Related
I'm trying to decide if price is playing a huge factor between these two phones. I will also do another post in the Verizon Note 2 forum and see if adding a sd card slot and removable battery to the DNA would get people to change their minds.
I much prefer HTC over Samsung. IMHO, everything from the radios to build quality is better. Having said that, if I hadn't liked what HTC came out with this fall, I would have bought a GS3.
For me it comes down to storage, the Droid DNA only has a 16gb model and no Micro SD, it writes the device off no matter how good it is.
If it had a Micro SD slot at least then both devices are pretty much equal and it all comes down to which one you like the look of and if an extra 0.5 inch matters to you in a screen. Tbh nothing makes the GN2 stutter so I don't care about specs at this point, though the Droid DNA is more powerful on paper. Cameras are about the same, speakers are the same, mics are the same. I personally prefer TouchWiz, Samsung add so many good features standard Android doesn't have and I feel like everyone is playing catch up to Samsung. I mean the Pen has great features like being able to pull it out mid call and write a phone number down, which is a feature I've always wanted, it makes it so seamless. I love the Picture in Picture TouchWiz has and I love the multiple Windows you can have open in the GN2.
You ain't gonna complain with either device tbh...
GN2 has a removable battery, 0.5 inch extra screen size, pen, large storage + Micro SD
Droid DNA has the latest specs but only 16GB and no Micro SD
Really when it comes to screen quality, you wont complain with either, I don't buy into the PPI hype, you don't notice any difference above 250PPI when held from a normal distance.
I would go for note 2 because of the battery... DNA lasts for just 5 hrs
Sent from my GT-I9001 using xda premium
I would still get the DNA: Not a fan of SAmoled screens, Note II would be too large, love HTCs phones and Sense.
yajur1995 said:
I would go for note 2 because of the battery... DNA lasts for just 5 hrs
Sent from my GT-I9001 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not completely true. It depends on usage.
Playing 5 hours straight or 1080p video will definitely kill the battery. But then again that's 5 hours of 1080p video, can't complain there.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
I vote Note 2.
The S-pen on the Note 2 is incredibly useful compared to the Note 1.
The Note 2 has true multi-window multitasking, you can watch a video, open up the browser and surf the web while looking at photos in the gallery. All on the same screen. It's actually quite awesome the first time you use it.
Note 2 has flash support in the browser.
The battery life on he Note 2 is hailed as probably the best in the business, lasts about twice as long as the DNA on a single charge.
removable battery is a plus on the Note 2 also.
expandable storage is another great feature of the Note 2. Slap in a 64GB card and you got 80GB of combined storage.
The screen on the Note 2 is quite beautiful, it is non-pentile so it is extra sharp and clear. Honestly I don't think you will be able to tell much difference between the two screens when using it day to day. Like someone said, it's hard to tell after 250ppi.
The Note 2's resolution should be much more compatible with more apps and games in the playstore. The 1080p on the DNA already has issues running many apps and games according to a few reviewers.
The DNA has a bettery cpu/gpu combo but it's pushing a lot more pixels, so I think that any performance advantage is cancelled out.
So it seems like the Note 2 is the much better device.
Everything is awesome about DNA except the battery. I'm a hardcore user i play lots of games. I don't understand HTC.. they didn't learn anything from One X. On the other hand Note 2 is very good but i don't like the Exynos cpu and 267 ppi pixel density is too low. So folks please help me what to choose. I'm driving myself insane.
This is the way I see it. Both phones doing extremely well on benchmarks so I wont comment about speed.
Note II Pros:
- Spen
- Multiwindow
- Battery life + removable
- MicroSD
- Bigger screen
- Available on all carriers
Note II Cons:
- too big, not comfy to hold
- looks ridiculous when held up for phone calls
- slippery plastic build quality
- amoled screen
- cell radio
DNA Pros:
- build quality
- excellent size, same width as SGS3 so its easy to hold
- 1080p screen + SLCD3
- wide angle front camera (pics with wife + video chat, very useful to me)
- best camera software
- waterproof rating is good (i've dropped 2 phones in the water)
DNA Cons:
- no microsd
- 16gb internal storage
- sense + verizon bloat (can both be fixed by roms and disabling)
- Verizon exclusive, works on some other GSM but no HSPA+ afaik
- battery not removable
For me personally I choose DNA. I've decided that the 16gb will do just fine for me since my current phone only has 8gb and is barely full. The rest of the Cons don't bother me at all as everything software side can be customized or fixed through roms. The battery is more than sufficient, especially if its better than SGS3 battery which most reviews seem to be saying.
The Note II is a great phone but the build quality, size, slippery feel and cell radio are things that cannot be changed. I sure as hell would not add a case to make it even bigger. I also would feel like an idiot holding that thing up to my face. Just my opinion though, I'm sure its a great phone for the right person, Lebron James.
Well its difficult to compare a phone and a phablet. Since DNA is almost the same size as S3 it would be like comparing S3 with Note 2.
That said. I dont know but everyone misses out on the Beats functionality in DNA. I have tried One X in ATT with beats headphones and my Nexus with beats head phones and for me the difference was huge.
DNA all the way for me. I've always been a fan of HTC, mainly because of their higher build quality and better radios. In this case, the screen is also better than the Note II, and for me that's among the most important pieces of the puzzle, since that's what you look at and poke with your fingers.
Guys you might want to see this: http://www.starkinsider.com/2012/11/oh-no-htc-droid-dna-battery-lasts-only-425-hours-in-test.html
Vadrieldur said:
Guys you might want to see this: http://www.starkinsider.com/2012/11/oh-no-htc-droid-dna-battery-lasts-only-425-hours-in-test.html
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Click to collapse
That is nothing new, he was going off the info from The Verge's review. Doing that same test the SGS3 got around 20min LESS than the DNA.
pottersam said:
This is the way I see it. Both phones doing extremely well on benchmarks so I wont comment about speed.
Note II Pros:
- Spen
- Multiwindow
- Battery life + removable
- MicroSD
- Bigger screen
- Available on all carriers
Note II Cons:
- too big, not comfy to hold
- looks ridiculous when held up for phone calls
- slippery plastic build quality
- amoled screen
- cell radio
DNA Pros:
- build quality
- excellent size, same width as SGS3 so its easy to hold
- 1080p screen + SLCD3
- wide angle front camera (pics with wife + video chat, very useful to me)
- best camera software
- waterproof rating is good (i've dropped 2 phones in the water)
DNA Cons:
- no microsd
- 16gb internal storage
- sense + verizon bloat (can both be fixed by roms and disabling)
- Verizon exclusive, works on some other GSM but no HSPA+ afaik
- battery not removable
For me personally I choose DNA. I've decided that the 16gb will do just fine for me since my current phone only has 8gb and is barely full. The rest of the Cons don't bother me at all as everything software side can be customized or fixed through roms. The battery is more than sufficient, especially if its better than SGS3 battery which most reviews seem to be saying.
The Note II is a great phone but the build quality, size, slippery feel and cell radio are things that cannot be changed. I sure as hell would not add a case to make it even bigger. I also would feel like an idiot holding that thing up to my face. Just my opinion though, I'm sure its a great phone for the right person, Lebron James.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with you HTC's phones all have amazing build quality and that is a major factor for me when buying a phone, unfortunately I hate sense. The S-pen and multiwindow is what does it for me, as for screens I can't really say until I can test both of them, I honestly can't tell the difference between a retina display and my Droid Incredible's Amoled screen (unless I hold it within an uncomfortable range of my eyes).
pottersam said:
That is nothing new, he was going off the info from The Verge's review. Doing that same test the SGS3 got around 20min LESS than the DNA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a relief.. I'm sticking with DNA then.
pottersam said:
This is the way I see it. Both phones doing extremely well on benchmarks so I wont comment about speed.
Note II Pros:
- Spen
- Multiwindow
- Battery life + removable
- MicroSD
- Bigger screen
- Available on all carriers
Note II Cons:
- too big, not comfy to hold
- looks ridiculous when held up for phone calls
- slippery plastic build quality
- amoled screen
- cell radio
DNA Pros:
- build quality
- excellent size, same width as SGS3 so its easy to hold
- 1080p screen + SLCD3
- wide angle front camera (pics with wife + video chat, very useful to me)
- best camera software
- waterproof rating is good (i've dropped 2 phones in the water)
DNA Cons:
- no microsd
- 16gb internal storage
- sense + verizon bloat (can both be fixed by roms and disabling)
- Verizon exclusive, works on some other GSM but no HSPA+ afaik
- battery not removable
For me personally I choose DNA. I've decided that the 16gb will do just fine for me since my current phone only has 8gb and is barely full. The rest of the Cons don't bother me at all as everything software side can be customized or fixed through roms. The battery is more than sufficient, especially if its better than SGS3 battery which most reviews seem to be saying.
The Note II is a great phone but the build quality, size, slippery feel and cell radio are things that cannot be changed. I sure as hell would not add a case to make it even bigger. I also would feel like an idiot holding that thing up to my face. Just my opinion though, I'm sure its a great phone for the right person, Lebron James.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just how many of you who really used note 2? Many of the cons you listed are not valid.
Note II Cons:[/B]
- too big, not comfy to hold : now this is subjective call. But I rarely see note 2 user who complaint about the phone being too big after using it for a couple if days. Testing the phone on the store won't do it justice, unless you really hate big phone.
- looks ridiculous when held up for phone calls : since I used note 1 last year, there is only a few people who told me how big my phone is. Of course it will be different on each neighbourhood. But big phones are common nowadays. You won't be looked ridiculous when you use note 2 for phone calls. Using 7 inches tablet however is a different story
- slippery plastic build quality : I very much agree on this. But for me personally, I'd take removable battery and micro sd over superior build quality any day of the week
- amoled screen : past amoled screens have burn ins and black crush. not with note 2. Check the poll results in note 2 thread.
- cell radio : no comment on this. I don't have this problem
That said, I never used DNA yet. So I might change my mind when i get my hands in it.
Judging from the reviews, it looks to me that DNA is One X with superior speeds.
I got a Note 2 because Samsung's software advancements. Plus I sold my tablet, the multi tasking caught my eye. I hwen't used a Samsung phone since the first Epic. Touchwiz is smooth for once compared to sense.
I upgraded from a HTC One S, even-though Sense is elegant it does not have as many productive settings to make your life easier like the S 3 or Note 2 I Find myself doing less steps to complete simple task than I did with my One S. Like making a phone call. Zooming in and out with motion. Sure I look like a fool moving my phone around in the air but it is simple.
The AMOLED burn-in issue is what worries me the most about this phone.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
Note 2 is a great phone and I have nothing against it, had it been 5 inches and same dimensions as dna I would hands down get it. It is just simply too big for my hands I have held one and I wanted to put it down right away.
Now people talking about htc sense, sense has come a long was from being a system hog, it is no longer the same sense it used to be and much more efficient.
Although HTC has absolutely failed when it comes to multitasking, I mean can we please have some features similar to samsung or even LG, seems like HTC has settled in on sense and focused more on hardware design totally forgot about innovation on software side. I hope they are working on improving their multitasking.
It seems like HTC is learning a lesson when it comes to updating sense. They used to never update the sense version on the older phones and you used to have to get new htc phones to get improvements of sense interface, but it seems that they have learned a lesson and all the one series are being updated to sense 4+, its about time they learned from samsung that you cant just update the OS version and leave the new sense version out because that really doesn't count towards a great user experience.
azhurvadal said:
Just how many of you who really used note 2? Many of the cons you listed are not valid.
Note II Cons:[/B]
- too big, not comfy to hold : now this is subjective call. But I rarely see note 2 user who complaint about the phone being too big after using it for a couple if days. Testing the phone on the store won't do it justice, unless you really hate big phone.
- looks ridiculous when held up for phone calls : since I used note 1 last year, there is only a few people who told me how big my phone is. Of course it will be different on each neighbourhood. But big phones are common nowadays. You won't be looked ridiculous when you use note 2 for phone calls. Using 7 inches tablet however is a different story
- slippery plastic build quality : I very much agree on this. But for me personally, I'd take removable battery and micro sd over superior build quality any day of the week
- amoled screen : past amoled screens have burn ins and black crush. not with note 2. Check the poll results in note 2 thread.
- cell radio : no comment on this. I don't have this problem
That said, I never used DNA yet. So I might change my mind when i get my hands in it.
Judging from the reviews, it looks to me that DNA is One X with superior speeds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, like I said in my post, It's all my personal opinion. I could get used to using a Note II for calls just like I can get used to using a Nexus 7 for calls, but it doesn't necessarily mean I want to. In my experience with using a Note II I could feel my hand straining a bit while I griped it, while the S3, One X and GNex felt nice. I would say I have average size hands, 6ft tall and can 1-hand grip a basketball.
I don't mean to sound offensive, but a phone nearly the size of a tablet does look a little interesting during calls. Here's a few examples:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
But again, just my opinion, maybe its because I'm in california where most people have iphones.
And regarding the amoled screen, as a photographer my main beef with it is color accuracy. If I didn't care as much about using the phone as a mobile portfolio, it wouldnt matter as much. I'm sure the colors could be tweaked, but afaik SLCD3 > Amoled
They're 2 completely different devices.
I don't know why people insist on comparing the DNA to the Note. The DNA is the phone, its not even 5mm taller than the S3. Compare it to that. Compare it to the Optimus G, the Nexus 4, etc.
Just cause it hit some magical 5in screen size its now a direct competitor to the Note? If the DNA were 4.9in would these threads even exist? When Samsung starts with their 5in phones will people be comparing the S4 to the Note? I'm guessing not, since by then it'll be common place.
The DNA is a phone, not a 'phablet', there is no direct competition to the Note at this moment, besides that LG thing.. Which isn't much competition.
Ok I tried to cram the relevent information into the title, so people with the right advice might be able to help me out!
I am curently on an original iPad, that i have had for a couple years now. Now that xmas is coming up, I have been considering finally getting an upgrade, as this seems an oppurtune time!!
I mainly use my ipad for two things, reading on the kindle app, and drawing picture using a vector graphics program called iDraw (though I also have used sketchbook pro and artrage, etc, but lately vector graphics have been better for me).
I rarely (if ever) play games on the tablet (I have a wide array of consoles for gaming), and I watch movies on my laptop most of the time, although being able to output hi-def movies onto the big-screen tv would be handy on occasion.
I have looked into an android app called "infinite design" which seems to be exactly what I would need as far as drawing goes, so that fills the "artistry" niche for the time being. And it seems I can ignore the kindle apps (which I know both tablets have access to).
So I am stuck deciding between these two rather nice tablets. My personal pro's and con's being:
-iPad build quality and reliablity has already been proven, the nexus ... I've heard some faults like light leakage, which would be an absolute deal breaker considering what I use it for. Are the nexus faults an exception more than the rule?
-Android has much more interesting things to play with. I especially liked the idea of the "floating" apps, like LilypadHD and the app that allows a video to run in the foreground while you are using the webbrowser or similar ("Stick it!"? i think it was called). However, can the nexus 10 run these floating apps alongside other programs without causing lag issues and crashing?
-which reminds me that I also heard of some software crashes/freezes/reboots on nexus10s, although I have had a few of those on the iPad as well so this isnt a dealbreaker, as long as it gets fixed with firmware...
So yeh, any help or advice would be good guys just to let you know, I jailbroke the iPad as soon as I bought it before, and will likely jailbreak the new one if I get it, so this could be taken into consideration. Although if necessary I could also root the nexus, if there is an advantage to it. I have a galaxy s2 phone, but I never saw the need to root it (i did jailbreak my old iphone though).
ps. another thought, any advantage to having both an android phone and tablet? eg. connectivity etc? just occured to me it might help swing the decision, who knows!
Thanks anyway, to anyone who actually read all this
In regards to the art usage: the iPad 4's screen has better color reproduction (95% sRGB color gamut and 65% Adobe RGB gamut according to Anandtech).
Also as far as I know the Note 10.1's digitiser supports pressure sensitivity, which might be a bonus for you, so that might be worthy of consideration as well. However there is a stylus for the iPad which 'enables' pressure sensitivity by sending pressure data to specially optimised apps (Sketchbook included) through bluetooth, though I'm not sure how accurate that is.
Edit: The stylus is the Jot Touch.
okay like already mentioned:
i think the best for you would be the note 10.1, it has exactly the things which you need it to do. The stylus is perfect for artists as the feeling is almost like a real pen/brush etc.. btw it has wacom technology included (with the stylus) if u know what that is, then u know how superior that is to stylis mimicing pens on the ipad and other devices.
Yeh, I considered the note. Problem was, it didn't really wow me. Ignoring the whole touchwiz and other Samsung bloat ware id have to remove somehow, it's the same price as a nexus 10 but with less power and a worse screen.
The only advantage is the pressure sensitivity, but as I mostly work using vectors I don't really need this. I currently use a box wave stylus on my iPad, and will use similar in future I'm sure.
It seems the note will become obsolete quicker than the nexus, if only because I expect the nexus will continue getting support for longer. I might be wrong. Is a note 10.1-2 coming out?
I wasn't aware the ipad4 screen gave the best colour accuracy, that's pretty important to know thanks. Lots to think about
nirurin said:
Ok I tried to cram the relevent information into the title, so people with the right advice might be able to help me out!
I am curently on an original iPad, that i have had for a couple years now. Now that xmas is coming up, I have been considering finally getting an upgrade, as this seems an oppurtune time!!
I mainly use my ipad for two things, reading on the kindle app, and drawing picture using a vector graphics program called iDraw (though I also have used sketchbook pro and artrage, etc, but lately vector graphics have been better for me).
I rarely (if ever) play games on the tablet (I have a wide array of consoles for gaming), and I watch movies on my laptop most of the time, although being able to output hi-def movies onto the big-screen tv would be handy on occasion.
I have looked into an android app called "infinite design" which seems to be exactly what I would need as far as drawing goes, so that fills the "artistry" niche for the time being. And it seems I can ignore the kindle apps (which I know both tablets have access to).
So I am stuck deciding between these two rather nice tablets. My personal pro's and con's being:
-iPad build quality and reliablity has already been proven, the nexus ... I've heard some faults like light leakage, which would be an absolute deal breaker considering what I use it for. Are the nexus faults an exception more than the rule?
-Android has much more interesting things to play with. I especially liked the idea of the "floating" apps, like LilypadHD and the app that allows a video to run in the foreground while you are using the webbrowser or similar ("Stick it!"? i think it was called). However, can the nexus 10 run these floating apps alongside other programs without causing lag issues and crashing?
-which reminds me that I also heard of some software crashes/freezes/reboots on nexus10s, although I have had a few of those on the iPad as well so this isnt a dealbreaker, as long as it gets fixed with firmware...
So yeh, any help or advice would be good guys just to let you know, I jailbroke the iPad as soon as I bought it before, and will likely jailbreak the new one if I get it, so this could be taken into consideration. Although if necessary I could also root the nexus, if there is an advantage to it. I have a galaxy s2 phone, but I never saw the need to root it (i did jailbreak my old iphone though).
ps. another thought, any advantage to having both an android phone and tablet? eg. connectivity etc? just occured to me it might help swing the decision, who knows!
Thanks anyway, to anyone who actually read all this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
simple and straight forward advise, NOTE 10.1! dont even think of getting iPad 4 or Nexus 10! because NO, NO tablet on the Market can compete Note 10.1 in terms of sensitivity of S Pen!
(and btw, i own note 10.1 and Nexus 10)
bee55 said:
In regards to the art usage: the iPad 4's screen has better color reproduction (95% sRGB color gamut and 65% Adobe RGB gamut according to Anandtech).
Also as far as I know the Note 10.1's digitiser supports pressure sensitivity, which might be a bonus for you, so that might be worthy of consideration as well. However there is a stylus for the iPad which 'enables' pressure sensitivity by sending pressure data to specially optimised apps (Sketchbook included) through bluetooth, though I'm not sure how accurate that is.
Edit: The stylus is the Jot Touch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iPad3 and 4 use a Samsung display so no need to hype it. The Samsung Nexus 10 display is the same quality or better and higher resolution.
---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 AM ----------
nirurin said:
Yeh, I considered the note. Problem was, it didn't really wow me. Ignoring the whole touchwiz and other Samsung bloat ware id have to remove somehow, it's the same price as a nexus 10 but with less power and a worse screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't underestimate the Note 10.1. It's powerful and while the screen is lower resolution I prefer the colors, black level, white, uniformity, etc. over the Nexus 10. I own both.
Of the the three you mentioned, it's no contest.
#1 Galaxy Note 10.1
#2 Nexus 10
They have 2GB DRAM to run more capable paint programs such as TVPaint. Check out the full beta demo.
iPad4 is not even a consideration with only 1GB where you're limited to toyish Paper like apps and no proper Wacom digitizer pen.
nirurin said:
Yeh, I considered the note. Problem was, it didn't really wow me. Ignoring the whole touchwiz and other Samsung bloat ware id have to remove somehow, it's the same price as a nexus 10 but with less power and a worse screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Note 10.1 on stock JB is plenty fast. It's the only tablet on the market with an inductive (vs. capacitive) display which is crucial to drawing. It's got a Wacom digitizer with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. It also has an optional drawing pen with an eraser built in to it. The display on the Note is quite good in terms of brightness, contrast and color reproduction. The only thing lacking is PPI. Two advantages of the lower-res display are app compatibility (do you know the drawing programs you want to use even work on the N10?) and far better battery life. And some of that "bloatware" is quite useful like multiview, S-Note, AllShare Play and Cast, and Color Picker which lets you pick a pen color from a photo and Pen Chooser which lets you toggle between different pens you've set without opening settings each time. You're the first person I've seen who needs a pen to dis the Note. For someone who could care less about the pen and the Note's additional features the N10 is a better value.
There are tons of artists using the Note. Here's a thread you might find interesting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1861201
BarryH_GEG said:
The Note 10.1 on stock JB is plenty fast. It's the only tablet on the market with an inductive (vs. capacitive) display which is crucial to drawing. It's got a Wacom digitizer with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. It also has an optional drawing pen with an eraser built in to it. The display on the Note is quite good in terms of brightness, contrast and color reproduction. The only thing lacking is PPI. Two advantages of the lower-res display are app compatibility (do you know the drawing programs you want to use even work on the N10?) and far better battery life. And some of that "bloatware" is quite useful like multiview, S-Note, AllShare Play and Cast, and Color Picker which lets you pick a pen color from a photo and Pen Chooser which lets you toggle between different pens you've set without opening settings each time. You're the first person I've seen who needs a pen to dis the Note. For someone who could care less about the pen and the Note's additional features the N10 is a better value.
There are tons of artists using the Note. Here's a thread you might find interesting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1861201
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Click to collapse
Ok in hindsight, I may have been quick to write-off the note10, at the time of posting I was on a break at work and rather tired haha. One of the reasons I was thinking of avoiding the note was its age... I thought it had been released long enough ago that it would be soon due an update. However, I just checked... and it only came out mid-august... so I think I must have been thinking of the note phones.
Even though I currently do not use pressure sensitivity at all... this doesn't mean it wouldnt be a good idea for me to start incorporating it, I dont want to get stuck in my ways or anything!!
In which case, does the note10 have the power and ability to multi-task floating apps (chat and/or videos) while running drawing programs? If so... I may have to look into places that are doing deals on the note. As of my last look, it was selling for the same price as the nexus10, which is why I thought the nexus was the better "bang for the buck"...
The reason I'm looking at new powerful devices is because I want this to be future-proofed against anything I might need it for for the next couple of years (the same amount of time my trusty ipad1 lasted me). I figured I was safe with the nexus, because of the custom ROMS that would be made for it, with it being the main tablet release of the season.
edit: turns out that, while both the basic Note and the basic Nexus are retailing at £319, I am possibly able to get the note for £279... which means a decent case and any cable accessories are essentially "free"... Which is a big plus.
I need to find some information on the quality of the screen, as it is relatively very low resolution compared to the competition.. barely more than my original iPad1 in fact?
edit 2: unfortunatly, I can only get it in white for that price lol. Shame.
edit 3: hmm... Seems I can also get a white note 10.1 for £253, as long as I also buy a case with it (which I always intended to anyway)... so this seems a bargain as long as they sell a decent case... the white ones must look horrible though, if its the only ones anyone is selling off cheap!!
If you can wait a good half year I'm sure a 2560*1600 Note will come out, hopefully around 12", which would be the perfect buy, but personally I just can't wait to get my hands on the Nexus 10. If drawing is important, go for the Note, there's no real alternative.
BoneXDA said:
If you can wait a good half year I'm sure a 2560*1600 Note will come out, hopefully around 12", which would be the perfect buy, but personally I just can't wait to get my hands on the Nexus 10. If drawing is important, go for the Note, there's no real alternative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true, though money is also a factor, and I have now found a "grey" (least its not bright white, though I may have to check it out in store sometime) note 10.1 for £268. Which isn't bad.
Its just whether I would rather spend £50 more, and get nexus. A screen thats got twice the resolution, and a significantly faster processor, would mean being safely future proofed. I'll have to decide just how much the pressure-sensitivity is worth to me..
As someone else mentioning in above, if drawing with pen is important factor for you, I believe neither Nexus 10 or iPad 4 may be the best answer. I am not familiar with drawing but Vector drawing may not require high accuracy/pen-paper feeling, if so I believe Nexus 10 or iPad 4 be great as they have phenomenal screen resolution to display your art.
Otherwise, two options:
1. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
It has inductive pen technology i.e. you can get the feeling of pen and paper. Downside is screen resolution. Though coming from original iPad, you will unlikely to notice the screen resolution difference. So it may be ok. Otherwise, very stable and speedy device.
2. Samsung Ativ Smart PC
This is Windows 8 Atom processor based tablet. It comes with Wacom stylus, runs real windows 8 i.e. you should be able to run most of windows native software, and if you like you can buy optional keyboard to make it to like real laptop. The downside with this is price - expensive even considering 64GB internal storage. Windows 8 is great for legacy program, but tablet wise still lacking application. Screen resolution is essentially same as Galaxy Note 10.1 i.e. not the level of Nexus 10 or iPad 4.
HoushaSen said:
As someone else mentioning in above, if drawing with pen is important factor for you, I believe neither Nexus 10 or iPad 4 may be the best answer. I am not familiar with drawing but Vector drawing may not require high accuracy/pen-paper feeling, if so I believe Nexus 10 or iPad 4 be great as they have phenomenal screen resolution to display your art.
Otherwise, two options:
1. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
It has inductive pen technology i.e. you can get the feeling of pen and paper. Downside is screen resolution. Though coming from original iPad, you will unlikely to notice the screen resolution difference. So it may be ok. Otherwise, very stable and speedy device.
2. Samsung Ativ Smart PC
This is Windows 8 Atom processor based tablet. It comes with Wacom stylus, runs real windows 8 i.e. you should be able to run most of windows native software, and if you like you can buy optional keyboard to make it to like real laptop. The downside with this is price - expensive even considering 64GB internal storage. Windows 8 is great for legacy program, but tablet wise still lacking application. Screen resolution is essentially same as Galaxy Note 10.1 i.e. not the level of Nexus 10 or iPad 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the idea, but the Ativ is way too expensive, pretty much 3x the cost of the Note. I am but a poor boy, from a poor family... (insert head banging music here)...
I use vectors because it makes it easier to resize and edit work afterwords (compared to bitmap images). The reason the pen doesnt matter for the iPad, is because you can use a "Pen" tool, essentially dragging and dropping and editing lines, without directly drawing them. This is accurate, though a little time consuming, though because of the constant zooming in-and-out that you need to do for fine detail work it works out for the best.
Having the S-Pen is not a selling point to me exactly... but if it works well, and I learn to use it, it can only improve my overall work... and that would make it worth the money in itself.
One issue with capacitive screens was the accuracy, as even stylus' need to be around fingertip-size in order to register. If the S-Pen is much more "pointy" (i will need to investigate this) then it would immediately be helpful... much less zooming in and out to get accurate lines...
nirurin said:
Thanks for the idea, but the Ativ is way too expensive, pretty much 3x the cost of the Note. I am but a poor boy, from a poor family... (insert head banging music here)...
I use vectors because it makes it easier to resize and edit work afterwords (compared to bitmap images). The reason the pen doesnt matter for the iPad, is because you can use a "Pen" tool, essentially dragging and dropping and editing lines, without directly drawing them. This is accurate, though a little time consuming, though because of the constant zooming in-and-out that you need to do for fine detail work it works out for the best.
Having the S-Pen is not a selling point to me exactly... but if it works well, and I learn to use it, it can only improve my overall work... and that would make it worth the money in itself.
One issue with capacitive screens was the accuracy, as even stylus' need to be around fingertip-size in order to register. If the S-Pen is much more "pointy" (i will need to investigate this) then it would immediately be helpful... much less zooming in and out to get accurate lines...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3x price is Ativ Smart Pro. I am talking about Ativ PC, which is Atom processor not i5. It is 649 without keyboard dock. Cons against Pro is inferior CPU/GPU, no Full HD screen, 2GB memory instead of 4GB. However, it has its benefit which are long battery life, relatively light weight.
But if you don't need Spen/Wacom, I think you can't go wrong with either Nexus 10 or iPad 4. It's really depends on what ecosystem you like. If you really have very specific task/goal you like to achieve, and it already works well on iOS platform, I say stick with it as it saves you money if you already own apps for it.
Personally, I needed more flexibility than iOS so went to Android. Now I saw even more flexibility option available i.e. real windows, so I jumped on it.
HoushaSen said:
3x price is Ativ Smart Pro. I am talking about Ativ PC, which is Atom processor not i5. It is 649 without keyboard dock. Cons against Pro is inferior CPU/GPU, no Full HD screen, 2GB memory instead of 4GB. However, it has its benefit which are long battery life, relatively light weight.
But if you don't need Spen/Wacom, I think you can't go wrong with either Nexus 10 or iPad 4. It's really depends on what ecosystem you like. If you really have very specific task/goal you like to achieve, and it already works well on iOS platform, I say stick with it as it saves you money if you already own apps for it.
Personally, I needed more flexibility than iOS so went to Android. Now I saw even more flexibility option available i.e. real windows, so I jumped on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well £649 is still more than double the Note10.1 price (I can get it for £268 at the moment), and I already have a very nice laptop for the high-end stuff
I bought the iPAd back when I had an iphone3GS. Now though, I have a GalaxyS2... so it almost seems fitting to try out an android tablet. And the multi-windows support and dual-view on the Note looks much more interesting than the same-old iOS stuff that I'm already used to. Even jailbroken, theres only so much you can do with an iPad (I should know, ive done it already!)
As long as the android tablets arent inherantly broken in some way (I keep hearing about issues with light leakages and stuff on the nexus, but might just be from a bad batch), I am more tempted by the android side of things. There might be less apps at the moment, but it will catch up soon enough, and the ability to play around with widgets etc makes it seem more interesting as a day-to-day tool.
True, I will be losing out on... maybe £20-£30 of apps from the apple store. But some of those were bought months ago, and in the scheme of things its not much of a big deal. If I ever go back to an iPad 5 or 6 in the future, they will still be there for me (I assume).
edit: didnt finish my point. If the androids are both well built ect, it seems I will go for one of them. And because of the price, the multi-view, and the potential benefit of the SPen, the Note is currently edging ahead slightly.
nirurin said:
Well £649 is still more than double the Note10.1 price (I can get it for £268 at the moment), and I already have a very nice laptop for the high-end stuff
I bought the iPAd back when I had an iphone3GS. Now though, I have a GalaxyS2... so it almost seems fitting to try out an android tablet. And the multi-windows support and dual-view on the Note looks much more interesting than the same-old iOS stuff that I'm already used to. Even jailbroken, theres only so much you can do with an iPad (I should know, ive done it already!)
As long as the android tablets arent inherantly broken in some way (I keep hearing about issues with light leakages and stuff on the nexus, but might just be from a bad batch), I am more tempted by the android side of things. There might be less apps at the moment, but it will catch up soon enough, and the ability to play around with widgets etc makes it seem more interesting as a day-to-day tool.
True, I will be losing out on... maybe £20-£30 of apps from the apple store. But some of those were bought months ago, and in the scheme of things its not much of a big deal. If I ever go back to an iPad 5 or 6 in the future, they will still be there for me (I assume).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well sounds like your mind is set to Android ecosystem, which is great. I personally love it. Multiwindow support of Galaxy Note 10.1 is great concept but just to warn you. It is not true multitasking i.e. if you think about doing your Vector thing, or even play game and browse, that won't work. Simply because Multitasking on Note 10.1 is limited to selected applications which are browser, S-note, Video, email etc. But not every apps. But considering hardware limitation and 10.1 inch screen, I think it's reasonable to have selected app to be supported. Personally, the biggest sales point of Note 10.1 was its stability, speed, and S-pen.
If you need true multitasking, you need Windows Tablet, but if you are from iPad I am certain it is not your top priority. By the way, I don't know Euro. But Ativ Smart PC 64GB sells $649 here in US and Galaxy Note 10.1 32GB sells for $499 thus total price difference is US$150. Again whether the cost difference is worth or not depends on your use.
mi7chy said:
iPad3 and 4 use a Samsung display so no need to hype it. The Samsung Nexus 10 display is the same quality or better and higher resolution.
---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 AM ----------
Don't underestimate the Note 10.1. It's powerful and while the screen is lower resolution I prefer the colors, black level, white, uniformity, etc. over the Nexus 10. I own both.
Of the the three you mentioned, it's no contest.
#1 Galaxy Note 10.1
#2 Nexus 10
They have 2GB DRAM to run more capable paint programs such as TVPaint. Check out the full beta demo.
iPad4 is not even a consideration with only 1GB where you're limited to toyish Paper like apps and no proper Wacom digitizer pen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I'm sure you are aware, we weren't talking about who manufactured the displays, but rather about their quality. If you take your time to watch or read any review which compares the iPad 4's display to the N10's one, you will see that the iPad's color reproduction is visibly better. Now also while RAM might matter in the comparison of Android devices, the iPad runs a quite different OS and I'm pretty sure the 'only' 1GB RAM wouldn't be a bottleneck for these apps; it would probably be memory bandwidth and CPU power.
This said I have just placed my order on a Nexus 10 and I strongly prefer Android to iOS, yet I have to admit that the iPad has it's strengths as well (I've actually been considering getting an iPad 4 instead of the N10 because of the superior app selection, but as I love my SGS3 and Android itself I've decided to get the N10 and just hope that more tablet apps will start to appear for Android).
HoushaSen said:
Well sounds like your mind is set to Android ecosystem, which is great. I personally love it. Multiwindow support of Galaxy Note 10.1 is great concept but just to warn you. It is not true multitasking i.e. if you think about doing your Vector thing, or even play game and browse, that won't work. Simply because Multitasking on Note 10.1 is limited to selected applications which are browser, S-note, Video, email etc. But not every apps. But considering hardware limitation and 10.1 inch screen, I think it's reasonable to have selected app to be supported. Personally, the biggest sales point of Note 10.1 was its stability, speed, and S-pen.
If you need true multitasking, you need Windows Tablet, but if you are from iPad I am certain it is not your top priority. By the way, I don't know Euro. But Ativ Smart PC 64GB sells $649 here in US and Galaxy Note 10.1 32GB sells for $499 thus total price difference is US$150. Again whether the cost difference is worth or not depends on your use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The cheapest I can find in the UK (on google anyway), ignoring eBay, is over £600. Not sure why this would be.
There is a thread on the Note forum where someone has made it possible to add the multi-window support to a lot of other apps by altering their .apk, in a fairly easy process. Probably wont work with every app, but still. Anyway, while I'm drawing the most I would want is a chat app running, and I believe LilypadHD does that as a floating app anyway? (though this works on the Nexus as well, no need for a Note for it.)
I dont plan to be playing games much anyway, if at all.
It seems the note has a fair few nice apps that samsung has put on it, and the pen itself of course. The only reason im still umming and ahhing is the Nexus; sexy high def screen and powerhouse of a processor.
Although if I'm not going to use it to its potential (eg gaming, i guess) then maybe its a waste.
nirurin said:
The cheapest I can find in the UK (on google anyway), ignoring eBay, is over £600. Not sure why this would be.
There is a thread on the Note forum where someone has made it possible to add the multi-window support to a lot of other apps by altering their .apk, in a fairly easy process. Probably wont work with every app, but still. Anyway, while I'm drawing the most I would want is a chat app running, and I believe LilypadHD does that as a floating app anyway? (though this works on the Nexus as well, no need for a Note for it.)
I dont plan to be playing games much anyway, if at all.
It seems the note has a fair few nice apps that samsung has put on it, and the pen itself of course. The only reason im still umming and ahhing is the Nexus; sexy high def screen and powerhouse of a processor.
Although if I'm not going to use it to its potential (eg gaming, i guess) then maybe its a waste.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow $600 for Ativ Smart PC is definitely a lot... Wonder if the price is raised from retail due to short supply. In any event, Note 10.1 is phenomenal device. Nexus 10 is great device as well and I seriously put a thought onto it before. It is great but at the same time unfortunate that in this era of tablet, there are so many options yet no system is perfect/completely superior to others. Nexus 10 IS unfortunately not my choice (note it is present tense as may change in the future) because of lack of microSD, keyboard dock, and Wacom digitizer. I had to return Note 10.1 only because of lack of screen resolution, which I did not notice if I went straight from iPad 2 to Note 10.1. But I had Infinity in between so Full HD resolution was just too hard to give it up.
If you don't play game, the time you will notice the difference in resolution is reading text e.g. kindle, browser etc. The text is just so much more crisp. You just really need to list the features that you want, and the purpose of the tablet you are using for. Because you will unavoidably have to make a comprise to one or two features. In my case with Ativ Smart PC, I am compromising screen resolution, and some tablet optimized application availability. I'm looking forward to Surface Pro, but even with it I am compromising battery life, and weight.... Good luck on your search.
Note 10.1 please don't east your time with the others they don't have a digitizer surface for wacom pressure sensative pens.
And the Res does not matter because you will zoom in and out. I own a wacom tablet and it nothing like my nexus 10 for sketching.
The only pen option you have for I pad and nexus is the go smart stylus has a spring ed tip
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
mi7chy said:
Of the the three you mentioned, it's no contest.
#1 Galaxy Note 10.1
#2 Nexus 10
They have 2GB DRAM to run more capable paint programs such as TVPaint. Check out the full beta demo.
iPad4 is not even a consideration with only 1GB where you're limited to toyish Paper like apps and no proper Wacom digitizer pen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello guys,
I have a nexus 10 and like it, but for painting/drawing, imo it is crap compared to an ipad.
Try signing your name as quickly as you normally would. You will hardly be able to recognise your handwriting. The nexus 10 samples the stylus position way too infrequently, and the "tweening" that takes place, drastically smooths out the direction of your stylus strokes.
Ive tried Sketchpad, Infinite Paint, Gnotes, other painting tools, and they all suffer the same problem.
My SGS3 is a LOT better as is my wife's i****e 4s.
David Hockey created huge wall murals for his amazing exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art this year. They were done on an ipad... so at the moment, I would say iPad is superior for painting. Nexus 10 is crap and I have no experience of the tweening problem on the Note 10.1.
Mark.
Deciding between and N10 and N7, and I am torn.
Nexus 7
+ Smaller/More portable
+ Zippy Tegra 3
- 720p screen
Nexus 10
+ Insane Resolution
- Dual Core
That's all I really know about both devices. I have 2 friends with N7's and I really like the form factor, A LOT. But something about the N7 just doesn't sell me on it. Likewise, the N10 seems to be something I'm more familiar with, but the price tag seems like a bit much for me, considering I've never managed to see one in retail.
All opinions appreciated*
*unless its rude and snarky
Rebel908 said:
Deciding between and N10 and N7, and I am torn.
Nexus 7
+ Smaller/More portable
+ Zippy Tegra 3
- 720p screen
Nexus 10
+ Insane Resolution
- Dual Core
That's all I really know about both devices. I have 2 friends with N7's and I really like the form factor, A LOT. But something about the N7 just doesn't sell me on it. Likewise, the N10 seems to be something I'm more familiar with, but the price tag seems like a bit much for me, considering I've never managed to see one in retail.
All opinions appreciated*
*unless its rude and snarky
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've purchased the Nexus 7 twice, and I've sold it twice. The first time I sold it was when I purchased the Nexus 10... Then I re-purchased it a month later because I missed the small form factor for when I was out of the house. I then return it 7 days later (yesterday) when I jumped ship to T-Mobile and upgraded my Nexus S to the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 made the Nexus 7 a redundant piece of technology and also out performs it by a large margin.
The Nexus 7 is a great piece of equipment for the price.. I will give you the pros and cons..
Cons
* - Audio quality via the headphones is awful. There are a ton of apps claiming to make your headphones vomit rainbows and unicorns but those types of app packages I steer clear from as I don't believe in them as from past experience they never work. DAC matters not the app.
* - I/O speeds are slow.. You can see a side by side comparison I posted of the read/write speeds between the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 here. It can be slower to load apps/games than you might expect a tablet to perform. It's not bad, but compared to other devices it's noticable.
* - Color reproduction isn't the best.
* - (opinion) The Tegra 3 I wasn't impressed with.
* - No rear facing camera
Pros
* - Size: If you have no other tablet or a Smartphone with a large LCD like a Nexus 4 or GS3 then this will be a great portable device for you to get stuff done with.
* - Price: Currently what you get for the price is a good bargin. The longer its on the market though the slimmer this "good bargin" edge becomes and inches closer to being just another tablet on the market in a price range. It's still a great bang for the buck though and not much competes with it.. Yet...
Nexus 7 is exactly what it was aimed to be.. A good performing tablet on above average hardware for the price. You miss out on things like high i/o speeds and a rear camera but you have to give some things up for the $249 price tag.
Nexus 10
Cons
* - Same bad color reproduction the Nexus 7 had.. It's not a deal breaker but it's obvious.
* - The general consensus is don't buy them from Google directly. Find a retailer as it will make returns easier if it's defective.. Some believe the N10s have a high defect rate, some believe they don't.. It's currently the elephant in the room in the N10 forums. I wouldn't let it keep you from buying one but just be aware the concern exists.
* - Size.. It's 10 inches.. Some people think that this will never be a concern for them.. Until they get it and try making it a part of their daily schedule.. It's not meant to be throw in your pocket and carry around as a day planner.. It's big
* - You can't play Tegra HD games
* - It ain't cheap
Pros
* - Speed.. Speed.. Speed.. Mother of god is it fast
* - Resolution speaks for itself.. The screen is incredible
* - Battery life considering the pixels and speed the processor is putting out is fantastic. I average 8-10hrs of screen on time with non-gaming casual use.
* - Audio quality is excellent.. Woflson DAC on board.. No need for magic pills and As Seen On TV products to make it reproduce audio at high quality. The onboard speaker quality is really good also.
* - Gaming performance is excellent and far out performs the N7
Summary.. It depends.. If you plan on upgrading your phone (no idea what you have) soon I would go the Nexus 10.. Like I said.. Soon as I got my hands on a Nexus 4 the Nexus 7 became instantly redundant and outdated. The only thing sacrificed was 2.3 inches of screen but I gained ten fold in performance, screen quality and audio quality...
styckx said:
I've purchased the Nexus 7 twice, and I've sold it twice. The first time I sold it was when I purchased the Nexus 10... Then I re-purchased it a month later because I missed the small form factor for when I was out of the house. I then return it 7 days later (yesterday) when I jumped ship to T-Mobile and upgraded my Nexus S to the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 made the Nexus 7 a redundant piece of technology and also out performs it by a large margin.
The Nexus 7 is a great piece of equipment for the price.. I will give you the pros and cons..
Cons
* - Audio quality via the headphones is awful. There are a ton of apps claiming to make your headphones vomit rainbows and unicorns but those types of app packages I steer clear from as I don't believe in them as from past experience they never work. DAC matters not the app.
* - I/O speeds are slow.. You can see a side by side comparison I posted of the read/write speeds between the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 here. It can be slower to load apps/games than you might expect a tablet to perform. It's not bad, but compared to other devices it's noticable.
* - Color reproduction isn't the best.
* - (opinion) The Tegra 3 I wasn't impressed with.
* - No rear facing camera
Pros
* - Size: If you have no other tablet or a Smartphone with a large LCD like a Nexus 4 or GS3 then this will be a great portable device for you to get stuff done with.
* - Price: Currently what you get for the price is a good bargin. The longer its on the market though the slimmer this "good bargin" edge becomes and inches closer to being just another tablet on the market in a price range. It's still a great bang for the buck though and not much competes with it.. Yet...
Nexus 7 is exactly what it was aimed to be.. A good performing tablet on above average hardware for the price. You miss out on things like high i/o speeds and a rear camera but you have to give some things up for the $249 price tag.
Nexus 10
Cons
* - Same bad color reproduction the Nexus 7 had.. It's not a deal breaker but it's obvious.
* - The general consensus is don't buy them from Google directly. Find a retailer as it will make returns easier if it's defective.. Some believe the N10s have a high defect rate, some believe they don't.. It's currently the elephant in the room in the N10 forums. I wouldn't let it keep you from buying one but just be aware the concern exists.
* - Size.. It's 10 inches.. Some people think that this will never be a concern for them.. Until they get it and try making it a part of their daily schedule.. It's not meant to be throw in your pocket and carry around as a day planner.. It's big
* - You can't play Tegra HD games
* - It ain't cheap
Pros
* - Speed.. Speed.. Speed.. Mother of god is it fast
* - Resolution speaks for itself.. The screen is incredible
* - Battery life considering the pixels and speed the processor is putting out is fantastic. I average 8-10hrs of screen on time with non-gaming casual use.
* - Audio quality is excellent.. Woflson DAC on board.. No need for magic pills and As Seen On TV products to make it reproduce audio at high quality. The onboard speaker quality is really good also.
* - Gaming performance is excellent and far out performs the N7
Summary.. It depends.. If you plan on upgrading your phone (no idea what you have) soon I would go the Nexus 10.. Like I said.. Soon as I got my hands on a Nexus 4 the Nexus 7 became instantly redundant and outdated. The only thing sacrificed was 2.3 inches of screen but I gained ten fold in performance, screen quality and audio quality...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said and helped me make my decision! Nexus 10 it is! :good::good:
I'd only add one thing: the Tegra 3 in the Nexus 7 absolutely gets destroyed by the Exynos 5 in the N10. Even though the Exynos 5 is dual core, it's based on the newer A15 architecture which is a huge jump in performance, so the core count doesn't really matter in this case.
i bought the nexus 7 day 1, It was a awesome little tab and ran great until 4.2.1. New update smoothed it out a bit. It's nice, but I also have a Note 2 and the jump to the tab wasnt big enough. I still used it, but i just wasnt completly happy having both. I bought the Nexus 10 last week and love it. Its fast, great resolution, great camera and doesnt feel too big for me when im laying in bed which was my main concern. I actually booted up my N7 last night and just holding it i kept thinking "what is this a tablet for ants?". It's funny considering I dont get that feeling with the note 2, but then again its probably because i know its a phone not a tablet.
I'd say it depends what your phone is. If you have a iphone or something with a smaller screen, you might want to go for the N7, if its something in the bigger end near 5" or more, go with the N10
I went for the 10 over the 7 because I have a Galaxy S3 for portability and wanted a larger screen to use about the house. Oh and the specs of the 10 simply blew me away .
styckx said:
I've purchased the Nexus 7 twice, and I've sold it twice. The first time I sold it was when I purchased the Nexus 10... Then I re-purchased it a month later because I missed the small form factor for when I was out of the house. I then return it 7 days later (yesterday) when I jumped ship to T-Mobile and upgraded my Nexus S to the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 made the Nexus 7 a redundant piece of technology and also out performs it by a large margin.
The Nexus 7 is a great piece of equipment for the price.. I will give you the pros and cons..
Cons
* - Audio quality via the headphones is awful. There are a ton of apps claiming to make your headphones vomit rainbows and unicorns but those types of app packages I steer clear from as I don't believe in them as from past experience they never work. DAC matters not the app.
* - I/O speeds are slow.. You can see a side by side comparison I posted of the read/write speeds between the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 here. It can be slower to load apps/games than you might expect a tablet to perform. It's not bad, but compared to other devices it's noticable.
* - Color reproduction isn't the best.
* - (opinion) The Tegra 3 I wasn't impressed with.
* - No rear facing camera
Pros
* - Size: If you have no other tablet or a Smartphone with a large LCD like a Nexus 4 or GS3 then this will be a great portable device for you to get stuff done with.
* - Price: Currently what you get for the price is a good bargin. The longer its on the market though the slimmer this "good bargin" edge becomes and inches closer to being just another tablet on the market in a price range. It's still a great bang for the buck though and not much competes with it.. Yet...
Nexus 7 is exactly what it was aimed to be.. A good performing tablet on above average hardware for the price. You miss out on things like high i/o speeds and a rear camera but you have to give some things up for the $249 price tag.
Nexus 10
Cons
* - Same bad color reproduction the Nexus 7 had.. It's not a deal breaker but it's obvious.
* - The general consensus is don't buy them from Google directly. Find a retailer as it will make returns easier if it's defective.. Some believe the N10s have a high defect rate, some believe they don't.. It's currently the elephant in the room in the N10 forums. I wouldn't let it keep you from buying one but just be aware the concern exists.
* - Size.. It's 10 inches.. Some people think that this will never be a concern for them.. Until they get it and try making it a part of their daily schedule.. It's not meant to be throw in your pocket and carry around as a day planner.. It's big
* - You can't play Tegra HD games
* - It ain't cheap
Pros
* - Speed.. Speed.. Speed.. Mother of god is it fast
* - Resolution speaks for itself.. The screen is incredible
* - Battery life considering the pixels and speed the processor is putting out is fantastic. I average 8-10hrs of screen on time with non-gaming casual use.
* - Audio quality is excellent.. Woflson DAC on board.. No need for magic pills and As Seen On TV products to make it reproduce audio at high quality. The onboard speaker quality is really good also.
* - Gaming performance is excellent and far out performs the N7
Summary.. It depends.. If you plan on upgrading your phone (no idea what you have) soon I would go the Nexus 10.. Like I said.. Soon as I got my hands on a Nexus 4 the Nexus 7 became instantly redundant and outdated. The only thing sacrificed was 2.3 inches of screen but I gained ten fold in performance, screen quality and audio quality...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for saving me all that typing lol... that's exactly why I have a10 now. My wife has the Nexus 7. Between the I/O speeds and premium feel its a no brainer. I have two managers at work who are getting then after seeing mine. One even returned his 2 day old iPad4 because it was no comparison. Also not to be over looked are the front speakers. You never quite realize how bad cupping is to get decent sound is until you don't have to do it anymore.... pure perfection.
altimax98 said:
Thanks for saving me all that typing lol... that's exactly why I have a10 now. My wife has the Nexus 7. Between the I/O speeds and premium feel its a no brainer. I have two managers at work who are getting then after seeing mine. One even returned his 2 day old iPad4 because it was no comparison. Also not to be over looked are the front speakers. You never quite realize how bad cupping is to get decent sound is until you don't have to do it anymore.... pure perfection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are absolutely correct about the sound quality, I've given up on the Nexus 10 a few times after feeling it was impossible to get one without major issues but keep coming back after trying other devices. My favorite alternative was the Asus Vivotab Smart but the volume is extremely low and poor sounding which ultimately made me return it and try a few more nexus 10's the sound quality on this tablet is amazing compared to the rest.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Jadefalkon said:
...My favorite alternative was the Asus Vivotab Smart but the volume is extremely low and poor sounding which ultimately made me return it and try a few more nexus 10's the sound quality on this tablet is amazing compared to the rest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually considering buying this tablet in the future, but hearing the various reports of audio volume, it doesn't sound too good.
I sold my iPad 3 for it because I thought Google had gotten it right this time. Big mistake. Significant downgrade.
Wait for Google I/O. They will probably release a new tablet of some sorts
Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app
specter491 said:
Wait for Google I/O. They will probably release a new tablet of some sorts
Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently the Nexus 10 is the best tablet on the market. So if you wait for a new tablet it's probably going to come out at the end of the year
Sent from my HTC Ruby using xda app-developers app
Got my nexus 10 ordered and on the way! Can't wait!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
NickTheMajin said:
I sold my iPad 3 for it because I thought Google had gotten it right this time. Big mistake. Significant downgrade.
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How so?
Better screen resolution. Even The Verge said it was on par if-not better then the iPad4 screen.
More memory
Lower price
Significantly better sound quality from forward firing speakers
I had an iPad 3, dad has a 4. I sold mine for the Nexus 7 and then upgraded to the N10. I have two friends at work getting them as well, one of whom returned his iPad4 after 3 days for the N10.
Although I'm a Android lover I was a huge advocate for the iPad. It was a great device done right. But not so much anymore. Google did an amazing job on this device and I can no longer recommend an iPad, only the apps are better, but to be honest in the past 6 months the play store has jumped by leaps and bounds
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
altimax98 said:
How so?
Better screen resolution. Even The Verge said it was on par if-not better then the iPad4 screen.
More memory
Lower price
Significantly better sound quality from forward firing speakers
I had an iPad 3, dad has a 4. I sold mine for the Nexus 7 and then upgraded to the N10. I have two friends at work getting them as well, one of whom returned his iPad4 after 3 days for the N10.
Although I'm a Android lover I was a huge advocate for the iPad. It was a great device done right. But not so much anymore. Google did an amazing job on this device and I can no longer recommend an iPad, only the apps are better, but to be honest in the past 6 months the play store has jumped by leaps and bounds
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
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Instability, Backlight bleed and battery life. Even on CM 10.1 I'm still getting random reboots everyday and 5 hours of screen on time. Compared to never rebooting and 12+ hours of screen on time. And I'd take the lower resolution over the 2560x1600 anyday if it meant zero backlight bleeding and much better performance.
Edit: Don't get me wrong, I prefer Android. I'd just rather a cohesive and smooth experience like I have with my Note 2. If the Nexus 10 had that I would be stoked on it. But it doesn't. Gets the job done for now but I was happier with the iPad so I'll likely go back unless Samsung releases a Note 10.1 with retina quality display.
Edit Edit: I'm also not saying the iPad is objectively better because you can't say that about either. I'm just saying for my use, in my experience, the iPad was smoother and much more stable. No random reboots for me on it whereas on the Nexus 10 it would lock up all the time and the battery life was wonderful. You can say, "Oh you shouldn't use your tablet more than 5 hours a day anyway" but that's also assuming you are always in a location where you can charge it.
I get Nexus 10 as:
Insane resolution, the wording was extreme clear and sharp, far better than my laptop.
Smooth performance. In market, not much Android tablet was smooth as this, for current available android tablet, I only can accept Padfone 2.
It is not iOS, sorry iOS never my prefer OS due to it restriction and boring interface.
** Reboot/hang issue was fixed 99% now in 4.2.2, so I am ok with it. Anyway Google really need more stability build on it Android OS, as no doubt it still cannot compete with stability of iOS.
My N10 just arrived a week ago...
I've been all over the place... with 2 7" tablets, 2 7.7" tablets, 2 8.9" tablets and 2 10.1" tablets in the last year.
This month, I had the Kindle Fire 8.9... which at 250 is an amazing value for a media tablet with some android compatibility. I got tired of the KF89's limitations like the accelometer, having to lock rotation, lack of compatibility, difficulty in getting a CM rom and my own decision to buy the 16gb version. I decided to get the Galaxy Note 10.1 as it was the fastest Android tablet under $400 with removable memory. I was very unhappy with it from the hour I unboxed it and decided I was done beating around the bush.
I wanted to have a no-compromise Android tablet... and today that tablet is the Nexus 10 32GB. In a few months it will be a Exnos 5 quad, or a Tegra 4 or a Qualcomm 800... but today it's the Nexus 10. And in the near (18 month) future, the N10 will stay ahead of the curve in full-size rom development. It feels good... sounds good, looks good and works well.
I would just buy the nexus 10 because of the screen size and use it to watch free/new/theater/ hd movies (I'm going to post the link to the app later in a new thread) but I dont know if the app would be compatible with the n10
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I didn't originally plan to buy it. Planned on getting the Nexus 7, but once I got to staples, it just seemed to small, Saw they had the N10 but not on display, So I took a shot in the dark since had 2 weeks to return it, but once I booted it I was hooked, I love the size, still fairly portable for me, I use it A LOT more than I expected and it does so much more then I could think of, I love taking it to work and playing Playstation games on it with ease, or SNES/NES games to just sitting back watching movies via plex/netflix. The screen is amazing even at half brightness everything looks beautiful. and of couse that darn tapped out game is just perfect for the big 10inch screen..I got the 32gb since all they had, and its way more than enough for this beast. Team it up with the Moko slim fit multiangle case. I am just VERY please with this purchase
I have currently a N4, a N7 and a TF700 which I sell for a N10.
I like them all for different tasks.
The N4 is my communication hub, my music player and the hot spot for my tablets. I use it often for small tasks like web search or navigation.
The N7 is my entertainment device for commuting because I can carry it in my jacket.
The TF700 is for reading PDFs (because some of them are not scalable so it's more comfortable on a large display) and longer browsing sessions on holiday or when I work abroad. And it works excellent for watching films.
However I'll exchange it for an N10 because of the performance. It drives me nuts that it is so much slower than my other two devices and because I would like to have a device with proper fastboot support.
Hi everyone,
I've been using an Xperia V for almost two years now, and beside the noticeable lack in oomph (old processor, too little RAM, stuck with JB 4.3), I also noticed that I use my phone for reading, messaging, photo and video much more than actual phone stuff, i.e. calling people or receiving calls. For the computer stuff I do, its 4.3 inch screen doesn't seem to cut it anymore.
So I decided that my next device will feature a substantially larger screen, but I am yet uncertain which phablet or large screen device to get. Here's what I've come up with so far. (Note: I'm specifically looking for a device that will stay with me for the next two years, as I don't believe in upgrading every year. Also, battery size is relevant, i.e. the larger the better.)
Sony Xperia Z Ultra: 6.44 inch seems a bit too large, 6 inch appears to be the ideal compromise between handling and a nice large screen experience. Also, it's 2013 technology and may not cut it in a year from now.
HTC One Max: perfect size, but mediocre camera and once again, 2013 technology. I do like the fact that HTC offers an accessory handset that you can use for calls and texting, as I'm not keen on holding a 6 inch phone to my ear, looking like a total dork.
Huawei Mate 7: seems perfect. Has up-to-date hardware, supports all LTE bands, expandable memory, 6 inch screen in a very compact body. Downside: bugs in the OS, and Huawei is taking its sweet time updating to Lollipop, which makes me afraid of what their customer service will be like in the future (one to two years from now.)
OnePlus One: appears to be a superb phone in almost all regards. Power, large screen, frequent updates, great OS, ridiculous price tag. My only worry is that 5.5 inch, though not that far from 6 inch, might be a tad too small. What are people's experiences with 5.5 and 6 inch screens respectively? Do you think that 5.5 is enough for a phablet experience? (I REALLY want a LARGE screen that's nice to browse the internet and watch videos on.)
Nexus 6: oh my. I sooo want this device. BUT: it's incredibly expensive. Shell out the big bucks for a perfect phone, or save 50% and make a compromise?
What are people's opinions? Are there any other devices you'd suggest? Please don't mention Samsung stuff, as I hate their look and feel, no matter how great the hardware.
Thanks for your input!
I have a couple of the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 tablets are they are great!
Hm, this forum doesn't seem to see much love.
Anyway, I went with the Mate 7 and couldn't be happier. Beautiful design, great screen with the perfect size for what essentially is a tiny, portable computer, + amazing battery life.
Some issues on the software side that need tinkering to be solved, but I like tinkering
I read a lot of reviews and opinions here about the Z5C that are from people that were or still are using a Sony device. The Z5C is usually compared in terms of the Z3C or even the Z1C. Those comparisons are good if you own those devices, but I have no prior contact with Sony. My current device is a Moto G (1st Gen).
So I'd like to know what people who had no prior contact, or at least not in the past years, with Sony say about the phone. How does it feel and how much "crap" is on a Sony phone compared to a Nexus or Motorola phone? How good/bad are the Sony-Apps ? What "oddities" do Sony phones have?
Thanks for your opinions.
I came from a Moto G (2nd Gen) to the Z5C which is my first Sony phone. So a similar path to what you are considering. It comes with way more "crap" on in than the Motorola did. Where my Moto G (2nd Gen) might have had 5 Motorola utilities, the Z5C has maybe 30. Many of them are app/tools that seemingly connect you into the Sony Sphere. PlayStation stuff, Dinosaur images pop up in the camera you can stamp on your photos and super cheesy Japanese schoolgirl emoticons for your text input.
If you like the clean native Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Photos messaging and so on you will find yourself having to disable the Sony versions.
One oddity my Z3C has is that is is fussy about which micro USB cable will charge it. So if like me you have a collection of micro USB cables and chargers from previous phone they may not all work. I guess this may be due to tighter tolerances required water proofing the charge port. Not a biggy but worth knowing.
I find the Xperia Keyboard gesture input (aka Swype input) to be a PITA. Miss rate is too high and deleting errors is tedious. Shame becuase it works very well on other phones.
Small size is great. Can easily slip it in a front trouser pocket.
BUT I have yet to feel "vibrate on for calls" when it is my pocket. When someone does call when Z5C in pocket when I am doing somehting noisey like mowing a lawn, I dont feel the vinration alert, it seemingly wakes the phone and thereafter movement leads to random screen presses. So when I eventually retrieve it form my pocket an hour later the screen is still on and it is in some weird screen such as the camera or emerg dialer. Perhpas I am missing something here though. Oh and definitely don't buy it for the camera if you are expecting a point and shoot with a high % of great shots.
That's my thoughts.
Coming from a nexus 5, I love this phone! Never charge it from the mains only from my car every day(1 hour commute each way) and it keeps going strong! Pretty quick and feels good.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Coming from Samsung S3
This Z5 is very bad...unstable sw, no optimization, really slow...bleah! I think i will never buy again a sony device. Oh...customer care is bad too.
Camera is slow and poor quality, GPS is very inaccurate, BT disconnet and reconnect every 15 secs (i think the problem is trhow but i can't disable it...)
So...i'm not a satisfied user..
Thank you all for your replies.
logger said:
I came from a Moto G (2nd Gen) to the Z5C which is my first Sony phone. So a similar path to what you are considering. It comes with way more "crap" on in than the Motorola did. Where my Moto G (2nd Gen) might have had 5 Motorola utilities, the Z5C has maybe 30. Many of them are app/tools that seemingly connect you into the Sony Sphere. PlayStation stuff, Dinosaur images pop up in the camera you can stamp on your photos and super cheesy Japanese schoolgirl emoticons for your text input.
If you like the clean native Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Photos messaging and so on you will find yourself having to disable the Sony versions.
One oddity my Z3C has is that is is fussy about which micro USB cable will charge it. So if like me you have a collection of micro USB cables and chargers from previous phone they may not all work. I guess this may be due to tighter tolerances required water proofing the charge port. Not a biggy but worth knowing.
I find the Xperia Keyboard gesture input (aka Swype input) to be a PITA. Miss rate is too high and deleting errors is tedious. Shame becuase it works very well on other phones.
Small size is great. Can easily slip it in a front trouser pocket.
BUT I have yet to feel "vibrate on for calls" when it is my pocket. When someone does call when Z5C in pocket when I am doing somehting noisey like mowing a lawn, I dont feel the vinration alert, it seemingly wakes the phone and thereafter movement leads to random screen presses. So when I eventually retrieve it form my pocket an hour later the screen is still on and it is in some weird screen such as the camera or emerg dialer. Perhpas I am missing something here though. Oh and definitely don't buy it for the camera if you are expecting a point and shoot with a high % of great shots.
That's my thoughts.
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I actually never use the original cables since I have set up a "charging station". Which cables does the Z5C not accept? Is there a pattern?
And I'm not buying this for the camera, I have a DSLR for that
Tuonorosso said:
Coming from Samsung S3
This Z5 is very bad...unstable sw, no optimization, really slow...bleah! I think i will never buy again a sony device. Oh...customer care is bad too.
Camera is slow and poor quality, GPS is very inaccurate, BT disconnet and reconnect every 15 secs (i think the problem is trhow but i can't disable it...)
So...i'm not a satisfied user..
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Do you have the newest firmware ? AFAIK a few things should have been fixed with the latest update. What experience do you have with the customer care ?
ricostuart said:
Coming from a nexus 5, I love this phone! Never charge it from the mains only from my car every day(1 hour commute each way) and it keeps going strong! Pretty quick and feels good.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
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How was the Z5C in terms of "snappiness" compared to the Nexus ?
nazgoul said:
Do you have the newest firmware ? AFAIK a few things should have been fixed with the latest update. What experience do you have with the customer care ?
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Yes, last fw: 32.0.A.6.152
Customer care have reset the phone 4 times. Each trial did not resolve the problem. In the end they told me to bring it to service but they had no idea of the repair time and they not given me any temporary phone.
My phone has only one month and i need it for work...i can't stay weeks without it. For a 600$ phone i think this is unacceptable.
At this time i have the same initial problems...
I hope in Marshmallow ...
Coming from Moto G first Gen (falcon)
Coming from Moto G 1st Gen. This is my first Sony Phone.
I am loving the Z5C.
Few things to note that that will give you an idea between the two phones
1. The flash on the moto g is noticeably brighter and warmer. Idc about cameras, but I find I use the flashlight a lot
2. The chip on the Z5C does feel much faster. Not sure how to describe it other than the UI on the Z5C being more "fluid"
3. The chip on the Z5C does get noticeably warm (but not hot) on the back under certain loads. E.g. running long sessions of RDP or installing lots of apps in quick succession or recording 4K video. Under normal use like browsing the web or watching youtube it does not get warm.
4. The camera is way better than the Moto G
5. The hardware feels really solid. It feels dense. I like it
6. The battery life is significantly better. At my usage, the Moto G will die at about 8pm or 9pm (taking off the charge at 7am). I have yet to kill the Z5C in a single day in my normal use
(my normal use usually has a few hours of music, and at least 4 hours of screen time)
7. The stereo speakers are much nicer, but the stereo effect is small, and they aren't not as loud as the moto g's single speaker
8. The max brightness of the Z5C's screen is about the same as the one on the Moto G. The min brightness is on the Z5C is lower though.
9 The physical dimensions of the Z5C is smaller in width and height. The Z5C does feel thicker because of its more boxy shape though
In terms of bloatware, there is quite a bit. I have a lot of apps disabled from settings or hidden (I use Apex)
There are some features that sony added that are nice though.
1. Built in screen recording
2. "Small Apps" - a bit like floating widgets
3. Nice audio optimizations that make my music experience nicer
4. Being able to customize the quick settings in the notification center
5. Battery percentage in the status bar (this is important to me )
6. The screen colours can be calibrated to your liking
Other things to consider
- The fingerprint sensor is pretty bad, but that could be just my fingers.
- The phone is really slippery compared to the Moto G. A case is highly recommended.
- Stamina mode - I havent tested if this has a positive effect on battery life, but i'm letting the placebo effect take place
- The microsd slot is nice for future proofing, although given that I had a 8GB moto g, and the Z5C comes with 32GB, Im not going to need a microsd in the near future.
- Water proofing
- Of the 32GB, about 10GB is taken up by the android system, and thus we cannot use for our own stuff
- I found the volume button placement on the Z5C wierd until I got used to it in less than a week. Unless you actively need access to it all the time, its not annoying
- I find that everything on screen is too large for my liking, so I have my DPI set to 280, the same as what I had on my Moto G
In response to some of the things said above:
- Bluetooth works fine for me. It has never lost connection to my Microsoft Band when I needed them to be connected
- I've used my Z5C with 3 different usb cables, none of them have a problem.
- Camera does launch slow if Photo Analyser Service is not disabled. The camera launches quite fast now (but admittedly not as fast as say an iPhone 6s)
- The GPS locks quicker than the Moto G, and has yet to be inaccurate for me.
I am really looking forward to Marshmallow
I hope that answers your questions. Sorry for long response lol
I have both nexus 6p and z5 compact. Previously had nexus 6.
I went for the z5c as it had wifi calling, and is a pretty small but powerful phone.
Notables, z5c is under-clocked, could be because heat dissipation on small device yielded unsatisfactory result, could be another one of those battery optimisation things.
It also seems to be on a conservative or power save profile, making it slow to start, but if you launch a game it gets into gear.
It was stuttering even with the OTAs of which i had received two, just a few days ago, even with factory resets it did not go away.
I used the sony PC companion to do a full firmware flash, not an incremental OTA and it became pretty smooth and slick to use again with all 0.5 speed animations and about 20 apps installed. I also disabled all of the original media apps and extra Sony stuff and use my own, poweramp and mxplayer is all i really need.
Pretty good experience to use now. Too bad about it using some sort of powersave profile even with stamina disabled. Good thing i have an nexus 6p to play with too.
you5urf said:
I used the sony PC companion to do a full firmware flash, not an incremental OTA and it became pretty smooth and slick to use again with all 0.5 speed animations and about 20 apps installed. I also disabled all of the original media apps and extra Sony stuff and use my own, poweramp and mxplayer is all i really need.
Pretty good experience to use now. Too bad about it using some sort of powersave profile even with stamina disabled. Good thing i have an nexus 6p to play with too.
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Click to collapse
Do you know how to disable throw?
Coming from the N5:
Disadvantages:
- Much less free RAM (N5X also has this issue, I think it's related to Android 64 bits).
- Much lower photo quality
Advantages:
- 200% or much more battery life.
- overall quality
- vídeo quality
Sent from my E5823
I am coming from the HTC One M7 which can be considered an old phone now I guess.
Good:
-Battery life finally gets me over the day and sometimes into the second.
-Better camera, but by far not great.
-Better display brightness
Bad:
-Sonys Android design looks like a toy. It lacks the beautiful HTC Sense look and features.
-Even with the latest firmware and fresh format its doesnt feel any fast than the old HTC One. Sense had a nicer flow overall.
-In general, switching between apps is not faster, once in the app, the processor surely shows its power. Antutu gave me 31k on HTC One and 62k on Z5C, so technically twice as fast.
-Having the phone in the front pockets of your jeans just looks stupid with the hard edges. The HTC one with its beautiful round design was basically invisible in your pocket.
The HTC One was far from perfect and had its issues, but my heart is still with that phone and I dont beleive I am gonna buy another Sony phone. I wanted a small powerful phone, but its not easy to like this phone I am afraid.
eivissa said:
I am coming from the HTC One M7 which can be considered an old phone now I guess.
Good:
-Battery life finally gets me over the day and sometimes into the second.
-Better camera, but by far not great.
-Better display brightness
Bad:
-Sonys Android design looks like a toy. It lacks the beautiful HTC Sense look and features.
-Even with the latest firmware and fresh format its doesnt feel any fast than the old HTC One. Sense had a nicer flow overall.
-In general, switching between apps is not faster, once in the app, the processor surely shows its power. Antutu gave me 31k on HTC One and 62k on Z5C, so technically twice as fast.
-Having the phone in the front pockets of your jeans just looks stupid with the hard edges. The HTC one with its beautiful round design was basically invisible in your pocket.
The HTC One was far from perfect and had its issues, but my heart is still with that phone and I dont beleive I am gonna buy another Sony phone. I wanted a small powerful phone, but its not easy to like this phone I am afraid.
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I'm also coming from a HTC ONE M7 and I'm feeling exactly as you. I have had the phone for 5 days now and I'm seriously considering to sell it and keep using my M7 since I'm seeing the same things than you see.
I have great expectations for this phone but now that I have it, I'm a little bit disappointed...I don't know if it's cause I'm so use to my old phone or cause my old phone is sooo good that I don't see anything new or improved on the z5c...maybe expect for the waterproofing things.
I'll give it another week to see If I can fall in love with it...maybe when the custom roms start showing up I'll start to see the advantages of changing.
I've been used some HTC and got a Z1c and S6. Guys plz give sometime to this phone, my S6 also took a couple of months to improve before got satisfy result. I believe Android 6.0 will give a new life to this phone.
I've only experienced Apple's devices so I came over from an iPhone 3G, iPhone 4S and then an iPhone 6S. I absolutely LOVE this sucker. And I must have gotten very lucky because I haven't seen any of the issues that others have.
Pros:
1. Fascinated by the Android OS. There's just so much you can do with it! So much more freeing than Apple's IOS. They both have a few positive and negative quirks, but I'm not really missing IOS that much. I did miss the Safari left/right swipe browser initially, but found out about the Rbrowser app with built in ad-block and the swipe feature, and couldn't be happier.
2. The device is quick. Compared to my iPhone devices haven't experienced nearly as much lag even under load.
3. I love the camera and video. Takes far better pictures and video than any camera I've ever used before, and with the latest update, the menu selection is so easy to use. I think the side button to open the camera app is a genius. I also never experienced the blur issue that a lot of others complained about.
4. The size and look of the device totally compliments me. I find modern phones like the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6S way too big and clunky. This device is exactly the right size. Slightly larger than my old 4S, but still comfortable to hold, and type one handed with. I also absolutely love the sharp right angles on the phone. I dig the thickness of the Compact, and I love the bright punky yellow of the case color I selected.
5. The fingerprint scanner is so fun to use. I had one on the 6S that worked maybe slightly better, but that's only because there was more surface area to press, but still having a fingerprint reader makes me feel like a spy a bit.
6. I haven't had any issues with the heat of the phone. It gets warm, but after a month of use, I've never experienced it getting warmer than the 4S or the 6S even while playing graphic intensive games, using the GPS, or recording video. It never gets warm while browsing websites, or doing day to day smartphone things.
7. The device did have a little bit of bloatware, but then, so did Apple's devices. Removing/disabling the bloat was easy to do.
8. So far no unexpected surprises. The alarm works. the phone rings and vibrates as it ought. The apps all open fine. I get all my expected alerts and then some. Messaging works fine. The screen is bright and easy to read and watch. I love the little FM radio app (though I don't use it too much). Haven't had any issues with the GPS. Everything does what it's supposed to do.
Negatives:
1. Coming from devices with only one bottom speaker, I thought that having two front facing stereo speakers would make this device monster loud....it isn't. In fact, it's slightly quieter than the 6S (though louder than the 4S). That said, I do love the stereo effect, and I think having so many audio controls is awesome. I just wish the device was a bit louder. Hopefully when the device becomes rootable I can find a fix for that.
2. The boot up time on this device is pretty slow. From powered off, the 6S starts up in a matter of a couple seconds. It takes like half a minute or longer for the Z5 to start up. Course, this isn't much of an issue most of the time since the device doesn't usually need to be powered off or restarted.
3. The iPhone 6S 3D touch is pretty amazing, and I can see them doing some cool things with it over time. There was nothing about it that was super amazing while I had it. No apps to really take too much of an advantage of it yet, but I can see that it'll be awesome to have some time down the road.
4. The voicemail was a bit odd to set up. I'm used to Apple's easy voicemail integration that just works out of the box. For this device I had to download and setup a "visual voicemail" system that I'm not used to, and that I found a bit annoying.
My first Android phone was a Sony xperia mini. Was worse than Motorola Milestone (gsm droid) that replaced it. I since moved onto Samsung original Galaxy S and then Galaxy Nexus. Then the original Moto X dev edition which is the same size as this Z5C. I love the form factor. Ever since the Nexus 6 which I have one of those, Moto is obsessed with phone size. The Nexus 6 was named Shamu for a reason. I am hoping the just under 5" phones are not s dying breed because this device is the perfect size for me. I also like the subtle tweaks Sony does with their ROM compared to vanilla stock. Its also a fast device and I like the build quality compared to the Samsung devices I have owned. Those are my thoughts anyway.