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My Contract is Due up, And looking for a new Phone,
Currently on the HTC Desire,
And this phone keeps showing up every time i search.
Apart from the Specs how are you guys finding the phone.
From Development Point:
Day to day user? Battery life and performance?
And does the Camera live upto 8mp, Its position on the back looks like it can be easily scratched?
SGS II = WIN
Well your obviously going to get a biast opinion on here mate but straight up no bullsh*t this is definitely the best there is no doubts about it, you need to read up a good bit on here though to get the best from the SGSII but 100% recommended.
I came from the desire too and the difference is night and day. The desire got to a point where the latest roms just wouldn't run smooth enough. Ive had the camera lense exposed from the day i got the phone (first day of release in the UK) and have not got 1 scratch on it. Im wondering if its gorilla glass too because its pretty scratch proof.
Heres a camera sample anyway. Touch focus on the rose.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3387/20110603152504.jpg
Edit : oh crap I hit the thanks button. fat fingers and touch screens don't mix. Have that one on me
Nexus prime is close, at this point is worth to wait. But if you are in hurry...s2 is pure gold
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Other than SGS2, any other phone that also have HDMI and USB Host? Droid 3 looks good but too bad it don't have USB HOST.
The phone works VERY well.
If you throw cpu-intensive stuff at it like moviewatching, 3d-gaming or lots of network-activity it will go low on battery pretty fast. Like every other powerful smartphone, you will need to reharge at least once a day...unless its in your pocket all day ofcourse.
Be aware that the phone is pretty large compared to the desire, and it is something you will notice right away. You will also notice how incredibly thin and lightweight it is. After using my SGS2 for while I realized that I felt it was actually TOO thin and weighed too little. on top of that the size to me is a little over the top. I appparently like a phone to be a bit heavier and thicker for me to handle it better (insert sexual pun here ) I bought myself a nice rubbercase, which has provided a better feel to the phone in my opinion, and im really happy about it. The rather large size I can live with, but my next phone definately not have a screen larger than 4".
I suggest you go to a store and ask to try the SGS2 out for yourself. It really is amazing how thin and light that phone is. It is built ok, but ofcourse all the lightweight plastic will be more prone to damage than other types of material.
Well i spent my time having a good look around,
And decided to go with this, Thanks guys.
Some good features like Mhl micro usb to hdmi
and High Performance, Better Battery, Great Display.
And of course custom ROMS, Should be picking this up tomorrow, So expect to see me in this neck of the woods
Well I had the HTC Desire and loved it, a month ago I changed to an Xperia Arc, and I liked that to.. its a lovely design and runs pretty well, but I had a few issues with it - it would take a random amount of time to boot, and sometimes I would get lag on the phone switching between apps or menu's.. what tempted me with the Arc also was the price.. and i thought battery life would be better on the single core phone. I got the S2 on friday and the battery is better on the s2 and it really is fast.. no slowdown anywhere.. the batter is also lasting me the day, whereas with the desire and the Arc to a lesser extent i would have to top up during the day at work... so far am very happy with the s2.. other bonus is the bult in memory, - I've added a 16gb micro sd card and have lots of space now for media..
Thats good to know, One of my Issues with Desire was battery life,
but managed to deal with it,
So am used to the 1 charge a day job the internal 16GB memory is a massive plus aswell, Again the Desire was some what painful messing around with memory.
Good phone!
I originally choose it over the HTC Sensation because of the better camera and battery. The camera rules indeed! But the battery life seems to be not that great(1 day vs 2 days on my old HTC HD2), but I think this is mainly because of some issues in samsung's drivers. Also, there's no stable version of CM7 for it jet, the one I tried crashed instandly. So just give it time, I sure it will do 3 days eventually.
I'm currently testing the Hyperdroid rom with surgen(or something) and just updated my Modem so I can't really tell how the battery life is now.
Main thing is though, it's so freakishly fast that you can't really see any difference in the custom roms or even the original rom. Also overclocking to 1.6 ghz doesn't make a difference.
Great phone spoiled by a lot of morons using it .
jje
Because I promised
Quick background: I've had iPhones until earlier this year when i took the plunge and nabbed an Unlocked Galaxy Nexus GSM, Great phone, but some things with it I just couldnt get past (16gb of storage and the EH audio amplification...Also i want fond of 4.2 on it) which lead me to search for another phone, Tried the Galaxy S3 but was disappointed and returned it, And now about a weekish or so ago I got myself the One X+, So lets delve into my opinion on the device for anyone on the fence
First Impressions, Build, Ergonomics and Screen
The build of the One X+ is fantastic, Far better than the S3 or Galaxy Nexus, it feels nice solid and most importantly for a $200-on-contract smartphone, premium, The grippy texture to the finish makes it a delight to hold and I never feel like im going to drop the bloody thing at the drop of a hat, The Capacitive buttons are also in my opinion much nicer than the hard button on the S3 (One of the major stumbling blocks with the S3 was the fact i found that button WAY too hard to work) Though I think the Galaxy Nexus' on screen buttons are still the most elegant solution... If I had one little complaint in regards to the ergonomics its that the volume buttons sit flush and undefined on the chassis of the phone, which has taken me a bit to get used to, Id prefer them to be raised a bit, but its a minor complaint. Overall the fit and finish of the phone is the best of any other phone I've ever owned, it feels solid and like its going to hold up to 2 years of use
Moving on, the screen is one of the most important bits of ANY smartphone and the One X+ doesnt disappoint, its easily got the nicest screen I've ever seen on a smartphone (And i did LOVE the AMOLED on my GNex so thats high praise!) its big, its bright, colors are saturated and the black level is nothing to scoff at, Albeit not as inky black as an AMOLED, Text is sharp and easily readable as well, and unlike the AMOLED screen on my GNex it doesnt chug my battery flat, it also stays looking nice even at lower brightness levels, The multitouch on it works well and accurately... Other nice things are the nicely beveled edges at the screen which makes swiping, say to another page of the homescreen or to move icons from one screen to another, a real treat and the fact it stays pretty clean and comes clean easily (Its not a fingerprint magnet the way my iphone or the S3 was, The S3 was actually terrible because i couldnt clean the fingerprints off worth a darn...)
Sense/Software
This is my first experience with Sense and only the second Skinned android version I've used and I gotta say I'm in the group that likes Sense, I get the reasons folks dislike it, but I'm finding I actually prefer many aspects of it over stock Android, in particular I do like the messaging app on it which just seems to work a bit better than the one on my GNex, and I do rather like more than one of the widgets it comes with (The small 4x1 Weather + Clock widget for instance) but I do see how these things could drain the battery or processor... I like how it asked me after dismissing one tutorial if i wanted it to keep bringing tutorials up and when i said no it never brought up another one (Unlike Touchwiz which would NOT stop bringing up tutorials even after i told it to knock it off)
The music app has rapidly become my favorite music app, I just like it, I dont like Google Play Music and Doubletwist had its problems in my opinion (Namely it tended to mess up if someone sent me a text or called me and wouldnt resume playing until i completely exited it and reloaded it, Not to mention it did NOT play well with 4.2, also the random thing i had to toggle on and off a few times everytime i started played music or it just continued the same "random" assortment of songs from the last play through..) by comparison the Sense music app just works better, looks pretty attractive and is easy for me to navigate, Also the included ringtone maker is a VERY nice touch that removed the need to install an app to do so...
The phone and Calendar apps are also very very nice, far better than the stock Android counterparts.. I love how the lock screen works as well with only ONE complaint, I dont think theres a way to launch Google Now from the lock screen... (If you know a way please tell me)
Google Now is better than it was on the GNexus shockingly, it transcribes my voice a lot quicker and more accurately than my GNex ever did..
I pretty much disabled all the AT&T crapware on my One X+ as soon as I got it, and I recommend you do as well, I know from many reports here one of the apps will chew up your battery if you dont disable it so yeah, The only ATT App I have on there and use is the Visual Voicemail one, Beyond that theres a demo of Mass Effect Infiltrator installed which is actually nice, its a game I bought on a friend's iPad and while I liked the concept, their old iPad ran it like junk and i felt the game was more suited to a phone screen over a tablet, Im not sure I'll drop $3.99 to unlock the full version, but as a demonstration of what the Tegra 3 could do in terms of graphics I found it a lovely demonstration
The stock browser is pretty nice as well and supports flash, Performance on it is VERY good, Seems on par with my Flash-browser of choice on my GNex (Dolphin) theres a really stupid and annoying toolbar enabled by default but 5 seconds in the settings menu banishes it to nothingness, Of course for non-flash sites I use Chrome, but the stock browser is the nicest stock browser I've ever used
About the only complaint i can throw at Sense is the keyboard, Which is pretty bad for me personally, Lots of typing errors and problems... But to be honest thats a minor complaint given how many alternate keyboards there are for Android
Performance
Performance wise this phone is a powerhouse, I have not had any issues with it stuttering, slowing down or anything no matter how hard i push it, No games have had noticable framerate problems (The GNex had problems with a couple games I played) the interface works smooth and buttery and it definitely feels like the most powerful Android device I've owned, Flash works smooth and buttery and gives me no issues as well which is VERY nice
Gaming I havnt found a single game it cant run perfectly(Albeit, i havnt done TOO much gaming on it)
As for other performance, the radio and antenna seem to be excellent, Unlike the S3 my One X+ doesnt hop on and off between HSPA+ and LTE every 2 seconds schizophrenically (Which made my S3 lose 20% of its battery in a 20 minute long errand and signalled the final nail in the coffin that lead me to return it), My One X+ hasnt lost connection even when I've taken it to the places I know have poor coverage so I'm quite happy with that bit of it
LTE performance will vary on your area but I get around 8mbps in my house (Which is 2-bar bordering the edge of LTE territory) to a high of 36mbps i got when i was out of the house at a 4-bar LTE location, Which is certainly nothing to scoff about, Wi-Fi works well for me, and I've yet to notice any problems with my Wi-Fi dropping at night or when its been locked for a long time like other users have reported...
Call quality is excellent, People are loud and clear, The speakerphone is also the first one i've found i can actually USE in a car and hear the person...
Camera
I'm the worst person to ask about camera quality on smartphones, For what I use them for even the "Bad" Galaxy Nexus camera was great for me, I carry my EOS 7D with me just about everywhere so if I want to take a nice picture I will pull that out instead..
That said, the cameras are very nice, I love how responsive it is with pretty much no shutter lag, it focuses quickly and very accurately and tends to do a good job with exposure as well, Photos have a good amount of detail to them and skintones are rendered pleasingly, Theres plenty of artsy filters if thats your thing as well, Only complaint is the focal length of the front facing camera seems a bit long for a self portrait, i have more problems framing it than with other smartphones I've owned, But the quality is also far superior to the other phones I've had
The stock sound effects for it are REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING however
Audio Quality
Obviously one big reason I picked up the One X+ was to get something with better audio quality than the GNex, The GNex isnt THAT shabby, but it does lack "oomph" and struggled to drive even my mobile headphones (I had to have it cranked to 100% all the time to get them decently audible and even then it was eh...) Volume+ helped a bit but 4.2 broke Volume+ leaving me in a bit of a rut...I also personally felt it made the phone sound "Strained" at times to deliver the volume i desired... The external speaker was also frequently barely audible, I usually heard the phone vibrating over the actual ringer...
Thankfully the One X+ is worlds apart from the GNex in that department, The external speaker is LOUD and easily heard, its also of surprisingly good quality and is actually one of the best little built in speakers I've heard, it also has a good amount of "depth" to it and renders low frequencies admirably for what it is, Overall the external speaker impressed me
But that pales in comparison to the headphone output, Which has simply left my jaw on the floor and exceeded my expectations, the headphone output is easily the best I've heard of any smartphone or MP3 player I've owned, it has exceptional clarity and detail to it with or without the Beats optimizations on... Speaking of those optimizations I was actually shocked I liked them and I did find they made a very noticeable difference in the output quality, Now note... they are simply a set of equalization curves they may not work for everyone due to differences in music and headphones... but in my case they've worked well and further enhance the music and video watching experience
For the record I've tried my One X+ with three sets of headphones, a set of Shure IEMs, a pair of Klipsch Image Ones and a pair of Sennheiser HD280s, Only the HD280s gave it a bit of trouble... they still sounded good, albeit not to their full potential (For the record the HD280s are a set of cans that REALLY need something meatier than a smartphone to drive them..) My primary music listening is Rock and Metal, with a bit of electronic, pop and other things thrown in there for good measure, So far I havnt found anything that the One X+ doesnt excel at playing back
Oh and the headphone output will also go VERY loud, I dont even turn it up past halfway except with a couple very low volume songs i have...
Battery Life
And now onto the massive elephant in the room whenever folks talk about the One X+... Battery life... The best way I've found it is "Jekyll and Hyde"... Let me explain
Use the phone normally, for phone calls, text messaging, maybe reading a webpage or checking email and the battery life is superb, Even some light gaming, like a little Cut The Rope or some such and the battery is VERY good and should easily get most folks through a day, Even watching a youtube video or two, either using the Youtube app or the stock browser and desktop youtube website doesnt excessively drain the battery...
....But fire up say, Mass Effect Infiltrator and watch your battery life burn...
Which seems very "No crumb sherlock" but it was definitely surprising to me after coming from the Galaxy Nexus where the screen, not the processor, was the worst offender to my battery life, Which simply means it didnt much matter what i did on the GNex if it involved the screen, the battery was going to drain at the same rate
Truthfully in my experience, the One X+ is as good as the S3 I had, Primarily because of that aforementioned issue the S3 had with staying connected to a tower, Its actually equal to my GNex's stock battery as well, which is very impressive considering this phone is packing LTE and a Quad Core processor in its svelte package
In terms of numbers, according to GSam my average battery life is 14h 40m, The most I've run it for was 16h with almost 3 hours of screen on time, To me, this is perfectly fine considering the rest of the phone and for most folks, you should easily be able to get through the day without a problem, I am connected to Wi-Fi pretty much all day, but even using LTE didnt seem to impact the battery life all that much...
Now a note, I dont really try for battery saving either... I have my phone syncing to gmail, syncing to google now, location services on, GPS on, i have that little weather widget thingy i mentioned up above on too which uses battery.. Screen is fixed at 33% brightness.. I just use it, like i usually use it, so a mixture of a bunch of things depending on what im doing that day...
One nice thing I also noticed is unlike the GNex, when the battery hits 20% its not a panic moment, 20% on my GNex meant "Find a charger in 20 minutes or im dead, Jim", on my One X+ 20% means i still have a few hours left and theres no need to rush... Which is nice, I had to buy an extended battery for my GNex, for this? I dont really feel I need one (I might get a battery case however)
Do I wish it had a 3500mah battery? Of course, But it doesnt, and thats fine, For me its an acceptable sacrifice
Quick Comparison To Other Phones For AT&T and Why I Didnt Buy Them
Galaxy S3, I technically actually bought one of these and returned it, theoretically it has better battery life, but only a dual core phone, also it runs TouchWiz which i found naggy annoying and way too like iOS for my tastes, it has a MicroSD slot, but that just adds an extra $20 to the price tag to get a 32gb card (and if you want 64gb you're looking at an extra $60 to that price tag) , not built as well and ergonomically it was a pain in my hand and i constantly felt i was about to drop the dumb thing when i was using it, in my case the battery life was completely atrocious because it could NOT hang onto a signal and would scizophrenically bop between HSPA and LTE every 2 seconds which made doing things on it virtually impossible, I also didnt feel it was all that fast over the GNex running 4.1 (At the time however, the S3 only had 4.0 so.. I guess this isnt entirely fair) Also I feel the blue color looks like someone colored it with a Bic pen... Really my ownership of the S3 went from initial jubilation over a brand new shiny smartphone to finding problem after problem before i even got home with the darned thing...
Galaxy Note II, Bigger screen, bigger battery, cool S Pen features, but it runs TouchWiz which I consider worse than Sense and the ergonomic problems I had with the S3 are even worse because of it, its also a bit too big to fit in my pocket comfortably and I was way too worried Id end up dropping it, I tried it out in the store even and it just wasnt comfortable for me, and a bunch of the things i just rattled off about the S3 are likely true about the Note as well... So yeah
LG Nexus 4, Better processor, stock Android 4.2, better battery life (I think?) and a great price ($350 no contract) however it only has, at best, 16gb of storage and that just wasnt working for me as it was, Plus theres no LTE on it as well which is a negative when you have LTE available where you live
Summary/TL;DR
Overall the One X+ is easily my favorite smartphone on the market right now, I'm immensely happy with my purchase and I dont see another phone I'd rather have right now, it would be my number one recommendation to anyone looking at a phone on AT&T, it just has a great combination of features and in my opinion the only real big drawback is the so-so battery life, But even then I'd call the battery life "Average" and not bad, The only phone I've seen with truely spectacular battery life is the Droid Razr Maxx HD.. Which isnt available on AT&T... Personally I can live with the battery life, Im never too far from an outlet and even if i was, the phone seems to do just as good as most of the other smartphones I've owned, I've tried so hard to find little problems with it and honestly, I gave up, I'm really not having problems with it (Well except the bloody keyboard..) and just constantly finding new things to love about it...
The only reason I'd caution against it for some folks would be if they were really intending to play intense 3D games on the thing constantly, Because thats going to murder your battery stupidly fast... And people who do need VERY good battery life are best looking at a different phone as well, or considering a battery case for it...
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Dottcent said:
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
KenjiS said:
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
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I'd say 99% of us enjoy reading positive reviews of our fave devices, so the longer the read and more in-depth info the better.
KenjiS said:
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
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Click to collapse
You posted in the right device thread so you'll only get positive criticism here
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium
I found the radio in the SGS3 to be pretty poor myself. HTC seems to make phones that can catch and hold a signal when you're out in the boonies and I've only found Motorola radios to be better. And the better it can keep a signal, the less battery you loose so all the better!
As for dumping on the SGS3 and the Note 2, you are preaching to the choir here Kenji, but your review puts it through the same paces as the bigger tech blogs. We like our HOX+ here and, while you can always argue for the Samsung phones because they are good in many ways, they're just not "right" for folks like me.
Thanks guys
I'm kinda regretting not applying when one of the Android blogs recently put up a Google+ Post saying they were looking for writers
As a side note, I installed Swiftkey, I'm enjoying it, though im really not used to auto correction (It DOES work very well in this instance because its learning some of the stuff i type)
Second note is that today's battery life is currently at 2.5 hours screen on, 13 hours 18 minutes total, 17% left (Roughly another 2-3 hours standby/light usage for me) I really have to say the battery life is not atrocious and thats more than enough to last me the day obviously (Took it off the plug at 9:30 this morning, its now almost 11 at night..) That included some Radiant Defense in there (Not the most demanding game, but i enjoy it! Its a shame Neon Defense which was my favorite now doesn't function 100% right because OpenFeint is no more... At least thats what im assuming is the problem...)
I wonder if my lack of using Facebook/Twitter on my phone is why im getting such great battery life..
Anyways, my only debate is to sell my Galaxy Nexus (Which likely will cover what i paid for my One X+) or keep it around as a modding toy...
Now this is me being VERY bad with my battery:
Basically nothing but Youtube and PlagueInc for 3.75 hours.. Not really sure how many other phones would beat this (Even my GNex with the extended battery might, MIGHT have gone to 5 or 6 doing this, but still, Thats with a 3500mah extended..)
Hi all,
Do you think it is a good idea to go from a G3 to a Z2? I would really value unbiased, honest responses. I got a G3 last night and have found the charger port id dodgy and it won't fit in correctly. When using the phone there is a lot of lag all over the system, the speaker is good and the gold is gorgeous. The battery life is meh. Better than the 5S I came from.
I normally use my phone for social networking, facebook and a little gaming. I know the Z1 had an issue where when typing on the keyboard it would almost make your fingers bounce of the keyboard due to the vibration motor. Sure, I know you can turn vibration off but I prefer it on. Does the Z2 suffer from this?
jaaystott said:
Hi all,
Do you think it is a good idea to go from a G3 to a Z2? I would really value unbiased, honest responses. I got a G3 last night and have found the charger port id dodgy and it won't fit in correctly. When using the phone there is a lot of lag all over the system, the speaker is good and the gold is gorgeous. The battery life is meh. Better than the 5S I came from.
I normally use my phone for social networking, facebook and a little gaming. I know the Z1 had an issue where when typing on the keyboard it would almost make your fingers bounce of the keyboard due to the vibration motor. Sure, I know you can turn vibration off but I prefer it on. Does the Z2 suffer from this?
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Click to collapse
They re both really good, it's kinda hard to say which is better. But overall I like the ui of the z2 more.
There is an option to adjust keyboard vibration intensity
Battery life would probably be the biggest benefit of the Z2, though I've also read the screen colours etc are better too.
Yes, it's a great idea to trade for the Z2! I owned both the G3 and Z2 at the same time and ended up selling the G3. I came from a G2, which I loooved, so I really wanted to like the G3, but it just had too many flaws. The G3 is way too laggy. That's my number one pet peeve. If a phone feels/looks slow then it IS slow. It was fast within applications, but transitioning into apps and back to the home screen etc. made it stutter a lot. Also, the high pixel density screen is just a gimmick. I'd gladly trade a slight drop in pixel density for my Z2's much better color and contrast. The Z2 does have a strong vibration when typing fast, but not so much as to cause an audible rattle. When typing slowly or using swype it's perfect.
Also, battery life is almost as good as the G2, which as you know is really good.
I currently have both. Got the G3 the day it came out and the Z2 yesterday. I also loved the G2 and wish I never would have gotten rid of it. I was expecting the G3 to be a newer, better version of that. It is and isn't. The screen doesn't seem as good as it is hyped to be. I actually think the screen on the Z2 is a little nicer overall, but it doesn't bother me unless I'm looking at them side by side. I never had lag issues with my G3, and I like the form factor and some of the little features (clip tray, dual view) a lot. But the one big disappointment for me with the G3 is the battery. It's not terrible, just not as good as I expected. I know the screen eats up a lot of juice, but I used to have to work extra hard to drain my G2. With the G3 I get great standby time, but as soon as I'm out and about and have to use the phone a lot, it doesn't cut it. If I'm out with friends and I wanna look something up, I actually stop and think whether or not it is important enough to waste my battery. Yesterday I was only able to charge the Z2 to 75% and I was out for about 10 hours. I used the phone quite a bit and the battery was barely affected. I was at a little over 40% when I got home after fairly heavy usage. I'll see how it performs overall in the next week and see if it is gonna be my new every day phone or not.
I've used both the g3 and z2 then decided to keep the z2 as my primary phone. it has a few advantages over the g3, main difference for me was general performance due to having 3gb ram in the z2 over the 2gb ram in the g3
---------- Post added at 01:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:04 AM ----------
I've used both the g3 and z2 then decided to keep the z2 as my primary phone. it has a few advantages over the g3, main difference for me was general performance due to having 3gb ram in the z2 over the 2gb ram in the g3
I decided to go with the Alpha (Exynos) rather than the Nexus 6 for two reasons. First, having had a Note 2 and then a few phones later an LG3, I am tired of having a big phone, especially since I use a tablet to browse on the train. Second, I have always been jealous of the iPhone crowd having such nice looking phones.
The Alpha is the nicest Android phone to hold that I have ever had, and I have owned a few....
The pictures don't do it credit. The screen is simply beautiful. The metal feels fantastic. The whole feel is, to use a cliché, premium.
On the first day, I did a lot of remote desktop access and playing on the internet. It got very hot. Much hotter than the LG G3. Battery didn't last the day. What was worrying was that I if I used it for a short while, it got very hot very quickly.
On my second day, I turned battery saving on but only to limit the CPU (ie I left screen normal and location on). Totally different phone. Doesn't get hot at all and battery life much better ( I didn't have enough screen time to say I tested it properly - 83% from 9am to 9pm with minimal use).
Slowing the CPU made no difference to the ui. No lag and apps work fine.
As far as Touchwiz is concerned, it is OK. I have owned most of the Nexus phones and flashed many Cyanogen Roms and if I had a choice I would have preferred a GPE phone. However, once you get past the OCD about stopping all the Samsung bloatware draining the phone, you realize the ui is fine and you concentrate on the apps rather than the launcher. I switched off all the Samsung bells and whistles too....and there are a few!
I am waiting for the wireless charging back cover to arrive. Once I have that, I might disable the battery saving and see how it goes but on the other hand, I might just leave it on. I don't play games on my phone so I don't need a Ferrari engine to surf the internet or read my emails. And the heat it generated before can't be good for the phone or the battery.
All in all, very happy with the phone. I get a kick out of just holding it and looking at that screen... Sad! As a guy who changes phones every 3 to 4 months, I can give this phone a huge compliment: this is the first phone I really don't want to replace since my HTC HD2.
Update: After having used the phone for a few days, I am happy to report that the battery life is more than adequate. Starting at 7am, using 4G mobile hotspot for an hour, checking and responding to emails and making about three to four calls, I still have around 60 to 70% battery by 9pm.
I have the same situation and i pick alpha over any flagship fone for same reason Iike yours. Now Im waiting for spare batteries to be available in amazon or e abay, so I just swap the batteries if I run out... Instant 100% charge
you just say whats in my heart , i got many phones and they were awesome last one was the beast LG G3 and i was hating samsung phone due to many apps that included with UI touchwize but then when i saw galaxy alpha everything changed in my mind and i bring one as to be my long last phone to use each day , really smooth device even using battery saving mode and fits great in hand , you will love it more each day you will use it
I'm loving the look and feel of this phone I'll probably keep this one for awhile. I was upgrading from the nexus devices every year but the nexus 6 was a bit too big for me and I prefer the form factor of 4.7 inch phones.
It sems that we cant open ART in Developer option on Alpha,only Note 4 have this possability for now
And how is Your experience with galaxy Alfa and how it compare to Galaxy S5?
I just got an AT&T Alpha for $352.65 from eBay, which is supposed to be new but I think the seller lied (the home button has quite a number of scratches) but no big deal. I have to say I love this phone the most out of all the phones I've ever owned (iPhone 3G, 3GS, 5S, HTC EVO 4G, EVO 3D, S3, Note 2, Note 3, Note 4, Moto X). It's because of the look and build - very handsome and attractive, the size - I think it hits the perfect sweet spot of size for me, removable battery, and reasonably fast performance. I can now stop wanting to change my phone for a long while. Samsung should have continued with the Alpha and keep improving on it.
My first impressions :
1. Excellent design and feel
2. Powerful with 0 lag!!!
3. Very good screen ( super amoled in HD resolution is great for 4.7 inches )
4.Very good camera
5.Very good deep sleep of the battery
It's the first time i can't find something negative to tell about a smartphone. :good: Keep in mind that i don't play heavy games or surf the web a lot, so the small capacity of the battery is something that will not affect my opinion about Alpha.
Great work Samsung I was a hater all these years. Now i love you
Wow, sounds like a few of us are the same, I had the LG G3 but sold it. Probably the worst phone I've ever used, laggy, bad battery life and terrible camera. Planning on ordering an Alpha in the next few days, $300 brand new isn't bad. Can't wait!
Edit: its $260 new on eBay!
YOu know what I like about the ALpha is it square design, the ohter Galaxy devices are more rounded off and I think looks more childish instead this Samsung device looks more professional for my taste also it lays better in the hands wish it was a little bit smaller in the wide and it would have been perfect but then again I got woman hands ... I'm really happy with this phone except the finger scan kinda sucks, bcz it works half ass ...
But I'm on a big dillema now I received an email they gonna fix my Sony Z3 compact when I put in water but the sleeves werent closed off enough ... Anyway I don't know wich device I will keep now, I loved my Xperia bcz it fitted me better to the hand except it's little thicker and it's kinda plastic also the sound sucks ... Now the alpha dropped with 100 euros I can't ask as much as I wanted anymore don't know how much the Xperia dropped mean while ... I'm leaning more towards the Xperia bcz it's more compact to my woman hands But I love the design of the ALpha Really difficult choices to make also the price of selling the device will come in mind with this ...
I bought the Mediapad without much research to replace both my laptop and Galaxy Tab s3 and I'm not very happy about small things:
1. Keyboard operation is bad, it just places in the screen while I'm typing. I believe it is the track pad but also bad integration and problems with operation in landscape mode.
2. Again keyboard. There is no Portuguese official keyboard but some Chinese clone that already broke the hooks that grab the tablet. Not detachable, no decent 3rd party alternatives.
2. No more updates to correct issues: besides no more google android updates, Huawei seem to have dropped support for what was a flagship tablet. Went from 9.0 to 9.1 and that was that.
3. I use educational apps and, again, they have a hard time in landscape mode. It might be the apps but behaviours are similar and I don't see other people complaining about my issues.
4. I rarely need to use Office stuff but I find Android Office suit very poor. The Mediapad comes with WPS Office and that works a bit better, that's why the Surface Pro crossed my mind while I was writing this.
5. Desktop mode feels like some beta product that was being developed and now will not be finished.
6. This is more personal and subjective but I really feel bad about being supporting Huawei. I also don't feel comfortable with all the data gathering and services running in the back.
There are things I wouldn't want to give up though....
1. Screen is IPS but it's very good.
2. Battery life is great, with almost 0 drain when the cover is closed. I can have it away for a week and battery will have dropped 3% or something.
The Tab s6 is a lot of money, especially after adding the stylus and keyboard. I could sell the M5 and soften the blow a bit but at this point it would have to be really worth it...
Would you upgrade to the S6? Would you seriously consider a Surface Pro instead (I know virtually nothing about these)?
I also though about an iPad, I know that IOS is much better developed for a tablet form factor but I really deslike Apple's prices, software (I have 0 experience with IOS) and I would have to run around with duplicated cables.
Opinions would be appreciated! :good:
I own both. Bought the m5 a few months after it came out. Have had the S6 since a few days after it first came out. I can't speak to keyboard issues (I've never used a physical keyboard with any Android device), but as far as the "is it worth it" question, definitely! Coincidentally, I was messing around with my m5 (rooted/LOS15 in part to rid it of Huawei spyware) a few days ago and was shocked at how what I was once fully impressed with was now a slow, unresponsive piece of junk—relatively speaking, ofc.
If your budget permits I *highly* recommend the S6, but just read a few minutes ago that there is, or soon will be, a S6 Lite.
Samsung has it's own suite of, imo, highly objectionable software, but their tablet hardware is the best, and there are are methods to disable Samsung crap, just search this forum.
I defer to others about the battery, as I use my S6 exclusively at home, and almost always have it plugged in via a 6 foot long cable; I have it set to charge to only 80%, btw.
TiTiB said:
If your budget permits I *highly* recommend the S6, but just read a few minutes ago that there is, or soon will be, a S6 Lite.
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Saw that too after posting the thread and it caught my eye by being a full size tablet. Thanks!
Kutusov said:
The Tab s6 is a lot of money, especially after adding the stylus and keyboard. I could sell the M5 and soften the blow a bit but at this point it would have to be really worth it...
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The Stylus (S-Pen) is included with the Tablet, so no extra cost to give there. Keyboard is a considerable sum though.
The Tab S6 is definitely worth it - That said I've come straight from the Tab S 10.5, it's 5 generations newer than what I'm used to, so the speed of the Tab S6 was always going to impress me. The battery life is surprisingly good though, I'll charge it once a day, granted, but I'm using it a lot and never seem to desperately need to charge.
There's quite a few people around here complaining about the screen on this, but mine is great. There are some issues when it's blending colours in video, some pixelation and noise can be seen, but overall I don't notice that much. And it's only with videos for me, not static images. But some people seem to have gotten pretty unlucky, so worth bearing in mind.
I don't use DEX mode (Samsungs desktop mode) but I've taken a look around it, and it seems pretty decent.
For me, I've no regrets about buying the Tab S6 ( I got it cheap on eBay though, £450 a brand new and sealed 256gb wifi model) but I guess the worthy question is something only you can really answer. No buyers remorse from me though, for what it's worth.
bartleby999 said:
For me, I've no regrets about buying the Tab S6 ( I got it cheap on eBay though, £450 a brand new and sealed 256gb wifi model) but I guess the worthy question is something only you can really answer. No buyers remorse from me though, for what it's worth.
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Thanks for that! I've been reading some horror stories here, especially about stand by time. 50% drain over night I guess one would read about the bad experiences and not so much when everything is ok though...
The Surface is off my list though, too big and heavy and I could get a laptop for less, for my sort of use there doesn't seem to be a point.
I'll just wait, the M5 is still usable, it's a shame they won't be fixing what needed to be improved.
Kutusov said:
Thanks for that! I've been reading some horror stories here, especially about stand by time. 50% drain over night I guess one would read about the bad experiences and not so much when everything is ok though...
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Battery drain is often attributable to misconfigured apps, or stuff running that you never ever consider even using. These problems are easy to fix. Just something to keep in mind.
Kutusov said:
Thanks for that! I've been reading some horror stories here, especially about stand by time. 50% drain over night I guess one would read about the bad experiences and not so much when everything is ok though...
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I don't see how people are getting 50% battery drain over night - That's a ridiculous amount to lose when just idling. I switch mine off at night, but I've had it on today since about 9am, I haven't used it much except some very light browsing for maybe 30minutes, and my battery has decreased to 91% it is now 5PM. So, I've lost 9% battery in 8 hours threw idling with a little use thrown in.
Anyone losing 50% overnight needs to return their tablet for a replacement. Or optimizes their apps.
TiTiB said:
Battery drain is often attributable to misconfigured apps, or stuff running that you never ever consider even using. These problems are easy to fix. Just something to keep in mind.
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I will. Just saw on your sig you also own a S5e. How's that one?
bartleby999 said:
I don't see how people are getting 50% battery drain over night - That's a ridiculous amount to lose when just idling. I switch mine off at night, but I've had it on today since about 9am, I haven't used it much except some very light browsing for maybe 30minutes, and my battery has decreased to 91% it is now 5PM. So, I've lost 9% battery in 8 hours threw idling with a little use thrown in.
Anyone losing 50% overnight needs to return their tablet for a replacement. Or optimizes their apps.
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Something very wrong there, yes! The M5 still sounds better in that aspect though, I never turn it off and I think it drains quite a lot less than that. Probably because it is very aggressive with RAM, radios and app management, one opens 3 apps and when returning to the first it has to refresh, the thing is just gone. I wouldn't trust it with more than 2 apps open.
I guess one could tweak the S6 to something similar...
Kutusov said:
Something very wrong there, yes! The M5 still sounds better in that aspect though, I never turn it off and I think it drains quite a lot less than that. Probably because it is very aggressive with RAM, radios and app management, one opens 3 apps and when returning to the first it has to refresh, the thing is just gone. I wouldn't trust it with more than 2 apps open.
I guess one could tweak the S6 to something similar...
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I think you can do that with Android as standard, if you enable Developer Options - There's an option to limit background apps and kill processes as soon as user leaves - Sure that would give the same effect.
I think battery life on the Tab S6 could be better optimised than what I have - I mean, Samsung bloat is going to take a lot, so a debloat could probably give an increase in longevity. It's fine as is for me though, I only use my Tab at home, and the battery lasts all day, even with heavy YouTube usage. I'm down to 74% now and I've been playing games and web browsing - 5 1/2 hours have past since my last post. I consider that pretty good.
I recently bought a Surface Pro 7 i5. I used it for a few weeks and decided it was junk. For one thing, Windows 10 was a nightmare to configure to my liking, and I've always been a Windows guy. There's like a baby settings menu and then the traditional control panel behind it, and they do not mesh well and there are just tons of bugs, especially with the power options. The battery life was abysmal.. I was getting about 2 or 3 hours of use. I spent hours disabling services and messing around with Throttlestop to undervolt it and that helped the battery a bit, but it was still pretty awful if you want to use it at full speed. I also wanted to dual boot linux and I wasn't able to do it properly, as the 7 is too new to really be supported. And there's no gallery app of any kind for Windows comparable to something like Quickpic, which just amazes me. Android emulators for Windows don't really work either unless you are purely interested in gaming. There were so many headaches and it wasn't passing as a tablet for me, just an undersized and overpriced laptop.
I sold it and bought a tab S6 with the money left over, and I'm much happier now. I miss the raw processing power and the flexibility of x86 for running full versions of certain programs, but I can do 95% of what I want to do on Android 9, plus many things I couldn't do on the Surface, and it's by far a more pleasurable experience. I haven't had the problems people are talking about.. screen looks great, battery life is great, theres no drain. I used to be hardcore about rooting and removing bloat, ads, etc, but theres no need to with this device, it's pretty perfect out of the box.
I don't have the keyboard and I haven't even tried Dex mode, but for general tablet use, media, and emulating games, the S6 blows away the SP7 in my view.
Is it worth the money? Meh...
Is it very good? Hell yeah.
The huge plusses for me are form factor, stylus/writing, android, keyboard cover WITH trackpad, high end tablet.
I DO think it's too expensive, especially with the keyboard cover. But unfortunately there were no real alternatives for me (bought it 4 months ago or so)... Was thinking about the surface pro as well but first, that one is also hella expensive, but I also find it too big for my use. The Tab S6 is such a nice package to take along, very comfortable to write with/on (I use it a LOT for note taking mainly).
Android is a plus because my phone's also android and my experiences with windows laptops is less positive when looking at the battery.
But it's not a full desktop/laptop replacement... Dex does not support 4k so when connected to my monitor it looks bad. Also, some specific apps don't have proper alternatives for me on android (programming, music transcribing). For general tasks as browsing, mailing, documents, even basic work related stuff (terminal work) it is perfectly fine, but just not good enough at everything.
So yeah, it really depends on your use-case. The apps you have issues with on the mediapad will most likely have the same issues on the tab s6. For me the keyboard works just fine (coming from a tab s4, which had more issues) and is a nice option though I use the stylus most of the time. It is fast, lasts quite a bit (no standby issues here as far as I can tell, but it does use a reasonable amount of battery when I actively use it).
schoolpizza said:
The battery life was abysmal.. I was getting about 2 or 3 hours of use. There were so many headaches and it wasn't passing as a tablet for me, just an undersized and overpriced laptop.
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That's that then. It ends up pretty much being my thoughts every time I look at the Surface, I really don't get it... It's a very expensive laptop, maybe with a bit different form factor... But there are more interesting things like the HP Spectre Folio, x360 etc.
Well, I've decided to keep the M5 for a while longer. Was just playing with it in a store and it is definitely better than the M5 but, for my sort of use, I really don't see much of an upgrade there considering how much I would had to spend.
Thanks for your thoughts guys!
Kutusov said:
That's that then. It ends up pretty much being my thoughts every time I look at the Surface, I really don't get it... It's a very expensive laptop, maybe with a bit different form factor... But there are more interesting things like the HP Spectre Folio, x360 etc.
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In addition to not really working as a tablet, I was also surprised by how locked down the hardware and UEFI is. It really lacks the customization you would expect from a system running a full PC operating system. Like an Apple product, you can't get the most out of the hardware you paid for.
I spent 800 dollars on the thing and really wanted to like it, but after a few weeks it dawned on me that I'm spending all my time troubleshooting annoying problems and I should just cut my losses and ditch it for the S6. The Surface Pro has power and can manage some technically amazing stuff as a tablet (I was running GTA 4 and 5 on it after a lot of research into optimizing performance) but it's so caveated by the system wide issues, hardware lockdown, and lack of tablet functionality that the extra power didn't mean all that much anymore.
Your M5 may serve you well but I can't recommend the S6 highly enough.. it's a very sleek, handy, and impressive device that is limited only by the lack of Android software development in certain cases...a full desktop-like web browser and a good PS2 emulator being at the top of my wishlist.
schoolpizza said:
In addition to not really working as a tablet, I was also surprised by how locked down the hardware and UEFI is. It really lacks the customization you would expect from a system running a full PC operating system. Like an Apple product, you can't get the most out of the hardware you paid for.
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What you wrote made me remember I used to own an HP Spectre 2 in 1 laptop. I could never get the "tablet" mode thing because it behaved nothing like what I would expect from a tablet.