Quite happy with Stock... - Nexus S General

I picked up my Nexus S right after Christmas and expected that inside about a week I'd want to be using a custom Kernal and ROM... but three weeks later I'm still happy enough using the stock 4.0.3 upgrade. I've had some battery life issues, but these were resolved by not using Google+, I'm happy with the vanilla launcher so, yeah; I've no current plans to hack.
Really not what I expected! Either I'm growing up* or ICS is pretty decent where it is.
*LOL. Sure.

ICS certainly is pretty decent as it is from my experience, i'm on stock and happy as can be. However, there is a LOT to gain from using a custom kernel. Battery life, speed, BLN and voodoo, essentially. I've grown quite fond of BLD too.

I hear you! Thing is... ICS has the bases as I want them, you know?
Battery life is over a day of what I need it for, so improvement is welcome but doesn't feel so essential. That's what drove me to improve my Galaxy S, originally.
Performance - seems a bit moot if I'm honest. Apologies. The Nexus never feels slow, just less snappy compared with say my wife's S2.
Voodoo - isn't that the colour / sound / performance fix for the Galaxy S? *hangs head in shame and goes to read about it*
Backlight Notification - nah, not something I'd use. It either has a LED (looks at Galaxy Nexus) or nothing...
Backlight dimmer - you mean, dimming the backlight and icons after a period of time? Might be useful, but I usually have the screen on minimum brightness and in the past it was of limited benefit.

Using stock as well on ics. Thought battery drain was a big issue but after several weeks i'm able to run it on like it was still gb. Only concern i've got is that my mms seems to be working only when the wifi is on. I know it should be a network issue since mms is network dependent but i found out i'm not the only one with this problem
Sent from my Nexus S or my YP-G70 using Tapatalk

Understandable with battery and performance, no need to apologise - if you are happy with them i am not one to convince you otherwise and the difference may be minimal anyway, for your uses.
Correct on Voodoo. I cannot comment about the AMOLED voodoo colours as i have the SLCD version (i9023), though voodoo sound is definitely an improvement on the earphone side of things. The nexus has a damn good DAC. If you use a decent set of earphones it might be worth a try.
Backlight Dimmer actually turns off the LED behind the softkeys (back, menu, search, home) after a set period of time. Purely aesthetic, but since i'll be unlocked and rooted anyway it's a nice effect to have a pitch black phone. Can barely tell where the screen ends and the fascia comes in.

Yes. With my Galaxy S, my battery life was horrible and the device didn't perform anything like the hardware would suggest. FroYo was better, Gingerbread introduced a battery life bug; Darky's was the answer. Good fun too.
I don't use my Android devices for music any more. Wretched iTunes has me and its more hassle than its worth to keep my library synced up between iTunes and handset. I use an iPod and an iPad for media...
Mmm... Completely black Nexus...That might persuade me...

The only thing I dislike is the boot animation, I have changed it using ROM toolbox.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I really thought BLD would just be a useless gimmick.. i tested it once and turned it back off straight away. A week later i decided to just give it a try for a day and it really does look futuristic and, well, "Nexus-y".
Not needing to use itunes is the best reason to use any phone (or device) that doesn't have an apple logo. Nothing i ever attempt to do with it (for family iphones) ever actually does what i thought it would. Still unsure what the sync button ACTUALLY does. It's such a shame the nexus s doesn't have an sd card slot though, but perfection doesn't exist does it?

Yes I dislike iTunes. I use iOS 5 as iCloud's backup works just great. My Nexus replaced my iPhone 4. The iPod Nano I use isnt an iOS device so is simple to use. And all of my data is kept in the cloud, either via Dropbox or Google, regardless of the device.
I'm lucky enough to work in the mobile industry, which means I get lots of toys to use and understand, but it also means I need to use what most people use too, so that I can fix issues.
I will say that the Nexus S has around half to two thirds of my usage compared with the iPhone 4. Luckily I only needed half for a full day.

Running stock 4.0.3 and custom kernel, best combo IMO. Battery life is perfect ;-)

Related

My Experience with the Nexus S Phone

Ok, I always read posts on how people don't like thier Nexus S and are returning it. I just got my Nexus S and have placed CM7 and Trinity Kernel on it(will also be trying Nentuh kernel) and wanted to give my experience.
I love this phone. I have been through quite a few cell phones in my life and never have like any of them. This phone is finally a phone in which I am completely happy with! The battery is great for me...I'm am a pretty avid user...very addicted to using the phone. The sound quality with voodoo is jaw dropping and the screen is beautiful. Talk quality is good...and what I can definitely say is that I have experienced very little lag on this phone(fastest phone out of all my phones...and faster than my old Epic 4g). The phone is extremely fluid and I run live wall papers with launcher pro. I don't play games...but all the apps I use such as music players, on line streaming, my intensive live wallpapers like star ship....barely put a dent into the cpu usage.
The keyboard is fine with me and I have no problems with it. It feels comfortable and I never get any lag as others have stated. I text way more than talk on my phone...talking on the phone is what people did in the old days.
I wasn't sure if I would like the curve on it because that how annal I am . After having it, not only does it feel comfortable but it looks extremely cool and set's itself apart from other peoples phones aesthetically.
After reading other peoples posts on this phone, I was real skeptical before I bought this phone and was prepared to take it back even before I received it through the mail. This is a pleasant surprise.
If your reading this and trying to decide if you should buy this phone or not, do not go by other peoples complaints...just try it for yourself and decide.
My experience is the same, I love it!
I love too. And I come from Nexus One. I never thought it was this good. Pretty soon we will be dancing in a whole bunch of Roms. With the Nexus One I changed roms every week and flash my phone almost everyday. I was going between MIUI and Nightlies (that's why I flashed it every day).
None the less this phone lives up to it. If you don't like this phone you don't like Androids and I will have to ask you to change either to Verizon or AT&T and get yourself an iCrap.
dman777 said:
Ok, I always read posts on how people don't like thier Nexus S and are returning it. I just got my Nexus S and have placed CM7 and Trinity Kernel on it(will also be trying Nentuh kernel) and wanted to give my experience.
I love this phone. I have been through quite a few cell phones in my life and never have like any of them. This phone is finally a phone in which I am completely happy with! The battery is great for me...I'm am a pretty avid user...very addicted to using the phone. The sound quality with voodoo is jaw dropping and the screen is beautiful. Talk quality is good...and what I can definitely say is that I have experienced very little lag on this phone(fastest phone out of all my phones...and faster than my old Epic 4g). The phone is extremely fluid and I run live wall papers with launcher pro. I don't play games...but all the apps I use such as music players, on line streaming, my intensive live wallpapers like star ship....barely put a dent into the cpu usage.
The keyboard is fine with me and I have no problems with it. It feels comfortable and I never get any lag as others have stated. I text way more than talk on my phone...talking on the phone is what people did in the old days.
I wasn't sure if I would like the curve on it because that how annal I am . After having it, not only does it feel comfortable but it looks extremely cool and set's itself apart from other peoples phones aesthetically.
After reading other peoples posts on this phone, I was real skeptical before I bought this phone and was prepared to take it back even before I received it through the mail. This is a pleasant surprise.
If your reading this and trying to decide if you should buy this phone or not, do not go by other peoples complaints...just try it for yourself and decide.
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Click to collapse
Give it some time. The first month I had my S I loved it. Now a month and a half in I have to stop myself from just throwing it out of frustration.
I think when all the bugs get fixed with this phone people will loove it more!!!
Love my nexus s too.
Sent from my MattedBlue CM7 Google Nexus S!
I love my Nexus S so much I haven't even rooted it yet. This is the best phone I have ever owned. All the new dual core phones mean nothing to me at all. Stock Android is seriously amazing.
I do plan on cm7 eventually, the reason I used it my older phones was for the stock Android feel, and this phone delivers what I love out of the box.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
This phone is awesome.
NFC, Amoled screen and other various things brought me to it.
Go back to nexus one. Best phone ever!!
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
I've had a bunch of different android phones, and this one is definitely the best. Running CM7 RC1 with Netarchy 1.2.4, and everything is running great, aside from the random reboots. Just got the phone too ! Voodoo color and sound are great also.
dman777 said:
The sound quality with voodoo is jaw dropping
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does this relate to? Recorded sound or sound played through the in built speaker?
Streaming music and using my headset. Sounds better than my Cowon D2 player which is saying alot.
Yeah, I don't understand all these posts with people complaining about the phone. I think the phone is amazing. Maybe I'm missing something, but the phone seems to far exceed my expectations.
The only consistently frustrating issue I've experienced is the market insufficient storage space available.
Sent from my MattedBlues CM7 Google Nexus S!
jkusmc said:
Yeah, I don't understand all these posts with people complaining about the phone.
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I'm as annoyed by people who post "flames" or unsubstantiated or misinformed complaints about the Nexus S, however, there are legitimate complaints and legitimate bugs that require discussion and attention from users and ultimately, Google. The only way to reach them, or at least get their attention, is to get people to talk about it, recognize and corroborate that the issue exists, and to report it.
Issues like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=956947, which unfortunately has still gotten little to no recognition. Or the random custom ringtones changing, or the rebooting issue during calls, etc.; the list goes on, and many of them warrant complaints.
I'm curious to this as well I'm using voodoo and I noticed no difference. Id be more happy once they work on the front facing camera apps. I could have stuck with my g2. No skype no yahoo video calls forced to use tango.everything else works well for me.it was either this phone or the e7 which I still have my eyes on
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
My experience with nexus is good, aside the reboot issue and weak wifi, works fine for me. I never consider returning it (returning date is over and I live overseas ><), I have faith that those issues will go away in some update soon, hopefully.
I´m running with factory preset (rom, kernel, non rooted) and launcher pro, so maybe I can get much more from it customizing, right? Im just concerned with the risks like wiping out everything including downloaded apps... Eventhough there´s a rooting procedure that doesn´t wipe personal data, I wonder if rooting and changing to netarchy´s kernel will erase my apps...
You can always use titanium backup to restore your apps after every flash. real easy to use and is a must if you wanna flash roms. Overall I am preety happy with the nexus s, apart from having a weak wifi signal. I kinda wish the battery could last longer , kinda used to having longer battery since i am coming from iphone 4
Nexus S is by far the most stable Galaxy S phone
if i could just use a USB storage with it, then it'll be perfect
as of it's now, that's the only deficiency missing the microSD
I love this phone only thing that is bothering me is that my signal is significantly lower than it was with my Mytouch 4g, Blackberry 9780, and G2. Other than that I have no other complaints..
Just picked it up for $180 from craigslist though only bad thing was it has a scratch down the middle, but even that doesn't bother me much.

Atrix questions

I had the Samsung Captivate before but it's gone now so I'm needing another phone and so far the Atrix looks like a winner.
1) How is the battery life compared to the Captivate?
2) Can you easily remove all of the Motoblur bloat?
3) Are the problems with the display noticeable? http://www.anandtech.com/show/4165/the-motorola-atrix-4g-preview/4
4) Are there anything bad/buggy about this phone?
5) What about the random reboots and the poor connection/radio?
Thanks everyone, especially the developers who spend their time working on mods and roms for everyone to benefit from.
I've also had the Captivate so I'll try to answer these for you.
1. My battery has been excellent, especially for an Android phone. I have no trouble getting through my day of fairly heavy usage.
2. I didn't remove anything, but it's an extremely easy phone to root.
3. Not a dev, but I believe no custom roms until it's cracked.
4. I love the display, personally. There are spec nazis out there who see Pentile and will say it sucks without ever seeing one in person. It's not a saturated color wise as the Captivate but it's a very nice natural looking display.
5. I've had no bugs as of yet and I got mine the morning of launch. I've seen others mention random reboots, but have not had any.
6. The only other Android device I'd consider is the Inspire. I had that and exchanged for the Atrix and I prefer the Atrix. It's much more future proof with the Tegra 2 and it's faster overall. I also ran speedtest app today on both at the same time. Ran the test 10 times and the Atrix killed it each time even they're both hspa+ devices. Screen is bigger on the Inspire, but I prefer the look of the atrix display. Inspire build quality is very good with unibody design, but battery cover sucks (along with the battery) and the headphone jack is at the bottom which I hate. Speakers are much, much louder on the Moto as well.
waltah! said:
I've also had the Captivate so I'll try to answer these for you.
1. My battery has been excellent, especially for an Android phone. I have no trouble getting through my day of fairly heavy usage.
2. I didn't remove anything, but it's an extremely easy phone to root.
3. Not a dev, but I believe no custom roms until it's cracked.
4. I love the display, personally. There are spec nazis out there who see Pentile and will say it sucks without ever seeing one in person. It's not a saturated color wise as the Captivate but it's a very nice natural looking display.
5. I've had no bugs as of yet and I got mine the morning of launch. I've seen others mention random reboots, but have not had any.
6. The only other Android device I'd consider is the Inspire. I had that and exchanged for the Atrix and I prefer the Atrix. It's much more future proof with the Tegra 2 and it's faster overall. I also ran speedtest app today on both at the same time. Ran the test 10 times and the Atrix killed it each time even they're both hspa+ devices. Screen is bigger on the Inspire, but I prefer the look of the atrix display. Inspire build quality is very good with unibody design, but battery cover sucks (along with the battery) and the headphone jack is at the bottom which I hate. Speakers are much, much louder on the Moto as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only thing holding me back is hearing about the battery life in this thread: http://androidforums.com/motorola-atrix-4g/283111-motorola-atrix-battery-life.html
On my captivate I could go 2, sometimes 3 full days without charging with moderate use to mild use. I want to be able to forget to charge my phone and still be able to use it the next day.
Well... i don't HEAVILY use my phone.... but i unplugged it around noon, and by close to midnight i think it was around 70% or so (forgot to look before i plugged it in again). If you don't go widget-happy, like the one guy at Best Buy that i was in line behind apparently did because he complained about horrible battery life with his new Android phone and returned it for an iPhone 4, your battery will last a fair bit. I wouldn't exactly expect to get DAYS of use out of it, especially if you have it fairly frequently checking for new email's and such, and tend to use your phone extremely often... but you'll probably get at least maybe a day and a half... possibly two........ hard to say really without knowing how much you use your phone.
elementaldragon said:
Well... i don't HEAVILY use my phone.... but i unplugged it around noon, and by close to midnight i think it was around 70% or so (forgot to look before i plugged it in again). If you don't go widget-happy, like the one guy at Best Buy that i was in line behind apparently did because he complained about horrible battery life with his new Android phone and returned it for an iPhone 4, your battery will last a fair bit. I wouldn't exactly expect to get DAYS of use out of it, especially if you have it fairly frequently checking for new email's and such, and tend to use your phone extremely often... but you'll probably get at least maybe a day and a half... possibly two........ hard to say really without knowing how much you use your phone.
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Click to collapse
Sounds good. How is the screen? Do you notice blurriness, discoloration, over/under saturation/contrast, pixelation, or anything bad? Also, can you remove all of the AT&T/Moto bloatware so your phone feels like a stock android phone?
You can choose not to use the blur widgets and the standard Android widgets are there. Launcherpro is the home replacement of choice for me if I use one. You can get really great looking widgets through it as well. In my experience blur has not slowed the phone down at all though.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
1) How is the battery life compared to the Captivate?
Better, and the phone doesn't heat up like the Captivate as well. It is more efficient and although more powerful and faster, it still has better battery life and temperature control.
2) Can you easily remove all of the Motoblur bloat?
If you root it you could freeze the applicarions I guess; you can't completely remove motoblur itself though.
3) What are the limits for developers with a locked bootloader?
You can have a ROM but no custom kernel. That means no overclocking and the like.
4) Are the problems with the display noticeable?
I didn't see any; the pixel density is higher and that means everything is clearer aand smaller. But... I guess you could say that it isn't as fluid as the Samsung's AMOLED.
5) Are there anything bad/buggy about this phone?
I didn't encounter any problems with mine.
6) What good AT&T Android phones are out there besides the Captivate, the Atrix, and the Aria?
The Inspire is a good one; the Galaxy S 2 will come out at the end of this month/next month.
However, if you are looking at something else I highly suggest looking at the Nexus 1
What about the random reboots and the poor connection/radio?
Tehwall said:
I had the Samsung Captivate before but it's gone now so I'm needing another phone and so far the Atrix looks like a winner.
1) How is the battery life compared to the Captivate?
2) Can you easily remove all of the Motoblur bloat?
3) What are the limits for developers with a locked bootloader?
4) Are the problems with the display noticeable? http://www.anandtech.com/show/4165/the-motorola-atrix-4g-preview/4
5) Are there anything bad/buggy about this phone?
6) What good AT&T Android phones are out there besides the Captivate, the Atrix, and the Aria?
Thanks everyone, especially the developers who spend their time working on mods and roms for everyone to benefit from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. about the same running hardcore uv kernal and dark 9.3
2. you can use launcher pro which pretty much masks it
3. the current limits for this are bad until bootloader is unlocked
4.i would say if like me you came from SAMOLED, at first it would look horrible. the screen color is pretty accurate
5. stock music player going off by itself.
I too came from a captivate and i have not had any reboots or problems with the radio. That is the main reason i left my cappy. I have horrible service at work and at home ( where i spend most of my time) and i could never get a signal. I had better signal with my iphone. My biggest disappointment is the screen....nothing will beat a s amoled. The atrix will look washed out next to it but the screen is clearer especially text. I wont miss the amoled eating all the battery though. The battery on the atrix is amazing. Im a fairly heavy user and i get through the day with no issues. As far as motoblur.....its not as ugly as TW. Some things look close to stock android some dont. I have been trying to install stock android apps and freezing the motoblur ones....so far so good....if we can get kernel access and get a speedmod kernel this phone would be unreal. I recommend this if yourlooking to make the jump.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Honest opinion of the atrix

Ive been wanting to try the atrix i just see a lot of mixed reviews so no where better to ask but here true users! Thanks for any replies maybe yall can help
Its depend on what you want, But for me the phone is a solid one, good gps (coming from htc inspire and the gps there was an horror) the screen seems very nice 275ppi, very fast phone, feels great in the hand. If you looks in the htc's dev there are much more support from dev than the atrix but here the roms are really nice, no craps, no experiments, and in some time we're getting cyan. I really like my phone!
I personally am in love with the phone. Great screen size, great resolution, great touch response, insane amount of onboard storage and ram so that apps never freeze up, and battery life that has made me question what good battery life really should be (even with moderate daily use I can go 30+ hours without a charger, I can go days if I don't use the phone at all, and about 9 hours of intense useage). It runs every app I've encountered like butter, including intense HD games (thanks to the Tegra processor and graphics).
Good phone, fast, slim, etc... but if your looking to get one in the near future, I'd wait till Oct. and get the Nexus Prime. Just my opinion though.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
fleurdelisxliv said:
Ive been wanting to try the atrix i just see a lot of mixed reviews so no where better to ask but here true users! Thanks for any replies maybe yall can help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a very fast phone, you almost don't have any lag. Nice big 4" screen which works well even under bright sunlight. Though there are a lot of complaints about Motoblur, I kind of like it, it has almost everything I need, on my previous phone Motorola Milestone, I had to install all kinds of widgets just to get my phone to do these things.
More importantly if you are looking for a perfect phone, it is not and there is really no perfect phone. What is important is what are looking for in a phone? If you could list what you are looking for in a phone, then probably the users here would be able to provide you with input as to whether the phone will meet your expectations.
Cheers!
The mixed reviews of the Atrix are caused from the old radio roms which were current on 2.2.2 froyo roms. Now on stock 2.3.4 and latest radio rom, atrix is a true beast. It does everything instantly when you click and the best part, you always have a battery enough for the next charge. I truly love my atrix and always trust it wherever i'm, whatever i tend to do. It has no limits.
Plus, you can extend its functions way more with a lapdock accessory.
I bought mine about a month before the Gingerbread OTA update. As soon as that came out I applied it from MSU, then waited a little more than a week and finally took the plunge and ran mramirezusa's unlock/CWM/root script.
I really like the phone now and have absolutely no issues with it -- though I do miss the "white text on black background" menus in the previous stock ROM. I'm running navalynt's piCRUST ROM to dispense with some of the bloat, but the phone runs fine on the stock 4.5.91/2.3.4 ROM.
My only complaint is that the back cover could be a bit beefier. It uses tiny plastic clips to snap onto the main phone body. I wish it used a slide & lock type of affair like the BlackBerry.
I pulled the battery many times while learning how to flash the phone, and the back cover has gotten a little "creaky". Putting a case on the phone will firm it up enough so you don't hear or feel this. And learning how to use adb or fastboot to reboot when possible (instead of pulling the battery) will save wear and tear on the cover. But it's not like I ever need to pull the battery during regular use. I've only needed to do this when flashing didn't work for some reason (usually because I did something wrong).
Before this phone I had an HTC Desire HD. That phone was beautiful but it was simply too big for my hand, I couldn't comfortably hold it and push buttons with the same hand, and I felt that I needed to keep it in my smoking jacket when not in use. Gave new meaning to the phrase "Ginger-bread"; I always held it gingerly like some precious piece of jewelry. A bit too elegant for my tastes -- and heavy to boot.
I was pretty sure that HTC Desire would slip out of my hand within the first week of owning it, so I went back to Costco and picked out the next cheapest Android phone, which turned out to be the Atrix. It's much more my style. Nothing flashy except what's on the inside.
Semseddin said:
The mixed reviews of the Atrix are caused from the old radio roms which were current on 2.2.2 froyo roms. Now on stock 2.3.4 and latest radio rom, atrix is a true beast. It does everything instantly when you click and the best part, you always have a battery enough for the next charge. I truly love my atrix and always trust it wherever i'm, whatever i tend to do. It has no limits.
Plus, you can extend its functions way more with a lapdock accessory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
QFT
10 char
Useful thread as I very close to buying one. My choices (at the min) are the HTC Sensation, Samsung SII & Atrix and I know that everybody is going to scream 'get the SII' but I don't want a phone with such a large screen. I use my phone a lot but don't read ebooks or surf when in my lounge as I have an Android tablet for all of that.
I want a powerful phone that will run all my apps, allow me to 'play' with ROM's, have DLNA / HDMI connectivity and have a battery life better than 8 hours so (for me) the Atrix seems like the perfect device. I like the idea of the dock as it could replace my tablet but not at the current cost ! The Multimedia dock looks decent though as my plan would be to stream movies from my NAS through Atrix to HDMI TV.
I like the power that the Atrix produces, especially the 1gb ram. No other Android phone runs as smooth that I've used.
With that said, I don't like Qhd. Text font is too small at times IMHO. I've changed the build.prop density, but it can still be an eye strain.
The biggest thing that I want from ICS is hopefully a way to change a screen resolution like a PC.
Do that and this phone would be flawless!...
I came from Samsung Captivate. These are my own thoughts and YMMV
- The screen is not as good as the captivate. I mean yellow color seems funky
- The camera is baaad.
- Rest of the phone is good. 'Solid' is the word I would use. GPS is superlative. Well, i think coming from Captivate any GPS would feel superlative. .
- ROM options are less than that on Captivate, but we had a late start because of the locked bootloader. Soon Atrix will catch up.
I love it and don't regret dumping the captivate.
thanks for all the replies so far! seems like a great phone
Swiftks said:
Good phone, fast, slim, etc... but if your looking to get one in the near future, I'd wait till Oct. and get the Nexus Prime. Just my opinion though.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
who said the next nexus will be called prime? (im just askin!)
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
the one thing i hate most about this phone -
its so f*cking slippery! seriously.. if you have sweaty hands.. good luck holding onto this thing without a case.
other then that ---- the voice quality on phone calls incoming and outgoing is not great, but its also not horrible either --- middle of the pack.
the speaker is very loud, i find using that to talk to people is much easier then holding the phone up to my ear because i can understand people better.
the screen is fine... i like that i can actually see the thing in sunlight.
I've had mine for a little over a month now, I will say that I love this phone.
It is the perfect size for me; big but not too big.
It is FAST
The battery life is better than most smartphones
Camera is OK, it'll pass
ROM selection is growing.
Look and feel are almost HTC like IMHO
Price is spot on!!!
Really enjoyed when I used it. Feels great in hand.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
For me it's been a great phone. And I've used a lot of smartphones under different platforms.
Android for me is rock solid and very nice to tweak and work on.
But the Atrix is a device on a different level thanks to it's Webtop implementation when used along with its accesories, specially the Lapdock, which has allowed me to leave my bulky and heavy laptop at home.
I really recommend you to try it and get some (if not all) of it's accesories. You will not regret it.
Sent from my Atrix using Tapatalk
I just got mine last week when they were free at Best Buy. I was planning to hold out for the SGS2 but decided free was a wise option to take. My previous phone was the Dell Streak (standard 1ghz snapdragon phone) and we didn't have much in the way of custom roms so I was excited to switch to a phone with a real development community.
I never even booted the phone into the stock rom. My coworkers all have stock moto phones and motoblur is just bad. But running Alien #4 this phone screams and is glitch free. I think it's literally twice as fast as my Streak and am very pleased with my decision to get this phone. The screen is beautiful and the "4g" speeds are a nice little boost over standard 3g (I live in a town of around 175,000 so it's not a major city and data speeds are nice and fast at all times of the day).
Pros:
-Screaming fast
-Lots of accessories
-High resolution screen
-Huge battery
-Lots of internal memory
-Several good roms to choose from
-Gaming
Cons:
-Feels tiny after having the 5" Streak
-Camera is decent but not as good as others
-Can get pretty hot (but is not as hot as some other tegra2 devices I've tried
Here is a doubter who became a believer after the atrix gbread upgrade:
http://www.phonedog.com/videos/motorola-atrix-4g-gingerbread-hands-on/
"With the Gingerbread update, the Motorola Atrix 4G rises to become the best Android handset on AT&T." ....pretty powerful stuff..
The atrix looks nice but I just wondered about dev support. That's why I got an inspire.

Any known issues with the Atrix?

Hi,
I'm considering upgrading my captivate to atrix and I wanted to know if there are any known issues?
I'll explain what I mean:
My first android phone was Xperia X10. Little did I know, the phone was awesome overall but the battery barely lasted a day and all the sony phones had locked bootloaders which means almost no customization in ROMs and pretty bad performance and battery life.
After that I moved to my Capty.
With all the benefits of the remarkable amoled screen, the capty has some severe GPS issues.
By severe I mean not working at all.
Not only that but I switched about 11 or so ROMs until I found one that's mostly functioning. (still without GPS).
All these unsatisfying experiences made me even consider going back to iProducts... And I would NEVER do that again.
What I want to know is not how remarkable Atrix is, trust me I've read enough praises.
I need you to tell me what do you dislike about the phone. Whether it's the slow updates from moto, the build quality, signal quality, GPS, annoying browser, or any other thing that doesn't work or displeases you in any way.
Sorry for this wall of text, I wouldn't want another disappointment.
Thank you for your patience.
To skip what I love about it and move straight to what I do not:
- I'm not a huge fan of the Pentile display... though if you're coming from a Captivate then that's not a downgrade.
- Motorola are definitely slow with software updates (Gingerbread has not even landed in Europe yet). Though of course Cyanogenmod is nearly complete so who really cares?
- I used to have a Galaxy S and I know they hardware accelerated the web browser. I do miss that (assuming Sammy did the same with the Captivate). Having said that, I use Opera these days and that's pretty smooth anyway. And of course, when we get ICS they should all get hardware acceleration.
- The battery life is OK, but I just think it should be better with the 1930mAh battery.
- Why did they make the power button so awkward to use?!
The hardware seems pretty bullet proof to me - I'm not aware of anything that's actually broken like the Galaxy S line of GPS woes. When it's coupled with a completely stable Cyanogenmod build we should be good to go.
I get random reboots, failed to initiate camera, failed to initiate fingerprint scanner, and sometimes the display takes a minute to turn on, even though I can hear the sound of the fp scanner unlocking the display. This is usually a sign that the phone is going to reboot itself soon.
I consider motoblur to be a problem.
With the phone itself, none for me (power user) or my father (casual). Had them since shortly after public release.
Definitely have not experienced any of the above posters issues. If you are on a 100% stock system then your phone needs to be sent in. If its custom, reconsider your setup. A stock atrix should not have those issues.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
a huge upgrade from the Captivate.
excellent GPS, brighter screen, no burn ins.
Only problem I have with it is that the screen at random times can be too sensitive to touch and the fact that you cant hold it down for longer than 15 seconds
facetubespam said:
a huge upgrade from the Captivate.
excellent GPS, brighter screen, no burn ins.
Only problem I have with it is that the screen at random times can be too sensitive to touch and the fact that you cant hold it down for longer than 15 seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. what's the deal with the 15 second rule?
And so far it sounds quite like the thing I'm looking for.
One more question though. I really want the laptop dock, do custom ROMs work with it? How does it work in general?
15 second rule is Motorola's aytempt fo prevent a water drop causing touch screen failure.
Webtop works with most cuatom ROMs just not CM.
sent via tapatalk from my CM7 Atrix
Well, it seems like I'll be joining the atrix club pretty soon
best darn phone i've had
I was about to get an S2 but the xda developers never cease to make this one heck of a phone. My phone was solid from day one and so make sure that your phone is solid hardware wise while it's still under warranty. The only bad experiences I've come accross were from devices with hardware issues. With all of the custom roms and development on this phone i think this phone will be a worthy contender for a while. I gotta say that although the recent motorola gingerbread update is a huge improvement, this device is amazing with a custom rom. There are roms out there for every need so read and review carefully. I think the main differences in regards to what you will want to customize the phone with will hinge on the camera/camcorder
function and how much Blur functionality you need to have.
edgeicator said:
I get random reboots, failed to initiate camera, failed to initiate fingerprint scanner, and sometimes the display takes a minute to turn on, even though I can hear the sound of the fp scanner unlocking the display. This is usually a sign that the phone is going to reboot itself soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My fp scanner doesn't make any sounds, it vibrates couple times and it's pretty responsive. I got the phone since day one and don't have any of those problems.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
slimslim said:
My fp scanner doesn't make any sounds, it vibrates couple times and it's pretty responsive. I got the phone since day one and don't have any of those problems.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean the unlocking sound. That click that occurs when you successfully unlock the phone. I get the sound, but the display stays off.
The call quality could be a little better. I get a lot of huhs and whats on the other side of the phone.
Having came from a captivate I have to say my only real issue with this phone is MOTOBLUR. I still have nightmares about it from when I was using the BACKFLIP (I love how moto puts their products in all caps). Its no where as near as bad on the ATRIX though. Custom launchers took away my wowes. Having the power/unlock button in the middle and slightly inlaid at the top of the phone was a big adjustment but unlocking my phone with a swipe of my finger stopped me from thinking about it too much. I've had a couple random reboots but they all seem to come from me overheating the phone. (My ATRIX is good about being on the charger and finding it's way under clothes or a blanket so this seams to be more me messing up rather then the phone). Im coming up on my one month ann. Of having the ATRIX and not once have I felt the need to go back to my captivate
Sent from my ATRIX
atrix is quite a decent phone overall, but do have a few flaws
its kinda heavy, holding atrix in one hand and sg2 on the other, atrix feels like a brick...
battery dont last as long as suggested, i came from zte blade, used to last me a day and a half, but atrix last me just a day even with it 1930mah battery. (and alarm manager keeping the phone awake seems to be a common problem)
but other than that, its a pretty good phone, it will be even better when the fingerprint scanner is compatible with cm7
Well I wasn't very happy from day 1 but it's a good phone. Now after few months I have to send for repairs as the digitizer is f**** up. If I could go back in time I wouldn't go for the atrix. I guess I love sense ui too much and asop or blur is too ugly for me.
I've had the phone for almost a week now. It's going to be "keep" instead of "return" for me, but just barely. I'm coming from a Samsung Galaxy S i9000 that was running on Darky's ROM Extreme Edition.
What I don't like:
1. The screen. Call me spoiled by the blacks and brightness of the SAMOLED of Samsung.
2. For a Dual Core phone, it sure is sluggish. Well at least compared to the SGS2. I can't believe that it's almost running, if not slower, than my Galaxy S.
3. Still on 2.2.2 (at least in the UK). We're already talking about Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and there's still no 2.3.5 (even 2.3.4!) in sight.
4. Like the SGS, it won't play eAAC+ encoded music (you know, the 64kbps encoded stuff that sound like they're 160kbps MP3's, it was so great).
5. Screen sensitivity. Not really as fluid as the SGS. I think this may be down to me just used to the Samsung timing on the screen.
What I like about it:
1. The screen. Love the resolution! It makes a difference, and I think this was one of its saving grace for me keeping the phone.
2. Battery life. Significantly better than the SGS, and this is with all my 12 email accounts on PUSH and everything.
3. The build! I like its slightly heavy build. I won't buy a phone without Gorilla Glass ever again. My previous SGS was thrown so many times (at full force) by my kid and it still rocks! My wife has it now.
4. Fingerprint scanner. Not perfect, but why can't all phone have this?! It is just so logical.
5. The speaker on this phone is nice, I can listen to rock music and hear a lot more things than my SGS.
---
Please Motorola, give us 2.3.4/2.3.5 already! Or at least dangle a carrot in front of us (tell us when!).
facetubespam said:
a huge upgrade from the Captivate.
excellent GPS, brighter screen, no burn ins.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's true. I just additionally emphasise not only the GPS but also all other radio functions such as gsm signal, wifi, bluetooth work excellent. My AT&T Atrix is the best phone which has nearly all-sided pros. I've been used.
There is only one weak-point (though this depends on the individual view of diffetent user) is the pentile screen technology. Such a thing is well known as an advanced technology which offers the high brightness and the high contrast of the screen with noticeable power save. But in other side, it includes the disavantage that is also well known as an issue, it's the "pixel-grains" phenomenon when you look closely and deeply on some small icon eg. clock, signal bars icon... But with many people, this issue is acceptable.
Only problem I have with it is that the screen at random times can be too sensitive to touch and the fact that you cant hold it down for longer than 15 seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never face this problem on both stock and custom roms, for example HomeBase, Alien, CM7, the great roms I've had a long time using
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
The.Opethian said:
I've had the phone for almost a week now. It's going to be "keep" instead of "return" for me, but just barely. I'm coming from a Samsung Galaxy S i9000 that was running on Darky's ROM Extreme Edition.
What I don't like:
1. The screen. Call me spoiled by the blacks and brightness of the SAMOLED of Samsung.
2. For a Dual Core phone, it sure is sluggish. Well at least compared to the SGS2. I can't believe that it's almost running, if not slower, than my Galaxy S.
3. Still on 2.2.2 (at least in the UK). We're already talking about Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and there's still no 2.3.5 (even 2.3.4!) in sight.
4. Like the SGS, it won't play eAAC+ encoded music (you know, the 64kbps encoded stuff that sound like they're 160kbps MP3's, it was so great).
5. Screen sensitivity. Not really as fluid as the SGS. I think this may be down to me just used to the Samsung timing on the screen.
What I like about it:
1. The screen. Love the resolution! It makes a difference, and I think this was one of its saving grace for me keeping the phone.
2. Battery life. Significantly better than the SGS, and this is with all my 12 email accounts on PUSH and everything.
3. The build! I like its slightly heavy build. I won't buy a phone without Gorilla Glass ever again. My previous SGS was thrown so many times (at full force) by my kid and it still rocks! My wife has it now.
4. Fingerprint scanner. Not perfect, but why can't all phone have this?! It is just so logical.
5. The speaker on this phone is nice, I can listen to rock music and hear a lot more things than my SGS.
---
Please Motorola, give us 2.3.4/2.3.5 already! Or at least dangle a carrot in front of us (tell us when!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Points 2, 3, 5 on your dislike section easily fixed with custom ROM.....
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
wintermute000 said:
Points 2, 3, 5 on your dislike section easily fixed with custom ROM.....
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After I have rully charged my phone, I will endeavour to get the latest CM7 on it sir. A pity about the fingerprint scanner, but not a dealbreaker for me.
Also, found out that because this is running a Tegra 2 processor, it's very picky with media files. Can't seem to play a lot of the MP4/MKV files I use to play easily with the SGS.
Yes, I would say the biggest problem with the Atrix is movie codec support. Coming from a Captivate myself I envisioned downloading a nice 720p movie, tossing it on the phone and playing it on my bigscreen. Not so. Hardware accelerated codecs are awful, it'll basically playback SD DIVX and H.264 everything else requires transcoding. Personally I think this is why Android tablets lag so far behind the iPad, what use is a consumption device if you can't consume media?
I would recommend any Motorola with the OMAP dual core and non pentile display such as the Bionic or Atrix 2.

Who came from a nexus??

And how are you adapting?
Is the lock bootloader bothering you?, and how about the size of the phone?
is the development what you thought it would be?
And what made you jump ship?
thanks for the feed back!
chefb said:
And how are you adapting?
Is the lock bootloader bothering you?, and how about the size of the phone?
is the development what you thought it would be?
And what made you jump ship?
thanks for the feed back!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i came from the nexus and yes I am a bit sad that i cant flash whatever I want. But i am thankful at least we can flash roms.
Honestly, i bought the note 3 without doing any research, it wasnt until a few days after I found out that the bootloader was locked...which took me by surprise.
I dont regret it at all. To me, the galaxy nexus on verizon was probably one of the worst phones ever built. I am so glad to be done with it you have no idea. Living day to day with the nexus was painful. No amount of tweaks could save that crap phone. I am in heaven with the note 3 and its battery. Its actually kind of nice not having to flash something everyday in hope of improving my phone so its usable.
I also had the Galaxy Nexus, and while in general I liked it a lot, the battery life was pretty poor, and 4g/3g reception wasn't nearly as good as my wife's S4.
I debated upgrading for a while, but over Black Friday week-end, found a deal I couldn't refuse: Verizon lowered the price to $199, Comcast had a promotion giving a $200 PrePaid VISA card with the purchase of a new Verizon phone/Upgrade, and then I sold my Galaxy Nexus for $105 through Craigs List. Even with the upgrade fee and taxes, I netted $60 in the deal (assuming the $200 card comes in 4 weeks).
I never had the need to root/flash ROM's, etc., so my experience might be different from yours. But the GN3 is much, much smoother/quicker over all. The browsing experience is night and day better. Chrome works fine, and is incredibly quick. Battery Life is much better as well.
The screen size is much nicer for me, and yes the overall phone size is big, but not problematic. I use the basic TPU Case/Holster, and just put on the JLG Nano screen protector yesterday. Adds minimal size/weight, and keeps it protected and easily portable.
Radio reception remains to be determined as I haven't traveled much since getting it. Where I have been, it's been fine. Just took the OTA update yesterday, so can't yet evaluate what impact that had.
Bottom line - I am extremely pleased with this phone vs the GN I had - no regrets whatsoever (would feel the same even if I had to pay for it!).
I'm coming from the g-nex, and the N3 is far and away an incredibly, insanely superior device. Speed of the device, in general, is easily 3-4x faster, and with 3x the RAM, there's no comparison when it comes to multitasking. Features like multi-window and pen window put this phone light years ahead. Not to mention, the s pen features and technology are just amazing. This is the first time I've ever updated a device and felt like I've actually advanced 4 years in tech instead of 2.
Reception and the radios are vastly better - I haven't missed a single call yet whereas I'd miss calls pretty frequently with my gnex, and the 4G speeds are much better...but by far, most importantly, battery life is almost triple of what I could ever achieve on the gnex. I've regularly gotten 2-3 days of uptime on my N3 and can easily get 6-8 hours of screen on time. Insanity.
As for ROMs, the only reason why I installed ROMs on the nexus was to mod the nav keys, make the nav key background transparent, and a few other mods. With my N3 I feel absolutely no need to even install a ROM. Every single mod I ever wanted I've installed though xposed.
And I really though I'd hate not having nav keys (soft keys) after having them for two years, but now I actually much prefer NOT having them! The extra screen real estate is very nice, allowing full use of this huge display, and with xposed you can mod the capacitive keys, so my back key is now also my menu key when long pressed...no need for soft keys at all. Not only that, I have it so the keys are never lit so it's a very streamlined look, almost all display.
Hopefully on the Note 4, Samsung will finally ditch the physical home button and make it, too, capacitive. Then the device will look even that much more slick.
TL ; DR version: The N3 is light years ahead of the gnex in every imaginable aspect. A no-brainer; even at $300 it's WELL worth it coming from ANY previous-gen device.
All interesting. ...keep Em coming!
chefb said:
All interesting. ...keep Em coming!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bumpity bump
I too came from a Verizon G'nex, and I pretty much agree with everything that's been said so far. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Gnex...still do, as a matter of fact, but this phone is just superior in so many ways. I used to have to use 2 batteries just to get through a single day. Nowadays, I still have two batteries, but I've gone for entire days without ever having to switch them.
As far as development goes...I bought the phone, in large part, because of its stylus, and the various apps that come with it. Seeing as flashing anything based on AOSP would mean the loss of pen window, action memo, screen write etc, I would be unlikely to flash anything other than a Touchwiz-based rom in the first place, so SafeStrap is acceptable. Ideologically, of course, I hate the idea of a locked bootloader, but in practice it's not really that bad. I've flashed Beans' rom, and it looks like that's where I'll probably stay for a good long while. It's certainly nice, though, that the only reason I wanted to flash a new rom in the first place was to remove bloatware and take care of a few aesthetic concerns...flashing roms on the G'nex was more of a survival strategy to keep the phone working than a luxury. I felt like I was changing roms every two or three weeks on the G'nex due to some sort of performance or radio issue, and there's none of that with the Note 3.
Overall...it's a lovely, lovely phone, and an improvement over the G'nex in every possible way except for, perhaps, the locked bootloader. Some may gripe with its size, but I watch a lot of videos on my phone, and the screen is amazing for media viewing. The processor is good enough to handle literally anything you throw at it, with any codec, up to 1080p. I've come to expect that MX Player with the custom codec pack will play nearly anything, but I was sore amazed to find that the native video app can play most (not all, but most) MKV files, which allows you to do cool things like floating video. I've never had the phone slow down or stutter, even with multiple parallel app downloads going (which used to KILL the G'nex), and almost everything I didn't like initially can be patched with a few quick Xposed tweaks. So yeah...if you're hesitating about switching to this phone from a G'nex...don't. You'll love it and never want to look back.
there is a sticky for this discussion here ... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466108

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