Related
I'm from the UK and have an unbranded SGS running JM9 with voodoo.
Now I think that's besides the point as I was running JM5 out of the box and had many 'features' that Froyo is supposed to bring. I've seen multiple articles and videos waxing lyrical about turning the SGS into a hotspot whereas I've had this feature since July.
Leap view has come via Launcher Pro and I cannot see any reason as to the point about Froyo seeing as it is being perceived as 'laggy'.
Now I'm sick of people complaining about their SGS and it has battery drain and it 'lags'.
There are a multitude of lag fixes out there and I can't fault the battery considering it's a 4inch Super AMOLED, it is constantly pulling data, using wifi.. it has one of the largest batteries in it's class and there is NO smartphone out there with a large screen and decent battery life.
I must also add that GPS has not been a problem on my device and I cannot fault my SGS at all. I'm not a fanboy.. I love all technology and the iPhone is marvellous, however I don't see why it isn't free just like all phones and the SGS can do everything it can, if not more.
People need to realise that Froyo was never going to change much when your phone is at the top of the Android pile until dual core chips and the new Power VXR GPU's come to town.
Just be happy that you can do what you can and stop being so impatient.
Add an overclocked kernel.
Put in one of the many lagfixes out there.
Look into Voodoo.
Stop relying on Quadrant, it's inflated, and uses many loopholes to make you think your devices are better than they are.
The real test is you.
People harped on about getting froyo but I think most folks really just wanted a set of bug fixes and performance improvements, I'd have settled for a really good 2.1 firmware.
2.2 is important not only for its features but also because of the apps that need it. (ex: new gmail)
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
2.2 is still young and the new gmail doesn't bring that many features to make you want it.
Car Home? Doesn't matter.
My point is that there aren't any speed increases and the appset for 2.2 isn't large.
+1 to the sentiment but I do think Froyo is important as it is the next step along the development path which for current SGS owners will probably end with Gingerbread.
I am very very happy with my 2.2 JPM build and await further improvements both from Samsung and the Dev communities.
tameracingdriver said:
People harped on about getting froyo but I think most folks really just wanted a set of bug fixes and performance improvements, I'd have settled for a really good 2.1 firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JM9 with a variety of mods from xda make the phone perfect.
Samsung have never been known for good hardware when it comes to phones. Well to be fair, they've been rubbish up until this year other than their TV's.
I bought my A500 a month ago because it seemed like the latest and greatest Android hardware. Recently I upgraded to a Samsung Nexus S on Sprint and I have to admit, the overall performance on the Nexus S seems better than on the A500 despite the latter having a dual-core processor, etc. I'm not saying the A500 is a slouch in the android tab sphere just that it seems 3.0 runs slower than 2.3. Any thoughts?
Well, the code base of 3.0 is newer. 2.3 has had 3 minor revisions, as the version number indicates. Also, 3.0 is designed for bigger iron. It's gonna use more resources because it offers more. 2.3 doesn't have much room to grow though. 3.0 hasn't even stretched it's legs yet.
I totally agree with you. The performance is also much below my expectations. I have aGtab to compare with and the acer isn't near the overall performance of the Gtab at all. Even scrolling through this site is very laggy and gives an unsatisfactionary experience ( together with a whole lot of bugs).
But i am keeping on to this device in hope of many updates to come.
Isn't 3.1 supposed to fix speed issues?
Watched a vid the other day about someone who had overclocked their Xoom to 1.5Ghz and then with the 3.1 update, without it overclocked he was saying it appeared to performing the same at stock speed as it was overclocked. Which really just points to the 3.0 code is bad and as we all know rushed
I have a rooted gTablet that is purged of any bloat and and Incredible as well. I do not notice a speed issue, but did freeze some stock apps like the social app and Acer sync, since they always seemed to want to run.
If people have read my posts (FWIW), they will notice I tend to be very picky, so would be posting about it. The two issues I have appear to be the most common for other users too:
1. Sleep mode randomly wakes up (not a lot but enough to notice)
2. Wifi loses/regains connection in low signal bar areas
Hey, can i ask some of you guys what kind of benchmark scores u get out of the box so completely stock?
Every review i read about this tab f.e. quadrant benchmark scores are around 3800, some reviews say above 4000.
Im getting like 3300, that really seems low.
Antutu benchmark is around 6800 wich is the same as i read in reviews.
Any ideas?
EDIT
Looks like its my CPU thats causing it
The subscores are almost identical except the CPU score, that one is 2331 in most benchmarks i have seen its almost double
Does the device disables 1 core for some reason?
Just found out that sometimes in quadrant it says there is only 1 cpu core, scores are low then.
Very few times it says there are 2 cores and scores are higher then but still too low if u ask me.
I don't get it.
Only thing done to it is that it is rooted. Can this cause it or is it just hardware failure?
I've had a bunch of Android devices in the past few years and have never worried about benchmark scores. If there are no weird force close issues and your interface moves along fine, then don't sweat it. I find that people tend to get a bit obsessive over details that may not even be accurate rather than simply using the device.
i know but still there is something wrong and i dont like it to be wrong. A benchmark doesnt say anything about realtime performance in apps and games etc but if a benchmark is way to low it does tell u there is something wrong. I would have bought a cheaper tablet if i wanted a 30% slower cpu and that is what it is regarding raw cpu power
I just havemt figured it out yet. If i reboot it its okay when test it again after a while its happening. Lowest bench mark 2400 have to reboot again then its 3800 and it gets lower after every run.
Thats not okay
Just did a benchmark, now my cpu score is good but the total quadrant score is still2600 because when the cpu scores normal another component lacks, now its the mem that scores halve. When mem and cpu scores good its the io that scores halve.
Benchmark or not this is wrong and since i spent 20h non stop on trying to find out what kind of crap is causing this im just going to bed and see if i can exchange this piece
as i read, every benchmark would give us different information and also scores i guess. believe with my own eyes
I just run QB advance with ssh server, vnc server, IM+, bluetooth tethering etc. turned on and still got 3733.
I am not sure if this figure satisifying, but I really satisfying with its video streaming playback performance. The performance on video streaming alone surpress any other tablets in the market (except iPad 3 which should be better according to its spec.).
I've posted this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1578981
Check it out, it seems weird to me too, it looks like nobody exactly knows if there's something wrong or not...
Well it is a problem.
A benchmark like quadrant also tests the cpu, its measuring how many calculations a cpu can do in what time.
This CPU should be scoring at least 4k, in my case it did like 2k so that means it does takes double the time for the same amount of calculations.
It's not about being a benchmark addict, it is about commen sense.
I returned mine, got it confirmed as a hardware problem.
So i got a brand new one and i tested it a bit and it seemed good. Steady scores no CPU issues at all.
But now this unit has a bad screen, the one i had was kinda perfect, best screen ever. This looks to edgy causing eye focus issues looking at it, also because the slightest movement changes the way the colors look.
Probably ive been bad in a former life, the performance issue now also reached this unit. It worked for 4 days like it should, not its performing like a cheap tablet again.
So now i have the same problem AND a bad screen.
I have the same issues i have with cheap tablets, the reason why i purchased this tablet is because i was tired about the bad screens in cheap tablets and the stuttering.
Well lol.
I read something a bout sucky samsung quality controll.. I now understand.
radjeshsitaram said:
Well it is a problem.
A benchmark like quadrant also tests the cpu, its measuring how many calculations a cpu can do in what time.
This CPU should be scoring at least 4k, in my case it did like 2k so that means it does takes double the time for the same amount of calculations.
It's not about being a benchmark addict, it is about commen sense.
I returned mine, got it confirmed as a hardware problem.
So i got a brand new one and i tested it a bit and it seemed good. Steady scores no CPU issues at all.
But now this unit has a bad screen, the one i had was kinda perfect, best screen ever. This looks to edgy causing eye focus issues looking at it, also because the slightest movement changes the way the colors look.
Probably ive been bad in a former life, the performance issue now also reached this unit. It worked for 4 days like it should, not its performing like a cheap tablet again.
So now i have the same problem AND a bad screen.
I have the same issues i have with cheap tablets, the reason why i purchased this tablet is because i was tired about the bad screens in cheap tablets and the stuttering.
Well lol.
I read something a bout sucky samsung quality controll.. I now understand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man... sorry to hear that.... mine goes up to 3422, sometimes higher/lower than that....
Anyway I don't know if you did take a look at my post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1578981 There's my whole story...
How many times have I (and many other reviewers) got to say this: Benchmarks are NOT the be all end all of indicating the performance of a device!! Stop getting caught up in that notion! UGH!!!
Here's how you know how well your device is working performance-wise:
Have you tried my performance tweaks listed in the common fixes thread? No? Do that. Yes? Good.
Is your device responsive and smooth? Yes? Good! No? When/where/under what conditions isn't it?
Now, uninstall any and every benchmark tool from your device, free up space and resources, quit your moaning and complaining, and enjoy your tablet.
End of story.
Benchmarks, at least the cpu parts, test raw power, now sorry dude if it scores half what it should then there is a reason to complain.
When it translates into stuttering there is even more reason to complain.
Maybe it is a end of story for you well good for you then.
Even when in use there is no problem yet, when the hardware can't reach the performance it should there is a reason to complain because it has a reason why it cant and that reason is what ever it is not okay.
If u have two of the same units and 1 unit is able to do twice the cpu calculations in the same time the other does then there is something wrong that your neat tweak guide cannot fix.
Hi
what's you don't like in Z2 & How is the 3GB RAM Performance ?
[1] mention & explain the things that you don't like in this phone , the bad things as you see..
[2] also give me a quick review about the 3 GB memory, how much free memory for user apps is available & [3] how is the performance when you switch between heavy apps ?
[4] S5 or Z2 :3 ?!!
please give some attention to these questions ... thank you very much
i dont like that the phone sounds hollow and the fact its intentionaly slowed or made worse than the Z3 (it is capable of doing the same as Z3 but sony makes it only able to reach half(unless you run a custom rom)
performance is epic, no problems at all aside asphalt 8 only app/game with any lag, rest of the games i play sit happy at 59fps
nice,,,
waiting for more comments
Envious_Data said:
i dont like that the phone sounds hollow and the fact its intentionaly slowed or made worse than the Z3 (it is capable of doing the same as Z3 but sony makes it only able to reach half(unless you run a custom rom)
performance is epic, no problems at all aside asphalt 8 only app/game with any lag, rest of the games i play sit happy at 59fps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congratulations, you've just completely lost your credibility!
Do you have evidence that the phone is "intentionally made slow" or it's just your shallow and limited thoughts?
Perhaps, you're trying to be a "hero", coming out with bizarre conspiracy theories that hold no water.
Maybe, you need to watch what you say and instead of spewing factless and defaming terms.
i think he want to say that the cpu is 2.3 GHz but its actual clock is much lower than this as with (i don't know if all) some samsung devices.
for example , my galaxy s2 is running too slow under medium load, but when i use custom kernel or over clock apps to run my cpu at its normal 1.2 GHz , the phone becomes fast very Obviously ! (battery drain, heat now & that's normal)
--------- this is what i know, but it maybe wrong !--------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
please lee480, tell me your feedback about the things i asked especially the memory performance
Adelm2013x said:
i think he want to say that the cpu is 2.3 GHz but its actual clock is much lower than this as with (i don't know if all) some samsung devices.
for example , my galaxy s2 is running too slow under medium load, but when i use custom kernel or over clock apps to run my cpu at its normal 1.2 GHz , the phone becomes fast very Obviously ! (battery drain, heat now & that's normal)
--------- this is what i know, but it maybe wrong !--------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
please lee480, tell me your feedback about the things i asked especially the memory performance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope, if you're rooted and install a CPU manager app, you can see their stock configuration, the max clock is 2265Mhz if i'm not wrong, and the minumum clock it's ~ 1190Mhz
so, even the Stock* ROMs don't let the CPU frequency fall to the minimum values
Screens:
http://imgur.com/iuY6w0z
http://imgur.com/UQvAQ6n
nice info.
thanks bro.
lee480 said:
Congratulations, you've just completely lost your credibility!
Do you have evidence that the phone is "intentionally made slow" or it's just your shallow and limited thoughts?
Perhaps, you're trying to be a "hero", coming out with bizarre conspiracy theories that hold no water.
Maybe, you need to watch what you say and instead of spewing factless and defaming terms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
explain this to me
Z3 - S801 AC, almost everything else the same as Z2
and yet Z2 cant get the same battery life and performance, somehow users of Z3 getting almost 8 hours of Screen on time and yet quite a few users showing they are finding it hard to get 6 hours
and performance is just strange, as of later firmwares the device doesnt get hot but monitoring my cpu and it just doesnt scale up at all so performance in some games is poor, e.g asphalt 8, sometimes real racing 3,
and then there is this, if you flash older firmwares it isnt that hard to hit 7 - 8 hours of SOT
i think its a tad suspicious that as you go through newer firmwares battery life gets worse till you hit .28 which makes it better
unless there is something else that is going on im sticking to my word,
there are a couple RCs i know who have Z3s and one that has both a Z2 and Z3 and yet they claim its easy to get around 6 hours SOT or more of Screen on time and no matter what i do and the Z2 users find it hard to pass that with a stock firmware and even the same with modified
i think that's just odd and there really isn't much other explanation
I'm not going to reply any reply post of this.
you can ask some of these Z3 owners your Self.
Performance is great like the entire Z2 !!
Just love it ^^
3GB is very good to let the device run smoothly with the light Sony UI and not ram eating touchwiz.
But dont use your phone as a game console, it is a phone !!
I can agree with Envious_Data here. It's not a conspiracy theory, its the sad truth.. Everytime a new flagship comes, the old flagship is made to look bad by giving buggy fw updates.. Then after a few months when the new flagship has made the sales as per their target estimation, they fix the buggy fw.. Its done to make the old flagship look dull so that it forces you to go for the new flagship which doesn't have such issues.. And this is not only done by sony, its done by all oem's.. You can look at the history by looking at what happened to Xperia S, Z, Sammy S3,S4,Note2,etc.. I'm just giving an example, there have been too many phones that I can't remember right now.. And yes, Z3 users easily get 6-8hrs of sot with 2 days of extreme usage.. While Z2 users get 4-5h sot on avg with medium usage for 2 days.. I get 6h sot with 19th time like once in 4 or 5 cycles from 100-0 despite my usage being very same.. It was like this on 4.4.4 167fw, same on every other fw except 4.4.2 initial fw..
Then we have two exceptional and unorthodox cases. Simple. Z2 and Z3 shares close to 100% similar firmware. You can easily look through the kernel source code which is shared between both the Z2 and Z3 and I do not see any codes that's pertaining to intentionally screwing up the system. You can easily find other people posting that their battery life and performance has improved, including me. Now, we have two exceptional ones.
Especially so, if you lack any hard evidence; codes and drivers that points to intentionally slowing down performance by 50% (I have no idea how you got that percentage) and purposefully draining battery, please stop making noise. Currently, your claim is nothing. It doesn't hold water at all.
Perhaps, it's time to lower down your ego and drop this baseless claims. It looks bad on XDA and especially you.
P. S. I have the Xperia Z; performance and RAM management has greatly improved on lollipop. Do you have the Xperia Z? No?
Yes, there's an initial battery drain, but as usual with all Android upgrades, it gets better overtime. Lol
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app
lee480 said:
Then we have two exceptional and unorthodox cases. Simple. Z2 and Z3 shares close to 100% similar firmware. You can easily look through the kernel source code which is shared between both the Z2 and Z3 and I do not see any codes that's pertaining to intentionally screwing up the system. You can easily find other people posting that their battery life and performance has improved, including me. Now, we have two exceptional ones.
Especially so, if you lack any hard evidence; codes and drivers that points to intentionally slowing down performance by 50% (I have no idea how you got that percentage) and purposefully draining battery, please stop making noise. Currently, your claim is nothing. It doesn't hold water at all.
Perhaps, it's time to lower down your ego and drop this baseless claims. It looks bad on XDA and especially you.
P. S. I have the Xperia Z; performance and RAM management has greatly improved on lollipop. Do you have the Xperia Z? No?
Yes, there's an initial battery drain, but as usual with all Android upgrades, it gets better overtime. Lol
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Agree with you bro @lee480
Btw keep in mind people, that Sony make thier devices better and better and comparing devices is useless like compare the coming Z4 by an old X10i.. Totally useless, so keep realistic !!
I tiny thing that i want to add here peeps. is that Z2 is older so..simply the phone battery itself is getting weaker after the higher charging cycles every day or 2.(talking to the ppl who took thier z2's when they first got out to the stores(i mean yes,almost 1 year passed for me also)).Rly no point for arguing here.Still loving my z2 and i think it will wtill rock the world for 1 or 2 more years ( : It definitely worth every cent.
how are the camera & how much free memory you get when you just turn on the phone now (regardless how much social media apps running)....
Im a regular user. I dont see any problems with my Z2. Im loving every bit of it. For me its not slow, I never experience lags unlike Samsung phones (former S4/S5 user) even debloated. Though the phone heats up fast, esp when playing games and using camera. Sound is kinda soft even with sound mods. Im using eXistenz rom by niaboc. I guess thats all of it. I love my phone, its like a mini TV with a crisp display.
After owning it for one year now, these are the points I would like to see improved on my next phone:
1. This gets hot very quickly during gameplay and in camera mode. Next time I would look into a metal phone and see some heat tests before purchasing.
2. The camera on auto mode isn't so great, the focus isn't good on auto. And I know everyone says use manual, but sometimes you want to quickly snap a photo and not worry.
3. The bezels are too big, I understand that it's good for front facing speakers, but if you don't use your phone for listening via speakers, then it's a waste and makes it bulky.
4. Charging is slow compared to new devices with quick charge 2.0 and other technologies.
But all in all, it is a good device. The battery lasts a good length, it doesn't start lagging over time and the interface is near stock android.
I would recommend this over the s5 for sure, if you are looking into other phones, I would take the s6, g4 and z3 as the phones over this one. Otherwise it holds up against other models.
I love the look, the notification light and the button placement.
It runs like a champ and i have found no difference in smoothness of experience compared to my old nexus 5 (bought on release day). The only issue is heat, it runs fine on heavy titles like real racing at max settings but candy crush soda saga heats the cpu to 60c compared to idle of 39c. Not extremely warm like my g3's screen but still warm.
You all speak of heat issues, but be aware that for newest generations of smartphones, the issues are much more worse (I'm thinking especially of S810 powered phones).
The challenge for manufacters is now to find solutions to efficiently drain away the heat and to adjust adequately the thermal management of so powerful hot chips in so small devices.
Man, there's a whole lot of tinfoil in this thread.
everyone has his own desire..this phone is good and its really capable .if anyone have an overheating issues go pick S4 and check it out....Z2 is a really good device with good price and if you are facing charging issues buy a 2.0 charger it wont hurt trust me .
Welcome to the first constructive Lollipop vs Marhsmallow comparison!
NOTICE: This is still WIP (Work in Progress) and I will keep updating the thread as soon as I finish an aspect of the comparison. Please do bare with me as I do not have the luxury of time unfortunately, but I am very determined to make that and show the world the true face of the M9
Inspiration:I have always seen reviews of the HTC One M9 before I am honored to get such an awesome device in my hands, and they were a bit off, and in my opinion, a bit misleading too. Even Anandtech was a bit unfair towards the M9 when it was launched even though they are admitting that the M9 is one of the best implementations of the controversial Snapdragon 810 now. That put off some of the fire and hatred I had in my heart towards the misleading press reviews, but there has always been one thing that made me mad, comparing the major updates, where HTC really done a great job to say the least. From Android 5.0.2 to 5.1 was a revolution, and from Android 5.1 to Android 6.0 is a total revelation! So let's keep it to that and dig in the new sweet
Contents:\*/Performance & Synthetic Benchmarks
\*/Thermal Performance
\*/Battery Life
\*/Real-Life experience
\*/Audio
\*/Camera (maybe @defcomg @hamdir @starbase64 can be more useful in this aspect, they are professionals! I am just an amateur ) You are more than welcome to contribute with your own experience, maybe there is another area I didn't cover here and you did so. We're humans after all
Credits:
@hamdir for the camera overview of each update the M9 has received
@ZeroInfinity our audio specialist, his mod was very useful for my comparison too!
@flar2 for his EX kernel, learnt a lot of things from his wonderful rock-solid kernel! @DeeZZ_NuuZZ for contributing to the Marshmallow overview and first impressions!
@gelo01 for providing Gamebench sessions for Lollipop ROM (I missed that one actually )
@v7 for the design (yes it is a bit similar and I looked at your OP to rip off a similar design ) @Sneakyghost for his wonderful guide for upgrading firmware @jcase and @beaups for the opportunity to have S-OFF on the M9
and the most important of all, the dumb press for inspiring me to that
please if I missed someone, please PM me, You know that I never meant to be rude or cruel :angel: Let the fun begin.....
Performance & Synthetic Benchmarks
After weeks of using Marshmallow on my HTC M9 (yes I am really happy! :cyclops: ), I guess I am in a place where I can surely tell about performance improvements I noticed. And I must say, it is freaking fast! The phone now handles every task you throw, UI is silky smooth with no stutters or hiccups. It is like, the phone is enjoying to play the animations in between the tasks. And even synthetic benchmarks reflect that. Let's start with the number one benchmark, GeekBench.
*GeekBench*
Lollipop (android 5.1)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
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Marshmallow (android 6.0)
So on the CPU side, there has been a noticeable improvement in both single core and multi core aspects, and real life scenarios emphasize that improvement as app loading times being faster, and some apps used to hang a while before opening up like DevCheck for instance, now they open instantly. And many other apps have seen faster loading times.
Even AnTuTu reports a remarkable improvement in the CPU part. Speaking of AnTuTu, it has seen a HUGE improvement as well.
*AnTuTu*
Lollipop (android 5.1)
Marshmallow (android 6.0)
As you can see here, every department has seen an improvement with different levels, with UX having the biggest part of the cake and as said before the CPU even seen an improvement. Even 3D has seen an improvement which is quite noticed in real-life scenarios. Moving on to the graphics department, it is very remarkable that the phone can sustain a better average fps than lollipop, where Gamebench came in handy and confirmed the better graphics performance.
Shortly I will be attaching the images of Gamebench session for the infamous Riptide GP2 thanks to @gelo01 for providing the gamebench profiling screenshot of Lollipop!
*Riptide GP2 Gamebench*
Lollipop (Android 5.1)
Marshmallow (Android 6.0)
As you can see, even within a short period of gaming, the difference is really noticeable! And this is not a difference because the levels I played here is different than there or anything, both sessions are exactly on same game settings and same levels were played with same pace (I mean I was not taking a rest between the levels leaving the game on a menu screen or something :angel: )
More games to come to the gamebench hopefully, though I am not promising with that
Thermal Performance
Why does it matter to keep it cool?
Well, some people think that it is crucial to keep the skin temperatures cool just so that the consumer doesn't get pissed off or only in order not to sweat his hands, which is quite the contrary. Thermal performance plays a big role in battery life as well. A warm phone means that the battery is losing a considerable amount of its energy in the form of heat energy, so the percentage of wasted energy increases, and that translates to lower battery life stats (less screen-on time and battery drain from nowhere!), which means that the warmer the phone, the more inefficient it becomes. So that is indeed quite an obstacle to be taken in consideration.
HTC and taming its dragon...
As an M9 owner, I indeed knew that the M9 is prone to some so-called 'overheating' issues, with it being equipped by the controversial partly flawed Snapdragon 810 chipset, prior to purchasing the device, where I was to choose between the M9 and the overhyped S6. Naturally I went with the M9 after the terrible experience with my last Samsung device :laugh:
But it was somehow hotter than my taste with the first pre-release 1.32.401.8 build, whereas my phone received a maintenance update immediately after days to throttle the phone, and that wasn't quite a perfect solution since you are sacrificing performance for the sake of lower skin temperatures, and also it wasn't completely cured from being warm most of the time. Then came the 1.40.401.8 update and made quite an improvement in this area, followed by the infamous Android 5.1 update with the 2.10.401.1 build that made a dramatic improvement compared to all the previous updates. Lots of CAF commits where introduced, the minimum frequency of the high-power A57 cluster was reduced from 633 MHz to 384 MHz, the A53 cluster was throttled a bit during usage compared to the previous 1.40 build, and other under-the-bonnet changes as well, such as newer, more optimized GPU drivers that boasted the graphical performance relatively. You see, from the trend you can tell that big.LITTLE setup was still in the 'infant' stage where HTC was still trying to tame the furious child. But, compared to the rock solid Snapdragon 801 devices, it still leaves something to be desired in this department. Messing up with your UI may ramp up the temperature to 36 degrees if you kept swiping between your pages for long time, or if you kept reading your news feed from the beloved blinkfeed page, whereas other devices don't break a sweat. Also reaching 39 degrees when browsing the internet on your phone certainly wasn't something to show off. Then came the new sweet treat with the 3.35.401.12 build, which took it completely to another level!
Google offering a hand....
I was one of the happiest people on earth when the first rumors emerged saying that the larger sibling of the Nexus phones will adopt the Snapdragon 810, though the thermal problems would have left some concerns. But that company does know what it does for sure, and I was quite confident that this is going to benefit me as an M9 user which carries the same SoC used in the Nexus 6P. Of course the company went for some hardware modifications to tone down the skin temperatures while sustaining the highest average frequency possible, like resting the SoC between the metal mid-frame as well as applying extra thermal paste on it to allow for better heat dissipation and letting the screen act as a heat sink to get rid of extra heat much quicker, but that didn't mean software solutions and tweaks done by google in the Marshmallow update was few. Doze was introduced as a Marshmallow exclusive feature that promised a lot less idle drain and to put background drain problems to death, one of the most deadly 'backfire' obstacles that the Snapdragon 810 had been facing. More precisely, whenever the phone gets woken up by some random unwanted background app, ehm..... or by the rude Google Play Services, the A53 cluster naturally kicks in, which is, combined with the 20 nm manufacturing process, quite inefficient and therefore the theoretical advantage of this cluster gets lost in the dust of the planar 20 nm manufacturing process and the plague of background apps continuously running in the background, not to mention the infamous wicked memory leak of Lollipop. With Doze in action, the phone enters an even deeper sleep mode and deprives wakelocks from waking up the phone, as well as increasing the sync interval time, so the phone does not get too busy syncing the accounts while you are taking a mid-day nap with the phone lying lazily on the desk beside you. This indeed helped with the thermal performance, since the phone is starting from a much lower initial temperature rather than already starting from something like 28 or 30 degrees. Not only idle drain was improved, but also active drain was getting some care from the engineers over at Mountain View. Google introduced "cpusets", which allocates foreground and background tasks to certain clusters based or workload calculations instead of firing up all the clusters to work on every thing, which means the higher power cluster can interfere and finish tasks faster instead of lazily relying on the piss poor A53 cluster to finish the task, hence better battery life since the phone goes back to the idle state faster. Other stuff was introduced like "power hints", which limit frequencies and change certain CPU values while executing a task for more efficiency. And I am sure there is even more have been changed like CPU governor related changes, migrating more to 64-bit code, improving the GPU drivers for much smoother experience,...etc
How did all this fare?
As you can see here in the previous screenshots of general/medium use, temperature is spiking between the low thirties with maximum temperature of 34 degrees, which was almost unachievable on Lollipop.
And this is with more than 1.5 hours of drooling merciless multitasking and switching back and forth between the apps, with more than 9 active apps in the play! And it is very obvious here how much I was struggling to rise the temperature to 37 degrees where it kept in the 35-36 degrees zone, which used to ramp up alarmingly quickly to 39 degrees, and may even go for a totally undesired higher temperature of 41 degrees, under same usage and similar circumstances. That is utterly brilliant to say the least!
And with these improvements and changes done here and there, performance has been dramatically improved and battery life of course, which I shall talk about later on....
The verdict; the furious Snapdragon 810 won't be crushed by its thermal weight anymore, and now you can show off how cool your phone is confidently, and that 'overheating issues' should be put to death mercifully.
reserved
Battery Life
One of the most aspects that may break a deal is the battery life and for how much time your phone can stand after being fully charged. We had a lot of high hopes for the M9 to improve its battery life with Marshmallow update after hearing about Google's Doze implementation that should massively reduce standby/idle drain, and it did delivered make no mistake, however, battery life has been very inconsistent for me. With having some glorious days were I end up with 6 hrs SOT and still have some juice left, it was certainly an upbeat. But then came days with reaching merely 4 hrs SOT like on Lollipop, thanks to google play services and some bugged apps, and some may blame HTC's "service pack" to be the reason as well. So battery life is more of a mixed bag, but tends more to be battery friendly. Also I have to note that removing the Facebook couple did indeed make a noticeable boost in performance and battery life, even a research has confirmed that.
Also GSam was sometimes functioning well, and sometimes it was a bit off as well. But generally speaking, my M9 can now stand for a day and more without topping it up in between much more often than before, where it used to max out at 18-20 hours only.
No doubt Doze does quite a nice job with standby drain, where I barely lose 1% overnight with flight mode, even with WiFi connected and auto sync on! Which is quite impressive and miraculous when you compare it with the disastrous idle drain of Lollipop of course.
So yes standby drain has improved dramatically, but SOT? I am not sure about this, not yet
Real-life Experience
Yes, after all these synthetic benchmarks and theoretical numbers, what matters the most after all is the real life experience. Those small little changes here and there pile up and form a considerable change, and that is what HTC focused on in the latest MM update. From switching between apps to just tapping the 3-dot button, animations has been added without slowing down the phone just to play the animations! The UI is much faster and smoother, and almost no frame drops at all , you get some google goodies and apps launch faster than before. Google Now on tap works pretty well in some scenarios, like in Chrome where you tap on a word and it gets its definitions with a flick from the bottom of the page, but you feel like it is a bit like an 'infant' that still needs to be more mature, just like when Google now first emerged in the old Jelly Bean days, by time it got better and better, until it became a necessity in a lot of people's life, including me.
But life is not that rosy unfortunately, there is inevitably some niggles. The Do Not Disturb (DND for short) won't be turned off automatically after the alarm anymore, and there is no option to set separate volume levels for ringtone and notifications. But to be quite honest, you are gaining much more than what you are losing, if you count it as losses even.
Other than that, there is nothing important to be mentioned. Maybe what's left is that the volume popup is now replaced by a stock-android one with some buttery smooth animations.
In my opinion, HTC walked the extra mile with the MM update :good:
Audio
Yes, even the audio output has got a chunk of the sweet tart surprisingly. Now the audio output is much more refined with less static background noise and more punchy bass, a sensible bass boost has been added to the low frequencies (up to 40 Hz I reckon) to be precise, which results in a more enjoyable experience when the earphones, Headphones, Sub Woofer or even a whole speaker set are connected via the 3.5mm AUX jack (which some people gonna miss next year )
So that Club-mixes fanatics and pop music lovers can rejoice and enjoy their music even more. Mind you even in the lollipop days the HTC One M9 along with the previous HTC flagships were already in a league of their own something not everyone can manage to reach!
Sadly though, the integrated HTC profiles for the earphones are left untouched, so you will probably end up using the 'Other' profile, which is somehow a bummer. Speakers also were left untouched, but they did not need anything more. Thankfully we have a great Sound mod like [Dragon-Fi] which fully utilizes the capabilities of the awesome device we have, and works quite well with Marshmallow as well, so the mod is quite MM ready already.
To sum it in a nutshell, the audio output has been always legendary across all HTC flagships, so there won't be a dramatic change, but rather some minimal yet noticeable changes to enhance it even more. Yeah I know, not all people pay such a great attention to the audio output details after all, they were already blown away with the audio from the start
Camera
Sadly though, the camera did not see any kind of improvements. HTC has already maxed out the M9 camera hardware with the Android 5.1 suite update. They have botched mended the post-capture processing, by improving the sharpness code, removing the yellow tint in daylight photos and decreased the compression of the photo. And to be honest, the M9 camera hardware won't allow for any kind of improvement. The absence of any hardware assistance like OIS, PDAF, Laser Autofocus or even a wider aperture, makes it virtually impossible to make any improvements anywhere. Some say that shutter speed and focus speed got a little bit faster, but I failed to notice that on my M9. And even so, this is part of Google's Marshmallow treat and not from HTC's side. It has been reported by a considerable lot of people that Flash photography has gone even worse, and that the phone is taking way too much time to focus in low-lit scenarios with the flash in action, while on lollipop it was not that way.
However, not all the camera news are grim. Fortunately, Drew Bamford has confirmed that the M9 shall receive a small Gallery update to support the amazing RAW Auto Enhance feature from the One A9, so that should be joy of the joys, since RAW pics from the M9 are much better than the ones from the A9! So that should be quite a recipe!
And we can not blame HTC for not focusing on the Camera with the MM update after all. It is just the hardware limitations that makes this kind of bottom ending, though HTC is the one to blame for these hardware limitations ironically :laugh:
The camera takes some of the best pics in daylight, make no mistake, but the absence of OIS makes the camera struggle to take a good pic in low-lit scenes....
I lied :laugh:
Just so you won't lie again!
I shall tackle every aspect of the comparison per day. Sadly I do not have the luxury of time.
I hope that the OP is not overhyped
I also notice the improved speed and smoothness. ?
I also miss a couple of things.
- no more separate volume for ringtone and messages.
- no more option in priority mode to auto switch it of after next alarm.
Overall I'm quite happy ?
K00li79 said:
I also notice the improved speed and smoothness. ?
I also miss a couple of things.
- no more separate volume for ringtone and messages.
- no more option in priority mode to auto switch it of after next alarm.
Overall I'm quite happy ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah those two options are sadly gone. Thx for reminding me
got my MM update a few days ago, so far so good, real world performance is now what it should have been at launch and now beats the S6/Edge in Antutu.
I miss a couple of things though: No longer able to link facebook contacts with people app.
no longer able to swipe up from bottom of screen / home button for google now < miss this a lot!!!
Dynomutt said:
got my MM update a few days ago, so far so good, real world performance is now what it should have been at launch and now beats the S6/Edge in Antutu.
I miss a couple of things though: No longer able to link facebook contacts with people app.
no longer able to swipe up from bottom of screen / home button for google now < miss this a lot!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to disable Google on Tap to get the swipe up back.
Google Now Volume
One thing I think either Google or HTC need to implement is a separate volume for Google Now rather than link it to Media volume.
It's annoying as I prefer to put my media volume to half but would have the talkback from google now to max whilst driving but since it is linked, I have to increase the volume everytime.
Aside from that, this thread is great. I cannot compare with 5.1 on the M9 as I just got it and it's come with MM but I am pleased with the performance and battery life so far. It doesn't even have LeeDroid on it yet! Soon...
shezaad879 said:
One thing I think either Google or HTC need to implement is a separate volume for Google Now rather than link it to Media volume.
It's annoying as I prefer to put my media volume to half but would have the talkback from google now to max whilst driving but since it is linked, I have to increase the volume everytime.
Aside from that, this thread is great. I cannot compare with 5.1 on the M9 as I just got it and it's come with MM but I am pleased with the performance and battery life so far. It doesn't even have LeeDroid on it yet! Soon...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it is a god-sent gift to the M9, I am waiting for valid WiFi connection to grab latest LeeDroid
Did anyone experience problems when tilting the screen? After MM the screen doesn't automatically rotate for me, and the camera takes pictures upside-down... :/ this started after the OTA came through
Dynomutt said:
got my MM update a few days ago, so far so good, real world performance is now what it should have been at launch and now beats the S6/Edge in Antutu.
I miss a couple of things though: No longer able to link facebook contacts with people app.
no longer able to swipe up from bottom of screen / home button for google now < miss this a lot!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The contact sync change is unrelated to both MM and HTC. Facebook changed the way their engine works. The "continuous contact upload" is a one way street, contact picture sync is done, social plug ins are disabled, etc.
If you Google "Facebook contact sync" you will find lots of info on it. Facebook incorporated thus change early January. I uninstalled their app (both FB and messenger), use Chrome to access it and have been enjoying waasaaay better battery life because of it.
Edit: by social plug ins syncing facebook birthdays and events in calendar is also gone. If you check your lust of calendars to sync, facebook is now missing.
So, a company whose only worth is "social" no longer wants our contacts to share or sync pictures, give updates, or have facebook created events appear in native phone calendars. Everything is now done through the battery and RAM hogging app. Man, I wish Google + took off more!
Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
Power Saver Lag
Hello guys!
MM is indeed much of an improvement on many levels for the M9, but I keep stumbling upon a problem which affects my experience quite a lot compared to Lollipop. Whatever MM Rom is use for the M9, when I try to use native power saver I keep getting powerfull stuttering and lags, as if the phone would be from 2011 and running MM I tried various ROMs as I said and all of them keep doing it. Do you guys think that the firmware might've been flashed in a wrong way? I have S-Off with sunshine app and latest firmware, 3.35.401.12. My battery life suffers the most, as now all 8 CPU run continuosly, as opposed to only 4 cpu when using power saver.
Any ideas?