Related
I have had my 3G iphone for about 6-7 months now, and have in that time tried several new phones, namely Nokia E71, Diamond (horrible), X1 (lasted less than 1 day!) and I also own a Trinity.
Anyway, the HD arrived via www.devicewire.co.uk in the UK (doh) on Thursday last week, and I powered it up right away. It was £522 delivered.
I think in the UK, people are better off ordering online, since you have the 7 day DSR (Distance Sellings Regs) to fall back on in the event of dislike, dead pixels etc.
With the HD, I am surprised how much I like it..........put it this way, it came Thursday, and Friday it was a case of "yes, this is good, but nothing much better than the iPhone, so I can not justify the cost, so back it goes".....read on for what happened next
I even have the return code from devicewire (very good aftersales, even when you are returning stuff!!)
I can not say the HD screen blew me away, since the screen on the iPhone is a truly, truly lovely screen anyway, and I had been using this everyday for the aforemention 6-7 months.....but, for anyone who has not been using an iPhone, the screen is gonna make you do a double take. It is clear, big, bright and the fonts look amazing.
First thing I did was switch off the ambient sensor (yes, it does have one!), and put brightness up to full, I love contrast as my eyesight is not so good these days.
Now, this is why the iPhone has been so good for me, (although I guess most of you lot here will be younger with perfect vision), I find it has good large fonts, and great contrast.
Compare this to the default text size on the Diamond, or indeed the latest Sony X1, its tiny, and yes, I do know you can altertext size, but on a small screen, it just means you get less on a sreen and have to be scrolling all the time.
The HD is just perfect for me, nice big fonts, so smooth, and perfectly usable with either a finger, (even with a glove on, something that is not possible on iPhone), or a stylus, which as it turns the HD on, is handy to have.
So, the screen is as good as the iPhone, with better resolution, and as I just read in the Slashgear review, the actual touching of the two screens is very close indeed. Even coming from several hours use of the iPhone eveyday, I do feel that I will get on with the HD screen very nicely.
But hang on, I am not keeping this am I, I already have the return code and devicewire are expecting it back......well, I doubt it now.......I had put it all away very carefully on Friday, but it sat there looking at me, and I kept reading about it on here........it was all too much, got up this morning and thought "lets take it to work, Sunday is quiet usually, I can have a play".
Well, the breakthrough for me was to turn off Touchflo and install PocketPlus, a great piece of software I have used on many devices. Oh, that and TomTom 6 running in landscape on the trip to work
As for GPS lag, it is only about 10 miles to my workplace, but there is little or no lag present in TomTom 6.
TomTom is a big deal for me, I find nothing touches it, and it is a great disapointment that there is still no TomTom (or anything else!) for the iPhone, when you recall the stories that TomTom already had it running back at the 3G launch, it must be Apple who are blocking its release.....
I think Touchflo is just too "black" for me, not sure if it will run with a brighter skin or not, but I like the way PocketPlus makes a device look, much brighter.
Now, a lot has been written about WM 6.1 being hard to use without D-Pad? The only issue (apart from games which I confess is of zero concern to me) is for selecting little drop down (roll out) menus, and that is sorted with AEBPlus http://ae.inc.ru/aebplus.php which allows you to assign the volume up and down keys to act as Arrow Up and Arrow Down, and this sorts it and works well.
I can confirm the UK HD comes with the little soft case (its quite nice actually), but a word of warning, do NOT assume all iPhone cases will work, my one, and nice Marware slip case is too tight, and the HD is a smidgen wider that the iPhone. Anyway, I like the softcase. It was also nice to get the 8gb Micro SD card. I have not installed the screen protector yet, can never really get on with those anyway.
Keyboard use on the iPhone is pretty good, and I was very doubtful that HTC could get anywhere near it, but they have basically cracked it IMV. The buttons are the same size as iPhone and easy to use. I am making less mistakes in a few hours than I do after 6 months on iPhone.
Web browsing is not in my opinion as good as the iPhone, well, let me qualify that. If you just use fingers, the iPhone wins, but if you use fingers and the stylus, I think the HD then just shades it.
One very welcome side effect of returning to WM is the multitasking, this is one massive issue for us geeks on the iPhone, combined with the lack of cut n paste, it really shows the two devices quite far apart in usability.
Email is very good on the iPhone, and if you only have the one account (gmail for example) it takes some beating for simplicity. However, the HD also does a great job, and with a little wireless keyboard (impossible on iPhone), I think it will make a good laptop replacement)
RSS is OK on the iPhone, but much easier on the HD, with the built in RSS Hub program, which downloads all feeds, including video feeds. I like to watch Cali Lewis on Geekbrief www.geekbrief.tv everyday, and you have to jailbreak the iPhone to be able to do that (yes, I do know its coming in 2.2 software, but with a limit of 10mb over cellular, which renders it useless for video podcasts, and anyway, its a pain in the arse to upgrade iPhone and then have to jailbreak each time.
We are good at making our decisions fit the case, so the iPhone user is always going to say "oh, I don't really miss cut n paste", when in fact, you quickly forget how often it is useful.
I think for me, it comes down to this, the HTC Touch HD can do everything the iPhone can do and lots more, but the the iPhone can not do several things the HD can do. Does that make sense?
I hope this view (not a review IMHO), helps some of you, and just like the chap in the other thread, please feel free to ask any specific questions about useabilty, although please don't ask me to run x test on y video, using xx program while standing in a bucket of water, as I probably can not be bothered
A couple of program I will miss if I sell the iPhone are TV Plus, a great APP which gives a 7 day EPG and more inportantly, links to Sky Plus (UK only) and lets you setup recordings.
I will also greatly miss Remote, an Apple APP which controls iTunes on my main desktop PC, although I should be getting up off my butt to change charge anyway.
So, who wants to buy an iPhone ;-)
Kev
So font size was your only problem with the Xperia? I'm trying to decide between the Xperia (had it for about 5 days now) and the HD.
BTW, my other phone is an iPhone 2G and I do like the screen.
Whoops, forgot that bit.
No, I got the X1 in the UK at Vodafone (if anyone is interested they are £500 are are not locked to Voda.....well, my one was not anyway)
The fonts were always gonna be too small for me, but I hated the keyboard, the keys barely protrude over the case, very little feedback.
But the killer and reason for return within a few hours for refund was a horribly wobbly screen, but I accept this could have been my one.
Also, given that you would have to use on screen keypad to dial people, it was too fiddly, too small. That 3" screen is very narrow you know.
Sorry.
Kev
I bet there's a program on WinMo that let's you control not only your iTunes but your whole PC. On my current 4 years old Nokia, there's System Freak, that lets you do that...
Thanks for that post KevWright.
Like VeloAudio, I'm deciding between the Touch HD and X1. I still have some niggling concerns about the Touch HD but I am assuming the X1 has the same 'problems' or 'complications' so am leaning towards the former.
Your post bolsters the case.
Great post!
Can you delve a little bit deeper into the screen responsiveness please? Just a few more sentences on how it compares to the iPhone's would be great.
Also, this is probably unbelievably subjective, but which phone do you find sexier? For instance, you are on the bus and you take out your iPhone and you take out your HD, which feels sexier?
Thanks.
kevwright said:
A couple of program I will miss if I sell the iPhone are TV Plus, a great APP which gives a 7 day EPG and more inportantly, links to Sky Plus (UK only) and lets you setup recordings.
So, who wants to buy an iPhone ;-)
Kev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might be interested in a SlingBox, which allows you to stream and your own Sat/IPTV etc. over the web to your laptop or your WM device. It comes with software to control the IR on your video sources. I stream Bluewin IPTV and Sky to the SlingMobile software on my Trinity and intend to do the same with the HD tomorrow when it arrives. I hope it runs on the HD. I will report back later on that.
Matterhorn said:
You might be interested in a SlingBox, which allows you to stream and your own Sat/IPTV etc. over the web to your laptop or your WM device. It comes with software to control the IR on your video sources. I stream Bluewin IPTV and Sky to the SlingMobile software on my Trinity and intend to do the same with the HD tomorrow when it arrives. I hope it runs on the HD. I will report back later on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've read elsewhere, the Touch HD doesn't have an IR port, so you won't be able to use the IR functionality of Slingbox unless you mean the "box" itself attached to a TV?
kevwright said:
Oh, that and TomTom 6 running in landscape on the trip to work
As for GPS lag, it is only about 10 miles to my workplace, but there is little or no lag present in TomTom 6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version did you install, and will it work in full WVGA or are their black bars on the screen?
Thanks in advance
nu_D said:
Great post!
Can you delve a little bit deeper into the screen responsiveness please? Just a few more sentences on how it compares to the iPhone's would be great.
Also, this is probably unbelievably subjective, but which phone do you find sexier? For instance, you are on the bus and you take out your iPhone and you take out your HD, which feels sexier?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it is hard to say that much more, I have them both here and am playing now. Not sure if you know the iPhone, but on 2.1 software (jailbroken), when you press the button for say SMS, there is about a 2 sec delay while it loads up, now on the HD, its about the same, but on the HD if you leave messaging running in the background (which I suspect you can do with these better memory equipped models?) it is instant, with the iPhone you always get the delay cos nothing (well except the music player) is allowed to stay in background.
OK, using book reading software, I would say they are almost equal.........maybe the iPhone is fractionally better, or it could be I am more used to it.
As to your second point, I can't help mate, for one, I only have a vague idea of what a "bus" is, and the day I find either the iPhone or the HD "sexy", that is the day I go back to my Nokia 6310 )
OK, I think they look so similar mate, there is nothing in it.
Kev
kevwright said:
But the killer and reason for return within a few hours for refund was a horribly wobbly screen, but I accept this could have been my one.
Kev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying they are all wobbly or it is just yours. You going to replace it I guess?
luckyuser said:
What version did you install, and will it work in full WVGA or are their black bars on the screen?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I can not find a version number I am afraid.
It looks great in portrait, but bloody fantastic in widescreen, I have it on a manual rotate screen, and there are NO bars in any view.
Kev
exe said:
Are you saying they are all wobbly or it is just yours. You going to replace it I guess?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would have no idea beyond my one mate. It was that bad that I could never live with it.
I have replaced it....with the HD )
I will not be getting another X1, fonts were too small, and after this screen, there is no going back.
Kev
Matterhorn said:
You might be interested in a SlingBox, which allows you to stream and your own Sat/IPTV etc. over the web to your laptop or your WM device. It comes with software to control the IR on your video sources. I stream Bluewin IPTV and Sky to the SlingMobile software on my Trinity and intend to do the same with the HD tomorrow when it arrives. I hope it runs on the HD. I will report back later on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I do have Slingbox, and have even register Slingplayer, but I just have never had good perfomance on it to be honest. I am not realy fussed about watching TV on my HD, just this little app was great to tell my Sky box to record something, mainly cos it enabled you to do it even without turning the TV and Sky box on.
I am hoping there is something for WinMo
Kev
nokia e71 vs. htc touch diamond
hi kevwright,
after a bad experience with an htc diamond (very poor battery and many ROM updates), I've decided to go for nokia e71. Now I'm considering an htc touch hd, but I'm very curios about it's battery life. how the touch hd compare to the e71 in terms of battery life and general?
in call recording
Hi alll - I have posted a separate thread on this issue, but alas, I thought i would also ask it here from those that already have an HD.
in call recording feature - anyone tried it out? some are reporting that it doesn't work...even though HTC calls it out in their specs online.
can anyone kindly shed some real world experience w/this feature on teh HD?
Thanks in advance.
Someone tell this guy how paragraphs work...
Great post.. I allready bought Touch HD, and I have the same view as you!
Cheers!
Thanks for the insight, kev. Great post.
dragosel80 said:
hi kevwright,
after a bad experience with an htc diamond (very poor battery and many ROM updates), I've decided to go for nokia e71. Now I'm considering an htc touch hd, but I'm very curios about it's battery life. how the touch hd compare to the e71 in terms of battery life and general?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery life looks like it will be quite good, but not as good as an E71 (screen is tiny!).
Had it only a day really, so I will update this in a few days.
Kev
anyone can tell me what will arrive after this phone..?because i want to buy it but i'm worried about possible innovations from other trades(like iphone2)..
Thats technology for you. There will always be a better device just round the corner. All you can do is get the best currently available and with phones get the shortest contract you can so you can upgrade or trade in.
LOL - it's never the right time to buy!
6 months ago, I started looking for a new phone.
Easy - Tocco
Then iPhone 3g came out - hmmmm. Nice, but can't get them anywhere anyway. So wait a bit.
Then I saw the Omnia - hmmm again. Not as good as the iPhone, but I've got an iPod anyway, so maybe...
Then the X1 was being talked about - now that looked tasty! And my contract was nearly up.
So yes. That's it then - Omnia. I mean X1. Errr...
or maybe the G1...
Contract ended 3 weeks ago - time to start looking in earnest!
So.
Omina - still a possible.
iPhone - yep, still in there.
X1 - looks like the favourite...
But hang on - BlackBerry Storm! Where did that come from!?
(eventualy dropped that - no wifi)
LG Renoir - oh heck.
Samsung Pixia thingy - blimey, head hurts now!
Aha! HTC HD
Sorted, took the plunge, awaiting arrival
What'll be out tomorrow (or more likely, just after Christmas)?
Probably something which will make me regret splashing out on the HD LOL
But if you hang on forever, waiting for whatever has just been announced, you end up using a phone (or PC / Laptop / whatever else electrical) that is 10 years old.
Pick a date, go for the best at the time, and don't worry about it.
Whenever you buy, you'll wish you'd waited an extra week!
All you have to do i buy a phone that you think will last. I still have my year old N95 8GB, its still better than 95% of phones out there. If you have a smartphone (as in a phone with a proper OS), you cant go to far wrong if it covers all the basics at launch.
In terms of the Touch HD and windows mobiles nothing major can be improved in the short term. If you need a phone in the next few months the HD is the way to go. Maybe a better camera, enabled GPU video and other minor tweaks, but nothing to worry about. Not for 6 months or more anyway.
What Apple will do only Apple knows, but im really not worried about Apple.
Nokias touch screen Symbians maybe more worrying, but they are a fair way off.
What's coming?
What we could be missing?
OLED Screens
Wi-Max
LTE
Capacitive Multitouch screens on:
WinMo 6.5
Returned TV-Out
Stereo (or Surround ) Sound
Faster CPU's with
Better video/3D- Acceleration
Well, that's what you might miss, among other unknown things of course, like fuel cells, Li-Polymer batteries from HTC, DVB-H support, or Galileo..
Just consider what you actually need, and look for that. The HD is probably already a whole lot more than that!
Nvidia Tegra is going ot be here soon...
720p encoding and decoding
Xperia like panels in 3D that actually do the thing, while you're browsing the others.
Just youtube Nvidia Tegra...
flash for the camera
TV out for presentation or simply watching on a big screen.
higher resolution camera 8MP
better video recorder - higher fps.
built-in television like the korean omnia.
AM radio
D-pad or gesture pad.
4.5 inch screen, or even larger flexible and foldable screen.
Built quality using same material as iphone, where paint coating will not come off.
wm7
Video driver
Stereo speakers similar to that in Athena.
Insaneboy said:
Nvidia Tegra is going ot be here soon...
720p encoding and decoding
Xperia like panels in 3D that actually do the thing, while you're browsing the others.
Just youtube Nvidia Tegra...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tegra Products to be announced Spring 2009, in your hand mid-2009
If everything goes along well of course.
It's certainly a chip, or SoC, we should keep an eye out for. It's the upgrade for the HD, especially if full QTV support is not enough to get all videos running smoothly.
I have HTC Touch HD, bought 6 mounths before.. I use it every day and i am very satisfied with it. I bought it in vip (croatia) and it has guarante (2 years). The screen is without any scratches because i have used screen protector.
I saw HTC hero (my friend has it) and i really fall in love with it.
What do you think, can replace my HTC Touch HD for HTC Hero (from someone who has it and who sales it for cheaper than it is in market)?
And do you think it woud be great idea?
I've gone from a Touch HD to a Hero. After having several Winmo phones, the jump to Android was a tough one initially, but I'm so glad I did it.
I do miss the great 3.7 inch 800x480 screen of the HD, and find the Heros screen a bit small. I consider the MSM 72xx to be too underpowered for the 800x480 screen, and more suited to the 480x320 of the Hero.
I watch a lot of films/ tv episodes on my phone too, and the Heros lack of support for multiple video formats is a pain. Appart from that, I'm an Android convert now! Android blows Winmo 6.x out of the water IMO.
I'm looking forward to the next generation of Android devices with a larger screen and a better chipset than this god awful Qualcomm 7200.
Thank you, that is what i need
Do you know for how much i can sell my HD? I bought it for 760 Euro.
And one more question, can you download great programs from android store for free? And good games? Is that better than i can have now on HD with winmo 6.5? And one more , can you zoom pictures with 2 fingers like on iPhone, and slide them fast?
Sorry for many questions
chaps said:
I've gone from a Touch HD to a Hero. After having several Winmo phones, the jump to Android was a tough one initially, but I'm so glad I did it.
I do miss the great 3.7 inch 800x480 screen of the HD, and find the Heros screen a bit small. I consider the MSM 72xx to be too underpowered for the 800x480 screen, and more suited to the 480x320 of the Hero.
I watch a lot of films/ tv episodes on my phone too, and the Heros lack of support for multiple video formats is a pain. Appart from that, I'm an Android convert now! Android blows Winmo 6.x out of the water IMO.
I'm looking forward to the next generation of Android devices with a larger screen and a better chipset than this god awful Qualcomm 7200.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never known Winmo, but didn't you have things like Word and notepad etc, whereby nothing like that on here, as well as being able to write with the stylus and it get translated into type which I'd quite like as its a hell of a lot quicker
Peter Franks said:
I've never known Winmo, but didn't you have things like Word and notepad etc, whereby nothing like that on here, as well as being able to write with the stylus and it get translated into type which I'd quite like as its a hell of a lot quicker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never used stylus for typing. I dont like it. I use word (2007), and excel in my HD alot, so is there any program on android that can open .docx document?
Have another play with your friends! Yes, it does pinch zooming in pictures. And have a look on eBay for prices for your HD.
As for office apps, there seems to be a few choices on the app store such as documentstogo for a fee.
I never used the stylus too, so it's each to their own.
I have a THD and I use it for my work and as a telephone, I do not listen to music on it and the only games I play on it are Solitare and Pocket Bridge. I purchased a THD2 because of the larger screen (hoping to avoid puting on my reading glasses!) I returned the TH2 after 1 days use and here are my reasons:
1. The screen was bigger but I still have to put on my glasses.
2. It was faster but only £10 faster and not £476.00 faster!
3. It was a little bit better than the THD but only £10 better and not £476.00 better!
4. It did not come with a stylus, I had to use my fingers "a la iPhone".
5. Because it had no stylus data entry was imprecise (remember I use this for work, not as a plaything)
My opinion is if you have an THD it is not worth upgrading to an THD2, you might as well wait intill it becomes obsolete/worn out before changing.
Sam
Thank you for that )
I'll stay with HTC HD at least till WinMo 7 will be released )))
Of coure is not wise to upgrade from HD to HD2 if your 400 E HD is working fine, why pay another 450 E and try to sell the HD for half of price.
But, the diffrence is more than 10 pounds as you say.
HD2 - best materials I have seen yet and absolutely gorgeos. it's called sexiest phone ever
- video recording 400 E better than HD
- capacitive screen, not stylus but much more responding to comands. and before stylus were you used to use such a small thing to type ? it's just a matter of days or weeks to get used to finger input(which by the way is the future)
- 1 GHz processor, maybe not the best rom yet but wait for xda chefs to cook something nice
and that small lisy only because I put my hands for some half an hour on one and after that I found my HD to small...........
Oh and by the way, I put my reading glasses even for this 17 inch monitor I use now.
chevic said:
- video recording 400 E better than HD
- capacitive screen, not stylus but much more responding to comands. and before stylus were you used to use such a small thing to type ? it's just a matter of days or weeks to get used to finger input(which by the way is the future)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've seen in videos recorded with the HD2, it's nothing to be boasting about, and is barely better than the poor HD effort.You would buy something like an Omnia II if you want half decent video recording.
Yup, capacitive and giant finger UI's are the future, less overall usefulness and versatility also, it's a future I personally have zero interest in.
I think it's pretty weird that people find thing's like phones "sexy", but, whatever blows ya hair back I suppose
gerryjoson said:
From what I've seen in videos recorded with the HD2, it's nothing to be boasting about, and is barely better than the poor HD effort.You would buy something like an Omnia II if you want half decent video recording.
Yup, capacitive and giant finger UI's are the future, less overall usefulness and versatility also, it's a future I personally have zero interest in.
I think it's pretty weird that people find thing's like phones "sexy", but, whatever blows ya hair back I suppose
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My HD in video mode when turning around give me sea sickness.
Well basicly sexy is a naked woman or man. But as we are twisted animals we need some help to ignite our fantasy.
Regarding interest, 20 years ago I would not find usefull a device that would contact me 24/7 whereever. At that time people were finding there way without igo, tom tom, etc, were talking and sharing emotions face to face rather than messenger, facebook, tweeter, etc, were loving sport outdoors rather than playng games on pc or small display devices and shuld I go on ? When you see nowdays teenagers whatching a movie on a 3.2 inch display, typing a message with the speed of light on a small phisical or virtual keyboard, sharing photos on facebook and so on you think they're from out of space. But you love to have the toy they have. Or at least I do.......
Seriously, I love this phone. I got it 2 days ago and i can't take my hands off it.
I'm 32 years old (yea yea getting old now), and was brought up on computer games. This phone makes me remember just how good the old megadrive/genesis/snes games were compared to the (mostly) crappy indie games that we see these days. I've fondly been playing Sonic, Mario, Super Star Wars, Streets of Rage and a whole host of others flawlessly on this little beauty. It's an emulation dream come true.
The N64 emulator lags a little bit for me, but mostly it's just occasional sound skipping, it is certainly still more than playable, although the control mapping could be a little bit easier. I'm hoping a MAME emulator will be released that supports all the old mame games and not just the capcom games. (Anyone can tell me if there is one already or one coming out?)
Some fears i had for the phone before i purchased were these -
- Worried it would be too bulky
- Worried about the screen auto dim feature and not being able to turn it off
- Worried about the battery life
- Worried about the hardware being outdated before it even hit the shelves
- Well, the phone is bulkier than alot of other phones, but it is still slim enough to easily slip in and out your pocket. I didn't look at the phone before i ordered it, i just jumped in and ordered it off the net and hope it was what i wanted (or i could send it back within 7 days to get a refund). Overall i am very happy with the size of the phone. I certainly don't feel like an idiot getting it out my pocket, it looks very cool.
- The auto brightness on the screen is not all that bad. I got annoyed at first, not being able to turn the phone on max brightness, but after a few minutes my eyes got used to it and i hardly notice it anymore. It must serve a good purpose because the battery lasts a long time. I think that an official patch is definately needed though, not giving people an option to turn off auto brightness is disastrous. Saying that, more than likely i would leave auto brightness turned on, it does save battery and it is implemented excellently imho.
- Battery life is amazing. I got through 12-14 hours of gaming, browsing, and general usage + a full night withought charge on standby and when i woke up it had 7% battery life left. You can not go through 2 days with this phone though, so still you will have to charge it every night, but you can guarantee a full, proper day usage out of it without too much worries about the battery dieing.
- Hardware is a bit meh. On one hand the phone runs super smooth. And FPSE plays PS1 games super smooth, no slowdown at all. The N64 as i mentioned has a few sound skips. So the hardware does exaclty what it was designed to do. This is where it stops though. There will be no PS2 emulation, no dreamcast emulation, no xbox1 emulation. Not until the next handset gets released. This is the limits of this phones power.
Overall i think this is the best phone made to date. I don't care it hasn't got 1080p recording, i don't care the camera is only 5 megapixel. This phone owns and is easily the best phone i have ever owned to date.
Roll on the Xperia Play 2. I am now a branded fan.
edit - Just thought i would say that my phone came with a 16gb Micro SD card, 2 screen protectors (1 of them already put on flawlessly, no air bubbles or dust underneath at all, 1 spare). I have heard people only getting 8gb cards and no screen protectors, but this did not happen with my order.
i mostly agree with you, this is the best phone i have had and i have owned a G1, motorola dext, motorola milestone and a HTC HD2, i would only recommend the HD2 out of these and even then, only after installing android (unless your into windows)
the thing is, i no some people dont value proper gaming as much as me or others so they think this device is not needed but im glad we dont all feel the same way
what im really hoping for this device is, for it to be popular enough so that other manufacturers (or even sony) make a similar device, hopefully with dual or even quad core in mind, add 1GB ram and dreamcast/PS2 emulation is a possibility
but for right now? the play is excellent considering its the first of its kind
agree with most of what you say. but yes hardware is a bit meh.
could have done with better implementation on shoulder buttons and i still think they coud've stuck in an L2/R2 somewhere
overall, the best android phone i ever had was hands down the galaxy S. ****ing beatiful, screen, performance (with custom rom and lagfix!), etc.
but as a gaming phone, this is THE best, despite it's lackluster hardware, it has hardware controls, which, IMO, makes up for all its shortcomings!
L2 and R2 buttons.....
Yeah, i guess they could be put next to each other so that it doesn't increase the thickness of the phone.
So it would look like this -
_______________________________
(L1....L2..............................R2....R1)
_______________________________
Still, FPSE allows you to put L2 and R2 at the bottom left and right of the screen. They are easy enough to get to with your thumbs, so it's no big deal tbh.
usually not a big deal, but when you have to use simultaneous button presses, i.e. press R2 and X together, can become tricky.
Sony * Rule * Got mine Today
Hi peeps,
Got mine today, excellent phone love the Ginerbread.
a few issues so far but no problem.
Love this phone, looks so stylish and plays excellent.
TapperOUT!
Im in the same camp as you mate, same age and gaming experience and I agree 100%
I'm 29 and one of the biggest retro gaming fans in the retro gaming scene.
if any of you have ever heard about the pandora (600mhz ARM TI OMAP 3530) based device. If not, more information is here www.openpandora.org
but I have both devices and I pitted them up agianst each other and gave a lenghy review/comparison of each. It's a good read if you're into that sorta thing.
http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/2746-xperia-play-vs-pandora/
Spoiler
TLDR; this is the best mobile gaming handheld in terms of power and available software you can currently buy that satisfies the console emulators hobbyists needs.
not the absolute best when it comes to hardware and features, but makes up for it in interface and available software and raw power.
johnsongrantr said:
I'm 29 and one of the biggest retro gaming fans in the retro gaming scene.
if any of you have ever heard about the pandora (600mhz ARM TI OMAP 3530) based device. If not, more information is here www.openpandora.org
but I have both devices and I pitted them up agianst each other and gave a lenghy review/comparison of each. It's a good read if you're into that sorta thing.
http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/2746-xperia-play-vs-pandora/
Spoiler
TLDR; this is the best mobile gaming handheld in terms of power and available software you can currently buy that satisfies the console emulators hobbyists needs.
not the absolute best when it comes to hardware and features, but makes up for it in interface and available software and raw power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just wanted to say i read your review and it was pretty good, i was interested in pandora at first but because of how long it took to release i completely forgot about it, although looking at it now, i totally envy the keyboard except the D pad and triggers, having gaming controls AND a qwerty keyboard is just excellent, sony should consider this with the xperia play 2 or what ever manufacturer decides to make a PS certified phone, if extra bulk was needed i could certainly live with it
that said, the keyboard is the only thing i would take from pandora, in my opinion the play beats it in every other area except screen size but then thats balanced with capacitive vs resistive
EDIT - forgot to check the pandora website to see how much it costs.....wow, 440 euro is alot, i was expecting a little over half that, just for comparisons sake i bought my play , sim free for £400 a few days after release, considering the play has more useful features (in my opinion) 3G, android OS and its market, phone functions etc....im surprised it cost so much
I agree here !
I am 27 and also brought up with retro games it's so nice able to play my games again from my childhood.
The device lays good in your hand indeed the as for the brightness well it's fine although my xperia x10 with lowest brightness on is still readable and not with my xperia play but even cranked up at highest brightness the battery still remains exellent thought it would drain like hell like my x10 does but it doesn't !
Glad I got rid of my omnia with win mobile and now have 2 nice xperia devices !
Android is the OS I am currently hooked on never was to happy with my omnia due winmobile but the phone was hyped in my country and it was the biggest mistake I made.
Hardware wise yea there are already dualcore devices and tegra2 gpu powered
as for the emulators of xbox , ps2 , dreamcast & gamecube
I don't think we will see them in the next year or so
but then again there is a developer working to get a dreamcast emu working and progress is already nice I think it's a matter of time we will see
as for my order I recieved a stock screenprotector already on screen , extra screen protector ( they are very scratch resistant my x10 didn't have such a good screenprotector had to take the factory applied on off and apply a newly bought screen protector ) Wall charger , car charger , leather poach & 8gb SD card which I recently upgraded to 32gb
I think in point of view it is the best phone for me but can be better if they added more memory/better screen/ and a PSP Emulator
baaa3 said:
I think in point of view it is the best phone for me but can be better if they added more memory/better screen/ and a PSP Emulator
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Click to collapse
fair point but like someone told me, this is the first generation of this particular device, yes, sony could have gone all out but that would just mean the xperia play 2 would only have minor updated features
think of it like the first iphone, it probably should have had 3G, better ram etc but it just meant that the jump from iphone 2g to 3g was that much greater
although saying all that, im pretty sure HTC, motorola, samsung or LG will bring a play competitor before the years end with atl east dual core onboard
silvacrest said:
fair point but like someone told me, this is the first generation of this particular device, yes, sony could have gone all out but that would just mean the xperia play 2 would only have minor updated features
think of it like the first iphone, it probably should have had 3G, better ram etc but it just meant that the jump from iphone 2g to 3g was that much greater
although saying all that, im pretty sure HTC, motorola, samsung or LG will bring a play competitor before the years end with atl east dual core onboard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does anyone know how the sales are going in Europe of this device?
If sales were crazy, like on the iphone, then probably we will have more joypad versions, if not, then this will be like the Nokia Ngage... how many years have passed from that phone to this one? i dont remember well, but at least 6 o 7...
So basically, we will have to wait until the phone gets released worldwide and see how the numbers go to SE.
Probably on the next version i will expect an exclusive suite and not an android suite that all phones can play with. Because if we have something exclusive, then we will have a game that will be made for this controls. (from what i heard, the PS Suite will be available on android market for all high end devices)
my only annoyance with the device is the power button should have been on the screen section not controller, I occasionally press it when im playing something that uses the L shoulder a lot e.g. street fighter
FrAsErTaG said:
my only annoyance with the device is the power button should have been on the screen section not controller, I occasionally press it when im playing something that uses the L shoulder a lot e.g. street fighter
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Click to collapse
How do you manage to do that?
My power button is actually indented. I can't turn it off with my 'L' finger even if i try to do it on purpose.
dsswoosh said:
How do you manage to do that?
My power button is actually indented. I can't turn it off with my 'L' finger even if i try to do it on purpose.
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Click to collapse
other people testing my phone have done it too, so we are not different you are...
FrAsErTaG said:
other people testing my phone have done it too, so we are not different you are...
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Click to collapse
Actually, to me it also seems nearly impossible to turn the device off while gaming
must agree, has never happened to me also
Maybe me and my friends just have more manly fingers?
I still strand by original comment power button should be on screen half, would also help to see the notification light
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
FrAsErTaG said:
Maybe me and my friends just have more manly fingers?
I still strand by original comment power button should be on screen half, would also help to see the notification light
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or maybe you guys just have chubby sausage fingers?