Database Users

Buying a Nexus S or Atrix today, need advice

I am trying to decide between the Nexus S and Atrix. I change phones every six months, so longevitivty isn't a big issue for me. I like running the newest software, and love messing around with Roms, so that is a big reason I am considering the Nexus S. My big hang up is battery life. I use my phone a good bit for voice calls, and I don't like living'next to the charger. How is the battery life on the Nexus S? The Atrix has a 1950mah battery which is huge.
BTW, I'm a Xoom user and love it.
Any advice is appreciated.

Well, if you like the xoom, you will like the atrix. Yes, the atrix is a superior device in almost every aspect when it comes to hardware however, many reviews that put the atrix against the nexus s have the atrix as the loser. Bottom line is the atrix is not yet optimized for android 2.2. Maybe gingerbread but we wont know that until it's released for the atrix. Personally, I think the nexus s has a way better look to it but that's just me. The camera on the nexus s does a better job and I beleive it's now 720p. Stock android 2.3 vs motoblur and most people will take stock android any day over motoblur. Most menu's are faster on the nexus s and again, it's more optimized on android right now. Now, with the atrix, you will get the sweet tegra games which do look amazing. Then theirs super AMOLED vs the QHD rez. I would take the super AMOLED any day as most would. Then their is t-mobile vs at&t. Yes, you can now buy the nexus s with at&t 3g on-line (Nergi Electronics) Just rambeling but my 2 cents. Hope this helps.

Hey just wanted to give you a little info about the nexus s. flat out IM IN LOVE lol this phone is amazing can't cry about really anything. but on this phone its got no sdcard slot we do get 14gb lol its supposed to be 16gb but I got over it haha. The battery is really good I loved it for the first 4 days then I started flashing rom's and of course you'll have to figure out which kernel fits your needs. like if you want to have your phone overclocked so fast it fly's out of your hands lol and sacrifice battery then that's you or you could underclock just enough and still get a overall great speedy rom. But I do miss one thing when I left my HTC evo was the sense but soon hopefully some great development will port it soon but I would hands down go for the nexus s. I have a friend that is a manager at Radioshack and I played with the atrix and wasn't feeling Motorola products to much its always trouble getting the hooked up. But the computer dock crap is cool but that's even more money and that's what I would only get it for but good luck on your choice my friend test both out and read reviews before purchaseing them to get a better example huhmm? Lol
PS: sorry for the big text hahaha
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Like the other poster reminded me I can't stand moto blur (personal preference) lol but that I would also take plain Jane before that again and the phone is just sweet get it hahahaha ;-)
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

The best advice I can give is to YouTube both devices and figure out which one fits your needs. I honestly never tried the Atrix so I can't compare the two.
Definitely the selling point of the NS is software and its screen (at least in my opinion).
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

OuncE718 said:
The best advice I can give is to YouTube both devices and figure out which one fits your needs. I honestly never tried the Atrix so I can't compare the two.
Definitely the selling point of the NS is software and its screen (at least in my opinion).
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
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And ability to unlock bootloader very easily.
It's as simple as this:
if you want to mod your phone: Nexus S
dont want to mod: atrix [however you'll have to deal with motoblur... although gingerblur doesnt seem that awful... but the locked bootloaders is something you'll have to deal with / kernel / recovery / etc / list of problems go on and on]
just check their dev section: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=997

I talk on my nexus a lot... leave wifi on all day and gps too. Have 2 accounts syncing gmail and calendar. On top of all that I'm in an area where I constantly get weak signal and the battery life is pretty good.

Just the other day I did several phone calls, recorded two videos, uploaded them to YouTube then posted them to my fb page, used Maps, tons of txts, sent kik messages all day, use the internet all day. That was a 16hr 45min day on battery (and it wasn't dead when i threw it back on the charger.)
Hows that for good battery life

I know a few people who got Atrix's on launch day and they returned them within the first week. I bought the Nexus S for myself, my wife, and convinced my dad to get one as well. None of us have ever considered returning it.

Hands down the nexus s don't waste your time with that moto blurr bull****
the nexus s is faster looks better and will always get the first updates

I can tell you that atrix is a POS. I had it and it was just wonky feeling and slow as hell. I got the HTC Inspire the other day but just bought the Unlocked Nexus S that is now available for AT&T. Can't wait to use this puppy.

Holy ****. I am getting the nexus s than. Do you get this battery stock or with custom rom?
Risi2112 said:
Just the other day I did several phone calls, recorded two videos, uploaded them to YouTube then posted them to my fb page, used Maps, tons of txts, sent kik messages all day, use the internet all day. That was a 16hr 45min day on battery (and it wasn't dead when i threw it back on the charger.)
Hows that for good battery life
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Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

I definitely agree with battery life. Nexus S has far superior battery life than any I've used. Personally I have not owned Atrix but I've played around with it at Best Buy so I can't speak its battery life but I can say that I found Atrix's UI to be quite sluggish. I can tell it's not optimized for Android. The Nexus S has very snappy UI, I can tell Google optimized this phone very well with the hardware. I do get 16+ hours with heavy internet and video usage and 20+ hours with normal daily usage. I'm very happy with this phone.

ashirian said:
I definitely agree with battery life. Nexus S has far superior battery life than any I've used. Personally I have not owned Atrix but I've played around with it at Best Buy so I can't speak its battery life but I can say that I found Atrix's UI to be quite sluggish. I can tell it's not optimized for Android. The Nexus S has very snappy UI, I can tell Google optimized this phone very well with the hardware. I do get 16+ hours with heavy internet and video usage and 20+ hours with normal daily usage. I'm very happy with this phone.
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It has nothing to do with optimization. It's just simply because its a "Pure Google" experience. No bloat by the carrier or manufacturer.
For Atrix.. it does, 2.2 is not built towards MultiCPUs, and it doesn't help it has MOTOBLUR on top of it slowing it down. Not to mention AT&T is crippling Atrix's HSUPA (Upload)

zephiK said:
It has nothing to do with optimization. It's just simply because its a "Pure Google" experience. No bloat by the carrier or manufacturer.
For Atrix.. it does, 2.2 is not built towards MultiCPUs, and it doesn't help it has MOTOBLUR on top of it slowing it down. Not to mention AT&T is crippling Atrix's HSUPA (Upload)
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I truly beleive that the atrix is not optimized. I think that when we see it optimized, we will see a really fast phone. We already know that tegra games run like butter on it and the tegra games are pretty intense. Overall, I think the nexus s has a WAY better design and is way sexier. Yes, the nexus s does pictures better than the atrix but then there is the no 720p thing on the NS which is a BIG bummer! Decisions decisions... Also, you can download an optimized version of Qik from the market that does video chat which is pretty nice as I use Qik with most of my friends. I know the t-mobile people can get the Qik with video off the market too. Not sure if this will work for at&t customers with the 850/1900 NS that was just released. Also, the atrix has pretty good battery life too. Especially after it's latest update.

Raspster said:
I truly beleive that the atrix is not optimized. I think that when we see it optimized, we will see a really fast phone. We already know that tegra games run like butter on it and the tegra games are pretty intense. Overall, I think the nexus s has a WAY better design and is way sexier. Yes, the nexus s does pictures better than the atrix but then there is the no 720p thing on the NS which is a BIG bummer! Decisions decisions... Also, you can download an optimized version of Qik from the market that does video chat which is pretty nice as I use Qik with most of my friends. I know the t-mobile people can get the Qik with video off the market too. Not sure if this will work for at&t customers with the 850/1900 NS that was just released. Also, the atrix has pretty good battery life too. Especially after it's latest update.
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I agreed with you that Atrix its not optimized. It's not optimized because, Motorola can't optimize MultiCPUs unless they build scratch code from AOSP. Only Google is capable of doing this.
The Nexus S also have good battery life as well. I mean, I don't think battery life is justifiable for performance.
In my opinion, I believe that the Nexus S is the winner out of this simply because the customer has more freedom on what they want to do with their device. Freedom in terms of Custom ROMs, Custom Kernel, Recovery, and more. And a better reliable network, T-Mobile (varies between location).

zephiK said:
I agreed with you that Atrix its not optimized. It's not optimized because, Motorola can't optimize MultiCPUs unless they build scratch code from AOSP. Only Google is capable of doing this.
The Nexus S also have good battery life as well. I mean, I don't think battery life is justifiable for performance.
In my opinion, I believe that the Nexus S is the winner out of this simply because the customer has more freedom on what they want to do with their device. Freedom in terms of Custom ROMs, Custom Kernel, Recovery, and more. And a better reliable network, T-Mobile (varies between location).
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Ohwell, there's always the Nexus 3! Which I'm sure Google will have multi-core's in it! I just ordered the Nexus S with the at&t 3G bands (locked into at&t) plus I get 30% off thru my job. I'll report back to you guys with my finding on the 850/1900 band NS which I'm sure I will be happy with.

Raspster said:
Ohwell, there's always the Nexus 3! Which I'm sure Google will have multi-core's in it! I just ordered the Nexus S with the at&t 3G bands (locked into at&t) plus I get 30% off thru my job. I'll report back to you guys with my finding on the 850/1900 band NS which I'm sure I will be happy with.
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What's the code you have through your job to get that discount
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

LoveisPeace2012 said:
What's the code you have through your job to get that discount
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Lmao. I wish he would give up the code.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

Posting such a thread in the Nexus S section, you're always going to get the Nexus S fanboys rubbishing the Atrix D). I personally have both phones, and I'm currently using my Moto Atrix.
Comments about Blur aside (yes its crap but!) you can replace the stock launcher with what ever you want (Its not valid reason not to buy the Atrix). Personally, I'm using the Gingerbread launcher made by Modaco and its bl00dy brilliant and certainly not sluggish.
The fact of the matter is if you're looking for a phone thats going to be current for the next 12 months, then get the Atrix. If you want a phone that has a vibrant screen and google updates (plus user unlockable bootloader to load ROMs every day and twice on Sundays) then get the Nexus S.
My sum up of positives and negatives of both phones are as follows:
Nexus S:
Positives -
(1) Nice screen (deep blacks and colour rich)
(2) Latest google Android OS releases (hardware permitting)
(3) Reasonable battery life (I generally get about 18 hrs of moderate use before a recharge)
(4) $599 price tag (outright)
(5) Unlimited ROM modding potential
Negatives -
(1) No gorilla glass (scratches easy and the oleophobic coating does wear off after a while - I have had 2 replacement phones because of this, and my 3rd has a screen protector on it which defeats the purpose)
(2) Back cover is glossy and scratches easy
(3) The camera displays a pinkish centre when taking photos of white sand, snow, anything with white backgrounds.
(4) 16Gb onboard and no expansion
(5) The body creeks - but its a Samsung
(6) Dropped calls after 5 minutes have been fixed in 2.3.3, but I still get the odd one dropping at the 5min mark
(7) Sometimes when typing in a phone number the press->response time/beep noise is delayed..
(8) I love Angry Birds, and there is lag in the game on certain levels..
(9) My Nexus One has more accessible RAM :-(
(10) Where's the accessories??????????? Not even a decent cradle!
(11) No HDMI out.
(12) Can't play AVI files straight out of the box - Need Rockplayer
(13) To replace the scratched battery cover, have to buy a min of 3 covers from some dodgy Chinese online outlet..
Motorola Atrix (I have the Bell Canada version)
Positives -
(1) 16Gb internal + 32Gb expansion
(2) Fast processor (and you feel it opening apps - theres literally no delays, especially the camera, browser, SMS and phone functions)
(3) No lag in games - especially Angry Birds (even AB Rio is silky smooth)
(4) Tegra II specially coded games
(5) Screen resolution is 960x540
(6) 1Gb Ram, of which you see around 515Mb on boot up
(7) Loads of accessories available now!
(8) HDMI out, and the cradle works sweeeeeet
(9) Plays AVI files out of the box using the standard video player
(10) Gorilla glass (YAY!)
(11) Rear cover doesn' scratch easily - and you can buy them in the shops
(12) Phone feels robust and solid - no body squeeks.
(13) 4G capable (AT&T version)
(14) Gingerbread is coming!
(15) I generally get 2 days out of a full charge with moderate use
(16) Is also $599 outright
Negatives -
(1) Locked bootloader (but you can still root and sideload stuff)
(2) Screen is not SAMOLED (typical SLCD)
(3) Not yet released in Australia
(4) Blur sucks (but can be replaced)
(5) Motorola isn't known for providing good support
(6) The odd wifi drop when coming out of sleep
These are my personal experiences. Others may vary.
For me, the ultimate phone would be in the form of the Atrix, but with a Nexus S user unlockable bootloader, SAMOLED 960x540 screen and Gingerbread. Really, thats all I would change.
Cheers

Pros/Cons of U8800

Hi there, this is my first post and I have an interest in this phone. Can owners of this phone please briefly state the pros and cons of this device as it would be a real help for me (and others) to decide whether I purchase this phone or not.
I will create a list in the next post weighing out all the good and the not so good features of this phone.
Thanks in advance!

List of Pros/cons
The list so far:
Pros:
- Great value
- Very fast 2nd Gen Snapdragon CPU which is easily overclockable
- Adreno 205 GPU (very good graphics)
- 512mb RAM
- 2gb Internal memory
- Large 3.8" WVGA screen
- 3g / HSDPA / Wi-Fi b/g/n / Bluetooth / GPS
- 5mp Camera with 720p HD recording
- Parts are cheap to replace (batteries, chargers etc.)
- Feature packed
- Decent battery (personal preference)
Cons:
- Bulky
- Not the best aesthetics (personal preference)
- Low quality components (crappy Bluetooth, Mic, Camera, Internal Memory and Poor touchscreen/multi-touch implementation)
- Android 2.2 (However, you can easily flash a stable 2.3.5 Rom)
- Lack of knowledge/customer support from Huawei[
- Branding (I'm being picky )

only thing i could call a con and that's really stretching it is it's relative bulkiness.

No dual core

Actually Android 2.2 is pretty old already, that would be a bad thing. But we already have a stable 2.3.5-ROM so it is no big deal at all. Not the best aesthetics? I think it looks pretty expensive if you ask me. The galaxy s of a friend of mine does not look any better than the u8800. As far as I know the camera is not that great, and the megapixel do not provide any information about the quality (my old camera with 3MP makes better photos than any phonecamera, simply because it has a real object lens and a bigger sensor).
In my opinion the real advantage of this device is that you get the speed of devices that cost twice as much. Of course those devices have a much bigger screen, do not forget that.
There is one situation in which the processor will be too slow: Playing some n64-games; for example Zelda - Ocarina of time is not really enjoyable. Also the screen is almost too small if you do use the touchscreen-controls (you can use a ps3 controller).
Lack of prestige? You gotta be kidding, right?
If you have the money for the u8800, go get it. If you have slightly more money you can go for a used galaxy s. I would have bought the galaxy s but I wanted a phone with 2 years warranty. If you have a lot more money you could be a galaxy s 2 for example, it will have a dualcore (no problems with emulating n64, that i can assure you) and a bigger screen.

XphX said:
Actually Android 2.2 is pretty old already, that would be a bad thing. But we already have a stable 2.3.5-ROM so it is no big deal at all. Not the best aesthetics? I think it looks pretty expensive if you ask me. The galaxy s of a friend of mine does not look any better than the u8800. As far as I know the camera is not that great, and the megapixel do not provide any information about the quality (my old camera with 3MP makes better photos than any phonecamera, simply because it has a real object lens and a bigger sensor).
In my opinion the real advantage of this device is that you get the speed of devices that cost twice as much. Of course those devices have a much bigger screen, do not forget that.
There is one situation in which the processor will be too slow: Playing some n64-games; for example Zelda - Ocarina of time is not really enjoyable. Also the screen is almost too small if you do use the touchscreen-controls (you can use a ps3 controller).
Lack of prestige? You gotta be kidding, right?
If you have the money for the u8800, go get it. If you have slightly more money you can go for a used galaxy s. I would have bought the galaxy s but I wanted a phone with 2 years warranty. If you have a lot more money you could be a galaxy s 2 for example, it will have a dualcore (no problems with emulating n64, that i can assure you) and a bigger screen.
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Thanks for your input. Updated list accordingly.

XphX said:
Lack of prestige? You gotta be kidding, right?
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Just to clarify, from lack of prestige, I meant it as if somebody asks you what phone you have, and you say Huawei U8800, they'd probably think that you have a cheap chinese model. It's not really a big thing for many people but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Pro:
- Good specs for the price
- Good battery life on 2.3.5 (unofficial)
Con:
- Low quality components (crappy Bluetooth, Mic, Camera, Internal Memory - big but useless without hacking)
- Real problems with official Froyo Roms, which should have never go out on the market with so many bugs/issues (not going to sleep properly, unstable wifi etc etc)
- No official Gingerbread support, even Huawei actually owns the 2.3.5. license
- Lack of knowledge/customer support from Huawei (if you have an issue, they replace the handset and you get an identical handset with the same problem)
I would like to say, that this phone would have been one of the biggest fails on the market, if there was no support from excellent developers.
It's only because of people like Dzo, Stockwell and Genokolar, that I didn't throw this phone in the bin.
Huawei is fresh in the phone manufacturing industry and this handset reflects this aspect loud and clear. This is why no one really heard about it...

huawei is everything but fresh in the phone industry

darkado said:
huawei is everything but fresh in the phone industry
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I said phone manufacturing, not telecommunications (I know that they are major manufacturer of WCDMA backbone and access network elements), there is a small difference...

katu2006 said:
I said phone manufacturing, not telecommunications (I know that they are major manufacturer of WCDMA backbone and access network elements), there is a small difference...
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Thanks for your input. It's very disappointing that you get such a great value smartphone which is spoiled by basic features and low quality components. I'm really doubting if I should get this now.

everybody has a set of pros and cons on this phone, and i dont think its a good idea to make ur buying/non-buying decision purely basing on others comments..
for me, its only mattering "pro" is the high price-performance ratio..
(and one more now, after seeing such an active on-going development effort to make this phone better..)
and no "con" at all (as this is what i expect from a product of this price..)
thus if u think single-core cpu is a "con", no official support is a "con", little brand recognition (outside china) is a "con", u can alway pay a few bucks more to get dual-core, famous-branded models..
and honestly speaking, this phone is indeed NOT intended for everybody..
its just not as idiot-proof as iphone (as with most android phones..), not as good-looking (to some) as sensation, not as ego-boosting as sgs2, etc..
but its definitely easier to hack with, to manipulate with, and to brick with (not sure on this point though, as more flexibility does not necessarily imply easier brickability..)..
imho, its more suitable if u r the kind of person who would like to play with android instead of just using it..
as usual, the above represent my opinion only..

OP, just tell us what you are looking for and how much money you want to spend.

XphX said:
OP, just tell us what you are looking for and how much money you want to spend.
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Between £150 - £200 is my budget. The U8800 is more towards the lower end of my budget and as I can get it at that price brand new, it is quite appealing. However, you can get other phones like a second hand Galaxy S for a bit more while still being within reach of my budget.
What I'm looking for is killer hardware as well as a good community which makes the phone easily hackable and 'tweakable.' Regarding the U8800, it has exactly what I'm looking for at the price point but if it falls short of basic things like the touch screen, then what can you do. Being a previous ZTE Blade owner, I was extremely impressed as basic functions were not sacrificed.

There are a lot of people that switched from the Blade to the U8800 and are quite happy it seems. I think you do not have much choices here - luckily. You can either get the galaxy s or the U8800, as you already said yourself.
If the galaxy s is in a good condition and if you can live with a phone that has no warranty anymore, I'd say go for it. For me, none of my phones ever had any hardware-problem, so I could have easily bought all of them in used condition.
It is just that buying something off ebay is risky. I do buy little stuff there every now and then, but no expensive stuff - if the seller just lies about a "little" problem and you want to return it, you probably won't see your money again. If a friend of yours sells you his used galaxy s, take it. That would be the best choice in my opinion. Either get a galaxy s that you can inspect and try out before you buy it or go for the u8800.
katu2006 said:
Low quality components (crappy Bluetooth, Mic, Camera, Internal Memory - big but useless without hacking)
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Bluetooth was reported to be problematic, yes; some people reporting it to be fine (I just use the headset sometimes and it works perfectly well). Mic also works perfectly fine for me. Camera is not as good as with other handsets, yes. It takes 10 minutes to make the memory useable, but I admit, what Huawei did there makes not even sense.
katu2006 said:
Real problems with official Froyo Roms
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Froyo does not matter to me as it already is old and I would not recommend anybody to buy this phone if he wants to install Froyo.
katu2006 said:
No official Gingerbread support
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That with Gingerbread is a shame, right now I hope for support in the future. Worst case: You won't get the new features... but: it works fast and stable already, so you won't miss more than the new features (whatever they are and will be...).
katu2006 said:
Lack of knowledge/customer support from Huawei
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Instead we got the community. As long as everybody stays here at xda-devs or at modaco we will get support. When everybody leaves in one year or maybe in two, then you are pretty much f...on your own. On the other hand, in a year all the problems should be sorted out.
katu2006 said:
this phone would have been one of the biggest fails on the market, if there was no support from excellent developers
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Exactly, and now it is a fast and stable phone with android 2.3.5 - at least for me it works perfectly well.

Noob here....
I have this phone and bought it about 3 weeks ago. It's my first smartphone and did a little research on the reviews.
From my perspective, being a total noob, so far I've been really happy with the X5. Sure, battery life is horrible and the camera could be better but I've managed to take some nice shots and some OK video. For me it's great to have this capability in my pocket and liberating to be able to catch up on the day's news and podcasts siting by the pond in the backyard in the morning.
Strangely perhaps I haven't been having problems with the reported wifi problems nor any problems with the Hi Suite software from Huawei.
I have had a couple of little glitches but nothing a quick re-boot hasn't fixed.
My first android has exceeded my expectations but I come from a point of nothingness.
Towards the end of it's 1 year warranty I plan doing all what seems to be the fun things to do like rooting and other fiddling around
Even after reading about the X5 shortfalls I'm still happy with what I have and don't feel inferior at this stage.
I bought the phone for $AUD260. Have spent around $25 on apps and around a further $25 on accessories...like extra mini USB cables for my various stations where I can charge the phone, a in-car charger just in case, a case and some screen protectors.
I've been having fun on my X5 and that's what it all comes down to for me.

seems this phone doesn't support UMTS 850/1900Mhz
so it may only use 2G data service in North American

policeman0077 said:
seems this phone doesn't support UMTS 850/1900Mhz
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Someone said that he got an answer about that from Huawei and they told him they just forgot to write this on the description page... someone could try it out to make it clear.
Clevo89 said:
Sure, battery life is horrible
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Hold on, I get 2-3 days of standby when I do only use the phone for about 1 hour calling per day and about 20-50 sms per day. If I play n64 or something it lasts a day, maybe another half day. Actually this is the best battery life I ever encountered with a handset. I use 2.3.5 which seems to have a good battery management and SetCPU has 245min and 806max, scaling conservative.

XphX said:
Someone said that he got an answer about that from Huawei and they told him they just forgot to write this on the description page... someone could try it out to make it clear.
Hold on, I get 2-3 days of standby when I do only use the phone for about 1 hour calling per day and about 20-50 sms per day. If I play n64 or something it lasts a day, maybe another half day. Actually this is the best battery life I ever encountered with a handset. I use 2.3.5 which seems to have a good battery management and SetCPU has 245min and 806max, scaling conservative.
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You're exaggerating with 3 days... The most I ever got on this phone is 51h and that without using it at all, mostly on stand by the whole time...And I've tried ALL Roms available till today.
I'm 100% sure that NOBODY got 72 h of this phone.
You probably didn't had many phones and don't have a good term of comparison...This phone has average battery life and only on Gingerbread Roms. On any Froyo Roms, you'll be lucky to get 20 h out of it.

Pros:
If you can root it and install a good ROM, it can become really fast, faster than many android phones (except dual core).
Very nice price.
It seems expensive and has a really sturdy exterior. The screen crystal is also very hard and resistant to scratches.
It is fully featured (sensors, very nice screen, high resolution, etc).
I had not the slightest problem with any of its subparts (bluetooth, GPS, camera). (Maybe I am lucky, though).
If you root it and install a good ROM, video recording becomes very good.
If you dont play with it all the time, battery lasts for one day or two.
You catch friends with iPhones 1 and 3G looking at it with envy.
You catch friends with iPhones 4 looking at you with envy, as soon as they hear its price and find out about the prices of apps at android market. (They paid for many of the apps you will get free).
Cons:
As with all smartphones, if you play demanding 3D games, in 2-3 hours you will need to find a wall socket (so this is not really a con).
Something with the multitouch doesn't seem perfect. I don't know why.
It's not an iPhone.
It has not a dual core CPU.
It's not a tablet.
If you are amongst some friends with iPhones, you will still not have one.
Conclusion: I am very happy with the X5. My wife wants to steal it from me, and she plays with it all the time. She already has finished many games on it (Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio, Diversion, Cut the Rope and others). I managed to read two books on it, while on vacations.
It was a good buy.

Worth upgrade to Atrix 4G?

Hey guys, i want to hear your opinions
Im a Samsung Vibrant user, and im very happy with my phone, but lately, i have been considering upgrading to a dual core phone because im starting to feel my phone a little laggy. I have my Vibrant updated to ICS, and it runs pretty good (better than with CM7 or any GB rom made for the Vibrant), but it still feels a little laggy. I have been considering the Atrix as a choice to upgrade, but im not so sure if its worth the upgrade.
I have seen tons of videos on YouTube, but all of them are reviewing the Atrix with Froyo, and i consider Froyo to be VERY slow and laggy compared to GB or ICS. I have also seen a few comparison with other devices like the SGS2, but again, all of them are comparing a device using Froyo with one using GB, so its not fair.
I wan't to hear from you guys in your experience:
1) How is the overall daily experience with the Atrix? Lagless? (On GB and on ICS please)
2) How active is the deving community for the Atrix 4G?
3) How long the battery lasts on the Atrix?
4) How far is ICS deved for the Atrix right now? Is it fully functional? Is it good enough to use it as a daily driver? The Vibrant have an almost fully working ICS. Everything works on the Vibrant, even some things that doesn't work well on GB (Lol).
5) You guys think its worth the upgrade? Or maybe should i go for something else?
What im looking for: SMOOTH AS SILK daily experience. (That's why im looking for dual core devices) 0 Lag. (i know its impossible 0, but you know what i mean ). Good battery life. Nice screen (i know it won't be better than the Vibrant's SUPER AMOLED screen, but im willing to give it up just for the sake of smoothness).
Give me your opinions guys. Thanks for reading and expressing your opinions! Everyone's opinion counts!

We have several threads about this already, I say wait for the galaxy 3
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

The Atrix 4G is a great phone, thats my personal opinion. The battery life is amazing, lag is non-existent on all the CM7 based ROMS I've used (Using Neutrino EE for the time being) ICS is not fully functional yet - but will be in time. Most the questions you are asking could be answered by reading some of the threads here. It all boils down to personal preference...

msd24200 said:
We have several threads about this already, I say wait for the galaxy 3
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, If I were you, I would wait for galaxy 3. There won't be a stable version of cm9 for the Atrix for quite some time. There's a version of cm9 that someone is working now and it's getting closer and closer to being stable but it won't be any time soon.

Galaxy s3 might be better than atrix
but it will also probably be $300 with 2 year activation when it comes out the first week or so
On the other hand, you can pick up an atrix used no contrct from about $150 to $250 depending where you buy it and in what condition
My stock 2.3.4 rooted debloated atrix running clemsyn's kernel and the 2.3.6 radio is blazing fast, no lag unless I'm doing something super intense, and the battery lasts me from noon til I come home with constant use
I have used a Vibrant AND Captivate, and this phone is in a whole different league. Same screen size much smaller handset, faster processor, way more memory of both kinds, and plenty of stuff to play with [webtop, hdmi out, fingerprint sensor, tegra 2 gpu]
Go for it, there is no better phone really, and it has a notification LED WHICH the galaxy series doesn't have even if it is so expensive.
Gingerbread stock and CM7 are super smooth, no lag.
I don't really have an opinion about ICS. To be honest, I am not really interested in it and will probably stay on the Atrix until my upgrade allows it or something that actually seems like an improvement [half a gigahertz, a few mb of memory, a half inch of screen, those are not true upgrades]

I'd say ---
if you were getting a new 2 year contract, get something else.
If you just want to upgrade the phone you have now, I bet you can find an atrix for $150 on CL, then barter down to $100 -- which is a STEAL for the atrix

The Atrix is a very good device with good battery life and a overall satisfactory user experience. The handset feels solid and GB is smooth with many ROM's to choose from. But like others had stated, there are better things out right now. I would look elsewhere for something newer with guaranteed ICS in the near future. You have the Skyrocket, Galaxy Note, and others to look at.
Sent from Rob's Atrix

Thanks for all your opinions guys! Yeah, i agree that the SGS3 will be a way better option, but its waay more expensive and i can't afford it. Im buying the phone used.
So the daily experience with the Atrix is pretty smooth eh? How about how easily can i brick the Atrix flashing roms?
Also, i would like to hear more opinions
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Bricking the Atrix is as risky as any other device when using CWM, RSDLite is an entirely different (and imho, most people should only use to unlock bootloader).

The only thing that brick an Atrix is the user itself, when they don't read everything or take shortcuts. There is a one click root and one click unlock available. How much easier do you want it. Most of the brick happens when they flash a ROM without unlocking the bootloader, start the process on a low battery, or try to revert back to Froyo from GB which is not possible once you are on GB. When you do this its an automatic brick. But as long as you follow instruction to the letter, it's easy and safe. Even using RSDLite is very easy, again, when you follow the instructions.
Sent from Rob's Atrix

Also once you have ROM manager installed and ROMracer over it. Switching ROMs is very easy. I tried DarkSide,Neutrino, Redpill and Redpill Hybrid with no issues, just remember to do a full wipe in between.
Sent from Rob's Atrix

The Atrix is my first smartphone I've had, but I did a ton of research before picking it up. It's been about 6 months now that I've had it, and from all the complaints that I've heard from others of nearly all of other phones (with the exception of a few here and there), it sounds like I made the best choice I could in getting the Atrix.
Runs everything flawlessly. Tons of memory. 32GB expansion slot. I've never come across an app that the phone couldn't run. and on top of all that, modded, this thing is essentially unstoppable and I don't think any phone even comes close to comparing once it's modded.
1) How is the overall daily experience with the Atrix? Lagless? (On GB and on ICS please)
I don't have any experience with ICS, but on GB, it was barely noticable.
2) How active is the deving community for the Atrix 4G?
The dev's are basically working around the clock, and the options of modding are seemingly endless.
3) How long the battery lasts on the Atrix?
With background data on and slight-to-moderate use, about 24 hours. Without background data on and slight-to-moderate use, 45-50 hours.
4) How far is ICS deved for the Atrix right now? Is it fully functional? Is it good enough to use it as a daily driver? The Vibrant have an almost fully working ICS. Everything works on the Vibrant, even some things that doesn't work well on GB (Lol).
ICS is definitely well on it's way, and everyday it seems to get picked apart more and more by devs.
5) You guys think its worth the upgrade? Or maybe should i go for something else?
Absolutely go with the Atrix. It's about as smooth as you can get. With Cyanogen, I've never had anything even slightly slow down.

Coming from the Vibrant/T-Mobile, the GPS works! The phone is fast because of dual core goodness. Phone call quality is ok though. Dual core plus custom ROM equal fast! You can't go wrong with the galaxy s 2 as well. If you can find this for $150, do it!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Oh guys, im about to go with the Atrix, seems to be a pretty good phone.
What about the LG Optimus G2X?? Have anyone had any experience with this phone??
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

djluis48 said:
Oh guys, im about to go with the Atrix, seems to be a pretty good phone.
What about the LG Optimus G2X?? Have anyone had any experience with this phone??
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOOOOOOOO DO NOT go with the G2X. A quick google search will detail you the plethora of issues that phone has had since it's launch, relaunch, and re-relaunch.
Between the two, go with the Atrix. IMO.

Don't get this phone. Get a phone that will be supported for a while. Moto ditched this phone like a red headed step child.
Do some research to find what phones are the "flagships" of the carriers/manufacturers

Why haven't anybody talk about the Tegra 2? lol, Is a powerful one in front of other phones.

Theres always something new and faster comming out. It depends what you are gonna use the phone mainly for, gamming, business, or just your basic personal use. The atrix is a good phone that someone can use it for a long time, for everything. There are many roms to choose from. I love the phone. I payed .01 cent with a renewed contract. ( got me and the wife one. ( refurb) Its alot better than my old aria. The screen isnt too damn big, yet it isnt too small. It suports flash, which the aria didnt. its a dual core, which alot of phones out there are not, for a good price.
It depends how much you can afford too. the most expensive phone isnt always the best. ( hell look at the iphone, its so over rated.)
and the atrix is very easy to unlock, etc
Go to your local store and check out the phones there. Thats what i do before i buy one, atrix has a good feel in your hand. better with an otterbox case too.
Good Luck.

First of all, if u love the brand of Motorola, you can choose the Atrix, because the Crystal Talk can make the phonecall much more clear, and also the 1880ma battery is monster enough for your daily using.
But you have to know that the most of the moto-phones cannot get a rapid or fresh official support, so the ICS we now could only rely on the CM-Dev, but happily we got MIUI support by MIUI.us for the alpha ROM.
The Atrix has a duel-core of tegra II, so I havn't got any lag in either offical rom or the third firmware ROM.
Although we don't have a huge number of users than Galaxy serial, but the dev-s are still working hard for us, that would be very kind of them.
So, Atrix, or not...
It all depends on U.
Good luck...

One thing that I like about the Atrix is the screen resolution compared to other smartphones such as GS2. The resolution for GS2 is 480X800 while the Atrix's resolution is much higher, 540X960. There are some games that take advantage of high resolution such as Plants vs Zombies HD and a few other games and the graphics look amazing.

[Q] Are you guys generally happy with the device?

Hello everyone! I'm just wondering if you guys are still generally happy with the device?
I was thinking about getting this phone because it has a keyboard, and it's relatively cheep from Amazon.co.uk.
I currently have a Samsung Galaxy Note, which I know to be a beast of a device, it has twice the ram, 3x more power, but really, I'm SO tired of typing on touch screens! it often makes me slower and I can't walk and type at the same time like how I used to when I was a blackberry user.
So my solution was buy a tablet, and then get a keyboarded phone.
Does this phone still work decently well in todays world? I don't do much except text, read forums and maybe browse the web a little (not too frequently). I often listen to music, but even those old 300mhz phones can do that!
So my question is: Are you guys still happy with this device?
Thanks

I have Kindle Fire and MS2 and I'm still happy with MS2.
With MS2Ginger rom, some voltage tweaks + overclocking and it run 3+ days on battery used only as communication device, without playing games. And still it's solid build, heavy device without any scratches after year of using.
But with 2.3 android and no activity in ICS development.

I honestly don't know why this device is in legacy because even though it's old, it's not that out of date spec wise. There are a lot of midrange devices that are the same...
Thanks for the advice. Is stock also a good contender?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Sure I am!
The down side is: Since I don't like stock rom (2.3.6) I have to put up with incompatibility issues using roms, minimal but still lol.
Overall its a flawless cellfone!
using CM9 (20120602)
*Now using CM7 from Endless7

zkyevolved said:
So my question is: Are you guys still happy with this device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just get mine off amazon this week and i have to say that i'm not impressed at all
it have nice keyboard, it is very well build - overall i think that hardware is very good
but i have to say that software is its downside, there is only handful of devs that still working on it, userbase is way to small for proper debugging and locked bootloader makes you think twice before any flash...
it could be great phone but i'm actually disappointed as it is exactly like my recently sold nokia n900 (well, a bit thinner ) nice hardware & not too bad soft but it lack hardware acceleration both flash and video, camera is ok but needs plenty of light, and my problems with gsm/3g/wifi make it highly unreliable as communication device - unfortunately i have to say that my 5+ years old symbian E71 is almost just as good in everyday use...

It's a dud, I'm experiencing keyboard failure after having it repaired under warranty for the same issue 6 months ago. The stock software is slow, the locked bootloader frustrated efforts to develop custom ROMs and the screen is too small.
And it was still the only decent keyboard phone I could get in Australia.

Hi
Just got mine recently from Amazon and even though it is pretty old already
I still prefer it over newer devices. I did have some pure touch screen devices
before and as well got just so annoyed not having a physical keyboard anymore.
Battery - is in my hands not great (2days max with average use) but then,
show me other smartphones which can do much longer - general trend I guess
Software - found the motorola blur pretty and sometimes very useful
(for example one message app fusing email, sms, twitter messages) but very slow as well
--> so I rooted + flashed with ms2ginger and used the deblur script from this forum, now everything is much smoother.
Being stuck with an older android version is not bothering me that much, I actually do have ICS on my transformer but dont experience so many advantages over the old version on the phone.
To sum up, good device especially for that price!

Yeah I gave it a try. I ordered it off of Amazon UK and it arrived on Monday. I tried it and sent it back on Tuesday. It was too slow. It lagged a lot on my contact list... to be fair though I do have thousands of contacts and most have pictures. But still...I couldn't get through the list. So I decided to stick with my galaxy note until a more powerful European keyboarded device comes out... it seems that blackberry will be the next one only because every company is going crazy on making devices thinner and thinner. To be honest I don't care if it's thin or not (14mm is a good size), I'd rather have a much larger battery in a modern phone than a slim device that lasts 3 hours screen on time!
Regardless, thanks for your help.
Salutations from Spain.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Ah a pity but I guess I would have done the same if I
experienced problems.
Nevertheless regarding the idea to wait for a new device with proper keyboard
I am a little bit pessimistic. More and more manufactures are stoping to produce them and I think just lately HTC decided as well to not produce them anymore
It seems that most people dont bother unfortunately.
The only major one left is Blackberry which me personally I dislike. Saw yesterday on Engadget a blurry shot of a new Motorola with keyboard though - maybe still some hope around ....
BTW @Bluepix: what clock speed do you use ? I am thrilled by your 4d and still 33% left

Bit of thread necromancy here..
Possible QWERTY replacements for Milestone 2 floating around as rumours. Obviously no idea if they will work outside of the US yet. Not like Motorola is putting out anything there anyway.
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q, some sort of SII with a smaller screen and odd looking QWERTY layout.
http://www.tmonews.com/2012/07/samsung-sgh-t699-coming-to-t-mobile-as-galaxy-s-blaze-q/
Pic here: http://www.tmonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Screen-Shot-2012-06-14-at-7.35.42-PM.jpg
This thing from LG
http://briefmobile.com/exclusive-mr-blurrycam-reveals-lg-ls860-and-some-specs
http://briefmobile.com/new-image-of-lg-ls860-and-specs-confirm-s4-cpu-and-nfc
And whatever the hell this is from Motorola. Someone suggested Photon Q: http://www.androidcentral.com/motorola-working-ics-slider-sprint
Personally hoping for some sort of Sidekick 4G sequel with more grunt and a decently sized screen. That thing looked dreamy in all its pictures <3

I'm happier now with CM 10.1, except for the camera.
The stock versions I used were pretty slower, CM runs much better now.

I like the phone in general as the keyboard etc.
But the sw is rubbish: lags hangs crashes even with the CM10
Sadly all the new phones seem to bee buggy as well so i have no idea how to fix this.
Trying the heavily modded rom if i figure out how to install it.

I am a very happy, but new apps want more and more power and RAM, and sometime it lag.. i try new phones its fast, but its stupidly huge, i hate those stupid huge phones, I want something fast from Motorola, maybe i ll buy it if its been a half good as Milestone 2

Milestone 2 is younger brother of milestone 1 (my old phone) and maybe it is not so prety like 1 but have more ram and no need to oc. But have keyboard and ergonomic and its great peace of solid work. Maybe new samsungs are beter but they also biger And tell me which samsung can survive crash on ground at 120 km/h ? MILESTONE CAN

The phone to me is a big step in the phone I use to have which was the t-mobile comet.. but I'm very happy with the device. When it came into the mail, I was very excited and I love this phone to this day. I just need an extended battery though other than that. I love it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

ullivilli said:
Trying the heavily modded rom if i figure out how to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have to root your phone, bootstrap it and install bootmenue and recovery. from there you have to restore the nandroid (cause thats the format the rom is made in).
read the threads in the root and dev. section of this forum.... it's not very complicated.
___________________________________________________
but to answer the topic question:
show me a device with hw keyboard and a better performance than the ms2 and i will buy it. -> there is no alternative this time at market. it's a shame.....

I am very happy too with the Milestone 2. God bless we can only softbrick this device, so some experiments with different roms are not neckbraking. The hardware keyboard is very good, very smooth writing possible. I would buy it again ,for this price you will get a quality phone"micropc".
Greets
Gesendet von meinem A953 mit Tapatalk 2

[Q] Redmi note 3G or 4G ?

Hi,
I wanted to buy Redme Note but I can not decide between 3G and 4G, I thought it is best to ask those who have experienced using this phone. For me supporting 4g is not very important, but I would like to have the best performance and battery life and I very much like my phone to be supported by developers . here are some questions I think is important:
1) which of these 2 (3g or 4g version) is better supported with custom roms or kernels? (considering one is mediatek and another is snapdragon)
2) is it true that this phone can not have a custom kernel because kernel sources are not being released ?
3) I saw antutu benchmarks for these 2 phones, MTK cpu should be higher than MSM one(which is normal considering the fact that one is 8core), but RAM score on the 3g was about 3K and on 4g 1.5K !!! is this a problem with first miui build or with 4g variant ?
4) won't the MTK variant, drain battery faster in daily use or gets hotter ?
5) considering all aspect which do you prefer ?
thank you in advance for helping me out

just a few days old
ehsan_zt said:
Hi,
I wanted to buy Redme Note but I can not decide between 3G and 4G, I thought it is best to ask those who have experienced using this phone. For me supporting 4g is not very important, but I would like to have the best performance and battery life and I very much like my phone to be supported by developers . here are some questions I think is important:
1) which of these 2 (3g or 4g version) is better supported with custom roms or kernels? (considering one is mediatek and another is snapdragon)
2) is it true that this phone can not have a custom kernel because kernel sources are not being released ?
3) I saw antutu benchmarks for these 2 phones, MTK cpu should be higher than MSM one(which is normal considering the fact that one is 8core), but RAM score on the 3g was about 3K and on 4g 1.5K !!! is this a problem with first miui build or with 4g variant ?
4) won't the MTK variant, drain battery faster in daily use or gets hotter ?
5) considering all aspect which do you prefer ?
thank you in advance for helping me out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know how you feel, Ive been debating the same question for the last few weeks, here is the basic skinny as I have understood things..
as far as performance most reviews seem to point to the fact that overall the 3g has better overall performance but the gap between them isnt that high as to make a noticeable difference.... for me the main question was support how long with miui support the 3g version now there is a g4??
when i was in the store i tried both devices and I just felt that all though the 4g is quicker for internet the3g just seems to feel somehow more powerfull than the 4g.. maybe the best choice for you would be to go to a store (if you can) and try both for yourself... one thing i can say is that which ever you get you will not be dissatisfied, Personally I will never be going back to samsung htc and so on ever again

torchwolfery said:
I know how you feel, Ive been debating the same question for the last few weeks, here is the basic skinny as I have understood things..
as far as performance most reviews seem to point to the fact that overall the 3g has better overall performance but the gap between them isnt that high as to make a noticeable difference.... for me the main question was support how long with miui support the 3g version now there is a g4??
when i was in the store i tried both devices and I just felt that all though the 4g is quicker for internet the3g just seems to feel somehow more powerfull than the 4g.. maybe the best choice for you would be to go to a store (if you can) and try both for yourself... one thing i can say is that which ever you get you will not be dissatisfied, Personally I will never be going back to samsung htc and so on ever again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying.
you are right, official support is important, but from what I've seen, miui 6 on this phone is not good yet (is it true?).
which one do you have? I would appreciate it if you can run antutu and maybe post picture of the detailed results, it would help me in confirming something.

V6
Ok so I am using v6 miui 5.4.24.. All I can say is that this runs almost flawlessly for me. I'm a bit of a flashaholic truth be told and in this first week I have flashed so many roms I've lost track. But in the end I came back to the multilanguage version of v6. It really makes the phone feel sweet.
Now for the last 2 days I've been thinking about what I said about support, unlike the big names xiaomi seems to really understand it's consumers. First off you don't lose warranty for flashing your phone, something I never understood in the first place, this means there is actually greater chance of longer running support because xiaomi and the users seem to really support each other in keeping the phone alive. I have never had a phone that has had such an easy time going between custom designed firmware and the original. In the end it's the user who will make the decision about which rom is best for them.
I did the annuity test and the results were very good considering what I paid for it... All though I do miss lte speeds of browsing on my HTC 610 it really is worth the trade off for everything else I have gained...
In the end I will reiterate my statement that it really won't matter the 3g or 4k you will be very happy either way

ehsan_zt said:
Thanks for replying.
you are right, official support is important, but from what I've seen, miui 6 on this phone is not good yet (is it true?).
which one do you have? I would appreciate it if you can run antutu and maybe post picture of the detailed results, it would help me in confirming something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so in the end what did you finally do?

torchwolfery said:
so in the end what did you finally do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sry for late response.
I finally bought Xiaomi Redmi 2 with 16GB internal memory and 2GB RAM, and after using it for several month I think I made the right decision. It has great battery (1 to 2 days normal usage), it's cpu is snapdragon 410 which performs incredibly good, I've tried many demanding games, and I didn't have any lags. MIUI 7 is very satisfying and development for this phone is started, we have many LP roms. Overall I think it's better than redmi note 3g or 4g.