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samsung introduces the galaxy s iii, the smartphone designed for humans and inspired by nature
may 4, 2012
effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, samsung galaxy s iii reveals a new concept of smartphone
london, uk—may 4, 2012—samsung electronics co., ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announced today the third generation galaxy s, the galaxy s iii. designed for humans and inspired by nature, the galaxy s iii is a smartphone that recognizes your voice, understands your intention, and lets you share a moment instantly and easily.
this sleek and innovative smartphone has the enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier. with samsung galaxy s iii, you can view the content like never before on the device’s 4.8 inch hd super amoled display. an 8mp camera and a 1.9mp front camera offer users a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options that ensure all moments are captured easily and instantly. samsung galaxy s iii is powered by android™ 4.0, ice cream sandwich, with greatly enhanced usability and practicality to make life easier. packed with intuitive technology, the galaxy s iii delivers a uniquely personalized mobile experience that refuses to be compromised.
“with the galaxy s iii, samsung has maximized the consumer benefits by integrating superior hardware with enhanced smartphone usability,” said jk shin, president and head of it & mobile communications division at samsung. “designed to be both effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, the galaxy s iii has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind. what makes me most proud is that it enables one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences, opening up a new horizon that allows you to live a life extraordinary.”
introducing natural interaction
the galaxy s iii enhances the interaction experience between the device and user. smart enough to detect your face, voice and motions, the galaxy s iii adapts to the individual user to provide a more convenient and natural experience. with the innovative ‘smart stay’ feature, the galaxy s iii recognizes how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by having the front camera identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.
the galaxy s iii features ‘s voice,’ the advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to your words. in addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, s voice presents powerful functions in regards to device control and commands. when your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the galaxy s iii “snooze.” you can also use s voice to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organize your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo.
in addition to recognizing your face and voice, the galaxy s iii understands your motions to offer maximized usability. if you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘direct call’ will dial their number. with ‘smart alert,’ the galaxy s iii will also save you from trouble by catching any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.
easy and instant sharing
the samsung galaxy s iii is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one user - it wants you to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of where you are. with the new ‘s beam,’ the galaxy s iii expands upon android™ beam™, allowing a 1gb movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10mb music file within two seconds by simply touching another galaxy s iii phone, even without a wi-fi or cellular signal. the ‘buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.
with ‘allshare cast’, users can wirelessly connect their galaxy s iii to their television to immediately transfer smartphone content onto a larger display. ‘allshare play’ can be also used to instantly share any forms of files between galaxy s iii and your tablet, pc, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. under allshare play is also the ‘group cast’ feature that allows you to share your screen among multiple friends on the same wi-fi network; you can make comments and draw changes at the same time with your co-workers, witnessing real-time sharing on your individual device.
human-centric design with uncompromised performance
the galaxy s iii not only presents features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design. its comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form deliver a rich human-centric feel and design. inspired by nature, its design concept is the flow and movement of nature. the elements of wind, water and light are all evoked in the physical construct of the galaxy s iii. in its essence, the minimal organic design identity is reflected in the smooth and non-linear lines of the device. available in pebble blue and marble white at launch, samsung will introduce a variety of additional color options.
with a 4.8” hd super amoled display, the galaxy s iii offers a large and vivid viewing experience. samsung mobile’s heritage super amoled display even enhances to hd and 16:9 wider viewing angles. to ensure faster content sharing and connectivity, the galaxy s iii offers wi-fi channel bonding which doubles the wi-fi bandwidth.
the galaxy s iii also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways. it introduces ‘pop up play,’ a feature that allows you to play a video anywhere on your screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the web. its 8mp camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets you capture moving objects easily without delay – the image you see is the picture you take. with the ‘burst shot’ function that instantly captures twenty continuous shots, and the ‘best photo’ feature that selects the best of eight photographs for you, the galaxy s iii ensures users a more enhanced and memorable camera experience. hd video can be recorded even with the 1.9mp front-facing camera, which you can use to capture a video of yourself. improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low lights.
mobile payment is also accessible with the device through advanced near field communication (nfc) technology. the gaming experience is enhanced through ‘game hub,’ providing access to numerous social games, while video hub brings users high quality tv and movies. furthermore, samsung music hub will offer a personal music streaming service. game hub, video hub and music hub will be introduced in select countries initially and soon rolled out to global markets.
the samsung galaxy s iii will be available from the end of may in europe before rolling out to other markets globally.
note to editors: samsung galaxy s iii product specifications
network
2.5g (gsm/ gprs/ edge): 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 mhz
3g (hspa＋ 21mbps): 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 mhz
4g (dependent on market) display 4.8 inch hd super amoled (1280x720) display os android 4.0 (ice cream sandwich)
camera main(rear): 8 mega pixel auto focus camera with flash & zero shutter lag, bis sub (front): 1.9 mega pixel camera, hd recording @30fps with zero shutter lag, bis
video codec: mpeg4, h.264, h.263, divx, divx3.11, vc-1, vp8, wmv7/8, sorenson spark recording & playback: full hd (1080p)
audio codec: mp3, amr-nb/wb, aac/aac＋/eaac＋, wma, ogg, flac, ac-3, apt-x
additional
features
s beam, buddy photo share, share shot allshare play, allshare cast smart stay, social tag, group tag, face zoom, face slide show direct call, smart alert, tap to top, camera quick access pop up play s voice burst shot & best photo, recording snapshot, hdr
google™ mobile services
google search, google maps, gmail, google latitude google play store, google play books, google play movies google plus, youtube, google talk, google places, google navigation, google downloads
connectivity wifi a/b/g/n, wifi ht40 gps/glonass nfc bluetooth® 4.0(le)
sensor accelerometer, rgb light, digital compass, proximity, gyro, barometer
memory 16/ 32gb user memory (64gb available soon) ＋ microsd slot (up to 64gb) dimension 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133g battery 2,100 mah
＊ specifications above may differ on the lte version. ＊ all functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.
＊ android, google, android beam, google search, google maps, gmail, google latitude, google play store, google play books, google play movies, google plus, youtube, google talk, google places, google navigation, google downloads are trademarks of google inc.
about samsung electronics co., ltd.
samsung electronics co., ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of us$143.1 billion. employing approximately 206,000 people in 197 offices across 72 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: digital media & communications, comprising visual display, mobile communications, telecommunication systems, digital appliances, it solutions, and digital imaging; and device solutions, consisting of memory, system lsi and led. recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, samsung electronics was named the world’s most sustainable technology company in the 2011 dow jones sustainability index. for more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
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|boom|
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Quaaaaadbaaaannnd
Funk2641 said:
Quaaaaadbaaaannnd
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Nice I am not waiting for LTE, going to get the international version.
well it seems like no T-mo version anytime soon until the end of the year again
AWS 1700
What's price looking like I want to get international even do it has hardware button
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
Jasonhunterx said:
What's price looking like I want to get international even do it has hardware button
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
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new flagship phones prices are always around $700
AllGamer said:
new flagship phones prices are always around $700
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Wasn´t the Nexus S close to us$800? After the insane success of the GS2 it wouldn´t surprise me at all if this phone would cost something like us$850...which would probably drive me towards the HTC One X or a Skyrocket HD LTE.
I seen 499£ an usually the most phones sell for from t mobile is lime 500$? Right
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About $890 in Sweden
6000 kr here - about 1000-1100 dollars...
699 € in Italy...16 GB version...
In Switzerland
623 € in Switzerland for the 16Go version (blue).
Shame it has no 802.11ac wireless support, with routers now coming out that have this new wireless technology, next gen phones like the S3 should support it.
Smartie36 said:
Shame it has no 802.11ac wireless support, with routers now coming out that have this new wireless technology, next gen phones like the S3 should support it.
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why ?
is 450 mbps not fast enough ? i highly doubt you have that speed on your internet connection.
anyways even 450 mbps is not the actual speed, on my sgs2 i get around ~30 mbit and that is fine, i do have a 100 mbit internet connection, but 30 is fine for the phone.
Jasonhunterx said:
What's price looking like I want to get international even do it has hardware button
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
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just under 700 USD for me
I wish the price is like $500. ;(
Just came out in Romania with Orange branding and locking (pre orders only) at 624 EURO SIM free. Around 50 euro more than HTC One X.
Seems to be around 900$ in Denmark.
61.000 yens in Japan,about 762.5 us dollars for the 16 gb version unlocked
Bologna said:
699 € in Italy...16 GB version...
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They can stuff it
This post is not to start a pointless "GNote is better than iPad" flame war. For what it intends to do, the iPad is an excellent product. Until I got my GNote, I was jealous of my wife's iPad 3 (maybe that's partially because I had a Thinkpad Tablet... fellow TPT owners will understand, ha ha).
I'm offering this against the myriad of scathingly bad reviews of the GNote, many of them from arguably pro-Apple sites. Consumer Reports prides itself on being an independent consumer research agency. As most of you probably know, they accept no promotional considerations for any product they test. Each review is based upon a unit/item which their staff bought 'off the shelf' at a local or online retailer, not a free unit from the vendor. And they do not sell ads, again to avoid any influence on their ratings.
So, if you want to reference a very good review for your GNote from an organization which has good credibility, here your are...
In their review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, Consumer Reports scores the GNote as an overall 83 points out of 100, the same as the iPad 3. It is the first tablet to equal the iPad in their reports.
In the overall scoring categories of portability, ease of use, versatility, touch response, and size, the GNote and iPad were rated equivalently as 'excellent' or 'very good' in each case. Only in display rating did the iPad best the GNote, with a mark of 'excellent' to the GNote's 'very good.'
The only con ("Low") they noted was that at $500, it is at the more expensive end of the scale.
Here is the URL for the review, but you may need to login as a subscriber to access the full review. I've pasted the text from the review below the link. I've also attached a screenshot of their side-by-side scoring of the GNote vs. the iPad.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ung-galaxy-note-10-1-wi-fi-16-gb-99046807.htm
Consumer Reports members-restricted content said:
Reviews & Recommended - Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (Wi-Fi, 16 GB)
CR's Take
The Galaxy Note 10.1 is very innovative and fun to use. It comes with a stylus, recognizes handwriting, and can multitask, unlike other tablets. But because some of its most useful apps aren't very intuitive, expect to spend a good amount of time getting up to speed. Battery life was very long.
Highs
• 1.4 GHz 4-core processor
• Battery life longer than most
• Very good display quality
• Screen coating reduces fingerprints and makes cleaning easier.
• Voice-typing feature
• Keyboard can use "Swype" entry method
• Can be a remote control for TVs or other A-V devices
• GPS mapping
• 5-megapixel camera, higher resolution than most
• Screen uses high-durability "Gorilla glass"
• File manager preinstalled
• Full access to the Google app market
• Photos can fill entire screen height
Lows
• At $500, relatively expensive
Detailed test results
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (Wi-Fi, 16 GB) was easy to use for a wide variety of functions. It was easy to move from screen to screen using finger swipes, and to move app icons among screens. Samsung includes an enhanced user-interface. Home screens have useful custom widgets. The on-screen keyboard may be used in "Swype" mode to type by sliding between letters.
Photos can be displayed full height without interference from the navigation bar. Turning from portrait to landscape while reading a book worked well. A voice-typing feature lets you dictate emails and text documents. You can sync and transfer files to and from a PC using USB. A built-in file manager app makes it easy to transfer files from a memory card.
The display quality was very good overall. Colors were accurately reproduced, realistic, and natural-looking because they were undersaturated. The screen was among the brightest we've measured and readability in sunlight was good. Viewing angle was quite wide in landscape orientation, making it easy to view photos or video with another person. Viewing angle was quite wide in portrait orientation, making it easy to share the screen with another person.
Touch response was excellent. The capacitive touchscreen responds to a light finger touch, and allows multiple fingers to perform gesture actions. Moving objects and using finger gestures is easy and precise. Icons were easy to move and place precisely. A special coating on the screen resists fingerprints and makes cleaning easier.
This tablet has a very good set of useful features that make it convenient and versatile to use - see the "About" section for more details. There is full access to the Google app market, with a large and varied selection of apps. There is also access to a large media market through Google, for downloading movies, music and books. The tablet can send pictures, video and music to another "DLNA" (Digital Living Network Alliance) capable home entertainment device, such as a TV. You can program the tablet to act as a remote control for home entertainment products like TVs and receivers.
There are a variety of sensors to provide positional and environmental info to apps and games. These include a global positioning system (GPS) receiver to locate the user geographically and allow the use of navigation apps, an accelerometer to give motion feedback to apps, a gyroscope to give rotational feedback to apps, a magnetic compass to give directional feedback, and an ambient light sensor to reduce the screen brightness to extend battery time. There's a stylus included to enable handwriting, precise drawing, or using the tablet with gloves.
This is among the most portable tablets in the 9- to 12-inch category. Its battery life of 11.1 hours lets you use it all day without recharging. It's very slim and compact for its screen size, and at 1.3 pounds, it's a very lightweight tablet for its size.
About - Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (Wi-Fi, 16 GB)
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (Wi-Fi, 16 GB) is a larger tablet computer with a 10.1-inch screen. It has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800, which is typical for its size. The rectangular screen is a better shape for videos than for photos, and it utilizes toughened Gorilla Glass for durability.
The tablet has a 1.4 GHz Samsung Exynos processor with 4 cores. It runs on the Android 4 operating system. It has 2GB memory and is available with 16 or 32GB storage. You can add an Micro SD memory card for more storage.
There is a headphone jack with a volume control, a built-in microphone, and stereo speakers. Internet connectivity is via Wi-Fi. It has a 1.9-megapixel webcam, and a 5-megapixel camera with a flash.
The tablet measures 10.3 inches long by 7.1 inches wide by 0.37 inches thick, and weighs 1.3 pounds.
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jchammerpants said:
This post is not to start a pointless "GNote is better than iPad" flame war. For what it intends to do, the iPad is an excellent product. Until I got my GNote, I was jealous of my wife's iPad 3 (maybe that's partially because I had a Thinkpad Tablet... fellow TPT owners will understand, ha ha)....
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Yes my dear fellow, I do understand you very well, me too .
Actually Samy should pay to Lenovo for encouraging us TPT owners (by bad Android implementation) to buy GNote 10.1. Or at least to make some "switch" advertising, would be very funny.
I love the SGN10.1 from a hardware standpoint; however, much of their software (S-Note I am looking at you), doesn't seem well-thought through and half-done. Hopefully the JB OTA will improve upon this.
I suppose my biggest issue is that the things which would make S-Note truly amazing are not revolutionary or dramatic. They simply need to implement features already found in competing products as well as a few new ideas.
jchammerpants said:
I'm offering this against the myriad of scathingly bad reviews of the GNote, many of them from arguably pro-Apple sites.
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The difference is that CR views things from a populist perspective. The tech media are snobs and think the masses make decisions based on CPU, GPU, and benchmarks. You'll notice CR used adjectives rather than benchmarks to describe performance. The Note's an all-around great tablet and the S-features provide a lot of real-world benefits and improve usability. When talking to non-techie's about which tablet to buy I say many of the same things to them CR wrote. And while not FHD, the Note's display is the best I've ever seen on a 10' tablet when it comes to color reproduction and accuracy. And that includes the TF700's higher res display.
I'm really getting tired of the price/value double standard that gets used by reviewers.
The cheapest current generation iPad is 16GB for $499. You can get last year's model for $399 - but you can also get a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for $399...
The Note 10.1 is $549 ($499 in Canada) and has 32GB of storage, which would cost $599.
Yet, for some reason, if any tablet OTHER than the iPad comes in at $500... it's too expensive. You never hear anyone call the iPad 'too expensive'.
Retina display? Fair enough - Note has Wacom digitiser.
In every other way the Note meets or exceeds the iPad's specs.
Simply put, the Note 10.1 is a better VALUE at a comparablet price than the iPad.
wolfindersteppe said:
Yes my dear fellow, I do understand you very well, me too .
Actually Samy should pay to Lenovo for encouraging us TPT owners (by bad Android implementation) to buy GNote 10.1. Or at least to make some "switch" advertising, would be very funny.
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:laugh: So true.
I have been using a Galaxy S2 for the past two and a half years and have been pretty happy with it overall. Last week my Republic Wireless Moto X came in, and I decided to share my experience.
(Physical Appearance)
Physically, the Galaxy S2 and Moto X are almost identical in vertical and horizontal size. The Galaxy S2 is a hair wider, and not quite as long. The Moto X packs a 4.7” screen into approximately the same sized package as the Galaxy S2 which has a 4.3” screen - though only around 4.45” of the X’s screen is usable most of the time due to onscreen buttons. The Moto X is considerably thicker (the S2 is an incredibly thin phone) though its shape is very pleasant to hold. Thinner is not always better. I was also surprised by how noticeable an increase from 122g to 130g is in my hand – the X feels surprisingly heavier and denser.
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The screens on these two devices are both Samsung-manufactured OLED panels. The S2 uses the same RGB pixel layout as the Moto X, but runs at a lower resolution of 800x480 (16:10) as opposed to the X’s 1280x720 (16:9). The Moto X’s panel is basically the same panel as is used in the Note 2, though with smaller pixels, making it one generation behind the S4 and one generation ahead of the S2. Neither has the RGBG (pentile) layout of the Galaxy S, S3 and S4, which is arguably a plus.
Auto brightness:
Max brightness:
Although it’s difficult to capture with a camera (my second S2, in fact), the Moto X’s screen is a little brighter at any given level of auto-brightness, has a higher max brightness, and a slightly lower minimum brightness than the S2. The saturation is higher on the Moto X than on the S2 though its pixels have faded in the past two and a half years (a common problem with OLED panels). Interestingly, the S2’s blue pixels have faded more quickly than its red and green pixels, which has changed its originally overly-blue image to a slightly red-green tinted image. I have to wonder if Samsung did this intentionally with their tuning, and wonder if the Moto X will suffer the same pixel fading as it ages. Also worth noting is Samsung’s inclusion of “screen modes” which control the saturation, which is absent in the Moto X. I have been using the “natural” setting on my S2 for a while now and I wish the Moto X had the option to decrease it’s saturation a little too.
Subjectively, the Moto X’s screen is an incredible improvement. Text is easier to read due to the higher resolution, and it’s just generally a more pleasant screen to look at. Not to say that the S2’s screen wasn’t acceptable, but displays have come a long way in a short time.
One thing that surprised me was the feeling of the vibrations in the S2 vs the Moto X. The X’s vibrations remind me a lot of the OG Droid (I have not owned a Motorola phone since that one), and are a lot rougher or lower-frequency than those of the S2. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other, but they definitely feel different, each being very representative of their manufacturers.
(UI and subjective performance)
The UI on the Moto X (as you probably already know) is very near stock android. Aesthetically, I like it better than TouchWiz on the S2 though functionally they are not very different. Nearly everything is organized exactly the same in the S2’s version of TW, the major differences being in the font choices and colorfulness of icons and menus. One thing notably lacking on the Moto X (with the stock launcher) is the ability to resize widgets and add or remove homepages.
Some of the app skinning done in TouchWiz is arguably an improvement over stock android, and most of the places where things are better there, Motorola has done the same. The most notable example is the camera UI. To be frank, I don’t like the UI Google has chosen for its camera, and am glad Motorola made their own.
The S2 is one of the first phones that I felt was largely “fast enough”. It has a dual core Exynos 4 SOC clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM (~830MB usable). The Moto X has a dual core Snapdragon S4 Pro clocked at 1.7GHz and 2GB of RAM. The Snapdragon is considerably faster per clock.
I have been running my S2 rooted since day 1 and with recent 3rd-party kernels, the UI is almost perfectly smooth if there isn’t anything running in the background. There are occasionally dropped frames, and animations can be choppy if things are running in the background. Scrolling up and down webpages as they are loading in Chrome can also show dropped frames. 1GB of RAM is sufficient right now, but only just, and with the increasing requirements of apps I expect the S2 will be limited by its RAM sooner than its SOC. I would like to note that TouchWiz actually runs better than more recent versions of Cyanogenmod, so I have gone back to a modified 4.1.2 TW. The Moto X by contrast has a perfectly fluid UI out of the box, and almost nothing I have done has produced any dropped frames. Subjectively, the Moto X is noticeably smoother than the S2, especially when multitasking.
Game-wise, there is no game on the Android Market that won’t run perfectly smoothly on the S2 (today). It even handles DS emulation smoothly – you can’t tell the difference between a DS game running on the S2 vs the Moto X. So, despite the Moto X being several times faster on paper, games and emulators show no improvement (yet).
Worth mentioning is how much more quickly the Moto X tends to connect to and authenticate over WiFi.
(Features)
The Moto X has several features which I appreciate, but they aren’t make-or-break for me. Sadly, it lacks a few features which almost are.
The twist-to-activate-camera feature is neat, but it takes very little more time to hit the power button and turn it on from the lockscreen. I was surprised to learn (and other reviews hadn’t mentioned) that the motion works regardless of what you’re doing. The camera can be activated via the motion from within a call, while watching a video, or from within a game (unless, I assume, the game takes control of the motion sensors). This is situationally pretty useful.
Active display is a wonderful feature which I find as useful because I can wake my phone without hitting the power button as seeing if I have notifications without fully waking the phone.
Moto Connect is a fantastic seamless integration of texting into your desktop browser, and I wonder why others haven’t done this before. It’s one of the main reasons I used primarily Google Voice for texting before.
Assist’s Sleeping and Meeting modes are useful, but I had to disable Driving as I suspect it was hitting my battery pretty hard (tons of GPS related wakelocks) for what I got out of it. I’ll admit, I sometimes check my texts while driving, but I always wait until I’m in a low-risk area (ie stopped at a traffic light, or when there are no cars for some distance on the highway) and it would probably save more than a few lives if this feature existed on all android phones. I thought the custom SOC was supposed to allow these features without a significant battery hit, but it seems that’s not entirely true. I may revisit this feature later.
Audio effects – I turned this off almost right away. It’s nice to have a system-wide equalizer included but it’s not a very robust implementation.
I haven’t yet felt the need to use Moto Care, but it seems a very thoughtful feature to include for non-tech savvy users.
What is the Moto X missing that the Galaxy S2 has?
1. uSD card slot. On my phone I keep ~16GB of music, ~2GB of audiobooks, ~3GB of game ROMs (PSX games are large), ~1.5GB of system ROMs and backups (or at least I did on my S2), and may use half a GB for photos / backgrounds / other images at any given time. Add in 4GB of system files/apps and keeping at least 20% spare area to keep performance up, and 32GB is just about right for me - assuming that my usage patterns don't change and I don't need any more space than I'm already using in the next 2 years. The Moto X has only around 10.5GB of usable space free unless you get the developer edition (not available through Republic Wireless and probably not through contract either) which a serious, serious problem for me.
I'm not happy with the idea of paying an extra $30+ per month for higher data limit when the amount of storage I need to decrease my data usage to near zero is less than $30 up front. If I don't need to stream anything, I can easily get by with a 300MB cap. Republic Wireless is uncapped when you have their basic data plan, but Sprint’s 3G is pretty much too slow to stream music, much less videos, and coverage is not great. As for the arguments about how it could negatively affect build quality – keep in mind, the phone already has a sim card slot, and uSD cards are not any larger.
2. Removable battery. This one is actually less of an issue for me now as I bought an external battery pack. I can live without it, but this can be a problem for some users. One thing to note is that generally, most of the replaceable batteries that will fit a phone will be manufactured for only as long as the phone is, so if you’re looking to replace an old battery with a new one, most that you buy will probably be equally old, just less used. Still, it is a point of failure that can easily be replaced, which brings me to the next point…
3. No user replaceable parts. Over the two and a half years I owned my S2, I needed to replace the camera module and the charge port. It’s arguable that build quality of the S2 is to blame here, but it isn’t an invalid criticism of the Moto X that parts are not user-replaceable as they are on Samsung phones. Twice I would have needed to replace my phone or send it to the manufacturer for repairs. The total cost of parts was $12 and about 10 minutes to pull the phone apart because of this “feature”. I’m actually waiting on rooting my Moto X until the one-month warranty/return period is over as I’m concerned about part failures.
Despite how much I like the Moto X, I might not have chosen it had it not been for the incredible pricing through Republic Wireless. A uSD card is practically a requirement for me.
(Subjective Sound Quality)
Using my Beyerdynamic DT 880’s, I feel that the Moto X has better quality output, though I know basically nothing about the hardware involved. I think I could most accurately describe it as sounding like the difference between using a pocket amplifier and not. It’s easier to distinguish individual instruments and sounds, and the noise floor is a bit lower.
(Camera)
I spent a bit more time comparing the cameras, because the camera is so important to me.
The Moto X has a 10MP sensor as compared to the Galaxy S2’s 8MP sensor. Both have the same horizontal resolution so the extra pixels on the X’s camera are vertical. The Galaxy S2 takes 4:3 aspect ratio pictures, while the X takes 16:9 photos.
The Moto X has a larger aperture (f/2.6 vs f/2.4) which allows the sensor to collect more light. The X is also capable of taking pictures with an ISO as high as 5000, vs 800 from the Galaxy S2, ISO being the sensitivity to light that the sensor is capable of. These two factors will allow the X to take much brighter low-light pictures at a given exposure time, or take similarly bright pictures with much shorter exposure, which helps to prevent blurry pictures.
The X also has a different subpixel layout than most (all?) other smartphone cameras, having one clear pixel in place of the second green pixel in the camera’s 2x2 grid. This gives the possibility of collecting even more light, but can potentially produce odd artifacts when taking pictures.
Software-wise, the Moto X is very simple to use. Tap on the screen, and it focuses quickly and snaps a picture. The Galaxy S2 uses tap-to-focus by default, and only captures if you hit the capture button, which is small. The Moto X is capable of taking pictures much more quickly.
How do the cameras compare in practice? Both cameras are being used with default settings in the following shots. The left (or if you’re using a small screen, first/upper) image is taken by my Galaxy S2, while the second is from the Moto X’s camera with the latest update.
These two shots were taken in a dark room with the curtains drawn. The Galaxy S2 used an ISO of 400 with 1/17 of a second exposure. The Moto X used an ISO of 5000 with a 1/14 of a second exposure. Definite win for the Moto X, the Galaxy S2’s camera fails miserably in these conditions.
With the curtains pulled back to let in a bit of sunlight, the Galaxy S2 fares better. It continues to use a 400 ISO with a 1/17 of a second exposure, and takes a fair, if slightly blurry picture. The Moto X’s shot comes out sharp in part because it is able to use a 1250 ISO with a 1/40 of a second exposure. There is some software sharpening going on here too though, as can be seen at the bottom of the image. Overall, another win for the Moto X.
In this indoor shot, the Galaxy S2 arguably takes a better indoor picture. Although the Moto X’s shot is sharper, the repeating pattern of the carpet causes weird color artifacts due to the Moto X’s subpixel layout. Additionally, the colors are closer to natural in the Galaxy S2’s shoot. The Galaxy S2 opted for ISO 800 + 1/16s while the X went with ISO 1600 + 1/19s.
In this early-morning outdoor shot, the Moto X performs admirably. There is a deep shadow on the house to the left, with bright sunlight on the right. In order to capture enough light for detail in the shadow, the Galaxy S2 overexposes the building on the right. The Moto X automatically enables HDR and exposes both parts of the image properly. While the Galaxy S2 is capable of HDR, it’s very slow and often results in incredibly blurry shots.
This is a closeup of a fallen pine branch taken outdoors in direct sunlight. The Moto X captures more detail with more natural colors.
This is a crop of a macro shot taken with varying light levels similar to those taken in the 4th set of pictures. These have been cropped (obviously) with the building being at the center of the photo and the leaves on the grass at the bottom being at the edge of the Galaxy S2’s sensor, and near the edge of the Moto X’s. In this shot, the Moto X opted not to use HDR. The Galaxy S2 actually captured more natural colors here. Additionally, I noticed that the edges of many images taken on the Moto X are blurry, and more than can be explained just by having a very wide aspect ratio. Take a look at the leaves on the ground in the two shots.
My apologies for the extremely long images, but it was necessary.
In this shot, there is a sun glare and varying light levels, as well as repeating visual patterns in the plants. The Galaxy S2 takes a hazy shot but the colors are fairly accurate. The Moto X opted for HDR here and took a sharper shot, but messed up the colors quite a bit in the entire image. Additionally, we see the odd color-checkerboard artifacts in the plants near the pool deck, and blurriness toward the bottom edge of the shot. A strong win for the Galaxy S2.
This is another closeup in good outdoor light. The top of the cropped image represents the middle of the image captured by the camera, and the bottom is the edge. I would argue that the Moto X does slightly better in the colors in this shot and has a bit more detail in the center of its focus, but notice the extreme blurriness present at the bottom of the Moto X’s shot.
This comparison shows the common visual artifact taken by the Galaxy S2’s camera which is not present in the Moto X’s shots. Images taken in low light without a flash on the Galaxy S2 do not have consistent color between the center and the edges. It is not generally visible in shots which have detail, but can ruin certain indoor shots.
In this first flash comparison, the Galaxy S2 appears to take a better shot, but it’s deceptive. The S2 has a much brighter flash but it’s almost perfectly white, while the X has an almost yellow-green flash that helps make reddish indoor/evening scenes’ color tone closer to that of sunlight. Also, the Moto X doesn’t need nearly as bright a flash because of its incredible low-light sensitivity. I would say that the S2 generally picks up more detail when its flash goes off (at least on things close enough to be lit by the flash) but the color of the flash doesn’t do good things for a person’s face. (sorry, you’re not getting any pictures of my wife ^^)
The S2 probably makes a better flashlight and is good for taking pictures of “stuff” in low light, but the Moto X is better for taking pictures of people in these conditions – which is what you’re probably going to be taking a lot more pictures of in low light. I’d call this one a win for the Moto X.
Interestingly, the S2 does not have its color problems when the flash is on, while the Moto X does. I would argue that the Moto X is probably best used with the flash off when you can get away with it, while the S2 is basically useless in low-light without the flash.
I would argue that the Moto X definitely takes better low light pictures than the Galaxy S2. In mixed lighting conditions, the Moto X also takes superior shots, assuming its software isn’t confused and color artifacts aren’t produced. In well-lit conditions, I believe the Galaxy S2 takes better macro shots because of its consistency, lack of color artifacts, and no visible edge-blurring in these conditions. In well-lit micro shots, the Moto X displays generally better color accuracy but has noticeable edge-burr, making it a tossup in my eyes.
Overall I would rather have the Moto X’s camera. When it’s working “right” it takes stunning pictures, but the more-than-occasional color artifacts introduced by its unusual subpixel layout and lack of perfect software correction leave me with mixed feelings.
(Battery Life)
The Moto X comes with a much larger battery than the Galaxy S2 (2200mAh vs 1650mAh) so better battery life is expected. Additionally, the S2’s battery is close to 2 years old and may have lost as much as 20% of its max capacity.
I have found that with the Moto X, I am able to get a bit over 5 hours of screen-on time on a charge vs 4 hours with the S2, both mostly browsing the web over WiFi. However, the Moto X does not sleep nearly as well.
Digging into Better Battery Stats, it appears that I had some really bad GPS wakelocks – more than 500 overnight. The S2 will happily sleep for more than 5 days on a single charge without airplane mode, while the Moto X would probably die in 3 days, despite its newer SOC built on a smaller process and larger battery. Because of this I find that on a day of average usage (~2.5-3.5 hours screen on), I tend to have around the same battery remaining on the S2 as on the Moto X, though both easily get me through a day. I’m going to need to play around with the Moto X further to see if I can reduce GPS related wakelocks (isn’t there hardware that’s supposed to make this not a problem?) or just turn it off when I’m not using it. I may write another article on how to save battery on your Moto X at a later date.
Worth noting here is that the Moto X charges much more quickly than the S2 does. The S2 is capped at 650mA charge current, while the X comes with an 800mA charger and can draw more than 1200mA if you have a charger that can support it.
Conclusion – draw your own. I went from a great phone to a great phone, but not everything is an improvement.
thank you for your review. could you comment on the bass audio output of this phone? (through headphones)
Interesting that you say you can easily get 5 days idle on your S2, and the battery stats seem under 0.5% per hour. I've never owned an Android phone that could do that... actually, my iPhone couldn't either but that was a few generations ago. iPhone 3G, 3GS, Droid X, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3, and now my Droid X.
Do you have email sync? Other apps syncing/polling? I mean, I don't have a whole lot but Facebook/Google+ sync, Gmail, Weather bug updates hourly... all of that adds up to about 1% or so per hour in ideal circumstances, so 3 days is about all I'll ever get - and that has always been consistent, I've never owned a phone I could get much under 1% per hour if I have normal polling/syncing stuff running.
Not doubting, just interested.
c19932 said:
thank you for your review. could you comment on the bass audio output of this phone? (through headphones)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely.
In comparison to the Galaxy S2, low bass is slightly "warmer" and noticeably less muddy. Whether it's because of a better DAC or more amplification I can't say for certain. I could probably make a recording of the outputs with my PC if you're interested - you won't hear exactly what it sounds like because it will have been processed but you might be able to hear relative differences.
binary visions said:
Interesting that you say you can easily get 5 days idle on your S2, and the battery stats seem under 0.5% per hour. I've never owned an Android phone that could do that... actually, my iPhone couldn't either but that was a few generations ago. iPhone 3G, 3GS, Droid X, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3, and now my Droid X.
Do you have email sync? Other apps syncing/polling? I mean, I don't have a whole lot but Facebook/Google+ sync, Gmail, Weather bug updates hourly... all of that adds up to about 1% or so per hour in ideal circumstances, so 3 days is about all I'll ever get - and that has always been consistent, I've never owned a phone I could get much under 1% per hour if I have normal polling/syncing stuff running.
Not doubting, just interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exchange kills my battery but I have GMail / Calendar / Contacts / Google Keep / Google Voice / Hangouts / Chrome / Drive / Currents Sync on. In things like Words With Friends I disable notifications when the option is present. Beautiful Widgets Weather updates are set to 2.5 hours. I don't have a Facebook app installed, and I close Skype and sign out when I'm not using it. Market is set to not auto-update apps, location reporting is disabled (so you can't track your path around town but it gets rid of most GPS wakelocks), and in apps that have an option of not using data unless on WiFi I enable that, and set WiFi to turn off while the device is sleeping (WiFi -> Advanced).
Functionally, there is very little lost from these settings.
I've recently been playing with Greenify, but it seems unnecessary with the above settings.
Eckyx said:
Exchange kills my battery but I have GMail / Calendar / Contacts / Google Keep / Google Voice / Hangouts / Chrome / Drive / Currents Sync on. In things like Words With Friends I disable notifications when the option is present. Beautiful Widgets Weather updates are set to 2.5 hours. I don't have a Facebook app installed, and I close Skype and sign out when I'm not using it. Market is set to not auto-update apps, location reporting is disabled (so you can't track your path around town but it gets rid of most GPS wakelocks), and in apps that have an option of not using data unless on WiFi I enable that, and set WiFi to turn off while the device is sleeping (WiFi -> Advanced).
Functionally, there is very little lost from these settings.
I've recently been playing with Greenify, but it seems unnecessary with the above settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look into getting Better Battery Stats. You can get a free copy here on XDA. I used it to figure a strange wake lock issue I was having only when connected to a specific wifi router. Based on your high Android OS number I would guess you might have a similar issue. I kept seeing my phone be idle for 7 hours but somehow the CPU total would be over 4 hours and the awake time being almost 1.5 hours. I am trying to figure out what the setting is on my router that causes the issue but so far no luck.
landale said:
Look into getting Better Battery Stats. You can get a free copy here on XDA. I used it to figure a strange wake lock issue I was having only when connected to a specific wifi router. Based on your high Android OS number I would guess you might have a similar issue. I kept seeing my phone be idle for 7 hours but somehow the CPU total would be over 4 hours and the awake time being almost 1.5 hours. I am trying to figure out what the setting is on my router that causes the issue but so far no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have it but I haven't made sense of it yet. The two largest wakelocks I've seen has been qcom_rx_wakelock with more than an hour in a 14 hour period and a count of 6,678, and nlpcollectorwakelock. I don't know what's calling on the GPS yet so my temporary fix for that is to turn off GPS when I'm not using it. There are some minor wakelocks under "Partial" - MMApiWebService.lastChance, MMApiWebService, AcquireWakeLockAction, NotifDataListener - but these are not nearly as bad as the qcom and nlp wakelocks. Without rooting I am unable to view Alarms, and the only reference that works is since "Unplugged". So, every time I have wanted to transfer data to or from my phone I've reset BBS and haven't yet had a good record. I'll definitely be looking into it over the next few days.
Eckyx said:
I have it but I haven't made sense of it yet. The two largest wakelocks I've seen has been qcom_rx_wakelock with more than an hour in a 14 hour period and a count of 6,678, and nlpcollectorwakelock. I don't know what's calling on the GPS yet so my temporary fix for that is to turn off GPS when I'm not using it. There are some minor wakelocks under "Partial" - MMApiWebService.lastChance, MMApiWebService, AcquireWakeLockAction, NotifDataListener - but these are not nearly as bad as the qcom and nlp wakelocks. Without rooting I am unable to view Alarms, and the only reference that works is since "Unplugged". So, every time I have wanted to transfer data to or from my phone I've reset BBS and haven't yet had a good record. I'll definitely be looking into it over the next few days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I can't say some of the things on there made much sense to me either but I've at least been able to use it to try and figure out that the drain issues are only happening on specific wifi connections. I wish I had another KitKat device to test to see if it's a Moto X issue or a KitKat issue.
The processor arrangement doesn't have anything to do with GPS. You kept wondering if it did... It doesn't. GPS is separate from the low power chips. The 8 "cores" are used as such:
- 2 for applications
- 1 low power audio processing (Touchless Controls)
- 4 GPU cores
- 1 context aware core (no clue what that means)
natezire71 said:
The processor arrangement doesn't have anything to do with GPS. You kept wondering if it did... It doesn't. GPS is separate from the low power chips. The 8 "cores" are used as such:
- 2 for applications
- 1 low power audio processing (Touchless Controls)
- 4 GPU cores
- 1 context aware core (no clue what that means)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The context aware core I believe controls the sensors used as part of the Active Display. Which would explain why the Moto X does this so much better then on other phones with 3rd party apps.
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
natezire71 said:
The processor arrangement doesn't have anything to do with GPS. You kept wondering if it did... It doesn't. GPS is separate from the low power chips. The 8 "cores" are used as such:
- 2 for applications
- 1 low power audio processing (Touchless Controls)
- 4 GPU cores
- 1 context aware core (no clue what that means)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, thank you. I poked around in some other reviews and found this, which agrees:
Brian Klug said:
This stowage and contextual awareness detection comes through fusion of the accelerometer, gyro, and ambient light sensor data on a TI MSP430 controller which enables most of the active display features from what I can tell. These then are exposed as flat down, flat up, stowed, docked, and the camera activation (flick) gesture. The MSP430 also surfaces its own temperature sensor to the rest of Android, which is nifty (the Moto X has an accelerometer, gyro, pressure sensor, compass, and the MSP430’s temp sensor).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For some reason I suspected that the GPS hardware well under this too.
____________
I set the phone back to stock and let it sleep overnight, and here are my BBS results from that:
Calcualtes to roughly 1.33% per hour idle vs <0.5% per hour I was getting before - which isn't going to prevent me from getting through a day, but completely unnecessary. Interestingly the qcom_rx_wakelock wasn't responsible for a large percentage of the wakeups last night, though its count was extremely high.. One thing I can think of that is different is that I'm on my 5GHz WiFi network now, though I'm definitely not ready to point fingers.
I'm going to go through and disable the following, one by one, and see how my device sleeps overnight with each gone:
Activity Recognition (RW specific)
Assist
Location Reporting
Help Improve Motorola Products + Moto Care
And if I still have odd wakelocks, GPS after that.
Assist gives GPS wakelocks to see if you are driving or not. That might be it.
Eckyx said:
I'm going to go through and disable the following, one by one, and see how my device sleeps overnight with each gone:
Activity Recognition (RW specific)
Assist
Location Reporting
Help Improve Motorola Products + Moto Care
And if I still have odd wakelocks, GPS after that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please update us after you experiment a bit.
I have location services turned on, which I'm sure contributes to my ~1%+ per hour idle consumption rate, but I've been happy with that and haven't done much controlled testing. Would be interested to see if that can be cut further - I'll probably fiddle a bit over the next couple nights as well with some of these services.
Thanks TS for posting this thread. I was considering whether to go from my current S2 to Moto X in view of the Cyber Monday discounts.
But the stuff ( expandable storage, fm tuner, gd camera ) that are important to me are unfortunately not found on the Moto X and the costs involved in importing the phone to my country isn't worth the effort.
Hence I've decided to go for an S3 + custom roms to resolve any software deficiencies compared to Moto X instead.
But still... :good: for the effort !
First battery life update -
I disabled Assist Driving and Activity Recognition (Republic Wireless Feature) and let the phone sleep for 6 hours. I had the following results:
* Battery loss reduced from ~1.3% per hour to ~1.2% per hour
* NlpCollectorWakeLock reduced from 8.0% to 1.7%
* NlpWakeLock approximately unchanged
* Overall deep sleep improved from 73.6% to 80.7%
I'm going to re-enable Activity Recognition and see if it hits battery life - disabling both of those gave a not-insignificant improvement, but I'm not sure which is the worse offender.
I'm on the same boat myself. Thinking of switching my dying i777 for the off contract motor x for att edition. I plan on switching to either aio or straight talk next march. I'm debating the nexus 5 but all the features of the x makes it a winner for me. Your review is great man, I wish everyone would do them like yours.
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
Sent from the second to last Galaxy
PACman Rom Nightlies
AJK 4.9 "the boss"
Have you guys heard of the Meenova MicroSD card reader? It plugs into the microUSB port and allows you to read your expandable storage. It's smaller than a quarter, and it says it's compatible with the Moto X. I'm planning on getting one for Christmas.
It's not a permanent solution, but you could just plug it in everyone you wanted to "stream" something. And all without data.
http://www.meenova.com/st/p/m3r.html
Theron113 said:
Have you guys heard of the Meenova MicroSD card reader? It plugs into the microUSB port and allows you to read your expandable storage. It's smaller than a quarter, and it says it's compatible with the Moto X. I'm planning on getting one for Christmas.
It's not a permanent solution, but you could just plug it in everyone you wanted to "stream" something. And all without data.
http://www.meenova.com/st/p/m3r.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I have one on my desk it front of me. I haven't had a chance to play with it much but I found that Play Music and Apollo were both unable to play music from the card when I first tried. Play Music saw the files but could not play them, and Apollo did not see the files at all. I was surprised by this as I expected the media scanner took care of finding media. I have heard reports from others with different phones that Poweramp can play music just fine that way, but I haven't had a chance to test it much.
On a related note, .nomedia files don't seem to work on the Moto X (I put them in the folders where I keep my audiobooks to prevent them from being picked up by my media players) which suggests to me that its media scanner may work in a slightly different way than I'm accustomed to.
I'll take a short break from battery testing later this evening and see if I can get it working. At the very least, I should be able to store ROMs and other files that don't rely on the media scanner.
Confirmed - Poweramp will play files off of the USB disk but Play Music, Apollo, and presumably other media players which rely on the system's media scanner rather than scanning folders themselves. Mortplayer (the program I use for my audiobooks) is also fine with the Meenova adapter because it too is folder-based with its own media scanner.
It seems to be a bit buggy though. Sometimes I have to unplug and plug back in the adapter or none of my media will play, even that which is stored locally on the phone.
I think I could live with having my less-listened to music on there, but I have concerns about possible effects on battery life caused by the adapter. I would definitely need to purchase Poweramp, or find a good free player that uses folder structure and/or has its own media scanner. I often go to sleep with my phone charging and listening to an audiobook which rules out keeping those on the card, but game ROMs would probably be fine to move over.
I haven't done this since my 2012 Nexus 7, but I did have some issues with battery/wake time on the old N7 when using an OTG cable and a thumb drive. Basically, if I put the tablet away with the cable/drive plugged in, it would be heavily drained of battery when I pulled it out again, much more so than normal sleeping should account for.
Which makes sense, of course, it's pulling power to keep the drive online, and it's not awful when you're actually using the thing - just mentioning it since it also pulls power when the tablet is sleeping, and dropping your tablet into your backpack, then pulling it out 8 hours later and finding it severely depleted is a surprise.
Hello,
First of all, i'm very satisfied with the Note 3's Camera. It's very useful and makes very good pictures and is also very fast. The shutter lag is very short in sports mode, and i also love the [email protected] and 4K-Recording. The User Interface of the camera is also designed very well, and it's got a giant amount of features. :good:
Please note, that i've got (the lastest) Android 4.3, because 4.4.2 is very bogus and Lollipop's User Interface is very ugly and lost many features.
But here are three software-features, that you can add, by installing the S6 and M9 Camera APK, but they are only supported from Android 5.0/higher.
1. Real-Time-equivalent Slow Motion / HFR
I'd like to record it like i described it right here, because the displayed playback speed in the player is equivalent to Real-Time and because Audio is recorded. This is also, how the Galaxy S6's Camera Software Application does it.
2. 1440p Video Recording
This is what i need, when i'd like to take a video, which is better than FullHD 1080p, but doesn't eat up as much space as 4K-Video. This is, what the Note 4/S6 Camera application also is capable of.
Bitrates:
FHD - 17 MBit/s
WQHD - 28 MBit/s (like [email protected])
4K-UHD and DCi-4K: 50 MBit/s (sometimes around 48)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3. Zero Pause Lag/Delay
This is, what the HTC One M9 can do - even in 4K. The last phone i know, which can do this is the Omnia 2.
It allows you, to Rec/Pause/Rec/Pause/etc... a video, without any lag/delay.
You can hit the rec/pause button, as fast as you want, and it always reacts.
The Note 4 and S6 have got a pause delay of around two seconds.
Off-Topic:
Here's a list of small things, that are also missing on the Note 3-Camera, but are less important currently.
Hardware
Physical Shutter Button (Priority: 60 %)
OIS Camera (every Flagship Smartphone newer than Med-2014 should have OIS.) (Priority = 70 %)
Mechanical Shutter (makes Picture quality a little bit better but is not so important) Prior.= 20 %
Software
The disadvantages below are so small, that they're pretty much off-topic. I'm satisfied with the Note 3 Camera.
Selective Focus
Tap-to-shoot
AF/AE Lock
Manual Camera Settings
Color Spectrum RGB Sensor (low Priority) (As known from the LG G4)
Laser Auto Focus (low Prior) (as known from LG G3 and G4)
Burst Shot Limit - higher than just 20
Lossy digital zoom is useless. Only Lossless Digital Zoom is good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still very satisfied with the Note 3 Camera. ♥
Every help is highly appreciated. But please take this thread seriously.
The main Problem is, that every useful app is only supportet on Android Ugly Edition 5.0.
I don't like the case, if the lowest API that an app supports is 19 or higher.
I miss the old pretty times, where the Note 2 (with it's beautiful TouchWiz Nature UX 1.0) with it's Android 4.0.4 or 4.1.2 or where the Note 3/10.1(2014) with their superior User Interface (TouchWiz NatureUX 2.5) and Android 4.3 were the newest. Then 4.4 ruined all software. Now 5.0 comes with a ruined U/UX.
Also the S5's UI was OK, but lost some features. I like this ocean blue of the S5.
The Note 4's UI+Hardware lost too many features.
Hannah Stern said:
The main Problem is, that every useful app is only supportet on Android Ugly Edition 5.0.
I don't like the case, if the lowest API that an app supports is 19 or higher.
I miss the old pretty times, where the Note 2 (with it's beautiful TouchWiz Nature UX 1.0) with it's Android 4.0.4 or 4.1.2 or where the Note 3/10.1(2014) with their superior User Interface (TouchWiz NatureUX 2.5) and Android 4.3 were the newest. Then 4.4 ruined all software. Now 5.0 comes with a ruined U/UX.
Also the S5's UI was OK, but lost some features. I like this ocean blue of the S5.
The Note 4's UI+Hardware lost too many features.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heard of launchers and themes?
And TW is never nice.
Tap-to-Shoot
The Tap-to-Shoot-Feature, which is activated by tapping somewhere in the Viewfinder, isn't in the S4, but actually it does exist on the Note 3.
I have not seen it before.
My large Post in the following link also includes some camera disadvantages, that also hit the Note 3:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61982181&postcount=529
ShutterLag: Good but could be better.
Manual Settings in Jelly Bean API
Unlimited Burst Shots (Lixe Xperia Z)
Hello! :angel:
On the 19th of January 2018 marks the official launch of the new Samsung Galaxy A8 2018 edition. From that day forward You can easily buy that new phone and You mustn't go through any pre-order procedures anymore.
During my free time I jumped into a couple of stores to see if there is a worthy candidate to replace our beloved S6E+.
To be clear one thing with You right from the begging - I was only checking if the quality of the camera photos were better or worse in comparison to Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.
Since there has been also other Samsung Galaxy phones in the stores I’ve visited - I’ve checked them too.
The results may come for You as a bit of a surprise.
Notice that the photo quality measurement was judged by myself only and it was always done indoors with much light in the room (no surprise here since it has been done in shopping centers).
If any of You is considering upgrading S6E+ to a newer model taking into consideration only the photo output of the camera please hold and see what was the verdict. Please read below.
So with no further ado, here are the results:
In all models, the HDR was set to AUTO, flash was always set to disabled.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus vs. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Winner = Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and I might say it won easily. The S7 Edge has the biggest difference in photo quality of all the devices I’ve tested!
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus vs. Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018 edition)
Winner= Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. I’ve noticed that A8 tries to get better image quality impression by getting more brightness on the photos which is done automatically. In opposition to S7 Edge there is less difference in photo quality between the two compared models.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus vs. Samsung Galaxy S8
Winner = TIE. S8 used automatic brightness adjustment to make photos look better. That was very hard to decide which was the real winner or looser in this one.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus vs. Samsung Galaxy S8+
Winner = Samsung Galaxy S8+ - again, automatic photo brightness adjustment makes the pictures taken by that phone better. There’s just a little little bit more sharpness in S8+ images.
Samsung Galaxy S8+ vs. Samsung Galaxy Note8
Winner = Samsung Galaxy Note8 – again, images are brighter but they are more sharper too. This is the first real threat to S6E+ and first very good candidate if you want to upgrade S6E+ only by pursuing a better photo quality. Note8 is on the the top of the mountain when it goes for camera picture quality!
Well, that’s pretty much it.
I hope I helped You with upgrade or no upgrade decisions.
Thank You for the time taken to read my post
Before You upgrade Your S6E+ to a newer Samsung to get better photos
please delete this reply Mr Admin.
My mistake. Sorry.
androidbadboy said:
please delete this reply Mr Admin.
My mistake. Sorry.
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Why do you want to delete? I agree with your opinion and I liked very much this thread. I'd like also add one thing: the number of pixels has a lot of importance when you see the pics in your pc, zoom on or, mainly, when you send them to your smartTV by smartconect. In these cases, S6 edge plus is much better than all of the others with a 16 Mp resolution in 16:9 format against only 12 Mp (4:3 format) and 9 Mp (16:9 format) of the S7, S8, note 8 etc. Remember: to see the true photo quality is not in the small oled screen of the phone (with a lot of artificial tricks and ppi) neither in Facebooks etc! Is in real life like in pc, smartTV or when you print them in paper and here, S6 edge plus photos are long steps ahead and are much better. Here you can see all artificial manipulations of the newer phones, like sharpening... Also that S6 is the only one that has the real and best resolution in 16:9 format perfectly adjusted to Tv's, pc screens etc - in 16 Mp! The maximum resolution in this format performed by S7 and S8, note 8 is only.... 9 Mp!!!! Almost HALF! hehe
For photography and camera in general, I don't swipe FOR SURE
flechinha said:
Why do you want to delete? I agree with your opinion and I liked very much this thread. I'd like also add one thing: the number of pixels has a lot of importance when you see the pics in your pc, zoom on or, mainly, when you send them to your smartTV by smartconect. In these cases, S6 edge plus is much better than all of the others with a 16 Mp resolution in 16:9 format against only 12 Mp (4:3 format) and 9 Mp (16:9 format) of the S7, S8, note 8 etc. Remember: to see the true photo quality is not in the small oled screen of the phone (with a lot of artificial tricks and ppi) neither in Facebooks etc! Is in real life like in pc, smartTV or when you print them in paper and here, S6 edge plus photos are long steps ahead and are much better. Here you can see all artificial manipulations of the newer phones, like sharpening... Also that S6 is the only one that has the real and best resolution in 16:9 format perfectly adjusted to Tv's, pc screens etc - in 16 Mp! The maximum resolution in this format performed by S7 and S8, note 8 is only.... 9 Mp!!!! Almost HALF! hehe
For photography and camera in general, I don't swipe FOR SURE
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1. I don't want to delete the whole topic, just the first reply to it (#2) cause I messed up something while changing the main topic title.
2. Thank You very much for Your input and kind words. I completely agree with your arguments.
3. BTW During my testing I was zooming after the photo was taken to see how the pixels appear. I compared the two devices: one phone in one hand, the other phone in the other hand and I've searched for differences in image quality.
androidbadboy said:
1. I don't want to delete the whole topic, just the first reply to it (#2) cause I messed up something while changing the main topic title.
2. Thank You very much for Your input and kind words. I completely agree with your arguments.
3. BTW During my testing I was zooming after the photo was taken to see how the pixels appear. I compared the two devices: one phone in one hand, the other phone in the other hand and I've searched for differences in image quality.
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Thank you for your words too.
For this comparison you need, AND MUST, have the both files of taken photos in these different phones compared in the same equipment with same screen as also with the same color and image treatment. As you know, the screens of these phones are very different in size, ratio, dpi, bright scale, color treatment (I think S8 and note 8 have hdr screen) etc.. As you said, was not the case, so that comparison isn't accurate. Any case and with no doubts, the zoom range admitted by phones for those pictures with less resolution (12 Mp) is lower in scale compared with zoom range reached with a 16 Mp photo, for not to see the weackness and imperfections. You'd see in maximum zoom range reached by S6 photos how would be the quality of S7, S8 and note photos - miserable!
At the end, take exactly the same scenario at the same time with these phones and, after that, take theses files to your PC with a accurate color screen in preference, zoom in and out and you'll see great differences in quality, highlighted S6 in comparison with all the others.
Also, there is someone here in xda who is a professional photographer that has made this comparison. His opinion is the same - S6 was the last with a true 16:9 and 16 Mp camera much better than following phones. We're talking about natural noise, sharpness and quality. S7 and following are very artificial in treatment, focused to AMOLED screens or low resolution app's like facebook, in that you can't notice the natural quality. Even for DxOMark, before he changed the rules caused by the 2 cameras fashion, S6 edge plus has the second best cell camera in the world, much better than S7 and iphones...
Best regards
flechinha said:
Thank you for your words too.
For this comparison you need, AND MUST, have the both files of taken photos in these different phones compared in the same equipment with same screen as also with the same color and image treatment. As you know, the screens of these phones are very different in size, ratio, dpi, bright scale, color treatment (I think S8 and note 8 have hdr screen) etc.. As you said, was not the case, so that comparison isn't accurate. Any case and with no doubts, the zoom range admitted by phones for those pictures with less resolution (12 Mp) is lower in scale compared with zoom range reached with a 16 Mp photo, for not to see the weackness and imperfections. You'd see in maximum zoom range reached by S6 photos how would be the quality of S7, S8 and note photos - miserable!
At the end, take exactly the same scenario at the same time with these phones and, after that, take theses files to your PC with a accurate color screen in preference, zoom in and out and you'll see great differences in quality, highlighted S6 in comparison with all the others.
Also, there is someone here in xda who is a professional photographer that has made this comparison. His opinion is the same - S6 was the last with a true 16:9 and 16 Mp camera much better than following phones. We're talking about natural noise, sharpness and quality. S7 and following are very artificial in treatment, focused to AMOLED screens or low resolution app's like facebook, in that you can't notice the natural quality. Even for DxOMark, before he changed the rules caused by the 2 cameras fashion, S6 edge plus has the second best cell camera in the world, much better than S7 and iphones...
Best regards
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Thank You for tones of great information.
I know that a precise test would have to be perform like that. I did it this way cause I didn't have access to the files of the phones in the stores for obvious reasons. The second thing is that people tend to judge the photo quality right out of the box shall we say. For example, 2 friends are taking pictures with their different phones and then compare the same object photographed by these phones by putting their devices near each other and judging by just looking at the phone's screen. That's what most people do when evaluating cameras and that's why I sort of did the same. I hope I saved our readers some time or gave them a bit information of what to expect out of the phones that I have compared.
With your information added I think we showed that our beloved Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is still the king of the mountain.
PS. Which device dares to claim to be number one?
androidbadboy said:
Thank You for tones of great information.
I know that a precise test would have to be perform like that. I did it this way cause I didn't have access to the files of the phones in the stores for obvious reasons. The second thing is that people tend to judge the photo quality right out of the box shall we say. For example, 2 friends are taking pictures with their different phones and then compare the same object photographed by these phones by putting their devices near each other and judging by just looking at the phone's screen. That's what most people do when evaluating cameras and that's why I sort of did the same. I hope I saved our readers some time or gave them a bit information of what to expect out of the phones that I have compared.
With your information added I think we showed that our beloved Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is still the king of the mountain.
PS. Which device dares to claim to be number one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you're right, people want to see and believe what they're are seeing in the moment, no matter the tricks or screens or etc. but for me, the most important is the real file of the photo that I can see, preserve and remind in the future in any equipment. Also when you need zoom a photo in a bigger TV screen, on where all the imperfections come out, a nice photo on the cellularphone can become tremendous here... Keep in mind this, for everybody the best cellphone photos of all the time were taken by nokia brand cellphones, mainly in the old N8 and lumias pureview. Unfortunately the Symbian OS and Windows phone OS didn't let this cellphones shine like they deserve... This is inquestionable but, in the moment in those TFT hd only screens, those weren't the best picture that someone could see...
About your question, sincerely I don't remember which one was considered the best one by DxOMark before new rules, I'm not sure if it was the pixel, but if you want to know, perhaps visiting his site and try to understand it. Unfortunately, also, DxOMark only started focusing in cellphones photography about a pair of years and never had the opportunity to test nokia models cause they are older
Regards
flechinha said:
Yeah you're right, people want to see and believe what they're are seeing in the moment, no matter the tricks or screens or etc. but for me, the most important is the real file of the photo that I can see, preserve and remind in the future in any equipment. Also when you need zoom a photo in a bigger TV screen, on where all the imperfections come out, a nice photo on the cellularphone can become tremendous here... Keep in mind this, for everybody the best cellphone photos of all the time were taken by nokia brand cellphones, mainly in the old N8 and lumias pureview. Unfortunately the Symbian OS and Windows phone OS didn't let this cellphones shine like they deserve... This is inquestionable but, in the moment in those TFT hd only screens, those weren't the best picture that someone could see...
About your question, sincerely I don't remember which one was considered the best one by DxOMark before new rules, I'm not sure if it was the pixel, but if you want to know, perhaps visiting his site and try to understand it. Unfortunately, also, DxOMark only started focusing in cellphones photography about a pair of years and never had the opportunity to test nokia models cause they are older
Regards
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Thanks again,
do you know his website, a contact or something?
androidbadboy said:
Thanks again,
do you know his website, a contact or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just Google it.