Database Users

Opinions

I have a friend thinking of getting one of these phones and I wanted to get some opinions whether this is a good phone or a peace of junk
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App

The games that are made for the xperia play are crap but you can run a lot of emulators on it that work really great with the hardware keys.

yes the emulators are great on the play
with a great gamepad
the games on the xperia play are just as good as on any other android phone
while there are better spec phones out there
the games for them can run just as good as on ours with chainfire3d

Lol ya except they cam play them without staring at fingers ad thumbs and only being able to see a small portion of the screen. Seriously though tell your friend if he likes game he will destroy everyone who doesnt have a play in multiplayer.
Sent from my R800a using XDA Premium App

If you play games at all, get the Play. If you don't play games at all, then get whatever the hell looks cool, i dunno, iPhone cause why not, everyone and their mom has one.

I'd recommend this phone for serious gamers only.
Especially those who love old school emulators.

Red_Kop said:
I'd recommend this phone for serious gamers only.
Especially those who love old school emulators.
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I agree and also disagree . This phone has a nice big screen and playing the touchscreen games off the droid market works as well as on any other phone out at the minute. The game pad is just an added extra for me. I enjoy/play with the emulators & fpse alot but even if you forget the gamepad it is still a good phone.
After rooting mine and freezing the bloat. Nothing i have thrown @ the phone has caused it any trouble apart from some fpse games, but thats the same with most phones even dual cores ones. Nothing is perfect but this phone does an above average job as a normal phone with the added bonus of amazing game play on emulators or any game that supports the game pad.

Mozza2k11 said:
I agree and also disagree . This phone has a nice big screen and playing the touchscreen games off the droid market works as well as on any other phone out at the minute. The game pad is just an added extra for me. I enjoy/play with the emulators & fpse alot but even if you forget the gamepad it is still a good phone.
After rooting mine and freezing the bloat. Nothing i have thrown @ the phone has caused it any trouble apart from some fpse games, but thats the same with most phones even dual cores ones. Nothing is perfect but this phone does an above average job as a normal phone with the added bonus of amazing game play on emulators or any game that supports the game pad.
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I do agree it is a good phone but they should have put a much nicer screen on it. My Iphone 2G had a nicer screen. The Play's screen is impossible to use in sunlight. It's just a bit of a shame. Other things lacking would be HD video recording and a top of the range camera. But don't get me wrong, it's still good and I love it.
ps. what have you froze mate, just rooted myself cos I was sick of the phone stuttering and general choppiness on the likes of Gameloft games. Looking for ways to improve performance.

Red_Kop said:
I do agree it is a good phone but they should have put a much nicer screen on it. My Iphone 2G had a nicer screen. The Play's screen is impossible to use in sunlight. It's just a bit of a shame. Other things lacking would be HD video recording and a top of the range camera. But don't get me wrong, it's still good and I love it.
ps. what have you froze mate, just rooted myself cos I was sick of the phone stuttering and general choppiness on the likes of Gameloft games. Looking for ways to improve performance.
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Indeed in full on sunlight its not the best but indoors i thinks it is really a fully decent screen.
About what i have froze i followed the safe apps to remove thread here. Just froze most on the list i dont use and froze some not sure about to test if the phones ok after freezing (still figuring out what i want to be frozen as well). Mainly tho the following;
Moved all gameloft/preinstalled games to sd via titanium backup (free)
Anonymous useage stats
Iplayer
chinese keyboard
both the digital clocks
everything facebook related
google maps
media server
postcard
retail demo
setup guide
store
street view
support
talk
anything timescape related
twitter extension
+ a few others i have forgot
But i have not filled my phone full of crap i dont use. Just kept the stuff i use regularly and will install others as i see fit. Currently Internal Memory: 161mb used / 219mb free. Ram: 120mb used / 254 mb free.

The Good -
- Hardware Buttons work GREAT with emulators. Honestly this is an emulators fan dreams come true.
- Hardware buttone work GREAT with Gameloft games. You think they are good on the iphone? They are 100 times better on the Play.
- Android Market Games are starting to work pretty good with the Play. Lots of games support the D Pad even if they dont mention it.
The Bad -
- Auto Brightness still cant be disabled as a stock feature.
- Low RAM means sometimes games stutter a little bit. (This is hardly an issue, but if you look close you can see it in some games, so it's worth mentioning)
- More games need to start appearing
Conclusion -
I personally hate using touchscreen for games. My finger prodding on the glass gets completely agitated to the point it drives me insane. The hardware buttons as controllers is an awesome feature.
You get all the Android software working excellently as you would on any Android phone.
It is a solid gaming phone, but does have room for improvement. The screen has an excellent display, but it's not as good as some phones. The auto brightness is a part of this reason.
Battery Life is decent. However it's unlikely you can last 2 days without charging. You will need to charge every night.
Speakers are very decent. The loudest on a phone i have ever heard.
Gameloft games are cheap and plentiful. Forget almost every other developer though, decent games other than Gameloft games are almost non-existent.
Basically if you love gaming and enjoy Gameloft + Emulators, then this phone is most definatley for you. If you dont care about gaming onphone and just want a quick touchscreen game every now and again, then go for something else. Either an iPhone or a powerful Tegra 2 chipset.

Gamer's Phone
The obvious reason to get this phone is the controls.
Basically, if you game on your phone, get the Play. If not, get something else. It really is that simple.

The controls rock. Emulators are perfect. Nothing better than playing old school NES or Sega games. The gameloft games run great, and lots of games in the market have support but dont mention it. I sit at work and play all day long.
The analogs work better than you think they would although it takes some getting used to. I
As a phone I have no issues. Its just like any other android I've had. Dont let the specs fool ya, its pretty quick, camera is good enough for me and I've only used the front facing camera once. It was fine. Mine came with a class 2 sd card so I bought a class 10. Made a little difference. Noticeable at least.
I like it.

Red_Kop said:
My Iphone 2G had a nicer screen. The Play's screen is impossible to use in sunlight.
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I beg to differ, the iPhone 2g had an inferior screen.
The Play's screen may not be good in the direct sunlight, but it's still far from the worst. I have no troubles reading stuff in direct sun. Sure, colors go to ****, so pictures and videos suck, but as a phone it's still completely usable.

Nook HD+ review with CM 10.1

First of all, Very and Leap- you two rock something fierce!
I did a review before of the HD+ with 2.1. I gave it a good review, but three things slowly eroded my opinion after time and I returned it.
1- Intermittent stutter that seemed to correlate with on the fly data loads and library sync. This stood out with games.
2- Games loading slow and some REAL sloooooow
3- Accumulative lag. Over a few days, the device got real slow and cache cleaning and restarts were hit and miss to fix it.
Best Buy had it on sale for $20 less this time ($180), so based on folks opinion of CM 10.1, I thought I would test it out again- due to the price and sweet display.
Where 2.1 was a big improvement over 2.0, the improvement from 2.1 to CM 10.1 is fluken' huge!
1- The intermittent stutter is gone along with library sync is gone.
2- Games load a LOT faster. I would not have thought the stock rom would be what was slowing it down, but I tested fresh installs two times with the same sloooow results with 2.1.
3- So far, the accumulated lag has not showed up.
4- Overall device is faster
I also added the "full screen" app to get rid of the navigation bar when I want. More just to test it out, but nice to have an iPad like full display view
Jeepers, it is wild how it is so easy to flash the device with 10.1 and equally wild to have the results of 10.1 with this hardware for the price. Superb so far
Of course, with anything in life comes the negatives:
1- exFAT worked with 2.1, but does not with CM 10.1. I had to transfer, format and recopy back to the sd card with FAT32. I wish there was a simple install fix using the boot card like the unknown sources fix for stock 2.1.
2- Buggy Blitz does not work. I love that game Ditto for Shine Runner. Same company.
3- I have had one instance so far where the device had charged and there was a flashing green light. The device would not wake up with neither home or power button. I had to hold the power down for a while and repeat that a few times. It would get stuck on the spinning boot-up ring. It would freeze up after after "several" seconds. Seems to be working now, but this never happened with stock 2.1 and used the device for a month. Fluke?
4- Quake 3 keeps expecting to see "sdcard" rather than "sdcard0". Touch Quake 1, 2 and Quake Arena mods work fine though. These are examples of games that loaded SLOW with stock 2.1, but are near instant with CM 10.1.
5- The CM 10.1 launcher was jittery and slow. I tried to get used to it, but went back to Nova, which is smooth and fast.
Folks, Nook HD+ plus CM 10.1 equals insane value for the price!

rushless said:
1- exFAT worked with 2.1, but does not with CM 10.1. I had to transfer, format and recopy back to the sd card with FAT32. I wish there was a simple install fix using the boot card like the unknown sources fix for stock 2.1.
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there's 3rd party zip you can flash that restores it somewhat..
I also plan to look into this eventually and use texera fat module from the stock rom.
2- Buggy Blitz does not work. I love that game
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That seems to be their bug related to new sgx drivers. Same crash happens on Kindle fire, for example. Nothing I can presently do about it.
3- I have had one instance so far where the device had charged and there was a flashing green light. The device would not wake up with neither home or power button. I had to hold the power down for a while and repeat that a few times. It would get stuck on the spinning boot-up ring. It would freeze up after after "several" seconds. Seems to be working now, but this never happened with stock 2.1 and used the device for a month. Fluke?
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Not sore about not waking up - never saw that. But rare boot problems will be fixed in next release. (esp. those that produce garbage on screen).
Folks, Nook HD+ plus CM 10.1 equals insane value for the price!
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Still no camera, so it cannot serve as full TP replacement

No problem on the games not working, since works on my Excite 7.7 and S3!
Exfat and NTFS would be nice, down the road!
Thanks!

I think B&N could have done much better with this hardware if they hired someone like verygreen in the first place...
I still don't think this is a very good gaming device, though, especially for 3D.
But the screen is amazing and got me really spoiled. Now I look at Nexus 7 and feel the display is too cheap and low in quality. Comparing it with the TP in my opinion is a bit of an apple to orange comparison as it is mainly a media consumption device while TP's display quality is even worse than Nexus 7.
Someone was complaining the Nook being slow and laggy vs a $499 Galaxy Note 10.1 with 2GB ram, quad core and much lower resolution. That is just unfair. But I guess people are entitled to their opinions.
Honestly I would not have bought this without seeing the CM10 and CM10.1 ports in progress. B&N really owes verygreen a commission. I like this combo so much that I hardly touch my Nexus 7 now.
BTW, donation sent.

View92612 said:
Comparing it with the TP in my opinion is a bit of an apple to orange comparison as it is mainly a media consumption device while TP's display quality is even worse than Nexus 7.
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While I somewhat agree here, in reality I distributed Touchpads to my relative and they use them for things like Skype.
Nook, having no camera, cannot replace them and would be useless for such purposes.

I agree that the Nook has deficiencies (proprietary ports are a downer). When it comes to cheap toys we pick our poison, eg Nexus w/ no SD slot. If I want a cam or HDMI, there are a flood of cheap 7" tabs that have both, but none of them has a really great 1080p screen in an IMO perfect size and weight for one-handed use. I don't see any tablet with comparable display quality under $400.
Display quality aside, as a reader my preference is for a 4:3 aspect, since I use the tab mostly in portrait mode. But outside of the iPads, most Android tabs hewed to 16:10, which makes the display smaller than their diagonal size would indicate. The HD+ is the only one to eschew the norm in going with 3:2. That's actually better than 4:3, because the present Android UI takes off a couple slices at top and bottom, so the remaining space comes out pretty close to 4:3.
Using the dpi calculator here,
http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html
The 9" HD+ screen has a portrait width of 4.99". The 8.9" KF HD's is 4.72", or 0.27" smaller and not just 0.1" shorter diagonal. For tablet display size, every fraction of an inch is a big deal when you're squeezing a whole web page into portrait.
Some other display portrait widths, which I view as the tablet's true size measurement:
Code:
iPad Mini 4.71"
Nexus 7 3.71"
Galaxy Note 8 4.24"
Nexus 10 5.3"
iPad 5.82"

Oh yeah, e.mote: Thanks for the "dummies" thread!
True on the lack of camera, but I got it for books, comics (more than books) and games (mainly emulators). There are a few games that my Excite 7.7 plays smoother, but most play the same and game emulators like MAME and N64 are faster on the Nook HD+. Also, CM 10.1 closed the gap on the 3D games that are smoother on the Excite 7.7. GTA is a good example. It plays smooth now, where with 2.1, it did not. Asphalt 7 though is an example that plays smoother on the Excite. Asphalt 7 though is now very playable on the Nook HD+. The TF700 also struggles with some 3D games, BTW.
For game emulators. this thing rocks. $180 for a great display and plays emulators better than any other Android I have used- including the S4 and its quad Qualcomm. Bluetooth game pads work fine and no response lag noted so far and fits the iCade
Sad that we get the stock firmware we get when folks here do a better job for user experience. I appreciate the Nook was designed to be mainly a reader, but their premise was also part of their undoing and the convention of poor stock firmware goes way beyond the Nook.

>Thanks for the "dummies" thread!
I actually wrote that for myself, since I have a stack of HD+'s here that I'm retrofitting to pass along to the family. Credit where it is due, it's all a rehash of what leapinlar has written, but just a bit more digestible. And of course to verygreen that made this all possible.
Glad to hear Nook is good for games. I'm not a gamer, but other peeps in the household would be appreciative. Any good guides for emulators you can point to? How about some strategy/tactical games? I liked Call of Cthulhu and Rebuild.
BTW, little known factoid: The Nook's serial # is printed on the inside of the SD slot's rubber flap. I found that out when returning a HD+ for uneven backlighting.
>I appreciate the Nook was designed to be mainly a reader, but their premise was also part of their undoing and the convention of poor stock firmware goes way beyond the Nook.
I view it as a good-thing-bad-thing situation. If B&N had made a great Android tab, it wouldn't be holding a firesale to clear out the Nooks, and we wouldn't be here yakking away. So yes, I'm kinda glad the HD's didn't sell well (until now).

Very ironic.
As far as emulator guides, there is a very good one over at Phandroid forums. It is in the Android game forum.
This tablet is an old school gaming, comic reading, web and Flash slinging bargain.

rushless said:
Very ironic.
As far as emulator guides, there is a very good one over at Phandroid forums. It is in the Android game forum.
This tablet is an old school gaming, comic reading, web and Flash slinging bargain.
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Totally agree. What controller do you use for the emu, though?
I found it extremely difficult to trigger complex moves (in games that require those) using just touch control..... I'm sure it would not be an issue for games that do not require those.

I use a generic Android controller from Gamestop, two Nyko Android pads and iCade. All work fine.
I found another game that worked with 2.1 but not with CM. NBA 2013. Another of my favorites. What are the odds of that? It loads to the point of showing the team logos at start up and then crashes.
Also, most games like NFSMW that took a long time to load up with 2 .1 now load fast like other tablets. The only exception found so far is Asphalt 7. It still loads crazy slow. About two minutes or more per track. Should take about ten seconds. The London level just took over two minutes. Almost three.
The game plays good though. Much smoother (no stutter) than 2.1, but that is the case for all games so far. Odd how Asphalt 7 seems the only slow load hold out. I have tested a ton. A7 appears to be an anomaly.
CM 10.1 BTW also confirms to me the main stutter was not the gpu, but the stock rom. As per Anandtech, the 4470 is still a capable chipset.
I also compared A7 on the GS3. They appear to play very similarly as far as smoothness. GS3 might be a tad smoother, but does not stand out. The GS3 plays all of my games smooth, but the Nook smacks it down as far as MAME. 4470 appears to be a great emulator chipset.

I figured out why a few games do not work. Quake 3 need the files on the SD card and looks like NBA 2013 is trying to run the game from there too. It installs to internal, but installs a directory also in the SD with no files. I am going to move it to the SD and see what happens.
Update. Looks like ports like Quake 3 work fine, but commercial games do not work when moving the files.

Is this device good for reading pdf's and ebooks?

Just wondering as that would be my main use, or should I just wait for the nexus 10?

If you will use the S-Pen a lot, for writing notes/drawing/etc: definitely buy this tablet, 100%
if you won't use the S-Pen much: wait for the nexus 10
simple as that

Or if you want to use multitasking features
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk 4

Yes, it's terrific for reading on
I'm using it to look at PDF's, ebooks, and reading comics on it - the screen is fantastic, and one thing this has going for it is the microsd support - you can store a ton of things on it that way.

I upgraded from the original note 10.1 just for the better screen resolution for ebook reading. Most of my medical textbooks were available in Adobe DRM PDF format and the new note is much easier on my eyes as well as faster dealing with 2,000 page books with oodles of pictures. As others have said though, if you are not going to use the same pen, the next Nexus may be a better deal for you.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk 4

I'm not going to use the s-pen that much to be honest. Just wondering how this tablet displayed pdf's and ebooks, apparently pretty good . I'll wait to see if google announces the new nexus 10 tomorrow at their event. I'd be interested in the resolution and if it has an sd card slot, if it doesnt then I'm leaning towards this tablet. What about videos? Netflix, youtube, your movies off an sdcard? Any issues? buffering?

SysAdmNj said:
I'm not going to use the s-pen that much to be honest. Just wondering how this tablet displayed pdf's and ebooks, apparently pretty good . I'll wait to see if google announces the new nexus 10 tomorrow at their event. I'd be interested in the resolution and if it has an sd card slot, if it doesnt then I'm leaning towards this tablet. What about videos? Netflix, youtube, your movies off an sdcard? Any issues? buffering?
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Nexus devices have a history of not including a sd card slot and the resolution would probably be similar to the note 10.1.
Videos work great as on any other recent android device but the nice thing about this one is you can multitask very easily with some apps like youtube or the built in video player and play a video on one side or in a floating window while you do something else.

ChrisNee1988 said:
Nexus devices have a history of not including a sd card slot and the resolution would probably be similar to the note 10.1.
Videos work great as on any other recent android device but the nice thing about this one is you can multitask very easily with some apps like youtube or the built in video player and play a video on one side or in a floating window while you do something else.
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I know about the nexus devices but just maybe they may change that with the nexus 10 but thats just wishful thinking. The multitasking sounds cool, wish it worked with apps of your choice. Like youtube on one and and some workout timer on the other window. Hearing a little bit about lag especially in apps like flipboard? Samsung has made a rep of lagging their devices up like the samsung galaxy s4 which I sold for the Lg g2.

SysAdmNj said:
I know about the nexus devices but just maybe they may change that with the nexus 10 but thats just wishful thinking. The multitasking sounds cool, wish it worked with apps of your choice. Like youtube on one and and some workout timer on the other window. Hearing a little bit about lag especially in apps like flipboard? Samsung has made a rep of lagging their devices up like the samsung galaxy s4 which I sold for the Lg g2.
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With root, you should be able to multitask on almost any app. I disabled a lot of the samsung bloat like the eye tracking features and it doesn't lag at all anymore. If you want to make it even faster, you could install a custom launcher like nova, apex, etc. and it should be extremely fast.
Also I have the S4 as well and some custom ROMs really optimized the phone and I get no lag on that anymore either.
If you're not sold on the pen, its still probably best to wait and see. Also one thing to note, nexus tablets have multi-user feature while samsung took that out for some reason.

ChrisNee1988 said:
With root, you should be able to multitask on almost any app. I disabled a lot of the samsung bloat like the eye tracking features and it doesn't lag at all anymore. If you want to make it even faster, you could install a custom launcher like nova, apex, etc. and it should be extremely fast.
Also I have the S4 as well and some custom ROMs really optimized the phone and I get no lag on that anymore either.
If you're not sold on the pen, its still probably best to wait and see. Also one thing to note, nexus tablets have multi-user feature while samsung took that out for some reason.
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Click to collapse
There is root for this?

I read ebooks, comics, pdf (magazines and some school papers) on mine without issues. Besides the awesome screen, having the microSD card was key. Those documents that have graphics tend to to be big...and they add up after time. And I must say, simply using the S-pen to flip pages has been useful in keeping the screen clean.
I also have a few movies and TV episodes, as well as a ton of music, and they all run flawlessly directly from the card. I have to do this because I am deployed and I can't stream anything where I'm at (especially when I travel).
As others mentioned, just disable the bloat and you'll be lag free. I was originally planning to install Nova Launcher to keep things fast & clean, but honestly, I hardly had any lag to begin with, and now that I cleaned up some of the bloat, it runs great with the stock Touchwiz (which has certinaly come a long way since I last used Touchwiz when I first got my S3).
I absolutely LOVE the multitasking too! being able to browse the internet with a book, video chat, facebook, or a movie going is absolutely awesome! Quite a few (of the main) apps are supported by the side-by-side multitasking option...I was quite surprised. It's the small hovering window (that you draw with the S-pen) that only supports a small handful of apps.
So if you don't care for the S-pen, the microSD storage option, or the multitasking, then wait for the cheaper Nexus.

SysAdmNj said:
There is root for this?
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Not yet but there probably will be since the note 3 was just rooted and its very similar to this

GitterDunn said:
I read ebooks, comics, pdf (magazines and some school papers) on mine without issues. Besides the awesome screen, having the microSD card was key. Those documents that have graphics tend to to be big...and they add up after time. And I must say, simply using the S-pen to flip pages has been useful in keeping the screen clean.
I also have a few movies and TV episodes, as well as a ton of music, and they all run flawlessly directly from the card. I have to do this because I am deployed and I can't stream anything where I'm at (especially when I travel).
As others mentioned, just disable the bloat and you'll be lag free. I was originally planning to install Nova Launcher to keep things fast & clean, but honestly, I hardly had any lag to begin with, and now that I cleaned up some of the bloat, it runs great with the stock Touchwiz (which has certinaly come a long way since I last used Touchwiz when I first got my S3).
I absolutely LOVE the multitasking too! being able to browse the internet with a book, video chat, facebook, or a movie going is absolutely awesome! Quite a few (of the main) apps are supported by the side-by-side multitasking option...I was quite surprised. It's the small hovering window (that you draw with the S-pen) that only supports a small handful of apps.
So if you don't care for the S-pen, the microSD storage option, or the multitasking, then wait for the cheaper Nexus.
Click to expand...
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ChrisNee1988 said:
Not yet but there probably will be since the note 3 was just rooted and its very similar to this
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How much battery life are you getting per charge?

SysAdmNj said:
How much battery life are you getting per charge?
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About 5-6 hours of screen on time with moderate to heavy use. If you're just going to be reading, it'll probably last a lot longer than that.

SysAdmNj said:
How much battery life are you getting per charge?
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I have only had it for a few days, but I have not had to charge it each night. It's on par with my other tablet...which is pretty good. Probably a good full work day (or school day) of heavy use, otherwise, more with light use.

SysAdmNj said:
Just wondering as that would be my main use, or should I just wait for the nexus 10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that is your main use, I suggest saving 70% of price and buy a Nook HD+. Seriously. I have the Nook HD+ and besides a few games that are resource hogs (Asphalt 7 and Vice City), the HD+ is great for everything else and blows away my two Tegra 3 tablets for game emulators like MAME, PSP and N64. Asphalt 8 actually plays smooth on it, so 7 must really have been a hog.
Since however you are mainly reading, the Nook HD+ has a better form factor for reading (4:3 and 1" smaller overall) and you save 70% of the cost of a Sammy 2014. It lasts at least nine hours if just reading, but not tested until dead. About 7.5 hours with mix of browsing, videos, games, etc. 3D games though tend to drain quicker, so the number goes down from there.

rushless said:
If that is your main use, I suggest saving 70% of price and buy a Nook HD+. Seriously. I have the Nook HD+ and besides a few games that are resource hogs (Asphalt 7 and Vice City), the HD+ is great for everything else and blows away my two Tegra 3 tablets for game emulators like MAME, PSP and N64. Asphalt 8 actually plays smooth on it, so 7 must really have been a hog.
Since however you are mainly reading, the Nook HD+ has a better form factor for reading (4:3 and 1" smaller overall) and you save 70% of the cost of a Sammy 2014. It lasts at least nine hours if just reading, but not tested until dead. About 7.5 hours with mix of browsing, videos, games, etc. 3D games though tend to drain quicker, so the number goes down from there.
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I actually went with the nexus 7 2013, Guess 1/2 the price and weight. I like it so far for my needs.

SysAdmNj said:
I actually went with the nexus 7 2013, Guess 1/2 the price and weight. I like it so far for my needs.
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I would definitely recommend the nexus 7 over any other 7-8 inch tablet.

SysAdmNj said:
I'm not going to use the s-pen that much to be honest. Just wondering how this tablet displayed pdf's and ebooks, apparently pretty good . I'll wait to see if google announces the new nexus 10 tomorrow at their event. I'd be interested in the resolution and if it has an sd card slot, if it doesnt then I'm leaning towards this tablet. What about videos? Netflix, youtube, your movies off an sdcard? Any issues? buffering?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus won't likely have removable storage, but is rumored to have a 64GB option. Something to think about though, is if you're going to be reading a lot on the tablet, using the S-pen to more easily highlight text and make annotations is handy.
PS: Videos look AMAZING on this! Full 1080p videos play from my MicroSD card fine with MX Player Pro!

Help me choose a watch and a quick favor!

How are you guys doing?
I have been looking for watches lately, and I decided I want to get one but not sure where to start since there are a billion watches out there.
My price range is approx 100-170 dollars.
I figured i'd ask you guys which watches would be best.
The main reason why I am wanting a watch is because they banned watches from my work, and I am addicted to a game called "brave frontier" so it would be awesome to play that game on it.
I need the watch to:
Work with sim card
Play brave frontier
Best battery life
Please post up which watch you think I should get and WHY.
And, my favor, can someone please take a picture of what the game "brave frontier" looks like on one of these watches? I want to know if its playable or not being that the screen is tiny.

ryvandal said:
How are you guys doing?
I have been looking for watches lately, and I decided I want to get one but not sure where to start since there are a billion watches out there.
My price range is approx 100-170 dollars.
I figured i'd ask you guys which watches would be best.
The main reason why I am wanting a watch is because they banned watches from my work, and I am addicted to a game called "brave frontier" so it would be awesome to play that game on it.
I need the watch to:
Work with sim card
Play brave frontier
Best battery life
Please post up which watch you think I should get and WHY.
And, my favor, can someone please take a picture of what the game "brave frontier" looks like on one of these watches? I want to know if its playable or not being that the screen is tiny.
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Huh? Never heard of a company banning playing games while "WORKING". Just ludicrous...?...lol
Now to answer your question...I have tested every name brand SW and quite a few Chinese "no names". Games are near impossible to play on this screen size. And due to the lack of a quality GPU, many games won't even boot or run.
Example: I tried an early APK of the original angry birds on the Omate TS Xtreme and was not impressed at all.
I took a look at Brave Frontier... Looks like a game that not only is going to need high-end specs, but also a decent screen size. In the developer's FAQ'S, this game was designed for the newer, modern devices with a minimum of 1GB of RAM and noted that even the LG G2 has issues with smooth game play and excessive heat.
I was going to mention the Neptune Pine as a possibility with its 2.5" screen, but they have yet to confirm a 1GB RAM model. However, your budget is not going to get one of these on your wrist. The good news, for you, is the Pine has now been delayed to an October release... Maybe you can put away a few more Benji's by then.
Other than that, spec wise, the AI Watch has hardware that rivels most decent phones, but sports only a 240x240, 1.5" display. In addition, I would imagine that you would have to do a Xposed mod on the game to work within those dpi limitations...if you got it to run, that is.
Sorry I can't give you better news... But it won't be long before something will pop up. Keep your eye on the Pine. Good luck.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

mghtymse007 said:
Huh? Never heard of a company banning playing games while "WORKING". Just ludicrous...��...lol
Now to answer your question...I have tested every name brand SW and quite a few Chinese "no names". Games are near impossible to play on this screen size. And due to the lack of a quality GPU, many games won't even boot or run.
Example: I tried an early APK of the original angry birds on the Omate TS Xtreme and was not impressed at all.
I took a look at Brave Frontier... Looks like a game that not only is going to need high-end specs, but also a decent screen size. In the developer's FAQ'S, this game was designed for the newer, modern devices with a minimum of 1GB of RAM and noted that even the LG G2 has issues with smooth game play and excessive heat.
I was going to mention the Neptune Pine as a possibility with its 2.5" screen, but they have yet to confirm a 1GB RAM model. However, your budget is not going to get one of these on your wrist. The good news, for you, is the Pine has now been delayed to an October release... Maybe you can put away a few more Benji's by then.
Other than that, spec wise, the AI Watch has hardware that rivels most decent phones, but sports only a 240x240, 1.5" display. In addition, I would imagine that you would have to do a Xposed mod on the game to work within those dpi limitations...if you got it to run, that is.
Sorry I can't give you better news... But it won't be long before something will pop up. Keep your eye on the Pine. Good luck.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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Uhhh.... you pretty much answered all my questions literally perfectly....
Thank you for everything I appreciate it all.
you are saying that these watches can't really play anything that complex, but on the zgpax hes playing emulators and what not.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2575556
And there are other youtube vids of people playing pretty 3d games. I wonder if it would work on that watch...
I am still curious if someone on here could just try the game out to see what it was like.... just for fun y'know? (ASWELL, in the game, you can turn down the quality and all the graphics to just have a bare bones game)

Being able to play games (Dreamcast running on mine) and being able to play them well are two different things. If the game uses device buttons, gameplay will be near impossible. If the game uses onscreen controls, gameplay suffers significantly. Angry birds, which has pretty much minimal onscreen controls, is still pretty much useless on the tiny smartwatch screen. Any game with more than one or two buttons ends up having the screen covered with your fingers. Even Angry Birds you spend most of the time with the screen covered by your fingers.
You want an easy example of how the gameplay will be for any game. Find a screenshot of the game and print it out the size of the watch's screen and put your fingers on the onscreen buttons.

Lokifish Marz said:
Being able to play games (Dreamcast running on mine) and being able to play them well are two different things. If the game uses device buttons, gameplay will be near impossible. If the game uses onscreen controls, gameplay suffers significantly. Angry birds, which has pretty much minimal onscreen controls, is still pretty much useless on the tiny smartwatch screen. Any game with more than one or two buttons ends up having the screen covered with your fingers. Even Angry Birds you spend most of the time with the screen covered by your fingers.
You want an easy example of how the gameplay will be for any game. Find a screenshot of the game and print it out the size of the watch's screen and put your fingers on the onscreen buttons.
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makes sense, the game in question (brave frontier) does not have any buttons, but an auto play button which i would be using. which is why i am curious how it runs and looks.

How hot is too hot?

Playing Genshin impact on max settings makes my phone uncomfortably hot... as in borderline "ouch!" hot. A bit like accidentally leaving your phone in direct sunlight.
GPU and CPU temps both reach near 80c after around 10 minutes (this is without a case, and ambient around 68F).
Is this something I should worry about for extended play or are these devices able to handle that kind of heat?
Needless to say I'm going to tune it back a bit in the meantime lol

The phone will tell you when it's too hot for operating.
Personally my phone when left overnight will drop to anything as low as 25c which rivals my PC.
Flicking about on the web and using light apps like XDA, Google etc my phone runs about 32-38
Gaming it'll be in the 40s if light, 50s if heavy.
Anything over that you're heating the whole phone, including the battery, eventually the CPU / GPU will throttle.
I think 60s is as high as I'd like to have it, anything more and you will develop issues faster than a person who doesn't do this to their phone will.
Time x heat= death
It's up to you how fast you want that to happen.
My advice, play for shorter times, lower screen resolution to FHD if you haven't already, 60hz will prolong the time it takes to get warmer and will cool more efficiently.
Ultimately there's not a lot you can do.
If you plan to game a lot, you should be fine, but it will degrade the phone over time.
PA: personally I don't trust genshin. Feels like it has too many permissions and frankly I don't trust it. Can you play it completely offline? They may help if so

Here's one of a few thread discussions about heat

dladz said:
The phone will tell you when it's too hot for operating.
Personally my phone when left overnight will drop to anything as low as 25c which rivals my PC.
Flicking about on the web and using light apps like XDA, Google etc my phone runs about 32-38
Gaming it'll be in the 40s if light, 50s if heavy.
Anything over that you're heating the whole phone, including the battery, eventually the CPU / GPU will throttle.
I think 60s is as high as I'd like to have it, anything more and you will develop issues faster than a person who doesn't do this to their phone will.
Time x heat= death
It's up to you how fast you want that to happen.
My advice, play for shorter times, lower screen resolution to FHD if you haven't already, 60hz will prolong the time it takes to get warmer and will cool more efficiently.
Ultimately there's not a lot you can do.
If you plan to game a lot, you should be fine, but it will degrade the phone over time.
PA: personally I don't trust genshin. Feels like it has too many permissions and frankly I don't trust it. Can you play it completely offline? They may help if so
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Thank you for the insight man. I'll def try 60hz FHD since the game locks at a high of 60fps anyways. Not looking to destroy my phone anytime soon, that's for sure!
To tell you the truth I don't trust Genshin either, and unfortunately it's an online only game. Has anyone ever figured out a way to spoof permissions on an app? That would be great for less trustworthy apps.
I guess at times I feel like I'm secure because I'm using adaway with some good comprehensive block lists that also block tracking servers, malware, etc. But I'm sure theres a lot more to it than that.

cubeplayer1 said:
Thank you for the insight man. I'll def try 60hz FHD since the game locks at a high of 60fps anyways. Not looking to destroy my phone anytime soon, that's for sure!
To tell you the truth I don't trust Genshin either, and unfortunately it's an online only game. Has anyone ever figured out a way to spoof permissions on an app? That would be great for less trustworthy apps.
I guess at times I feel like I'm secure because I'm using adaway with some good comprehensive block lists that also block tracking servers, malware, etc. But I'm sure theres a lot more to it than that.
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Click to collapse
No worries man, thing with that game is it looks great, kind of like breath of the wild mixed with dark souls, but the online thing is ridiculous.. why ? It's a single player for the most part right?
Could suppose crack it, but that would take some talent to achieve.
Just keep an eye on your temps when gaming, should be fine..gaming mode seems to help a bit.
Be nice to get an active cooler for the phone.
Do you play without a case?

dladz said:
No worries man, thing with that game is it looks great, kind of like breath of the wild mixed with dark souls, but the online thing is ridiculous.. why ? It's a single player for the most part right?
Could suppose crack it, but that would take some talent to achieve.
Just keep an eye on your temps when gaming, should be fine..gaming mode seems to help a bit.
Be nice to get an active cooler for the phone.
Do you play without a case?
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Indeed it is mostly a single player game, the online aspect is mostly for the microtransactions I believe.
I would love to get an active cooler for this phone kind of like the ASUS ROG. Do they make one? If not I've had the thought to have someone I know with a 3d printer to create one from scratch. (I'll keep the forum posted if I do)
I've only really had temp issues with Genshin so it's the only game I really take my case off for. I kid you not, it creates more heat than any benchmark I've ever ran.

cubeplayer1 said:
Indeed it is mostly a single player game, the online aspect is mostly for the microtransactions I believe.
I would love to get an active cooler for this phone kind of like the ASUS ROG. Do they make one? If not I've had the thought to have someone I know with a 3d printer to create one from scratch. (I'll keep the forum posted if I do)
I've only really had temp issues with Genshin so it's the only game I really take my case off for. I kid you not, it creates more heat than any benchmark I've ever ran.
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Aye I've downloaded it. Half decent game but that online business just didn't sit right with me..
Have you tried all the emulators??

dladz said:
Aye I've downloaded it. Half decent game but that online business just didn't sit right with me..
Have you tried all the emulators??
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Yeah especially dolphin emu that one can be a bit of a torture test at times

cubeplayer1 said:
Yeah especially dolphin emu that one can be a bit of a torture test at times
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I've not had too many issues on it, Mario kart was the hardest thing I had to run.
What about Redream.
Oh and DIG as a front end.
This is my 8 Pro running it.

dladz said:
I've not had too many issues on it, Mario kart was the hardest thing I had to run.
What about Redream.
Oh and DIG as a front end.
This is my 8 Pro running it.
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Dude that is way cool! I never knew about front-ends I'm going to have to check that out. And I was just about to look for a dreamcast emu, that was an awesome console back in the day.

@dladz noticed you have a ps2 emu. How is the performance with that and what emu do you run?

cubeplayer1 said:
Dude that is way cool! I never knew about front-ends I'm going to have to check that out. And I was just about to look for a dreamcast emu, that was an awesome console back in the day.
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Aye it was, you'll love there's some beauties on it and they all run at a solid 60, phone doesn't come either.
I've underclocked my cores by one notch
Eg: Cluster 1
Stock: min - 1000 max 1800
Tweaked: min - 300 max 1700
Same with the 2 clusters only you can't get to 300, they're 700 + 800 respectively and 100MHz off the top end speeds.
Doesn't affect performance but does lower thermals, have had 11 hours SOT this way with Elemental X, governor was conservative..
Pics in the SOT and EX threads.
I've left instructions to a user on YouTube for installation. It's easier then retroarch.

cubeplayer1 said:
@dladz noticed you have a ps2 emu. How is the performance with that and what emu do you run?
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It's the dodgiest emulator in the world, they stole code from another free project then closed their project down.
Several cases ongoing over the last few years.
It's £10 I think, tbh the PS2 wasn't that good. I'd rather just buy the console.
The other PS2 emulators do run but they're slow and unplayable even on the 8 Pro, that damon2 emu is dodgy as anything.
Needs to make calls, see your contacts and be online all the time? I bought it, titanium backed up then refunded it. It does work well enough to play but at what cost.
I'll pass, the games are listed on dig but unplayable at the moment

dladz said:
It's the dodgiest emulator in the world, they stole code from another free project then closed their project down.
Several cases ongoing over the last few years.
It's £10 I think, tbh the PS2 wasn't that good. I'd rather just buy the console.
The other PS2 emulators do run but they're slow and unplayable even on the 8 Pro, that damon2 emu is dodgy as anything.
Needs to make calls, see your contacts and be online all the time? I bought it, titanium backed up then refunded it. It does work well enough to play but at what cost.
I'll pass, the games are listed on dig but unplayable at the moment
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That blows. Guessing they stole the code from PCSX2 on the PC. I hate when "devs" do that crap.
Dude that takes me back though, I used to use the whole titanium backup, then refund thing wayyy back in the day. Hardly payed for a thing... unless the app was really good Lol

cubeplayer1 said:
That blows. Guessing they stole the code from PCSX2 on the PC. I hate when "devs" do that crap.
Dude that takes me back though, I used to use the whole titanium backup, then refund thing wayyy back in the day. Hardly payed for a thing... unless the app was really good Lol
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Yep got it in one. The guys who made those emulators are a talented bunch and they haven't hidden their talent away to profit from it, I have a lot of respect for them and their work so you can imagine my thoughts on the thieves.
And yes I agree If an app is good, of course I'll pay for it, if theres an ad free alternative I'll pay usually..
Have been stung before though.
SPB shell 3D was a crazy launcher which looked awesome at the time.
It was £9.50 and I bought it, now it's been pulled so you can't even install it anymore.
I think the Devs of pcsx2 will probably surpass Damon at some point, but it's an open pot for them to cherry pick what they want, absolutely ruins open source