for the software then the benchmarks wont be great. I would pick the one x over the one s anyday I don't like aluminum phones. I like polycarbonate plastic much more and the one x has that. i read somewhere that the one s will come with both though.
yeah pentile is horrible, i had the atrix. but, the pentile on the one S isn't noticeable at the slightness. htc did something, they wouldn't make it have a bad screen considering everyone hates the pentile on moto devices.
the one s, and one x have the same camera. the amaze and one s both have 8mp, but the one s has a MUCH better sensor, and a dedicated image chip.. i don't know what you're talking about lol, the camera flys past the amaze. have you seen the sample shots?
edit: megapixels count definitely, it depends on how you use them though. the way Nokia is on the pureview is great. will be the best camera on the mobile phone market. the one series will probably be in 2nd place and leave the amaze in 3rd
tedya said:
So, I have an Amaze and like it enough. Don't love it, don't hate it. I like it. I want something new though and I am tired of waiting for ICS to drop. I am thinking I want to buy a Galaxy Nexus. Am I crazy? Has anyone here used the Galaxy Nexus and went back to the Amaze? Or is something else that will work on 4G with T-Mobile coming out really soon? Carrier branded or not.
I played around with my friend's Window's phone on 7.5 and it worked really nicely. I couldn't find any "high-end" Windows phones that I liked that work on T-Mobile 4G. Maybe I should stay away from those. Thoughts about a WM phone or the Galaxy Nexus?
Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not crazy man. Lately I've been thinking about this too.
lol sorry stratax, I was refering to the galaxy nexus with the whole camera comment, I've been really letting my cell phone knowledge slip there after getting the amaze so other than the bare basics I really havent looked into the One series all that heavily, and i thought the one s only had the aluminium shell that was hardened with some sort of high voltage process
and I'm not saying that megapixels aren't all that important, I'm saying there are other factors that contribute to how good a camera sensor is, compare the same photo across all kinds of phones with the same number of megapixels and you'll see a clear difference in the quality is all I'm saying
that nokia phone is rediculous though
Nah your not crazy, I had an amaze with a custom rom but they weren't anything special but a better stock experience. I recently got a galaxy nexus and I love it. HD screen, quality 5MP camera, and ICS plus it has a bigger screen with on screen keys which I like better. Never thought of going back to Amaze, especially with all the roms, mods, & customization but its all depends on your needs
Sent from my Nexus Prime using XDA Premium
AttachedSilver said:
Nah your not crazy, I had an amaze with a custom rom but they weren't anything special but a better stock experience. I recently got a galaxy nexus and I love it. HD screen, quality 5MP camera, and ICS plus it has a bigger screen with on screen keys which I like better. Never thought of going back to Amaze, especially with all the roms, mods, & customization but its all depends on your needs
Sent from my Nexus Prime using XDA Premium
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HaHaHa. Is it ever about needs? Nope. For me, at least, it is about getting something new and in some cases, having a phone that not many others in town will have. Before we had 3G/4G on AT&T and TMO, I was buying a new phone every 3 months. Mainly Nokia N series. Remember those bad boys? Buy it, swap out the SIM and go. Now with the different 3G/4G bands on the carriers, it makes it more difficult to just buy a new phone and be happy. This doesn't work, that doesn't work, 2G only, etc. Without fail, the "other" carrier has the phone I want. Then when I switch to get that phone, the "other" carrier I just switched from gets another phone I want. It is never ending and I still to this day have the itch to buy a new phone every couple of months. I swear, I need phone purchasing/carrier switching rehab.
I've had people offer their GNexus for my Amaze and I couldn't justify the trade. The GNexus has a better screen and it's a Google phone and all, but the cons of that phone are too much for me to handle (no microSD slot, terrible camera, etc).
adslee said:
i've had people offer their gnexus for my amaze and i couldn't justify the trade. The gnexus has a better screen and it's a google phone and all, but the cons of that phone are too much for me to handle (no microsd slot, terrible camera, etc).
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+1111111111
---------- Post added at 08:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:58 PM ----------
Pulsewave said:
lol sorry stratax, I was refering to the galaxy nexus with the whole camera comment, I've been really letting my cell phone knowledge slip there after getting the amaze so other than the bare basics I really havent looked into the One series all that heavily, and i thought the one s only had the aluminium shell that was hardened with some sort of high voltage process
and I'm not saying that megapixels aren't all that important, I'm saying there are other factors that contribute to how good a camera sensor is, compare the same photo across all kinds of phones with the same number of megapixels and you'll see a clear difference in the quality is all I'm saying
that nokia phone is rediculous though
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oh I was about to say hahah. no, on one CES coverage someone stated that it will come in both polycarbonate and anodized aluminum. still, I would take the IPS SLCD 2 over super amoled pentile ANYDAY
yeah, the sensor is one of the most important things if you have a decent number of pixels. if you had a badass sensor with a vga camera it would look a bit funny lol. speaking of which, the galaxy nexus has crap mp count and sensor xD fail flagship device imo
edit: the most I would pay for the galaxy nexus is 300 and that would never happen lol
ive owned both the amaze and htc evo 4g lte
i notice no difference in picture quality. they both take great pictures
Owned both the Galaxy Nexus & the Amaze. They are both nice phones. However, the Amaze is just a great phone. I do have my complaints such as the battery and the fact that I am on my 4th Amaze (2 would not charge/overheating problem straight out of box, 3rd lost).
The Amaze has got to be one of the most underrated phones I know about.
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using xda premium
I have both the Amaze and the Nexus. Unless Samsung changes how they manufacture their phones, I will never buy another Samsung phone again.
I had my Nexus for about a month when It started exhibiting the famous charging issue. I sent it in for warranty repair (ha), and got it back three weeks later with a note that it had suffered water damage, and therefore my warranty was void. Considering the fact that the phone was never wet, this had to be a bogus claim. I tried correcting this to no avail - it's obvious that Samsung doesn't stand behind their products.
I was able to pick up an Amaze for $69 through Target, and I'm glad I'm back with HTC. The build of the phone is so much better than either the Nexus or the GS II that I have owned, and the camera is the best camera I've seen in a smartphone.
The only negative I have regarding the Amaze is Sense - I would love a stable vanilla ROM that has everything working....
But I digress - I would not recommend going from the Amaze to the Nexus to anyone.
I was looking to upgrade my OG Evo to the new LTE, but after playing around with it at the Sprint store, I'm not so sure.
Maybe people can give me feedback:
1. I really liked the dedicated camera hardware button; but I was hoping this would be a quick way to take a photo from sleep mode. Seemed to me it didn't operate until you turn on phone, unlock screen, etc. So it actually takes longer than the iPhone. Is there any way to make it shoot straight from sleep?
2. I was excited by the 'take stills while shooting video' thing -- but all 3 phones do this.
3. Switching from front to rear camera is a major pain, takes 3 steps. Samsung & iPhone it's instant.
4. Does anyone know of a place to see real-world photos from this phone side by side with iPhone? I know the lens is f2 (vs 2.4), but I have a feeling the optics are better on the iPhone.
5. Does it have a panorama mode? I thought that was already built in to ICS. I couldn't find it. The iPhone panorama is excellent.
Wow, that's a lot of camera-related questions!
6. What's with the "..." at the bottom of the screen in many places? Is that because there's no menu button? It looks odd and out of place.
7. How difficult is to root the Evo; and how well does it run with AOSP Jelly Bean? Are all hardware features available?
Thanks for any input! I'm having a really hard time with this decision ... Evo LTE vs iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S3.
(The iPhone 'feels' like the best device BY FAR (in terms of build quality, design, screen & speed), but I HATE the narrow screen and the absence of a Swype, which I can't imagine living without.)
couple of details...
ok, you had a lot of questions and most related to camera. so i will try to get you up to speed. before i start i'm in the same boat and need to choose between the iphone 5 (currently have) the galaxy S3 (just traded away from my S2), and the HTC evo 4g lte ( always been an htc fan boy ).
on #1, you're right the camera button does require the phone to be unlocked before use (for now).
#2, yes they all do some sort of pic in video mode. however the aperture on the HTC is the best of the three and the pics taken while doing vids will be better on the HTC...this should help cover #4 as well. as far as finding pics to match i could load a few but most aren't of the same theme.
#3, the switching between rear and front camera...lets be serious. how often do you need instant switching back and forth? but to explain, the camera of the htc is extremely powerful and so just as if you use a high end camera changin a few features may seem slow. trade off comrade, trade off...would you rather a slow focus and quick switch or quick focus and slow switch? also it really isn't that slow. as compared to the S3 it's on par, the iphone is faster but the front facing camera is a joke compared to those of the android counterparts. they all have a panoramic shot mode so dont fret on that, #5 dismissed.
While on the topic of cameras i will say the iphone 5 has an awesome camera compared to the iphone 4/4s but the focus and detail is failing when placed beside the S3 and evo LTE.
now to the fun stuff and why i got the iphone...
first #6, yes the "..." is the menu. no haptic button for the htc. no idea on the rooting yet, i like to test stock before i go tamperin...just seems fair to have a really good device before i make it the perfect one.^_^. . the iphone 5 is a spectacular device specially seeing any device i get right now (i'm a sprint user, *sigh* hopefully loyalty has it's advantages). IOS is a very stable OS and gives a ease of use unchallenged by many. if you've ever had an iphone more so the last three setting up your new iphone should be as easy as syncing to itunes or loading from cloud to have damned near everything loaded for you. . . .BUT it's old, and lame, and too stupid friendly. i make no jabs @ apple, i have both mac and PC and as i said got the iphone 5 and have had every other dating back to the original iphone (SN: anyone else notice how much the latest iphone looks more like the first more so than any other...victim of fashion i guess).
Samsung, oh samasung....i had the S2 and i have to admit, it became one of my favs. i didn't even want the damned thing, but my gurl made me do the "matching" thing. don't laugh, there are far worse options. -,-... back to focus, the S2 was large, beautiful, responsive and gave a so-so battery performance. the new version has all that and then some. it is loaded, wait let me clarify.....LOADED with goodies and features. all eye catching, all empowering, all really cool. and the way they have been presented on tv and web is about to make the next thing i say a shocker to some.... the HTC can do these things to. HTC started the trend of phone gestures on smart phones...back before android on this little known part of history called windows mobile 6. and they've kept it going all along. never really got the front face it deserved but it's had it and the evo is no different. no before i get blasted there are a few features unique to samsung and again why i emphasized on how many there are.
last but definately not least is HTC. they've been my fav for a loooo...insert coffee break here...oong time, since since my 8125 (see cingular). the htc is a thign of beauty in modest form. the power, the look, the camer, the kickstand....is just an awesome picture of what a phone should be. it works awesome as it's predecessor did, without the hellaciously horrendous battery life. it's that nerdy chic in class all grown up. but there inlies her problem...her focus has shifted. she's just as smart as before, smarter even. but she's gotten so shallow that like your "..." problem in #6 things that used to make her intelligence known are now hidden behind a pretty smile.
i've ranted long enough and hopefully helped fix some of your questions. i think i just solved mine. getting the htc tomorrow. glad i could help and thanks for yours.
Wow, thanks, that's a lot of useful info!
I beg to differ, however; I find I need to use the cam-switch feature quickly all the time. E.g., you take a picture of something cool, then you want to take a picture of yourself & your wife being at the something cool ...
d0g said:
Wow, thanks, that's a lot of useful info!
I beg to differ, however; I find I need to use the cam-switch feature quickly all the time. E.g., you take a picture of something cool, then you want to take a picture of yourself & your wife being at the something cool ...
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I'm not a big fan of taking pictures with the front camera. I always considered it as something important for video chatting, not so much taking pictures I actually intend on keeping. It's only 1.3 megapixels as opposed to the 8 on the back.
As for the phone, I like it overall. There are some kinks, but you would be foolish to expect there not to be any a few months after the device launches.
I'm having the contact ringtone not working - haven't gotten an update to fix it that should've been out for a week already. Also have had problems with swype force closing, and have had one glorious occasion where I was stuck in a boot loop. And I'm not even rooted! Ended up factory resetting and losing all my apps.
I really WANT to like it. The battery is awesome, the camera is nice. No ****ing LTE yet, and I'm in Los Angeles - one of the biggest markets in the US. No Jellybean yet either.
I'll wait it out though. I had the old Evo 4G and it was a great year and a half.
d0g said:
5. Does it have a panorama mode?
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Yes. It's excellent. Up to 5 panes IIRC. I took some pics at the zoo last weekend. They were too big to upload to image shack. Turned out great but you'll have to take my word for it.
d0g said:
7. How difficult is to root the Evo; and how well does it run with AOSP Jelly Bean? Are all hardware features available??
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Very easy. I did it with the one click method (it's noob proof). Rooted in about 15 minutes. I'm running the Mean Rom 4.5.1. It's super fast and not buggy. It's the best rom out there IMO. Lots of camera mods.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671577
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1727167
Watch the video review in the second link. It shows all the bells & whistles. The new update has a 1.7 overclock kernel.
Read my post about my HTC Evo 4G on a thread I posted a few days ago here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=32045074
And...
Here is a little review of this phone: I wrote this on another thread.
Found a Great vs Review! Keep in mind this was in May! Plus I don't care much for the GS3. This is strictly for The Two Devices Listed Down Below. 
This sumed it up for me! Good thing it shows the differences between camera. I see that the Nexus camera is more of a square format then a wide format. So that right there is a no go on my end. But yea, they are both Superior devices. Wish I can own both...But oh well....
Check out this link for the full review!
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/HTC-EVO-4G-LTE-vs-Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus_id3039/page/2
Posted: 21 May 2012, 07:05 , by Brian K.
Processor and Memory:
Samsung uses a 1.2GHz dual core TI OMAP4460 processor, while EVO 4G LTE is powered by a dual core Qualcomm S4. Both run on 1GB of RAM. The Samsung opts for 32GB of internal storage, whereas HTC only offers 16GB built-in but has expandable memory for another possible 64GB. HTC also partnered with Dropbox to give users activating an EVO 4G LTE 25GB of free cloud storage. Both run the OS quickly and fluidly, and in everyday use it is likely that you wouldn’t notice much of a difference. There is something to be said for the heavy graphical load of Sense 4.0 and how well the EVO 4G LTE handles it.
When it comes to benchmarks, however, the EVO 4G LTE mops the floor with the Nexus. Besting our previous scores, the EVO 4G LTE was able to achieve just shy of 5500 on Quadrant Standard, with the Galaxy Nexus topping out just over 2000 at its best. Nenamark 2 gave similar results, with the EVO 4G LTE topping out at 58.8fps and the Galaxy Nexus less than half that 24.9fps. On AnTuTu the EVO 4G LTE maxed out a few points shy of 7000, with the Galaxy Nexus far behind at about 5100 (with the rest of its scores down in the mid 4000s.) It is pretty clear that Qualcomm’s latest and greatest is up the challenge of some heavy computing.
Camera:
A reworked camera app was one of the selling points of Android 4.0, and we have to say we’re impressed with the instant capture feature that the Galaxy Nexus offers. The interface is better, but still clunky and worlds behind the HTC interface found on the EVO 4G LTE. The technology behind the Nexus’ camera is also lagging behind; Samsung opted for a 5 megapixel f2.8 camera while HTC went with an 8 megapixel f2.0 with backside illumination. Both are capable of producing some great shots, and at times the Galaxy Nexus bested the EVO 4G LTE, but the majority of the time the HTC outperformed the Samsung.
Colors were more natural with the EVO 4G LTE, details were crisper and tricky lighting conditions were handled much better. The Galaxy Nexus struggled with color saturation, backlight situations and light/dark contrast (such as shooting shadows.) The EVO 4G LTE bested the Galaxy Nexus especially indoors, where the latter had a tendency to lose details quickly, as evidenced by the pantry shot.
Conclusion:
These are undoubtedly the two best Android devices Sprint has to offer, and really are two of the best smartphones available today. Some of this is going to come down to preferences, for example Sense versus stock or AMOLED versus S-LCD. All things considered the HTC EVO 4G LTE was the better performer of the pair in our opinion. It offers a superior display, top notch performance, excellent call quality and has an inspired design. The Galaxy Nexus is not without merit, and we would certainly carry one as our everyday phone if one were handed to us, but given the choice the HTC edges out the Nexus in too many categories to call it even.
When it comes to cameras, I know wassup! This Evo 4G LTE is a beast comparing it to any iPhone! Android in general had panorama way back even before the iPhone had it. And to tell you the truth its on top of its game. Don't expect to take excellent shots with either or. Cause what you see on the commercials is not what you get in real life. It takes dedication & a Non-Moving subject for it to come out perfect. Like "landscape"
But yea, Im a big camera person. And for I to choose this camera over any other phone camera means a lot in my line of Hobby!
The only thing is, if you are planning to upload to facebook. There is something with facebook that it does not let it load its full resolution. The only way for it to upload full resolution of a photo is if you pass it over to your computer and upload it that way. Or I think uploading it through the App "google chrome" should do the trick. Facebook app sucks on Android! I have to admit that on Apple, facebook app its the best!
I know because I owned a iPhone 4 and my girl owns a iPhone 4S!
But yea, if you are not a fan of a little screen. The iPhone is not going to make justice.
Watching YouTube videos, movies, tv shows, playing a game on the Evo 4G LTE screen has become one of my best experience then doing so on a iPhone screen.
Keep that in mind!
One last thing about the camera between the Evo 4G LTE & any iPhone!
This camera shoots widescreen shots and keeps a aperture of 2.2 or I think 2.0 which is Heavenly good. The bigger the aperture the better the lens! It gives great depth of field, it also as on-board effects that I often play with. My favorite is "over exposed" which is a Black & white effect.
Here are some examples!
I posted nights shots for to see how great it captures light and night scenes! It may not look superb due to uploading with xda but on the phone it looks great!
Camera is about the same quality on all three phones.
You can add camera to lockscreen.
I'd pick the S3 (currently what I use, despite being a HTC fanboy).
Don't chain yourself to Apple.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
evo 4g lte beats every phone in speed.. i have tested it using every benchmark and quadrant app thats out and the evo wins in all of them :good:
Thanks for all the feedback & input!
I guess my biggest issue is Sense; IMHO, it looks old, ugly, and annoying. I've hated Sense for 2 years, and it keeps getting worse.
That weird "stretch" overscroll effect is just awful.
Couple more questions ...
If I install stock (or CM) ICS or JB, what would I be losing out? Would I still have the dual still/video buttons in camera? Continuous shooting?
Is there a stable MIUI ROM for the Evo LTE? (MIUI is amazing on my OG)
Does anyone know if there's any Swype-like keyboard options for the iPhone?
How often do you get that stupid "menu" button taking up 10% of your screen? That really blows my mind!
Good article: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/08/30/hands-on-how-cyanogenmod-10-fixed-my-evo-4g-lte/
Does anyone know about this from the comments?
Rohan Mathur • a month ago
Just an FYI Liam, we are moving the entire HTC MSM8960 family from proprietary library files to an Open Source HAL for Camera. Guess what that means? Near perfect camera
My device (the One XL), the HTC One S, and your device, the Evo 4G LTE are all making the switch. The new camera libraries are working very, very well.
Should be merged either tonight or tomorrow. Big props to dzo from XDA for his flatout amazing work.
Track the commit here: http://review.cyanogenmod.com/...
And here is the commit for your device for building the opensourced Camera HAL: http://review.cyanogenmod.com/...
EDIT: Commit was merged last night, should be included in nightlies from now on.
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Sounds like someone from the CM dev team ... has anyone tried CM10?
It looks AWESOME .... does it now have all the camera functions?
(And it fixes the menu button issue.)
d0g said:
Thanks for all the feedback & input!
I guess my biggest issue is Sense; IMHO, it looks old, ugly, and annoying. I've hated Sense for 2 years, and it keeps getting worse.
That weird "stretch" overscroll effect is just awful.
Couple more questions ...
If I install stock (or CM) ICS or JB, what would I be losing out? Would I still have the dual still/video buttons in camera? Continuous shooting?
Is there a stable MIUI ROM for the Evo LTE? (MIUI is amazing on my OG)
Does anyone know if there's any Swype-like keyboard options for the iPhone?
How often do you get that stupid "menu" button taking up 10% of your screen? That really blows my mind!
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HTC already released an update to remove the menu bar and make the mulitasking button a menu button.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
durandetto said:
HTC already released an update to remove the menu bar and make the mulitasking button a menu button.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
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True but, on some devices that option is not working. I know cause I'm one of them. Do you know how I.may solve this problem? Im able to set it up but when I press or hold the multi button it does not go to menu.
dreammaker23 said:
True but, on some devices that option is not working. I know cause I'm one of them. Do you know how I.may solve this problem? Im able to set it up but when I press or hold the multi button it does not go to menu.
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I doubt that. Should be working flawlessly if you are running sense 4.1 or an aosp ROM. Reboot your phone
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Steven 1 said:
I doubt that. Should be working flawlessly if you are running sense 4.1 or an aosp ROM. Reboot your phone
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
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Don't doubt it cause its happening to me. I'm stock to the bone! And yes I am on 4.1 sense.
The only thing I could think being that you are stock is to try a factory reset.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
I'll try that.. but I'm not really in the need for a menu buttons. I guess I'll wait until.. One, I root my Evo or Two: HTC, comes out with JB.
Not really related but I took this awesome shot of the sunrise the other day.