Related
I am a Xperia X1 user and am looking for a good android phone, which I have narrowed down to a Desire or a SGS.
I really like the added benefits of the SGS (Better Screen, 8GB internal memory, HD Video), but cannot deny the fact that the UI on the Desire (Sense) is much better than the Samsung setup….
What are your opinions on the standard system?
The reason why I am asking here is that you all will generally have experience with Sense, which all of the custom ROMs for my xperia has been brilliant over the past 18months (kept it alive).
I notice that the SGS XDA portal, has a lot less posts than the HTC Desire forum, but I am hoping that this is due to the fact that the Desire has been out longer than the Samsung.
I am due to upgrade my phone in 10 days so need to figure out which way to go.
All opinions are welcome!
When I purchase this phone my thought was:
1. UI and software can be update and modified, hardwares are fixed.
2. Communities and 3rd party supports for this phone, which are great right now.
These are enough for me.
djglenn1337 said:
I am a Xperia X1 user and am looking for a good android phone, which I have narrowed down to a Desire or a SGS.
I really like the added benefits of the SGS (Better Screen, 8GB internal memory, HD Video), but cannot deny the fact that the UI on the Desire (Sense) is much better than the Samsung setup….
What are your opinions on the standard system?
The reason why I am asking here is that you all will generally have experience with Sense, which all of the custom ROMs for my xperia has been brilliant over the past 18months (kept it alive).
I notice that the SGS XDA portal, has a lot less posts than the HTC Desire forum, but I am hoping that this is due to the fact that the Desire has been out longer than the Samsung.
I am due to upgrade my phone in 10 days so need to figure out which way to go.
All opinions are welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had an iPhone 3G and a 3GS. Sold the 3GS a month ago to buy the iPhone 4. Due to every shop being out of stock on these babys, I decided to give Android a chance.
I nearly bought the Xperia X10 but in some shop they had a Galaxy S Demo Unit. I grabbed it and fell in love with it. It's so light-weight compared to other smartphones!
When I went home with it, I read some footage about it on engadget, gizmodo, etc. I didn't know it was the strongest Android phone at this time. I was very surprised and even more in love!
The screen is a blast.
I was in the same situation, though I was coming from a WinMo handset. I'm so happy with my choice, I know a few nexus one and desire owners who are now wanting a SCS - which says a lot.
My last phone was an HD2 with WinMo 6.5.5 wich have a wunderful community (Android development very fast).
But the Samsung i9000 is a nice Phone, with a wunderful screen, and 720p videoplayback and recording. And of corse, Android.
(Faster than HD2 [thanks Android], more Apps, 720p rec/play, etc...)
Thanks very much for the feedback guys... its good to get opionions of Win Mo users switching, as most reviews I have read on the internet is based on prev Iphone users (who's opinions I do not value).
Are you guys mostly using the stock SGS software, or running custom roms?
laxtor said:
My last phone was an HD2 with WinMo 6.5.5 wich have a wunderful community (Android development very fast).
But the Samsung i9000 is a nice Phone, with a wunderful screen, and 720p videoplayback and recording. And of corse, Android.
(Faster than HD2 [thanks Android], more Apps, 720p rec/play, etc...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you prefer this phone to your HD2? The HD2 was a great phone (as was the TyTn II)!
I am using factory's rom with a little bit of addition: rooting + auto killer to manage memories.
From an Omnia i900 winmo. 6.5.5 user, I have no lags problem on this phone.
Well, how about the opinion of a user switching between iPhone 3GS, Symbian s60v3 and v5, WinMo6, 6.1, and 6.5 and Android 1.5, 1.6, and 2.1 phones, in order to find my perfect suite?!? Actually my last/previous phone was Vivaz PRO
It is really the best phone that i laid my hands on up to now.
Hardware-wise, unbelievable super AMOLED multi-touch screen, fantastic HD video camera, super-fast CPU, a lot of RAM, 8GB internal memory and VERY VERY light! (OK, I miss the LED flash, but I can live with that).
Software-wise, I believe, after a lot of experience with multiple OSs, that Android is the future (at least for the next couple of years). Very smooth OS, open to do everything you wish (root, custom firmware, install pirate soft, etc) easily, and VERY FAST GROWING/UPDATING (compared with WinMo and symbian, that feel a bit ancient by now).
Go for it bro! You wont regret!
Just sold mine galaxy s on ebay.. and for a very good price I am so happy now
If you are like me and use gps navigation a lot, simply run away from this phone.
I am now back to my HD2 (so happy I did not sell it). No navigation software can compare with tom tom.
All in all galaxy s has:
Superb screen:
HD video recording
And that is about it….
The gps is rubbish, don’t listen to the people telling you that they fixed it…
All “fixes” are just to provide fast network location fix (which in most cases is inaccurate)
With my HD2 it does not matter how cloudy it is, and how tall are the buildings around me,
I have GPS fix in 3-5sec and I MEAN GPS FIX, not network location fix.
SO I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE I AM.
2 days ago I was in central London and tried to find the closest tesco with google maps…
After 5min I just gave up… galaxy s simply could not do it
With HD2 things like that takes 10 to 20 sec (including typing tesco in the search bar)
I am also very disappointed with the android OS,
This thing does not even support external gps… we had that in winmo 10 years ago…
It has all sorts of problems, for example application starting on the background (consuming data) and there is simply no way for the user to control that.
One more thing the internal memory card is very very very slow and this slows down the devise a lot. Sure people will tell you about the sd card fix but REALLYYYY… should I start fixing the Samsung rubbish? No thanks, will stay away from Samsung and android for another 2 years (at least)
same here i always purchase my smartphones by the hardware spec, and the amount of Forums/groups available for it.
unfortunately the HTC Athena was flawed, the device itself is amazingly great, howerver support for it was low.
SGS i9000 on the other hand has a very lively group just like HTC Desire
kcharng said:
When I purchase this phone my thought was:
1. UI and software can be update and modified, hardwares are fixed.
2. Communities and 3rd party supports for this phone, which are great right now.
These are enough for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mitko76 Good luck doing anything with GPS in central London...Buildings have this horrible side effect on ALL GPS systems.
Google maps is easily the best Search for phone, but not the greatest GPS, since is need a Connection to work if you deviate from the rout too much.
I've had this phone for w eek now and it is a great phone, there are a few niggles in the software, but believe me way less than stock windows mobile 6.5.
The screen isn;t as crisp as people would have you believe, White text on a dark background gives you a red effect around text and text Isn;t smooth, no where near the Iphone 4 IMO, however the contrast and colours are superb.
Give it a go if your on contract you have 7 days to return it.
Logicalstep
As a x1 user who has just upgraded to a Galaxy S a week past i can say that it is definetly worth it.
I did own a Desire for a day when i got it on contract but i didn't get coverage for the network in my area.
I find the Galaxy S to be a nicer looking phone, screen looks a lot brighter and better. Sound quality from the speaker is better and the UI also seems much faster.
It's a great phone, no questions asked, but you have to realize that it needs some work (like the fixes and all) and customization.
I'm using the imfamous JF3 stock rom and i do notice some lags and battery drain (but I use it very heavily, frequent syncs and updates, tons of widgets and all that) so i'm gonna switch over to the better ones.
I come from the Omnia II wich was a great phone but very poorly supported by samsung and the community. This isn't the case at all for the SGS. I used to have sense on my device, big fan of sense, but i like the SGS homescreen as well with the different pannels, really like it. Touchwizz is sort of a love/hate relationship
I'm loving android so far, even though i don't understand everything, i'm sure i could enhance my phone a lot.
hope this helps
Logicalstep said:
mitko76 Good luck doing anything with GPS in central London...Buildings have this horrible side effect on ALL GPS systems.
Google maps is easily the best Search for phone, but not the greatest GPS, since is need a Connection to work if you deviate from the rout too much.
I've had this phone for w eek now and it is a great phone, there are a few niggles in the software, but believe me way less than stock windows mobile 6.5.
The screen isn;t as crisp as people would have you believe, White text on a dark background gives you a red effect around text and text Isn;t smooth, no where near the Iphone 4 IMO, however the contrast and colours are superb.
Give it a go if your on contract you have 7 days to return it.
Logicalstep
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Logicalstep, that is what I am trying to explain .. I DO NOT NEED “Good Luck” when using my hd2’s gps in central London, it simply work. I work in central London so trust me, I know what I am talking about.
If you are coming from a phone with poor gps I can understand your point, but hd2 simply has a proper gps unit in it and it is working no matter where I am. With HD2 I can even get gps lock in the train (10 sec), tried this with galaxy s and guess what... it FAILED (after 10min).
You can keep convincing yourself that the buildings are high, the sky is cloudy or God knows what ..
But the simple truth is the gps is rubbish.
Keep waiting for the NEXT firmware to fix the issues, and when it failed keep waiting for the next one and so on....
Mitko please do us a favour and leave the forum, we know that you sold your Galaxy S, and frankly its quite boring to see you posting on every thread and preaching slander. The GPS does take a short while to position (about 30-40 secs) but after that it works perfectly for me. I have used it on several occasions when lost in central London.
Since last December I've owned the following handsets: N900, HD2, Desire, X10, Galaxy S.
Of all of these the Galaxy S is my favorite, followed very closely by the HD2.
NZtechfreak said:
Since last December I've owned the following handsets: N900, HD2, Desire, X10, Galaxy S.
Of all of these the Galaxy S is my favorite, followed very closely by the HD2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from you that is high praise indeed.
Loving my SGS, no way am I going back to Symbian.
On my side I am coming from winmo6.5 and then iphone3GS
if i had an advice to give you in order to choose between the desire and the samsung it would be to know that :
* you won't have HTC sense on samsung ... I mean really nothing comparable.
* there is almost no button on the samsung .No trackball ( painfull for selection) no LED ... and it's quite annoying some time
Yes when I compare both with my colleague , mine has a better screen ( bigger , brighter) but it will worth it if you watch a lot of video or look at a lot of picture. If it's just to have more beautifull icon ... you will forget it looks better after few weeks
I am still a little bit uncertain about the GPS ... I need to do more tests and to check the settings I could enhance but it can't be compared to my TomTom ( on both winmo and iphone)
Hopefully there will be soon a real fix for the slowness of the SD card ... hopefully ...
Thanks guys, this is brilliant information!
I used the phone briefly in a phone shop yesterday, and I have to say that it looks very impressive! Especially compared to my x1 running Windows 6.5.3. The only first negative impression that I had was how cheap and flimsy the back cover was...but I hey, I know no phone will be perfect.
When my contract is up next week, and I am going to go for the SGS and as Logicalstep has commented I have 7 days to return it if unhappy.
I really appreciate the feedback, as it has made me allot more comfortable with going for the SGS.
djglenn1337 said:
Thanks guys, this is brilliant information!
I used the phone briefly in a phone shop yesterday, and I have to say that it looks very impressive! Especially compared to my x1 running Windows 6.5.3. The only first negative impression that I had was how cheap and flimsy the back cover was...but I hey, I know no phone will be perfect.
When my contract is up next week, and I am going to go for the SGS and as Logicalstep has commented I have 7 days to return it if unhappy.
I really appreciate the feedback, as it has made me allot more comfortable with going for the SGS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure you will enjoy it
And honestly i agree about the cheap looking back but honestly that's why it is so light and you forget about this quickly.
Especially if you add a case ( you have some very thin one)
I was highly impressed by Streak's 5" Inch and good battery life. However lack of development on software side is forcing me to think otherwise. I plan to buy from ebay, and my observation is I9000 is the same price as Streak. Spec wise I9000 is better than Streak apart from battery life and screen size. HD2 is cheaper, has the same proc as Streak and has a slightly larger screen than Galaxy S. HD2 and Galaxy S both have very good user base and lots of custom builds are being developed.
Am I wrong to think that it would be foolish to buy a Streak now and instead should go for HD2/Galaxy S?
Your feedback is kindly appreciated.
Forget the Streak (or any other Dell device). Dell just isn't up to the task.
Aside from the glacially-slow development times, the hardware just isn't 2011-quality.
If you can wait a bit, I would wait. If you cannot, get a Galaxy.
(Too bad HTC doesn't make a larger phone like the Streak.)
It's very much a question about what you need in a phone..
The streaks are unique in using a 5 inch lcd. you can really not get the experience in any other phone.
The very special use/customization of android is also unique. I love it because the super good readability and space for text input.
The HD2 is running windows mobile os, which is ultra customizable, but requires you to be willing to use time to make it work as you want.
Galaxy S phones are very good in their own way. Good implementation of android, and easy to operate. Good screen as they use s-amoled technology, very rich colors (some say it is too rich, so it becomes unnatural) but at only 4 inches, it's a bit crowded when you input text..
My thoughts only...
EDIT: maybe I should include the EVO 4G/desire HD to the mix? Good quality hardware, very innovative, and 4,3 inches.. Very good alternative indeed.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
If I could go back, I would not get Streak simply because it is made by Dell. Dell doesn't have experience in making phone, and unlike Apple, they are never been good in software either.
Thanks for input guys.
It's a shame that Dell failed to provide support for their first venture into android. Wonder why they are releasing new handsets in this competitive market.
I am looking for a balance between value for money and spec. Galaxy is good spec wise but ~£100 more than HD2. Pros- Better proc, better battery life and possibly better custom build support in the future. It's negative points would be- smaller screen size (better qual though) and poor build quality.
HD2 is relatively cheap now compared to it's spec due it based on winmo. However there are loads of froyo builds available now. Pros of HD2- 4.3" screen and price.
Desire HD is very expensive atm.
I am inclined towards HTC HD2 now.
I had the galaxy s for 4 months. Loved it at first then started finding all the screw ups samsung made. Flashed every custom rom i could find. Seemed like i was constantly trying to fix something that was borked. Love the streak. Not NEARLY as many problems as plague the galaxy s phones. Just read their forums. Gps problem this......lag problem that.......etc etc. All true. Big headache.
Go for the Streak, with some simple tweaking it rocks. No other phone even comes close.
Great to hear streak has good potentials cause I just ordered mine at usd$154 on starhub 2 year contract.
Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk
Oh dear! Yesterday it was 3-0 against Streak. Two points for Streak today and now the margin is 3-2 against Streak!
From what I understand, none of them is perfect, but the question is which one is more productive?
Galaxy S does seem to have a lot of bugs which again pushes me to opt for HD2. Mind you my original choice was Streak, and the reason I am reconsidering my decision is lack of development on software.
Streak 1 man show (DJ Steve as a Dev) do we need more NOOo, I don't want to have 150 different thread with roms, and an extra 300 threads of people crying about stuff not working, LAGFIX what lagfix we dont even have lag, I'm still running Steve's 1.1.1. I have and will NEVER run Official anything on my Streak, I have a friend with an X10, it has some issues, for example no stable froyo no multi touch, not enough ram, colrs are not displayed correctly, Galaxy S, you need Lagfix WTF is dat? will never know, GPS fix... and so. I have zero issues besides my faulty internal memory and perhaps the most annoying i can find on my streak is that the compass is a little bit off by 3 degrees or so. But I love this one man show everything runs smoothly I don't get crazy force close, shut downs, reboots, I don't need to load roms using a PC I just copy update.zip to an SD bam ROM flashing on the road. can you that with Samsung? Sony ? no I haven't mentioned HTC because I havent played with one yet but I'll drop it here too if I use one.
to add more HD2 someone metioned WinMo 6.5 that can run Froyo with no issues and I bet thtat's what the OP will be doing
At the end you pick what you think is best for you, personal choice Streak wins all the way, I'm not a person who is always talking on the phone I browse and text more than what I talk hence my inclination towards the streak.
and which one is more productive? good question some say more "royalty space" or screen area makes you more productive hence dual monitors @ offices and stuff. So there you go that feeds my answer so go Streak!!!
Samsung releases devices then moves on. Be careful believing they'll roll out upgrade after upgrade.
People can complain about Dell's decision to put 1.6 on the device, but they've promised 2.2 by end of year all along.
I want froyo... but 1.6 on the Streak is still very solid.
To me the question when buying the Streak is exclusively about form factor. If you want a big pocketable device... the Streak is great.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
CGI_Ram said:
Samsung releases devices then moves on. Be careful believing they'll roll out upgrade after upgrade.
People can complain about Dell's decision to put 1.6 on the device, but they've promised 2.2 by end of year all along.
I want froyo... but 1.6 on the Streak is still very solid.
To me the question when buying the Streak is exclusively about form factor. If you want a big pocketable device... the Streak is great.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with all of the above, +1 for the Dell Streak!
100% Streak
I've had the streak since day 1 that it was sold in the US, and I've done all the ROM's that DJ_Steve has released (Man, that guy is crazy amazing) I used to be the guy who got a new phone every month, trying to find something even better. And now, I've had the streak for a while. Its just so....big. There's nothing like pulling out your phone and watching a movie on the go on a big screen like this. There's no way I can go back to a smaller phone. And for the people complaining about performance, sure, I can see that if you remained on the stock 1.6 (even then, it wasn't so bad) But with the mods and RoM's that are coming out rather regularly, this phone blows everything out of the water by a long shot. Highly recommend
for Dell Streak owners for 2 months +
How is the battery life in Android 1.6 and Android 2.2 ( froyo ) for a multi-tasking usage ( GPS , browsing through 3G , browsing through Wi-Fi , listening to music , watching videos or movies )
You feedback are highly appreciated
Regards
Khalid - Computerized
My HTC HD2 died from touchscreen death...so its fresh in my head.
To me this streak i got to replace it is head and shoulders over the HTC HD2.
yes its bigger but its proportional to an HD2 so your not walking around with a giant square screen or nothing. the Streak fits nicely in your hand.
i could not be happier with this streak..
I came from a HD2 and I loved the phone, after my contract ended, I did consider just sticking with it cos I couldn't think of a phone that was better than it and did not want to go backwards with screen size, until I randomly walked into an O2 store and saw this monster and had no idea what it was, had a play around and I liked it, youtube more of it when I got home and thought I really want it.....more than anything it was just the sheer size that sold it to me....never used android before and I've only heard good things about it....so I thought what the hell, and I have to say....not been disappointed at all.
I've been on 1.6 since I got it in July and I've been happy with it, but just recently, after installing the official 2.2, it changed everything and I can't believe how much quicker it is, especially after some extra tweeks. The phone still has some problems but not enough for me to hate it and if you look around, I'm sure you'll find quite a few threads of people complaining about his that and the other with some people truely hating the phone. But if your a patient person who doesn't let the little things annoy you too much then the Streak will be great to use.
But if you want a solid phone, then you won't go wrong with the HD2, I would have loved to try Froyo on that bad boy. HTC did a really good job of stuffing the phone with a great UI and lots of little features. When showing the phone of to my mates, I could sell it to them with this feature and that feature, but now with my Streak...I can't really think of anything to try and show them bar showing them how awesome the massive screen is. It's almost like HTC made the HD2 awesome for your where as you have to make the Dell awesome for yourself if you know what I mean (having to install updated firmware, fill you phone with lots of apps, choosing your own UI etc).
As for the Galaxy S, I really didn't like the feel of the phone itself, fair enough it has Froyo with a good UI and lots of little features, but the phone felt soooo cheap and tacky I didn't think much of it, where as the Dell streak feels nice to hold (it's not perfect, bit of flex, slightly loose creeking panels) and the HD2 was even better and felt really solid (though didn't like the curved back with the sharp camera pointing out).
Sorry for the long post but thought it would help with the more detailed opinion. Let us know what you decide.
Keethos said:
I came from a HD2 and I loved the phone, after my contract ended, I did consider just sticking with it cos I couldn't think of a phone that was better than it and did not want to go backwards with screen size, until I randomly walked into an O2 store and saw this monster and had no idea what it was, had a play around and I liked it, youtube more of it when I got home and thought I really want it.....more than anything it was just the sheer size that sold it to me....never used android before and I've only heard good things about it....so I thought what the hell, and I have to say....not been disappointed at all.
I've been on 1.6 since I got it in July and I've been happy with it, but just recently, after installing the official 2.2, it changed everything and I can't believe how much quicker it is, especially after some extra tweeks. The phone still has some problems but not enough for me to hate it and if you look around, I'm sure you'll find quite a few threads of people complaining about his that and the other with some people truely hating the phone. But if your a patient person who doesn't let the little things annoy you too much then the Streak will be great to use.
But if you want a solid phone, then you won't go wrong with the HD2, I would have loved to try Froyo on that bad boy. HTC did a really good job of stuffing the phone with a great UI and lots of little features. When showing the phone of to my mates, I could sell it to them with this feature and that feature, but now with my Streak...I can't really think of anything to try and show them bar showing them how awesome the massive screen is. It's almost like HTC made the HD2 awesome for your where as you have to make the Dell awesome for yourself if you know what I mean (having to install updated firmware, fill you phone with lots of apps, choosing your own UI etc).
As for the Galaxy S, I really didn't like the feel of the phone itself, fair enough it has Froyo with a good UI and lots of little features, but the phone felt soooo cheap and tacky I didn't think much of it, where as the Dell streak feels nice to hold (it's not perfect, bit of flex, slightly loose creeking panels) and the HD2 was even better and felt really solid (though didn't like the curved back with the sharp camera pointing out).
Sorry for the long post but thought it would help with the more detailed opinion. Let us know what you decide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No doubt, Sense is good, I like it a lot. Recommended the HD2 to a friend of mine and he is very happy with it, out of the box. The basic software on the Streak is quite bland, but now that I have customized my setup it looks and works great, too. Straight stock Android is really ugly, however, just like WinMo you can turn it into whatever you want. You can get Sense on Android, too and it has all the bells and whistles as on WinMo --- just not on this 5" monster.
I have had my Streak since day one of uk release..it's the best phone I've ever had and to be honest Its the only phone that I haven't thought about upgrading / selling on ebay after 6months.
I used to use my laptop for everything now I rarely use my laptop for anything as it's always just pull out the streak and away I go.
And ever since we got Froyo on it (thanks DJ Steve) it's just amazing.. as I said used to use Laptop for BBC Iplayer, now just watch it on the streak!
Yes I agree People will buy what they need but everyone should at least consider the streak... especially if there trying to cutdown the carry weight of day to day gadgets!
Agreed, I'm lost for ideas fir what to buy myself for christmas this year. Last year I ordered an N900 but it kept getting delayed so I bought the milestone. And finally THE STREAK arrived!
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Ok -I just got my Galaxy S II here in the uk from phones4u (wouldn't really recommend them but they had it early. My previous Galaxy S which I had massive GPS problems with over almost every ROM and radio combination is eventually going on eBay.
I thought others here might be interested in the SII
Initial impressions are:
Wow - this thing is blazingly and surprisingly fast. I've seen reviews that say it's fast but when you use it - it simply refuses to slow down anywhere in the UI or apps. The Market for example is crazy fast and installing apps is a breeze.
TouchWiz 4 is really a huge improvement and the small changes here and there along with the speed mentioned abive make it a real pleasure to use. Can't as of yet replace the Messaging app link to GoSMS (my personal choice) - but maybe will be able to when root becomes available.
Now - a little background information: I'm very sensitive to colour and brightness uniformity variations and I have to say that over the past few years have had some issues with monitors, a Samsung TV and an iPhone 4 I sent back for problems I know others simply cannot see or simply don't consider "problems". I do - and for that reason I was astonished and delighted by the Super Amoled screen in my GPS defying Galaxy S. I literally love(d) that screen and it was crisp, sharp, large and beautiful with absolutely no colour shift or backlight issues (there isn't one!).
So when I found out that the Galaxy SII had a Super Amoled+ screen I was dribbling with anticipation.
When I turned on my brand-shiny-new Galaxy SII this afternoon however I noticed something I'd seen while toying with the first few SII's I'd handled in the phones4u shops but thought nothing of - the screen is slightly "muddy" although vibrant and there is a definite variation in either brightness or colour shift across the screen from top to bottom - especially visible (almost only visible) on solid colour backgrounds in apps and also Gmail. In know and will state in anticipation that most others wouldn't notice this. Having had my Galaxy S though which had a screen I consider virtually perfect - I was a bit surprised to find that this new SuperAmoled+ screen had a completely different colour temperature and exhibited what looked like colour shift from top to bottom. I was also very surprised that the screen did NOT look as sharp as the screen on my original Galaxy S because these Samoled+ screens are meant to be "sharper". I wonder what the pixel density is compared to the Samoled screens?
Also, when you tilt the phone, the colour of the screen shifts a lot more than the original Galaxy S. Hmmmm......
Anyway - after having just paid around (I am crazy I know) £500 for this phone I feel a little sick.
I LOVE the speed. I love the interface. I know and love Android. I'm surprised by the screen however.
Just thought I'd give everyone a heads-up and HIGHLY recommend you go and have a look at one first before, say, buying online if you are also sensitive to screen uniformity or if you prefer the more "blue" white balance of the original Samoled screens as opposed to a more "yellow" tint - which this SGSII has.
I'm hoping that maybe it will "warm up" and/or "settle in" but I'm not too sure about that. I've tried turning off "auto brightness" and that definitely makes the screen brighter - as you'd imagine - but doesn't seem to help with my issues described above.
Now - onto something else entirely - GPS:
I've only tested this VERY quickly and indoors but the GPS seems to work better than the oroginal SGS. Will do further testing because I use Google Navigation quite a lot but so far I'm hopeful this is now fully resolved. GPS crappyness was one of the main reasons I upgraded and the main lure of this phone was the Samoled+ screen, so I really don't know what I'm gonna do.
The screen issues are so subjective I'm guessing the shop wouldn't consider it a "fault" and so I'd have a fight on my hands with that one.
I think I'll wait a little to see what happens - I think my eyes would get used to the colour balance being slightly warmer but the slight blurriness of the icons/screen and the slightly lighter bottom half (very slight) will probably stay as they are and are very noticeable to me.
Anyway - hope that was of some interest to someone. Any questions - just ask and I'll do my best to answer.
Nice little roundup, glad you're pleased with it on the whole.
Is there any way you could get an image or two of both handsets side by side, comparing the viewing angles and colour shift for potential buyers?
There have been quite a few tweaks relating to the screen in custom SGS kernels, were you running stock or something like speedmod on the SGS?
You are very wicked boy now i want .
jje
Congrats alsheron
Hope ya will enjoy your new toy
Any hands-on pics? I know i can easily find it on google but... you know, its kinda different when pics are taken by a non-gadget bloggers
/nik on MIUI
Sorry guys - the screen issues and finding out that £399 is the price on O2 payg (i'm on o2 contract) has made me feel a bit more sick.
I'm attempting to take it back to phones4u tomorrow. I already called and can tell it's going to be trouble. They have to call "head office" apparently. Thank God I can show my existing SGS next to the new SGSII so that they can clearly see the difference. I consider the issues I described a fault of the first batch and being able to see the difference easily should help me but I've not got a good feeling about phones4u. We'll see though. Hopefully they'll surprise me.
Wish me luck! -> Really need all your goodwill
You should post a track from my tracks with both device to see how GPS compare
alsheron said:
Sorry guys - the screen issues and finding out that £399 is the price on O2 payg (i'm on o2 contract) has made me feel a bit more sick.
I'm attempting to take it back to phones4u tomorrow. I already called and can tell it's going to be trouble. They have to call "head office" apparently. Thank God I can show my existing SGS next to the new SGSII so that they can clearly see the difference. I consider the issues I described a fault of the first batch and being able to see the difference easily should help me but I've not got a good feeling about phones4u. We'll see though. Hopefully they'll surprise me.
Wish me luck! -> Really need all your goodwill
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you have 2.3.3 on your SGS to compare it to your SGS2, as 2.3.3 will warm up any screen (google wanted this, not samsung). If you are compareing 2.2 or 2.2.1 with your new SGS2 then that is not a fare comparison of the screen and its color!
The Engadget review posted a few hours ago said there's an app or setting that lets you change the screen's colour temperature. In fact, they say pretty much the opposite to what you've said about the screen.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review/
Perhaps you have a faulty one.
Congrats man. And good luck!
Can't wait to get my hands on this new Galaxy.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I want this phone SOOO bad :/ I literally love it.
Can you post the email apk please
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
How does the samoled + perform in sunlight ? Better than samoled ?
Can you please post email.apk and Movie Maker apk.
I have been looking for that video editing software but couldn't find it anywhere. I will appreciate it if you do it. Thanks
wow. super envy.
no budget for a new phone this year so i'm stuck with the i9000.
me too so eager to have my hand on this phone....i am going to see and hold it first once they available here and decide if it is too big for me or not......btw this phone realy drive me crazy and hoping to change it with my SGS...btw I dont have any problem with my SGS right now even with the GPS.....
how is the battery life?
kelvs said:
wow. super envy.
no budget for a new phone this year so i'm stuck with the i9000.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the SGS I is still a very nice and capable phone. You probably won't regret holding onto this one when the SGS III comes out.
matlear said:
Can you post the email apk please
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here, I've pulled everything from "/system": [URL=http://hotfile.com/dl/116132455/f24648b/System.zip.html]http://hotfile.com/dl/116132455/f24648b/System.zip.html[/URL]
Davith said:
Well the SGS I is still a very nice and capable phone. You probably won't regret holding onto this one when the SGS III comes out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any updates regarding s3?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
I started a thread about having any disappointments with your note.
Thought I'd add this one to let you all express exactly what you like about your note.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Everything I love about this phone is mostly related to the big awesome screen..
Screen asset with a native resolution that logically goes with it!
That's why i dump off the S2 which has the screen asset, but a less desirable native resolution.
Screen, developer community and speed! Those are the three big reasons I jumped ship from the Dell Streak... (but I do love my Streak :-(... and I love the Streak devs, but there are not enough of them)
The screen, speed and the games! You gotta love the games on this phone, epic, full hd and you got a pen!
-screen size/res
-removable battery and sdhc (i come from an iphone, so these were big for me)
-s pen
-speed (both processing and network)
-my first android phone, and i'm loving what that entails
-substantial enthusiast dev community
-last but not least, this phone has damn near replaced my laptop (the latter is no slouch, but it's nowhere near as portable)
Everything! I had a HTC Desire for 18 months and whilst it was great the internal memory was too low - constantly deleting apps to put others on - so it's great to have masses of storage and yes, the screen is magnificent.
I haven't touched my tablet since I got this!
The Tablet like experience in a pocketable device.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App
The size, screen, the speed... everything about it!
The screen - oozes quality. (and thats with the brightness turned right down, crank it up and my eyes bleed....
The S Pen - a stylus that actually works! Allows me to take notes when im out and about at work (and ditch the pen/ paper)
leppo said:
-screen size/res
-removable battery and sdhc (i come from an iphone, so these were big for me)
-s pen
-speed (both processing and network)
-my first android phone, and i'm loving what that entails
-substantial enthusiast dev community
-last but not least, this phone has damn near replaced my laptop (the latter is no slouch, but it's nowhere near as portable)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything he said with special focus on the s-pen/wacom digitizer. That single feature resonated with me so much that it didn't matter that the screen was gorgeous, although that helped .
Btw my Note's my first Android too...
It's very simple, really: it has all of the hardware and software features I need with a screen size which enables me to actually USE them.
I see it as the ONE and ONLY true smartphone on the market today.
I have noticed quite a few Galaxy Note II users online that are close to pulling the trigger on a new phone. I have been in that camp for a few months and finally did. I really don't have and major complaints about the Galaxy Note II but rather small quibbles about the device. So you have a basic idea of where I am coming from I'll let you know what I like and dislike about the Galaxy Note II.
GNOTE II Pros:
Good Specs - The phone has specs that are still considered above mid level and should still be a viable phone for at least a couple more years if properly updated...if.
Camera - I get pretty fair image clarity from the phone and when I need something better I'll break out a DSLR or my Galaxy Camera.
Voice - Very clear and loud.
S-Pen - Oh how I'll miss thee.
Capacitive Buttons/Physical Buttons - Well thought out for one-handed use.
Weight Its a bit heavy but I actually like the weight of this phone and could probably use it as a throwing-star analog to get the drop on somebody if I hit them square in the temple. But that really is not a concern for most people.
Hardware - Its well made and very resistant to drops with a simple TPU case.
GNOTE II Cons:
Updates - I'm on T-Mobile which has taken any chance it has to kill the possibility of future updates. Occasionally an errant voice on a messageboard out of T-Mobile Customer Support stating they have seen this in the works wafts across my screen but I have yet to see it come to fruition.
Samsung Ideology - Samsung products are good for a year then they release a new one as if you really need a new product from them. Samsung makes great products but rarely do they fix glaringly obvious mistakes after a year past its original creation. I currently am working on a Samsung monitor with a color calibration issue that has been reported and known by the company for years but never fixed but they fixed it on the new model of this monitor. My Galaxy Camera, while nice, suffers from insane Touchwiz lag and could use an update on fixing that but we won't see it because they released the Galaxy Camera 2. I am in the game for technology to last a minimum of 3 years running well. I realize the market is bleeding edge but the edge has gotten far less bloody than the G1 days. I shop for phones like I do TV's or computers now.
S-Pen Manufacturing - I've been through four S-Pens. I use it a lot for taking notes throughout the day as it feels more natural than typing on a computer screen. The S-Pen tends to randomly stop working without provocation. Then if you order a "100% OEM Samsung Factory S-Pen" most likely its a Chinese knock-off. I can't find true S-pens anymore which is a concern for owning a new Note.
Lack of Stable ROMS - Nearly everything I have tried causes issues with NFC or Bluetooth. I use bluetooth all the time for music to various speakers, headphones, or my car.
Knox - It does its stinking job too well. SU can run but it can't hide. I have lost SU so many times on this stupid phone it is ridiculous. Let alone the every 10 minutes my phone lets me know that Triangle Away is being activated. I don't do a lot of coding or tinkering but I do like finding ROM's with good utilitarian purposes. I remember swapcache back in the G1 days and enjoyed finding the next cool thing to do with my phone! We are past that time now, honestly, but if it isn't Samsung branded then Samsung doesn't want you to do it.
Samsung Services - "You have started S-Voice" NO I DIDN'T. "Saving contact to Samsung Contacts" Bad Samsung, stop it! I insanely dislike...nay..HATE how Samsung will not let you get rid of its version of things. My contact list was a thing of beauty running in the 100's with every person I needed to work with (I'm a teacher that does coordination work and administrative work for a school of 600+), their room numbers, email addresses, and everything you could think of until I bought a Samsung product. I have some names with 20 duplicates due to the way this beast handles contacts. I eventually just had executive function overload and decided to give up on being organized. I might bring that back to life soon.
Now that you have an idea of where I'm coming from this is what I think of the Nexus 6....
I like it!
The first thing I really enjoyed about this phone was the speed. I'm running it Stock, Rooted, and Encrypted (for now...maybe forever...I work at a school where my kids know how to build robots and get linux running on projectors so I wouldn't mind encryption on my devices) and loving the heck out of it. I was so impressed by simple things at first such as animations from opening folders as soon as my finger touched the screen whereas my Note II would lag for a good time without animations. In fact, turning on the device is so overwhelmingly stupidly simple to turn on. I can check the time by just pulling it out of my pocket without touching buttons where if I wanted to check the time on my Note I would have to wait 5 - 10 seconds after pressing the power button while pondering the ever present question, "Did I press that button?" which inevitably leads to "#$&(*, I pressed it again and turned it off!"
The next thing I noticed was the size and weight. It is a bit harder to use than my Galaxy Note II with one hand. I think if they reversed the capacitive Back button it would be a lot easier to use for us right handers. I may look in to figuring that out. Honestly, I almost feel like this thing is too thin and light. It feels well built and solid. Even with the SUPCASE I bought it still feels a little odd in my hands but that may be due to the weight being very centered in the deep area of the curve opposed to being consistently weighted. As a personal aside this is the first phone I have ever put a screen protector on WITHOUT BUBBLES....I..AM...A ....GOD!!! Well..maybe demigod. Needless to say, Spigen makes a fine screen protector.
Unlocking and rooting this thing was a breeze. Once I get paid in a couple of weeks I plan on donating to @WugFresh for at least a case of beer for his amazing Toolkit that will even walk you through setting up Windows 8 drivers! You can find that at http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/development/toolkit-wugs-nexus-root-toolkit-v1-9-8-t2947452
The camera is better than my Note II by simply being clearer which I'm assuming is to the better camera sensor. I haven't messed with it that much.
The screen and adaptive lighting are by far my favorite thing on this phone. I am probably in the minority on this but adaptive lighting is brilliant. I have seen a lot of people talking about how AMOLED is causing the reddish/purple/yellowish hues to blacks and grays at low light levels. I do not believe that is the fact. It seems like they are using some sort of blue light filtering for this in low light. As an insomniac I tend to send the wee hours of morning which I consider night perusing XDA, Twitter, and various other odds and ends of the internets and am so happy the screen actually gets dark. My Gnote II on the lowest setting was annoyingly bright. I thought I was a genius one day when I thought to use a blue screen filter and made it darker but lo and behold the backlit capacitive buttons attached directly to the stinking hardware on the Gnote II. Its like having someone flash their brights at you when you use one of those programs on the Note. Its annoying. The Nexus 6 takes no part in this and I would 100% recommend it for fellow insomniacs. It has helped me to get sleep a little bit quicker over the last couple days which is a nice benefit. Lets see if that keeps up though. I'm pretty immune to sleep.
Also the screen is really nice quality and reproduces blacks amazingly well. I'm an art teacher and art history buff so I usually check out different high quality images on my phone to see how good it looks. It seems to work very well at recreating the color and light of some of the paintings. My favorite to use for this test is Van Gogh's Starry Night Over Rhone. Eventually my phone gets used in the classroom when a student needs to look up an image and put on an easel (or kickstand case but haven't seen one I like yet) to display when my tablet or laptop is in use.
Battery life and charger! Its great. 'Nuff said.
I think the biggest negative so far is the volume of calls. My wife said I sound quieter than usual. I also can't hear people as loudly as I used to. The speakerphone does not travel as far as the Note when it absolutely should seeing as the speakers are fairly decent for a cell phone. I could see someone fixing this pretty easily in a ROM.
The other negative is the lack of some multitasking programs that Samsung had and of course the lack of S-Pen. I use a Huion H610 Pro at home for digital art and graphic design so I loved the fact that Samsung phones used similar tech but I absolutely abhor using capacitive styluses (styli?). I'll have to figure out something I can carry with me that will work like that with a similar feel.
Anyway, as of right now I'm extremely happy with this phone. I have had no issues as of yet and luckily no burn in however I do not like my phone to cause sunspots when I look away from it so I'm not expecting to have a huge problem with it. If you have some similar issues with the Galaxy Note II (which T-Mobile amplifies) then I would suggest jumping ship especially if you have crackflashing tendencies because there is no Samsung product without a Nexus name attached to it that will be as easy to deal with as this.
-Travis
Let me go ahead and apologize for the poor grammar and lengthy sentences. I'm sitting home from work sick today (XDA fun time does not happen between the hours of 7am to 5pm at work normally) with bronchitis. The medicine(s) I'm on must really like run-on sentences after I re-read that wall of text. I hope it helps someone after deciphering it, haha.
From one educator to another (I'm a school administrator and former classroom teacher), let me say 'well done!'. Before the Nexus 6, I was a proud Note owner for the last three years - Note 1 and Note 3 to be exact. After finding out that the Note 4 would be even more locked down than the 3, and deciding that I was getting really really tired of TouchWiz and truly loved what Lollipop's UI brought to the table, I made the jump. And I am just as pleased with my choice as you are. No more crazy contacts lists or S-Voice intrusions, amen. ......I do miss my old S-Pen though....
I'm using the Note 2 atm and I "really want" the Nexus 6 (64gb infact, hard to come by in Australia otherwise I probably would have one by now).
Using SlimKat now because the stock ROM was absolutely dreadful!! (Laaag!) The S-pen does not work out of the box on the current rom and I'm not missing it either... I'm ready for the Nexus and looking forward to using "modern speakers" on a phone.
PerthSGS2 said:
I'm using the Note 2 atm and I "really want" the Nexus 6 (64gb infact, hard to come by in Australia otherwise I probably would have one by now).
Using SlimKat now because the stock ROM was absolutely dreadful!! (Laaag!) The S-pen does not work out of the box on the current rom and I'm not missing it either... I'm ready for the Nexus and looking forward to using "modern speakers" on a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also came from the note2 on tmobile and like the OP said, there was a lack of ROMs for the phone.
i ended up pulling the trigger on a white 32gb nexus 6 (i was looking for a 64gb but they were hard to find) the other day and like it very much. I think i rooted and unlocked the bootloader within 30mins of having the phone.
just trying to enable tethering on it right now is the only obstacle for me.
simplyTravis said:
Let me go ahead and apologize for the poor grammar and lengthy sentences. I'm sitting home from work sick today (XDA fun time does not happen between the hours of 7am to 5pm at work normally) with bronchitis. The medicine(s) I'm on must really like run-on sentences after I re-read that wall of text. I hope it helps someone after deciphering it, haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a Note 4 from T-Mobile for a few days and I didn't care for it at all & I was coming from a S4 before getting the Note 4, So I decided to return it and got the Nexus 6 which is way better. I'll also be paying less then I would of been with the Note 4.
How does the screen brightness compare between the two?
How's the focusing speed compared to the note 2?
I'm trying to decide between this and the HTC m8. I have small kids so I need something with a quick focus and overall good durability. (I'm not really concerned with megapixel count.)
Thanks!
lschuman said:
From one educator to another (I'm a school administrator and former classroom teacher), let me say 'well done!'. Before the Nexus 6, I was a proud Note owner for the last three years - Note 1 and Note 3 to be exact. After finding out that the Note 4 would be even more locked down than the 3, and deciding that I was getting really really tired of TouchWiz and truly loved what Lollipop's UI brought to the table, I made the jump. And I am just as pleased with my choice as you are. No more crazy contacts lists or S-Voice intrusions, amen. ......I do miss my old S-Pen though....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I plan on getting things back to normal now thankfully. My contacts are so much easier to get through now. Right now I'm in the midst of dealing with starting up after school programs for our school and will be editing Google Docs with this thing next week so I'll get a real test of how it works. I work at a charter school (part of the biggest charter school system in Texas: Harmony Public Schools) and since we don't have a bus system our after school clubs tend to be in the hundreds daily. I run around circles making sure everything is going right and people are in the right place so its helpful to be able to pull up a list on a decent size screen to find information on the go. Our school has been around 7 years and I've been there 6 years of that with only 2 people there longer than me so I tend to be the guy to ask about anything.
Tubgirl said:
How does the screen brightness compare between the two?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With adaptive brightness off the Nexus 6 is noticeably brighter with better black levels and a warmer tone (not yellowish.) I keep it on most of the time and haven't had any problems seeing things. It has been raining here in South East Texas since I've owned the phone so if it ever clears up I'll let you know how it compares outside but I'm assuming it will be a bit better than the Note II.
anrkee said:
How's the focusing speed compared to the note 2?
I'm trying to decide between this and the HTC m8. I have small kids so I need something with a quick focus and overall good durability. (I'm not really concerned with megapixel count.)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I did a couple of tests. First from picking it up off of a black countertop and letting it autofocus on its own in a decently lit room. The Nexus 6 won by like less than half a second to a second.
The next test was when I would tap the screen to set white balance and autofocus in a decently lit room. From the tap the Note II won by less than half a second.
The last test was in a dark room looking then picking it up to focus on a computer screen to test white balance setting and autofocus. The Nexus 6 won this hands down by a bit over a second. I think it simply achieves much quicker white balance but autofocus is slightly slower. I'll try to do some comparison shots tomorrow when I get home from work if you want.
Thanks for that. No need for test shots. You answered my question perfectly.
Totally off-topic from the Nexus 6: if you enjoy the extra duties in addition to your classroom, please consider administration! Keep up the good work for our kids.