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Hey Everyone,
I was asked today by a friend what my thoughts were on the Evo after two weeks of ownership, and was inspired to write up a first-hand review which I want to share with you.
What are your thoughts of the Evo after your first two weeks, what do you find to be it's strengths and weaknesses...and how would you compare it to other smart phones like the iPhone 4, Droid Incredible, and upcoming Droid X. Anyone with buyer's remorse?
Please try to keep fanboy/fangirl-ism to a minimum, if possible...as I'm really looking for unbiased feedback.
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Friend's question: So how's that new phone treating you?
My thoughts:
Very good, but until it has "Froyo" 2.2 I have to bite my tongue on a final judgement.
On paper and in RL, the hardware specs are impressive.
Build quality is good (but not great) mostly due to issues I've read about with users experiencing a "glass separation" and grounding woes (resolved? as of the latest HTC firmware)... or maybe just plain separation anxiety from my G1 and a tactile keyboard...ok, bad joke. I haven't had any of the issues reported, but will say there is some minor light-leaking on the lower bezel of the phone, where the glass meets the plastic casing. Other than that, it'srock solid. No random crashes, no overheating, no dead pixels, no battery charging problems, no issues with mounting the phone to a PC or swapping the microSD card. Everything just works, as expected (which if you're shelling out 300 bucks for a phone, that's the minimum expectation). I also like the fact that there's a warranty option available for the purchase, unlike the iPhone.
The updated HTC Rosie/Sense UI is beautiful nearly flawless. Navigation is straight-forward, but I fear for a slightly older generation of users (e.g. anyone born before the 80s) it may seem too "busy" and overwhelming. HTC has done a lot to outperform Android's stock UI. Integrated multitouch (limited) for the home screen along with the Live Wallpapers integration (which are both fun and cheesy) is a pleasure to use. HTC's widgets are great (but not the best for application specific platforms like Twitter - use Seesmic instead, blows Twidroid out of the water). The HTC keyboard also blows the stock Android keyboard away.. I just wish the bloody thing integrated multi-touch interface (mostly for copy-pasting and capitalizing).
Sprint's network is impressive, but their 3G speeds seem a bit slower than my experience with T-Mobile. Until we have 4G here in FL, the jury's still out. In contrast, I also haven't had random network outages or call dropping as I was prone to with my G1 on T-Mobile. Over WiFi, YouTube and even embedded Flash videos (yes, I got the 2.1 flash pre-release) FLY like the wind and look stunning in HD. I'll also add....thanks to some savvy bargaining, my Sprint bill is 13% less than what I was paying T-Mobile. As a business, their customer service has been excellent, but it would help their sales if their sales associates had more tech knowledge. AT&T wins on that point, as their reps tend to know the iPhones inside-out, or at least talk the talk of "power users".
Camera takes great daytime photos and the recording in HD is impressive (albeit slight under-performance on frame rate capping, thanks to HTC...of course there's a hack to change that). Nighttime camera-work leaves some things to be desired (i.e. its grainy), but the built-in flash is decent and doubly effective for applications that use it as a LED flashlight.
Battery life, on the other hand, totally sucks. I'm a power user, so I frequently mass kill background apps to make phone resources available, but I still have to say there's no easy way to manage power for Android phones. I blame this on the Dalvik compiler, and I'm hoping 2.2 changes energy management....or at least gives app builders a better way to scale resource use for their applications (both background and foreground services).
Apps are still a major point of contention for me and Android...mostly because they're just not there (and are the ultimate deal breaker or maker for most Smartphone buyers). I initially blamed JAVA; but now I'm going to raise the bar and blame the often fragmented (and frustrating) Android framework and lack of developer marketing by Google AND the various carriers (which I think is just about all of 'em) selling Android-powered phones, save Verizon. You have to be a real cowboy to want to develop for Android mostly because it requires a cavalier attitude, since the code source requires a LOT of research. Apple has done a lot to enforce product standard for the iPhone apps out there, and I think it's time Google's marketplace stepped up to expect the same level of product quality. There's nothing more frustrating than downloading what one would expect to be a polished app (or even a clone for something iPhoney like Doodle jump) to find it bug ridden, unpolished or simply feel like a BETA release. This isn't to say that they all suck...but most unfortunately do. Again, hopefully the new VM will change this.
Oh, I forgot to mention Google Voice and integrated search/speech-to-text capabilities - they're amazing.
your review reads well. in the battery section, you should specify what you've tried to remedy the problem... there are tons of people, myself included, who make it through a day on heavy usage.
i have gmail push, always on data, calendar sync, and gps enabled. turned off gchat service, removed people widget, friend stream widget.
when my phone is idle i usually lost 1% every 90minute to 2 hours. and I can get 4-5 hours of heavy usage in before bar hits red.
Pardon me?!?!
"Navigation is straight-forward, but I fear for a slightly older generation of users (e.g. anyone born before the 80s) it may seem too "busy" and overwhelming."
Pre-70's here buddy... I have been playing with my 4hr old phone quite a bit already. So there.
muncheroo said:
your review reads well. in the battery section, you should specify what you've tried to remedy the problem... there are tons of people, myself included, who make it through a day on heavy usage.
i have gmail push, always on data, calendar sync, and gps enabled. turned off gchat service, removed people widget, friend stream widget.
when my phone is idle i usually lost 1% every 90minute to 2 hours. and I can get 4-5 hours of heavy usage in before bar hits red.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly muncheroo, I haven't done much by way of battery optimization but will start working out on it once I have a relative mental benchmark for battery life as of the latest update (which by the way has amped up my phone's lifespan quite a bit).
sablesurfer said:
Pardon me?!?!
"Navigation is straight-forward, but I fear for a slightly older generation of users (e.g. anyone born before the 80s) it may seem too "busy" and overwhelming."
Pre-70's here buddy... I have been playing with my 4hr old phone quite a bit already. So there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry sablesurfer, no offense meant!! I actually used that anecdote after showing off my Evo to my mom and a few mature coworkers. I got the same response from everyone - "It's beautiful but has so much going on, how do you keep track of everything!?"
The irony I think, is most of the widgets are all about improving efficiency and multitasking capabilities. :]
Good write up..
I would really love to see what people define as heavy usage. I'm sorry but I'm not buying the full day on one battery with heavy usage crap.
Sent from my EVO via Tapatalk
I always used to use this place when I had my windows phones and found it a brilliant source of information.
I have just bought (not arrived yet) a Galaxy S and thought I'd have a look on here and I am amazed at the problems and people moaning about there devices, I read loads of official reviews and they all praise the device highly, in fact almost as high as the big Apple.
I am completely new to Android so most of the terminology is different to the old Windows mobile so I guess I shall get used to this.
But it seems this Galaxy S is plagued with lag and gps issues, this concerns me a lot as I am a heavy gps user, have I made the wrong choice in going for an Android device, would be nice to hear some positives
There are many positives on the SGS. In my opinion (from a short, but intense ownership period) the lag issue isn't as bad as it might sound.
In certain ocasions it does lag and I've ended up waiting 4 or 5 seconds for an app to open or do something.
But those events were rare and might be reduced in the upcoming Froyo ROM.
Not something that will ruin the experience I'd say, since the unit has many positive aspects, including the amazing display.
If you are a heavy GPS user I'm afraid that there are no good news. The current GPS performance is a disaster (and no proper testing was made in any professional review). Personally I consider it not to have GPS as it is so unreliable that it cannot be trusted.
IMHO that is the only critical flaw that the SGS has right now.
Don't panic yet. Perhaps it can be solved with a firmware upgrade (maybe it is not hardware-related). In any case if GPS is really important to you and you can still return your unit, I'd do it (I will do that with mine). Get your money back and watch what happens.
If Samsung/Broadcom fix the GPS issue, then it will be a good terminal worth buying again.
well, i've been along time wm user and apple user. Got the galaxy s a few weeks back, right around the time there was massive stock shortages in australia, however my galaxy s never had any gps issues. I'n my personal opinion samsung have fixed the issue with the GPS in the later firmware revisions.
Lag, well i was running stock firmware without any mods for a few weeks, not too many issues. Yes it was a little laggy at times (typically when opening big apps), but copilot ran fine better than any wm device or apple device using tomtom.
Be sure to only kill apps that your not using, dont kill email and other important things because you'll notice the lag much more.
Just upgraded to jm5 firmware with all the mods and stuff, yes its much faster but running stock is good too. I would never go back to a windows mobile or apple device, even if it was free.
good luck, just my 2c.
THUDUK said:
I always used to use this place when I had my windows phones and found it a brilliant source of information.
I have just bought (not arrived yet) a Galaxy S and thought I'd have a look on here and I am amazed at the problems and people moaning about there devices, I read loads of official reviews and they all praise the device highly, in fact almost as high as the big Apple.
I am completely new to Android so most of the terminology is different to the old Windows mobile so I guess I shall get used to this.
But it seems this Galaxy S is plagued with lag and gps issues, this concerns me a lot as I am a heavy gps user, have I made the wrong choice in going for an Android device, would be nice to hear some positives
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from a windows mobile device there is truly no comparison. I've owned and test many windows mobile devices in the past, and the Galaxy series far superior than anything previously made in my opinion. The small lag/gps issues will be fixed with minor build revisions. (unless GPS was hardware but doubtful) anyways Enjoy the device, peace!
Well my JF3 stock phone lags ALOT. Installed ca 100 apps. Not tried any of the fixes. But the lag is really really bad. Just going into calendar/dialer/contacts can take 5-10 sec. Not acceptable at all
borchgrevink said:
Well my JF3 stock phone lags ALOT. Installed ca 100 apps. Not tried any of the fixes. But the lag is really really bad. Just going into calendar/dialer/contacts can take 5-10 sec. Not acceptable at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100 apps
Perhaps that is the source of the problem.
I came from a windows then apple and when i got the apple iPhone wow big difference...but then..unless you jailbreak you cant customized it...so then it became boring...was waiting for the iphone 4..but it looked the same...no real multitasking..plane the same...so moved to the gs and yes i got the jf3 firmware...yes gps issue...tried all the methods found...and some it worked...but then i was able to update via flashing my rom to M2 and gps issue has been solve...the lag is solve..the phine is faster..the android community is more vibrant than the iphone and that's because apple don't like ppl tweaking with their device...
So i can say that galaxy s is ideal if you are a power user..as you can customizer it to your hearts content
No real issues except the gps one (which is HUGE). The rest is nothing serious.
And the phone can be tweaked in so many ways, used like a pc, download torrents, watch movies directly without reconverting, copying music and photos without sync (I hate apple so much because of this). Also went from iphone 3g and my choice was between iphone 4 and galaxy s. Iphone 4 has a load of fun games, but the device is from Big Brother, no flexibility at all.
And as a artist/photographer the huge super Amoled was just wow.
Again, the gps issue spoils it all. I do hope Samsung fixes it because it is a pity to sell it and get the Iphone (
THUDUK said:
I always used to use this place when I had my windows phones and found it a brilliant source of information.
I have just bought (not arrived yet) a Galaxy S and thought I'd have a look on here and I am amazed at the problems and people moaning about there devices, I read loads of official reviews and they all praise the device highly, in fact almost as high as the big Apple.
I am completely new to Android so most of the terminology is different to the old Windows mobile so I guess I shall get used to this.
But it seems this Galaxy S is plagued with lag and gps issues, this concerns me a lot as I am a heavy gps user, have I made the wrong choice in going for an Android device, would be nice to hear some positives
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most people with this phone don't really have any problems. We have a lot of people on this board with what appear to be faulty GPS units (can't get a lock at all) who are very stubborn and don't seem to want to return their faulty devices, so they spam away on here. If you read through the complaint threads, you will see that it is mostly the same 10-15 people posting over and over how terrible their GPS is, and how horribly their phone lags.
That aside, if you buy a device that has an old (JF series) firmware, then you will have to flash it to a newer one if occasional lagging bothers you. Another alternative is to wait for an official firmware release before buying your phone, but that doesn't seem to be an option since you've already ordered it.
Either way, don't take the complaining on this forum as any sort of proof of widespread issues without first trying the device yourself.
Totally agree with the above. It is not as bad as some make out. I use my GPS all the time without any issues at all. Lags are minimal with later firmware. I hope you enjoy your GS.
Frankly, I do not have the issue with GPS, I use Google Maps Navigator a lot.
Lag issue has been addressed by JG1 or newer test firmware.
PS: I had at least 2 WinMo phones in the past, and I have to say that I love android phone.
borchgrevink said:
Well my JF3 stock phone lags ALOT. Installed ca 100 apps. Not tried any of the fixes. But the lag is really really bad. Just going into calendar/dialer/contacts can take 5-10 sec. Not acceptable at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you need all 100 apps to do work? that's the real problem.
I believe none of the WinMo (6.5) phone can takes 100 apps in 1 single phone and still working.
Roy Ngan said:
do you need all 100 apps to do work? that's the real problem.
I believe none of the WinMo (6.5) phone can takes 100 apps in 1 single phone and still working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not need all, but they are not running all at the same time. So it should work just fine.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
When I got mine it was between the iphone 4 and the SGS, I had an iphone 3G before, and did have a good play with the iphone 4, but ultimately it felt the same, and I felt I would get bored with it.
So I got the SGS.
At first I regretted it - it was slow and unstable, and with terrible battery life.
I've since updated to JM2, rooted, done the EXT4 hack and installed Autokiller and use optimum settings on that. I installed launcher pro instead of touch wiz, and a few nice little widgets and a few apps and games.
Now, I'd almost go so far as to say I now prefer it to the iphone 4. Yes, perhaps you shouldn't have to do all this, but I bought the phone, and I was damned if I'm going to waste my money selling and buying an iphone 4, I was determined to make it work, and now it does work, I put all the tweaking to the back of my mind - now I don't try and keep up with all the latest firmwares, instead, I am just enjoying the phone and the Android OS. The only time I will now change is when a good, official Froyo firmware is released.
The positives for me are, sheer speed (when all of the above patches / hacks are performed), the customisation options that are simply not there for the iphone - you can change virtually every aspect of your phone to your tastes - try that on an iphone. You can literally make your phone unique from any other. The screen size - yes the iphone is sharper, but you have to virtually hold your eyeball to the screen to notice - for me, the benefits of having a larger, more colourful screen are immediately apparent. Much better media support, no more converting most videos to play on it.
The downsides - well the GPS is a reported downside - Google Navigator simply didnt work for me when I tried it, but that was with stock firmware, I've not tried it since I performed my above fixes (and tweaked a number of GPS settings too). The camera is pretty rubbish IMO, imagine a 3GS camera with a few more pixels and a few more options and you're not a million miles away (but on the flipside you get 720 video recording)... no flash either. The battery life still isn't amazing - it's still very poor compared to an iphone, but ultimately, its no worse than any other android phone.
Personally, I think the SGS is up there with anything out at the moment. I wouldn't go back to the iphone at the moment - before I'd reconsider this, I'd be wanted a 4+ inch display for starters, and a lot more customisation options...
Heck... I even rediscovered the art of bluetooth file transfers again the other day!!
borchgrevink said:
I do not need all, but they are not running all at the same time. So it should work just fine.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you use samsung default widgets try disabling them. Many people have found their phone stopped lagging so much once they disable the samsungs default widgets
tameracingdriver said:
When I got mine it was between the iphone 4 and the SGS, I had an iphone 3G before, and did have a good play with the iphone 4, but ultimately it felt the same, and I felt I would get bored with it.
So I got the SGS.
At first I regretted it - it was slow and unstable, and with terrible battery life.
I've since updated to JM2, rooted, done the EXT4 hack and installed Autokiller and use optimum settings on that. I installed launcher pro instead of touch wiz, and a few nice little widgets and a few apps and games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah see that's what a lot new users say. The whole point of linux though is customizing on a kernel level. Literally everything can be customized, and changed, tweaked, and even ported to other devices haha..
I don't get how there is even a comparison between Apple products and the new lines of Linux based phones already out and will be releasing in just a mere 3 months. What about Microsoft as well, check out metro UI, they're something to think about. Apple is done, they give their users nothing, like I said before, you have 1 billion people with an iphone and EVERY single one is the same hah.. where's the diversity?!
If you want to ditch the lag,why don't you just get launcher pro and call it a day, worked like a charm on my old captivate with the STOCK rom hah.. so yeah
Dopedangel said:
do you use samsung default widgets try disabling them. Many people have found their phone stopped lagging so much once they disable the samsungs default widgets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly what are they all called?
RyanZA said:
Most people with this phone don't really have any problems. We have a lot of people on this board with what appear to be faulty GPS units (can't get a lock at all) who are very stubborn and don't seem to want to return their faulty devices, so they spam away on here. If you read through the complaint threads, you will see that it is mostly the same 10-15 people posting over and over how terrible their GPS is, and how horribly their phone lags.
That aside, if you buy a device that has an old (JF series) firmware, then you will have to flash it to a newer one if occasional lagging bothers you. Another alternative is to wait for an official firmware release before buying your phone, but that doesn't seem to be an option since you've already ordered it.
Either way, don't take the complaining on this forum as any sort of proof of widespread issues without first trying the device yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's clarify one thing.
I tested 7 (seven!!!) of these phone.
They were ALL broken, with a miserable GPS.
It's not spam. It's the reality. You're probably have no idea what you're talking about.
nricci said:
Let's clarify one thing.
I tested 7 (seven!!!) of these phone.
They were ALL broken, with a miserable GPS.
It's not spam. It's the reality. You're probably have no idea what you're talking about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can open google maps navigation, put in a destination, and drive whole following the maps/prompt and end up at my destination, with the prompts being completely accurate.
I can post/geotag my location with any program and it gets it instantly within 50m or so (This would be AGPS I think).
What exactly is the problem? What are you trying to do with your GPS?
The BCM4751 should be able to resolve and maintain a position down to nearly 2m. What you think is working, is actually the broken.
Now that the initial hype has died down, and t-mobile employees are officially advising against purchasing an hd2 it’s time for an educated and thorough review that new buyers can actually use. I’m not going to include any technical information, because 1) it is widely available 2) most people don’t choose a phone based on technical specs and 3) we all know this sucker is super fast. What I will do is offer up my opinions along with some tips and tweaks –NO HACKS—should you decide the HD2 is right for you.
To start with, what about the Galaxy S?
Yes, at least one t-mobile employee tried to steer me away from the hd2 and to the galaxy s. And yes, the screen on the Samsung, while a bit smaller, is also a bit more impressive. Darker blacks and more vibrant colors. If screen resolution is the only thing you care about, even over size and price, then stop reading now, because the galaxy s definitely has a superior screen. Holding the galaxy s in my hand though, I didn’t give it a single thought. Here’s why. To start with, I prefer the slightly boxier build of the hd2. Also I feel more comfortable with a couple hard keys, and for me at least, a slightly bigger screen is desirable over a slightly better one. The real decision factor however, was that I was replacing a Samsung touch screen phone which had become intermittently non responsive to touch and after three straight Samsung phones (sgh r210 - t909 - behold) I figured I’d give HTC a chance, after all Google did.
The early days were dark.
This was my first data plan with t-mobile, so the extra 25 bucks a month was a hard pill to swallow. I was really expecting the hd2 to blow me out of the water, thus making it easy to rationalize a 50% increase in my monthly bill. It didn’t. I won’t list all the issues I had with this phone because they are well documented through out the web, but also because that’s just the start of the story.
A happy ending.
Bottom line, Microsoft is great because you can customize the **** out of it. The hd2 doesn’t suck HTC Sense sucks. IT’S HORRIBLE. A waste and an annoyance, but, easily removed. That’s right disabling HTC sense is the first and most important step to loving your hd2.
Settings > today > items (bottom tab)
Then just select windows default (HTC sense is at the bottom, but who cares)
On to the tweaks…
I read a lot about hacking the hd2 registry, but seeing as I was still contemplating returning the phone, I didn’t want to do anything drastic. So I kept it simple. Here are the apps (cabs) I installed to perfect my HTC hd2 experience. Just search the web (and Microsoft marketplace) and you can download all these apps for free. Also, to install a .cab file, just drag and drop it from your computer (connected via USB) to your phone. Then unplug your phone from the computer and browse to the file.
Start menu> file explore> storage card
Click on the .cab file you just dropped onto your phone and the app will install. Then go back to the start menu and at the bottom there should be an icon for you newly installed app. Here are mine:
GYRATOR 2 - Brins0.net
-a simple rotator. A lot of the screens on the hd2 won’t go into landscape without this app
RESET ME - Y.K. Ying
-I think I downloaded this one from the market place. I was messing around with my phone a lot in those early days, and this app cam in handy for settings that required soft reset.
HOMESCREEN CUSTOMIZER - Danny Su
-Another marketplace free download - this is the MOST IMPORTANT app I downloaded for the HTC hd2. It removed that horrible HTC Sense crap, and replaced it with a simple, one screen option.
SHOWCASE - e-natives
-for some reason, when you hit the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner of the screen, whatever app or function is running simply minimizes. The phone is so fast though, that launching applications takes just as long as switching to them, so there’s really no point in having a bunch of apps running, sucking up battery and processor resources. This app makes that X actually close a program and not just minimize it.
So What about the camera, what about the battery?
As for the battery, it takes just a couple hours to loose half your battery power, then the phone seams to operate for another 10-15 hours on the remaining power. I read that this is a snapdragon issue (the powerful 1 GHz processor running the HD2). So while those quickly dwindling bars cause much stress, the phone will operate for almost two days without charge.
I am still looking for an inexpensive camera app to replace the HTC camera, but I have managed to tweak the settings enough (contrast, saturation, white balance) to get some decent pictures in well lit situations. The fact is, the Samsung Behold has an amazing camera in it, and the hd2 just isn’t as great. Oh well.
I'm glad you're here to tell me how to use my HD2.
This is probably one of the most redundant reviews I have read, and about ten months too late at that.
Go and tell someone who gives a feck... Surely, Jeremy Beadle is dead?
wow, someone actually chooses the hd2 over the android galaxy and y'all are ripping him for it???
get a life already.
Wow...uhm...k thanx for the tutorial there...and the REALLY craptastic review. You where trying to help people.....how?
ashasaur said:
Wow...uhm...k thanx for the tutorial there...and the REALLY craptastic review. You where trying to help people.....how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see what he is saying. The phone runs ALOT better without sense slowing it done. Sense is a memory hog. It caches a lot of memory. Those out of memory errors that some people get, do not happen with sense gone.
I never had a SOD on my tp2 when I started flashing my own ROMs minus sense.
Now, I've learned to appreciate what sense does add to the experience, but on my tp2, it was unbearable, even when optimized.
They're mocking him because it's a poorly done review. Get past the part about the Galaxy and read the rest.
apallohadas said:
They're mocking him because it's a poorly done review. Get past the part about the Galaxy and read the rest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in his defense, he did call it a layman's review. In other words, someone who doesn't live on here 24/7, and doesn't want to flash his phone 3x a day.
nrfitchett4 said:
I can see what he is saying. The phone runs ALOT better without sense slowing it done. Sense is a memory hog. It caches a lot of memory. Those out of memory errors that some people get, do not happen with sense gone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The out of memory errors don't happen if you know how to use the phone. People KNOW Windows Mobile is absolutely **** out of the box, but still years and years on people still complain about it, it's bewildering.
Sense is a very good base platform for CoOkie and ROM developers alike to work with and as a result make Sense a far more powerful platform for the end user.
Sense is the Cosmetics on the Zomby,and of course you know what the legend says,zombies live forever,LOL,so cheer up.!!
Wow,
Sorry but that was a disappointed review.
It was your first post on this forum and you only joined this month, so I am not sure what you were trying to advise us of to be honest. No disrepect intended.
People like me have had this phone since the November 2009 release and know all there is to know about it.
HTC Sense does not suck or slow down when you are using the correct ROM, either the lastest official ROMs, or better yet, a custom ROM like Artemis.
In interface of WM is best left in the background until you have something geeky to tweak, although WM6.5.5. is a big improvement.
Anyway, my 2 cents worth.
I agree with the last person staing that sense does not (dramatically) slow down the HD2, an I am still using Stock ROM.
The snapdragon is so powerfull.
The thing I notice however, especially with people complaining about battery life:
Most people think of the HD primarily as a Phone.
This also explains the complaint of a lot of poeple that there are no applications for it.
Given the HD2 has a big screen, which has an unusual format (like the touch HD had), there are still a lot of old apps around which run on the HD2 (some somewhat crippled, others do not run at all)
But, I came from Palm iV (monochrome) via Ipaq to p330o, Touch HD to HD2.
For me the primary use for this machine is: PDA with phone capabilities.
And not like for a lot of people, phone with PDA capabilities.
All phones of the latter category (Like eg. Nokia E71) lack a grat deal of PDA capabilities. This is where Windows Mobile has made a big heap of programming with a lot of open ends.... The PDA community jumped on top in order to improve the PDA experience.
The PDA community slowly moved to phone.
In my opinion, all die-hard tweakers / modders / programmers use the HD2 primarily as PDA. Most complaining users use the HD2 primarily as phone.
Yes, as a phone it lacks stamina (batterylife), Yes as a phone it is higly adaptable, but you will have to adress the HD2 as PDA.
On a PDA, one would tune applications (run this, kill that, beware of sync etc) Most ROM cooks still use the what I call PDA approach (load only what is nessesary, not what could eventually ever be needed, kean and mean) thus saving powerconsumption.
As to my past experience, I switch on things only when needed (wifi, bluetooth, activesync etc), except for push mail. This gives me after a normal day of use more than 50% battery life left (on a stock ROM).
For a PDA (except for the PALM iV, which did not have (serious) backlight and colour display) this is quite good.
A PDA should at least sync daily..... so this is acceptable in my opinion, and do not forget Older machines had wordse battry lives.
If one starts navigating, power consumption is incredible, and a good car-loader is almost an obligation, but then again, most navigation units need a powersource. Even the Nokia E71 drains the battery very quickly if navigating without loader attached.
As for sense/manilla:
I am an winmo addict, even an experienced user (ppc2002, ppc 2003, ppc2003SE, Winmo 5, winmo 6.1, winmo 6.5), and I seem to miss a lot of functionality in sense, so I use a lot of quicklinks to the original WinMo apps (eg. Outlook contacts, WinMo settings), yes WinMo is a bit cumbersome, but if you know your way..... Beats sense a lot of times in functionality.
On the other hand, for the quick "thingies" I still use Sense, but as soon as Sense does not live upto the functionality I need..... WinMo!!
All in all:
I can understand the review, seen from the perspective of a phone user, and I agree with it, but with a twist
For me the HD2 Rocks in a major way.
Currently I am sticking to stock, as the phne/pda does what I need and fulfills all my needs. (and more)
For apps: goto www.windowsmobilesoft.net, www.freewareppc.com, www.handango.com, www.wm6software.net, www.pocketgear.com, www.mobiletopsoft.com, pocketpcfreeware.com, pocketpcfreeware.org, freewarepocketpc.net, pocket-pc-freeware.com and many others....
IF one adds up all apps I believe there are a multitude of apps available for our winmo device even more than for any android, iOS or symbian phone all together. Agreed same apps exist 100s of times.....
Moreover even a lot of old ppc2003 software can run on winmo 6.1 (and perhaps also on wm6.5, but I have not had any time or need to experiment)
Concluding:
I am very happy with my HD2, still on stock,
Superfluous speed, no lag from Sense, but one need to use it with a lot of sense (but that has grown on me from ppc2003 on )
Battery life could be better, but I cradle it whenever I can, thus my batterylife is more than sufficient. (As an early adopter from pDA, I am used to cradeling )
Later on I will start experimenting, mainly because of Android (need to experience that too.)
For me the HD2 Rocks in a major way.
Currently I am sticking to stock, as the phne/pda does what I need and fulfills all my needs. (and more)
For apps: goto www.windowsmobilesoft.net, www.freewareppc.com, www.handango.com, www.wm6software.net, www.pocketgear.com, www.mobiletopsoft.com, pocketpcfreeware.com, pocketpcfreeware.org, freewarepocketpc.net, pocket-pc-freeware.com and many others....
IF one adds up all apps I believe there are a multitude of apps available for our winmo device even more than for any android, iOS or symbian phone all together. Agreed same apps exist 100s of times.....
Moreover even a lot of old ppc2003 software can run on winmo 6.1 (and perhaps also on wm6.5, but I have not had any time or need to experiment)
Concluding:
I am very happy with my HD2, still on stock,
Superfluous speed, no lag from Sense, but one need to use it with a lot of sense.
I could never agree more!!
In my opinion; the latest stock rom + CHT & its editor + apps = a master piece!!
All the respect for the OP's review!
i'm glad i could help spark a couple pages of discussion. I recently purchased my hd2, and i spent a lot of time on these forums learning all about it. i think my review bridges the gab between the xdadevelopers forums and those of tmobile
and to the second person that claimed my review had nothing new to offer the hd2 community, i think your actions speak louder than your words.
kyle_hd2 said:
and to the second person that claimed my review had nothing new to offer the hd2 community, i think your actions speak louder than your words.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that that saying makes any sense in the context that you used it, but all this thread did was mull over old news. But on reflection, what do I care? Welcome to XDA.
Kyle mate.. waiting your review on WM5.
A little off-topic guys.
Christmas is coming and telephone operators are throwing really very "nasty" offers. I have a choice to get Samsung Galaxy S2 or Nokia Lumia 800 for 0€. Inspite of really nice SG2 phone I'm so tempted to get to Microsoft camp and get a taste of Mango. Damn it's hard to decide.
The only big drawback of Nokia phone I find is missing option of usb mass storage. So dumb! What they were thinking off?
SG2 only drawback is that it's already getting old, and yeah, it's Android
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Galaxy S2
Your choice?
Keep the Hero
If I need to choose betwein those 2, the android one, but I would not pick either.
Thanks for your opinion. I would pick Galaxy Nexus, but unfortunately it is out of my budget.
whitealien said:
Thanks for your opinion. I would pick Galaxy Nexus, but unfortunately it is out of my budget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is the one I want, not that any pocket in any pants I got is big enough for it. The hero hardly fits and no not really a handbag person... And yes I am tiny.. so I got tiny pants
---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 PM ----------
Just want to add something. How I think on getting new stuff. If I want something new. I want to make sure it is the thing that I want. And not a thing that is maybe cheaper but not the thing that I want. In this case that is an android phone that runs 2.3 I do not want that. I want to start with 4.0. But some say the GPS on the Nexus is crap. Not that I know of. but I will see what I will get in like 4 months or so. Happy with this device.
I would pick android. Think of what has made ur hero last this long. It is because you can tweak and customize it and upgrade to newer os versions even though it's old.
sent with love from me to you
LOL you shouldn't have to think about that really IMHO.. The lumia is plainly UGLY and windows phone is CRAP.. the sgs2 all the way. Android hands down mate, plus the sgs2 beats the lumia specs wise too. It's a win win situation.
Tenpin said:
LOL you shouldn't have to think about that really IMHO.. The lumia is plainly UGLY and windows phone is CRAP.. the sgs2 all the way. Android hands down mate, plus the sgs2 beats the lumia specs wise too. It's a win win situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude the lumia is absolutely GORGEOUS! It's so pretty I am genuinely considering dealing with all the poor specs just to wrap my unworthy hands around it.
I just can't give a serieus answer, isn't it obvious which one to choose? SGS II is better in every way and believe me when windows phone 8.0 comes out you are going to be so sorry for choosing the lumia instead of the SGS II, in the future you can update the SGS II with and without a custom rom to android 4.0 and up. There aint much to think about just saying..
Lumia is a nice phone and Mango has sorted much of the issues with wp 7, though on long run (2 yrs) i'm considering if i'd be happy with it. kinda in the same spot looking what to get, but i'm between Sensation and incredible S (affordable) on the android front and Lumia and Titan on the wp7 front.
I would pick Samsung Galaxy S2 ... just because i don't like the interface of a Windows Phone . The OS is ugly as hell, I was in a store last week looking at some phones and I almost puked after 30 seconds of looking at Windows Phones but I recovered while looking at the Home Screen of my HTC Hero. Android's interface is great and by far the best... but that's my opinion and everyone likes different things.
Stick to Android alot more customizable
Even though m getting a sensation still wanna learn more abt Android, n my hero is probably the best testing ground
Sent from my Hero using xda premium
The sgs2 is an awesome phone, but have you considered the new Sony erricson? The arc s.. it's in your budget and with a whopping 1.4ghz processor and impressive looks in comparison to the sgs2 you can't go wrong
Sent from my Hero using xda premium
I would go for SGS2 as it is still among the best android phone available atm.
Plus, there is plenty of development interest going on for SGS2, with lot's of flashing around so you won't be bored for a long time.
It still has got the best available specs for hardwarewise.
It does not have the Arc's dreaded housing crack problem.
It does not have the HTC's Sensation and like models of dust under the screen as faced by some users.
The only thing you may miss is there's no Sense.
Or..if not
Just grab the one that has got the highest resale value.
Sell it off when it's new to finance your purchase of your dream phone (a Galaxy Nexus perhaps?).
Don't dismiss WP7 until you've tried it. I think windows phone has got a bad reputation from previous versions but after using WP7 on a HTC Mozart I think that it is incredible. It is so unique and I only know one other person who has one. For me, I think I'm going towards WP7
There is serious reason I want to quit Android camp.
The problem with android is that it is too open. There is a limit with providing good SDK and allowing to make apps based only on it or allowing to do whatever you want and making crapload of ****. Android programmer base is so dumb, they don't know anything about performance or battery optimization or background task handling. Android market is blunt loaded with web page scrappers, wrappers and xml parsers. To make a some mobile web page wrapper takes me 5 min and some don't even have any shame to ask money for that. Majority of Android app devs are just amateurs, weekend java programmers or ex web developers with no any clue what mobile platform is and that there is some limit in available RAM, processing power, storage and etc.
Android market maybe is a lot bigger than windows market, but when you look at quality then we come down to the same number or even worse.
Sorry for rant, but 2 years ago I put big fate in Android and Google which totally failed me by providing competitive mobile platform. Android, even with ICS 4.0 today is still 2 years behind iOS and now also WM7. They need 2 dual core most powerful CPUs in a world to accomplish the same task what WM7 can do with single core and half RAM and even then they fail.
Oh well .....
iOS vs Android vs Window Phone
This is a major problem these days. I was thinking to get a new phone these days to...so i spent a lot of time in reading about the new features the platforms have to offer and it seems that there are lot of tiny parts in every os that make every day use to be more exciting and easy.
I will start to make a comparison on every os on what is has or what's missing
1.Windows Phone
-it's snappy
-interesting interface
-facebook and tweeter integrated
-easy to use
-microsoft servers with 30 GB space to store media
-no OTA updates
-no usb storage (you need a program to do that)
-limited hardware (this is because microsoft made a decision on this part)
-multitasking is not in real time
-the number of app is limited (~35k)
-not open sourced...so if your phone gets old, it's harder to make some custom roms
2.Android
-snappy but sometimes laggy
-usb storage
-full customization of the screens
-real time multitasking
-since 4.0 we have a better browsing experience
-lot's of app
-easy to make a rom or flash one
-Google apps (Maps + navigation = damn i'm in love )
-the new gen of phones get big screens and that's very stupid (as lira said...it can't fit in the pocket and i fully agree)
-i hate the part when a new version of android appears and it takes months to get an updated phone
-in some roms we have to much apps from the developer (take htc for example)
-i think the system needs better and better hardware so you can get a better experience
3.iOs
-snappy
-the os with the biggets number of apps
-very easy to use
-every new version can be installed after it appears (if your phone can handle it)
-since we talk about iOs we talk about iphone and on thing that i like is that is has a 3.5 screen
-it has siri and it's fun and useful
-good browsing
-no usb storage...but i heard that you don't need iTunes if you need to transfer a document or things like that (not sure there)
-no customization on the screen, just icons of the programs that you have
-no OTA updates
-can't make a custom rom
@ every rom - maybe i missed some stuff
@whitealien -> not into nokia (WP7.5) since it has stupid limitation and to much social stuff (i don't use facebook or things like that)
-SGS II is a good phone, lot's of people use it and want it and since i know some friends that had an iPhone and now have a SGS II and are more pleased with it
-sometimes i think why buy a phone and not a tablet, that's better thank a phone from more points : starting from gaming and finishing with watching movies.
The choice is your...i'm tempted to get a new phone and change the platform to see new things but i realize that android gets new and new features every day.
I think that it's better to wait for the release of the SGS III and the new qualcomm S4 chips or tegra III on phones [but why need these chips when you can do your every day use with a dual core phone without any problems??]
@ all: - Why not a HTC phone?
Stefan
stefpaul said:
@ all: - Why not a HTC phone?
Stefan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
always a HTC phone if android,i've dropped my hero from the first floor of my house it was fine,it went tumbling down the stairs twice n still survived,it was thrown against a wall by a friend when we were drunk n it survived damn this thing has been hardcore,i manhandle my phone like **** n it survives xD my frnds galaxy s2 fell from his pocket while sitting on a chair and display got fked xD
Thanks Steff for your opinion.
-no OTA updates
-no usb storage (you need a program to do that)
-limited hardware (this is because microsoft made a decision on this part)
-multitasking is not in real time
-the number of app is limited (~35k)
-not open sourced...so if your phone gets old, it's harder to make some custom roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will a little argue with this. No OTA updates - there is updates and Nokia is taking it very serious. They just rolled one out on 7 dec.
- limited HW, you mean a little outdated? Thats true, only single core and 512RAM, but seems to be enough
- multitasking is not in real time - not entirely true, it depends how apps are programmed. They can work in bg if they are programmed to
- the number of app is limited (~35k) - are you serious , I never had more than 50 apps installed
- my very 1st smartphone was HTC Touch Polaris with WM6.5 so I know what closed source is
I found 5 major flaws in Lumia 800
1. only 16Gb integrated storage
2. no usb mass storage
3. no front camera (really, these days?)
4. no notification LEDS, not even one single led, lol.
5. Pentile Amoled display
And yeah SG2 is not perfect too. Build quality is so poor. Back cover is cheap and fragile. Have seen broken ones. Also whole construction is fragile, including big screen. Don't ever put it in your jeans back pocket or you will regret
@ all: - Why not a HTC phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if they were not obsessed with huge phones, enormous screens, poor battery life, sad build style (all gray or black) and somehow over blunted Sense (comon, why there is weather animation everywhere, even in lockscreen) maybe I would go HTC. My 1st idea was to take HTC Radar, but at closer look I find it kinda too big for offered screen size (the bottom part is so long). White is cool so.
bharat_goku said:
always a HTC phone if android,i've dropped my hero from the first floor of my house it was fine,it went tumbling down the stairs twice n still survived,it was thrown against a wall by a friend when we were drunk n it survived damn this thing has been hardcore,i manhandle my phone like **** n it survives xD my frnds galaxy s2 fell from his pocket while sitting on a chair and display got fked xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm htc for the reason that the android experience is more fun and not so common to most of the android phones:d, and it has some feature that make using android a special one
whitealien said:
Thanks Steff for your opinion.
I will a little argue with this. No OTA updates - there is updates and Nokia is taking it very serious. They just rolled one out on 7 dec.
- limited HW, you mean a little outdated? Thats true, only single core and 512RAM, but seems to be enough
- multitasking is not in real time - not entirely true, it depends how apps are programmed. They can work in bg if they are programmed to
- the number of app is limited (~35k) - are you serious , I never had more than 50 apps installed
- my very 1st smartphone was HTC Touch Polaris with WM6.5 so I know what closed source is
I found 5 major flaws in Lumia 800
1. only 16Gb integrated storage
2. no usb mass storage
3. no front camera (really, these days?)
4. no notification LEDS, not even one single led, lol.
5. Pentile Amoled display
And yeah SG2 is not perfect too. Build quality is so poor. Back cover is cheap and fragile. Have seen broken ones. Also whole construction is fragile, including big screen. Don't ever put it in your jeans back pocket or you will regret
Well, if they were not obsessed with huge phones, enormous screens, poor battery life, sad build style (all gray or black) and somehow over blunted Sense (comon, why there is weather animation everywhere, even in lockscreen) maybe I would go HTC. My 1st idea was to take HTC Radar, but at closer look I find it kinda too big for offered screen size (the bottom part is so long). White is cool so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will argue to you because on the apps: the most important apps in the market are missing if you look close the first apps will appear on iOS first and after that on android and last WP... but it seems that they are starting to get in the same time on android with iOS...
I was thinking on a a HTC radar too but it's not so speedy... and from the part that hardware is old, this isn't a problem, it's a thing made by microsoft and it seems that apps work very well:d
I have a big problem with phones these days...the app that don't make me use them: HTC HUB, HTC LIKES, FACEBOOK INTEGRATION and stupid app that most people don't use))
And there comes a part in life when you don't want a custom rum, just a rom that is fast and responsive...
So the big question is: if i change from android to iOS or WP7...will i be happy than i was with android?
Stefan
stefpaul said:
Hmm htc for the reason that the android experience is more fun and not so common to most of the android phones:d, and it has some feature that make using android a special one
will argue to you because on the apps: the most important apps in the market are missing if you look close the first apps will appear on iOS first and after that on android and last WP... but it seems that they are starting to get in the same time on android with iOS...
I was thinking on a a HTC radar too but it's not so speedy... and from the part that hardware is old, this isn't a problem, it's a thing made by microsoft and it seems that apps work very well:d
I have a big problem with phones these days...the app that don't make me use them: HTC HUB, HTC LIKES, FACEBOOK INTEGRATION and stupid app that most people don't use))
And there comes a part in life when you don't want a custom rum, just a rom that is fast and responsive...
So the big question is: if i change from android to iOS or WP7...will i be happy than i was with android?
Stefan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
<rant>
you will not be as happy if you leave android imho.
I'm surprised this is even a serious discussion.
Here are my personal reasons why I say that, after using ios and android devices full time professionally for a while and briefly dabbling in winphone7:
It's becoming increasingly accepted by unpartial reviewer and testers...
(except by:
those who have never used android for a useful length of time
or for those who are looking for very simple user experience without any interest in customization or for "power user" features
)
... that iOS is quite inferior to Android in many ways.
Apple notifications were almost useless until ios 5 and even now are only scratching the surface of what android notifications provide.
ios gives you app icons on your home screen. that's it. no widgets or spaces or custom layouts or sources of useful dynamic information (other htan completely USELESS counters on each icon showing outstanding notification events that have passed wihtout your knowledge because of how crappy iOS's notifications are).
ios gives you no customization other than crappy ordering control which is forgetful
I work wtih an ipad daily and it is a PAIN IN THE ASS - I have learned to hate iOS, specially for tablets or power users, but even for a phone os it is truly annoying and very limited.
windows phone is cool but also limiting, very very limiting, and has rather poor app support at the moment compared to either of the big ones.
there are several reasons why android has become the most popular mobile phone OS - and it isn't just because google gives it away for free.
It's also because Android is the only one that is fully customizable. windows phone is SORT of but not nearly as truly customizable as android.
IMHO the windows phone launcher fake app for android (in the market) is actually superior to the real windows phone device I was playing with because it supported android widgets. But if you want to try out windows phone 7, get that launcher - it truly does give you the winphone7 experience with all it's boring limitations.
the thing that's great about apple devices is the huge and still superior application/game support (if you spend the bucks or jailbreak it then install installous and cydia).
I used to say that iOS was better for little kids. but my little kids (2 and 5 at the time) used android tablets without ANY trouble at all. my little kids (now 3 and 6) use an iPAD without many issues either but do get confused when holding a finger too long on an icon and then out of hte blue they all start wiggling and next thing I know apps are being deleted by little fingers. Android turns out to be far more intuitive in this regard compared to iOS. sometimes dumbing down the OS can be taken to the point of making it more complex to understand. It's an either or situation here, but typically in other ways I do think iOS is easier for very very simplistic minds to accept. This should not be a benefit for anyone here however LoL.
the thing that makes android superior for adults is it's ability to be completely and easily customized for everyone who uses it. it's YOUR phone, use it how you like. don't let apple tell you that you can't sync on this computer wtih this itunes on this day in this weather - I swear to god it is nearly that flaky and limiting to use iOS devices. you have music on your phone and want to copy it to your friend's phone? nope. you want your frien'ds music? nope. not unless you're lugging your laptop around so you can copy the files to/from your itunes folder, NOT directly to/from the device.
also android has a free terminal emulator app in the market. it works perfectly and runs bash as well as my desktop. iOS runs somehting similar but makes it incredibly hard to get that sort of control, even after jailbreaking and installing tons of underground apps it is still a kludgy and unreliable bash prompt control system you get in ios which requires a separate terminal emulator to control it (even a term app on your same device will get you there, but that alone is pretty annoying to have to deal with since you first have to actually get your low level underlying linux type system working on the iOS device....)
maybe some of my iOS negative points are improved in ios 5 but it is still light years behind the flexibility that we are all imho owed by buying the device and buying a license to use the operating system in the first place. I OWN my files. I can put them on my phone or my friend's phone if I choose to.
I buy a mac or a windows computer and I can get at all parts of the OS and mess around with it completely. why can't I do that on an iPAD that costs 2 to 3 times as much as a similar android tablet which is a full linux-based computer right from the get go?
I have a lot of inside info and have watched the devices and OSes grow and change over the years. Historically, in many ways, the best os for smart phones was palm webOS. but the hardware/company were slow/moronic respectively (which is why my brother quit as VP of Engineering of PalmSource... check this link for an interview with him back when things were still early and exciting at palm's mobile operating system dev company: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/...w-Michael-Kelley-and-John-Cook-of-PalmSource/ )
Anyway - android is quite literally the only way to go for a mobile OS at this time if you dont' want to be tied down to a specific vendor/company of hardware and don't want to be given one user interface with one way to operate the phone.
Ever noticed now winphone7 uses only about 60% of your display for it's main UI? annoying, at best.
yes, they're quick, iOS and winmo7 devices. and yes every brand has good hardware (and bad in some cases). however htc android devices do reign supreme in popularity and market share for a good reason (as outlined above by me and others). but even stock android devices are way cool.
having worked with android tables/phones and ios tablets/phones I have decided very definitely that I will never buy an ios device. having worked with winphone7 for a short time I found it quite acceptable, like iOS. but extremely uninspiring and it's customizability is even worse than iOS's.
</rant>
Holy $#!^ don't do it! I had some issues with the WP8 upgrade that upset me enough to try out the competition. I left the Lumia 920 for the HTC One 4 months ago. I will say that having apps for everything and the ability to flash Rom's is cool, but that's about it. The OS sucks. I have jotted down some of my personal grievances in case anyone who thinks like me is thinking of switching. This will hopefully prevent a ton of wasted time and money.
• Overall OS is buggy and a total resource hog. It requires premium hardware specs to deliver an experience close to the smoothness and fluidity found in Windows Phone and iOS, but still doesn’t achieve that. And don’t even think about matching performance of budget Android phones vs. budget Windows Phones, not even in the same league.
• It requires almost daily reboot’s to keep performance from suffering or the OS from completely crashing. This usually depends on how many apps I use on any given day but is still far, far lower in performance reliability than Windows Phone.
• It is the most virus prone mobile OS available. This is pretty huge. In addition, Google data mines every account you set up on the phone. As soon as I set up my company IMAP account, and I mean, next day, I started receiving junk for the first time in 4 years. Absolutely unforgivable.
• Touch responsiveness is a joke. The delay on the keyboard response, for example, when you’re used to iOS or WP is unbearable for me and feels super low quality
• The graphics and icons are kind of toy which requires a launcher and icon pack to remedy. Even then, most packs I tried only covered half the apps I needed and the remaining app icons looked stupid. So I had to individually edit icons to get something acceptable to me.
• Communication apps are horrible. Mail, Contacts, Messaging and Dialer apps can all be replaced by better alternatives, but you run into issues when using one Dev’s dialer, another’s contacts app because the contacts app has a dialer that sucks and vice versa but when both are installed...... Forget it. It’s all a confusing mess that forced me back to the stock applications experience, which sucks.
• Most Android users and developers will tell you that the only way to get the best performance out of Android is to flash a custom ROM. In other words, Google has done such a rookie job on this OS that a community of non-paid hobbyists (Who are incredibly talented and people who help others to seemingly no end) are the go to guys when you want to achieve today’s standards in smartphone performance! Only, not all ROM’s are created equally and aside from the pains of flashing until you find something you like, you risk bricking your phone and voiding the warranty. Google should hire these Dev's and release something quality from the gate!
• Music library management is so painful for me. I, like many people have used iTunes for years and also used Zune and Xbox Music. Apple is the obvious winner here as iTunes works seamlessly with iOS. Windows Phone has a clean little desktop app that syncs my iTunes playlists and songs, but it’s an extra step. Android requires a desktop app and Android app combo. There are a bunch and the one I found the least annoying was TuneSync but I couldn’t get it to work via USB so it took an eternity to sync a few playlists. And, the stock music player is ****.
Honestly, I don't understand how Android has the explosive market share it's enjoying today, I hate it. When I compare it to Windows Phone or iOS, it's like a cheap knock off of what a smartphone OS is supposed to feel like. They have apps, lots of apps and some of which I will really miss. But the OS? When comparing straight up performance, integration of services, stability and reliability, polish, fluidity and built in communication suite, for me it's no contest and I can't wait to get back to Windows Phone!
Hope this helps someone!
You just dun get ride in Android OS for my opinion...lol
For me Android is great, not so like Windows Mobile, iOS still ok if for daily use.
Of course if in smoothness Windows phone and iOS are more smooth than Android, but that's got something Android can found but other OS can't found one; and also in Android 4.3 this problem is finally solve (by using my Nexus 7 2nd gen)
For my opinion, Android is more to those engineering ppl, Windows phone is more to business ppl
nahh, its just you.
1) I dont have to reboot my phone. my uptime is like 100 hrs, and no lag or bugs or anything like tat.
2) what are you doing.. seriously? two questions. did you install porn? -virus+spam and how many instant messaging apps do you have? -lag
3) icons are smth i complain about as well. android and iOS is the same type of icons. windows give a sense of class.
4) itunes, seriously?? i stop using my ipod coz of itunes, i threw away my iphone coz of itunes. music syncing is a piece of crap, especially on a home computer.
5) touch responsiveness? i tink you got to send ur unit to the service centre, probably got a faulty unit
6) custom roms are there for a reason. Google provide a vanilla rom: smooth and minimal. All the other manufacturers are making their own rom=lag/useless. So custom rom are made for ppl to give variety, like PA having hybrid prop, and aokp having lots of stuff to customise.
7) Communication app problem? its coz ur used to ur WP. when i use WP, i feel like throwing it away too.
8) music app really kinda sucks tho, i just stream.
Windows phone really look classy, and i like the feel. but with the limitation, it obviously show why the market share keeps dropping.
iOS-getting outdated. iOS 7 looks cool, but usability is so last decade
WP- classy, for non-tech people who is so lazy to make their phone look special
Android- too much customization, but everyone's device is unique. well except those non-techie again.
Ubuntu- cool, but still buggy.
Wp class for no tech people ok but no file manager, no manual network setting....nooo
sss2sssss said:
You just dun get ride in Android OS for my opinion...lol
For me Android is great, not so like Windows Mobile, iOS still ok if for daily use.
Of course if in smoothness Windows phone and iOS are more smooth than Android, but that's got something Android can found but other OS can't found one; and also in Android 4.3 this problem is finally solve (by using my Nexus 7 2nd gen)
For my opinion, Android is more to those engineering ppl, Windows phone is more to business ppl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android for engineer people? What exactly has android that helps "engineer" people?
jacktay94 said:
nahh, its just you.
Windows phone really look classy, and i like the feel. but with the limitation, it obviously show why the market share keeps dropping.
Ubuntu- cool, but still buggy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually Windows Phone's market share is increasing... Blackberry is the one that's slowly dwindling.
Agree with you on Ubuntu... I'm interested to see the "final product".
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I made the mistake of getting a WP8 phone after being an Android fan for some time. I currently own a Nokia Lumia WP8, an iPhone 5 for work and the Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 in a drawer at the house.
No phone is perfect, Android has it's share of issues, as does iOS as does WP8. It's just that Android and iPhone can at least do the things they do and do it well. WP8 still doesn't have a decent facebook app or decent map app, the data speeds are significantly slower than other android/ios phones that are on the same network, push notifications sometimes don't come through until far after the notification was originally pushed. Battery life is sub-par, little customization of the OS, even the larger and more popular applications that actually do manage to make it to WP8 end up having their gui re-written and tailored to look like the rest of WP8 which actually becomes pretty boring and mundane after a while, you can't even get any decent browser options like Chrome, Firefox or even Opera for that matter. Instead, what you end up finding are a bunch of knock-off applications written by little-known dev companies or freelance programmers with all sorts of Chinese, Indian or Russian sounding names that are garbage and do who-knows-what in the background.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, this will likely be my last Windows Phone purchase. The WP8 gui looks decent and is snappy and smooth but beyond that, it doesn't do a whole lot.
really i am in the other site i dont like the sandbox of windows mobile 8 i came to windows mobile from somewhat more easily customized oses symbian and android.
as of now i am going back to android
i ve had a nexus 4 and i had no lag
also an os that doesnt let you do anything with it is not really working as a smartphone at least ios has been jailbroken for a while and some things can be used as they should have been used .
in my opinion windows mobile must rid of locks on it.it is sure that if it doesnt let you do anything it would be lag free but what is the gain then?.
and by that i say that i may come back when a jailbreak is near my phone (ascend w1)....
ericdude said:
I made the mistake of getting a WP8 phone after being an Android fan for some time. I currently own a Nokia Lumia WP8, an iPhone 5 for work and the Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 in a drawer at the house.
No phone is perfect, Android has it's share of issues, as does iOS as does WP8. It's just that Android and iPhone can at least do the things they do and do it well. WP8 still doesn't have a decent facebook app or decent map app, the data speeds are significantly slower than other android/ios phones that are on the same network....
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I would disagree with most of this except push notifications . I have done a few data speed tests because I was suspicious that the One was actually slower but apps like speedtest reflected comparable results for my wife's Lumia 920 vs. my One. Nokia's Maps are really nice, better experience than Apples but I do like Google's offering the best. More points:
Battery: My phone is off the charger at 7 a.m. and back on at 10 p.m. I operate a small business so tons of talk time tons of navigation, I notice no difference in battery performance from my 920 to the One
OS Customizing: Don't really care about this but its true. I have tried 10 to 15 launchers and God knows how many Rom's trying to customize an experience that Android can't deliver. I like the WP OS and really have no desire to make any changes to it with the exception of a few features I would like MS to add.
Apps - I think I already addressed this
Browser - I would go heads up with any browser vs. IE 10 mobile. To say its not decent is just old school MS bash talk to me. Its fast & fluid like everything built in to the OS
But, I defend Windows Phone because I like it and feel like the experience it offers is superior to what I get from Android. You obviously feel the same about Android. I'm only writing this because I think people can tell when someone thinks the way they do, so for people who think like I do and love the Windows Phone OS, my advice is that you stay put unless you can afford to play around with competing devices.
BTW I bashed Android without pointing out what I love about Windows Phone:
People Hub – deep social integration with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype and offers superior groups and room’s options
Search – Instant results for local eating, shopping and events. Integrated music DNA search, integrated vision search supporting barcodes, QR, MS Tags, CD, DVD and book covers.
Groups – Offers users the ability to share group calendar, group OneNote notebook, group pictures and group chatting
Messaging – Facebook chat integration and integrated location sharing etc.
Dynamic Icons – Instead of a static image Live Tiles provide live updates and can be pinned in 3 different sizes
Deep App Pinning – Instead of just an eBay icon, users can pin an eBay item tile to the Start screen and view updated information right from that tile. Or, pin an actual TuneIn station.
Microsoft Office – Free and complete Microsoft Office mobile suite
Kid’s Corner – Cool to keep the kids in a sandbox
Online Backup – SkyDrive integration offers backup features for photos, instant photo upload, music, documents, phone app list and phone settings. The SkyDrive capabilities on Windows OS makes sharing and using data across smartphone and tablet or PC seamless and better than any competing option
jacktay94 said:
nahh, its just you.
Windows phone really look classy, and i like the feel. but with the limitation, it obviously show why the market share keeps dropping.
iOS-getting outdated. iOS 7 looks cool, but usability is so last decade
WP- classy, for non-tech people who is so lazy to make their phone look special
Android- too much customization, but everyone's device is unique. well except those non-techie again.
Ubuntu- cool, but still buggy.
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Nah, it's not just me bud:
1) "my uptime is like 100 hrs, and no lag or bugs or anything like that" - Seriously!? You can keep your phone on for 4 whole days without bugs or anything! Bravo, thanks for making my point.
2) "what are you doing.. seriously? two questions. did you install porn? " I'm operating a small business. No porn and I didn't say I personally got a virus. I said the Android is the most susceptible and that I DID get data mined to a private work email that was never spammed in the 4 years since I created it. Until Android
3) I obviously agree.
4) "iTunes, seriously??" Yes seriously. For starters I purchase all of my music and iTunes has a massive catalogue. Also, this music is for me and my family. I have to send it to multiple devices (PC's and mobile devices) and multiple OS's. Android is the biggest problem child in that mix.
5) "touch responsiveness?" I have had 3 HTC Ones actually. Press a key on the keyboard and watch how long it takes the keyboard to respond. Then try it on a Windows Phone. Pretty clear
6) "custom roms are there for a reason" your reasons are nonsense. Here is a quote from the about of my favorite ROM "a stock ROM experience with the ability to choose the features and functions they want, demand performance and expect stability!" NOTE THE STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE PART
7) "Communication app problem? its coz ur used to ur WP." No it's not. I think the iOS communications suite is superior as well.
8) "music app really kinda sucks tho, i just stream." I do that too but I have a massive music collection I love to listen too
Bottom line is that I just don't like Android. I know that there are a lot of people who Android works well for I mean them no disrespect. I am not trying to talk them in to moving to my favorite OS and would never do that. I am sharing my experience for people who like the same kinds of thins I do and thought about trying the competition, even though they like Windows Phone. Many would be disappointed and for them, I say don't waste your time or money
TechJunkiesCA said:
Nah, it's not just me bud:
1) "my uptime is like 100 hrs, and no lag or bugs or anything like that" - Seriously!? You can keep your phone on for 4 whole days without bugs or anything! Bravo, thanks for making my point.
2) "what are you doing.. seriously? two questions. did you install porn? " I'm operating a small business. No porn and I didn't say I personally got a virus. I said the Android is the most susceptible and that I DID get data mined to a private work email that was never spammed in the 4 years since I created it. Until Android
3) I obviously agree.
4) "iTunes, seriously??" Yes seriously. For starters I purchase all of my music and iTunes has a massive catalogue. Also, this music is for me and my family. I have to send it to multiple devices (PC's and mobile devices) and multiple OS's. Android is the biggest problem child in that mix.
5) "touch responsiveness?" I have had 3 HTC Ones actually. Press a key on the keyboard and watch how long it takes the keyboard to respond. Then try it on a Windows Phone. Pretty clear
6) "custom roms are there for a reason" your reasons are nonsense. Here is a quote from the about of my favorite ROM "a stock ROM experience with the ability to choose the features and functions they want, demand performance and expect stability!" NOTE THE STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE PART
7) "Communication app problem? its coz ur used to ur WP." No it's not. I think the iOS communications suite is superior as well.
8) "music app really kinda sucks tho, i just stream." I do that too but I have a massive music collection I love to listen too
Bottom line is that I just don't like Android. I know that there are a lot of people who Android works well for I mean them no disrespect. I am not trying to talk them in to moving to my favorite OS and would never do that. I am sharing my experience for people who like the same kinds of thins I do and thought about trying the competition, even though they like Windows Phone. Many would be disappointed and for them, I say don't waste your time or money
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1) yupp, i just switched my phone off ystd, coz i changed the battery. after like one whole week of being on.
2)You probably registered your email in some website tho. Android didn't give me spam
3) yeahh
4) dont you find it a hassle when you sync ur family members playlist when u just wanna charge your ipod? your from the states, so i understand, coz we in malaysia dun buy much music, especially on itunes. hehe wat i do is just copy+paste, no need to complicate things, back to basics.
5) hmmm, i probably need to post a video of me typing then. hahaha! but really, was it on custom rom?
6) the most stable rom: vanilla, pure android is most stable man. performance is overclocking, google wont endorse that.
7) coz both are simple. too simple. hahaha!
8) like play music app, whole library free for a month, wat other collection do you want?
nahh, just making conversation. planning to get a lumnia 600+ series as a for fun phone, just wanna check out the real feel of using WP, when i get the budget. hehe
I have both Android and WP. What I like in Android is that I can do pretty much anything with it like on a PC, but that's where it stops. I have a Samsung Galaxy S which is a pretty old phone and I have a custom rom with Android 4.2 on it. The phone came with android 2.3 and Samsung just decided it did not have enough RAM to run 4.x well and stopped updating it. Well, it is much less laggy on the custom ROM with 4.x than the stock ROM with 2.x. I would never trust an Android device as a phone, it just is too crashy and buggy OS to do anything important. With the stock ROM it rebooted many times when I tried to answer a call etc, and web browsing exprience just sucks. This has to do with the low memory but 512MB should be enough for a phone. When I browse the web on Android, other apps that run in the background get killed and eventually the browser stops working too (Just like on good old Symbian ). My WP7 (Samsung Omnia 7) has nearly identical specs and I have no memory problems, I have several hundred megabytes of free RAM no matter what I do and browsing is very smooth. Also it's annoying when you need to take a quick pic of something important and the Camera app crashes on Android... One thing Android does better than WP is scrolling long lists - it takes ages to scroll a long list on WP, but on Android the scrolling accelerates when you scroll..
OP keeping WP circlejerk alive as always
Taurenking said:
OP keeping WP circlejerk alive as always
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Seriously? Grow up
Edit - and go away. This is a WP thread. Why droid people are here making negative comments never ceases to amaze me. I don't read your threads let alone comment in them.
ericdude said:
I made the mistake of getting a WP8 phone after being an Android fan for some time. I currently own a Nokia Lumia WP8, an iPhone 5 for work and the Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 in a drawer at the house.
No phone is perfect, Android has it's share of issues, as does iOS as does WP8. It's just that Android and iPhone can at least do the things they do and do it well. WP8 still doesn't have a decent facebook app or decent map app, the data speeds are significantly slower than other android/ios phones that are on the same network, push notifications sometimes don't come through until far after the notification was originally pushed. Battery life is sub-par, little customization of the OS, even the larger and more popular applications that actually do manage to make it to WP8 end up having their gui re-written and tailored to look like the rest of WP8 which actually becomes pretty boring and mundane after a while, you can't even get any decent browser options like Chrome, Firefox or even Opera for that matter. Instead, what you end up finding are a bunch of knock-off applications written by little-known dev companies or freelance programmers with all sorts of Chinese, Indian or Russian sounding names that are garbage and do who-knows-what in the background.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, this will likely be my last Windows Phone purchase. The WP8 gui looks decent and is snappy and smooth but beyond that, it doesn't do a whole lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really care about a "decent" FB app so I'll give you that one. But if you think that Google Maps is anywhere as good as Here, you have no idea what a good map app is. Or maybe you don't have a Lumia. Nokia's mapping software is going to be the industry standard soon now that it's available for iOS. You know those fanboys are having a hard time without a usable map app.
MS Office + SkyDrive - 'nuff said.
People Hub - only webOS Synergy was better
Nokia Cinemagraph - best stock animation and GIF creator
The fact that WP8 can be as fluid and lag-free as any other OS without needing 20 cores and 4 GB of RAM speaks volumes about the OS itself. PalmOS was probably the only other OS that was as resource-friendly as WP, Symbian a close second.
I don't dislike Android, or iOS for that matter, I just find WP8 to be the best all-around combination of phone and OS. MS has stringent rules about how their OS is to be presented and that might not be such a bad thing.
Windows phone 8 isn't windows mobile. They're two different os.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Taurenking said:
OP keeping WP circlejerk alive as always
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Ahh look I'm blushing! Hey, trolling forums of devices or operating systems you don't use speaks volumes of how engaging your platform must be, not to mention your personal life. Hope things pick up for you!
I'm considering getting a lumia 925 or 1020 to replace my HTC One. I've become bored with android and ios. What're everyone's thoughts and anything I should know before making the switch?
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Amrut223 said:
I'm considering getting a lumia 925 or 1020 to replace my HTC One. I've become bored with android and ios. What're everyone's thoughts and anything I should know before making the switch?
Sent from my HTC_PN071 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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wait for the snapdragon 800 nokia phone if you can; if you're gonna buy an old phone instead of a new one, make sure you don't have a not for resale phone(demo unit).
Many apps won't work, you'll have to make do for a while... what is your typical phone use?
Why wait for the new soc. From what I've been reading wp runs smooth on almost anything. I have no interest in benchmark scores. I simply want to get decent battery life.
Speaking of which. How does the lumia 925 hold up in that respect?? Reviews seem to have mixed feelings about it.
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