Phone Buying Advice... - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I am contemplating getting a new android phone because I can't stand the slow speeds and general lag of my ZTE blade anymore.
I want to buy offline, am in the UK and looking to spend around £220 tops.
I would ideally like it to ship with close to stock ICS and have a decent camera (doesn't need to be amazing) and obviously be ARMv7. The main thing for me is software, I want a smooth experience, with a solid android build.
I really want a Xiaomi Mi One, but they are simply impossible to get hold of outside China at a decent price.
Now heres the dilemma....theres a great offer on the HTC EVO 3D at UK store Asda at the moment for £207 all in. However I think it's ugly, 3D is a useless gimmick as far as i'm concerned and from what I hear it has terrible battery performance. I also hate Sense. However given the fact it has a QHD display, 1GB Ram and a dual core scorpion it is probably the best specd new android phone you can get for the price at the moment in the UK and there is a rumoured ICS upgrade.
The other option I had in mind was the Huawei honor which I could pick up for around £220 shipped from China. I like the styling, it has a huge battery and is shipping now with a close to stock good 4.0.3 build. However it only runs a single Core 1.4ghz Qualcomm scorpion and only has 512mb Ram.
I had considered the LG Optimus 2X but have heard only bad things. Xperia Play was an option too as I thought a game pad might be nice but again, hate the Sony skin and clean stock ICS is not an option. Nexus S would be great but they still cost £250+ and would ideally like expandable storage too.
I would like to run MIUI but can't be assed to mess around with all these half baked alpha/beta roms. Also a lot of the normal ICS builds I've seen about for the EVO look buggy.
Just want some reasonable hardware with a smooth ICS experience with as few bugs as possible and minimal hassle.
Any help in deciding or any other options I may have missed out on would be appreciated.....

I bought a Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman (WT19i) last week and am really happy with it.
I paid EUR150 in Ireland (Meteor) on a pre-paid plan and paid another $15 to get it sim unlocked and bootloader unlocked.
Audio is great. It has a single core scorpion that can easily be overclocked to 1.4 Ghz. The Adreno core runs surprisingly smooth. (Cant see a difference in performancy between my Galaxy Nexus and Live, although they do have different resolutions)
For the money this is the best low/midrange phone for sure will handle everything you throw at it really well.
Unlocking is a bit of a pain though (you have to peel off a sticker behind the battery to find test points and ground one of those points to unlock).
Currently running an alpha of MIUIv4 on it. It is very smooth but not yet feature complete.

Yeah, seen that, looks decent, was looking for something with a bit more screen real estate though, I found even the 3.5 inch on my ZTE blade a bit cramped.

Get a Rezound
Sent from my Ice Cream covered Rezound

Too expensive i'm affraid

phones 4 u are doing a great deal on the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc £199.00 great phone big screen 1.4ghz chip and there phone comes unlocked as well

Ooo, thanks for that. Basically the same spac as the Honour with a better camera and larger screen although batter capacity is smaller (saying that Sony's power saving is probably better anyway). It also looks like Sony are cooking up a tasty little ICS rom as well which is supposed to be dropping end of this month. This could be the one...

strikerdj2011 said:
phones 4 u are doing a great deal on the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc £199.00 great phone big screen 1.4ghz chip and there phone comes unlocked as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My girlfriend has the arc and battery is much better than my lg with a really good camera. Only problem she found is after a month the screen came loose and literally hangs off but to be fair it was an O2 refurb.
Really nice phone and pretty snappy too.
Dave
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk

Yeah, i'm not wild about the styling but it appears to be nice and trim, and can't really go too wrong with a Sony Camera. The ICS beta is looking pretty tidy though...
http://youtu.be/qJbDl8aikUk

Galaxy Nexus, I have one and I love it.

Love to have one, unfortunately can only stretch to about £220.

Related

[Q] Soo...today's the last day...

...that the Xperia X10 is officialy the flagship smartphone of sony ericsson.
How many of you are planning to keep it, at least until the end of this year?
Also, is it just me, or do I like the looks of the X10 better. Although it's a bit 'fat', I like the layout of the buttons and how it's less curved than the Arc. I also do like them a bit chubby
Anyway, long live the X10! Hopefully there will be some devs who stick with this phone and keep it getting better, but it's now the end of quite a crazy era for probably the most controversial android smartphone ever made.
going to stick with it for a while but doubt to have it till the end of the year
I will have to keep it till the end of the year Im 15 and bought a stupid phone... I readed many reviews that said this phone is great and WOULD GET MULTi tOUcH. It's Dual Touch, and that sucks. Afterall we didn't get any upgrades. But since the x10 gets gingerbread i'm going to bay end this year/begin next year another S.E.
S.E. her phones are just fully functional. All apps work, great functions, calling is really good. They make phones + services that make a phone something you can call a ''phone''.
Im gonna stay with it till next year, thx to the devs of xda that made that phone a good android phone that will be able to keep up with other androids such as desire, galaxys and nexus, hope sony will really keep their promise for gingerbread on x10, i doubt it but hey long live the x10
staying with it till it drops dead! can't find a reason why i shouldn't...does what it has to do till know..
I'm sure that I'll stick with X10 at least until 2013 lol.
The design is just beautiful and I don't splash cash every one or two year to "update" my phone
Same with many posts above.
I will use this phone for a long long time. I may even keep it as an antique 20 years from now as this phone had a meaning for me.
I had doubts with this phone before, but the devs made this phone great.
Like they made it less sluggish and just much more brilliant than when I first got it on 1.6. I got this phone the first day it came out and sticked with it until now because I was a big sony fan. (i'm not sure if i still am, as it was a wild ride from the first day)
Honestly, I don't see the point of owning the latest phone out anymore. I mean they purposely make these phone less than perfect so you will buy another phone every year or so. It's called planned obsolescence.
The X10 looks great, the camera is good and it has decent capabilities. I don't have an incentive to buy another new phone for another couple years.
Ive got my arc today! ;-)
i think we will really have everything we need in a phone with the X10 after the ginger upgrade
i don't see a need to "upgrade" and pay for a newer phone just because it's newer
reasons:
the camera is not that much better, if better at all
bigger screen (and bigger phone) than 4" is a CON for me...
i think the X10 has a very good screen even with 65K colors (and that may change with GB update)
full multitouch - hm...i don't even use the dual touch and when i do, i use it on games and that works just fine
512mb of ram over 384mb - doesn't really make a difference, at least not on gingerbread
WiFi hotspot - barnacle works just fine and i think with GB it'll be native
front camera - not usable where i live so thanks...
Faster cpu/gpu - OK, MAYBE this will be one noticeable difference but still, i think when our devs polish SE's GB it'll be within 5% speed difference in real usability, maybe not in benchmarks, but i don't play benchmarks
i don't really use HDMI (nor do i have a TV for that matter)
i don't care about built in radio
we will also have flash on x10 with GB update
i don't know if i missed anything but that about sums it up that FOR ME, the new features are not needed so for now i'll stay on x10
I voted for option #2, but I'm getting the Galaxy s2 after summer, depending on how good the 2.3 upgrade is really
I was thinking of going to the Incredible S or Optimus 3d but with the X10 getting gingerbread and SE offering a version with an unlocked bootloader, I'll be getting neither the S or 3D and sticking with SE.
With that said, the Arc and Neo don't offer enough for me to replace the X10 (only considered the S because of its 768 mb ram, front cam, and rear cam that comes close to the X10 but not enough of an upgrade either).
I'll wait for SE to bring out a dual core scorpion or a single core Krait (with adreno 3xx series).
What makes this even more difficult for me is the whole AT&T and TMO-USA status. Are they going to share 3g towers (tmo users able to use ATT's 3g bands?). It would be hard to justify 5-600$ for a phone just for it to be useless on 3g the following year. The only pentaband devices I know so far are Nokia's S^3.
I will keep my x10 until my region gets covered with LTE, then i will change phone.
Sent from my X10a using Tapatalk
No reason to upgrade, the phone does what I need it to do, except be able to make calls in loud places!
I really don't see any reason to upgrade.
Granted, if I had money to spare, I'd certainly be tempted.
But if you combine my current unemployment with the upcoming GB update...
my X10 still has a long life ahead!
Getting the latest Google version officially from SE is plain AWESOME.
I do appreciate the effort put in custom ROMs and I have tried a handful of them,
but I believe that my device is at its full potential only on official firmwares
(at least until the bootloader gets cracked/bypassed).
i choose option 3!!
i'm actually looking to pass the x10 on to my wife, and get myself a Desire HD. there is just something about that 4.3" screen that is tempting me
kantk20111 said:
How many of you are planning to keep it, at least until the end of this year?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely won't have X10 till end of year as too many great toys will explode before then.
Somehow, I seem to have preference for SE designs but only Arc looks good of the 4 new SE phones that are announced. Arc has very little to offer in terms of hardware improvements over X10. That to me is a big let down by SE. Maybe, they are not targeting these new phones for current X10 user base. These new models might be more to attract new customers towards SE by keeping the phone price low.
I wish Arc had the specs of Galaxy S2. I might still end up falling for Arc when I get to see it in person but that is only because of larger screen and sleek design. Or I might go low and buy Galaxy S2.
Did anyone try Samsung Focus? I thought the 5MP camera on it actually takes much better pictures than our X10. I am hoping Galaxy S2 might also be having a camera as good as Arc if not better.
Guys, the BOOTLOADER HAS BEEN CRACKED
This means that the X10 CAN AND WILL be as smooth and as functional as the Xperia Arc! This is AMAZING!
I WILL be sticking with my X10 until 2013-2014, or until there's a major update that will revolutionize phones. The X10 is as good as any 2011 single core phone, and is cheaper, and still has a great fanbase.
Long live the X10!
kantk20111 said:
Guys, the BOOTLOADER HAS BEEN CRACKED
This means that the X10 CAN AND WILL be as smooth and as functional as the Xperia Arc! This is AMAZING!
I WILL be sticking with my X10 until 2013-2014, or until there's a major update that will revolutionize phones. The X10 is as good as any 2011 single core phone, and is cheaper, and still has a great fanbase.
Long live the X10!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the bootloader hasn't been cracked, it's been bypassed...
kantk20111 said:
Guys, the BOOTLOADER HAS BEEN CRACKED
This means that the X10 CAN AND WILL be as smooth and as functional as the Xperia Arc! This is AMAZING!
I WILL be sticking with my X10 until 2013-2014, or until there's a major update that will revolutionize phones. The X10 is as good as any 2011 single core phone, and is cheaper, and still has a great fanbase.
Long live the X10!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yesterday my provider gave me a great deal on Iphone 4 - 32 gb, extent my contract for another 2 years and get Iphone for free + usb moderm + 5gb data for just 49$. I decided sell it to my wife's friend for 850$ and stick with X10 cuz it has all what I need and want for my work and study. there're only thing I miss that wifi tethering and hopefuly it'll be fixed on upcoming GB.
fiscidtox said:
the bootloader hasn't been cracked, it's been bypassed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the difference, in terms of what can be implemented ? (I really don't know, I'm hoping you do)

How good is the Atrix? Pros and Cons to Atrix.

so my contract will be up in May 4th.
after my horrid experience with the Backflip, im kind of on the iffy side about the atrix since its running motoblur.
the atrix seems like a good candidate. espcialy because of the lapdock. as im going to college and wanted a android tablet. but the atrix seems way better ATM and i can get it for around 450 at radio shack.
but first of all. i would want some general feed back from owners as you all.
pros and cons basically.
Atrix is a great phone to upgrade too. I myself came from a Backflip (CM6 installed). BLUR shouldn't be an issue since the phone is so powerful...but use LP or ADW etc as your launcher
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
rjayflo said:
Atrix is a great phone to upgrade too. I myself came from a Backflip (CM6 installed). BLUR shouldn't be an issue since the phone is so powerful...but use LP or ADW etc as your launcher
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
backflip, was a good attempt at a design of a phone unique, but with that they equipped it just sucked. i moved on to a HTC HD2 which is what i have right now. but i want my 3G back and 4G as my area will be available for 4G.
thanks for the tip on the launchers.
This phone is very well built especially in an otterbox case. It just feels like a sturdy phone. The camera is really good. I just upgraded from an Xperia X10 with loads of tweaks. I thought that was running really fast, and this manages to run even faster at stock. You can literally click almost anything and it will open immediately. Cons: I really like motoblur actually, but I wish there were more settings for syncing.
i keep on viewing more videos on youtube regarding the phone. called att today in the morning. i want it. but they are slapping a 45 tethering fee to my plan, becuase of the lapdock. i dont want to go over 200 bucks a month as its what we are paying right now right around 170ish 80ish.
but i want it.
but hen again, it makes me think about the whole motoblur thing. on the backflip, it was laggy and useless. i ended up putting a deblured rom on it.
by any chance does anybody know if you need to have a tethering plan?
You can get past the need for the tethering plan, I don't know personally because in Canada there are no tethering charges (except for the iPhone) but there are threads on bypassing it in the Dev forum. As for your original question, take a good look at the screen in a store or somewhere before you buy it. For a screen that is 960x540 the PenTile effect completely ruins it for me, and the color saturation is terrible. If it doesn't bother you than that its a great phone.
ill look that up. as for the screen. PenTile? imma hit google up. lol. but ill take a good look and compare to my HD2. screen doesnt really bug me. unless its low quality. then yes we have an issue. but other than that. were fine. thanks for the tip.
Silent8Strike said:
You can get past the need for the tethering plan, I don't know personally because in Canada there are no tethering charges (except for the iPhone) but there are threads on bypassing it in the Dev forum. As for your original question, take a good look at the screen in a store or somewhere before you buy it. For a screen that is 960x540 the PenTile effect completely ruins it for me, and the color saturation is terrible. If it doesn't bother you than that its a great phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely disagree. The screen looks very good, albet a little pixilated when displaying solid colors. My friend's droid x's screen looks washed out and low quality in comparison.
Pros
Most powerful phone. It is more powerful than most android phones coming out even the SGS2 can't touch it. Look at some benchmarking threads the Atrix gets in the 2900 with android 2.2 the SGS2 has 3000 but it is android 2.3 and does not push out as many pixels.
Great Battery life
1080p will be coming soon
4G coming soon
Very good build and very slim as well
Cons
Locked bootloader (Not a problem unless you like custom roms)
A bit laggy with a couple bugs (Could be fixed soon)
- AT&T
RacecarBMW said:
Pros
Most powerful phone. It is more powerful than most android phones coming out even the SGS2 can't touch it. Look at some benchmarking threads the Atrix gets in the 2900 with android 2.2 the SGS2 has 3000 but it is android 2.3 and does not push out as many pixels.
Great Battery life
1080p will be coming soon
4G coming soon
Very good build and very slim as well
Cons
Locked bootloader (Not a problem unless you like custom roms)
A bit laggy with a couple bugs (Could be fixed soon)
- AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like i said screen isnt really a big issue. as long it looks okay and a bit on the HD side im good.
ive been reading review alot lately (dont wanna **** up liek i did with the backflip) i hear battery is a drag. that it dies quickly because of the dual core processor. the 4G has to come eventually as its has 4G slapped on to its name
AT&T is not really a big issue. ha i got service where i live. not one single dropped call.
now here are two noobish questions.
1) what exactly is a locked bootloader? and is it good or bad?
2) can someone explain the whole dual core thing? i have heard and read two different things. i read that it is a 1 GHz processor thats it. i have heard from video reviews that its a processor with 2 1Ghz chips, that making it 2 Ghz. jsut wondering.
How are you getting it for 450 from radio shack? If you don't mind me asking.
I returned mine for the zoom and will prolly grab it again for that price.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
i visted my local radio shack about 3 days ago.
Phone 150
lapdock 329.99
so correction about 479.99
Atrix & lapdock deal @ radioshack
Oh with an upgrade? Damn that's a pretty good prove. I paid for it in full, 650 is crazy for a phone...
Alex2x3 said:
Oh with an upgrade? Damn that's a pretty good prove. I paid for it in full, 650 is crazy for a phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah. 600 for the phone is whack! i got a HD2 currently got it off cragislist for 150 guy needed the money.
best buy has the phone for 99.99 and the dock for 399.99. a total of about 500+
radio shack seems the best option. around 480 not bad 20 bucks is 20 bucks i can buy a case or something.
You guys are lucky you don't live in Australia, to buy any decent phone will set you back 800ish, Atrix 4G online in an Australian store (MobiCity.com.au) will set you back $1000 its stupid.
As for the question, I like my Atrix, its heaps better than my HTC 7 Trophy and faster than my iPhone 4 in some cases. The locked bootloader basically stops you flashing custom ROMs onto the phone entirely, only fake ROMs that are essentially very well built themes. Considering this is my first android though, I have yet to care about custom ROMs. The screen is good unless you're viewing solid colors which is when it goes pixelated and motoblur did annoy me as soon as I saw it, which is the reason I shoved GingerBlur on it as soon as I could.
- DarkRyoushii
sal2708 said:
now here are two noobish questions.
1) what exactly is a locked bootloader? and is it good or bad?
2) can someone explain the whole dual core thing? i have heard and read two different things. i read that it is a 1 GHz processor thats it. i have heard from video reviews that its a processor with 2 1Ghz chips, that making it 2 Ghz. jsut wondering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) In simplified terms, a Bootloader is low-level piece of software that loads the main OS (Android in this case). It's roughly equivalent of the PC BIOS.
Being locked means that its going to be very difficult to replace it.
You'd want to replace it in order to replace the Android OS with a newer version. The Manufactures and carriers are terribly slow to release new versions. The version of android on the atrix is version out of date (2.2) and almost a year old. It also means you can easily remove the extra 'value' crap motorola and the carriers like to add (like motoblur).
2) The chip runs at 1Ghz, but it's two cores on the chip which means it can 'theoretically' do twice as much per hertz. In practise, Android isn't that dual-core aware. It's likely Ice-Cream will bring more optimizations for dual-cores. Which we think is due late this year.
But Motorola would rather sell you a new phone than update it, hence why a locked bootloader is a pain. Consumers provide far better support than the manufactures or carriers
I see. I wonder if they will skip 2.3 and just go ahead to ice cream since ice cream is for dual core phones.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

Should I Buy The SGA?

Hello everybody!
I currently own a Samsung Galaxy Europa (I5500) which is on 2.3.7 Cyanogenmod 7.1, I like my phone but I want something a bit bigger with a better processor and camera etc so i have a few questions for anybody willing to reply, first of all I will let you know what I want in a phone and you can tell me if this phone is right for me then I'll get down to the questions.
I want a phone that runs fast and smoothly, loads up social networking applications fast, good for texting, fairly good camera, a good battery life to last a full day at college (Heavy texting, few phone calls, facebook browsing and checking emails once or twice) and easy access to emails- that pretty much sums up what i want.
Now my questions (All of these are related to STOCK roms, no custom ones- I want this phone to be my little stock phone which i will take good care off, i use my G5 for flashing etc)
Does this phone run smoothly?
Does this phone have an OFFICIAL 2.3 Gingerbread update via Samsung KIES?
Has it got a good battery life? (How long does a full charge last?)
Is there any word on an Ice Cream Sandwich update for SGA?
That's about it, please take the time out to reply to me, i'd appreciate it!
Thank you,
Curtis.
I find its ARM-11 processor somehow slow. However, the camera and screen for its money are brilliant.
YES, IT HAS GOT STOCK GINGERBREAD UPDATE. Its behaviour is smooth, but with rough edges. Battery life isn't as good it could be.
My tip - Xperia ray. It has got the best screen I've ever seen on an sub-300EUR Android device. It has got a better processor and it's nice to hold in hand too.
Depends on your budget, SGA is kinda "best buy" device in it's price segment, but as I can see you can get a quite nice deals on SGS and SGS2, so I would go for those.
Go for the LG Optimus series .
Otherwise the Xperia Play or Arc can be a good choice .
You could also try the Samsung Galaxy S+
If not , try the HTC EVO 3D or the Sensation
Sent from my GT-S5830 using XDA App
I like my Ace, but i'm not sure if i would recommend to someone at this time.
I guess there are better phones (higher res, faster CPU, more internel memory) for a price that is not that much higher than the ACE's.
I want a phone under £200, i managed to find a SGA on my favourite PAYG network for only £145!
Than choose between SGA and SE x10.
Isn't the SE X10 the tiny phone with a even tinier qwerty keyboard?
Nope, that's X10 mini and Mini Pro, I'm thinking about full X10:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=2964&idPhone2=3724
(X10 has bigger display, better camera 8Mpx, 1Gb internal memory+8Gb card+384MbRAM, and it's also upgradable to Gingerbread)
Holy sh*t, how much is that in the UK?!
Hmm...try something like this>
http://www.ebay.co.uk/ctg/Sony-Eric...3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A5251&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
(I'm not so much into ebay auctions, but I think you can find some good deals)
I don't like buying second-hand or from eBay, i prefer to buy from a store like Phones 4 U, Carphone Warehouse or Three, neither of them stores sell the normal X10
Have you checked your network provider deals, per example my wife got SG Tab and IP4 for 70 euros (two year contract with Orange De).
I only buy phones on Pay As You Go, as I am in college, I haven't got a steady flow of income so i don't want a contract in case i can't afford to pay it one month
Hey, i just found a brand new Galaxy S2 (Pay as you Go contract), just save some more money>
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-G...58729?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item1c1ffd0089
Thank you for all your help, I can't afford that at this moment in time though, i'll just keep my money and put it all together at Christmas and get myself something then, i can get a HTC HD7 for £170 from my local CEX (unlocked) so i may get that.
I really don't want to start a WP7 trolling topic, but, if you want an open platform, isn't it too strange to consider HD7 as an alternative? Of course, Metro is great and everything works just so smooth, but it's not that open..
For the money i bought my Ace, it was the Motorola Defy. Now i'm thinking why i didn't choose the motorola. It has a processor seemed to the ace one, at 800 Mhz; it has more RAM(512MB); It's super ressistant. And it support flash player native.
In Sweden the price for SGS and SGA are almost the same, so i'd rather go for SGS(no led for the camera though). And as dami391 said Motorola Defy, the phone is "better" (specwise) and cost about the same.
It's kinda hard to recommend SGA now that there are better phones around the same price.
But I'd say that I'm very happy with my purchase of SGA.
As the guy above me said, now you´ve got a lot more than we had when we bought our beloved SGA.
I would recommend the SGA for you if its price is affordable for your incomes. Id say that is the best phone I ever tried but this thought just came only when I installed a new rom and rooted it, if you are not planning install new roms I definetely would say dont try the touchwiz interface and the stock rom that comes with the Ace. It sucks.

[Q] Is it the right step?

I really dunno if i'm doing the right thing or not. I'm moving on from an HTC sensation with all the build quality and the sense UI glory; the company has to offer! To a sony xperia S
No doubt the phone rocks with mind-blowing specs :
amazing screen resolution,
advanced camera and finally a dedicated button for it,
an hdmi port,
thank god a usb on the go
and the long awaited nfc option for android
the drawbacks are not that fussy :
no sdcard (handling with built in internal memory avoids lags)
unremovable battery (i guess u change ur phone more often than changing the battery)
port covers (get used to by time)
camera very near to edge (hold the corners when taking pics)
power button near to earphone jack (use ur left hand to awake the device when connected to earphones)
what really concerns me is that sony ericsson devices never attracted me and a lot of people, is it because of the looks? durability? service? the dull timescape UI????? smartphone community interest in comparison with other lines like htc and samsung???
I know sony has divorced ericsson and it provides a new attitude, but the background..... u know what i mean?!
I just need assuring words for me and all the people out there thinking about this change!!
You can't go wrong with Sony phone it has the best speaker phone,phone ringer is loud does the function of a phone well aswell of a smartphone and PlayStation I have bought one in fact I have an iPhone 4s ,galaxy nexus ,Xperia play and a blackberry curve and the best is the Sony
Thanks
Sony/Ericsson never needed the best hardware to make their phones fly. And don't say anything about Timescape, at least in the opinion of a lot of people, it's FAR better then Sense (which I think is crap).
Sony don't need to appeal to giantic screens, or use a fake Beats (which improves a little, but not as much as xLoud), or use AMOLED screens (Bravia provides better colors, AMOLED have yellowish images), neither the best hardware., but they really know how to optimize their software to their hardware.
And, the best thing of all: The best designs. Nothing beats Xperia Arc or NXT Series design.
Sent from Xperia X10 Mini Pro using ICS by paul-xxx
I guess sony problem is perception.reviewer aren't too kind to sony.sony itself have apple "we know what best for you attitude" rather than giving what customer wanted.they won't use bleeding but buggy new tech.and sony sure as hell won't give u all thing in one,even for flagship.the arc have no ffc, sxs don't have white magic.
hardware wise its usually little bit better than the last iphone n nexus..thats turn a lot of people off..why buy single when u have dual core last yr.and why buy dual when u could get quad core this year.(but nvr realised all those power are useless as android os n apps can't utilities it)
What make me coming again n again to xperia is
1) it a phone..it primary use is to make call..however only Motorola n sony have exceptional call quality
2) its a multimedia device. Most important arescreen,sound and camera. Its where the xperia come 2nd to none.(don't know why people find multimedia device with ****ty sound and oversaturated screen is appealing.)
3)design:hardware n user interface have to look good..htc,sammy hardware and touchwizz n sense are damn to ugly for my taste.
4)support:sony are the only company that will upgrade all its 2011 phone.not three out of thousand of galaxy..and it support for developer is good..yes.there's a lack of developer for xperia device..but at least their rom work and aren't wayy too buggy.
Sent from my LT18i using XDA
I came from a Samsung Galaxy S and while the samsung hardware is nice their software is terrible. You really need to tweak a samsung phone to fix the bugs or perform acceptable. Even the SGS2 has buggy stock software imo. With my xperia now I don't have to tweak to get good performance. I only miss root to remove some minor bloatware, block ads and restore backup.
Never had a HTC device because they were always mediocre and I don't like sense. But the new one x does look nice but is expensive and big. And the one s has little storage, lower resolution and a pentile screen. After the pentile screen of the sgs I will never take pentile again .
So my experiance is positive. Stock it runs better then the samsung phones. And in my opinion the ui looks much better then sense and touchwiz.
I think the lack of popularity in general is because of advertising, at least here. I see a lot of htc and samsung adds but no sony ads.
But you should try it out at a store and see if it fits your tastes.
R64 said:
I came from a Samsung Galaxy S and while the samsung hardware is nice their software is terrible. You really need to tweak a samsung phone to fix the bugs or perform acceptable. Even the SGS2 has buggy stock software imo. With my xperia now I don't have to tweak to get good performance. I only miss root to remove some minor bloatware, block ads and restore backup.
Never had a HTC device because they were always mediocre and I don't like sense. But the new one x does look nice but is expensive and big. And the one s has little storage, lower resolution and a pentile screen. After the pentile screen of the sgs I will never take pentile again .
So my experiance is positive. Stock it runs better then the samsung phones. And in my opinion the ui looks much better then sense and touchwiz.
I think the lack of popularity in general is because of advertising, at least here. I see a lot of htc and samsung adds but no sony ads.
But you should try it out at a store and see if it fits your tastes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had SGS 2 before i moved on to the sensation by the way, i dumped it coz i really got fed up from its software in spite of it being a really nice handset in every aspect!
I totally agree about the advertisement part! They should give a great deal of attention to it!
By the way sense is awesome, it's just bulky on a limited ram, but will miss it when i shift to the SXS !!
i changed from sensation to sgs 2 to lg p920 none of those were usable on stock for me, the sensation was ok but the camera ... seriously they call it a camera ? and the sense sucked most of the resources (ram/battery)
i was waiting for the SXS and am truely happy i did cause the phone experience is amazing and am still on stock , no root no custom rom, just stock as good as out of the box and the phone is flawless,
the camera takes amazing, sharp pictures without flash at the darkest nights
the battery lasts for more than a day for me with edge on/wifi on for the entire day with several calls and some casual gaming
and let me tell you about the screen, this is a piece of art, i love watching pics on that screen, its sharp, crisp and colors are amazingly perfect
as for the music , the sound is crisp and clear threw the stock headphones which i like more than any of my previous phones
i even add full HD movies on my phone and connect it to my TV threw HDMI cable and watch it , its fast it doesnt hang which is great and does the job right
plus in gaming am enjoying my old nice games like lane splitter and angry birds space/fruit ninja which runs pretty fast and no lags at all
the os itself is not buggy, i own the phone for 15 days now and i didnt encounter a hang or a bug yet
so i would definitely advise you to swap to one of those
After buying the SXS, I must say IT'S DEFINITELY THE RIGHT STEP!!!!!
Build quality is magnificent, stock software is superb and overall performance is outstanding!!!
Wow!!! Never expected it to be that way!
For all the people out there hesitating to get it, put on your clothes and drive off to the nearest dealer and buy it!!!
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sevoflurane said:
After buying the SXS, I must say IT'S DEFINITELY THE RIGHT STEP!!!!!
Build quality is magnificent, stock software is superb and overall performance is outstanding!!!
Wow!!! Never expected it to be that way!
For all the people out there hesitating to get it, put on your clothes and drive off to the nearest dealer and buy it!!!
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazing phone
Sounds crazy but I am really happy there is no extra sd card slot, as this almost more than anything else is the reason why everything slows down. I do not need all my pictures movies and music. As soon as I take a pc or video it's uploaded to my sftp server and dropbox so always have copy. So with everything stored on the Internet ( no minor not the cloud just the Internet) local storage is not an issue.
Its why more devices are moving away from the sd cause of serious drain on resources especially if apps are moved to sd card so temptation is removed >:~}
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Yeah, the i/o is super fast. My friend with galaxy note tried to load some app and save some stuff and his comments were: huh? Its done?? Wtf??
R64 said:
I came from a Samsung Galaxy S and while the samsung hardware is nice their software is terrible. You really need to tweak a samsung phone to fix the bugs or perform acceptable. Even the SGS2 has buggy stock software imo. With my xperia now I don't have to tweak to get good performance. I only miss root to remove some minor bloatware, block ads and restore backup.
Never had a HTC device because they were always mediocre and I don't like sense. But the new one x does look nice but is expensive and big. And the one s has little storage, lower resolution and a pentile screen. After the pentile screen of the sgs I will never take pentile again .
So my experiance is positive. Stock it runs better then the samsung phones. And in my opinion the ui looks much better then sense and touchwiz.
I think the lack of popularity in general is because of advertising, at least here. I see a lot of htc and samsung adds but no sony ads.
But you should try it out at a store and see if it fits your tastes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree with the fact that sony doesn't do much advertising actually closer to nothing where I am... But this sets it apart from all the other manufactures and gives individuality to sony phones i.e people who have sony phones.
It's my first Sony smartphone, but i am more than happy of the choice i've made. The software it's so perfect that you really don't need to install anything from the market (i mean tools) The only thing i'm not so happy about is the usb port door...i'm afraid that in time it will break down and after that it will not have such a nice aspect, but if this will happen i will try to find a solution. I adviced already 4 people to buy this Sony smartphone (3 already bought the smartphone...1 to go ) and now i'm thinking of taking a Sony Tablet S gift for my girlfriend birthday. I come from HTC Desire HD and i've made this update because i needed a better camera...and i have to say that this Xperia S camera just blow all my expectations...just WOW !

Galaxy S3... Share your thoughts

So finally the galaxy s3 is here. What do you fellas think of it. Please share.
For me, considering that I took no notice of the over hyped rumor mill that preceded it's launch, its a great phone with a few decent new features like s voice, s-beam, eye tracking, etc.
Although these features I suspect will have very limited day to day application, they're still nice to have and show Samsung to be at the vanguard of new innovations. It also feels like an ICS phone which sadly the HTCs do not. Maybe something to do will the 3.0 kernel.
The processing capabilities are very impressive with a buttery smooth user interface and silky scrolling. In terms of speed, it obviously won't feel much faster than most multi core devices but it's smoothness is unrivaled.
An 8mp camera and the absence of a hdmi port is rather disappointing but not crucial. It's design will not please all. Let's face it, no design pleases all.
Given a choice today between it and the xperia s, I probably would still go with the xperia because it has the hdmi port and better quality display but I hope the ICS update improves the UI performance and scrolling. Without improvement in those areas, I might find myself beginning to regret picking the xperia.
I thing user experience counts for a lot and a jerky and even laggy experience is quite frankly in my opinion, beneath a 2012 phone.
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Compete fail just a slight incremental update at best to GN and It looks butt ugly, like an old plastic mid range Nokia, screens to big for most ppl, also uses touchwiz, phone will only be good for 10 mins of benchmarks and that's it. Enough said.
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Not good and pretty enough. I didn't regret buying SXS over the One series and still I don't regret buying it.
And seriously. Pentile display in a flagship phone?
My thoughts?
I couldn't care for it really...like all the other phones out now besides the Sony line, its...blah...
Nothing appealing to the eye :/
They should/could have made it better, all bark and no bite.
....next!
Meh. Looks like a Galaxy Nexus 4S. A bit more screen, a bit more CPU power, a bit of this and a bit of that. Lots of gimmicks that you're never going to use - the best are wireless charging and S Beam ( which is most likely SGS3 to SGS3 only ), though the latter can and likely will be implemented in AOSP or forks when someone gets their hands on the actual device and explores the protocol, or maybe even earlier without Sammy compatibility. Lots of even more gimmicky accessories (spebble). Ugly ugly ugly ugly UGLEH body. Battery hog (quad-core x AMOLED x front camera always on aka Smart Stay - wireless charging = fail ). If I had to choose between my Desire and the SGS3, I would pick SGS3. But my XPS does everything I need so I won't be getting that thing ever.
@OP Sammy never was the innovator in the first place. Almost every single killer feature they have is either vanilla ICS or already exists in some form.
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somemadcaaant said:
Compete fail just a slight incremental update at best to GN and It looks butt ugly, like an old plastic mid range Nokia, screens to big for most ppl, also uses touchwiz, phone will only be good for 10 mins of benchmarks and that's it. Enough said.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it will do much better than that. Credit where credit is due. It's the best performing phone right now and I just hope ics improves the ui performance of the xperia s because it's the poorest part of the phone. It's pretty fast and instant everywhere else but the UI feels very 2011 possibly even 2010ish in its performance which is a damn shame.
Well lets keep hope alive even history tells us that software development has always been one of Sony Ericsson weaknesses.
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zodiac100 said:
I think it will do much better than that. Credit where credit is due. It's the best performing phone right now and I just hope ics improves the ui performance of the xperia s because it's the poorest part of the phone. It's pretty fast and instant everywhere else but the UI feels very 2011 possibly even 2010ish in its performance which is a damn shame.
Well lets keep hope alive even history tells us that software development has always been one of Sony Ericsson weaknesses.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is smoothness to CPU power is not linear. Having four cores doesn't give you an instant boost and a buttery smooth UI. This 'lag' is the way Android works and the great multitasking power we are used to might not have been possible without it. The rest is manufacturer optimisation. And yeah, quit whining about smoothness. Try ICS on a G1 and you'll be happy about how smooth your UI is on any other device.
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Who care about galaxy s3.
Ask tghout on it forum...
I will never regreat my buying sxs.
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It definitely fell short.
I think too many people hyped it up.
I know that many Samsung fanboys are upset. I was on another forum and after the unveil all I heard were complaints.
It is the new performance benchmark though.
However, it's too freaking big and the design is ugly.
Can't wait for the Sony Hayabusa to mop the floor with it.
and just one more thing, MEIZU quad core is most powerfull phone on market this year...
Samsung isnt top BEAST out there...
K900 said:
The thing is smoothness to CPU power is not linear. Having four cores doesn't give you an instant boost and a buttery smooth UI. This 'lag' is the way Android works and the great multitasking power we are used to might not have been possible without it. The rest is manufacturer optimisation. And yeah, quit whining about smoothness. Try ICS on a G1 and you'll be happy about how smooth your UI is on any other device.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I mentioned CPU anywhere in any of my posts. The UI performance of the xperia is the poorest of all the new phones out right now. It's as quick as any if not faster at performing tasks. Could be something to do with the very graphics intensive nature of it but I think it's performance is not quite 2012ish.
Let's not turn this into a fanboy topic. It's not a major crime hoping for software improvements now is it.
I did not believe any of the rumors that followed the Samsung so I'm not surprised in any way by it's spec sheet.
Those who were expecting 1080p displays and all the rest of it were just living on another planet. You can't expect too much after just a year after the release the S2.
Can we not discuss the positives and negatives of phones without reverting to all the tribal nonsense.
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zodiac100 said:
Can we not discuss the positives and negatives of phones without reverting to all the tribal nonsense.
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Click to collapse
Then you should ask this question on general android forum section....not in SXS section...we are with reasons on SXS, reason to buy it, to keep it and reason to develop it.
We do not need any other phones on this part of forum if you ask me..
but you asking in wrong places....
that is like a blog of iPhone ask that about SGS3....LOL
Seriously you think that big egg is very beautiful??
I mean you're joking right!you know I even had second thoughts of buying HTC OneX,
Then again thank god that I didn't go for the Tegra 3 chipset cause nVidia has some issues with HD video playback and which snapdragon doesn't have at all.
and I even noticed that XPS is very responsive and smooth,
I seriously don't care about the faster performing tasks, only thing that bugs me is the yellow tint that I got, which is a pain in the ass when it heats up.
and even though samsung tried too hard to put up their new phone and they failed to beat up iPad's GPU which is sad for them,
technically I don't regret having this phone and I really love the timescape UI and I think they will do something new with their ICS update,
cause they always the first to come up with new ideas and others tend to copy it from them.and I love the fact that they are keeping up with snapdragon chipset.
I know nothing much about nova thor chipset though..
GS III is an epic failure to me and I'm looking forward to get this hyabusa with S4 chipset.
the funny thing is that after GS3 the very next day LG comes and anounced a BEAST phone with Quad core chip,1,5ghz,4,7 inch screen with 720p display 32gb internal with micro sd support,LTE and the best thing 2GB RAM which Samsung already has 1GB AGAIN with GS3..i love galaxy s2 but galaxy s3 dissapointed me...i own a Sony Xperia S now and i am very happy with it..after the Samsung Galaxy S3 event i trade my Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Sony Xperia S because Samsung made me mad (seriously PENTILE SCREEN again??i dont give a fawk if it is AMOLED screen)...Now i love SXS because its my first Sony smartphone and i have to say its brilliant and fast and the screen is just AWSOME...!LOVE IT seriously and i prefer to go for the new LG with 2GB ram rather than SG3 if i had to give SXS for another but i will not do this soon...now i will shut my mouth and i will enjoy SONY XPERIA S!!!!
I do like the eye tracking idea (bugs me like hell when the screen switches off when I'm reading something!!).. but I the rest of it is generally pretty lame.. and the size.. Jeez.. I'm 6'1" and I couldn't operate a phone like that with one hand.. just too big.. Quad core.. schmod core... once we have ICS we will see a smoothness added to the UI...
not impressed... and other than the fact that they have a big customer base from the SGSII.. I can't see why anyone would choose it.
Not bad!
I can't deny that i've been anxiously waiting for the release of this new Sammy device and a bit impressed of it overall!
The design is not bad as most of the people say, not new but not repulsive.
As of the specs, we all expected most of the things; that's y most of us SXS owners didn't wait for its release coz the SXS did it all!
I already owned SGS2 and HTC sensation, both were amazing, but after i used SXS, i really enjoyed having a smartphone, in terms of build and sound quality and most of all the software, but really annoyed from the touch buttons though. The phone never hanged on me, always smooth and responsive, not like the touchwiz which is primitive and the sense which is laggy no matter what u do with it.
We should wait and see when it's available and after being used by people and assess after user experiences!
chesterr said:
Seriously you think that big egg is very beautiful??
I mean you're joking right!you know I even had second thoughts of buying HTC OneX,
Then again thank god that I didn't go for the Tegra 3 chipset cause nVidia has some issues with HD video playback and which snapdragon doesn't have at all.
and I even noticed that XPS is very responsive and smooth,
I seriously don't care about the faster performing tasks, only thing that bugs me is the yellow tint that I got, which is a pain in the ass when it heats up.
and even though samsung tried too hard to put up their new phone and they failed to beat up iPad's GPU which is sad for them,
technically I don't regret having this phone and I really love the timescape UI and I think they will do something new with their ICS update,
cause they always the first to come up with new ideas and others tend to copy it from them.and I love the fact that they are keeping up with snapdragon chipset.
I know nothing much about nova thor chipset though..
GS III is an epic failure to me and I'm looking forward to get this hyabusa with S4 chipset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again I never said the galaxy s3 was beautiful. All I said was beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I also said that given the choice, I world pick the xperia because it suits me more.
I'm very disappointed that very few people in here have the grace to say anything positive about the S3 which is a shame as it has many good points too.
Instead we have ended up with the same tribalism where you only dwell on the negatives.
The eye tracking thing is a bit suspect in my opinion. Having the front facing camera constantly working like that could have a detrimental impact on battery life.
My greatest appreciation is reserved for the silky smooth UI. Now that's something I could really do with. I'm rather tied of jerky and laggy.
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zodiac100 said:
Again I never said the galaxy s3 was beautiful. All I said was beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I also said that given the choice, I world pick the xperia because it suits me more.
I'm very disappointed that very few people in here have the grace to say anything positive about the S3 which is a shame as it has many good points too.
Instead we have ended up with the same tribalism where you only dwell on the negatives.
The eye tracking thing is a bit suspect in my opinion. Having the front facing camera constantly working like that could have a detrimental impact on battery life.
My greatest appreciation is reserved for the silky smooth UI. Now that's something I could really do with. I'm rather tied of jerky and laggy.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I for one never said that it's a bad device. I even said I would buy it in certain conditions. The chipset is good, the screen is good, the software has some good features that I outlined. But overall SGS3 is the Half-Life 3 of mobile devices. It was hyped so much that it couldn't live up to the hype built around it not without Samsung's help. We expected something revolutionary, and got something evolutionary. Therefore the general meh direction this discussion is taking.
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Was expecting a Arc>>>SGII situation
But it's just another One X
To put it in a metaphor, the SXS is ya Japanese/European supercar
SGIII/One X is ya American Muscle
I guess It depends on what ya want from the phone really, I personally still think what you lose from the SXS for them quads is too much.
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K900 said:
I for one never said that it's a bad device. I even said I would buy it in certain conditions. The chipset is good, the screen is good, the software has some good features that I outlined. But overall SGS3 is the Half-Life 3 of mobile devices. It was hyped so much that it couldn't live up to the hype built around it not without Samsung's help. We expected something revolutionary, and got something evolutionary. Therefore the general meh direction this discussion is taking.
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Click to collapse
Finally a bit of objective commentary. Thank you sir.
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