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Hey Guys,
4G is coming to my area in late July so naturally I'm thinking of upgrading from my Dinc.
For those of you that have 4G in your areas, how is it in terms of speed and stability as you travel around your home town? Do you guys dig the Thunderbolt? And how is tethering with the TB on 4G? Does it rock as much as I think it does?
I'm thinking of snatching one off ebay as my discounted upgrade isn't available until March 2012. I've been reading about rooting the TB. Looks like the process is a little different from the Dinc, as there's no unrevoked method. Aside from that, is the TB easy to customize after obtaining root?
Sorry for all the stupid questions. Just trying to reaffirm my near-decision to drop $300-$400 tomorrow.
I came from the Incredible also and was a bit iffy on it. I didn't like the battery life at first, but I loved everything else about the phone. With an extended battery, and the great developers that work on this phone, I really don't have anything bad to say about it. I'm getting a constant 40+ hours out of my phone, it does everything I need it to, its quick, snappy, and responsive. GB & Sense 3.0 are great. And 4G speeds are just awesome. To sit on your phone and surf the web, at speeds that I get with FiOS on my PC, it's just great.
Plus the fact I got the TB for $280 and sold my INC for $220 made me love it even more
The 4G is awesome. It's really fast, I get atleast 10 to 15mbps, but usually 20mbps, and about 5mbps upload. Beats the s___ out of all the other 4g networks I have tried.
The only thing with the T-Bolt for me is the battery life, plus the proximity sensor is really iffy, in that it can't properly detect whether the phone is near my ear, which causes the screen to stay on during a call.
I get between 10-20 down. Phone is really fast. Battery life wasn't great stock, but if you get a good ROM/Kernel combo it's vastly improved (check out das BAMF ROMs they're one of the best).
Yeah, I can pretty much concur with everything that's been said. On 3g, battery life is about the same as the inc for me, but lte lowers that considerably. I generally cannot get an entire day on one charge. If you can live with that and have steady access to 4g, it makes the phone load pages like it's on wifi (I get around 12 mbps, which is the same speed as my home internet). If you're thinking of it as an incremental upgrade from the inc, you're on the right track. It won't be a revelation, but it is better. I think the issue is that the inc was just very, very good.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Love the thunderbolt and LTE...hate the Gps and battery life
mbrown3460 said:
Love the thunderbolt and LTE...hate the Gps and battery life
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at least its not a samsung.... You dont know how many trips to italy i took in my omnia, all while sitting in my bed lol
I am VERY disappointed in LTE, but im in love with the device. Im in the tampa area and i cannot get over 5 down 4 up at any time of day. I was expecting atleast 10 down.
But the voice + data in 3G (tested ) is pretty sick and I love the device. The battery life sucks (i use a extended now) and the GPS has a funky issue where it puts me 40 miles away for a second or two in Maps and weather, but its nothing to be mad about.
I upgraded from my D1 and I am a Flash Addict. Even when a rom is running like butter..... im flashing something else lol
altimax98 said:
at least its not a samsung.... You dont know how many trips to italy i took in my omnia, all while sitting in my bed lol
I am VERY disappointed in LTE, but im in love with the device. Im in the tampa area and i cannot get over 5 down 4 up at any time of day. I was expecting atleast 10 down.
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I hear you. My Samsung Captivate GPS never worked properly.
Do you always get less than 10mbps? My speeds vary every day. Yesterday I couldn't do better than 8, today I'm averaging 15.
sublimaze said:
I hear you. My Samsung Captivate GPS never worked properly.
Do you always get less than 10mbps? My speeds vary every day. Yesterday I couldn't do better than 8, today I'm averaging 15.
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Always, sad to say. I have done it all around west tampa/lakeland and no where can i get above 5mbs. Ive hit 6.5 once, but that was it.
Thanks to all for the great info. I got a good one on ebay last night for $385.00. Comes with a 32GB SD card (*drool*). Just ordered a black silicone case for it. Thinking of what type of screen protector to get. I've used an Invisible Shield for my Dinc for a year. Wondering if anyone has any better recommendations on those. I don't really like how the Inv.Shield peels off at the corners over time. Although I see that the newer cases cover the corners.
Anyhow, whats the best screen cover in your all's opinions?
Hackenstein said:
Thanks to all for the great info. I got a good one on ebay last night for $385.00. Comes with a 32GB SD card (*drool*). Just ordered a black silicone case for it. Thinking of what type of screen protector to get. I've used an Invisible Shield for my Dinc for a year. Wondering if anyone has any better recommendations on those. I don't really like how the Inv.Shield peels off at the corners over time. Although I see that the newer cases cover the corners.
Anyhow, whats the best screen cover in your all's opinions?
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I really like the texture of the anti glare screen protectors. Feels super smooth.
Sent from my ThunderBolt using XDA Premium App
I've read alot about the Steinheil covers. People give them so serious kudos. But, still a little undecided. I'll probably be going naked the first couple days till I figure it out. I'm so stoked for 4G!
Hackenstein said:
Thanks to all for the great info. I got a good one on ebay last night for $385.00. Comes with a 32GB SD card (*drool*). Just ordered a black silicone case for it. Thinking of what type of screen protector to get. I've used an Invisible Shield for my Dinc for a year. Wondering if anyone has any better recommendations on those. I don't really like how the Inv.Shield peels off at the corners over time. Although I see that the newer cases cover the corners.
Anyhow, whats the best screen cover in your all's opinions?
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Click to collapse
Your going to want to get the extended battery! I could not stand the battery life of the phone before purchasing one. If you need a case and desktop charger for the extended battery head to letstalk.com or seidio.com.
Yea, I'm definitely gonna go the route of an extended battery. I've read way much negative feedback to ignore it.
For any of you guys who've ever used those 3500mah batteries, does using the custom doors for those give the camera tunnel vision? Seems like it would with the opening being raised nearly an inch from the frame.
3500 mah is way overkill imo. It makes the phone oddly proportioned. I'm running the HTC extended and ill get a cool 24 hours on it with moderate usage at work, 3g only, and WiFi at home with a lot of playing on the phone.
Yea, I agree. I bought the 18oomah for my Dinc so it'd fit the original door and case I purchased.
It's be great to know I have plenty of battery power with the 3500, but I don't want my pocket to feel like I'm carrying a rock.
altimax98 said:
3500 mah is way overkill imo. It makes the phone oddly proportioned. I'm running the HTC extended and ill get a cool 24 hours on it with moderate usage at work, 3g only, and WiFi at home with a lot of playing on the phone.
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I can usually squeeze 2 days on my standard HTC 2750ma battery and I use the apps and internet moderately and use Wifi while I'm at home.
I just bought my TB, also coming from a DINC. I got mine for $395 shipped on ebay with everything except the SIM.
I immediately bought the Seidio 3200mAh battery and the Seidio Convert Extended Case. I'm getting 2 days on a charge with heavy use.
All in all, I'm very pleased. First thing I did was root, de-bloat, and turn off the LTE radio (don't have it here yet). Definitely glad I bought it!
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
any slim extended batteries out?
mbrown3460 said:
any slim extended batteries out?
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I've seen them up to an 1800mah, but people complain that they drain just as fast as the stock battery. Not sure about that, but in my situation, I have a charger just about every where I go (work, car, bedroom, couch in living room). Still debating whether or not I really need to go that route. Getting a 3500mah would be great in terms of power, but since the battery door doesn't cover the entire back like the Dinc it will make the phone lopsided and awkward as someone mentioned earlier. I don't like the sound of that, lol.
Ive had the Motorola razr for a couple of days and after frequenting these forums I wanted to sort of write a review, from my perspective.
I was split between the resound and razr, it was the rezounds glitchy feel, htc sense and tiny battery and odd exterior that pushed me to get the razr. I got it at best buy, this way I had a month to swap it for the nexus as soon as it was released.
When I layed eyes on its packaging I was floored. I know it sounds kinda dumb. But damn it, the packaging was sweet! Nice low profile, menacing flat black, it was gorgeaous. I was immediately disappointed that it lacked an hdmi cable and earphones. Seriously, it was 300 $. My atrix came with a bloody hdmi cable atleast.
First time I held it I couldn’t believe how light n slim it was. Although shes packing Kevlar and a gorilla glass display, its so thin it makes u feel as if she were fragile. Not a bad thing, I enjoy slim. The side port can be a beyatch to manipulate, getting my 4g sim in there was a hassle. But thats because I bite my nails, if u don’t share this bad habit u wont have a problem at all. As soon as I fired her up the first time I wanted to shut it down immediately just so I can see the boot animation again! Very very cool. I was also glad to see that it doesn’t use motorolas blur services. And although it isn’t vanilla android, I feel motorolas touches were very welcomed. People here have complained about the camera, and yes it isn’t as great as my nokia n8. But its way better then my nexus s. I discovered, the secret to taking a great shot on this phone, is patience. Phone takes longer then it should to focus. Video recording at 720p is outstanding. 1080p is fine, but it has an odd stutter. It just doesn’t feel as fluid as 720p. many have complained about the pentile screen. And before booting the phone I expected an atrix/bionic like experience. Lemme tell u something. I have perfect vision and I am but a youngin. I don’t see jagged edges, artifacts during scrolling or the pin dots unless the phone is 3 inches from my face!!!!! The screen is beautiful, it over saturates the right colors and provides deep blacks. But it’s not as good as sammys super amoled plus. Either way its an outstanding screen. Motorola added a few things into this rom that I love. The ability to resize a widget. Smart actions. And the way qhd was used to fit more of an email on screen, makes zooming in and out of web pages ALMOST a thing of the past too. I have had zero ghasty reboots, she is very stable. The screen is very responsive, as good as it gets really. Battery life on 3g is super, but on 4g its not so hot. Luckily I can go from 50% battery to about 90% with just an hours charge. Im glad the volume buttons and power button are on the same side. I can imagine how it would suck for leftys though.
Calls were crystal clear, typical Motorola. My bathroom is a dead zone. Sprint tmo att Verizon whatever. U go in there u will lose service. The second I walk in my bathroom I was surprised to see that I was still on 4g. I speedtested and pulled in 3mp DL. Impressive considering my bathroom is a bermuda triangle. Texts come in quick and go out as fast too. So does mms. Indoors I fluctuate between 16mb and 20mb DL. Outside im killing at a steady 22mb. I have yet to drop a 4g signal. My friend with a droid charge cant say the same.
I hate the stock pic gallery and music app. I use quickpic and the google music app. Sounds through my cheapo skull candys (the one that costs more then 15 less then 20$) sound great. I do wish we had more equalizer control, but no biggie.
In conclusion, this phones got me spoiled. I really do like it. I hate the fact that I almost didn’t buy it cuz of people on this forum that over exaggerated the pentile screen. Im glad the rezound sucked hard enough to convince me to get the razr. And to tell u the truth, I doubt I will swap it for the nexus. I like it that much.
If ur on the fence feel free to ask a question on the thread, hijacking is welcomed.
Happy thanksgiving all!
Just remember:
Much more people will come on here to ***** and nitpick over something than the ones who are satisfied. The screen is just fine, some people just have way too much time on their hands.
sheek360 said:
I was immediately disappointed that it lacked an hdmi cable and earphones.
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What? really? This sucks, I am in Canada and we do have an HDMI Cable and earphones with it... Maybe you should double-check if it is included or not, was maybe a mistake somehow.. Especially since here, with a 3-year contract, we get it @ 149$... Besides very nice review, I think like you, she is such a hot girl haha
robstunner said:
Just remember:
Much more people will come on here to ***** and nitpick over something than the ones who are satisfied. The screen is just fine, some people just have way too much time on their hands.
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Click to collapse
Should add that those people who're lurkin in our forums and moaning about the razr, doesn't even own the phone.
Nice review btw.
Thanks for the review Sheek. I just switched from t-mobile to verizon, taking advantage of the 1 cent RAZR deal on amazon as well as the "double data" packages on Verizon. You just made me even more excited to receive my new phone!
brianbrain said:
Thanks for the review Sheek. I just switched from t-mobile to verizon, taking advantage of the 1 cent RAZR deal on amazon as well as the "double data" packages on Verizon. You just made me even more excited to receive my new phone!
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I was too impatient for the one cent sale. I promise u, ur gonna fall in love!
Btw I called big v. No HDMI cable or earphones for Americans.
Dang this sucks for you guys
dgiaffe said:
Dang this sucks for you guys
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Yeah..we seem to be getting the short end of the stick these days..thankfully I already have a mini-hdmi cable from my G2X days and some JLab earbuds I doubt I'd replace anyway...still annoying though - earbuds and a cable can't cost more than $10 - that and it's on a device that Verizon is selling for $799 off contract..sheesh.
Don't forget that us poor British get no hdmi and no 16GB microsd!
But we do get some crap looking headphones for our £450
I rate it quite highly a well. I have used many of the motorola phones
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
brianbrain said:
Thanks for the review Sheek. I just switched from t-mobile to verizon, taking advantage of the 1 cent RAZR deal on amazon as well as the "double data" packages on Verizon. You just made me even more excited to receive my new phone!
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Click to collapse
That is exactly what I did...from TMO to Verizon with the penny deal. My Razr is on the UPS truck for delivery tonight. So anxiously waiting....
Yes IMO Pentile is extremely overblown, on the RAZR anyway.
Over saturated colors are overblown. Seeing the 2 screen technologies side by side, I might actually prefer Amoled now, and I used to love LCD's last year.
All the screens have pros n cons. Anyone who complains about the RAZR screen and claim the screen on whatever phone they or want have is perfect or better...is biased. It may be better to them, but its not better overall. None are.
The perfect screen has yet to be invented.
What type of earphones you guys get in UK or Europe? Here in Asia we got the Rokr brand. No hdmi and sdcard though
Great real world review! I've been reading reviews like a mad man but since you said you have had an N8 and an Atrix...and as I'm currently using an Atrix now and had an N8 before that it only seems logical you would be best the best person to ask a few few questions lol. You touched on my main concerns a little but I'm still hesitant for two reasons. 1.Build quality and 2.Battery life. The N8 to atrix jump left me loathing plastic phones and wishing someone out there was smart enough to shoehorn android onto an N8! My bigger concern is battery. 1930 mah + CM7 + faux's enhanced stock kernel = 30 plus hours of light to moderate use. Now I'm not expecting that but comparatively...What can I expect with say 200 or so texts sent and received, a few 5-10 minute calls, about an hour and a half of music and 15-20 minutes web browsing? I will be using the phone on AT&T so no LTE for me. As long as I can go AT LEAST 12 hours with that kind of usage on a stock rom Expansys has my $624.99. I'm not sure but I believe the unlocked model ships with an unlocked bootloader (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's only a matter of time before the roms start pouring down from the devs and this phone gets even better. Thanks again for posting your review. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
filthyfnj24 said:
Great real world review! I've been reading reviews like a mad man but since you said you have had an N8 and an Atrix...and as I'm currently using an Atrix now and had an N8 before that it only seems logical you would be best the best person to ask a few few questions lol. You touched on my main concerns a little but I'm still hesitant for two reasons. 1.Build quality and 2.Battery life. The N8 to atrix jump left me loathing plastic phones and wishing someone out there was smart enough to shoehorn android onto an N8! My bigger concern is battery. 1930 mah + CM7 + faux's enhanced stock kernel = 30 plus hours of light to moderate use. Now I'm not expecting that but comparatively...What can I expect with say 200 or so texts sent and received, a few 5-10 minute calls, about an hour and a half of music and 15-20 minutes web browsing? I will be using the phone on AT&T so no LTE for me. As long as I can go AT LEAST 12 hours with that kind of usage on a stock rom Expansys has my $624.99. I'm not sure but I believe the unlocked model ships with an unlocked bootloader (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's only a matter of time before the roms start pouring down from the devs and this phone gets even better. Thanks again for posting your review. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Battery should give you nice results, especially if you set up "Smart Actions." I usually turn off mobile data (3G/4G) when I'm not using it, because you can still send/receive texts, as well as calls. This makes your battery last a lot longer, so just put a widget somewhere so it's an easy toggle. It's almost a 1,800mAH battery, which is way better than what you'd get on a Rezound (1,600mAH). Build quality is great, so don't be fooled by it's thin profile and think it's a cheap phone. They also sealed the battery for a reason... there are a lot of people complaining about this, but they sealed it to protect against water splashes, as well as the internals. Overall it's a great phone, just sucks that when I received mine it didn't come with the micro SIM card, so now I need to go back to Verizon.
filthyfnj24 said:
Great real world review! I've been reading reviews like a mad man but since you said you have had an N8 and an Atrix...and as I'm currently using an Atrix now and had an N8 before that it only seems logical you would be best the best person to ask a few few questions lol. You touched on my main concerns a little but I'm still hesitant for two reasons. 1.Build quality and 2.Battery life. The N8 to atrix jump left me loathing plastic phones and wishing someone out there was smart enough to shoehorn android onto an N8! My bigger concern is battery. 1930 mah + CM7 + faux's enhanced stock kernel = 30 plus hours of light to moderate use. Now I'm not expecting that but comparatively...What can I expect with say 200 or so texts sent and received, a few 5-10 minute calls, about an hour and a half of music and 15-20 minutes web browsing? I will be using the phone on AT&T so no LTE for me. As long as I can go AT LEAST 12 hours with that kind of usage on a stock rom Expansys has my $624.99. I'm not sure but I believe the unlocked model ships with an unlocked bootloader (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's only a matter of time before the roms start pouring down from the devs and this phone gets even better. Thanks again for posting your review. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
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Don't worry about the build quality. Although its a bit on the light side she feels premium as hell and well balanced.
If the GSM version is identical to the let version I can imagine that your battery life will be better then mine. Hspa battery life is typically better then lte battery life.
how's the battery life? considering is a non-removable battery
jl1030 said:
how's the battery life? considering is a non-removable battery
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If 4g is disabled its outstanding! When on wifi I set my smart action to disable 3g n 4g it yields great results. Sadly, 4g will run this bad boy down.
sheek360 said:
Ive had the Motorola razr for a couple of days and after frequenting these forums I wanted to sort of write a review, from my perspective.
I was split between the resound and razr, it was the rezounds glitchy feel, htc sense and tiny battery and odd exterior that pushed me to get the razr. I got it at best buy, this way I had a month to swap it for the nexus as soon as it was released.
When I layed eyes on its packaging I was floored. I know it sounds kinda dumb. But damn it, the packaging was sweet! Nice low profile, menacing flat black, it was gorgeaous. I was immediately disappointed that it lacked an hdmi cable and earphones. Seriously, it was 300 $. My atrix came with a bloody hdmi cable atleast.
First time I held it I couldn’t believe how light n slim it was. Although shes packing Kevlar and a gorilla glass display, its so thin it makes u feel as if she were fragile. Not a bad thing, I enjoy slim. The side port can be a beyatch to manipulate, getting my 4g sim in there was a hassle. But thats because I bite my nails, if u don’t share this bad habit u wont have a problem at all. As soon as I fired her up the first time I wanted to shut it down immediately just so I can see the boot animation again! Very very cool. I was also glad to see that it doesn’t use motorolas blur services. And although it isn’t vanilla android, I feel motorolas touches were very welcomed. People here have complained about the camera, and yes it isn’t as great as my nokia n8. But its way better then my nexus s. I discovered, the secret to taking a great shot on this phone, is patience. Phone takes longer then it should to focus. Video recording at 720p is outstanding. 1080p is fine, but it has an odd stutter. It just doesn’t feel as fluid as 720p. many have complained about the pentile screen. And before booting the phone I expected an atrix/bionic like experience. Lemme tell u something. I have perfect vision and I am but a youngin. I don’t see jagged edges, artifacts during scrolling or the pin dots unless the phone is 3 inches from my face!!!!! The screen is beautiful, it over saturates the right colors and provides deep blacks. But it’s not as good as sammys super amoled plus. Either way its an outstanding screen. Motorola added a few things into this rom that I love. The ability to resize a widget. Smart actions. And the way qhd was used to fit more of an email on screen, makes zooming in and out of web pages ALMOST a thing of the past too. I have had zero ghasty reboots, she is very stable. The screen is very responsive, as good as it gets really. Battery life on 3g is super, but on 4g its not so hot. Luckily I can go from 50% battery to about 90% with just an hours charge. Im glad the volume buttons and power button are on the same side. I can imagine how it would suck for leftys though.
Calls were crystal clear, typical Motorola. My bathroom is a dead zone. Sprint tmo att Verizon whatever. U go in there u will lose service. The second I walk in my bathroom I was surprised to see that I was still on 4g. I speedtested and pulled in 3mp DL. Impressive considering my bathroom is a bermuda triangle. Texts come in quick and go out as fast too. So does mms. Indoors I fluctuate between 16mb and 20mb DL. Outside im killing at a steady 22mb. I have yet to drop a 4g signal. My friend with a droid charge cant say the same.
I hate the stock pic gallery and music app. I use quickpic and the google music app. Sounds through my cheapo skull candys (the one that costs more then 15 less then 20$) sound great. I do wish we had more equalizer control, but no biggie.
In conclusion, this phones got me spoiled. I really do like it. I hate the fact that I almost didn’t buy it cuz of people on this forum that over exaggerated the pentile screen. Im glad the rezound sucked hard enough to convince me to get the razr. And to tell u the truth, I doubt I will swap it for the nexus. I like it that much.
If ur on the fence feel free to ask a question on the thread, hijacking is welcomed.
Happy thanksgiving all!
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Click to collapse
Great job, I am a very happy Thunderbolt owner, S-Off, rooted and running a custom rom of course. Your break down was very good but you left out the most complained about thing on the forums, battery time. I am seriously thinking about picking up this phone but the locked down battery is my only concern. How has it been throughout the day? I am not very happy with the new Nexus hardware, no sd card and coming with only 16 mb of interior memory just isn't going to cut it for me. I think the new Razr with ICS on it would be one hell of a phone.
Thanks,
Go Patriots.
vinnyjr said:
Great job, I am a very happy Thunderbolt owner, S-Off, rooted and running a custom rom of course. Your break down was very good but you left out the most complained about thing on the forums, battery time. I am seriously thinking about picking up this phone but the locked down battery is my only concern. How has it been throughout the day? I am not very happy with the new Nexus hardware, no sd card and coming with only 16 mb of interior memory just isn't going to cut it for me. I think the new Razr with ICS on it would be one hell of a phone.
Thanks,
Go Patriots.
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Click to collapse
I consider myself a very heavy user. My day consists of 20 - 30 minutes wasted on calls. Maybe 15 minutes worth of xxx browsing (lol). Refreshing Google reader every 3 hours and reading my feeds like a fiend. I fb n tweet like crazy. I video chat about 5 minutes a day too. I send maybe 10 mms n a trillion texts. I also IM too much. And I occasionally take the opportunity to Google something.
Oh I have a smurf ville and angry birds obsession.
My wifi is on at all times. But my 4g is off. I remove the phone from the charger at 6am. By lunch I'm already sitting on 80%. My battery hits about 30% or 40% by 8pm.
Because of the screen the battery dips quickly. I refuse to set brightness to 0% dammit!
When I leave the house I turn off wifi n turn on 4g. The phone sips battery very lightly no matter if your on wifi on 4g, it idles very generously.
But once u stomp on it, u can burn 10% battery on 4g in a matter of 30 - 45 minutes.
PS I YouTube a lot too. Maybe 20 minutes a day.
I had been watching the Nexus for some time before it's launch. My Droid X in all honesty was probably fine - it was overclocked, undervolted and running the latest MIUI built on ICS - but I had my mind set on the GN as the next big thing. I was travelling for work on launch day, but was able to swing by a Verizon store and pick one up late in the afternoon.
First impressions after getting a chance to check it out in my hotel room were extremely positive. The 4.65" display is immediately eye-catching. Colors just pop off the screen, and some of the more colorful icons against a black app drawer background were really great looking. This was my first 4g phone, and the speeds were pretty amazing too. Driving back from our meetings, I was playing with the phone (I wasn't the one driving!) and downloading apps off the market. I lost 4g a couple times, but I was in a mid sized city with lots of surrounding rural area. I live in DFW, so I wasn't too worried about the ability to hold a 4g connection there.
Now, I had seen the Rezound prior to the GN coming out. I can remember reading about it before it's release and thinking 'Oh great, another HTC phone that looks like every other HTC phone, but slightly faster'. I wasn't interested at all. But after going to see it in person, I really liked the phone. Comparing it to the then newly released RAZR, it was much nicer to hold. Phone felt solid, not as chunky as I had thought, and overall impressed me. But I was set on the GN!
Preamble out of the way, the GN had some flaws that I soon noticed. Nothing huge at first, but they became more apparent as time went on. Ultimately the reception or signal strength killed it for me, and I made the switch to the Rezound. I'll break it down into a comparison below to give you guys my take:
Form factor and physical
There has been a lot of talk about the GN's cheap build quality. I would disagree. The phone was plastic, yes, and it was really light, but to me it felt solid enough. There is also a lot of talk about the battery door, but again while it is flimsy on it's own, it snaps into the phone well. The door has 10+ points it snaps into, and once it's in it feels like a smooth, seamless part of the back of the phone. Especially with the extended battery. The downside is this is a pretty slick surface to hold a phone. Add in the width of the phone, which was slightly too big for me to hold one handed comfortably, and I was constantly worried I'd drop it.
The Rezound does feel a little more solid. It has a nice heft to it. With the extended battery, it has a significant heft to it. To me, the Rezound is easier to hold with either battery. The buttons are more flush with the phone and mounted in the traditional places, which I think I prefer. You don't accidentally hit them, but they're not hard to hit either. The downside, the big downside, is the creaking! Both my battery doors creak. For all the crap I've seen people give the GN for the battery door, at least it didn't creak every time I hit the left side of my keyboard.
The final decision here really comes up to screen size imo. The physical dimensions look close on paper, but the extra width and height are extremely noticeable when actually using the phone.
Screen
I talked about how the GN has that 'wow' factor. And it does. Some people call it over saturation, but man it looks good. Well, it looks good until you play with a Rezound for 10 minutes. When I was at the VZW store thinking about switching my GN for a Rezound, I was not as impressed by the screen on the Rezound at first. And I think the reason why is Sense or Gingerbread. The UI, wallpapers, notification bar, font, etc. all are much more professional and attractive on the GN. The Rezound looked terrible in stock form IMO. Giant ugly fonts, widgets with cartoonish graphics, nothing took advantage of or looked good on the Rezound screen. But comparing the same websites and applications side by side, and the Rezound quickly became the clear winner. Colors are much more clear and natural looking. On a forum app I use often, I could not tell the difference in alternating dark blues used on alternating posts. On the Rezound it was clear as day. And after getting the Rezound setup by removing Sense and getting Go Launcher, it eliminates a lot of my initial distaste. I have the Rezound as the clear winner here. However, the difference between 4.65" and 4.3" is big. If you don't mind the AMOLED tech, the bigger screen might win you over. I did find it funny though that with the on screen buttons, I could see a good bit more vertically of every web page on the Rezound.
One last thought, I read on my phone a lot. Kindle app using white text on a black background. The blacks of the AMOLED are amazing, but text is not as crisp as on the LCD.
Software
I'll be brief here. ICS has some bugs or kinks to work out. This should be expected with it's first release. It's got a lot of good things going for it too though. If it were an option on the Rezound, I'd take it. Sense it's too invasive for me, and part of me buying the Rezound was due to my research here knowing that I could easily remove Sense (thanks Scott's Roms!). The Rezound does have some nice touches though. I like the lock screen more. The camera software is great and the shutter lag is close to the GN's. Dismissing or going into calendar reminders from the lockscreen is really good too. Overall the GN wins, but the Rezound with a little tweaking beats the GN in some areas while falling short in others. This was closer than I would have first guessed.
Battery
I didn't test either phone extensively with the stock batteries. With my short use on the Rezound's stock battery, I was impressed it was able to seemingly last a good amount of time with only 1650 mah. That battery size is too small for a LTE phone IMO, and with the physical size of the battery I think HTC could have given us something better.
The GN with the 2100 mah extended battery lasts all day. At 24 hours off the charger, I would typically be between 10 and 20% battery life left. Not too bad for an LTE phone, but I think software hurts it here. Looking at my battery usage graph, there is a lot of 'awake' time where my screen is off. This seems to be somewhat common with the GN, so there may be some process keeping the phone awake. Lots of people suggests disabling some sound options (sound on keypress and something else I think), which I did, but did not notice an impact.
The Rezound, with the 2750 mah extended battery kicks the crap out of the GN. Not really apples to apples due to the larger size, but I unplugged 31 hours ago and have 58% battery left. The awake time and screen time match up almost perfectly, which is also probably giving the Rezound a healthy edge here.
Camera
I'm not much of a camera person, just not that good at it and I don't know how to adjust ISO and other camera settings to make the shot better. With everything set to auto, the Rezound takes better looking pictures, at least in the situations I was snapping photos in. Pretty much 100% in doors. With a pro behind the lense, I'm not sure how that would change.
Reception
This is the big one for me, the one that made me spending several days reading about these phones and ultimately trading the GN in. Once I got the GN home to DFW, I was a little surprised at the reception. Just going by the bars at first, it seemed low at my house and 'okay' at work. While at my house, I booted up my Droid X and did some side by side testing. The DX was hitting -88 to -93 on average, while the GN was above -100 everywhere, at times hitting -113!
Now, after some reading online, I discovered that the GN was giving me the LTE signal, while the DX was giving me the CDMA signal. But by setting the GN to CDMA only, it would report the CDMA signal to me, giving me a better comparison. After doing this, the GN range dropped down to -93 to -103. Not great at all, but enough to hold a signal in 3g. The problem though was how slow the phone switched radios. Going from 4g to 3g would take up to a minute. Further testing lead to some cases of dropping a 3g signal, altough surprisingly it did hold onto the 4g signal despite the worse signal strength. I ran the SpeedTest app multiple times every night for 10 day, and the highest speed I saw was 8,200 kbps down, 4,400 up.
An even bigger shocker though was the wifi performance. I have a weight bench in my garage, and like to listen to Pandora on my phone while working out. The GN had zero bars of wifi (but would stay connected...mostly) and would take 10 seconds between tracks to buffer. My DX had 3 bars of wifi (I know, bars are not apples to apples and sucks as a measurement) and would play Pandora seamlessly. My house is small, the router is pretty high end and not that far away. Bad 3g, bad 4g and bad wifi had me feeling pretty bummed about the phone. To be fair, I never had a great signal on the DX at my house either, but as the above numbers show, it was better than the GN.
To sum up the GN, I travelled for Christmas and visited some areas with marginal service and some areas that should have had good service, according the VZW's coverage map. I had my brother's cheap-o Samsung Android Sprint phone to test side by side. The GN lost or tied every time. The kicker was when we were in downtown Bryan, TX, which is right next door to College Station and should have had great coverage. I had no signal at all the entire time we were in Bryan. This was not during VZW's 4g outage. My brother had a signal in the -80's on his Samsung.
That was what sent me to the VZW store Christmas eve to check out the Rezound. They had it right next to a display GN. I tested all three phones in terms of signal. They would fluctuat slightly, but the high/low for both my GN and the display model were the same. -78 to -83. The Rezound was -66 to -72. Both GNs were set to CDMA only. At this point I'm thinking 'Okay, the Rezound is better. It's only 10 or 12 db, but that would put me in a much better spot with the numbers I was getting at my house.' Then I decided to run the SpeedTest app. I used both display models for this, and made sure they were hitting the same server. The results were consistent between runs. The Rezound hit 24,000 down and 11,000 up. The GN hit 14,000 down and 6,000 up. I repeated this again and again. Obviously both phones were switched to 4g for this test. I then repeated the GN results with my phone, and walked over to the VZW rep and said 'Hi I'd like to return my GN for a Rezound please'.
I haven't done extensive testing on the Rezound since being back home (unpacking, catching up with friends... you understand). But I ran SpeedTest right when I got home. 30,600 down and 9,900 up. After that I just smiled and felt fine about doing more testing later. What I can't make out though, is why so many online reviews and articles seem to thing there isn't a problem with the GN. Maybe it's a problem with only some GNs? Anandtech articles I respect very highly. They know their stuff, and always have a great technical analysis. Their article on GN signal issues just confused me, because it seemed to say there was no problem. I don't know, I did a lot of testing with the GN. I wanted to keep it! I won't bore you with all the details, but I lost signal five miles from DFW airport in a busy shopping center. I did many, many side by side SpeedTest runs with my buddy and his Bionic. I feel like I gave the GN every chance to perform. I will say that at work my GN was -93 to -100 on 4g signal, and at times I'd hit 24,00 down, which was very close to what the Bionic was pulling.
My take-away was that with a great signal, the GN will perform. With a poor signal, the GN does a good job of holding on to that signal. But the GN radio just can't get a signal as well as some other phones, and the Rezound gets a great signal in comparison.
Miscellaneous
The GN is quick. Transitions are seamless, apps open fast and market downloads install in no time. The Rezound is also quick. As quick? Not really. There's still some slight hesitation here or there. I'd say it's more software than hardware. If you put any stock into benchmarks, the GN did 5,850 in Antutu and the Rezound did 5,640.
The Rezound is chunky with the extended battery. But I like it better than the GN in terms of feel in the hand.
Um...if you made it this far, anything else you want to know?
Cliff Notes:GN and Rezound are both good devices. The GN had signal issues that prevented it from being something I'd want to own and use. The Rezound is better than it looks on paper and as a whole package works really well.
Wow, you really put a lot into this. Good read.
Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk
I noticed the same thing about the graphics and text in the status bar and other areas of the OS. When you view something that really takes advantage of the screen it's quite impressive, yet HTC didn't put much thought into really exploiting one of the phone's main selling points. It seems like an odd oversight. The colors don't even look subdued to me when you view something that actually has bright colors in it, and that's after using a Droid Charge for awhile which is heavily over-saturated. Most of the included wallpapers are pretty dull with the exception of one or two, and a few of them aren't even sharp.
jasoncd said:
I didn't test either phone extensively with the stock batteries. With my short use on the Rezound's stock battery, I was impressed it was able to seemingly last a good amount of time with only 1650 mah. That battery size is too small for a LTE phone IMO, and with the physical size of the battery I think HTC could have given us something better.
...
That was what sent me to the VZW store Christmas eve to check out the Rezound. They had it right next to a display GN. I tested all three phones in terms of signal. They would fluctuat slightly, but the high/low for both my GN and the display model were the same. -78 to -83. The Rezound was -66 to -72. Both GNs were set to CDMA only. At this point I'm thinking 'Okay, the Rezound is better. It's only 10 or 12 db, but that would put me in a much better spot with the numbers I was getting at my house.'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic review, thanks Jason!
So the dB numbers and speedtests above were all captured w/the Rezound's extended battery? Were you able to perceive any change in behavior (esp. w/3G) when you replaced the stock battery?
jasoncd said:
Miscellaneous
The GN is quick. Transitions are seamless, apps open fast and market downloads install in no time. The Rezound is also quick. As quick? Not really. There's still some slight hesitation here or there. I'd say it's more software than hardware. If you put any stock into benchmarks, the GN did 5,850 in Antutu and the Rezound did 5,640.
The Rezound is chunky with the extended battery. But I like it better than the GN in terms of feel in the hand.
Um...if you made it this far, anything else you want to know?
Cliff Notes:GN and Rezound are both good devices. The GN had signal issues that prevented it from being something I'd want to own and use. The Rezound is better than it looks on paper and as a whole package works really well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using the Rezound stock there are two well three factors here that would make it hesitate/lag. #1.) Sense - I'm not sure if it's just this release but yeah it's nowhere near as smooth as it should be for the hardware on this device. #2.) GB - The device is still on Gingerbread and I think the transitions/animations do not properly utilize the GPU, that and there's the lack of overall HW acceleration. #3.) Store demos are always laggy due to all the crap it probably goes through at the store. Yes it is just the software in this case and I can attest to that. I put ICS on my old Droid 3 and that sucker flew. No transitional/animation lag thanks to the proper GPU utilization + HW acceleration. I've gotten 6k on my Rezound on Antutu before, so I really wouldn't use a benchmark to gauge performance here.
Thanks for the feedback guys. This was a big purchase for me, so I did a ton a research. I really went from GN all the way, to loving the Rezound and respecting the GN for what it is. It's just too flawed to be the game changer I thought it would be.
kgbeezr1 said:
I noticed the same thing about the graphics and text in the status bar and other areas of the OS. When you view something that really takes advantage of the screen it's quite impressive, yet HTC didn't put much thought into really exploiting one of the phone's main selling points. It seems like an odd oversight. The colors don't even look subdued to me when you view something that actually has bright colors in it, and that's after using a Droid Charge for awhile which is heavily over-saturated. Most of the included wallpapers are pretty dull with the exception of one or two, and a few of them aren't even sharp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You hit it with the status bar comment. The blue icons of ICS might not be for everyone, but they're a damn sight better than what HTC/GB gives us. They're just...overblown? Comical? Meh, I don't know, it's fine just a little more attention to detail here could have helped push the Rezound up in reviewers minds imo.
Blue Biker said:
Fantastic review, thanks Jason!
So the dB numbers and speedtests above were all captured w/the Rezound's extended battery? Were you able to perceive any change in behavior (esp. w/3G) when you replaced the stock battery?
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Click to collapse
Thanks man! You are correct, all of the numbers I posted were with the Rezounds extended battery. I almost thought your question could be answered with 'No way, they perform the same!'. Which is what I've been reading.
But I decided to take a slow walk around the house with both the extended and standard batteries in. This included going in bathrooms, closets, the garage, etc. Basically every part of my house.
The extended battery was between -85 and -95 db. The living room was the worst at -95. I changed out for the standard battery, and right off the numbers were a little better. It was -81 to -90. What's funny is with the extended battery the garage was a solid -90. Every part of it. With the standard, it was the same solid number but -85 instead of -90.
I will note that when I put the standard cover back on, there was very very little creak to it. It fit very flush. My extended battery cover have a fairly large creak on one side. Maybe it's not making the best contact? Or maybe it's just not as good?
I might order a new extended cover from HTCpedia and see if that fits any better, and if it has an impact compared to the one I have now.
Sigh, I was afraid you were going to come up with results like that. I've been chasing this down here in XDA (and also in AF) with several people claiming plenty of antenna material on the extended cover, just that it's covered up instead of visibly copper on the standard cover. They probably are correct, but it also seems to be true that there is some level of signal sacrificed by the extended cover.
So will I accept a 5dB signal loss to achieve 70% more battery? Going from an excellent connection to very good? It feels dumb to admit, but my answer's probably yes.
Thanks again for all of your legwork and analysis. I was also obsessively following the GNex for many months and only hopped on the Rez at the last minute. Hope I can share what I've learned as well.
BTW, creaking covers seems to be common w/Rezounds (although not mine), so others may have suggestions for how to reduce it.
Blue Biker said:
Sigh, I was afraid you were going to come up with results like that. I've been chasing this down here in XDA (and also in AF) with several people claiming plenty of antenna material on the extended cover, just that it's covered up instead of visibly copper on the standard cover. They probably are correct, but it also seems to be true that there is some level of signal sacrificed by the extended cover.
So will I accept a 5dB signal loss to achieve 70% more battery? Going from an excellent connection to very good? It feels dumb to admit, but my answer's probably yes.
Thanks again for all of your legwork and analysis. I was also obsessively following the GNex for many months and only hopped on the Rez at the last minute. Hope I can share what I've learned as well.
BTW, creaking covers seems to be common w/Rezounds (although not mine), so others may have suggestions for how to reduce it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both my original and extended battery cover creaks pretty bad. HTC sent me a new back cover and it didn't change a thing. The only way I found to reduce it was fold a piece of paper a couple of times and lay in on the battery before you put the cover on it. It does not completely get rid of it but it did reduce it.
yeah, the creaky battery door definitely sucks. mine just started creeking more on the left side from taking the back cover off a lot, but with a TPU, i don't notice it that much. oh well; i should try to complain to get another door out of them lol
Thanks for this GREAT review. It really solidifies my decision on whether to let my Rezound go for Gnex.
Im sure this has been asked a lot, but there are some things I cant seem to find.
My major concerns are of course, the non expandable storage space, and the non removable battery.
The DNA is advertised to have 16 gigs of storage space. Is this the free space available out of the box? Or does the os use some of this space.
As for the battery, i do mostly texting and web browsing, some videos. Im usually driving or at my desk so it will likely be plugged in most of the time. This isnt a huge concern, but still a small issue.
If you have this phone, what dont you like about it?
Thanks for the input.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
A quick addition, for those who have had htc devices for a while, how are they with software updates? Coming from motorola, whos horrible, it would he nice to have a phone that gets updated accordingly.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Out of the you'll have just a little over 11gb of storage to play with. As for battery life the DNA has surprised many by lasting most pretty much all day. Of course it depends how heavy you use it? You'll be more than fine with battery life with what you mentioned.
The DNA beats out the gs 3 in every way, except for the expandable storage. Once you debloat the phone you get more than 11 gigs. The battery is very good especially with cubed kernel
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
I actually just got my s3 back from repairs and I plan to do a comparison video before selling it.
The DNA beats the gs3 in every way except for storage and some touchwiz features(palm screenshot, eye following, etc)
And the DNA has around 11 gigs available.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
i've got both, and i do love both.
i've always been an HTC man, from the eris, Inc, to the Rezound, and now a DNA. i've got a galaxy nexus, and an S3 as well.
the S3 has a great camera that right out of the box, point and shoot, looks amazing. with the DNA, as i found with most HTC devices, you have to do a little fine tuning to get pictures to come out well. the LED flash on the S3 is also much brighter than the DNA, which makes better flash-lowlight pics on the S3.
the S3, like all other samsung androids, doesn't have the best of service unfortunately. the nexus had bad service and would never pickup 4g, whereas my rezound had great service and would grab 4g no problem. i was in a new 4g area, so that could explain it, but the rezound would get it more often. the S3 picked up 4g much better than the nexus, but it's GPS antenna was AWFUL. my S3 would never lock on for me if i was inside any building, or hell, even a car. it was really bad...compared to my Nexus 7 which is INSTANT lock, and my DNA/Rezound which both locked really quick as well.
the call reception on the S3 was good, and sounded good, but the DNA def. beats it out. people say it sounds like i'm calling from a landline, thats how clear the DNA is.
in terms of battery life, my S3 would average around 14 hours with maybe 2 hours screen on time. when idling over night, i've gotten as much as 32 hours out of it before. the DNA, so far, seems to be almost identical. i pulled it off the charger at 5am this morning because i saw it was full, went back to sleep, and got up at like 10:30. it only dropped to 98% idling for 5 hours. considering the fact i have so much stuff synicng all the time and i was on 4G all night, that's pretty damn good!
the screen on the DNA is just amazing. the viewing angles are insanely good, and the screen is so close to the glass so it looks just amazing. the S3 has a great screen as well, although a bit more on the warm side and oversaturated sicne it's a super AMOLED.
the DNA has an amazing build quality factor here. HTC used like rounded off glass for the screen just like the S3, so your hand just glides over the edge. it doesn't have those horrible sharp corners old HTC phones had, like the rezound, where gunk and dust would get stuck in the gap and look horrible, and even worse, get dust under teh screen.
overall, the size of the DNA is fine. yeah, it's bigger than the S3 and def. feels it, but i can still do almost everything one handed on it. the S3 may seem a little bit quicker at first, which i simply attribute to touchwiz compared to sense, but overall, the DNA feels smoother.
i'm fortunate enough to be able to have all of these phones and keep them all. i'm loving the DNA, and i'll always have my galaxy nexus and S3 to switch between!
First let me say that I just came from a Samsung fasinate. I used it for two years stock and then rooted for two months. The GUI that Samsung uses is more intuitive IMO. And once rooted, opened my eyes to the plethera of settings/customization that can be done with a rooted phone. The options you get to p lay with on a stock DNA are limited. In fact some of the coolest features that JB has to offer are over written by HTC sence. I have had this phone since the day b4 thanksgiving, and it is way fast. The Screen is huge and beautiful. It is a great phone that will be better once I root it.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
earthrocker said:
i've got both, and i do love both.
i've always been an HTC man, from the eris, Inc, to the Rezound, and now a DNA. i've got a galaxy nexus, and an S3 as well.
the S3 has a great camera that right out of the box, point and shoot, looks amazing. with the DNA, as i found with most HTC devices, you have to do a little fine tuning to get pictures to come out well. the LED flash on the S3 is also much brighter than the DNA, which makes better flash-lowlight pics on the S3.
the S3, like all other samsung androids, doesn't have the best of service unfortunately. the nexus had bad service and would never pickup 4g, whereas my rezound had great service and would grab 4g no problem. i was in a new 4g area, so that could explain it, but the rezound would get it more often. the S3 picked up 4g much better than the nexus, but it's GPS antenna was AWFUL. my S3 would never lock on for me if i was inside any building, or hell, even a car. it was really bad...compared to my Nexus 7 which is INSTANT lock, and my DNA/Rezound which both locked really quick as well.
the call reception on the S3 was good, and sounded good, but the DNA def. beats it out. people say it sounds like i'm calling from a landline, thats how clear the DNA is.
in terms of battery life, my S3 would average around 14 hours with maybe 2 hours screen on time. when idling over night, i've gotten as much as 32 hours out of it before. the DNA, so far, seems to be almost identical. i pulled it off the charger at 5am this morning because i saw it was full, went back to sleep, and got up at like 10:30. it only dropped to 98% idling for 5 hours. considering the fact i have so much stuff synicng all the time and i was on 4G all night, that's pretty damn good!
the screen on the DNA is just amazing. the viewing angles are insanely good, and the screen is so close to the glass so it looks just amazing. the S3 has a great screen as well, although a bit more on the warm side and oversaturated sicne it's a super AMOLED.
the DNA has an amazing build quality factor here. HTC used like rounded off glass for the screen just like the S3, so your hand just glides over the edge. it doesn't have those horrible sharp corners old HTC phones had, like the rezound, where gunk and dust would get stuck in the gap and look horrible, and even worse, get dust under teh screen.
overall, the size of the DNA is fine. yeah, it's bigger than the S3 and def. feels it, but i can still do almost everything one handed on it. the S3 may seem a little bit quicker at first, which i simply attribute to touchwiz compared to sense, but overall, the DNA feels smoother.
i'm fortunate enough to be able to have all of these phones and keep them all. i'm loving the DNA, and i'll always have my galaxy nexus and S3 to switch between!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you have used both as a daily driver. If you had to pick, what would it be?
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
earthrocker said:
in terms of battery life, my S3 would average around 14 hours with maybe 2 hours screen on time. when idling over night, i've gotten as much as 32 hours out of it before. the DNA, so far, seems to be almost identical. i pulled it off the charger at 5am this morning because i saw it was full, went back to sleep, and got up at like 10:30. it only dropped to 98% idling for 5 hours. considering the fact i have so much stuff synicng all the time and i was on 4G all night, that's pretty damn good!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would just like to add my battery life on my DNA to compare to your 2hr/14hr on the s3. And note this is with playing at least an hour of games, and that killed my battery.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
Firstly, battery life isn't a problem. It's not going to win any awards, but I'd honestly say it's above average for a smartphone. It'll get you through the day for sure. I wish it were removable, but it's not a dealbreaker by any means. Lack of storage space could either be a huge issue or a non-issue if you (like me) stream most of your media.
Build quality is top notch. This thing looks futuristic and feels great in the hand. It doesn't feel like a 5" phone at all. It's certainly big, but it's so thin and the taper so aggressive that it doesn't feel overwhelming. I can reach the whole screen with my thumb if I adjust how I hold it slightly. The DNA feels very similarly in size to the S3, although the latter is definitely more plasticky and cheap-feeling IMO. I'm not a fan of Samsung's glossy plastics and never have been, despite having purchased several of their products.
Coming from the Epic 4g (the original slider version, not the Touch), and playing around with my dad's S3, I find myself actually enjoying Sense. This is the first Sense phone I've bought and I much prefer it to Touchwiz, which I find garish and clunky. I had to root my Epic just to make it usable in many regards (awful battery life, lag, and FCs out of the box, all of which were handily fixed thanks to SyndicateRomFrozen). In contrast, the DNA has rock solid performance, and Sense adds some details I really like. I'd prefer AOSP, of course - but unlike my Epic, which needed some serious fixes right out of the box, I don't feel as strong of a need to root my DNA. I think I'll actually be ok with keeping it stock for awhile - that's how much I like Sense.
Anyway, my .02
Bigandrewgold said:
I would just like to add my battery life on my DNA to compare to your 2hr/14hr on the s3. And note this is with playing at least an hour of games, and that killed my battery.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
I have to say HTC has an AMAZING way to make sure their devices (including DNA) consume as little battery as possible during idle. Which is one of the best stuff I valued.
After HTC DNA, 1% per hour in idle is no long acceptable. 1% per 3 hours seems normal in idle mode.
jiwengang said:
I have to say HTC has an AMAZING way to make sure their devices (including DNA) consume as little battery as possible during idle. Which is one of the best stuff I valued.
After HTC DNA, 1% per hour in idle is no long acceptable. 1% per 3 hours seems normal in idle mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol apparently you were a release day Rezound user when it came to battery life. On my S3 I averaged around 3.5 hours screen on time w/ no WiFi, all verizon data, unlike some of the screenshots we're seeing in this thread.
Would really like to try a DNA but so far liking the compact factor of the Razr M. The one thing, as mentioned that has always bugged me about Sammy vs. HTC or Moto are the radios. My Rezound had the best down speeds I've ever seen. And I've been rocking 4G since they implemented it here in Chicago. My Sammy's have always had so so radios. But my S3 had a great 4G radio and so so 3G radio/connection. And then Moto throws me for a loop and has terrible reception with the M. That's the one flaw of the M IMHO. If I didn't live in strong 4G I couldn't own this phone.
But since we're on the battery topic I think we're gonna start seeing the law of diminishing returns. Hardware wise and software wise there isn't much left for the "smartphone" of today. Battery tech is what really needs a push in research and development. Funny how hot phones are hampered by batteries and hot cars/bikes hampered by fuel.
I'm using the dna as my daily driver and will be for a long long time.
Sent from my HTC Droid DNA using Tapatalk 2
Anyone happen to have a screenshot of the storage graph on a fresh phone?
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
jiwengang said:
I have to say HTC has an AMAZING way to make sure their devices (including DNA) consume as little battery as possible during idle. Which is one of the best stuff I valued.
After HTC DNA, 1% per hour in idle is no long acceptable. 1% per 3 hours seems normal in idle mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You never owned a Thunderbolt then. That thing could blow through a battery like no other! Barely got better and the device never saw the ICS update that was promised. There was a leak via Bamf, but that was a battery killer in my usage too. Can't blame HTC/VZW, why support a dead device when you can sell a new one?
On a good note, the DNA I bought on 9 Dec has kick ass battery life for how I use it. I haven't had much time to do gaming on it.
I came from an GS3, I prefer the DNA. One of the most annoying things about the GS3 (to me) was the hard key would wake the device. My phone is always in my pocket at work and I'd constantly find it on doing something. Erg.
As far as the storage goes; I've loaded the music that I listen to most and have all my apps/ other crap installed and still have 7.6 gigs left. I doubt I'd fill that up. With my GS3, I had the 16 gig model with another 16 gig card, I didn't even come close to maxing that out.
I just recently sold my verizon SGS3 and now I'm a happy DNA owner. Battery life is better on DNA. There is only one thing I miss having and that is CM10.
I'd kill for CM10 on DNA.
rabnud said:
You never owned a Thunderbolt then. That thing could blow through a battery like no other! Barely got better and the device never saw the ICS update that was promised. There was a leak via Bamf, but that was a battery killer in my usage too. Can't blame HTC/VZW, why support a dead device when you can sell a new one?
On a good note, the DNA I bought on 9 Dec has kick ass battery life for how I use it. I haven't had much time to do gaming on it.
I came from an GS3, I prefer the DNA. One of the most annoying things about the GS3 (to me) was the hard key would wake the device. My phone is always in my pocket at work and I'd constantly find it on doing something. Erg.
As far as the storage goes; I've loaded the music that I listen to most and have all my apps/ other crap installed and still have 7.6 gigs left. I doubt I'd fill that up. With my GS3, I had the 16 gig model with another 16 gig card, I didn't even come close to maxing that out.
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thats funny, i acutally loved the hard home key waking it up..i keep finding myself trying to hit a home key on my DNA lol. the power button is kinda hard to press on the DNA, thats my only complaint really..and that weird screen fadeout post-picture gallery issue i get. but i feel thats software and not hardware, i hope..
earthrocker said:
thats funny, i acutally loved the hard home key waking it up..i keep finding myself trying to hit a home key on my DNA lol. the power button is kinda hard to press on the DNA, thats my only complaint really..and that weird screen fadeout post-picture gallery issue i get. but i feel thats software and not hardware, i hope..
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In all honesty, I don't like having a security lock screen setup on my android devices. It drove me nuts, I'd pull the Sammy out and it would be taking a picture or trying to open a webpage/facebook, etc... BUT, I did like that it took all of 30 minutes to root/s-off/unlock and load a Rom. The 3G/4G hand off was a bit harsh on the ones I tried. It was a good phone, but didn't work well for me at work.
All being equal, I've been an HTC guy for years. I was sad that there was no OneX VZW variant. I think the DNA makes up for that in spades.
rabnud said:
In all honesty, I don't like having a security lock screen setup on my android devices. It drove me nuts, I'd pull the Sammy out and it would be taking a picture or trying to open a webpage/facebook, etc... BUT, I did like that it took all of 30 minutes to root/s-off/unlock and load a Rom. The 3G/4G hand off was a bit harsh on the ones I tried. It was a good phone, but didn't work well for me at work.
All being equal, I've been an HTC guy for years. I was sad that there was no OneX VZW variant. I think the DNA makes up for that in spades.
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agreed. HTC has always been my favorite brand! their customer support rocks.
Because I promised
Quick background: I've had iPhones until earlier this year when i took the plunge and nabbed an Unlocked Galaxy Nexus GSM, Great phone, but some things with it I just couldnt get past (16gb of storage and the EH audio amplification...Also i want fond of 4.2 on it) which lead me to search for another phone, Tried the Galaxy S3 but was disappointed and returned it, And now about a weekish or so ago I got myself the One X+, So lets delve into my opinion on the device for anyone on the fence
First Impressions, Build, Ergonomics and Screen
The build of the One X+ is fantastic, Far better than the S3 or Galaxy Nexus, it feels nice solid and most importantly for a $200-on-contract smartphone, premium, The grippy texture to the finish makes it a delight to hold and I never feel like im going to drop the bloody thing at the drop of a hat, The Capacitive buttons are also in my opinion much nicer than the hard button on the S3 (One of the major stumbling blocks with the S3 was the fact i found that button WAY too hard to work) Though I think the Galaxy Nexus' on screen buttons are still the most elegant solution... If I had one little complaint in regards to the ergonomics its that the volume buttons sit flush and undefined on the chassis of the phone, which has taken me a bit to get used to, Id prefer them to be raised a bit, but its a minor complaint. Overall the fit and finish of the phone is the best of any other phone I've ever owned, it feels solid and like its going to hold up to 2 years of use
Moving on, the screen is one of the most important bits of ANY smartphone and the One X+ doesnt disappoint, its easily got the nicest screen I've ever seen on a smartphone (And i did LOVE the AMOLED on my GNex so thats high praise!) its big, its bright, colors are saturated and the black level is nothing to scoff at, Albeit not as inky black as an AMOLED, Text is sharp and easily readable as well, and unlike the AMOLED screen on my GNex it doesnt chug my battery flat, it also stays looking nice even at lower brightness levels, The multitouch on it works well and accurately... Other nice things are the nicely beveled edges at the screen which makes swiping, say to another page of the homescreen or to move icons from one screen to another, a real treat and the fact it stays pretty clean and comes clean easily (Its not a fingerprint magnet the way my iphone or the S3 was, The S3 was actually terrible because i couldnt clean the fingerprints off worth a darn...)
Sense/Software
This is my first experience with Sense and only the second Skinned android version I've used and I gotta say I'm in the group that likes Sense, I get the reasons folks dislike it, but I'm finding I actually prefer many aspects of it over stock Android, in particular I do like the messaging app on it which just seems to work a bit better than the one on my GNex, and I do rather like more than one of the widgets it comes with (The small 4x1 Weather + Clock widget for instance) but I do see how these things could drain the battery or processor... I like how it asked me after dismissing one tutorial if i wanted it to keep bringing tutorials up and when i said no it never brought up another one (Unlike Touchwiz which would NOT stop bringing up tutorials even after i told it to knock it off)
The music app has rapidly become my favorite music app, I just like it, I dont like Google Play Music and Doubletwist had its problems in my opinion (Namely it tended to mess up if someone sent me a text or called me and wouldnt resume playing until i completely exited it and reloaded it, Not to mention it did NOT play well with 4.2, also the random thing i had to toggle on and off a few times everytime i started played music or it just continued the same "random" assortment of songs from the last play through..) by comparison the Sense music app just works better, looks pretty attractive and is easy for me to navigate, Also the included ringtone maker is a VERY nice touch that removed the need to install an app to do so...
The phone and Calendar apps are also very very nice, far better than the stock Android counterparts.. I love how the lock screen works as well with only ONE complaint, I dont think theres a way to launch Google Now from the lock screen... (If you know a way please tell me)
Google Now is better than it was on the GNexus shockingly, it transcribes my voice a lot quicker and more accurately than my GNex ever did..
I pretty much disabled all the AT&T crapware on my One X+ as soon as I got it, and I recommend you do as well, I know from many reports here one of the apps will chew up your battery if you dont disable it so yeah, The only ATT App I have on there and use is the Visual Voicemail one, Beyond that theres a demo of Mass Effect Infiltrator installed which is actually nice, its a game I bought on a friend's iPad and while I liked the concept, their old iPad ran it like junk and i felt the game was more suited to a phone screen over a tablet, Im not sure I'll drop $3.99 to unlock the full version, but as a demonstration of what the Tegra 3 could do in terms of graphics I found it a lovely demonstration
The stock browser is pretty nice as well and supports flash, Performance on it is VERY good, Seems on par with my Flash-browser of choice on my GNex (Dolphin) theres a really stupid and annoying toolbar enabled by default but 5 seconds in the settings menu banishes it to nothingness, Of course for non-flash sites I use Chrome, but the stock browser is the nicest stock browser I've ever used
About the only complaint i can throw at Sense is the keyboard, Which is pretty bad for me personally, Lots of typing errors and problems... But to be honest thats a minor complaint given how many alternate keyboards there are for Android
Performance
Performance wise this phone is a powerhouse, I have not had any issues with it stuttering, slowing down or anything no matter how hard i push it, No games have had noticable framerate problems (The GNex had problems with a couple games I played) the interface works smooth and buttery and it definitely feels like the most powerful Android device I've owned, Flash works smooth and buttery and gives me no issues as well which is VERY nice
Gaming I havnt found a single game it cant run perfectly(Albeit, i havnt done TOO much gaming on it)
As for other performance, the radio and antenna seem to be excellent, Unlike the S3 my One X+ doesnt hop on and off between HSPA+ and LTE every 2 seconds schizophrenically (Which made my S3 lose 20% of its battery in a 20 minute long errand and signalled the final nail in the coffin that lead me to return it), My One X+ hasnt lost connection even when I've taken it to the places I know have poor coverage so I'm quite happy with that bit of it
LTE performance will vary on your area but I get around 8mbps in my house (Which is 2-bar bordering the edge of LTE territory) to a high of 36mbps i got when i was out of the house at a 4-bar LTE location, Which is certainly nothing to scoff about, Wi-Fi works well for me, and I've yet to notice any problems with my Wi-Fi dropping at night or when its been locked for a long time like other users have reported...
Call quality is excellent, People are loud and clear, The speakerphone is also the first one i've found i can actually USE in a car and hear the person...
Camera
I'm the worst person to ask about camera quality on smartphones, For what I use them for even the "Bad" Galaxy Nexus camera was great for me, I carry my EOS 7D with me just about everywhere so if I want to take a nice picture I will pull that out instead..
That said, the cameras are very nice, I love how responsive it is with pretty much no shutter lag, it focuses quickly and very accurately and tends to do a good job with exposure as well, Photos have a good amount of detail to them and skintones are rendered pleasingly, Theres plenty of artsy filters if thats your thing as well, Only complaint is the focal length of the front facing camera seems a bit long for a self portrait, i have more problems framing it than with other smartphones I've owned, But the quality is also far superior to the other phones I've had
The stock sound effects for it are REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING however
Audio Quality
Obviously one big reason I picked up the One X+ was to get something with better audio quality than the GNex, The GNex isnt THAT shabby, but it does lack "oomph" and struggled to drive even my mobile headphones (I had to have it cranked to 100% all the time to get them decently audible and even then it was eh...) Volume+ helped a bit but 4.2 broke Volume+ leaving me in a bit of a rut...I also personally felt it made the phone sound "Strained" at times to deliver the volume i desired... The external speaker was also frequently barely audible, I usually heard the phone vibrating over the actual ringer...
Thankfully the One X+ is worlds apart from the GNex in that department, The external speaker is LOUD and easily heard, its also of surprisingly good quality and is actually one of the best little built in speakers I've heard, it also has a good amount of "depth" to it and renders low frequencies admirably for what it is, Overall the external speaker impressed me
But that pales in comparison to the headphone output, Which has simply left my jaw on the floor and exceeded my expectations, the headphone output is easily the best I've heard of any smartphone or MP3 player I've owned, it has exceptional clarity and detail to it with or without the Beats optimizations on... Speaking of those optimizations I was actually shocked I liked them and I did find they made a very noticeable difference in the output quality, Now note... they are simply a set of equalization curves they may not work for everyone due to differences in music and headphones... but in my case they've worked well and further enhance the music and video watching experience
For the record I've tried my One X+ with three sets of headphones, a set of Shure IEMs, a pair of Klipsch Image Ones and a pair of Sennheiser HD280s, Only the HD280s gave it a bit of trouble... they still sounded good, albeit not to their full potential (For the record the HD280s are a set of cans that REALLY need something meatier than a smartphone to drive them..) My primary music listening is Rock and Metal, with a bit of electronic, pop and other things thrown in there for good measure, So far I havnt found anything that the One X+ doesnt excel at playing back
Oh and the headphone output will also go VERY loud, I dont even turn it up past halfway except with a couple very low volume songs i have...
Battery Life
And now onto the massive elephant in the room whenever folks talk about the One X+... Battery life... The best way I've found it is "Jekyll and Hyde"... Let me explain
Use the phone normally, for phone calls, text messaging, maybe reading a webpage or checking email and the battery life is superb, Even some light gaming, like a little Cut The Rope or some such and the battery is VERY good and should easily get most folks through a day, Even watching a youtube video or two, either using the Youtube app or the stock browser and desktop youtube website doesnt excessively drain the battery...
....But fire up say, Mass Effect Infiltrator and watch your battery life burn...
Which seems very "No crumb sherlock" but it was definitely surprising to me after coming from the Galaxy Nexus where the screen, not the processor, was the worst offender to my battery life, Which simply means it didnt much matter what i did on the GNex if it involved the screen, the battery was going to drain at the same rate
Truthfully in my experience, the One X+ is as good as the S3 I had, Primarily because of that aforementioned issue the S3 had with staying connected to a tower, Its actually equal to my GNex's stock battery as well, which is very impressive considering this phone is packing LTE and a Quad Core processor in its svelte package
In terms of numbers, according to GSam my average battery life is 14h 40m, The most I've run it for was 16h with almost 3 hours of screen on time, To me, this is perfectly fine considering the rest of the phone and for most folks, you should easily be able to get through the day without a problem, I am connected to Wi-Fi pretty much all day, but even using LTE didnt seem to impact the battery life all that much...
Now a note, I dont really try for battery saving either... I have my phone syncing to gmail, syncing to google now, location services on, GPS on, i have that little weather widget thingy i mentioned up above on too which uses battery.. Screen is fixed at 33% brightness.. I just use it, like i usually use it, so a mixture of a bunch of things depending on what im doing that day...
One nice thing I also noticed is unlike the GNex, when the battery hits 20% its not a panic moment, 20% on my GNex meant "Find a charger in 20 minutes or im dead, Jim", on my One X+ 20% means i still have a few hours left and theres no need to rush... Which is nice, I had to buy an extended battery for my GNex, for this? I dont really feel I need one (I might get a battery case however)
Do I wish it had a 3500mah battery? Of course, But it doesnt, and thats fine, For me its an acceptable sacrifice
Quick Comparison To Other Phones For AT&T and Why I Didnt Buy Them
Galaxy S3, I technically actually bought one of these and returned it, theoretically it has better battery life, but only a dual core phone, also it runs TouchWiz which i found naggy annoying and way too like iOS for my tastes, it has a MicroSD slot, but that just adds an extra $20 to the price tag to get a 32gb card (and if you want 64gb you're looking at an extra $60 to that price tag) , not built as well and ergonomically it was a pain in my hand and i constantly felt i was about to drop the dumb thing when i was using it, in my case the battery life was completely atrocious because it could NOT hang onto a signal and would scizophrenically bop between HSPA and LTE every 2 seconds which made doing things on it virtually impossible, I also didnt feel it was all that fast over the GNex running 4.1 (At the time however, the S3 only had 4.0 so.. I guess this isnt entirely fair) Also I feel the blue color looks like someone colored it with a Bic pen... Really my ownership of the S3 went from initial jubilation over a brand new shiny smartphone to finding problem after problem before i even got home with the darned thing...
Galaxy Note II, Bigger screen, bigger battery, cool S Pen features, but it runs TouchWiz which I consider worse than Sense and the ergonomic problems I had with the S3 are even worse because of it, its also a bit too big to fit in my pocket comfortably and I was way too worried Id end up dropping it, I tried it out in the store even and it just wasnt comfortable for me, and a bunch of the things i just rattled off about the S3 are likely true about the Note as well... So yeah
LG Nexus 4, Better processor, stock Android 4.2, better battery life (I think?) and a great price ($350 no contract) however it only has, at best, 16gb of storage and that just wasnt working for me as it was, Plus theres no LTE on it as well which is a negative when you have LTE available where you live
Summary/TL;DR
Overall the One X+ is easily my favorite smartphone on the market right now, I'm immensely happy with my purchase and I dont see another phone I'd rather have right now, it would be my number one recommendation to anyone looking at a phone on AT&T, it just has a great combination of features and in my opinion the only real big drawback is the so-so battery life, But even then I'd call the battery life "Average" and not bad, The only phone I've seen with truely spectacular battery life is the Droid Razr Maxx HD.. Which isnt available on AT&T... Personally I can live with the battery life, Im never too far from an outlet and even if i was, the phone seems to do just as good as most of the other smartphones I've owned, I've tried so hard to find little problems with it and honestly, I gave up, I'm really not having problems with it (Well except the bloody keyboard..) and just constantly finding new things to love about it...
The only reason I'd caution against it for some folks would be if they were really intending to play intense 3D games on the thing constantly, Because thats going to murder your battery stupidly fast... And people who do need VERY good battery life are best looking at a different phone as well, or considering a battery case for it...
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Dottcent said:
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
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Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
KenjiS said:
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
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I'd say 99% of us enjoy reading positive reviews of our fave devices, so the longer the read and more in-depth info the better.
KenjiS said:
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
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You posted in the right device thread so you'll only get positive criticism here
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium
I found the radio in the SGS3 to be pretty poor myself. HTC seems to make phones that can catch and hold a signal when you're out in the boonies and I've only found Motorola radios to be better. And the better it can keep a signal, the less battery you loose so all the better!
As for dumping on the SGS3 and the Note 2, you are preaching to the choir here Kenji, but your review puts it through the same paces as the bigger tech blogs. We like our HOX+ here and, while you can always argue for the Samsung phones because they are good in many ways, they're just not "right" for folks like me.
Thanks guys
I'm kinda regretting not applying when one of the Android blogs recently put up a Google+ Post saying they were looking for writers
As a side note, I installed Swiftkey, I'm enjoying it, though im really not used to auto correction (It DOES work very well in this instance because its learning some of the stuff i type)
Second note is that today's battery life is currently at 2.5 hours screen on, 13 hours 18 minutes total, 17% left (Roughly another 2-3 hours standby/light usage for me) I really have to say the battery life is not atrocious and thats more than enough to last me the day obviously (Took it off the plug at 9:30 this morning, its now almost 11 at night..) That included some Radiant Defense in there (Not the most demanding game, but i enjoy it! Its a shame Neon Defense which was my favorite now doesn't function 100% right because OpenFeint is no more... At least thats what im assuming is the problem...)
I wonder if my lack of using Facebook/Twitter on my phone is why im getting such great battery life..
Anyways, my only debate is to sell my Galaxy Nexus (Which likely will cover what i paid for my One X+) or keep it around as a modding toy...
Now this is me being VERY bad with my battery:
Basically nothing but Youtube and PlagueInc for 3.75 hours.. Not really sure how many other phones would beat this (Even my GNex with the extended battery might, MIGHT have gone to 5 or 6 doing this, but still, Thats with a 3500mah extended..)