A Better Auto-Brightness? - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717

I was talking to a friend at a bar a few months back when I got my skyrocket and he had a internation Samsung GS2. He was mentioning a lot of the stuff he had done to mod his phone since I was new to androids at the time. One that stuck out that I still remember is a Better autobrightness feature. He mentioned it checked the sensor a couple times a second and somehow used less battery then the factory setting because of the way it was processed or something. I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this and if its possible for us to get it on the Gnote

Better how? How often it adjusts, or do you find the screen generally too bright or dim?
There is "Lux".. which I tried on my Nexus S.. I had noticed that the app itself, checking the brightness so often, used up quite a bit of battery life itself.. kind of a double edged sword.
Also it eats up some more of your memory as well while running..

better as in checking more frequently, theres too many times where im indoors and it looks like its on max when im in a dark room, and takes to long to brighten up when i walk outside with my phone

Related

Contemplating buying XS

So at the moment I have a couple of phones that I really want to buy and the XS is one of them. It is the best financially apparently but there are a few things I need to know. Hopefully y'all can help me. Thanks a lot !
1) Does the white version attract dirt easily and if so is it easy to wipe it off? I know I can just get a case for it but since on the front there is a large area under the capacitive buttons and Im gonna touch that area a lot so I want to know. (Mini rant: why does it have so many visible seams, make the phone look a tard cheap)
2) How is the yellow screen issue? Has it been improved/ fixed? If I have it do you reckon it's gonna be easy to have Sony fixed it? I live in Australia btw
3) Battery life? I saw a lot of people having issues with the ICS update. My normal usage is 2-3 hours checking social networking sites, web-browsing, 2-3 hours of music, probably 15 minutes of games. Do you reckon if it's gonna be enough to last me?
4) Does this phone have any issue with getting coverage? In my house the coverage is terrible for most carriers. I had an HTC sensation and my mom has an s2 and they seem to not be able to hold on to signal any long.
5) So what do the colours look like w/out the Mobile Bravia Engine? I reckon I wont turn it on to preserve battery but I want to know how much it's gonna affect the quality of the screen. And in so many videos the colours do look a bit washed out...
6) How's the GPS? I dont drive but I use apps that use GPS.
That's all. Thanks again
averygagaanroid said:
So at the moment I have a couple of phones that I really want to buy and the XS is one of them. It is the best financially apparently but there are a few things I need to know. Hopefully y'all can help me. Thanks a lot !
1) Does the white version attract dirt easily and if so is it easy to wipe it off? I know I can just get a case for it but since on the front there is a large area under the capacitive buttons and Im gonna touch that area a lot so I want to know. (Mini rant: why does it have so many visible seams, make the phone look a tard cheap)
2) How is the yellow screen issue? Has it been improved/ fixed? If I have it do you reckon it's gonna be easy to have Sony fixed it? I live in Australia btw
3) Battery life? I saw a lot of people having issues with the ICS update. My normal usage is 2-3 hours checking social networking sites, web-browsing, 2-3 hours of music, probably 15 minutes of games. Do you reckon if it's gonna be enough to last me?
4) Does this phone have any issue with getting coverage? In my house the coverage is terrible for most carriers. I had an HTC sensation and my mom has an s2 and they seem to not be able to hold on to signal any long.
5) So what do the colours look like w/out the Mobile Bravia Engine? I reckon I wont turn it on to preserve battery but I want to know how much it's gonna affect the quality of the screen. And in so many videos the colours do look a bit washed out...
6) How's the GPS? I dont drive but I use apps that use GPS.
That's all. Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I have the white one. It does attract a quite high quantity of dirt. The back is easy to clean. Just use a smooth humid cloth on it. For the lens, it's easier to clean it removing the back cover. The Xperia Logo on the bottom, and on the Camera, HDMI and USB logos on the sides also get dirty quite easily. The dust enters the little "depression" and get stuck in there. If someone knows a good way to clean this, please let me know.
2)It's been quite a long time since the start of the production. Until batch 14, almost all devices had it, on batches 15 and 16 it almost has gone. We must be on batches 30 or 40 by now, so no need to worry.
3)I think it's enough for me, and should be enough for you. Check the battery thread, and look at my posts to see my results.
4)Well, my carrier sucks for that. I badly can enter a corridor on my school without loosing signal. But I also had this with my old X10 MP. I think the coverage is good (not so good now, as I'm using Turkey FW, with a different baseband, but it doesn't make it unusable)
5)I always kept it on, so I can't tell the difference, really. Most people seems to have problems since the first ICS update (I also have this problem, but the screen is still awesome)
6)GPS for that is good for me. I also don't drive (heck, I'm 15 years old), but it is really accurate (with internet connection it's even better, as it have A-GPS)
Hope I helped.
Felimenta97 said:
1) I have the white one. It does attract a quite high quantity of dirt. The back is easy to clean. Just use a smooth humid cloth on it. For the lens, it's easier to clean it removing the back cover. The Xperia Logo on the bottom, and on the Camera, HDMI and USB logos on the sides also get dirty quite easily. The dust enters the little "depression" and get stuck in there. If someone knows a good way to clean this, please let me know.
2)It's been quite a long time since the start of the production. Until batch 14, almost all devices had it, on batches 15 and 16 it almost has gone. We must be on batches 30 or 40 by now, so no need to worry.
3)I think it's enough for me, and should be enough for you. Check the battery thread, and look at my posts to see my results.
4)Well, my carrier sucks for that. I badly can enter a corridor on my school without loosing signal. But I also had this with my old X10 MP. I think the coverage is good (not so good now, as I'm using Turkey FW, with a different baseband, but it doesn't make it unusable)
5)I always kept it on, so I can't tell the difference, really. Most people seems to have problems since the first ICS update (I also have this problem, but the screen is still awesome)
6)GPS for that is good for me. I also don't drive (heck, I'm 15 years old), but it is really accurate (with internet connection it's even better, as it have A-GPS)
Hope I helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
About the batches, do you know how to check what batch it is? Since in Australia the Xperia S doesnt sell very well (I know it since Im working for a phone company now), so I reckon there are a lot of old stock sticking around.
And what is the problem you're talking about? Sorry I should have done my research but Im dong my assignment now and the threads are HUGE
Thanks again !
averygagaanroid said:
Thanks for the reply.
About the batches, do you know how to check what batch it is? Since in Australia the Xperia S doesnt sell very well (I know it since Im working for a phone company now), so I reckon there are a lot of old stock sticking around.
And what is the problem you're talking about? Sorry I should have done my research but Im dong my assignment now and the threads are HUGE
Thanks again !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way I know is to open the back cover of the phone. On it, there is white sticker with info about the phone. On the right side, there is the phone model (LT26i), another info and something like this, 12Wxx, where xx is the batch, W is week and 12 is year. Mine is W10, so I have the yellow spot. Sadly can't trade as Sony Brazil is horrible.
The problem, I meant is that the Bravia Engine isn't working for most on the ICS update.
No more inputs from anyone?
averygagaanroid said:
So at the moment I have a couple of phones that I really want to buy and the XS is one of them. It is the best financially apparently but there are a few things I need to know. Hopefully y'all can help me. Thanks a lot !
1) Does the white version attract dirt easily and if so is it easy to wipe it off? I know I can just get a case for it but since on the front there is a large area under the capacitive buttons and Im gonna touch that area a lot so I want to know. (Mini rant: why does it have so many visible seams, make the phone look a tard cheap)
2) How is the yellow screen issue? Has it been improved/ fixed? If I have it do you reckon it's gonna be easy to have Sony fixed it? I live in Australia btw
3) Battery life? I saw a lot of people having issues with the ICS update. My normal usage is 2-3 hours checking social networking sites, web-browsing, 2-3 hours of music, probably 15 minutes of games. Do you reckon if it's gonna be enough to last me?
4) Does this phone have any issue with getting coverage? In my house the coverage is terrible for most carriers. I had an HTC sensation and my mom has an s2 and they seem to not be able to hold on to signal any long.
5) So what do the colours look like w/out the Mobile Bravia Engine? I reckon I wont turn it on to preserve battery but I want to know how much it's gonna affect the quality of the screen. And in so many videos the colours do look a bit washed out...
6) How's the GPS? I dont drive but I use apps that use GPS.
That's all. Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there,
1. I have the black xps, my friend owns the white version. It does attract quite a bit of dirt but using a case should solve the problem. (recommend nillkin hard case)
2. Yellow screen issue - my first xps had the defect, returned it to the service centre within a week of purchase and got a replacement in 2 weeks. The batch I now have is 12w16. So if it's possible for you to find out the production batch, I recommend you get anything beyond w14.
3. Battery life - immensely dropped after the ics update. Gb battery life was amazing (I'm referring to stock firmware). The issue is due to the phone unable to get enough deep sleep when the screen is off. (culprits being - alarm manager and power saver app, they keep restarting). On stock ics, with 3G constantly on, Wifi for a few hours, display on for about 3 hours, music for 30mins,auto sync on throughout - i get about 12-15 hours of battery life. With auto sync off, I get 3-4 hours more battery life.
4. About network signal etc. The phone doesn't have any issues. But if you're in a low coverage area, it's going to drain your battery even further. One bug I've noticed is that after a few hours or sometimes a day, my data connectivity just refuses to work, in spite of it showing active with the H/3G symbol. Only solution is a restart.
5. I keep my bravia engine off most of the time, honestly I can't really tell the difference cause the screen is one of the best in the market. Love the clarity.
6. Gps - no issues. Fast and accurate.
Hope this helped you.
Cheers!
averygagaanroid said:
So at the moment I have a couple of phones that I really want to buy and the XS is one of them. It is the best financially apparently but there are a few things I need to know. Hopefully y'all can help me. Thanks a lot !
1) Does the white version attract dirt easily and if so is it easy to wipe it off? I know I can just get a case for it but since on the front there is a large area under the capacitive buttons and Im gonna touch that area a lot so I want to know. (Mini rant: why does it have so many visible seams, make the phone look a tard cheap)
2) How is the yellow screen issue? Has it been improved/ fixed? If I have it do you reckon it's gonna be easy to have Sony fixed it? I live in Australia btw
3) Battery life? I saw a lot of people having issues with the ICS update. My normal usage is 2-3 hours checking social networking sites, web-browsing, 2-3 hours of music, probably 15 minutes of games. Do you reckon if it's gonna be enough to last me?
4) Does this phone have any issue with getting coverage? In my house the coverage is terrible for most carriers. I had an HTC sensation and my mom has an s2 and they seem to not be able to hold on to signal any long.
5) So what do the colours look like w/out the Mobile Bravia Engine? I reckon I wont turn it on to preserve battery but I want to know how much it's gonna affect the quality of the screen. And in so many videos the colours do look a bit washed out...
6) How's the GPS? I dont drive but I use apps that use GPS.
That's all. Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I used to own a XS before upgrade to the Acro S. A white one to be exact. I used a case all the time so there was little dirt to be worry about. I'm sure you'll feel the same. The 3 touch buttons on the front was horrid though.
2. If you buy a brand new one around this time, I doubt you will ever encounter this issue.
3. Battery do fine for me. It's about 3 hours of screen time, not very impressive but not bad at all.
4. Coverage is good. I've ever lost any signal.
5. You'll see a bit different in color, less vivid to be exact but you'll get used to it in tme.
6.GPS is fast and accurate.
Hope this help.
1)I have the older batch, so am having a yellow tint. Will send it for repair when I do have the time. As long as the bootloader is unlocked sony will gladly repaired it for you.
2)sony has said that bravia engine dont impact battery life, so u don't really need to turn it down
3)GPS is really really good, even without A-GPS( data off). Lock into position in seconds!. Must be the whole glonass thing,as other droids I use with data off,will need some time to few minutes to find me.
4)battery life,well as bad as most droids, 5 hours of screen time would drain it almost flat. But fast charging work as advertise, so plug it iN whenever possible,30 minits of charging could get it up around 50%.
5) call signal are really good, well at least I can comform it's better than samsung note,gio & s2.
Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

Screen flickering madness

I got my 920 today and I'm quite happy with it. However I'm facing a weird issue. My screen is noticeably flickering. At first I tried to restart the phone a few times, and at last with a soft reset I got rid of it in some areas (eg the unlock screen) but in some others (typing an address in the browser, typing into Bing search) it's still there, even tho it's not very noticeable anymore. However I'm quite picky so it annoys me a bit, also I don't think it's fair that I have to use a phone behaving this way. Anybody else having this? Workarounds of any sort? Otherwise I guess this guy is going back to the store...
Edit: I found out that this issue pretty much comes and goes randomly, I happen to have it for a few hours then it goes away, so on so forth. I really don't know if I'll ever be able to get the phone replaced if the issue is so hard to be reproduced.
Same intermittent problem
vnvman said:
I got my 920 today and I'm quite happy with it. However I'm facing a weird issue. My screen is noticeably flickering. At first I tried to restart the phone a few times, and at last with a soft reset I got rid of it in some areas (eg the unlock screen) but in some others (typing an address in the browser, typing into Bing search) it's still there, even tho it's not very noticeable anymore. However I'm quite picky so it annoys me a bit, also I don't think it's fair that I have to use a phone behaving this way. Anybody else having this? Workarounds of any sort? Otherwise I guess this guy is going back to the store...
Edit: I found out that this issue pretty much comes and goes randomly, I happen to have it for a few hours then it goes away, so on so forth. I really don't know if I'll ever be able to get the phone replaced if the issue is so hard to be reproduced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not going crazy as I have the same issue with my 920. It is VERY intermittent and probably happens about once every 3 weeks I guess.
I'll wake the phone to check it and it seems that the display is not working fully and looks interlaced and flickering. No loss of functionality and when I put it to sleep and wake it up a few times it's fine and back to normal. Appears to be an intermittent issue with either the display or drivers but no way to reproduce unless you separately take a video/photo of the screen when it is in this state when you are returning it to the store for an exchange. For me it doesn't happen enough to really worry me although it is slightly annoying...
mad_style said:
You're not going crazy as I have the same issue with my 920. It is VERY intermittent and probably happens about once every 3 weeks I guess.
I'll wake the phone to check it and it seems that the display is not working fully and looks interlaced and flickering. No loss of functionality and when I put it to sleep and wake it up a few times it's fine and back to normal. Appears to be an intermittent issue with either the display or drivers but no way to reproduce unless you separately take a video/photo of the screen when it is in this state when you are returning it to the store for an exchange. For me it doesn't happen enough to really worry me although it is slightly annoying...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, this is driving me nuts. I noticed it does it every time the phone reaches a somewhat hotter temperature (like body temperature, a couple minutes of usage normally) or when it's plugged. When the battery is 100% loaded it usually stops, but then after a few minutes it comes back, very annoying. Since it does it like 90% of the time I guess the guys at the shop will notice it, when I'm at max brightness it's like a freaking strobe, I can't take this any longer, makes my head ache. One thing I also noticed is the fact that the lowest light setting available is still way brighter than when on auto in a dark room: low looks more like medium, so to speak. Is this ok?
Today I'm bringing it back to the shop anyway, I'll keep you posted.
Update: I got my phone replaced. We had to open 3 boxes before finding a non flickering one, insane. For the last try I decided to open a white one and it was flawless, weird...
Are you guys in cold areas or keep your phones in cold areas? By cold I mean under 65 F. I have noticed in certain types of LCD's that if they are cold they seem to slow in refresh rate. Try warming your phone up and see if it gets better.
R: Screen flickering madness
Solarenemy68 said:
Are you guys in cold areas or keep your phones in cold areas? By cold I mean under 65 F. I have noticed in certain types of LCD's that if they are cold they seem to slow in refresh rate. Try warming your phone up and see if it gets better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really my case I guess, actually the phone kept acting up even after an hour usage, so it was plenty hot. No problems with new one so far, fingers crossed...

Anyone else a bit disappointed now they actually have the Z2 ?

Well i got my phone on Tuesday of this week, and to be honest im a bit disappointed ! i have used a Galaxy S2 for about 3 years its rooted with a custom ROM which i have found to be great. Firstly the Z2 screen is far too dark for my taste, outside i do find it hard to see the screen. and yes that's with auto brightness switched off ! i have the tap screen to wake phone switched on , sometimes im surprised how hard i actually have to tap it to switch on ! and it doesn't always respond ! in the txt message screen, i find the writing so fine its hard to see against the white background, i feel the letters should be more bold so they are easier to read. and yes i have made the txt large. i also find the phone a bit quiet, the volume of the ring tone and txt could do with being louder. and im surprised at the battery life too, not as good as my GS2, but yes i understand that i have an Apollo kernel installed which prolongs the battery. i have downloaded a task killer on to the phone to help prolong battery life, i will see what difference that makes over a few days. i know they are probably just minor things i am moaning about.
i don't know if i was expecting too much ... but i thought that in 3 years since i last changed my phone, things would of moved on an awful lot. just hope that one of the Devs works out a root and makes some custom roms, so i can have the phone how i want it . am i the only one that is a bit disappointed ?
Have you had a change to play with other new smartphones? How do you feel about them?
I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I find your claim about battery life a little hard to believe. The Z2 has WAY bigger battery and your S2's battery has had plenty of time to deteriorate. Again, not to be hostile but rather interested, could you post screenshots of battery stats after a normal day of use (both phones)?
Now of course I know hardly anything about custom roms that prolong battery life, but still...
strommy1966 said:
Well i got my phone on Tuesday of this week, and to be honest im a bit disappointed ! i have used a Galaxy S2 for about 3 years its rooted with a custom ROM which i have found to be great. Firstly the Z2 screen is far too dark for my taste, outside i do find it hard to see the screen. and yes that's with auto brightness switched off ! i have the tap screen to wake phone switched on , sometimes im surprised how hard i actually have to tap it to switch on ! and it doesn't always respond ! in the txt message screen, i find the writing so fine its hard to see against the white background, i feel the letters should be more bold so they are easier to read. and yes i have made the txt large. i also find the phone a bit quiet, the volume of the ring tone and txt could do with being louder. and im surprised at the battery life too, not as good as my GS2, but yes i understand that i have an Apollo kernel installed which prolongs the battery. i have downloaded a task killer on to the phone to help prolong battery life, i will see what difference that makes over a few days. i know they are probably just minor things i am moaning about.
i don't know if i was expecting too much ... but i thought that in 3 years since i last changed my phone, things would of moved on an awful lot. just hope that one of the Devs works out a root and makes some custom roms, so i can have the phone how i want it . am i the only one that is a bit disappointed ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get rid of that Task Killer, it's the ultimate in battery draining apps. Closing and relaunching apps that could simply sit in RAM? Not helpful.
The Z2 has 3GB of RAM and a stamina mode that can be set to only allow specific apps to run when the screen is off, as well as control mobile data. You'll need another week to use it to its full potential.
I'm a fairly heavy user, streaming Spotify 5 hours a day, watching TV 3 hours a day, Netflix for 1hour, 4K recording, take on average 10 pics a day and Snapchat/Whatsapp 10 hours across my day and still get home with plenty of battery.
Even today, removed from charge at 6.30am, still off charge at 10.38pm and I've 27% left.
Screen on time is at 4hours 35minutes.
Not disappointed at all.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
mstrflsh said:
Get rid of that Task Killer, it's the ultimate in battery draining apps. Closing and relaunching apps that could simply sit in RAM? Not helpful.
The Z2 has 3GB of RAM and a stamina mode that can be set to only allow specific apps to run when the screen is off, as well as control mobile data. You'll need another week to use it to its full potential.
I'm a fairly heavy user, streaming Spotify 5 hours a day, watching TV 3 hours a day, Netflix for 1hour, 4K recording, take on average 10 pics a day and Snapchat/Whatsapp 10 hours across my day and still get home with plenty of battery.
Even today, removed from charge at 6.30am, still off charge at 10.38pm and I've 27% left.
Screen on time is at 4hours 35minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOWWW!!!! That's one hell of a battery performance test :good:
Coming from the LG G2 I was expecting to be dissapointed, but Im not, I Love it. The screen is absolutely amazing, the sound quality is supurb!!
Battery life, wow! After the battery life on the.G2 blew me away, I did not think anything could match it, but it does!
See screen shots. This is a above normal day use. Has included music, video, youtube, internet, facebook, camera, games.
Edit: this is with stamina mode on all day.
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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Sent from my D6503 using xda app-developers app
I have had Z2 in 2 days now. I have owned Galaxy Note 2 and Note 3 before and now Z2, i found Z2's screen brighter enough and i am actually happy with the screen. I hated the screen on Z1 though which i got for some days in between Note 2 and Note 3.
When it comes to 'Tap to wake' feature. Here's a proof how accurate it is on my Z2: http://youtu.be/qdQz42pDIao (I made the video right now with Note 3)
Strange you can't see letters when the text is large. I have text on small and i am so happy with it. See the pictures below. (You can change theme also).
I find all the new flagships since last year disappointing, and that's why I haven't upgrade from my SGS3 yet.
They all have three or four negatives.
Z2: too big (going from a SGS3 to a Z2 would be hard), overheating issue, 3 minute limit in 4K video, waterproof (it's a negative point for me because I don't want the USB charging port sealed. It's annoying if I have to charge the phone every day), you lose Sony DRM stuff if you unlock the bootloader and root, little development, delays, Z3 in second half of this year, no blocking mode (S5, M8, iPhone and Moto X and G have them and it's an essential feature), etc.
I wish it was 5.5 instead of 5.2...
The custom ROM stuff I quit after I got the Z1. Too much time spent on that with very few benefits. Personally, I rather have the magnetic charging cable.
This all comes to personal preferences. Sony like the other guys tries to appeal to as many as possible...
Sendt fra XPERIA Z SGP312
jayc1980 said:
Coming from the LG G2 I was expecting to be dissapointed, but Im not, I Love it. The screen is absolutely amazing, the sound quality is supurb!!
Battery life, wow! After the battery life on the.G2 blew me away, I did not think anything could match it, but it does!
See screen shots. This is a above normal day use. Has included music, video, youtube, internet, facebook, camera, games.
Edit: this is with stamina mode on all day.
View attachment 2707062View attachment 2707063
Sent from my D6503 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good on Sony for sizing their battery, I owned Samsung S2, S4 and S3, the battery with never lasted more than 5 hour of screen on. where my Z1 easily last me more than 8 hours. A potential Z2 user when the phone can be rooted with locked bootloader. I still preferred 4.3 jelly beans compared to 4.4.2 kitKat. I will not using/buying any Samsung phone in future when they introduced knox which was useless to me.
Send from my C6903 using TapatalkPro
my SG device: Z1 rooted 136 ROM by NUT with 2.7.121 xzdualrecovery, mod by GavityBox 3.0.4 [JB]
Samsung S2 in sleeping mode.
Sensamic said:
I find all the new flagships since last year disappointing, and that's why I haven't upgrade from my SGS3 yet.
They all have three or four negatives.
Z2: too big (going from a SGS3 to a Z2 would be hard), overheating issue, 3 minute limit in 4K video, waterproof (it's a negative point for me because I don't want the USB charging port sealed. It's annoying if I have to charge the phone every day), you lose Sony DRM stuff if you unlock the bootloader and root, little development, delays, Z3 in second half of this year, no blocking mode (S5, M8, iPhone and Moto X and G have them and it's an essential feature), etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Z2 has a magnetic charging port, you never need to undo the flaps to charge it.
Tesep said:
The Z2 has a magnetic charging port, you never need to undo the flaps to charge it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I feel like this is one of the best features of this phone. I've heard so many complaints about annoying USB-port cover.
I have to call your bluff regarding the S2 battery life. It cannot compare at all to the Z2. The S2 battery was horrible for me, even though mine was also rooted and all. In fact, it was the only phone I ever have to buy an extended battery and it still barely lasted me a day. Note2 was so much better than the S2 and Z2 beats the Note2. So no way I am going to believe your S2 can return a better battery life than the Z2.
Battery is amazing, this was my second full charge cycle. Note my sim wasn't activated, so no cellular signal/connection. According to gsam, it used a fair amount of battery looking for signal, so should be better now.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
strommy1966 said:
Well i got my phone on Tuesday of this week, and to be honest im a bit disappointed ! i have used a Galaxy S2 for about 3 years its rooted with a custom ROM which i have found to be great. Firstly the Z2 screen is far too dark for my taste, outside i do find it hard to see the screen. and yes that's with auto brightness switched off ! i have the tap screen to wake phone switched on , sometimes im surprised how hard i actually have to tap it to switch on ! and it doesn't always respond ! in the txt message screen, i find the writing so fine its hard to see against the white background, i feel the letters should be more bold so they are easier to read. and yes i have made the txt large. i also find the phone a bit quiet, the volume of the ring tone and txt could do with being louder. and im surprised at the battery life too, not as good as my GS2, but yes i understand that i have an Apollo kernel installed which prolongs the battery. i have downloaded a task killer on to the phone to help prolong battery life, i will see what difference that makes over a few days. i know they are probably just minor things i am moaning about.
i don't know if i was expecting too much ... but i thought that in 3 years since i last changed my phone, things would of moved on an awful lot. just hope that one of the Devs works out a root and makes some custom roms, so i can have the phone how i want it . am i the only one that is a bit disappointed ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you were expecting to much lol..... seriously tho i had samsungs before this, galaxy s then a galaxy note now z2, im loving this phone, ok its not perfect but its not far off and im far from dissapointed, in fact im rather pleased, i tried recording in 4k yesterday, purely because i knew it would make my phone overheat and crash after about 5 mins....... unlike most people i made it past 5 minutes (only by 3 seconds tho) and it actually saved the video...... think i got a good one lol.
Yeah the speakers aint the loudest but the noise cancelling headphones and the bluetooth speaker i got with it more than make up for that. Screen is fine outside, maybe the viewing angle aint as good as the samsungs but its good enough. (On the plus side i work nights so wouldnt be bothered if it was dim anyway)
Battery??????????? Ummmmm you're doing something wrong, for me battery life is much better than any phone ive had before.... ive experianced that with the 'tap to wake' function too, i wouldnt say ive ever had to tap it harder, just doesnt always wake straight away.
in the 2 years since i got my galaxy note i didnt feel the samsung phones were offering anything more, sure id get more ram, bigger processor n bigger screen, but thats about it, the xperia on the other hand seemed to offer far more for me, than the note or any samsung since the note 1.
tl:dr......... Not dissapointed at all.......... yet (still need to submerge it lol)
strommy1966 said:
Well i got my phone on Tuesday of this week, and to be honest im a bit disappointed ! i have used a Galaxy S2 for about 3 years its rooted with a custom ROM which i have found to be great. Firstly the Z2 screen is far too dark for my taste, outside i do find it hard to see the screen. and yes that's with auto brightness switched off ! i have the tap screen to wake phone switched on , sometimes im surprised how hard i actually have to tap it to switch on ! and it doesn't always respond ! in the txt message screen, i find the writing so fine its hard to see against the white background, i feel the letters should be more bold so they are easier to read. and yes i have made the txt large. i also find the phone a bit quiet, the volume of the ring tone and txt could do with being louder. and im surprised at the battery life too, not as good as my GS2, but yes i understand that i have an Apollo kernel installed which prolongs the battery. i have downloaded a task killer on to the phone to help prolong battery life, i will see what difference that makes over a few days. i know they are probably just minor things i am moaning about.
i don't know if i was expecting too much ... but i thought that in 3 years since i last changed my phone, things would of moved on an awful lot. just hope that one of the Devs works out a root and makes some custom roms, so i can have the phone how i want it . am i the only one that is a bit disappointed ?
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Do you not think smart phones have got to a point where technology has levelled out?
Higher res screens, better cameras, water proofing Etc? All this year's phones are much the same.
What separated them for me was build quality and screen size preference and being waterproof.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
skip24ftlb said:
Do you not think smart phones have got to a point where technology has levelled out?
Higher res screens, better cameras, water proofing Etc? All this year's phones are much the same.
What separated them for me was build quality and screen size preference and being waterproof.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
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yeah i think you could be right ! okay they tweak them a bit here and there,this one has a few more pixels,and so on, but with the manufactures bringing out so say flagship phones every 6 months, they cant change drastically in that short time. but we keep buying them so i guess they will keep doing it .
Sensamic said:
I find all the new flagships since last year disappointing, and that's why I haven't upgrade from my SGS3 yet.
They all have three or four negatives.
Z2: too big (going from a SGS3 to a Z2 would be hard), overheating issue, 3 minute limit in 4K video, waterproof (it's a negative point for me because I don't want the USB charging port sealed. It's annoying if I have to charge the phone every day), you lose Sony DRM stuff if you unlock the bootloader and root, little development, delays, Z3 in second half of this year, no blocking mode (S5, M8, iPhone and Moto X and G have them and it's an essential feature), etc.
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cant agree, sorry. have gone from the S3 to the Z2 and I love the size of the phone (not everyone has small fingers or small hands lol)
The 4K video limit is on all 4k phones, but exactly where would you play your 4K film? unless you have been twisted into buying a 4K tv where there is not TV programmes for it, (just like 3D withering on the vine)
Charging point sealed? do what most of us are doing, buying magnetic charger no need to open the flap, and its waterproof which your s3 and mine were not
who these days puts DRM music on anything?
only thing I can agree is night time blocking is not very good, but Flight mode suffices for me
oh and the battery performance blows the S3 out of the water, two days out of a charge instead of 12 hours if lucky
strommy1966 said:
yeah i think you could be right ! okay they tweak them a bit here and there,this one has a few more pixels,and so on, but with the manufactures bringing out so say flagship phones every 6 months, they cant change drastically in that short time. but we keep buying them so i guess they will keep doing it .
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Click to collapse
I agree. I mean what else can they possibly put in a phone? Apart from the 64 bit step, I can't see where else they can possibly go. IMO phone, tablet and laptop have all converged; to a degree i.e. phone- mini tablet, tablet- mini laptop. I am actually surprised that phones haven't had upgradeable ram yet.
I am planning to have this phone from my Galaxy S4. Stuffs that tempt me are the stereo-speakers, the premium feel, the waterproofing and that IPS display. I always wanted to have Sony because of the design, but the TFT LCD display is the deal-breaker for me. Now comes Z2 with IPS. Also, I have been using my gf's Nexus 5 with the IPS display, the screen is awesome, brighter and crisp. So I think Z2 would be perfect for me.
And I believe Asian version Z2 has more compatibility with frequency bands than S4 (i9505). Did my research. Hurray!:victory:

My Personal Android Nougat Review

So I've had this update for almost more or less than 2 months now, and the speed has improved just a little bit. As we all know, typical samsung software, has some glitches and stutter and all that still occurs, for some reason that I and every users don't know why this still exist. Sometimes I'm watching on Youtube, and the damn video just freezes but you can still hear the audio. But I thought maybe it's just the app so i reset the app by force stopping and clearing the data but the thing still occurs. Camera overtime, has slowed down. I don't know why but this specially occurs on lowlight situations that whenever but not always, i launched my camera, it just lags and stops and gos and it's so annoyingly slow. But most of the time, it is snappy. On the other good side of this story, i like the minimalistic Camera app. It's really just their software. Overall it is indeed snappy, but the consistency is their problem. My storage isn't even full yet, for all we know storages slow down as you're taking it all up. I've scheduled automatic restarts, i think it helped. The fingerprint, ugh i don't even wanna talk about it. I don't know how a oneplus 3 has better fingerprint than samsung's flagship. I mean it's just unreliable, i don't know maybe it's just mine??? I literally had 3 fingers assigned on my one and only right thumb just so that the phone won't have excuses lol. But no, im disappointed. It always has to be two damn tries, thats the least. Bluelight filter is now baked in, which is a very nice feature, atleast for me. Battery, i personally didn't notice any change, but thumbs up to that cos im more than satisfied with it. And as we all know, snapchat camera still sucks not only on this phone but with every android phone. The modes, man are they helpful for those times we really need to save battery. You can customize the resolution of you're desire., well not really but three choices is a lot. 720p,1080p,1440p. Now on the update, I don''t know if you noticed, my resolution is set to 1080p because the mode that is chosen after the update will automatically choose the "optimized" mode which adjusts the resolution and cpu speeds and all that according to the activity you're currenty doing. Which is another good thing. Also, google assistant arrived as well, which great! Interface has some major color and look and design changes. The status bar along with the pull down menu in my opinion has become cleaner and better looking than the previous version. The settings has been better, way way better organized than before. Samsung Pay hasn't yet to come in Canada for some goddamn reason (i know it's not suppose to be here but maybe just maybe someone from samsung reads this ****). I'll leave it here, overall, again, it's faster and snappier, app switches are better almost perfect. But you know, stutters and lags will be there. This is my review for the nougat update on my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7. Thanks for reading!

V30 for current V20 user?

Bummed about the loss of 2nd screen but the rest looks appealing. Did anyone else upgrade from a V20? What's your opinion?
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
mustafu said:
Bummed about the loss of 2nd screen but the rest looks appealing. Did anyone else upgrade from a V20? What's your opinion?
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Don't mind it at all. Was really just a gimmick to me though that I really didn't use.
I upgraded. Only two things that I kinda miss about the "2nd screen" is that it if I caught incoming messages as they came in, I could see who it was without opening the phone. The number of times that usually happened was low though. Most of the time I had to have some sort of watch on that buzzed me and I just peeked at that. Which is what I do now with the V30. The other thing I miss is having the mode switcher while in camera. Majority of the time I'm in manual stills anyway so I just made a shortcut icon for that in the static icons in my launcher. Other than that, using the AOD and floating bar I haven't really noticed it missing.
Addiso said:
Don't mind it at all. Was really just a gimmick to me though that I really didn't use.
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I upgraded from the V20 just 2 days ago and so far I'm LOVING my V30. I got my V20 after Samsung's Note7 disaster. I didn't want to downgrade to an S7 Edge, but the V20 still seemed like it was forced onto me. I liked the phone, but it was no Note7.
I will admit that the lack of Second Screen takes a bit of time to get used to if you integrated it into your daily usage patterns., but you probably won't miss it on the V30. The V30's Always On Display has a special "swipe bar" that has all the shortcuts that the V20's second screen had when the main screen was turned off (shortcuts like the wifi, bluetooth, camera, sound profile, etc toggles + music controller + shows icons for new texts, missed calls, etc). So that part is definitely similar and you most likely won't miss the Second Screen for that. The part that needs a little time to adjust to is the app shortcuts bar that appeared when the main screen was on. You will need to get used to the fact that all that info isn't in your face anymore, but will instead be on the hidden Floating Bar instead. You'll get used to it quickly though.
Admittedly, I don't use the Floating Bar on the V30. Too intrusive for me even though it's hidden. I just don't like that little half circle button on the edge of the screen. I instead use an app called Meteor Swipe, which adds a hidden swipe zone to the side of the screen (completely configurable from width, length, location, and left/right). When swiped out, you get app drawers (as many as you want) that contain as many apps as you want. It kind of mimics the S8 and Note8's side app drawer thingy. I used this on my V20 too since I really missed the side app drawers from my Note7.
I HIGHLY recommend upgrading if you want superb battery life compared to the V20's. This is why I actually upgraded. I'm a light user, with my phone mostly in my pocket all day, but about 1-2 hours of SOT. The V20 was needing a quick +30% charge to get me through the day (5am to 10pm). The V30 is lasting me all day with battery saver on (Set to Extended with only Restrict Background Data enabled and a few apps set to be excluded; Max brightness set to 100% in Battery Saver too, but auto-brightness is enabled) and some ATT and LG bloatware disabled. Yesterday (day off from work), I was using my phone from 9am to midnight and ended the day at roughly 85% with no charges and about 2 hours of SOT. I basically had my phone in my pocket all day, light texting, 2 short phone calls, and ended the night watching Youtube until I fell asleep. I fell asleep with my phone in my bed and woke up with only about 2% drain over night. Your battery life may vary obviously, and I'm only going off of memory, but DANG the battery life was remarkable!
EDIT: I should also note that even with Battery Saver on, I have yet to experience any lag or slow down. This phone is just super fast!
In short, you lose the V20's Second Screen, but gain so much more and keep several features of the V20 one way or another.
You gain:
-Faster CPU
-MUCH better battery life
-water proofing
-wireless charging (if you're into that... I personally could care less)
-battery saving tools not present on the V20's software
-lighter weight
-OLED screen that is really stunning (and saves battery over the V20's LCD display)
-And some other things I'm sure that I can't think of at the moment. The above mentioned were things I considered when deciding whether to upgrade or not.
You get to keep:
-The impressive DAC
-Main screen on Second Screen features are on the Floating Bar instead. Still there, but implemented differently.
-Main screen off Second Screen features are on the Always On Display instead. Again, still there, but different implementation.
-Impressive camera with all the manual settings... if you know how to use them... which I don't... soooooo....
Really, the only thing you lose is the toughness of the V20, but from what I've seen on Youtube drop tests, the V30 is still pretty strong.
EDIT: Oh, I should also mention that if you purchased themes for the V20 via the Google Play Store, they won't work on the V30 since it uses a different Home version than the V20. I was a bit disappointed by this at first since I love to theme my phones. The good news is that the same guys who made the V20 themes are working with the V30 now. Themes are currently scarce (at the time of writing this), but will populate the Play Store over the next several months.
Over all, I do recommend the V30 over the V20. Don't let the lack of Second Screen be a deciding factor for you.
Picked up mine yesterday. I was going back and forth over the S8+ and the V30. And really, they are pound for pound nearly identical, even with the 6 month head start that the Sammy had. You might give up some creative photo control if you go S8, but you get a much better selfie camera, but that's all personal preferences for that stuff. I got used to using the fingerprint unlock recently, and the location on the V30 is really what sealed it. Well that, and the S8 just reminds me of the S6 edge I had, and it just felt like nothing I hadn't already had or seen before. I was pleasantly surprised at the smaller physical size of the 30 vs the 20 though. So far, I've only had a couple things that irk me, and I think that's more app-based than phone-based. Overall though, I do like the phone quite a bit. Only been a day though, so who knows!
I got the V30+ just two days ago and I am in love with it already. I miss the second screen but I think it's not a big deal, since the V30 gives many more improvements over V20.

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