Database Users

Samsung Galaxy Note Hype

Ok, what is the hype with this device? Its still a huge competitor.. but why? I don't see huge hardware improvements from the SGSII, why are there loads of people who upgrade from the SGSII to the Note, they pretty much have the same internals.
Is it just the large display?
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

The note feature it has and from what I've heard it has wonderful battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA

My friend got this phone a few weeks ago, It is AMAZING the display is just unbelievable and it runs very smoothly. I am deffinately thinking about getting it when my upgrade is available. It is the best I've seen out this year

I seen too many threads like this, you guys could at least watch or read reviews on it and find out. You don't have to be interested in it if you don't think its good.
Let's just say, with HD screen at that size, I don't even have to use the zoom function to view website, it can display the full site. The Wacom pen might be more for business users, but is pretty nifty.

I really like the idea of bigger screens, but I feel like this is just barely going over my threshold of what I would want. Looks gorgeous though ^^

Obviously the display and screen size. Untouchable
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

its i went from sgs2 to the note only becuase of the sheer screen size serves best for media related purposes

I bought one from Amazon, it was great for Draw Something and browsing. But for thumbtyping in landscape mode, it's just too big and started to hurt my hands.
Returned to Amazon.

For my liking, it is too big for a phone and too small for a tablet... although I do kinda understand the fascination.

Keep in mind that the galaxy note is also the second 'top tier' device that has the longest battery life(the first being the droid razr maxx). Keeping in perspective that the screen is responsible for 40% of a phone's battery consumption, that's quite a feat to pull off on a device this big.
Sent from my GT-S5360B using XDA

Moved to the proper section.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

The screen is amazing, the speaker is loud, the Yamaha DAC (Audio) is poor and worse than the Galaxy S1, The CPU and GPU are identical to the Galaxy S2 with the cpu been overclocked by 200Mhz (Gets hot), the GPU has 2.66 times the pixels to render because of the screen so its 2D and 3D slows considerably. The Battery life is amazing, the still lack of ICS and the poor software support from samsung is a big negative.
Its a mixed bag, I like it but it seriously needs better drivers and a clean ICS OS.

I love the huge screen since I watch a lot of YouTube on it, it's like the difference between watching a movie on a 22 inch television vs a 55 inch Samsung LED.
Using the Note had relegated my HP Touchpad to my kid who uses it a lot more now than me. In fact, I'm on a short vacation with my family right now. Before I would be taking a phone and a tablet with me and sometimes even a laptop. This time I only brought the Note, a charger, and a spare battery (which I probably won't even use anyways since the Note has excellent battery life). I also used it for GPS navigation, and it is by far the best smartphone with GPS capability I have ever used, locks fast and never loses signal. Truly flawless.
I also love the S-Pen, I never have to worry about carrying a paper and a pen. It's amazing all the things I use it for, from taking notes, to making a daily to-do list, to even writing out my daily gym work out routine.
Finally the battery life is probably the next best of all smartphones currently out, the best being the Droid Razr Maxxx. I can go easily 24 hours on a single charge with 3 hours screen time, and best I've done is 36 hours on a single charge with a couple of hours of on screen time.
Sent from my GT-N7000 Samsung Galaxy Note "Go big or go home"

The note is the best device I have had the pleasure of handling for sure.
The screen first and foremost is simply fantastic! No contest. Wonderful for multimedia. The size took a little while to get used to for me...about a week and a bit but once I did i have never looked back. So happy with it all.
The internals are also fantastic...dual core CPU...1 gig of ram...16 gig of rom. Its an awesome well rounded device. Its replaced both my phone and tablet...aka my nexus s and transformer. They have just been sitting on my desk mostly for the last 2 and a half months.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

MR4Y said:
Keep in mind that the galaxy note is also the second 'top tier' device that has the longest battery life(the first being the droid razr maxx). Keeping in perspective that the screen is responsible for 40% of a phone's battery consumption, that's quite a feat to pull off on a device this big.
Sent from my GT-S5360B using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i believe what you're quoting is the gsmarena chart, but that only refers to talk time, where the screen is off.
in web browsing on gingerbread, the note has one of the worst battery life ratings simply because rendering white on an amoled screen results in the screen using more than twice as much power as an lcd screen. this issue is fixed in ICS with the ability to invert colours though.
with movie testing, it also depends on the colour spectrum of the movie. movies using dark colour will use less battery. movies using light colours will use more batteries.
overall its not a bad phone. i just wish the GPU was a bit faster so it could handle more games at 60fps. ah well, s3 is just around the corner, that should bring something interesting to the table given that the leaked antutu benchmarks put it faster than the asus transformer prime and htc one x.

[REVIEW - Professional Comparison] Galaxy Note GT-N7000 & GT-N7100

Hello everyone!
Nearly everyone, who is reading this, will own a SAMSUNG Galaxy Note GT-N7000. Our beloved device is a real special phone with many functionalities, other phones doesn't have. But be honest. I am from a more mechanical-technical sector, like from car-planning and constructing.
And one very very important thing about cars is, the first car of a new type, like the new Mercedes A-Class, will have more faults than the last one. That's a proven thing, because over time, the developers change things because of the feedback.
So everyone who owns a Galaxy Note One is kind of a guinea pig or experimental rabbit. Name it as you prefer, but fact is:
Samsung built something from scratch with no feedback at first.
Thats' the FIRST thing why I thought, that I have to buy the Galaxy Note Two.
I fell so deep in love that I thought I must have this device although it's as expensive as three used, but well preserved Note One's.
I spent very much time for searching videos about this telephone and the specifications. I thought the phone is a real MUST HAVE, but after that, I found things that made me thoughtful.
That's why I am opening this thread. Everywhere you can read reviews where people are idolizing the Note 2 and everything that belongs to it. They say it's a real successor and so on. But there are no real objective comparisons between the old and the new one. But at first I want to say, that the Galaxy Note 2 is for sure a real great device and the name successor is partly given right. But not in all situations and circumstances.
Let's begin :
Size of the display and resolution:
Note One: 5,3" with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, a ratio of 16:10, a density of 285ppi, and uses PenTile-Matrix technology.
Note Two: 5,5" with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, a ratio of 16:9, a density of 267ppi, and uses normal RGB-matrix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
> For everyone who don't know the difference between PenTile and normal matrix, please use Wikipedia.
When I heard that the Note 2 has a screen diagonal with 5,5" is was like OMG :cyclops: ! I must have it. After some time, I found out, that the resolution is less than before and so the density shrinks noticeably. I thought that's a minus point, but then I thought OKAY it's a normal RGB matrix so the difference could be acceptable. Then I thought I should compare that in real, so I drove to the next store, where I can play around with the Note 2 and I came to the following conclusion.
The density IS less but you won't notice it really easy. BUT. Yes, there is always a but. The RGB matrix shows a worse picture than the PenTile matrix. I couldn't believe it a first so I checked again with many different pictures. The Note One provides MUCH MUCH MUCH better clearly defined borders and more beautiful colours. Anyone who can't believe this now, check it out by yourself! The other point is, that pictures on the Note Two get some kind of grey stripes in vertical. That won't look nice and doesn't emphasize the potential of such a big screen. Fact is, that borders with a PenTile matrix a looking jagged, but they are clear.
EDIT:
It's not a RGB matrix, it's a non-striped BGR-matrix. And after some more comparison of the displays, I came to the conclusion, that the screen of the Note 2 is really better. The striped pictures were... I don't know where from. So the screen provides very natural colours and you won't see any bad things to mention. Just test it out by yourself!
Although both phones are not bad, this point goes to the Galaxy Note Two!
Ergonomics (phone itself and also stylus):
The S Pen is an invention that makes sense in every way. It's very comfortable to use it and makes life with our Note's easier most of the time. But the stylus of the first Note is not really good designed. If it's dark it's very hard to find the button on the stylus without holding it near to the display the get some light. With the stylus of the Note 2, there is not such a problem. The side with the button is flat. You will find the button very quick, although you won't look at it and in addition it's very comfortable to hold. Also the bigger size makes it a pleasure to use.
The design of the first Note is a little bit abstract. You need some time to get used to it, but after that, you can use the phone without problems. I know what I am talking about, because I changed from my Samsung Galaxy S2 to the Note. Today I am using my Note without problems also with only one hand. That won't make any problems at all. The buttons have their places and I am used to this phone. BUT... The Note 2 is in this case a real real improvement. The buttons are moved downwards a little bit, so you can reach them also if you are holding the device normal at the lower end. The width of the phone is PERFECT! You can type on the virtual keyboard with no problems AT ALL! So the screen ratio is a big improvement. Also the home button got raised a little bit, so it's easier to push it. Also the round corners make the phone very easy to hold.
Undisputed this point goes to the Galaxy Note Two. (That's also the point I wanted to mention at the beginning with car development.)
Hardware and it's potential:
Note One: 1.4GHz Dual-Core Exynos processor with 1GB RAM and Mali400 GPU
Note Two: 1.6GHz Quad-Core Exynos processor with 2GB RAM and Mali 400GPU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the hardware components haven't changed since the Note One, but there ARE improvements! The processor changed, the RAM, the Note 2 got Bluetooth version 4, NFC. I won't talk about BT4 and NFC because these are nice features, but commnly not in excessive use, that's why they are not important now. My Note One has nearly the same specs as my Acer 5253 notebook (regarding the processor), so that's not bad. 1GB of RAM is also not bad for Android, BUT it's not the world. It happens very often, that RAM is full very quick and if I juggle between more than four apps like browsing the web, then starting the music player, answering an SMS, reading an E-Mail and making a note, and then coming back to the browser, the phone has to completely reload the app. That can be very annoying. 2GB of RAM are a real enrichment. The processor of the Note One does it's job very good, I would say we should blame Samsung for their interface because of the stuttering sometimes. But the processor of the Note 2 is also a real diamond. It also works really good.
Although the specifications are speaking for the Note Two, that can't be the last consequence. The main difference is, that the Note Two comes with Jelly Bean and "Project Butter". The Note One provides Ice Cream sandwich with no "Project Butter". Also we know, that the memory management of Samsung is not the best, which are causing this stuttering. I don't have any of these problems on CM10 AT ALL! Also most of the apps won't unleash at least the potential of the Note One, so there is no real need for a quad-core processor.
AND there are also some points reagarding the whole phone market. Two years ago, phone's had only single-core processors. Computers already had quad- to octo-core processors. FACT IS that manufacturers were already able to build phones with quad-core processors in 2009, but they didn't because if they use every step, they can achieve more money. THAT'S A FACT! So don't get impressed of horsepowers. What count's is INTEGRITY! I was talking to a Samsung developer of SAMSUNG AUSTRIA and he told me, that the quad-core isn't a real improvement, because information processing get's worse per core. But that's too deep now.
So summarized, more cores are not always more performance.
To be fair, this question ends in a tie.
These three points are the main differences between the Note One and the Note Two.
I WON'T MENTION SOFTWARE-REGARDING IMPROVEMENTS BECAUSE MOST OF THEM
WILL COME TO THE NOTE ONE IN DECEMBER TO JANUARY.
And also I want to eliminate this common believe about the stylus and HOVERING!
Samsung told us, that the Note Two is able to recognize the stylus, although you are not touching the phone with it. WTH is new here? You can also hover with the stylus on the Note One! Test it out and open the XDA homepage and try to hover over the buttons of the page at the top (Quick Links for example). You will see that it works.
Responses from YOU ALL I want to answer:
Koguchi9 said:
Also you didn't talk about the aspect ratio. Personally 16:9 is only great for videos... Everything else 16:10 is a large improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I talked about the ratio in ergonomics. The 16:9 ratio is in this way an improvement, because the phone got narrower. It's easier to write on the keyboard, also when you are not used to such a big phone. But in my opinion the 16:10 ratio is WAY BETTER for productivity. I compared the phones also in this way and came to the conclusion, that it depends on what you are doing with the phone. If you use it as a media center, you will love the 16:9 ratio, if you use it for office and productivity like I do, 16:10 is much better. And at the first sight, the Note One's screen looker bigger although that's not true. Only because is wider. Proven.
andrekua said:
Hovering in Note 1 does nothing, but if you hover long enough with Note 2, it will load the menu. While I'm not sure whether it is configurable, the hovering works better in Note 2 due to its higher sensitivity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YOU ARE RIGHT! The S Pen and the stylus recognition is much higher, the Note Two will detect the stylus earlier than the Note One, but both are able to hover something. And AirView and all the features of the Note Two are ONLY software features. I said, that I don't want to mention them because the Note One will get them soon.
msedek said:
You forgot about the 3100mah battery... Slow/fasf motion/burst mode built in camera(0 shutter lag) , and the better audio DAC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I forgot that! The battery is very big, that's super for using your phone during the day. Some people already tested the battery and some mean you have more actove-time now, but that's partly a myth. The Note Two NEEDS the bigger battery because the RGB matrix has more subpixels to light. They display needs more power. But its true, the battery as blazing strong! More screen-on-time than I need ! And yes, the camera is faster now. The burst mode is a very attractive feature, like the Zeroshutter-Lag. I know much people like these features, I don't care about that, so I'd forgotten to integrate that into my post. FACT ist also, that the Note Two makes more natural pictures, while the Note One's pics are more yellow. And really I can't tell any difference in Audio Output/Input, so thanks for this information!
ChodTheWacko said:
I've had the Note 2 for a couple of weeks, and formerly owned the Note 1 since launch day. (roughly a year). I do want to ask the OP - do you actually have one? Or are you just going by specs?
Here's my supplement to your review, based on my experience of using the note 2 so far.
*) Notification light. At last. and you can customize the colors with lightflow.
*) it sure is nice that the microsd card isn't blocked by the battery.
*) Signifigantly louder speaker.
I find it very hard to find anything to complain about with regards to the Note 2. The only thing that comes to mind is that the USB port is weird, and some USB cables don't stay in well.
The only other major annoyance is JB's fault - that you can't use Apps2SD anymore. DirectoryBind is almost a requirement now if you play huge 1-2 Gig games on the 16GB note. (which only has 10 gig of app data space). That means rooting your phone (which I did, so I'm fine).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At first I want to especially thank your for your enlargement of this comparison! And I'm sorry of cutting your post, but therwise my post would get to long. So no, I don't have a Note Two but I really wanted to buy it and I spent much time playing around with one in a shop, so I tested everything in real. And the first point is also for me very interesting, the notification light! IMPROVEMENT IMPROVEMENT! I like it, that the Note Two has a notification light. Really! It's also nice, that you can change your microSD card, but in my case, that doesn't matter, I will tell you at the end of my answer why, because it could be also interesting for everybody here. And the louder speaker. As I already mentioned before I didn't know that, but it looks like the Note 2 has really a little bit better sound processing. And you are also right with the USB cable. It's not possible anymore to use old MHL-Connectors for example. They will fail. If thhe new pin configuration of the USB port was neccessary or only a new marketing gag... I don't know.
And regarding your space problem. I have also the 16GB version of the Note One. As I am using Google Play, my space can shrink very fast because I want to keep the music on my card in the cache. THE PROBLEM IS: Google Music only uses the internal memory, as also games does.
Here is the solution for you:
In system/etc/ there is a file called vold.fstab this file configurates the mounting points of your storages. You can simple change the mounting points of the microSD card and the internal memory and they are swapped with no disadvantages. That makes sense because I am using a 64GB microSD card and now my phone hast 64GB INTERNAL MEMORY. For detailed instructions, please PM me.
abhinav quietly brilliant said:
i guess the note 2 has a 1.9 mp front camera and our beloved note one has 2.0 mp front camera
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's vice versa. The Note One has 1.9MP in front. But I don't think that this is a real improvement.
Thank you all for your answers and questions!
SUMMARY ON PAPER:
The Galaxy Note Two is a beautiful device and makes some faulty things of the Note One better. The handling is a pleasure and the stylus is a big improvement. All the other changes are only a product of the progressing time. THIS CHANGES HAVE TO BE! Otherwise people say it's old. Yeah, humanity is very very stupid. If you have the chance to get the Note Two very cheap, I would say you should take it. Otherwise STAY with your beloved Note One. It's a great device and also in two years it will be. I also made my decision and came to the conclusion that I will keep my Note One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SUMMARY IN REALLIFE:
So. After some phone calls and much time spent on searching good offers, I got a Galaxy Note Two now for nearly nothing more than a Note One. I will sell my Note One in one week. I have the Note Two now for 5 hours and there are some things, that differ from the summary on paper. At first, the screen is beautiful, although sometimes you can see those grey stripes, I talked about. The screen ratio is WONDERFUL for playing around. Steering works brilliant on the Note 2. But anyway, productivity apps will be circumcised because of the new format. The external speaker is really good. Playing music with it sound very nice. Also deeper sound frequencies are now with more power. The battery is really good. I am playing around now with the display all time on for four hours, making phone calls and using Google Play streaming some tracks, battery fell from 90% to 78%! That's more than fine. And I like those software features. Although they are not neccessary to mention, they are cool to use. The stylus is very comfortable to use, as I already told you. The design is cool, I like it really, I like also the button very much. The home button is a small thing but it makes navigation very nice. Also I like the glass very much. So the design is TOP! The camera is brilliant. Fast in any way. And the rest of the phone also. But that's now only the felt summary. The real one is in between of felt and paper summary!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope I can clarify all the questions around this thorny topic.
If there are any other questions, please post it.
If they are important, I will include them in this post!
I am from Austria and English is not my native language.
I am feeling very sorry for my language rape !
If this is helpful or informative for you please hit the Thanks-button.
Best regards,
Gerhard

Nice comparison/Review dude

Nice comparison Gerhard.
I haven't had a chance to play with a Note 2 yet, however the biggest thing that would put me off upgrading is the lower screen resolution. It may be slightly bigger, but the drop in res and aspect ratio is disappointing.

I see no compelling reason to upgrade either. Happy to wait for the next generation Note or whatever other wondrous thing Samsung or Google have to offer in a year or so.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Nice comparison.. Once the note 1 gets the JB update we will then get a true sense of how much an update the note 2 is.
Also you didn't talk about the aspect ratio. Personally 16:9 is only great for videos... Everything else 16:10 is a large improvement.

There are some minor differences. Hovering in Note 1 does nothing, but if you hover long enough with Note 2, it will load the menu. While I'm not sure whether it is configurable, the hovering works better in Note 2 due to its higher sensitivity. You have to hover near to the screen with Note 1 but with Note 2, it was at least twice the distance (or possibly more, I did not measure).
The rest would have to rely on how much updates Samsung are willing to provide for Note 1 Jelly Bean updates.

You forgot about the 3100mah battery... Slow/fasf motion/burst mode built in camera(0 shutter lag) , and the better audio DAC.
Enviado desde mi GT-N7000 usando Tapatalk 2

I've had the Note 2 for a couple of weeks, and formerly owned the Note 1 since launch day. (roughly a year).
I do want to ask the OP - do you actually have one? Or are you just going by specs?
Here's my supplement to your review, based on my experience of using the note 2 so far.
Pros:
1) I have to admit, the note 2 is more comfortable to hold. Part of it is that it is less wide, but the corners are also rounder and it doesn't jab into your palm as much. Biggest surprise for me.
2) The s-pen is much nicer to hold, and the button easier to find and push. The CPU also makes the pen more responsive. This is a rather big deal if you are a s-pen user.
3) The hardware s-pen switch is quite nice. You can pull the pen out, scribble on the s-memo, and put the pen back in. S-memo automatically opens and closes, making the final result a LOT like pen and paper. Also, having the 'you forgot your s-pen' alert is REALLY nice.
4) The Note 2 is really really responsive. I don't know if it's a factor of the faster CPU, faster GPU, 2 Gig of memory, and/or JB. It's probably all of them together. I thought the note 1 was great, but the note 2 is just insane.
5) Notification light. At last. and you can customize the colors with lightflow.
6) Bigger battery is GREAT. I can't wait to see what the Mugen extended battery is - 6700 mah? gulp.
7) it sure is nice that the microsd card isn't blocked by the battery.
8) Side note on the memory - 2 gig over 1 gig, for me, is a huge deal. After bootup, I only have 1.1 gig memory left. That's with a custom rom that stripped out all the bloatware.
9) NFC - don't really use it to be honest
10) Bluetooth 4 - should save power over BT 3.
11) Signifigantly louder speaker
12) Much better sound chip.
13) Minor thing, but the Note charges a fair bit faster. It's a bigger battery, but stock charger is a 2A charger.
14) bigger screen, but only slightly - 4%. I quickly got used to the 16:9. It's not THAT different from 16:10 in day to day use. It's not like you went from 4:3 to 16:9 or anything. I still believe that using a standard resolution is a good thing in the long run, but that's just me.
15) Gorilla glass 2. I'm not sure if it's a big deal in the long run, as they might have just made the glass thinner to compensate for the extra strength.
16) Power button isn't so close to the corner, so you aren't accidentally hitting it so much.
17) Apparently no black crush.
There are, of course, the numerous software improvements that may or may not make it to the Note 1.
I'll list them for completeness, but they can be considered 'short term' improvements in the Note 2.
A) multi view
B) smart view (i.e. auto-rotate doesn't drive you crazy when you are lying down)
C) JB in general I guess
D) air view
for starters. Those I use all the time.
In short - I really loved my Note 1 but I recognized that it had lots of little annoyances/quirks.
I just accepted them, knowing that the original note was a brave new step into unknown territory.
The note 2 pretty much wiped out every single complaint I had about the Note 1, and made everything I liked about the Note 1 maybe 20% better. I find it very hard to find anything to complain about with regards to the Note 2. The only thing that comes to mind is that the USB port is weird, and some USB cables don't stay in well.
The only other major annoyance is JB's fault - that you can't use Apps2SD anymore. DirectoryBind is almost a requirement now if you play huge 1-2 Gig games on the 16GB note. (which only has 10 gig of app data space). That means rooting your phone (which I did, so I'm fine).
So for me the Note 2 was well worth the money. I had definitely really maxed out my note though, having about 300 apps/widgets on it.
If you're a lighter user, then it's a tougher call.
- Frank

Silberpfeil3110 and ChodTheWacko...Thanks for the detailed comparision...
I have been using note since last Dec and I agree that there are few things which are annoying and could be changed...
Haven't played with Note 2 yet but its on my wishlist

Shrink said:
I see no compelling reason to upgrade either. Happy to wait for the next generation Note or whatever other wondrous thing Samsung or Google have to offer in a year or so.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too. It's just not worth the money for me to upgrade to note 2 when I don't even play video games on my phone. Mainly just surfing the internet, and my note 1 is really good enough for that right now.
We'll save alot of money by waiting as always. Hell, in one year, we'll probably have the note 3.

DPMAce said:
me too. It's just not worth the money for me to upgrade to note 2 when I don't even play video games on my phone. Mainly just surfing the internet, and my note 1 is really good enough for that right now.
We'll save alot of money by waiting as always. Hell, in one year, we'll probably have the note 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He he, that long, the way Samsung churn there phones out your be reading about note 4's this time next year.
I tend to agree that there is just not anything that pulls me towards sending £200 on top of the sale of my note 1, I have used both side by side, and am happy with my note 1. I know people seem to think the screen width doesn't mater, for me I found the note 2 annoying, love the width of the note 1, but then I'm not a movie watcher.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

yeah really. Hell, in 6 months, if I really want the note 2, I could probably buy it used for a good price because someone will be looking to upgrade to something else like s4

i guess the note 2 has a 1.9 mp front camera and our beloved note one has 2.0 mp front camera
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Koguchi9 said:
Also you didn't talk about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
andrekua said:
Hovering in Note 1 does ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
msedek said:
You forgot about the ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ChodTheWacko said:
I've had the Note 2...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
abhinav quietly brilliant said:
i guess the note 2...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK YOU for your information!
I have edited the opening post and integrated your questions and answers!
Best regards

abhinav quietly brilliant said:
i guess the note 2 has a 1.9 mp front camera and our beloved note one has 2.0 mp front camera
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me, the Note 1 front facing camera is total BS.
S3 and Note 2 front facing camera is way superior.

Silberpfeil3110 said:
The Note Two NEEDS the bigger battery because the RGB matrix has more subpixels to light. They display needs more power. Of you compare the Note One and Note Two, you will find out, that the display-on-time is nearly the same. Of course if you are listening to music and the display is off all the time, the Note Two will last longer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a Note 1 user for a year, and having now had my Note 2 for a few weeks, I can say that for my usage patterns, which are quite heavy, the Note 2's battery life blows the Note 1's out of the water.
Put simply, on my Note 1, I would regularly get 5 to 6 hours worth of screen-on time on my phone from a single charge, whereas on my Note 2 is is more like 9 to 10 hours screen-on - that is in excess of a 50% improvement and means I haven't ever felt the need to carry around a 2nd
battery with my Note 2 (even though I have a couple) whereas I would not leave home without a spare for my Note 1.
I was never unhappy with the battery life on my Note 1, but on my Note 2 the battery life is quite literally epic in comparison!
The only thing I honestly miss about my Note 1 is the 16:10 aspect ratio, because I do use remote desktop and Citrix apps from time to time on my phone, and you do miss those extra 80 pixels in that scenario. However, in every other respect, the Note 2 is a vastly superior device to the Note 1, and I loved my Note 1! (Technically, I still love it as I've kept it as a backup device!)
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
Put simply, on my Note 1, I would regularly get 5 to 6 hours worth of screen-on time on my phone from a single charge, whereas on my Note 2 is is more like 9 to 10 hours screen-on - that is in excess of a 50% improvement and means I haven't ever felt the need to carry around a 2nd
battery with my Note 2 (even though I have a couple) whereas I would not leave home without a spare for my Note 1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the biggest load of crock I've ever read in a while.
If you use your phone under normal conditions, there is no way in hell you're going to get a screen on time of 6 hours on the Note 1 or 9-10 hours on the Note 2.

PoisonWolf said:
This is the biggest load of crock I've ever read in a while.
If you use your phone under normal conditions, there is no way in hell you're going to get a screen on time of 6 hours on the Note 1 or 9-10 hours on the Note 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for telling me that what I experience for a fact is a "crock", but then again you know exactly what I do with my phone day in day out and so obviously are extremely well qualified to tell me how much screen-on time I get? I hadn't noticed that I have attracted a stalker!
I clearly must be very confused, and I'm simply imagining that my phone is still operational when it isn't.
I have no reason whatsoever to lie, so I'll just go on enjoying my 9-10 hour battery life along with plenty of other Note 2 users, and you can go on believing whatever "crock" you wish.
For those more reasoned souls, take a trip over to the Note 2 forums and ask around.
Regards,
Dave

ChodTheWacko said:
After bootup, I only have 1.1 gig memory left. That's with a custom rom that stripped out all the bloatware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was actually the piece of information I was looking for and about to ask about it on SGN2 board.
I have to say the JB memory usage must be significantly higher than ICS. It suggests the Project Buttler is an in-memory caching system to require memory.
Did you remove much from /system/app for house cleaning or just user applications? I'm thinking Samsung features also taking up a good portion of the memory providing the custom ROM you mentioned shipped with the original Samsung Features. Could you clarify that please?
@all users
You should know that if you intend to purchase JB devices it must support 2GB ram at least to be future-proof and not to choke after opening a couple of applications.

I am an ordinary user of my phone with a lot of spen usage during ward rounds. Keep my reference books on my phone. Do a hell lot of browsing and watch movies and music. I dont really need a powerhouse coz most of what i need is already in my note 1. Though i use the camera a lot and would have upgraded if there was a bigger camera. Some features in the note 2 are just not for me. Like air view i only use spen for taking notes or drawing. Dont use it to scroll things on my phone. So a useless feature for me. Multi view is also useless because u dont have enough space to open the messaging and read an email altogether coz the keyboard takes half the screen so another gimmick.
0 shutter lag thing is dealt by the fastburst camera.
Spen indicator or alarm thing. If ur reaponsible u wont loose ur stylus.
People who play hd games should definitely go for note 2. But ppl like ua ahould atick to our devices.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

How happy are you with your Note 8.0?

I'll be returning mine for the following reasons:
Battery life is not that great.
Battery dies faster than expected on standby, especially compared to Note 10.1 and ipad.
The bezel is very large and I find that annoying. It makes the design seem very outdated.
Sent from my SM-P600 using xda app-developers app

dtziheucdavis said:
I'll be returning mine for the following reasons:
Sent from my SM-P600 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quite Happy with mine
Battery life is not that great.
Battery dies faster than expected on standby, especially compared to Note 10.1 and ipad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1: Battery Life : It's fine now since last few updates: 1/2% per hour on standby with wi-fi and cell on (now BBM too)
1.2:. About 0.8% per hour when streaming audio from radio or home network. (screen off). I consider it very decent.
The bezel is very large and I find that annoying. It makes the design seem very outdated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. Bezel I actually like it, it's not at all very large compared to many other similar sized tabs, makes for easier holding/reading for me with single hand operation, thumb over bezel. For me it makes the design well thought of, multiple use scenarios. Especially when you also bring the s-pen into the equation, bezel partly provides for very necessary palm/hand rest support.

Just bought one for my son. I think I'm gonna go get one for myself too. I like it. Battery life isn't bad at all.

intelliriffer said:
Quite Happy with mine
1: Battery Life : It's fine now since last few updates: 1/2% per hour on standby with wi-fi and cell on (now BBM too)
1.2:. About 0.8% per hour when streaming audio from radio or home network. (screen off). I consider it very decent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about gaming, intense heavy 3D gaming, how the battery life after update?

The bezel is not large. Its narrow and the right size to place your thumb without hitting the screen. I like my tablet FAR more than the ipad we own also.
I am very happy with this tablet, I don't game a lot, although the "Catapult King" game has been a little addicting to me.
I love the pen also.
EDIT: I just tried that 3d game for 15 minutes and it used 5%. The Nexus 7 uses the same amount. I don't have that game on the ipad to try because it costs money on ios.
Sent from my GT-N5110 using xda app-developers app

dewadewi said:
How about gaming, intense heavy 3D gaming, how the battery life after update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not an intense heavy gamer (on tablet) as i use pc for most of that.
however, I do run drastic emulator (emulators usually run 100% cpu most of their time) for Nds games and few other games.
depending on game I would say about 10%-20% / hour but this can vary a lot on other factors.Also the discharge is not linear.
IMO this tablet is not so optimized as a gaming device as better alternatives exist at lesser costs, however, productivity wise (niche target market for note series) it is a very good device.

intelliriffer said:
I IMO this tablet is not so optimized as a gaming device as better alternatives exist at lesser costs, however, productivity wise (niche target market for note series) it is a very good device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True but for the price range it should be able to handle every general task like gaming normaly if it's not better.. I'm previously using GT 7+ and it's at least have a 3.5-4 hour screen time of nonstop 3D gaming, and I'm expecting the note behave not far from that.
FYI I've been try to downclock the CPU (1,2 and even I try at 800mhz max speed) and GPU (266 mhz) and manually set the screen brightness to little above minimum, use the screen powersaving but the battery consumption is still unpleasant in terms of gaming
rooted stock out of the box 4.1.2
and I also do notice the media scanning process especially when the first time the device turned on is triggered a CPU intensive task which turned on all core at full speed and keep running on and on... and drains battery heavily

dewadewi said:
True but for the price range it should be able to handle every general task like gaming normaly if it's not better.. I'm previously using GT 7+ and it's at least have a 3.5-4 hour screen time of nonstop 3D gaming, and I'm expecting the note behave not far from that.
FYI I've been try to downclock the CPU (1,2 and even I try at 800mhz max speed) and GPU (266 mhz) and manually set the screen brightness to little above minimum, use the screen powersaving but the battery consumption is still unpleasant in terms of gaming
rooted stock out of the box 4.1.2
and I also do notice the media scanning process especially when the first time the device turned on is triggered a CPU intensive task which turned on all core at full speed and keep running on and on... and drains battery heavily
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Intense 3D Gaming is not a general task by any means, though to hardcore gamers it might seem to be so as its a necessity for them.
Secondly high price point can be due to lot many other things than just gaming performance.
For example a pressure sensitive active wacom digitizer and whole lot of software developed around it including touchwiz.
If these things do not matter to you then then this is not the device to have because you are unnecessarily paying for things you dont need.
For media scanning make sure your tags in media files are not corrupt. I fixed my entire library using some tool on pc and that resolved the issue.

intelliriffer said:
Intense 3D Gaming is not a general task by any means, though to hardcore gamers it might seem to be so as its a necessity for them.
Secondly high price point can be due to lot many other things than just gaming performance.
For example a pressure sensitive active wacom digitizer and whole lot of software developed around it including touchwiz.
If these things do not matter to you then then this is not the device to have because you are unnecessarily paying for things you dont need.
For media scanning make sure your tags in media files are not corrupt. I fixed my entire library using some tool on pc and that resolved the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do make use of the pen for noting and sketching (I'm a graphics designer) and it's being great
but the problem is, wether it's intense 3D or lite game like angry bird's, the battery drain is still huge... and lite gaming are by any means a general task for tablet these days..
as for the media scanning bug my work around is disable the media scanner on the application list, but might try your solution someday (as I have a 64gigs microsd I presume it would take a while)

i sold my note to get the 8, noting on the market for me is the same, note 10 is just to big and heavy, yes battery life isn't great but its not to bad, i just got a blackberry z10! now that has bad battery LOL

I love it. Battery life is fine. Bezel is just the right amount to hold. The design would look better with less bezel but I find that in use for reading it could actually do with a tiny bit more bezel to stop me from touching the screen. It is great for productivity and the few games I play on it run great - Dead Trigger 2 and Call of Duty Strike Team.
My two favourite features are the stylus which I use extensively in meetings to help me get rid of the paper mess on my desk and the IR remote I use around the house.
Sent from my GT-N5120 using xda app-developers app

dtziheucdavis said:
I'll be returning mine for the following reasons:
Battery life is not that great.
Battery dies faster than expected on standby, especially compared to Note 10.1 and ipad.
The bezel is very large and I find that annoying. It makes the design seem very outdated.
Sent from my SM-P600 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with all of the above, but I'm keeping mine because it's the only usable option for me, despite these disadvantages;
I had higher expectations based on the cost of this tablet. However, my primary use is taking digital notes. And as much as I dislike the design, battery life and low screen resolution, I still prefer it to any other option available at the moment (for work only- for play, no way!). But I will be upgrading the moment something better comes along! The iPad has better battery life, and now that it's lighter the size might also be OK. But writing with capacitive touch pen are like writing with a crayon, I cannot stand it! The Note 10 is just too big, too heavy. There may be some expensive windows options out there, but I suspect they are too big, too expensive, and have even worse battery. So that leaves the Note 8 with no real competition for people who need the s pen. But for those that do not need the pen, they are paying a premium for no benefit, so I can completely understand why they do not want to keep it.
Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium HD app

You made a lot of good points. I also have a note 8 and use my tablets for writing, annotating. That said, Op makes good points about how much the Note devices lag behind their ipad competitions in design and usability. The note 10.1 2014 for example, has noticeable lag and the ipad air will probably blow it out of the water. If Apple made a good fine point stylus with palm rejection that allows good pdf annotating, I will abandon the Note devices for sure. Ipad pdf handling visit already far superior to the Note devices, it just lacks a good stylus. The new Jot devices seem good, but not quite close to Spen yet.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app

kisrita said:
I agree with all of the above, but I'm keeping mine because it's the only usable option for me, despite these disadvantages;
I had higher expectations based on the cost of this tablet. However, my primary use is taking digital notes. And as much as I dislike the design, battery life and low screen resolution, I still prefer it to any other option available at the moment (for work only- for play, no way!). But I will be upgrading the moment something better comes along! The iPad has better battery life, and now that it's lighter the size might also be OK. But writing with capacitive touch pen are like writing with a crayon, I cannot stand it! The Note 10 is just too big, too heavy. There may be some expensive windows options out there, but I suspect they are too big, too expensive, and have even worse battery. So that leaves the Note 8 with no real competition for people who need the s pen. But for those that do not need the pen, they are paying a premium for no benefit, so I can completely understand why they do not want to keep it.
Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very well said,
however people who don't need the S-Pen should not even by looking at the note series, as that is what primarily the note line is about, it does most of the other tasks but excels at nothing.
I too would get an overall better device when available, but I think we are still about an year or so from that (a device with high res, better battery, and pressure sensitive pen and optimized stock software to support the features.) and considering how samsung has been going about certain things lately, would like to see some competitor come up with similar products at competitive prices to topple up the monopoly a bit.

Now the ipad mini isnt a better product than the note 8. The ipad mini has serious issues with programs locking it up and crashing it. So then you have to turn it back on and redue what you were doing. The note 8 has never not once locked up and cut off. The ipad mini unfortunately does it often.
The ipad mini is being used in a restaurant for the servers to take an order. Its tough for them when it locks up. Now the ipad that is for the cash register and kitchen screen doesn't have issues. Only the minis do.
I like the note 8 and use it heavily every day.
With that said l cant wait for a 2014 edition of the 8
Sent from my GT-N5110 using xda app-developers app

I like it. About the only downside is the screen resolution, but that only affects me in one app...Teamviewer...and that's only because pretty much every computer I connect to has a higher resolution so I'm either scaling or scrolling, both of which suck. Otherwise it works great for everything I need.

I also think that the battery is not durable.
I also think that the battery is not durable

Sure I would have preferred a removable battery and a better camera and better resolution blah blah blah but it's the best and biggest tablet phone available with the spen and so I bought it... And I love it all the same!
Galaxy Note 8.0 Xposed Build N5120XXCMH2 / Baseband N5120XXBMD9 / Kernel CivZ-SpherEngine-Rev on Telstra LTE

Can't live without my note, I use it as phone, book(e-reader) white board, charger(with an otg cable I charge my e-cigarette), reference tool, organizer, video player, remote control, game console, alarm clock, music player, note pad, navigation, and now with my bullet proof tempered glass it even serves as a bullet proof vest!
Sent from my GT-N5100 using xda app-developers app

This has been a useful thread. I've been looking for a new device to replace my ageing original tab and whilst the Note 8 is far from perfect, the consensus seems to be it's still a very good device. A 3g model is now ordered. Thanks for everyone's comments.

[Central] Moto G reviews 2013-12-12

[Central] Moto G reviews​This thread is a collection of reviews, tests and more about MotoG :
Here is a summary :
Written review (first sight) about our device by @lavafire
Full length review by gsmarena
Unboxing, Head to head with n5, Speed review, and video sample by @AndyCr15
Review and How to change back cover by @AndyCr15
Review by Android Central
Unboxing and Build Quality, Short Review, Display Quality and Video Playback, Speaker Test, LED Test, Benchmarks, Gaming Performance, Water-repellent Coating Tes, Sample 720p Video, Sample Slow Motion 720p Video, Autofocus Test by @jonmorris@shem2409
Review by @jonmorris
Review by @mobiletechReview
Scratch and drop test
Hard core testing
Feel free to share any link that should be here

Thanks. I have others if they're useful?
Unboxing
Head to Head
Speed Review
Video Sample

Fantastic phone!!!!

good morning! I just ordering in amazon.es (http://www.amazon.es/Motorola-Moto-...uad-Core/dp/B00GOYN5TE/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b)'m from Spain, but I still need to wait a while to make it available for sale this terminal.
is this acceptable terminal requirements for today?
reggards from spain! and see you guys
PD: I've subscribe to this channel http://www.youtube.com/user/androidandyuk

Android central
Moto G review
http://www.androidcentral.com/moto-g-review
The Moto G easily the best cheap Android phone you can buy right now. (And probably the only Android phone at this price point that delivers a user experience of this quality.) Every criticism of the Moto G has to be framed against its ludicrously low price. It’s frankly amazing that a manufacturer is able to put together a device like the Moto G for £135 and make money selling it.
Nuthin' but a 'Moto G' thang

Great phone, but it doesn't have sdcard slot

Had Moto G for about 24 hours now, I am so impressed with this phone. I really want to let everyone know about it I have compared this phone a lot with Samsung S4, not because I hate it, instead it was my last phone and I have used it for months, so have a good idea of what I am on about
Screen
Some may consider the resolution on this phone being too low, compared to the high end flagship phones this is about 100 ppi less. But does this mean the screen is bad? No. In fact, I am loving it more than the AMOLED on Samsung s4. First of all, I am just going to say that above 300ppi I can't tell the difference. To me, 400+ ppi = higher battery drain + requires more CPU + requires more GPU. Just why? Maybe there are some untold benifit of higher ppi screens, but to me I just don't see any advantage what so ever. Apart from the fact you could say to your mate "my phone's ppi is higher than yours...". So this to me is a big thumb up!
Speed
Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention speed of this phone. My S4 was running stock android 4.3 means I should see a massive different when I switch to this phone. But the reality is not the case, it really doesn't appear to be that much of a difference. There may be 1/5 of a speed difference when opening apps, but that is like 0.2 seconds? Even for inpatient person like me, it is more than acceptable. At the end of the day, it make you think what Samsung is doing with their snapdragon 600, when moto g can keep up using a snapdragon 400... This is on stock android, don't even mention touch wiz... But seriously find a review video or go to a shop and see it for yourselves.
Software/ROM
Well not much to say here, it is running basically stock Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks e.g. camera.
Storage
8gb or 16gb, it is always the question. Previously i'd say get 16gb, more future proof, however I choose 8gb this time. Not because of the 50gb gdrive storage (pointless if you have no internet connection), instead you could get OTG so if you really want to watch films on trips you can do that. Otherwise, 5.5gb is enough for general app installs. For photos, turn on auto google+ photo back up (or dropbox backup whichever fits u better) then delete the photos on your phone once they are uploaded.
Camera
Haven't really tested it, but at least ok from what I can see and don't expect it to match DSLR
Hardware/Ergonomics
+ Curved back, easy to hold. I especially like the dented "M" logo, it gives more grip, helps when I need to touch the top of the screen.
- Phone is a bit heavy, for people like reading lying down for a long time might be a bit of a pain.
+ Back cover is removable, awesome! In fact, there a lot of covers coming out soon.
- Although, back cover is hard to remove and a bit slippery, not so awesome.
+ Volume key & power key on the same side.
- Clean design, coming from HTC and Samsung, I really enjoy this kind of simple design. I don't like the HTC/Samsung logo on the most obvious place on your phone kinda ruins the look of the phone.
+ No physical keyboard (some may consider this to be a minus instead of a plus), I am just glad don't need to worry about menu wearing out over time
- Speaker on the back side of the phone
+ Due to curved back, no speaker sound is actually trapped when you place it on the back
+ Both headphone port and micro-usb port are located middle of top and bottom side of the phone respectively, again just simple and nice to look at
- No 4G connectivity. Not a problem for me, as I don't even get 3G where I live, a lot of people living in cities might find this some what a deal breaker.
- No removable battery
- No expandable storage
Battery Life
All i am going to say is 4.5 hours screen on time, 60% left. :good: I am not convinced the stats is accurate, so testing it right now to see if it is really that good.
Update: second time, 4hours22min screen on time, 8 and half hours on battery, 43% remaining.
FM Radio
I was never a radio fan, always thought it was kinda out-of-date technology. Then I moved to an area where there are hardly any 3g/2g coverage at all on the way to work, karma i guess... You might say just download music from google music/sportify, but I don't change my songs frequent enough and it just gets old. Conclusion: always better to have a phone that has FM radio than a phone that doesn't.
Notification light
It is plain silly to me why some OEM would even consider not include a notification light on their phone. *cough* iphone. *cough* windows phone. It make things so much easier, when all you need to do is glance at it rather than turn on the screen, then turn it off again just to check if your missing anything important. There is no more needs saying, it is just playing annoying without one, so another plus.
Value for money
For most of the people, money is a key factor when buying a new phone. Even if the price is not a burden, you might still get the same feeling as me, thinking it cost quite a lot and make the promise to use it for 2 years or more. Well, with this phone you won't get that. In fact, I brought mine thinking I will use it as a back up phone since no other phone has its spec in its price range. But after I started using it, I couldn't put it down. Now I am not even considering getting nexus 5 which was going to be my main phone.
What I look forward to
Hell this is XDA, obviously I want lots and lots of ROMs XD. But I also can't wait for 4.4 to come out and ART to be stable. I imagine it would make this phone even faster. Saw some comparisons between Dalvik and ART, have to say ART wins hands down especially considering it is still in development stage.
Final thoughts
So happy with this phone, and mostly happy about Motorola stepping up and giving us this product. This is important in the sense, they are fighting a price battle for us, the consumers. We should show some support to let the other OEMs know it is not about how much they spend money on advertising, it is giving us a great product with a reasonable price instead of throw in some latest chips and mark it £599 rubbish which is basically what is happening right now.
Tips
I would recommend everyone get this phone, and get the 8gb version. Since it cost so little, no one could moan at you when you get a new phone next year

lavafire said:
Had Moto G for about 24 hours now, I am so impressed with this phone I really want to let everyone know about it I have compared this phone a lot with Samsung S4, not cos I hate it, but simply because it was my last phone and I have used it for months. So have a good idea of what I am on about
Screen
Some may consider the resolution on this phone is too low, compared to the high end flagship phones it is about 100 ppi less. But does this mean the screen is bad? No. In fact, I am loving it more than the AMOLED on Samsung s4. First of all, I am just going to say that above 300ppi I can't tell the difference. To me, 400+ ppi = higher battery drain + requires more CPU + requires more GPU. Just why? Maybe there are some untold benifit of higher ppi screens, but to me I just don't see any advantage what so every apart from the fact you could say to your mate "my phone's ppi is higher than your...". So this to me is a big thumb up!
Speed
Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention speed of this phone. My last phone being Samsung S4 running stock android 4.3 means I should see a massive different when I switch to this phone. But the reality is different, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. There may be 1/5 of a speed difference when opening apps, but that is like 0.2 seconds? Even for inpatient person like me, it is more than acceptable. At the end of the day, it make you think what Samsung is doing with their snapdragon 600, when moto g can keep up using a snapdragon 400... This is on stock android, don't even mention touch wiz... But seriously find a review video or go to a shop and see it for yourselves.
Software/ROM
Well not much to say here, it is running basically stock Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks e.g. camera.
Storage
8gb or 16gb, it is always the question. Previously i'd say get 16gb, more future proof, however I choose 8gb this time. not because of the 50gb gdrive storage (pointless if you have no internet connection), instead you have OTG so if you really want to watch films on trips you can do that. Otherwise, 5.5gb is enough for general app installs. For photos, turn on auto google+ photo back up (or dropbox backup whichever fits u better) then delete the photos on your phone once they are uploaded.
Camera
Haven't really tested it, but at least ok from what I can see and don't expect it to match DSLR
Hardware/Ergonomics
+ Curved back, easy to hold. I especially like the dented "M" logo, it gives more grip, helps when I need to touch the top of the screen.
- Phone is a bit heavy, for people like reading lying down might be a bit of a pain.
+ Back cover is removable, awesome! In fact, there a lot of covers coming out soon.
- Although, it is hard to remove and a bit slippery, not so awesome.
+ Volume key & power key on the same side.
- Clean design, coming from HTC and Samsung, I really enjoy this kind of simple design. I don't like the HTC/Samsung logo on the most obvious place on your phone kinda ruins the look of the phone.
+ No physical keyboard (some may consider this to be a minus instead of a plug), don't need to worry about menu wearing out over time
- Speaker on the bottom of the phone
+ Due to curved back, no speaker sound is actually trapped when you place it on the back
+ Both headphone port and micro-usb port are in the middle of top and bottom side of the phone respectively, again just simple but nice to look at
- No 4G connectivity. Not a problem for me, as I don't even get 3G where I live, a lot of people living in cities might find this some what a deal breaker.
- No removable battery
- No expandable storage
Battery Life
All i am going to say is 4.5 hours screen on time, 60% left. :good: I am not convinced by the stats, so testing it right now to see if it is really that good.
FM Radio
I was never a radio fan, always thought it was kinda out-of-date technology. Then I moved to an area where there are hardly any 3g/2g coverage at all on the way to work, karma i guess... You might say just download music from google music/sportify, but I don't change my songs frequent enough and it just gets old. Conclusion: always better to have a phone that has FM radio than a phone that doesn't.
Notification light
It is plain silly to me why some OEM would even consider not include a notification light on their phone. *cough* iphone. *cough* windows phone. Makes thing so much easier, when all you need to do is glance at it rather than turn on the screen, then turn it off again just to check if your missing anything important. There is no more needs saying, it is just playing annoying without one, so another plus.
Value for money
For most of the people, money is a key factor when buying a new phone. Even if the price is not a burden, you might still get the same feeling as me, thinking it cost quite a lot and make the promise to use it for 2 years or more. Well, with this phone you won't get that. In fact, I brought mine thinking I will use it as a back up phone since no other phone has its spec in its price range. But after I started using it, I couldn't put it down. Now I am not even considering getting nexus 5 which was going to be my main phone.
What I look forward to
Hell this is XDA, obviously I want lots and lots of ROMs XD. But I also can't wait for 4.4 to come out and ART to be stable. I imagine it would make this phone even faster. Saw some comparisons between Dalvik and ART, have to say ART wins hands down especially considering it is still in development stage.
Final thoughts
So happy with this phone, and mostly happy about Motorola stepping up and giving us this product. This is important in the sense, they are fighting a price battle for us, the consumers. We should show some support to let the other OEMs know it is not about how much they spend money on advertising, it is giving us a great product with a reasonable price instead of throw in some latest chips and mark it £599 rubbish which is basically what is happening right now. Basically
Tips
I would recommend everyone get this phone, and get the 8gb version. Since it cost so little, no one could moan at you when you get a new phone next year
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impressive review! thanks mate.. I would get this for Christmas soon.. till it reach our region soon.. anyway, If you could make a full video out of this review, I would love to watch it.. thanks

Stop full quoting! Argh...
@lavafire Thanks, this describes the Moto perfectly, good for people who are considering yet.

Not a full review (I'll be posting that next week) but here's my blog entry about it: http://jmcomms.wordpress.com/2013/1...of-success-to-date-lies-in-the-budget-moto-g/

Battery life looks too good to be true and I hope everyone gets as gooder results as you
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

shure2 said:
Battery life looks too good to be true and I hope everyone gets as gooder results as you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in my video review, I got some of the best battery life I've ever seen from my Moto G.

SHEM's Moto G Videos
Here are my Motorola MOTO G Videos:
Unboxing and Build Quality:
Short Review:
Display Quality and Video Playback:
Speaker Test:
LED Test
Benchmarks:
Gaming Performance:
Water-repellent Coating Test:
Sample 720p Video:
Sample Slow Motion 720p Video
Autofocus Test
Sample Slow Motion 720p Video 2

jonmorris said:
Not a full review (I'll be posting that next week) but here's my blog entry about it: http://jmcomms.wordpress.com/2013/1...of-success-to-date-lies-in-the-budget-moto-g/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please comapre Nexus 4 and MotoG interms of
Camera, performanceand other relevent fields.To
me some of the specifications seem similar.
i guess only the experienced users can actually advice
which one to buy.
Regards
Shikhar

AndyCr15 said:
As mentioned in my video review, I got some of the best battery life I've ever seen from my Moto G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

shure2 said:
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Note had a 5.3" screen.. That makes screen 38% bigger.
Also, the software makes a difference. And maybe the Snapdragon 400 is more efficient than the Exynos used by Samsung

I was going to say, your maths is a bit off there at 10%. You need to look at the area, not the diagonal length.
If you think back to when 4.5" screens where the norm on top end devices, most batteries were less than 1600mAh. The Desire HD for example had about 1300mAh I think.

http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/the-motorola-moto-g-an-impressive-addition/
....software optimization can go a long way, Motorola has compared the Moto G’s performance with the Samsung Galaxy S4, when performing minor tasks. Despite Moto G’s mid-range SoC, lower amount of RAM and less powerful graphics chip, the handset apparently manages to make a call 1.1 seconds faster than the Galaxy S4, it answers a call 1.2 seconds faster, returns home 0.5 seconds faster and boots up 5.3s quicker too....
:silly:

shure2 said:
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's look at the numbers,
The Galaxy Note has a 1280x800 @5.3 inch screen -> 4.49" × 2.81" = 12.62in²
The Moto G has a 1280x720 @4.5 inch screen -> 3.92" × 2.21" = 8.65in²
-> The Galaxy Note has a screen 45.9% larger than the Moto G
-> The Galaxy Note also features a battery 25% larger than the Moto G
Remember, that the 4.5 and 5.3 numbers are the diagonal size and do not linearly represent relative screen sizes
The Moto G has a better (battery:screen size) ratio than the Galaxy Note.

How have you found the vibration motor on it? - to anyone who has one in hand yet.
The one in my Skate seems to make more noise than movement :laugh:

Considering Note 3 for upgrade

I am coming from a Samsung Galaxy S3. I am due for an AT&T upgrade early July. I was really leaning towards the new Galaxy S5 but then I saw that I could get a Note 3 for the same price. I am really torn. The advantages I see with the Note 3 are:
---32 GB hard drive space vs 16 GB in S5
---3 GB ram vs the 2 GB that the S5 has
---larger screen
---bottom speaker (which I personally prefer to rear speakers)
The advantages I see for the Galaxy S5 are:
---a better camera (though I would love to hear just how much better)
---easier to handle with one hand
---water resistance
---apparently a screen that is brighter and slightly more accurate
I would like to hear from those who have had both and would like to elaborate or mention more advantages with either device. Thanks!

First it's about size difference. If you dislike a big phone you better don't buy a note. Everything else is a lot better on the note!!! For the same price and if the size is ok for u I would even prefer the note over the s5.

I went to an AT&T store yesterday and messed with a Note 3 for a while. The screen is humongous but the Galaxy S5 isn't too far from the same size with a much smaller screen.
I've liked everything about my Galaxy S3 except battery life (I now have a 3500 mah battery) and heating issues when doing gaming with, for example, Minecraft, even at its lowest graphical setting. I just can't game for more than 15-20 minutes on this phone without it getting extremely hot. Screen temperatures easily reach 100 within that time span.
Yesterday, I played Dead Trigger on the Note 3 for about 15 minutes. The phone did get quite warm on the screen side opposite the camera. It wasn't as bad as my S3 but it was a tad disappointing. Unfortunately the S5 next to it didn't have Dead Trigger on it and so I couldn't do a "heat" comparison.
BTW, hearing a lot about GPS issues and some suggesting not to upgrade to KitKat. Has the GPS issue been fixed without me having to run a custom ROM?
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

Capa1970 said:
I went to an AT&T store yesterday and messed with a Note 3 for a while. The screen is humongous but the Galaxy S5 isn't too far from the same size with a much smaller screen.
I've liked everything about my Galaxy S3 except battery life (I now have a 3500 mah battery) and heating issues when doing gaming with, for example, Minecraft, even at its lowest graphical setting. I just can't game for more than 15-20 minutes on this phone without it getting extremely hot. Screen temperatures easily reach 100 within that time span.
Yesterday, I played Dead Trigger on the Note 3 for about 15 minutes. The phone did get quite warm on the screen side opposite the camera. It wasn't as bad as my S3 but it was a tad disappointing. Unfortunately the S5 next to it didn't have Dead Trigger on it and so I couldn't do a "heat" comparison.
BTW, hearing a lot about GPS issues and some suggesting not to upgrade to KitKat. Has the GPS issue been fixed without me having to run a custom ROM?
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had any GPS issues on the Note 3, but I wouldn't base your decision on the GPS anyway since it's a problem which can be fixed. Like I said before it's about your preference. Try to focus on the things you really need/want to see on your device and look also for different Android phones. There are so many good devices on the market and if you can wait there will be some more beasts coming in the next couple of months!!! Me personally god used to the size and smaller devices feel like toys when I use them.
From what I heard you need a better battery life and good gaming and over all performance. Something else?(music, camera)

Thanks for the reply. Battery life, no exaggerated heat when gaming, camera, very good speakers, and removable battery are the most important things to me. I absolutely love the HTC M8 but the camera and non-removable battery kill it for me. I would really love to have front speakers, but the other candidate, Sony Z2, has bezels too big for my taste.
I am waiting on more information on the LG G3 and this Galaxy Prime that I keep on hearing about. As mentioned earlier, I am due for an upgrade in early July and so I have time to really think about things but I like doing my research months in advance instead of last second.
I mentioned to my brother that I was considering the Note 3 and he said that is has reception issues---dropped calls, weak signal, etc. I googled it and there were some threads on the subject. Any comments on this potential issue?

Weak signals and dropped calls would be a network issue not really a handset issue
I came from a s3 to a note 3 and I'll never look back anything smaller feels miniscule now initially took time to adjust to the size of the screen but now I can't see me ever using a smaller device
Battery has served me well get a full day out of it no problem
You won't find a phone that won't heat up while gaming it's impossible to cool a device operating at full power without some sort of cooling mechanics other than heatsinks
Phone will take anything you throw at it and then some
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

I own both. (I'm using my S5 as a glorified mp3 player these days, as the screen is too small for me.) Much prefer the Note 3.
The camera on the S5 is in no significant way better than that on the Note 3. I'm an actual photographer so I haven't used any of the filters, and I set everything manually, but in term of picture quality, both are rubbish in low light. In bright light they're near equal.
In terms of screen the S5 is smaller with a higher pixel density. You can only see it when you're about 2cm away from your screen. The colours are slightly more saturated on the S5. (That's a matter of preference, I prefer somewhat more normal colours. Mainly because I can't stand the ghastly Touchwiz colours on the S5.)
Each phone heats up whilst gaming. That's what happens when the plastic case serves as the heatsink without any other fan or coolant. Particularly if you're holding it. The more powerful the device, the more it heats up.
I have no issues with GPS on KitKat. It locks quickly, is stable and has no satelite loss. Call reception is also fine, any drops in signal is entirely due to the sometimes hilariously bad coverage of my provider. (I've nagged them about that. Repeatedly. In person, at their HQ, to the network manager. No luck.)
The S5 is a bit better at handling drops and bumps. The Note 3 is a bit more fragile, so if you lead an active lifestyle or you're clumsy, consider a case.
If you have the time, I would indeed suggest waiting for the S5 Prime before making your choice. http://www.sammobile.com/2014/05/09...ith-qhd-display-snapdragon-805-android-4-4-3/

ShadowLea said:
I own both. (I'm using my S5 as a glorified mp3 player these days, as the screen is too small for me.) Much prefer the Note 3.
The camera on the S5 is in no significant way better than that on the Note 3. I'm an actual photographer so I haven't used any of the filters, and I set everything manually, but in term of picture quality, both are rubbish in low light. In bright light they're near equal.
In terms of screen the S5 is smaller with a higher pixel density. You can only see it when you're about 2cm away from your screen. The colours are slightly more saturated on the S5. (That's a matter of preference, I prefer somewhat more normal colours. Mainly because I can't stand the ghastly Touchwiz colours on the S5.)
Each phone heats up whilst gaming. That's what happens when the plastic case serves as the heatsink without any other fan or coolant. Particularly if you're holding it. The more powerful the device, the more it heats up.
I have no issues with GPS on KitKat. It locks quickly, is stable and has no satelite loss. Call reception is also fine, any drops in signal is entirely due to the sometimes hilariously bad coverage of my provider. (I've nagged them about that. Repeatedly. In person, at their HQ, to the network manager. No luck.)
The S5 is a bit better at handling drops and bumps. The Note 3 is a bit more fragile, so if you lead an active lifestyle or you're clumsy, consider a case.
If you have the time, I would indeed suggest waiting for the S5 Prime before making your choice. http://www.sammobile.com/2014/05/09...ith-qhd-display-snapdragon-805-android-4-4-3/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly how I compare the two devices just a lot more detailed lol.
In September/October should be the note 4 release and if I wouldn't have the note 3 now I would definitely wait. (I will probably still upgrade cause of my cell phone interest/addiction)

Guys, thanks for the replies and, Shadow Lea, thanks for the detailed comparison! I'm sure that it is close, but which one would you say has better battery life?

Capa1970 said:
Guys, thanks for the replies and, Shadow Lea, thanks for the detailed comparison! I'm sure that it is close, but which one would you say has better battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I myself have always found the note series vs the s series that the note had way better battery life and camera wise your photos will about the same but since you due in July wait for note 4 or the s5 prime
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using XDA Free mobile app

Capa1970 said:
Guys, thanks for the replies and, Shadow Lea, thanks for the detailed comparison! I'm sure that it is close, but which one would you say has better battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say they're fairly even matched. The S5 is smaller, but has a smaller battery. I do feel my Note 3 lasts a bit longer, but maybe because I put more effort into extending the batterylife.

I am seeking some clarity. Exactly which Snapdragon 800 chipset is in the AT&T Galaxy Note 3? This article assumes that it is the variant with ram clocked at 933 MHz and the GPU at 550 MHz:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/snapdragon-801-performance-xperia-z2,3777-3.html
However, I've seen articles that have the ram at 800 MHz and the GPU at 450 MHz. Which is correct?

Don't buy the current S5 as Samsung is going to release a better version of it with a better chipset and more RAM and Quad HD display. The Note 3 is just as good for photos, has the S-Pen, speakers at the bottom as stated before, 128 GB Micro SD slot, same screen resolution, more RAM, and almost the same processor speed. W/ the S5, you're just getting features the Note 3 will get sometime later in the year, waterproofing (case can solve that w/ good research), and an easier device to carry around. People joke about my Note 3 a bit saying it's too big, but I honestly don't care because most people use that crappy iPhone 4S or something miniscule.

IMO just wait for the Note 4 right now.

First off - prefer the Note 3 because of the larger screen, however one thing that the others haven't mentioned is that the S5 comes with Kitkat which has restricted access to the SD card. The note 3 might still come with android 4.3 (if you are lucky) which allowed full access to the SD card. Obviously if you don't use the SD card than this is of no interest however if you do then, to me, this is a really important issue. Fortunately I jusy got my phone on a two year contract so I have at least 19 months before I have to worry! (as long as I don't press the firmware upgrade button by mistake!) Hope Google put something better in place in android 4.5 or android 5 or reverse this stupid decision.

What restriction r u talking about? I'm on kk.
@op if you get the chance compare it hands on. I heard a lot of people disliking the size of a note!!! It is most important that u like your phone and feel comfortable or else u regret spending money on it and start threats about strange issues u have in the forum Good luck with your decision. And as I said before at least wait for the note 4 if the screen size isn't a problem.

Google kitkat sd card issues tons of complaints. Someone has even started a petition. Although you can save your photos and music to the sd card all apps must save to a single app specific directory and are not allowed to write to other directories. E.g.take a photo with your phone them try and edit it with another programme. Because you aren't allowed to save it to the original directory you will end up with two copies in different locations. Also when you uninstall an app any data on the sd card will be deleted! Right pain in the ...neck!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Barneyabz said:
Google kitkat sd card issues tons of complaints. Someone has even started a petition. Although you can save your photos and music to the sd card all apps must save to a single app specific directory and are not allowed to write to other directories. E.g.take a photo with your phone them try and edit it with another programme. Because you aren't allowed to save it to the original directory you will end up with two copies in different locations. Also when you uninstall an app any data on the sd card will be deleted! Right pain in the ...neck!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously the SD card issue isn't a big deal. The only problem is for old apps. But if you're using a new device, you should download apps that are optimized for your OS instead of running old apps anyways.
If the developer didn't bother with an update for a big permission change then obviously it's a sign that you should find a new app because If the app was like a banking app or something related to work, and they didn't update to 4.4 permissions, then how would you rely on them when a huge exploit for the app is released which leaked all your passwords and vital information?
Rooting allows for you to bypass this, but in all honesty, the play store is filled with new apps that always get updated weekly (especially File sharing apps) and you should use those instead. I understand not everyone can do this, but by choosing to buy a 4.4 device (even if you did an update you should have read up about changes), you automatically assume 4.4 features to be what you will live with.

It's ok. I bought a 4.3 device and read about the changes in 4.4 so I haven't updated. Personally I wanted my phone and next tablet to replace a Windows PC. Android 4.4 won't work for me. So I'll stay on 4.3 until warranty is up then upgrade and root. Next tablet will be a windows 8 not android.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Barneyabz said:
It's ok. I bought a 4.3 device and read about the changes in 4.4 so I haven't updated. Personally I wanted my phone and next tablet to replace a Windows PC. Android 4.4 won't work for me. So I'll stay on 4.3 until warranty is up then upgrade and root. Next tablet will be a windows 8 not android.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would definitely wait with win 8 tablets. The most r crap and the good ones r waaaay 2 overpriced. Know the win cycle one software good one bad... Windows 7 was good Vista bad XP good... Think about it