Database Users

due upgrade in August - which Android handset?

Guys,
upgrade time is august 2010, so am starting initial research now!
have the G1 - am a convert to the android os now - am more and more on google (the dark side!?) and want to stay on the same os (or another google developed one).
Can anyone give me a heads up nwhat is due for a summer release (or earlier) that is a handset that is going to kick frikkin ass?!
wisdom highly appreciated!
al

put it this way dude, we just started getting rumors about the nexus one two months ago. theres no possible way we could know what kind of cool gadgets we'll be seeing by august. doing research now wouldnt do you any good whatsoever.

thanks for that.
just looking at the nexus one - looks like i need to 'mature' and face up to the future being (real) keyboardless - read that there was a survey where they compared iphone k/b with a regular pda one and there was no speed slowdown on the the 'real' one.
well, looks like it's early days and the handset releseases between now and summer might be numerous!
al

Yea it seems a lil early to start your research.

Well good to start waking up to the tech changes, looks like things have changed since G1 days.
Nexus does look slick, I'm wondering what could be even better thasn that.
cheers gang.

I'm due for my upgrade in October. I decided three months ago I'd do my research in October.

little_rock said:
there was no speed slowdown on the the 'real' one.
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Right... because a real keyboard will be *FASTER*, not slower.
A few points;
- testing typing speeds using test subjects who don't know the location of buttons (i.e. inexperience) will only give you invalid results.
- you ever notice with a dream, that even though you have both, that you STILL switch to the real keyboard occasionally? Probably every time you need to type more than about 10-20 characters. This is because fake keyboards are uncomfortable and inconvenient.
- fake keyboards are difficult to use since you MUST LOOK at it -- a real keyboard can be used by feel alone. Note: It is considered extremely bad practice to type while looking at the keyboard -- you're supposed to look at the screen/paper (in the old days) and watch the words as they come out, not at your fingers.
- ever try mixing letters and symbols using a fake keyboard? You need to constantly switch between multiple keyboard layouts.... the "letters" layout, and the "numbers"/"symbols" layout(s).
Note also that the GN1 is *just one* device. Take as an example the motorola sholes -- its pretty similar to the GN1, but has a real keyboard.

Hey guys,
resurrecting this post because it's not long now before I'm due an upgrade!
I've been tracking the nexus 1 - cant see anywhere it saying its coming to T Mob (who I really would like to stay with).
In your opinion which is the downright bestest android powered handset out there?
Saw my buddy's HTC Desire the other day it looked kickass!
Ideally I like the idea of getting os updates straight from google, ie without having to manouvre round waiting for htc to stich together Sense happy andoid updates.
what are your thougts guys?
best,
Al

for what its worth
i went to radio shack on saturday for the free upgrade(tried to get the 3g slide for free) and the tmobile rep(not a radio shack employee) said the HD3 would be out by christmas. HD2 only running android. He was speaking pretty assuredly about it.
I told him I'd believe it when I saw it. =P

Its all about the Dell Streak for me. I was eagerly awaiting, but skipped, the Nexus one knowing that it would be playing catchup in less than a year, and viola here we are, 1.2x GHz devices are already coming down the pipe and 2GHz chips (Nvidia Tegra anyone?) are already being shipped to manufacturers with some promising products by year's end.
I'll actually be buying the Streak outside of my upgrade (meaning the regular price) use it lovingly for a period of time and sell it for near what I paid for it and leveraging my upgrade for the 2.xGHz near-desktop-spec uber resolution devices coming out in 2011.

G Zero said:
Its all about the Dell Streak for me. I was eagerly awaiting, but skipped, the Nexus one knowing that it would be playing catchup in less than a year, and viola here we are, 1.2x GHz devices are already coming down the pipe and 2GHz chips (Nvidia Tegra anyone?) are already being shipped to manufacturers with some promising products by year's end.
I'll actually be buying the Streak outside of my upgrade (meaning the regular price) use it lovingly for a period of time and sell it for near what I paid for it and leveraging my upgrade for the 2.xGHz near-desktop-spec uber resolution devices coming out in 2011.
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1GHz vs 1.2GHz.... the difference is NEGLIGIBLE.
2GHz nvidia.... hmm let me think about that for a minute.... NO. nvidia is NOT open source friendly. They should be avoided like the plague. They are also TERRIBLE in terms of manufacturing quality (their chips fall apart due to heat/cool cycles), and they are TERRIBLE when it comes to EFFICIENCY (their newest GPUs won't just cook your breakfast, they'll burn down your house while they're at it!)

Just thought I'd update this thread - Am plumping for the Desire HD methinks.
if Droid X was going to be released in uk this century it would be a tough call... but it doesnt look like it is for now..
so DHD ere we come"

lbcoder said:
1GHz vs 1.2GHz.... the difference is NEGLIGIBLE.
2GHz nvidia.... hmm let me think about that for a minute.... NO. nvidia is NOT open source friendly. They should be avoided like the plague. They are also TERRIBLE in terms of manufacturing quality (their chips fall apart due to heat/cool cycles), and they are TERRIBLE when it comes to EFFICIENCY (their newest GPUs won't just cook your breakfast, they'll burn down your house while they're at it!)
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They're talking about Tegra, not Fermi... And the GPU problems was only the mobile 8600 chips for LAPTOPS, not desktops or Tegra. It was simply a bad run, all manufacturers go through this, including Nvidia's main competition, ATI (early 4XXX series anyone?)... I think you don't entirely understand what open source is, the only thing about Android which is open source is the base OS, everything else is closed (IE: all the hardware and their drivers)...
Tegra is very promising and absolutely smokes both the Snapdragon and Hummingbird in terms of power efficiency, and GPU speed. The problem right now with Tegra is the actual CPU is a fair bit slower than both the Snapdragon and Hummingbird, but considering that it will be able to offload CPU tasks to the far superior GPU VIA CUDA (Its currently not able to), it should hold its own very well once they refine the software.
In the end, we need much better battery life more than anything and that's what Tegra is bringing, I can't wait until they start sticking Tegra into smartphones.

d3v14n7 said:
They're talking about Tegra, not Fermi...
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Comparing engineering QUALITY here.... fermi makes heat like Chernobyl when it should be running MUCH MUCH MUCH cooler and wasting less power. They have no excuse except poor engineering. If you aren't smart enough to make a desktop discrete GPU run within sensible bounds, how can you possibly make a handheld super-efficient handheld chip run any better? Answer is that nvidia lacks the combined intelligence to make ANYTHING RIGHT.
And the GPU problems was only the mobile 8600 chips for LAPTOPS, not desktops or Tegra.
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No, it was across ALL their products, but most NOTABLE in their laptops because the temperature swings are more dramatic where the cooling is much more limited.
It was simply a bad run, all manufacturers go through this, including Nvidia's main competition, ATI (early 4XXX series anyone?)...
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No, it wasn't a bad run, it was a BAD MANUFACTURING PROCESS.
** which they never actually fixed.
And there were no such issues with R700's. There were some problems with the R100's or possibly R200's though...
I think you don't entirely understand what open source is, the only thing about Android which is open source is the base OS, everything else is closed (IE: all the hardware and their drivers)...
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YOU are apparently the one who doesn't understand open source or the nature of Android. Just because SOME DEVICES ship with some BLOB components does NOT mean that ALL MUST. Take Android on OPENMOKO for example: FULLY OPEN.
And do you realize that the kernel driver for adreno has ALREADY BEEN RELEASED OPEN SOURCE by qualcomm? That is FAR FAR ahead of nvidia in terms of open source already.... More is probably on the way (after all, AMD has released the programming docs for R300 right through R800, which covers the IP in adreno 2xx), but sometimes this takes time.
Tegra is very promising and absolutely smokes both the Snapdragon and Hummingbird in terms of power efficiency, and GPU speed. The problem right now with Tegra is the actual CPU is a fair bit slower than both the Snapdragon and Hummingbird, but considering that it will be able to offload CPU tasks to the far superior GPU VIA CUDA (Its currently not able to), it should hold its own very well once they refine the software.
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1) Tegra is GEFORCE 6 -- no CUDA.
2) Tegra isn't a phone chip -- it is a TABLE/NETBOOK chip... so it might be a bit less power hungry than, for example, a powervr SGX, but against an adreno on similar manufacturing techniques? Not a chance!
3) Tegra may perform better than some OBSOLETE qualcomm chips, but compared with one of equal generation, i.e. MSM7230, and Tegra starts to look stupid.
4) The results you've no doubt seen place Tegra about 5-10% ahead of QSD8250 with ADRENO200, but the MSM7230 has an ADRENO205, which is 400% faster than an ADRENO200. Combine that with the fact that the 7230 is a 45 nm chip where the 8250 was a 65... you can only legitimately compare things of equal technological age. In other words, I DON'T CARE if a tegra is faster than an 8088! They're separated by 30 years of advancement!
The 7230 power consumption is FAR FAR FAR less than the 8250... so any comparison between... for example, tegra2 and MSM8250 is MEANINGLESS.
In the end, we need much better battery life more than anything and that's what Tegra is bringing, I can't wait until they start sticking Tegra into smartphones.
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Have you even bothered to look up the HTC VISION's expected battery life? HTC is claiming standby time of 430 **HOURS** -- near 18 days of standby! GN1 was 250 hours, or just over 10 days, so whether these numbers are accurate or not, I think we can figure on a 72% improvement in running time.
Oh, and did I mention that the VISION comes with a SMALLER BATTERY?
So... with equal batteries, the VISION would jump up to (430/1300)*1400=463 hours = 85.2% more efficient!
Hmm... tegra anyone?
Old news.

How Quick Will This Device be Superceded?

OK, so like nearly everyone else on this forum, I'll be first in line for an EVO. This is a beast of a phone, nothing like it (state-side anyway). How long do you think this will last?
What device will leave the EVO in the dust? How long will it's reign last?
Because of the required spec's, I would think that Windows Phone 7 devices will likely be the first to smoke it, specs-wise. However, it seems MS went all Apple-walled-garden with 7, so I don't see WP7 beating this anytime soon. Considering the state of the Windows Marketplace vs Android, I say no competition.
Apple's new iPhone will surely be amazing, software-wise. But again, the walled-garden approach will leave it behind.
Finally, AT&T and Verizon seem at least one year behind Sprint in 4g deployments.
Ideas?

khov07 said:
OK, so like nearly everyone else on this forum, I'll be first in line for an EVO. This is a beast of a phone, nothing like it (state-side anyway). How long do you think this will last?
What device will leave the EVO in the dust? How long will it's reign last?
Because of the required spec's, I would think that Windows Phone 7 devices will likely be the first to smoke it, specs-wise. However, it seems MS went all Apple-walled-garden with 7, so I don't see WP7 beating this anytime soon. Considering the state of the Windows Marketplace vs Android, I say no competition.
Apple's new iPhone will surely be amazing, software-wise. But again, the walled-garden approach will leave it behind.
Finally, AT&T and Verizon seem at least one year behind Sprint in 4g deployments.
Ideas?
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I say 6 months? At least before a significant development, like dualcore processors.

mrono said:
I say 6 months? At least before a significant development, like dualcore processors.
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Dual core processors are extremely unlikely for at least a year or two. Not only would it make phones that much more expensive to produce, but today's battery technology simply hasn't caught up to the major advances in processor technology. Batteries are struggling to power a single core processor to this very day; said batteries couldn't dream of powering a dual-core phone for any reasonable length of time.
In any case, if the Evo is going to be beaten by another phone, it won't be for a while. The only things that could take it over are the new Snapdragon 1.5 Ghz and Intel Moorestown 1.5 Ghz processors coming later this year. There's absolutely no way a bigger screen size could be even considered, since the Evo is pushing it already. A 4.3 inch AMOLED screen would be quite nice, but not enough on its own to replace the Evo.

Mecha2142 said:
Dual core processors are extremely unlikely for at least a year or two. Not only would it make phones that much more expensive to produce, but today's battery technology simply hasn't caught up to the major advances in processor technology. Batteries are struggling to power a single core processor to this very day; said batteries couldn't dream of powering a dual-core phone for any reasonable length of time.
In any case, if the Evo is going to be beaten by another phone, it won't be for a while. The only things that could take it over are the new Snapdragon 1.5 Ghz and Intel Moorestown 1.5 Ghz processors coming later this year. There's absolutely no way a bigger screen size could be even considered, since the Evo is pushing it already. A 4.3 inch AMOLED screen would be quite nice, but not enough on its own to replace the Evo.
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its actually a 4.3 TFT screen.

80s_kid said:
its actually a 4.3 TFT screen.
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Which is why he wasn't talking about the EVO

mrono said:
Which is why he wasn't talking about the EVO
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yep. very true. my mistake lol, i havent slept today yet.

nope, not CPU's
I agree with the above comments, dual-core CPU's won't become prevalent in mobile devices until batteries improve significantly.
My guess is devices with discrete graphics boards, like the iPhone (has had for years now!), will trump EVO, though only for gaming purposes. I'll stick with a PSP for mobile gaming.
Besides, a 1Ghz+ processor should easily handle any video you can toss at it. My TP2 with a 526 Mhz processor + CorePlayer handles movies saved on my SD card just fine, full-screen.
Maybe truly integrated video calling? Not through a third-party app like Qik, or even Skype (though Skype on the EVO would be awesome), but an actual native function/app on the device. Instead of dialing a username, just dial a number, and if the device is video-capable, you get an option on the screen to answer with voice or video.

It will depend on far to many factors to quantify.
Doo you dig the big display? For those that do perhaps the only devices they will look for in the future will be 4 inch plus in size. Depending on how the evo and hd2 sell we may see many more our we may see less.
Those that want a physical keyboard may not even feel the evo is a contender and may wait for a galaxy s pro to fill their super phone.
The integrated graphics are inferior to the ipwn so those that want 3d gaming will feel the draw of that device or wait for the rumored psp phone.
Processor speed will be trumped probably by the iphone hd and if not then shortly after. The difference will be miniscule but it will get trumped.
storage? Android had lagged most other device for a long time with it's reliance on sd cards hopefully froyo will get more onboard memory like the iphone.
So it will depend on peoples needs as to when the evo gets trumped. For many the evo is far from the best device for them. For many it is totally drool worthy.

Hardware wise, this phone will be hard to beat in the immediate future. From what I understand is that Sprint allows users to upgrade after 1 year (if applicable) so that could be nice.
Only thing I am worried about is getting root or getting 2.2 in a timely fashion. Being a G1 user I haven't had to worry about it since rooting came pretty fast which has allowed me to install pretty much any ROM out there, not having to worry about when I am going to get 1.5 or 1.6 or whatever. I have read on how the Droid or Hero took a couple of months to get 2.1, they get it and then 2.2 is announced. Gingerbread is confirmed to be released sometime Q4 2010, I would hate to get 2.2 right when Gingerbread is announced. I will rage.
/rant
edit: I don't believe the A4 is faster than Snapdragon. I think the test results that are out there is due to the fact that Apple OS is a closed system, it also doesn't multitask. Because it can load pages faster, doesn't mean it is better technically. Until it can be tested on a neutral OS (which won't ever happen), it will never be a good benchmark to compare the two.

christmas some one will release a phone for the holiday rush. its gotta happen. my guess is at&t its probably there turn for the xmas phone of the year.

khov07 said:
I agree with the above comments, dual-core CPU's won't become prevalent in mobile devices until batteries improve significantly.
My guess is devices with discrete graphics boards, like the iPhone (has had for years now!), will trump EVO, though only for gaming purposes. I'll stick with a PSP for mobile gaming.
Besides, a 1Ghz+ processor should easily handle any video you can toss at it. My TP2 with a 526 Mhz processor + CorePlayer handles movies saved on my SD card just fine, full-screen.
Maybe truly integrated video calling? Not through a third-party app like Qik, or even Skype (though Skype on the EVO would be awesome), but an actual native function/app on the device. Instead of dialing a username, just dial a number, and if the device is video-capable, you get an option on the screen to answer with voice or video.
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the SnapDragon dual core processors are more efficient then their single core variants we use now since they use a smaller manufacturing process. find the source yourself, i'm not working that hard.

Hmmm...a source link for that info?
Doesn't matter though - most apps on PC's don't make very good use of multiple cores, and we've had those on desktops for many years now. Will mobile app developers make better use of them, once multi-core mobile devices become prevalent? Some might, others will ignore.
Think about it: what kind of cpu-intensive apps will we run on a mobile platform, that will benefit from multiple cores? No doubt mobile processors will continue to get faster, more cores, more cache, etc., but how much will we really do on a mobile device?
Question: why wouldn't mobile processors top-out the way desktop processors have? Folks can run the same basic apps on today's desktops (word processing, web browsing, email, etc.) as they can on desktops four years old.
Perhaps, as crazytalk states, the real developments in mobile processors will be focus more on efficiency than raw speed.
What say you?

Actually, I would say October, not Christmas. Christmas is usually too hectic for companies to release brand new flagship devices which is what would be needed to supercede the Evo. And I do see a dual core phone coming out around October. I think something is going to surprise everyone in October but that's expected. 6 months is sadly the shelf life for phones these days.

Xoom benchmarked against ipad2..

Doesn't look like the xoom did too well..
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4216/apple-ipad-2-gpu-performance-explored-powervr-sgx543mp2-benchmarked

harajuka said:
Doesn't look like the xoom did too well..
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4216/apple-ipad-2-gpu-performance-explored-powervr-sgx543mp2-benchmarked
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To be fair, the Xoom has a higher resolution screen, so these tests are slightly more taxing on it.
However, even if the resolution was the same, the iPad 2 would still come ahead. So, the point still stands.

So what was the problem?
Is honeycomb not properly optimized for gl?
Is A5 that much better at 3d than terga?

jacksmind said:
So what was the problem?
Is honeycomb not properly optimized for gl?
Is A5 that much better at 3d than terga?
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A bit of both, but it's too early to tell.

That was my first thought, is this a product of nvidia's drivers or out classed hardware. Have a feeling its drivers.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

Who cares? I play games on my laptop or console. These are gpu benchmarks not overall performance. I have an ipad and the games get played once in a blue moon. The overall experience on Xoom is much better. Also this is the first release of android on tegra 2. It'll get better, remember the performance jump with Froyo?

atoy74 said:
That was my first thought, is this a product of nvidia's drivers or out classed hardware. Have a feeling its drivers.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
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I thought about this after posting too. The Tegra 2's GPU drivers are probably not up to snuff... yet.

Are we in denial, or do we actually know what we're talking about here?
Unless you simply just have to have Android it is becoming incredibly difficult to justify purchasing a Xoom over an iPad 2. I myself love customization, openess, and so forth... but without proper performance...

Eclair~ said:
Are we in denial, or do we actually know what we're talking about here?
Unless you simply just have to have Android it is becoming incredibly difficult to justify purchasing a Xoom over an iPad 2. I myself love customization, openess, and so forth... but without proper performance...
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To be fair, performance is pretty good on the Xoom from everything I read. Its not like one device completely outclasses the other one. It is a little annoying that the GPU in the iPad is just a better one than the Tegra 2, but what ya gonna do?

so get an ipad. The performance on the Xoom should be good enough for 99% of the people who bought it.

Hmm, I guess you're probably right. Performance doesn't seem to be a complaint, and I'm complaining about something I never do anyways (playing games on my mobile devices).

Eclair~ said:
Are we in denial, or do we actually know what we're talking about here?
Unless you simply just have to have Android it is becoming incredibly difficult to justify purchasing a Xoom over an iPad 2. I myself love customization, openess, and so forth... but without proper performance...
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Even if the Xoom was out performed (in a meaning full way)... even if it was VASTLY out performed by the I pad... I'd still have the xoom. Its the first viable non-apple tablet (IMO) and that's all I've been waiting for.
Truth be told, I'd rather have something jammed in my pee hole than give a single additional dollar to Apple. If they have their way, the future of technology as a whole will be changed for the considerable worse. Not now, at a time where they are simply one of the driving forces in the evolution of tech, but their vision of a world where Steve Jobs controls our computing destiny is one that I'd rather not see.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

mobilehavoc said:
Who cares? I play games on my laptop or console. These are gpu benchmarks not overall performance. I have an ipad and the games get played once in a blue moon. The overall experience on Xoom is much better. Also this is the first release of android on tegra 2. It'll get better, remember the performance jump with Froyo?
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This is just kinda funny. The Xoom is all about better specs etc. etc. than the iPad, then when the iPad wins a GPU benchmark, the Xoom people just say 'who cares about games'...
Sure the Xoom will get faster with updates and drivers (like you said, Froyo bumped performance), and there will be another set of benchmarks when that happens, but right now these results are pretty definitive...
Gotta love the strict line in the sand between the Apple and Android people.

I wonder when will Android receive decent games anyways. Half of the games are quite pathetic, while there are a few that are at least decent... Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds become repetitive pretty quickly.
Android games are time-killers. They don't hold your attention or immerse you enough to play them for more than a few minutes.

Hmm, outperformed by a huge margin. Thats bad for Xoom and Honeycomb
I think the Galaxy 10.1 would perform the same, with pretty similar hardware Tegra 2

I gotta say that this is surprising. I was excited about the Xoom and Android tablets because of the screen at first, due to the higher resolution and change in aspect ratio to better fit videos. Then it is revealed that the screen is a lower quality panel and the Tegra 2 is incapable of high profile h.264. Then I was at least excited because the Nvidia SoC was still pretty awesome for games and the like. Then it gets completely outclassed within 2 weeks of launch by the iPad2. WTH. I mean this is ridiculous. There is less of a gap between my single core phones performance and the Tegra 2 than there is between the Tegra 2 and the A5 in the iPad2. And the A5 is only a 900mhz dual core. I would be embarrassed if I was Nvidia right now.

mobilehavoc said:
Who cares? I play games on my laptop or console. These are gpu benchmarks not overall performance. I have an ipad and the games get played once in a blue moon. The overall experience on Xoom is much better. Also this is the first release of android on tegra 2. It'll get better, remember the performance jump with Froyo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love people who THINK I'm so tired of all these comparisons and biased reviews and experiences. Remember how much Android has grown as an OS and then look to iOS and its growth/change. Yeah... none. We all chose the Xoom for a reason... we want change.
Don't worry little birds... we'll get changes! This thing is like wine... gets better with age! Although sub out years and replace with weeks

Everyone relax, the GL Benchmark app looks like it wasn't updated for Honeycomb or the Nvidia OpenGL extensions. I'm not even sure if it runs native or runs in a Java VM.
I posted this at android central where it's getting all fan boy crazy:
Well, here goes a few things I noticed off the bat.
I grabbed the GL benchmark app, and here a few indicators that it needs to be re-worked for the Xoom:
The Xoom has 27 native Open GL extensions (MOTODEV > Products > XOOM™ MZ600)
the GL Benchmark app only found 21 (GLBenchmark Result Details of Motorola Xoom)
So off the bat with the app not using all available OpenGL extensions for honeycomb or for the Nvidia platform I'd say that it's "off."
Secondly, the app even incorrectly reads the screen size at 1280 x 752.
So right now I say these needs to be updated before I got too crazy with the results.
I didn't do a cross reference of the utilized libs over the ones "left on the table" but if I get a few minutes I will.
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I'm not saying the ipad2 is better or worse, all I'm saying is the benchmark app isn't reading the info right on the Xoom.

muyoso said:
I gotta say that this is surprising. I was excited about the Xoom and Android tablets because of the screen at first, due to the higher resolution and change in aspect ratio to better fit videos. Then it is revealed that the screen is a lower quality panel and the Tegra 2 is incapable of high profile h.264. Then I was at least excited because the Nvidia SoC was still pretty awesome for games and the like. Then it gets completely outclassed within 2 weeks of launch by the iPad2. WTH. I mean this is ridiculous. There is less of a gap between my single core phones performance and the Tegra 2 than there is between the Tegra 2 and the A5 in the iPad2. And the A5 is only a 900mhz dual core. I would be embarrassed if I was Nvidia right now.
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i'm a bit disappointed with NVIDIA for sure. They were hyping Tegra 2 all last year, leaking slides of the performance and what not, and it cannot do basic tasks like playing 720p playback without stutter. i was even thinking of buying NVIDIA stock too lol.
to be fair, i think we all need to wait it out a bit, and see what software changes are made to alleviate these issues. this doesn't mean the end of android tablets, far from it. i guess we could wait it out for a non-tegra 2 dual core tablet in the 2nd half of 2011 (qualcomm's 2nd gen snapdragon processor, samsung's orion processor, TI OMAP, etc).
what i love about honeycomb is that it isn't hardware specific, so we'll have plenty of choices by the end of the year.

That's true. And don't forget the higher price point of the Xoom. That's make it even harder to justify the purchase againt iPad 2.
And now this benchmark, the Xoom is simply out-classed.
Of course, for Android fans, the Xoom might be the best option for them.
Probably it is good to skip 2011 and wait the next new hardware? Like the Tegra 3 Quad Core? Well, probably it will still be out-classed by the next iPad 3? Yeah, if we follow this kind of thing, there will be NO END!
muyoso said:
I gotta say that this is surprising. I was excited about the Xoom and Android tablets because of the screen at first, due to the higher resolution and change in aspect ratio to better fit videos. Then it is revealed that the screen is a lower quality panel and the Tegra 2 is incapable of high profile h.264. Then I was at least excited because the Nvidia SoC was still pretty awesome for games and the like. Then it gets completely outclassed within 2 weeks of launch by the iPad2. WTH. I mean this is ridiculous. There is less of a gap between my single core phones performance and the Tegra 2 than there is between the Tegra 2 and the A5 in the iPad2. And the A5 is only a 900mhz dual core. I would be embarrassed if I was Nvidia right now.
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SGS2 vs world (SGS2 owns all)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4vijEfQaQ
Next match up
SGS2 vs laptop.
I crown it Samsung Galaxy S Jizz.

At least the other phones don't self combust

Or having a 1/2 day battery life...

DocRambone said:
Or having a 1/2 day battery life...
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Thats what I was kind of getting at!

tameracingdriver said:
At least the other phones don't self combust
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ok that made me laugh

DocRambone said:
Or having a 1/2 day battery life...
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what are you running on it causing it to die in 1/2 day?

ph00ny said:
what are you running on it causing it to die in 1/2 day?
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A samsung stock rom.

At least the other phones wifi works properly

ConceptVBS said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4vijEfQaQ
Next match up
SGS2 vs laptop.
I crown it Samsung Galaxy S Jizz.
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Galaxy S2 is a sorta a fail in my opinion actually or should i call it a midstop in a right direction
1) First bad graphics choice. mali400 is much weaker than Power VR543 (so chances are this time iphone will have better graphics especially since it's software will be build specifically for it). If they go for mali t604 next year it will be roughly 20 times more powerfull (5 times mali400 core to core)
2) No 3D (not completely necessary at the moment since software needs to be optimized for it first, but certainly not future-proof).
3) Same cheap plastic iphone-like design (least make it something different for once, i like optimus 3D design for instance)
4) To take advantage of multicore and it's improved battery life u need Ice cream Sandwich (in ur face) which wouldn't be out now till Christmas and last time i checked Samsung doesn't have good update history and by THAT time u will hearing about quad-core phones being released shortly (just google- already a bunch of rumors about it). What gives the S2 speed at the moment is 1.2 GHz vs 1ghz from the last and EXT4 and other optimization of gingerbread with better drivers
Via twitter back a few month ago samsung was also considering about quad-core and 3d in their next phone, but i also found this topic about Eldar Murtazin which still exists: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Appl...iPhone-5-both-slated-for-fall-release_id18446
As u see it also has some very interesting info about new screen technology and direction that Samsung is heading to, although i highly doubt about 6 month release table (it will most probably be carrier specific, aka galaxy S2 captivate with 4.5 inch screen, 2GHz dual-core, 4g etc for AT&T like Samsung infuse 4G, for Christmas), it certainly gives u an idea that this phone will be outdated within just few month. So whether u like it or not (or ignore my comment), just see for urself next year when u wasted money!
I certainly wouldn't spend 700 dollars on unlocked phone when a better one will be out in 6-10 month
NOW, many of u might say to me that this is either just rumors or that u can't catch up to technology, but this actually quite false.
First of all many of these rumors are originated from information leaked during prototype testing phases.
Second technology moves in steps.
For instance, while we will see quad-core phones next year (and no doubt about it, Sony NGP (not phone) will be first portable quad-core coming out by end of this year already), we will NOT see 8 core phones any time soon since cortex a9 only supports up to 4 cores and cortex a15 only up to 2 in a phone. Also how many laptops have 8 core CPU- most have stopped at 2 or 4.
we already witnessed how mega-pixel race has ended in 2009 since no phones since then went for 16mp or more. In fact Samsung galaxy s went back to 5 after developing 8mp camera phones (innov8 and i8910 HD) for 2 years.
Screens wouldn't go larger than 4.3 inch (otherwise wouldn't be portable), and 1080p video recording is as high as it can get, so in those things S2 maxes out already on what is possible. Also it's 1GB ram should hopefully be enough to run multiple apps this time although not as many as symbian. But it isn't perfect by any means.
Still if Samsung continue to push forward like in S2, their next phone will be maxed out in just about everything that the software will require.
After that it will mostly be smaller cpu architectural changes and while CPU may stay at 4, gpu can go up to 16 cores, however how much would u really need??
this is what i mean by software cause no developer will be willing to develop crysis 2 for phones and sell it for 10 bucks. power 543 is needed for Sony NGP more than anything else. (i still have Samsung i8910 and it can run all the games ur S2 can as long as it's out for Symbian^3)

Xdenwarrior said:
i still have Samsung i8910 and it can run all the games ur S2 can as long as it's out for Symbian^3)
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I feel for you mate, I had that phone for a while, good hardware at the time but symbian kind of made it suck.
Even now theres not much available for it and many of the high end games run pretty badly, I give it to my sister so I still play around with it now and again.

Xdenwarrior said:
Galaxy S2 is a sorta a fail in my opinion actually or should i call it a midstop in a right direction
1) First bad graphics choice. mali400 is much weaker than Power VR543 (so chances are this time iphone will have better graphics especially since it's software will be build specifically for it). If they go for mali t604 next year it will be roughly 20 times more powerfull (5 times mali400 core to core)
2) No 3D (not completely necessary at the moment since software needs to be optimized for it first, but certainly not future-proof).
3) Same cheap plastic iphone-like design (least make it something different for once, i like optimus 3D design for instance)
4) To take advantage of multicore and it's improved battery life u need Ice cream Sandwich (in ur face) which wouldn't be out now till Christmas and last time i checked Samsung doesn't have good update history and by THAT time u will hearing about quad-core phones being released shortly (just google- already a bunch of rumors about it). What gives the S2 speed at the moment is 1.2 GHz vs 1ghz from the last and EXT4 and other optimization of gingerbread with better drivers
Via twitter back a few month ago samsung was also considering about quad-core and 3d in their next phone, but i also found this topic about Eldar Murtazin which still exists: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Appl...iPhone-5-both-slated-for-fall-release_id18446
As u see it also has some very interesting info about new screen technology and direction that Samsung is heading to, although i highly doubt about 6 month release table (it will most probably be carrier specific, aka galaxy S2 captivate with 4.5 inch screen, 2GHz dual-core, 4g etc for AT&T like Samsung infuse 4G, for Christmas), it certainly gives u an idea that this phone will be outdated within just few month. So whether u like it or not (or ignore my comment), just see for urself next year when u wasted money!
I certainly wouldn't spend 700 dollars on unlocked phone when a better one will be out in 6-10 month
NOW, many of u might say to me that this is either just rumors or that u can't catch up to technology, but this actually quite false.
First of all many of these rumors are originated from information leaked during prototype testing phases.
Second technology moves in steps.
For instance, while we will see quad-core phones next year (and no doubt about it, Sony NGP (not phone) will be first portable quad-core coming out by end of this year already), we will NOT see 8 core phones any time soon since cortex a9 only supports up to 4 cores and cortex a15 only up to 2 in a phone. Also how many laptops have 8 core CPU- most have stopped at 2 or 4.
we already witnessed how mega-pixel race has ended in 2009 since no phones since then went for 16mp or more. In fact Samsung galaxy s went back to 5 after developing 8mp camera phones (innov8 and i8910 HD) for 2 years.
Screens wouldn't go larger than 4.3 inch (otherwise wouldn't be portable), and 1080p video recording is as high as it can get, so in those things S2 maxes out already on what is possible. Also it's 1GB ram should hopefully be enough to run multiple apps this time although not as many as symbian. But it isn't perfect by any means.
Still if Samsung continue to push forward like in S2, their next phone will be maxed out in just about everything that the software will require.
After that it will mostly be smaller cpu architectural changes and while CPU may stay at 4, gpu can go up to 16 cores, however how much would u really need??
this is what i mean by software cause no developer will be willing to develop crysis 2 for phones and sell it for 10 bucks. power 543 is needed for Sony NGP more than anything else. (i still have Samsung i8910 and it can run all the games ur S2 can as long as it's out for Symbian^3)
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I'll just have to buy that phone when it comes out then, it's only money bro.

Intratech said:
I'll just have to buy that phone when it comes out then, it's only money bro.
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Lmao awesome answer. I think he's one of these people who never buys any tech cos he keeping thinking a newer one will be just around the corner.
On the point of updates though, who brought the first GB to the market?

Facts: the Galaxy S II is the fastest and most powerful hand-held device ever
, and (this includes the iPhone 5) it is the only portable device in the world than can play 1080p MKV and flash videos as smooth as butter for which the screen size and technology is ideal.
I personally think quad-cores in a cell phone is overkill, anyway. I mean, at present, the Galaxy S II perfectly does the above and multi-tasks and launches apps instantly - how much more can a quad core processor improve on that? Not much as its so fast to begin with. Plus, factoring in the fact that with dual-core even, battery drainage is a problem, i shudder to think how long the battery would last of a quad-core chip, especially if it had a fast GPU.
And on the subject of the GPU, the SGSII isn't targeted at hardcore gamers anyway - it'll do its job if its able to play most big title commercial and casual games well, and it's relative power would ensure future mainstream titles such as NFS would be playable at a smooth framerate- this is it's target audience. Simply put, if gaming is your first priority then this device isn't for you.
A real hardcore gaming phone will be the next iteration of the Xperia Play - with an nvidia chipset and PS2 game emulation and all that jazz - designed specifically for gamers. Just cannot play serious games without a joypad.

Xdenwarrior said:
much crap
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3D is a waste of space, time and money
the sgs2 is much faster than my sgs1 yet both have ext4 and my sgs1* runs at 1.3Ghz.
not bothering to reply to the rest which are pretty much dumb assertions. phones get updated every 6-10 month since 5 years (except the iPhone). Get over it already.

This phone its so fast.. Forget what these videos have say, once you get the phone and see for your self you'll appreciate it more. Sometimes I can't believe this device that its so light and slim is this fast and I actually do think its more comparable to a laptop Than any phone out at the moment. It loads iplayer videos faster than my ps3 and just as fast as my pc. Way faster than my iphone 4 or my brothers desire hd.. way faster.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Xdenwarrior said:
Galaxy S2 is a sorta a fail in my opinion actually or should i call it a midstop in a right direction
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So if it's "midstop in a right direction," what in your considered opinion is the phone we should all be getting assuming we want/need a phone in the next few months? This will be Samsung's flagship on the U.S. carriers for nine months to a year and it hasn't even launched their yet. As fast as technology moves I'm sure the SGS2 will evolve and that there will be an SGS3, but it's not going to be in the next six to nine months. As someone said earlier, if we all wait for the utopian phone we'll die with a TouchPro in our hands.

Don't judge me because i still use a touch pro!

so coming from an atrix (which is definitely underrated once blur is taken care of through TB) would it be worth the 200 or so extra? Im seeing very mixed reviews about this phone as well

blunted09 said:
so coming from an atrix (which is definitely underrated once blur is taken care of through TB) would it be worth the 200 or so extra? Im seeing very mixed reviews about this phone as well
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Well worth it tbh. Came from my atrix, havent regreted it for a second. The atrix isnt in the same league
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

i have been toying with the idea and while i can still get $500+ for the atrix. Nice to hear it from an x atrix user. I just dont know what the best way to get this phone to Canada is.

great review by AnandTech

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4445/samsung-galaxy-tab-101-review

"Unfortunately with most Honeycomb tablets today we find ourselves in a difficult position when it comes to making any recommendations. NVIDIA's Kal-El target was originally August, I've heard more recently that the date has slipped to around September. Regardless of the specific month, there's a high likelihood that within the next four months you'll be able to get a much more powerful Android tablet for the same amount of money you'd spend today. With that in mind, I can't in good conscience recommend spending any amount of money on a tablet today if you can wait another two quarters. Remember Kal-El won't really change single threaded performance, but it will improve GPU performance and address the video decoding limitations of Tegra 2 today."

Honeycomb OS is still not stable enough ... but it is usable.
Hopefully, the upcoming ICS will be very stable.
Or NOT? I meant, we will be in the same cycle ...

Hmmm. I'm going to wait this one out now.
In a couple months if the 10.1 really is the best and there is decent development going on for it then I'll pick one up.
Otherwise it will probably be an ASUS Kal-El for me...

e.mote said:
"Unfortunately with most Honeycomb tablets today we find ourselves in a difficult position when it comes to making any recommendations. NVIDIA's Kal-El target was originally August, I've heard more recently that the date has slipped to around September. Regardless of the specific month, there's a high likelihood that within the next four months you'll be able to get a much more powerful Android tablet for the same amount of money you'd spend today. With that in mind, I can't in good conscience recommend spending any amount of money on a tablet today if you can wait another two quarters. Remember Kal-El won't really change single threaded performance, but it will improve GPU performance and address the video decoding limitations of Tegra 2 today."
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It was a good review. And it even had me thinking maybe I should wait for Kal-El. But no. I Kal-El could launch in 4 months, it could also be 6 months. And just because a tablet or two comes out with a Kal-El processor doesn't necessarily mean it'll be a good quality tablet I'd want. I could very well be waiting until 2012 for a decent thin, light, tablet with high quality display.
So I'm going to go ahead and buy now, enjoy now. Well buy in 3 days anyway.

I agree. Eveb though we know Tegra 3 will be out "soon" I don't see shipping products until Christmas at the earliest.
If we all were spending $2,000 dollars on our max out credit cards to get these Tegra 2 based tablets I would probably wait as well but the fact remains they arnt that expensive, Tegra 3 could take even longer to mature driver wise and as always if you wait for the next best it will never happen and remember these are tablets, not oxygen masks required for daily living.....

That's true indeed. That's why I settled with this GT 10.1 Tegra 2 as "stop gap", while waiting the magical perfect Android tablet. My feeling is telling me this Tegra 3 will be available next year (available = able to purchase). Because it is too soon to make it available this year where Tegra 2 devices are still new. I don't think manufacturers will rush to make new product every half year. They should want to make money for current products!
And I think Tegra 2 is still nice platform as long as you don't expect to watch high profile encoded MKV video (I don't !).
Back to this AnandTech review ... the thing that made me think is the battery life. I don't expect only 8.5 hours for daily use! That's too low (less) for 7000 mAH battery. I was expecting more.
MrSewerPickle said:
I agree. Eveb though we know Tegra 3 will be out "soon" I don't see shipping products until Christmas at the earliest.
If we all were spending $2,000 dollars on our max out credit cards to get these Tegra 2 based tablets I would probably wait as well but the fact remains they arnt that expensive, Tegra 3 could take even longer to mature driver wise and as always if you wait for the next best it will never happen and remember these are tablets, not oxygen masks required for daily living.....
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Is that true about the Google IO LE version having a worse panel? Anyone say otherwise?

That "4 months it'll be obsolete" comment is annoying purely on the basis that a product launch doesn't mean it'll be available to us consumers anytime soon.

gogol said:
I don't think manufacturers will rush to make new product every half year. They should want to make money for current products!
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They can't make a lot of money off of their current Tegra 2 products if their competitors are selling Tegra 3 products at attractive prices. There are supposedly at least 5 companies working on Tegra 3 tablets right now. Some, like Amazon, don't have a Tegra 2 product, so you know they will release it as quickly as possible. Once just a couple release Tegra 3 products, the others will have to also release Tegra 3, and/or deeply discount their Tegra 2 products, to continue selling them.
There's not a lot to these things. It doesn't take much of a redesign to put in a different chip. Look how fast Samsung completely, physically, re-designed the 10.1 once they realized how thin the ipad 2 was. If you sleep in this market, you get left behind. Buy one now if you need one now, but don't be upset in six months when you want the new ones.

Ravynmagi said:
It was a good review. And it even had me thinking maybe I should wait for Kal-El. But no. I Kal-El could launch in 4 months, it could also be 6 months. And just because a tablet or two comes out with a Kal-El processor doesn't necessarily mean it'll be a good quality tablet I'd want. I could very well be waiting until 2012 for a decent thin, light, tablet with high quality display.
So I'm going to go ahead and buy now, enjoy now. Well buy in 3 days anyway.
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Totally agree. My idea of a perfect tablet would be something that looks like the GT10.1 with a microSD card slot and a Kal-El processor. Anything else that it comes with is just a bonus.
I wouldn't be using the tablet for anything massively processor intensive so the main reasons for wanting a Kal-El chip is for better video/audio codec support and lower power usage (hence better battery life). I can live with the current Tegra 2 power usage but the video/audio codec support is a real let down.
However, I think I'll be getting the GT10.1 anyway to fill the gap between now and the ideal tablet.
(Obviously, my idea of ideal/perfect tablet changes overtime as my preferences changes and new technology becomes available. Therefore, one could argue that I'll never get my perfect tablet.)

Ravynmagi said:
It was a good review. And it even had me thinking maybe I should wait for Kal-El. But no. I Kal-El could launch in 4 months, it could also be 6 months. And just because a tablet or two comes out with a Kal-El processor doesn't necessarily mean it'll be a good quality tablet I'd want. I could very well be waiting until 2012 for a decent thin, light, tablet with high quality display.
So I'm going to go ahead and buy now, enjoy now. Well buy in 3 days anyway.
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agreed.. it makes sense for people who can wait to do so.. but if you need a tablet now, then i suggest going ahead, as you'll always just be waiting for something new and better to come along. it's an endless cycle. the moment you realize that what's out now is fine for your current needs.. is the moment you'll be satisfied with your purchase without having buyers regrets. technology moves fast, so might as well not worry about what's to come

Amazon will likely have a unrecognizable UI/skin on it. A nexus tablet wouldn't launch until ics. If you can make a convincing argument that someone will launch a quad core tablet as thin and light as the tab with equal quality screen before then I will be happy to hear it.