Database Users

Long road from Inspire to Atrix

Good morning all,
I created this thread in the Inspire forums and thought I'd bring it over here too. It's just my experiences as a daily carrier of both of these devices. It's aimed at people torn between the two handsets, and also to help me ultimately choose which I prefer to keep. Only one will survive.
I've included my running updates in the OP.
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Hello all!
I've had the daunting task to pick between these two phones for the last couple days. I went into the store to actually get the devices in my hand and fully expected to walk out with the Atrix. I've always had a soft spot for HTC, ever since their WoMo phones. I saw the Inspire and was super impressed at how solid the phone felt in my hand. The phone felt very responsive, and I already knew the XDA Inspire team was cranking out some awesome stuff.
I then grabbed the Atrix and was not nearly as wow'd as I had expected to be. I've been following the phone since it's announcement, and pretty much had made up my mind on the spot to pick it up. After spending a half hour goofing around with both phones, I decided the Inspire really won my heart.
Then it happened... The cold sweats... The tossing and turning in bed at night. Images of the Atrix's Tegra 2 laying waste to the earth and doing vile things to my Inspire. My horrid indecision had struck. I decided that I had obviously made the wrong choice, so the next morning I headed off to the store and bought an Atrix without returning my perfectly set up Inspire. I wanted to play with them both side by side and just return whichever one didn't make me happy.
That was a bit over 24 hours ago. After spending the last day with both of the handsets, I am closer to a decision, but it's damn tough. My overall thoughts and struggles follow:
Motorola Atrix:
-Pros:
- Bright, higher resolution screen
- Dual Core processor (even though I thought the experience was pretty weak)
- Battery (theoretical, as I haven't had it long enough to fully experience)
- This goes to the hardware again, but this phone is quite a bit more future proof.
- The handset is light enough to not remind you it's in your pocket at every step.
- GPS (This is the most rock solid phone GPS I've ever used)
- Incredibly loud speaker
- Tons of ram
- HDMI out
-Cons:
- Cheaper build quality (I feel like I need to qualify this. The phone feels solid, but the battery door is, for lack of a better word, brittle)
- Very poor color representation on the otherwise beautiful screen.
- MotoBlur - This is just a very inelegant, unrefined overlay...
- Strange compatibility issues with certain apps
- multiple force closes
- Weak social media integration
- Odd bouts of lag when least expected
- Locked Bootloader (most don't care about this, but it matters when you have a primary developer that has a history of slow patches, feature adds, and os releases.
- Chicklet keyboard is a touch small for me and requires some focus to not miss type.
**FOLLOW-UP**
- I've removed the call quality knock from the Atrix device. It turns out it was entirely my own fault, and while some people, including Motorola, are reporting issues with sound quality on some devices, mine isn't one of them.
HTC Inspire:
-Pros:
- Excellent build quality (the aluminum uni-body is a joy to hold, and has the extra added benefit of being able to be used to fend off an attacker)
- Beautiful 4.3" screen (Yes, it is big, but I'm a fan)
- Sense (I'm not a fan of these proprietary UI's, but Sense shows that HTC can offer up an experience that is easy to like, and provide an attractive interface for a phone OS that is sometimes described as clinical looking)
- The brilliant development community (currently running CoreDroid /drool)
- Very snappy performance from the second gen Snapdragon CPU
- Tons of ram (Not as much as the Atrix, but enough to be a "ton" in my eyes)
- Lovely camera (I used to not care, but I have a new son, so suddenly a camera climbed up the ladder of important features)
- Fantastic out of the box social media integration
- Has that "Just works like it should" feel to it.
- Very clear call quality
- Second best phone gps I've used
-Cons:
- The screen washes out to a grey slab in direct sunlight
- Stock battery life is horrid
- "Electric Razor" ear screen can have some jagged edges and chafe your ear
- Battery door was a ridiculous design decision
- Very current gen hardware (doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not going to be riding this phone for the next two years, but a new day has dawned and it's name is "Multi-core")
- Stock external speaker/notification volume super weak
- odd placement of the number button on the keyboard (thanks iPhone for etching that into my brain)
- recessed power and volume buttons can be a bit tough to find.
- No internal storage (this is just ridiculous)
- Relatively weak GPU
There you have it. That's what I've come up with so far. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Inspire, as so many of those issues can be (and have been) corrected through roms. In the end, I just don't really get the warm fuzzies from the Atrix. I feel like it's a brilliant set of components tied together with a really sorry software suite, and a manufacturer that doesn't really understand the strengths of their chosen platform, or the customers that choose it.
I will continue carrying both of the devices for the next couple days, but at the moment, the winner is most definitely the Inspire in my eyes. It just feels like it's been polished to a wonderful android flavored candy shine, and with the community behind it, there's really nothing I feel the device won't be able to handle for quite some time.
**Update 1**
The inspire's build quality is top notch. The screen is perfectly alligned and allows no notable give for me. There is also no more light bleed than you expect from an lcd panel, and none to the touch. The battery cover is a pain. Its actually so well fitted that you have to break it in over multiple removals in order to confidently take it off without breaking it. The sim cover fits nicely, and doesn't pose the same pain that the battery cover does. There is a slight raised edge in the center of the sim cover that takes it just out of flush. Its nigh unnoticable. Viewing angles on the inspire's slcd are fantastic. I can see it clearly in a near complete 180 degree angle, with little to no noticable color bleed. It obviously dims as you move from dead center.
The atrix is in the same boat with build quality for the most part. The phone has a good weight, metal rails down the side, well alligned screen, and mostly tight fitting components. I do have some issues here, though. Mainly with the back cover. As noted in my initial post, its very brittle, thin plastic. If you think I broke a sweat taking the inspires battery cover off, you should have seen me trying to get the battery on the atrix. I pulled the top clip free, and almost bent the cover in half fighting the mid phone clips. Also, the back cover on my atrix doesn't line up flush on one side. The last couple issues are the "creakynesss" of the handset. When I grip the phone tightly I can feel the plastic components giving, and settling into place. Not terribly bad, but noticable. The last issue is the fingerprint scanner. It's been pointed out in some reviews, but the scanner is off center on some devices and just looks shoddily thrown together and misalligned.
The atrix beautiful qHD screen also washes out and tints yellow when viewed at extreme angles.
**Update 2**
I've been using the Atrix today as my primary carry handset, and I must say PROPS to Motorola on this battery... I've been beating on it for all I can muster and with almost two full hours of HSPA+ web surfing, Angry Birds while waiting for my food, poking around in the marketplace, and trying out apps, the phone has dropped 25% of the battery in 7 hours of heavy use. I'm pretty damn impressed with that. My focus would be on the charger right now. I'll be going through the exact same process on the Inspire tomorrow to see how everything shakes out.
**Update 3**
I've been carrying my Atrix for the last two days, and I have to admit... It's amazing... I don't mean to sound disappointed, quite the contrary, but I was coming closer to making my decision, and now I'm struggling again.
New Revelations/Findings:
- The little hitches you sometimes see in games like Angry Birds, when scrolling and pinch zooming are all gone... Like, completely gone. That goes for every game/app i've played that is relatively intensive with animation or processing. The Inspire is definitely no slouch, but the performance edge is fully in the Atrix's court.
- The external speaker of the Atrix is LEGEND-(Wait for it)-DARY! I hopped on a conference call last night and it was right on the edge of being as good as the dedicated conference speakers at my office. Really outstanding.
- The screen is also really pretty. I, once again, had to run from hospital to hospital yesterday and while outside was able to see every color, icon, and word on my screen. It made me secure in the fact that no matter where I took the device, i would be able to rely on it 100%, and it would perform as well as I could ever ask for.
I've been using the anti-glare/anti-fingerprint Case-Mate screen protectors on both of the devices since i've purchased them, and these things just destroy the fidelity of the screen. I will be getting my Realook protectors tomorrow, and will get to experience a bit more vibrance from both screens.
I'm still fairly disappointed with the color reproduction of the qHD screen. It's really in your face when you have the two devices sitting side by side. The SLCD screen of the Inspire is much more natural looking.
MotoBlur is still a disappointment, but after setting up LauncherPro Plus and getting Beautiful Widgets, and exploring LauncherPro's new facebook widget (think FriendStream). It's become nearly a non-issue. I've been using ADW as well, and it's great, but the Atrix seems to love LauncherPro, and I love LauncherPro... Guess that's a match made in Android heaven.

My experience, for most part mirrors yours. I went from the Captivate to the Inspire to the Atrix. I kept the Inspire for about a week and immediately missed the screen on the Captivate.
The Inspire's screen is definitely sharp, but I like the contrast on the captivate. The black text sharpness on the Atrix is really good and very comparable to the Inspire and both beat the pants off the Captivate.
I'd have to disagree with the build quality of the Inspire. Yes, aluminum feels solid compared to the plastic on the Atrix and does give you that solid quality feeling, but I had the same plastic alignment issues with two Inspires I went through. The plastic parts just doesn't line up evenly with the aluminum. The battery door was never a problem with me because of the gaps were plastic met aluminum. I was always able to get my finger nails in two places to pull the cover off easily and without destroying the soft touch cover.
Call quality on the Inspire's headset speaker always sounded tinny and lack the volume of the Atrix. The loudspeaker is really, really weak on the Inspire. The Atrix's loudspeaker has surprisingly good range, I hear a semblance of bass when playing media.
Security wise, the fingerprint scanner is a really good feature on the Atrix, makes me wonder why no one has done it before on a mobile phone. So much faster to unlock securely without a passcode or drawing.
The camera on the Inspire is better than the Atrix. The Inspire's pics come out with more contrast and better color. The Atrix has sharp images, but the color look a little washed out and there way more noise. Seems like Motorola wanted sharper images and turn down the noise reduction. Noise reduction is a big killer when it comes to image sharpness.

+1 just for referencing Barney Stinson.
Haha no, but really, this is a good comparison of the Inspire and the Atrix. I agree with most, if not all, of your pros and cons. I really can't help but emphasize the battery life though. I usually end up having to buy a spare battery and charger set for my smartphones, but it seems really unnecessary for the Atrix. If you're a power user, that's reason enough to pick the Atrix over the Inspire.

I agree almost 100%
I sit here with both phones still. I love the Inspire, and Gingerblur on the Atrix makes me love the Atrix.
The interwebz speed is what is forcing the Inspire as my daily driver at the moment.
I have gone through 3 atrix's already, when i have it, i want to sell it, as you can see in my signature, and when i sell it, i want one. thus #3....
I almost NEED to wait and see 4g... and this backhaul att speaks of....
And then there is the Samsung infuse/enfuse? idk... But they say when its dropped, it will most certainly have the capable speeds, as will the 2 other flagship "4g" phones.
I treat my phones with utmost care, as i usually am selling them for the new and next best thing, and want to ensure they can be purchased as a 10/10 quality. That being said, I will say the case-mate case i have on the inspire gives GREAT protection, but makes a big phone even bigger, the atrix with the bodyglove feels tiny in my hands after 2 weeks of driving the inspire... I recently sold another iphone4, and it reminded me of the atrix in my hands, not build quality, as you mentioned above, but size...
4.3 qHD would be a perfect mix for me, and I am sure is what is in store for future HTC devices... but for now, I am in the same dilemia many are.
to Inspire, or not Inspire and Atrix my way through the rough of it...
to the avg user, hdmi out is no biggie, but to the ub3r geek in me who likes to VPN home, CIFS mount shares, and stream, hdmi is a big deal....
oh woe is me.....
Today Inspire still drives me to and from.... CM7rc4 battery gets me through the day, even as an Exchange Admin with more email on touchdown then most people, including gmail push...
But that said, i come right back with the atrix could get me past a full day!
like the good old Blackberry days..
theres my 2 cents, thrown into the pot, both heads up...
~killster

I'm so sick of these threads.

Man_of_Leisure said:
I'm so sick of these threads.
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Then don't read 'em... Problem solved.

Divinedark said:
Then don't read 'em... Problem solved.
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Just like you have the right to create threads, I have the right to respond to them. If you don't like that, you want a blog, not a forum.

Man_of_Leisure said:
Just like you have the right to create threads, I have the right to respond to them. If you don't like that, you want a blog, not a forum.
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Click to collapse
You are absolutely correct. I appreciate your need to contribute completely unrelated, and pointless reflections on your own worthless personal opinion in my thread. So many others that are trying to decide between these two devices will find your additions to the subject of this thread invaluable. I truly hope that you will continue to follow that urge to spout your own polished, self-important drivel in the rest of the threads on this forum. If you don't, you will effectively be robbing us of your wisdom.
I'm sorry that I wasted your time reading my relatively well researched and thought out comparison between two close competing devices on the same carrier. From this point forward I'll be sure to continue adding to the typical device war crap like "TEH ATRIX IS A$$" and what not. That should sate your thirst for informative and entertaining topics on this forum.
Again. I'm very sorry.

Man_of_Leisure said:
Just like you have the right to create threads, I have the right to respond to them. If you don't like that, you want a blog, not a forum.
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Click to collapse
+1 I'm pretty sure there's already at least fifteen threads about Inspire vs Atrix. I thank you for taking the time to compare both and noting their strengths and weaknesses but like I said, there's already a ton of these threads and they just repeat the same opinions/info.

Clienterror said:
+1 I'm pretty sure there's already at least fifteen threads about Inspire vs Atrix. I thank you for taking the time to compare both and noting their strengths and weaknesses but like I said, there's already a ton of these threads and they just repeat the same opinions/info.
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Click to collapse
It's true that there are a lot of posts that contribute this kind of information, but this one in particular was well thought out and written, and that helps provide a better reference for those interested. I also value those posts that say good things about devices. A lot of posts tend to complain about whatever device they're talking about. It's nice to have some good things to say in order to balance out the amount of user feedback.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

Yea... the majority of threads you see with this same general topic are basically just "The Atrix BLOWS!!!! I'm going back to my Inspire" blah blah blah. He was polite enough to explain his thoughts on the phone thoroughly, and go through his overall opinion on the phone over time, showing what has changed in his mind about each phone. Can kinda think of it more as a "phone review" than a "disgruntled customer".....

There are many Inspire / Atrix threads I've read but this one is a good, unbiased, well written everyday user experience. +1 for op.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Divinedark said:
I do have some issues here, though. Mainly with the back cover. As noted in my initial post, its very brittle, thin plastic. If you think I broke a sweat taking the inspires battery cover off, you should have seen me trying to get the battery on the atrix. I pulled the top clip free, and almost bent the cover in half fighting the mid phone clips. Also, the back cover on my atrix doesn't line up flush on one side. The last couple issues are the "creakynesss" of the handset. When I grip the phone tightly I can feel the plastic components giving, and settling into place. Not terribly bad, but noticable. The last issue is the fingerprint scanner. It's been pointed out in some reviews, but the scanner is off center on some devices and just looks shoddily thrown together and misalligned.
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The battery cover design is one of the things I really like about the Atrix. It is flexible on my phone, not brittle at all. It fits well and is a breeze to get on and off -- after the first time. The first time I was also a little scared and it caught at the middle a little. Since then, it is trivial to do. Of course, it spends most of its time covered by two layers of Otterbox Commuter in my case.
I have not noticed any creakiness -- seems very solid to me. It's reinforced by the Otterbox, so I might not ever notice anyway.
My fingerprint scanner doesn't seem to work at all. I get nothing but too short a swipe messages (works for me about 1 time out of 20). I have been assuming this is due it being placed down in a little hole by the Otterbox. I'm perfectly willing to give that up to get the extra protection and reduced slipperiness. My last unprotected phone (BB 9000) only made it a year before I dropped it many times including into 2 feet of water (don't ask, I need to be drinking to talk about it).

Yea.... i had the Defender for a day or so before i returned it for that one reason. Made it a bit more tricky to use the fingerprint reader. Found that too many times when i went to swipe (almost typed Swype in there... and no, not even on my phone. haha) my finger, it would wind up getting stuck with the outer soft casing of the Defender and either stop mid-swipe or skip part of my fingertip.

fingerprint scanner works great for me; when i first got it i thought it would be a useless novelty.

Slade8525 said:
fingerprint scanner works great for me; when i first got it i thought it would be a useless novelty.
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Not saying it doesn't work great. It works phenomenally. The issue is that some cases.... or mostly the OtterBox Defender, has quite a large hole where the fingerprint scanner resides.... and part of that hole is surrounded by the soft silicon/rubber of the outer shell of the case, which can make trying to get a solid swipe across the fingerprint reader a bit of a pain.

This is a pretty good review. I too left for an inspire and couldn't be happier, but I can see why people like their Atrix. Having cm7 was the deal breaker for me but if roms aren't a big deal the Atrix might be a better fit. I also had two phones with extremely bad call quality issues but I hear that's more of an isolated thing.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

I came from the captivate...to the atrix to the inspire and back to the atrix ...the only thing I miss from the inspire is htc sense
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

slimslim said:
There are many Inspire / Atrix threads I've read but this one is a good, unbiased, well written everyday user experience. +1 for op.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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+1 great unbiased and amusing post. I was about to moan when I saw how long your post was, Divinedark but your well thought out/written comparison made me finish it without realizing it.

Well written OP. It's actually like two reviews of both phones and not just which beats which.
Thank you.

Your Note 2 Is Not Defective. [Solutions To Common Quality Issues Found On Note 2]

I'm sure many of us have gone through countless returns, replacements, and refunds, with Samsung's range of Galaxy smartphones, believing that our phones were defective as a result of absurd manufacturing anomalies and quality control problems. Though, we are not Samsung factory workers, it appears Samsung has given us some labor. Obviously spending $700+ on a phone is not little. However, according to Samsung, everything I am about to disclose is normal. To alleviate the hassle of dealing with a company that has a pretty poor track-record when it comes to quality control; I would strongly advise not to return your Note 2 to the service center or store for the following reasons,
I have listed common problems some of us have come across; along with are some Do-It-Yourself Tips and Tricks to resolve these minute problems.
Squeaky back cover?
- Ensure all sides of the back cover have clipped in properly; there should be no gaps, the fitting should be seamless
- If that doesn't resolve the squeaking, replace the back cover with a new one (cheap plastic tends to expand)
- Try not to remove and install the back cover over and over again, as that will eventually weaken the plastic clippings on the back cover
Light leaking on sides of home button?
- The home button has plagued Samsung for the past couple of years. But don't worry, your home button is not defective.
- The button is not uniformly seated properly, that explains. As a matter of fact, your home button should be flushed, not elevated above the display. To check if your button has light leakage, go into a dark room, angle your phone while the capacitive lights are on, and verify light leakage in the home button area.
- Solution: Place a piece of tape over the whole button, ensure that the tape is placed beyond the edges and sides of the home button. The tape will help keep the button seated properly and flushed, equally on both sides. Now as long as you massage and use the home button a few times a day, and remove the tape after a couple of weeks, the light will no longer protrude through the sides of the home button.
Black specks / Bezel Chrome Finish production errors?
- A lot of you may not be noticing this; only if you orient your phone at a particular angle, you may notice the chrome paint color inconsistency on the bezel (the chrome paint job was not done properly), black specks will show to some degree; now if it bothers you so much, put a case on. There is nothing you can do about it; all Note 2's have this quality control problem one way or the other.
- You don't have to worry if the metallic painting is not done properly behind the phone, as the back cover will conceal it.
Loose Volume Rocker control buttons / Power button?
- As long as you feel the button feedback and hear the button press on both volume and power keys, but feel that the buttons are loose, use a case, or massaging the buttons for a little while will help.
AMOLED Display Issues?
- Refer to the following thread, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2108073
I will update this thread if I can think any more things to look out for when buying a Note 2. If you have any suggestions share them in this thread. Hopefully, someday, this thread can have a sticky.
Hope this helps, enjoy your phone!
This thread applies to International Note 2 and U.S. Carrier Variants.

Titanium Grey color Note 2's noticeably have a minuscule gap between the bezel and glass on top.
Just like the Galaxy S3, the Ceramic White Note 2's are notable for the bleeding light around the LED indicators and touch-capacitive buttons.
------------------------------------------------------
Any additional solutions will be posted here.
Titanium Grey color Note 2's noticeably have a minuscule gap between the bezel and glass on top.
Just like the Galaxy S3, the Ceramic White Note 2's are notable for the bleeding light around the LED indicators and touch-capacitive buttons.
---
Many have spotted small gaps between the bezel and the glass of the display. I have cross-checked with over '12' Note 2 pieces across several stores, and they all have this gap in various areas, (i.e. top of the unit, bottom of the unit, and near the power / volume controls).
Secondly, although I could not find this on my T-Mobile Note 2 (I even used a magnifying glass to confirm), some of you may have noticed that the bezel is NOT 100% molded. If you inspect closely, you will notice a joint at which it appears your bezel is cracked, but is not. You might find this disappointing, but according to Samsung standards, the joint appearance is completely normal. Some joints (meeting of both sides of the bezel) will be very prominent, and some will not (in the case of mine).
Unfortunately, Samsung does not have consistent quality control with their devices, and you will definitely spot manufacturing variations, but don't be alarmed.
You should really consider these variations as consistent according to Samsung's quality control.
---
Visiting the squeaking back cover again, this sometimes also occurs when the end-user forcefully removed the back-cover by chance. Treat your Note 2 with care.
However, some back-covers are indeed cheaply Made by Samsung, and the clippings are not always made consistently; therefore, you will see different results from unit to unit.
---
An XDA user had asked me if the Grey Note 2's are most affected,
I've seen over a dozen Note 2's and 'Grey appears is most affected." However, it is difficult to confirm because very few stores have the White Note 2 on display in my area. One store did have '2' White Note 2's for demonstration pieces, and I felt they were manufactured through better quality standards than the Grey Note 2.
However, the White Note 2's do indeed have the gap on top of the unit (very noticeable), and I felt like the White units heat up quite fast compared to Grey. The home button on the White Note 2 is not that recessed (feels quite elevated) compared to the Grey Note 2. The light on the capacitive buttons on the White Note 2 bleed very noticeable compared to the Grey.

Hey! One question! Just recieved my note 2 the other day - and I've found some sort of strange thing happening on the top right of the glass of the screen. It seems like there is this really tiny gap between the screen and the body.
Its almost as the screen is just the tad bit tiny on the upper right side! Is this something I should send my phone in for?

Re: Think You You Have A Defective Note 2 Because of This? Think Again! ['Tips & Tric
Everything you've listed is a reason to return the phone.
When paying this kind of money no matter what the imperfection is , it is unacceptable.
Would you keep a car with these imperfections. NO. why? Because is more expensive?
It does not matter. This phone for me is like buying an Aston Martin and accept it with manufacturing flaws. NEVER.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

No device is perfect; unfortunately, Samsung's quality control is sub-par to Apple's; Plastic, that's all. There is no reason for you to return your phone for the above reasons, especially because you might get something worse in return.
What you are describing with the glass, is something you to show us by posting a picture.
Titanium Grey color Note 2's noticeably have a minuscule gap between the bezel and glass on top.
Just like the Galaxy S3, the Ceramic White Note 2's are notable for the bleeding light around the LED indicators and touch-capacitive buttons.
There is nothing you can do about the above. If that makes you uncomfortable, I suggest buying a different phone model from a different company like LG and Apple.
Do post pictures to show us what you are seeing.
Cheers

Re: Think You You Have A Defective Note 2 Because of This? Think Again! ['Tips & Tric
Im sorry but I dont see any solutions in your posting that will make me not want to get my phone exchanged if it suffered those defects mentioned. It is also the users responsibility and within rights to refuse a replacement device if its also defective. im paying good money for quality here, I dont expect anything less in return interms of its build quality and after sale service.
Sent from the Rabbit Hole

You probably won't realize this, but almost all Samsung devices, particularly, the Note 2 have at least one of the above mentioned quality issues. Samsung's quality control has been and will always be questionable. Not enough people complain to Samsung to get these problems resolved. Chances are, you will realize the above mentioned quality issues along the way with the current device you are holding. The above mentioned problems have all been asked and discussed on this forum before; I consolidated all of these problems into one thread with solutions, to help others stick to their current Note 2's. Chances are, you might get something worse in return. Therefore, enjoy what you have; eventually, you will be transitioning onto some other phone in the near future. Cheers. :good:
bushako said:
Im sorry but I dont see any solutions in your posting that will make me not want to get my phone exchanged if it suffered those defects mentioned. It is also the users responsibility and within rights to refuse a replacement device if its also defective. im paying good money for quality here, I dont expect anything less in return interms of its build quality and after sale service.
Sent from the Rabbit Hole
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Funny observation about the Note 2 bezel is that Apple fan-boys will probably think Samsung copied Apple with its bezel chrome-finish quality control paint issue (that too on a black / titanium grey model, similar to Apple's Black model), lol. Apple says, their iPhone 5 paint issue is normal; Samsung probably considers it the same. That's why I listed a solution in my 1st post, - Cheers.

Re: Think You You Have A Defective Note 2 Because of This? Think Again! ['Tips & Tric
winlinmac001 said:
You probably won't realize this, but almost all Samsung devices, particularly, the Note 2 have at least one of the above mentioned quality issues. Samsung's quality control has been and will always be questionable. Not enough people complain to Samsung to get these problems resolved. Chances are, you will realize the above mentioned quality issues along the way with the current device you are holding. The above mentioned problems have all been asked and discussed on this forum before; I consolidated all of these problems into one thread with solutions, to help others stick to their current Note 2's. Chances are, you might get something worse in return. Therefore, enjoy what you have; eventually, you will be transitioning onto some other phone in the near future. Cheers. :good:
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I must be one lucky son of a gun then other than a tiny gap between the bezel and the screen, which was caused by a drop, I dont have any of those defects. I dont know if its a defect but I notice the phone is easy to flex and creaks but thats probably because of all that plastic.
Sent from the Rabbit Hole

You must be then, take good care of your Note 2. Plastic can find its way, if you know what I mean. I'm on my 3rd Note 2; has better build quality, thus far, I have no creaking what-so-ever, :good: The first Note 2 I had didn't have the light seeping between the home-button, but creaking was considerably there. However, most of the Units I have seen do have creaking and some light seeping through the home button. I have to say, though, the solutions I listed indeed work to rectify most of the problems most Note 2 owners eventually come across. Replacing the back-cover 'should' free away the creaking.
bushako said:
I must be one lucky son of a gun then other than a tiny gap between the bezel and the screen, which was caused by a drop, I dont have any of those defects. I dont know if its a defect but I notice the phone is easy to flex and creaks but thats probably because of all that plastic.
Sent from the Rabbit Hole
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Click to collapse

Re: Think You You Have A Defective Note 2 Because of This? Think Again! ['Tips & Tric
winlinmac001 said:
You must be then, take good care of your Note 2. Plastic can find its way, if you know what I mean. I'm on my 3rd Note 2; has better build quality, thus far, I have no creaking what-so-ever, :good: The first Note 2 I had didn't have the light seeping between the home-button, but creaking was considerably there. However, most of the Units I have seen do have creaking and some light seeping through the home button. I have to say, though, the solutions I listed indeed work to rectify most of the problems most Note 2 owners eventually come across. Replacing the back-cover 'should' free away the creaking.
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As for the back cover...I took off the back cover, tried and it still creaks. It must be from the housing frame. Checked my friends Tab 10.1 and its even worse. I think with the combo of size and plastic makes it bound to flex easily. Either way it doesnt really annoy me much. But I sure hope Sammy steps up its game with build quality in future releases in comparison to HTC and Sony.
Sent from the Rabbit Hole

I have none of the issues above aside from a slight screen uniformity issue seen on grey colors, everything else is great. Wish they would really up the quality control on the next generation screens.. at least is its miles better this time compared to the Galaxy S2 and Note 1.

I don't have any uniformity issues; something I remember EarlZ pointing out earlier on the N7000 forums last year. However, every Note 2 owner suffers from the Mura Effect, which varies from screen to screen. I just hope Samsung works on quality control on their future products or else they could be facing hurdles along the way.

winlinmac001 said:
You must be then, take good care of your Note 2. Plastic can find its way, if you know what I mean. I'm on my 3rd Note 2; has better build quality, thus far, I have no creaking what-so-ever, :good: The first Note 2 I had didn't have the light seeping between the home-button, but creaking was considerably there. However, most of the Units I have seen do have creaking and some light seeping through the home button. I have to say, though, the solutions I listed indeed work to rectify most of the problems most Note 2 owners eventually come across. Replacing the back-cover 'should' free away the creaking.
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Click to collapse
Winlinmac I appreciate your attempt in helping us coupe with the defects on our Note 2 phones but my first question to you would be how much are you getting paid to write this? I am now on my 5th device. The first device was returned due to a failed volume rocker button. I had it in a Otterbox case and used it lightly. After few days the (lower) volume button fell in and was unusable. The second device I received arrived with a very noticeable dent on bezel and no it was not one of those discolorations you are talking about. It looked like someone had dropped it on the floor at the factory. I refused the return of the third device as the right corner of the plastic bezel looked like it was glued together and looked like it was not sanded/cut but rather painted over with plastic molding still sticking out it!.. The fourth device had a power button failure after few days of light use. It took me more than 5 attempts to turn the screen off at random times and no it’s not a software issue as the same issue occurred in Safe Mode. The sales rep confirmed the defect and exchanged the device. The fifth device I got is in a much better shape than the previous four; however, the "black" area around the LCD for some odd reason is wider on one side than the other. My wife also has the same phone and her Note 2 is also suffering from the bezel defects. I have lost tons of valuable time re-configuring and moving data on to my replacement phones not to mention pay for gas driving to exchange my devices. You know Winlinmac you were right about one thing when you said not to go exchange our devices and that is because we will get something worse in return. What are the chances that one will exchange 5 phones (6 if we count my wife's) and have defects on all of the devices? I wish I was the only one experiencing this but I am not. That should tell you something about Samsung's quality control. So far, the comeback from people like yourself was that customers are expecting simply too much when it comes to quality, have OCD etc...What do you expect for shelling $700? If you are content with your defective device then I am happy for you. That should tell us a bit about your quality standards. I paid full retail price for my devices and expect a quality product from a large, reputable company like Samsung. I would change the title of your original post to say "Think You You Have A Defective Note 2 Because of This? Exchange it now!!!!" We need more customers to voice their concerns about these quality issues and take this to the media if Samsung will not listen (I am sure Apple will not mind picking up on the story). It is posts like yours that encourage people to stay content with their defective devices and letting companies like Samsung get off the hook. This results in defective devices being released with each generation of phones.

I understand what you are saying. I'm on my 3rd Note 2, and the Quality Control does indeed greatly differ. Unfortunately, Samsung is not Apple, and will never be when it comes to acknowledging it's own problems. The only way to voice your concern is to e-mail the CEO or prepare a Class Action Lawsuit. Unfortunately, many of us on XDA are not really that inclined to endorse such a thing since XDA is mainly a development forum; most of XDA's members, including me (frankly), change our phones every year, because that's how technology is revolving around us nowadays. I've had a Galaxy S, S2, & Note 1, in the past, and all ended up back to the store for full refunds only because of Samsung's Quality Control.
Now, when it comes to the Note 2, i really gave it a positive thought, and found solutions, to make my decision and transition easier to cope with. Whatever you described, I have come across as well. Samsung will learn some-day.
Now, I am only hopeful that I enjoy this phone for the remainder of this year.
brusyev said:
Winlinmac I appreciate your attempt in helping us coupe with the defects on our Note 2 phones but my first question to you would be how much are you getting paid to write this? I am now on my 5th device. The first device was returned due to a failed volume rocker button. I had it in a Otterbox case and used it lightly. After few days the (lower) volume button fell in and was unusable. The second device I received arrived with a very noticeable dent on bezel and no it was not one of those discolorations you are talking about. It looked like someone had dropped it on the floor at the factory. I refused the return of the third device as the right corner of the plastic bezel looked like it was glued together and looked like it was not sanded/cut but rather painted over with plastic molding still sticking out it!.. The fourth device had a power button failure after few days of light use. It took me more than 5 attempts to turn the screen off at random times and no it’s not a software issue as the same issue occurred in Safe Mode. The sales rep confirmed the defect and exchanged the device. The fifth device I got is in a much better shape than the previous four; however, the "black" area around the LCD for some odd reason is wider on one side than the other. My wife also has the same phone and her Note 2 is also suffering from the bezel defects. I have lost tons of valuable time re-configuring and moving data on to my replacement phones not to mention pay for gas driving to exchange my devices. You know Winlinmac you were right about one thing when you said not to go exchange our devices and that is because we will get something worse in return. What are the chances that one will exchange 5 phones (6 if we count my wife's) and have defects on all of the devices? I wish I was the only one experiencing this but I am not. That should tell you something about Samsung's quality control. So far, the comeback from people like yourself was that customers are expecting simply too much when it comes to quality, have OCD etc...What do you expect for shelling $700? If you are content with your defective device then I am happy for you. That should tell us a bit about your quality standards. I paid full retail price for my devices and expect a quality product from a large, reputable company like Samsung. I would change the title of your original post to say "Think You You Have A Defective Note 2 Because of This? Exchange it now!!!!" We need more customers to voice their concerns about these quality issues and take this to the media if Samsung will not listen (I am sure Apple will not mind picking up on the story). It is posts like yours that encourage people to stay content with their defective devices and letting companies like Samsung get off the hook. This results in defective devices being released with each generation of phones.
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Updated Post # 2

I wanted to also mention, that I did come across one dummy unit today (Grey), and was surprised to see the same chrome-finish problems like the actual units. If you angle the bezel a bit, you will see the chrome finish vary a bit in different areas as a result of variations in the paint-finish.
You can scratch the bezel and paint will chip off, quite easily (Similar to Apple's iPhone 5 aluminum coating). However, keep in mind, the material used on the Note 2's bezel is different to some degree.

winlinmac001 said:
I wanted to also mention, that I did come across one dummy unit today (Grey), and was surprised to see the same chrome-finish problems like the actual units. If you angle the bezel a bit, you will see the chrome finish vary a bit in different areas as a result of variations in the paint-finish.
You can scratch the bezel and paint will chip off, quite easily (Similar to Apple's iPhone 5 aluminum coating). However, keep in mind, the material used on the Note 2's bezel is different to some degree.
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I know what you mean. On one of the phones I had, the silver finish was partially coming off. It's hard to explain but it looked like the coating was too thick on one side and didn't stick on the other, it could be easily scratched off with a nail.. I didn't want to take any chances with it since I was exchanging that unit. The truth is that majority of Note 2 phones have some sort of defect on them, some more than others and it just depends on the customers quality standards. You can tell my standards are pretty high, but you do not need to have a 20/20 vision to notice these defects. As I said earlier, if you feel that a phone with defects is worth $700 or more dollar's than it's your thing. I owned HTC N1 in the past and the quality of that device was much superior to Note 2. It's a shame that Samsung feels that it's customers should accept things as they are and continues the "defective" phone trend. I am still thinking whether I should keep my current (5th device) which has uneven black area around the LCD screen and has started lagging a times. This is something that even the case cannot cover. I have this week to make that decision as my 30 days will be up. I may just give up on Samsung completely but not without a fight. Writing a letter to the CEO...I wish there was a survey done on just how happy the customers are with Samsung's quality standards....Why not rename the this thread to something like "Your Note 2 is Defective? [Solutions To Common Quality Issues Found On Note 2]? I feel that the name of this thread is misleading....
---------- Post added at 02:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 AM ----------
winlinmac001 said:
I understand what you are saying. I'm on my 3rd Note 2, and the Quality Control does indeed greatly differ. Unfortunately, Samsung is not Apple, and will never be when it comes to acknowledging it's own problems. The only way to voice your concern is to e-mail the CEO or prepare a Class Action Lawsuit. Unfortunately, many of us on XDA are not really that inclined to endorse such a thing since XDA is mainly a development forum; most of XDA's members, including me (frankly), change our phones every year, because that's how technology is revolving around us nowadays. I've had a Galaxy S, S2, & Note 1, in the past, and all ended up back to the store for full refunds only because of Samsung's Quality Control.
Now, when it comes to the Note 2, i really gave it a positive thought, and found solutions, to make my decision and transition easier to cope with. Whatever you described, I have come across as well. Samsung will learn some-day.
Now, I am only hopeful that I enjoy this phone for the remainder of this year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope for the same... My 30 days are almost up and I am trying to make a decision to take a refund or simply keep it...exchanging for another phone seems like a foolish idea as my next one may be in a worse shape... the sad truth is that there is nothing better on the market than Note 2 and I really like this phone....if not for the defects. Unlike you and many others, I like to keep my devices for two or three years before upgrading...I guess this is why I feel that this is a big thing for me....staring at a defective phone for the next several years if you know what I mean....

winlinmac001 said:
I don't have any uniformity issues; something I remember EarlZ pointing out earlier on the N7000 forums last year. However, every Note 2 owner suffers from the Mura Effect, which varies from screen to screen. I just hope Samsung works on quality control on their future products or else they could be facing hurdles along the way.
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By mura effect if you mean those lines/blotches seen on dark/black colors, I have none.
I wanted to exchange my unit but I considered that I might get a unit with far worse problem, I rarely see the uniformity issue on greys its usually visible only when i press the menu button on the home screen. I'll probably have my display replaced at around 9 months from now. Really pleased with the display so far as compared to my previous devices.

Even if you don't have the lines / blotches, the Mura still exists, you just can't distinguish them as they are in the form of stains this time (takes up most of the display; explains why blacks are blacker in a dark setting compared to the S2 and Note 1); these panels are not embedded with the technology from Ignis Innovation.

How many Defy of yours have lost waterproofness?

Hi, fella forumers! I'm just wondering: how many of your Defy have lost (or still retain) its waterproofness up to now?
Mine has lost this quality about half a year ago. At first I noticed that there were vapours gathering inside the screen, which would go away if I opened the back lid for a while. But once the micro-USB port totally stoppoed functioning that I wasn't able to charge the battery, so I have to got it repaired. I was told that circuit board has water stains which caused the malfunctioning...
It's actually my seconf Defy, which was bought in Oct. 2011, after I've forgotten my first Defy in taxi... I was pretty satified with Defy at that moment and really value its waterproofness, so I didn't hesitate to buy a second one while there were already a lot of more advanced (but not waterproofing) smart phones on the market. Therefore, its waterproofness just lasted for roughly two years, which is much shorter than I had expected. I thought for at least five years it would be as new as just rolling out of the assembling line every time I washed it under tap water - but it turned out to be not the truth, sadly.
Well, I have to admit that I did wash my Defy regularly - in fact almost everyday, because - well, 'scientists' say that computer keyboards and mobile phones (previously it was traditional telephone) collect more germs, etc. that toilets. So eveytime I was back home, I just put it under the tap water, briefly let the currents to go through it. It shouldn't hurt, right?
Right now my Defy is completely 'hydrophobic'. I no longer dip it in water. I guess I will continue to use it for a year or two. Still, the fact is not up to my high expectation.
So, I would like to see if this is my own unfortune or a normal phenomenon. It's quite critial to know the result because if I do change my mobile phone, I would definitely choose a waterproofing one still. But now my confidence for such phones has been significantly weakened. If new phones repeat this fate after just a couple of years, I don't think it's really meaningful to pay more money for this not-long-lasting porperty.
Maybe the manufacturing technoligy has already advanced - phones nowadays are tougher than their predecessors?

Well, mine is about 8 months old (yes, I could've bought a newer device but thats a different story). In my time of using this phone, I would only say its water resistant and not exactly waterproof. Sometimes when I dip it in water (either to clean it after a busy day outdoors or when friends want to test it), i realize that some traces of tiny droplets do make it inside (looks like vapor sometimes). But it does not enter the battery area. This is probably due to the rubber lining. It still worries me as these traces of tiny droplets did somewhat enter.
I would suggest cleaning it with a wet cloth instead. Treat the waterproofing like it is an emergency feature...just in case
If and when you want to switch phones and still want waterproof, I'd say look at Sony. If you need removable battery, the Xperia ZR looks promising and if you don't mind not being able to access the battery, their other models are alright too. For me personally, battery life is important.
R u using any custom ROM?

My defy is waterproof to a great extent, but steam does enter, and sometimes condenses on the inside of the screen, and the camera lens. But under running water/rain no water enters. I once kept it in a bucket of water for some time, and a few drops made it to the edge, or maybe they came from the cover itself. So, it's good enough for me
Sent from my MB526 using Tapatalk 4

Mine lost 6 months back. the rubber round usb port got deteriorated and then came off. Now i cant cover usb port with the lid. cant find it selling anywhere either.

coldfusionhybrid said:
Well, mine is about 8 months old (yes, I could've bought a newer device but thats a different story). In my time of using this phone, I would only say its water resistant and not exactly waterproof. Sometimes when I dip it in water (either to clean it after a busy day outdoors or when friends want to test it), i realize that some traces of tiny droplets do make it inside (looks like vapor sometimes). But it does not enter the battery area. This is probably due to the rubber lining. It still worries me as these traces of tiny droplets did somewhat enter.
I would suggest cleaning it with a wet cloth instead. Treat the waterproofing like it is an emergency feature...just in case
If and when you want to switch phones and still want waterproof, I'd say look at Sony. If you need removable battery, the Xperia ZR looks promising and if you don't mind not being able to access the battery, their other models are alright too. For me personally, battery life is important.
R u using any custom ROM?
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Yes, I've been flashing Quarx's roms.
I agree with you that Sony's Xpreia might be a good candidate, but it's only IP57 or IP55, right? So the grade is even lower than our Defy.
In fact it seems that nowadays at the market there are only two major series of waterproof smart phones: Sony's Xperia and Samsung's Galaxy S4 Active. Some sources mentioned that the latter is not that water-resistent. Of course there are other tougher phones which are heavily-armoured, but there are twice thicker and heavier - real bricks. Some have suggested that Lenovo's S750 is the next Defy, but as far as I can see, the technology used for waterproofness is the same of Defy's. Naturally I doubt if it will last longer than Defy.
IMHO, I think, at least in my case, the water enters into my Defy mainly through the back battery lid. It's made of a piece of platics that bends after year's using, so there comes the gap between the rubber band. Also, as vai0 has mentioned, the USB lid is vulnerable for the same reason. There's no conern for the headset jack, because it's totally made of rubber.
Anyway, I wish factories like Samsung and Lenovo will not follow Motorola and just make only one shot for good, but will keep designing new tough phones to the market.
By the way, I don't think phones like Moto X applied with nano-coating does not make too much sense, since the phone's still not watertight after all.

ymyzhifeng said:
Yes, I've been flashing Quarx's roms.
I agree with you that Sony's Xpreia might be a good candidate, but it's only IP57 or IP55, right? So the grade is even lower than our Defy.
In fact it seems that nowadays at the market there are only two major series of waterproof smart phones: Sony's Xperia and Samsung's Galaxy S4 Active. Some sources mentioned that the latter is not that water-resistent. Of course there are other tougher phones which are heavily-armoured, but there are twice thicker and heavier - real bricks. Some have suggested that Lenovo's S750 is the next Defy, but as far as I can see, the technology used for waterproofness is the same of Defy's. Naturally I doubt if it will last longer than Defy.
IMHO, I think, at least in my case, the water enters into my Defy mainly through the back battery lid. It's made of a piece of platics that bends after year's using, so there comes the gap between the rubber band. Also, as vai0 has mentioned, the USB lid is vulnerable for the same reason. There's no conern for the headset jack, because it's totally made of rubber.
Anyway, I wish factories like Samsung and Lenovo will not follow Motorola and just make only one shot for good, but will keep designing new tough phones to the market.
By the way, I don't think phones like Moto X applied with nano-coating does not make too much sense, since the phone's still not watertight after all.
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The Sony may be ip55/57 but its good enough from what I've read. As for Samsung, I didn't suggest it because I don't like how they design things. Its appalling and I feel as if its insulting the consumer with their designs and material finish. Unfortunately, Samsung is one of the very few manufacturers that constantly deliver on 2 other important things (to me); removable battery and expandable storage. Still won't buy from them. But hey, thats just me. As for Lenovo, I have not tried it yet. Personally, I'm looking at the Xperia ZR at the moment if i choose to change (will still keep my Defy+ as secondary if i change ). A review in case you're interested too
Yeah, nano-coating isn't really water-proofing. I find it more like a water resistant protection. Sometimes there are phone models that become popular to the point that accessory makers produce cases that offer some sort of protection against water/dust. Thats something you can look at as well (with caution of course)

Defy is not water proof, it is water resistant. I did never wash it or put it into water and it is still in good condition (bought 06/2011), now with Android 4.4.
I'm replacing it with an XCover2 (IP67 certified) and also there the manual warns to immerse it in water although it has an underwater camera.

Thoughts on Z3 after a couple months of use

This is the most expensive phone I ever bought and I'm pretty satisfied with it, and also the one I have the least amount of gripes with, but it's not perfect unfortunately. My previous phone was the Galaxy S4 which I absolutely loathed from day one (made me wish I never exchanged my Xperia S for it), and the Z3 was a huge jump in quality compared to it.
Things I like a lot about the phone:
Stereo speakers sound pretty good (and by that I mean you can actually listen to it without wanting to tear your ears off), I actually like to listen to stuff using them, on the S4 and XperiaS the sound quality from speakers was unbearable.
Screen is nice, compared to S4 it's a bit less saturated but it seems much more neutral and accurate, white is actually white and not yellowish like on the S4, but black depth is obviously not absolute, but still pretty good. I think I prefer this screen to the AMOLED on S4 and AMOLEDs in general.
The phone is extremely fast and smooth, I'm a smoothness freak and I couldn't stand how laggy the S4 was.
The waterproofing is nice to have, makes you worry a little less about rain and water spills when using the phone near the shower or stuff like that.
Battery life is great, it lasts 3x what my S4 used to last. I still can't get a full day when I do extra heavy usage with hours of google maps.
Camera is pretty good, I don't know why everyone complains about it, it's not the best on the market but it's still in the top 3 best phone cameras available from waht I can tell. I'm more interested in videos on a phone since I have a decent compact camera, and I think the Z3 makes the best videos.
The phone does not overheat, the S4 was often worryingly hot and it also suffered from CPU throttling that basically cut performance in half.
Things I don't like about the phone:
I had a dead pixel on the first one I bought, brought it back and got it replaced, I examined the replacement for dead pixels and couldn't find any, too bad 2 weeks later I noticed a dead green subpixel but it was too late to exchange it (as it isn't covered by the store's warranty, previous one was replaced under customer satisfaction program). I absolutely hate dead pixels but this one is near the bottom and harder to notice.
The device seems extremely fragile and I am getting paranoid after reading a ton of reports from people who had bent phones, cracked glass, failed waterproofing, and all sorts of other breakage. Right now I have one micro scratch on the front glass that I have no idea how it happened, but it's extremely faint and only viewable in a certain angle, at which the touch grid also becomes visible so it's not really a big deal. Other than that I also found a minor scratch on the power button that is noticeable if you look at it closely.
I don't like the new Lollipop firmware, the colors are especially crappy and there doesn't seem to be any way to customize them properly. I'd like to have dark blue accents but there's no way to do so, and even if I select the blue theme, many accents are orange and I don't like it. I still think the Sony interface was at its best on the XperiaS and the original Z.
The SCR24 cover is absolutely worthless. I really can't find any positive qualities in it other than the fact that it saves the back glass from scratches. A cheap ass cover with cheap glitchy software. Except it costs 40€.
Stock keyboard is very nice and fast but I keep running into a glitch while typing in chrome where the stuff I delete using the backspace key keeps coming back. Another glitch that ruins my workflow is the email app which no longer autocompletes addresses in Lollipop and drives me nuts. Hopefully they'll fix these issues.
It happened twice already, out of nowhere I found my phone pretty much unusable as apps kept crashing all over the place (mostly com.android.phone, "enterprise service" and google play service) and I had to reboot. It happened once on Kitkat and once on Lollipop. On Lollipop I also had a random reboot. Did a factory reset and everything seems fine, but I wonder why these android phones keep having issues after OS updates until you factory reset. I had similar issues with the S4, except much worse (something like 3 reboots per day).
Lollipop multiuser mode is worthless, since gues users can also mess up your phone and access the SD card. There should be a way to limit usage only to certain apps, disable installing of apps, and stuff like that. I miss the baby mode from the S4, which came in handy when I wanted to let my little sis or someone try out my phone without having to worry about them accessing stuff I don't want them to.
Another thing I miss from the S4 is dual app multitasking, it was very limited and slowed the already laggy phone to a crawl, but it was great to play youtube in the background or use WhatsApp while doing something else at the same time. SmallApps are nowhere near as useful.
Soft Keys are awful and they make the screen feel smaller than the one on S4. This is noticeable only in some apps, for example Chrome or certain games that are not optimized to hide soft keys.
Overall I'm satisfied with it but I have major worries the phone will break and sometimes I dust off my S4 when I do something risky such as rollerblading, I can already imagine my Z3 shattering as soon as I fall once (which happens very rarely but is obviously still a risk). Not sure it was worth 565€ but so far it has worked better than any other phone I ever had. The dead pixel is also a cause of minor buyer's remorse every time I notice it.

I'd agree with most of that.
I bought a Ringke Fusion case from Amazon for mine, as the phone is obviously made of the worlds slippiest material! I got a clear one, as I like showing off the copper colour of my Z3. I think the phone may be tougher that it looks. I've dropped mine on a tiled floor, and had it slip off a bathroom shelf into an empty porcelain sink without any damage whatsoever.
I also bought a 9H tempered glass screen protector. Best buy ever. I always thought they were an unnecessary luxury, but it makes the screen a pleasure to touch when compared to a "normal" screen protector. Cuts down on fingerprints too.
I'd invest in a magnetic dock too. Saves wear and tear on the flap for the micro USB, which if it's anything like my original Z, will work loose after a few months.
The couple of things I'd add would be that the camera shutter is too close to the end of the phone, and that the lens itself is too far into the top corner. I keep putting my finger over the lens when I hold it landscape!

warface said:
I'd agree with most of that.
<snip>
I'd invest in a magnetic dock too. Saves wear and tear on the flap for the micro USB, which if it's anything like my original Z, will work loose after a few months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regards the mentioned flaps, XZ and X3, what are your thoughts on it after some time on them compared with the XZ? Are they designed better and more robust? I've replaced an XZ one before, but it failed already unbeknown to me and it got wet and is dead now. So I'm in the market for a phone...

[Opinion] Why so many complaints?

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the G5 is catching a lot crap for almost no reason at all... I've had mine for 1 week now, and no major issues to speak of. It functions as it should, build quality is nearly perfect, and it just works... As the title states, this is all my opinion, so let me break some things down...
Screen bleed: This is bound to happen with most all LCD devices. Even your LCD television will have this issue if the room and screen are dark enough. Some of you that have posted pictures do in fact have a relevant reason for return as it is pretty bad. But also, some of you are just being entirely too picky.
AUX audio noise: This device is native 24bit lossless at 192kHz... MOST of the "cheap" aux cables you buy at the store just don't have the quality wiring inside that you need for this device, and will give you the audio hiss. You're gonna want something that is Audiophile grade (this just simply means high quality), with a thicker wire, better connectors, etc. The basic run of the mill cables just aren't gonna cut it with this device. I ended up going with THIS cable, and my hiss went away. (Your results may vary)
The chin gap: This is directly related to how the battery clips in. The connectors inside the phone are spring loaded and very slightly push back against the battery. On top of that, they are there are two parts that are simply being "snapped" together, so there is bound to be a gap. Again, I too have this "issue" on my phone, but it is so minor that it doesn't really matter. (It's also completely hidden by my case now too) I wouldn't say this is a lack of QC, but rather just certain individuals wanting perfection from a non-perfect world. It's just not gonna happen. An idea for LG, may be to put 2 very small rare earth magnets on either end of the chin module to help combat the spring push from inside the phone?
The clicky power button: Really people? It's a click style power button to begin with. While I will agree the button cap (the part we actually see) could be a bit better than what it is, why is this even a quality complaint? Those of you that are shaking your phone in a silent room and "hearing" the button move are probably mistaken. While the button does have minuscule movement to it, what you are actually hearing is the OIS sensor moving. It's supposed to if you shake the phone.
TL;DR: Complaints are fine if they are legitimate. But most of these are not. It's nothing more than a case of people being far too finicky over the build of a launch device. One can ALWAYS expect to run into SOMETHING they don't like about a first launch device, but should not haze the device to the point of making it potentially fail. If you want things fixed, yes report them, but also look into solutions. Don't haze the product to the point that it scares others away from an otherwise beautifully designed and wonderful product.
Your opinions are always welcome, so let's keep this thread mature if you post. And thank you for reading mine.

tribalartgod said:
Those of you that are shaking your phone in a silent room and "hearing" the button move are probably mistaken. While the button does have minuscule movement to it, what you are actually hearing is the OIS sensor moving. It's supposed to if you shake the phone..
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I have to nitpick here (sorry!). If you lightly hold the button still as you shake the device, there is no noticeable sound. Yet there is certainly a sound from the shaken button and although I am not too familiar with the OIS sensor (I think it has something to do with correcting shaky hands like mine ruining photos?), I am quite sure it is not located in the power button.
However, I cannot yet say I have any complaints about the phone. The button does not actually bother me at all, nor do any of the other complaints I have read here or otherwise. I really think the G5 is an exceptional, well crafted device and I love it! :good:

Had mine for a few days now and I have none of these so called issues. I'm getting really bored of all the comments in the g5 forum, no other forum on this site has to deal with all these comparisons. I don't understand why people that don't even have the phone come here on a daily basis, you prefer the s7 then go, if your holding out for etc m10 then leave. I personally love mine. The only issue I have with this phone at the moment is this forum, you come here for help and all you get it BS.

I'm not sure what the deal is either. The media seems to be running with the "this phone is a mess" story for whatever reason. Could the phone use some more refinement? Can they fix some manufacturing and QC issues? Sure, but it seems they're throwing out a really great combination of hardware and features for no good reason that I can determine. Perhaps the preview models were noticeably worse than production? It's also seems to be random things... Nexus 6P has large sensor bar on back, gloss over it. LG G5 has large sensor bar on back, "goodness the design is terrible". It's just weird. I'm also of the opinion that the rough chamfer is intentional for grip, not a QC issue. Would be interesting to hear LG"s take on that just like their explanation of the microdized finish which allowed them to get rid of the antenna bars. People keep using terms like half baked or not thought out but when you hear from the design team it sounds like that isn't close to being the truth. I can get why some folks might not agree with their choices but I'm not sure about the overall panning that seems to be going on. They're using their own patented aluminum for the phone for goodness' sake, who else is developing their own proprietary materials? I dunno, I guess I'm just in the minority on this one for whatever reason.

mrenzo said:
Had mine for a few days now and I have none of these so called issues. I'm getting really bored of all the comments in the g5 forum, no other forum on this site has to deal with all these comparisons. I don't understand why people that don't even have the phone come here on a daily basis, you prefer the s7 then go, if your holding out for etc m10 then leave. I personally love mine. The only issue I have with this phone at the moment is this forum, you come here for help and all you get it BS.
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Right? You'd think you were on xda-fashionistas with all the whining about how the phone looks/feels compared to x, y, or z. I thought this forum was supposed to be about development and had a technical lean, but it seems like more than half the people here are either trying to start arguments about why they prefer the S7 or complaining about how their 9th trade-in phone has a sub-millimeter gap with the removable module.
Note: This is not an invitation for someone to come in and defend themselves about why they're upset about the primer/paint or the unnoticeable screen bleed. I bought a hand-held computer, not a purse. I came to this forum to talk about the phone functionality, not listen to people tell me that the phone I bought is inferior because of something that has nothing to do with how the phone functions.

bhyurf said:
Note: This is not an invitation for someone to come in and defend themselves about why they're upset about the primer/paint or the unnoticeable screen bleed. I bought a hand-held computer, not a purse. I came to this forum to talk about the phone functionality, not listen to people tell me that the phone I bought is inferior because of something that has nothing to do with how the phone functions.
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Couldn't agree more.

toefurkey said:
I have to nitpick here (sorry!). If you lightly hold the button still as you shake the device, there is no noticeable sound. Yet there is certainly a sound from the shaken button and although I am not too familiar with the OIS sensor (I think it has something to do with correcting shaky hands like mine ruining photos?), I am quite sure it is not located in the power button.
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Sorry to double post... But yes, you are correct. Just tested this on mine. I still have to say tho... It's not as big a deal as many are making it out to be.

I just got my pink G5 yesterday, was at the shop and been through 3 units, first one had the silver line missing underneath the release hatch or scratched off, unit 2 soft white color burn on the screen when all color showing using a test app, on the unit 3, found a small dint just right at the edge between the main unit and battery adapter, but kept it, and didn't care about it as it isn't really noticable unless you really look close, it also has the light bleed when I checked this in a dark room, I have 14 days to return it, if i decide to, but yeh they all have minor problem, this isn't just LG, and i'm very picky but decide to keep the 3rd unit, it's solid built, works well and I really like it.
If people are have problems with their unit and can't accept it, exchange it or get a different phone, no one is forcing you to keep it.

I haven't had the gap issue and just went into the bathroom, no light bleed. Maybe there is a QC problem and I got a solid one? I'm not complaining. I know I'll have the monthly security update in six months while S7 people are still on June.

I'm surprised that the complain threads are allowed to go on. It not only hurts the site,it hurts the company that made the phones. I think some of the writers that review these phones are abusing their power and becoming a bit reckless.
EDIT
Ive also noticed that a lot of complaints are coming from people with 20 post or less

same here, this phone is dope. had the g2 then the g4 now this and havent really been disappointed with any of them. got used to ux 5 pretty quick. not in any rush to root stock feels so smooth once set up. ability to disable the bloat apps is cool. wide angle camera is super cool and the fingerprint scanner is actually really fast idk why people keep mentioning it being slow in reviews.

The clicky power button is annoying, but i'm trying not to use it. The chin gap worries me when it comes to water. Mainly though, people are just too picky.

Jonathan-H said:
The clicky power button is annoying, but i'm trying not to use it. The chin gap worries me when it comes to water. Mainly though, people are just too picky.
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A bit of rain or a splash here and there probably won't be a concern, even with the design of this phone. There's a video out of someone putting it in a sink full of water for 2 minutes and it survives just fine. I would not advise taking it in the shower or pool tho.

I for one love my G5. Started with the G2, fell in love with the rear buttons, migrated briefly to the Nexus 5X (couldn't live without Knock features and rear buttons), and now to the G5.
The G5 is really an evolution of the Nexus 5X, they are almost identical in physical size, except the fingerprint scanner is a smaller diameter, which is the cause of the semi-flakiness. It's too easy to just mash your finger across the sensor and miss the portion that got 'enrolled'. This can be addressed by enrolling your finger multiple times to get a larger portion of your finger tip, I've also found that my phone case helps guide just the tip of your finger to the scanner which greatly increases reliability!
It seems the G5 has been held to a different review standard than other devices due to its modularity. Instead of reviewing the G5 on its own merits plus cool potential for modules, it has been mostly reviewed on the merits of its lack luster existing modules and the weak stock launcher missing an app drawer. If I reviewed a new laptop I wouldn't judge it based on the available accessories, that would be ridiculous! The device reviews should stand on their own, anything else is just a cherry on top.
I don't see anyone mentioning the great call quality, the fantastic signal strength, and hardly any mention of the IR blaster! That thing is so useful - you can change TV channels at the gym, in hospitals, or on your couch if you can't reach the remote. Plus we have USB-C, I can't tell you how great a reversible connector is - no more fumbling at night trying to plug in, got used to this on the NX5 and won't go back.
Here are the main gripes summarized so we can see how ridiculously picky these are -
Light bleed (I would never have even known if I hadn't downloaded a specific app to test this!)
Finger print scanner flaky (see above, this is a non-issue)
Build quality issues (no doubt these do exist in some form or another on every device! my phone is fine)
Missing app drawer (use a 3rd party launcher or Home 4.0 from smart world)
Aesthetic (do you use a case?)
By the way, if you boost the DPI of your screen through ADB the usage experience gets much better! Mine is set to 540.

I think people have been too hard on this phone too, honestly. I just got it today and am pleased I have no chin gap, screen bleed, ECT.
Coming from the "Lagaxy S6" that I got on release because they promised me that the battery and performance would be the best thing since Jesus walked the earth was an absolute lie. I have never owned a phone with more horrible screen on and stand by time in my entire life. It was smooth for the first couple weeks and the usual lag came back (their apologists will never admit it and claim its been fixed) as well as the horrible RAM management fiasco.
Oh my god, what a joy to have a speedy keyboard, a fast messaging app, a phone that actually doesn't chew endless percentage points off my battery with the screen off, and apps still being in memory after a few minutes, I am in heaven. Oh and the spare battery module is nice, as well as the IR blaster someone else mentioned above. I was going to get the HTC 10 but after AndroidCentrals guys kept saying the battery really wasn't special I knew what j needed to do.
Thank you LG, you saved me from a year of absolute hell.

I too think the complaints are a bit too much. G2 , G3, and now G5 user. Haven't found even one negative so far with the G5. Love it!
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

cigman said:
I too think the complaints are a bit too much. G2 , G3, and now G5 user. Haven't found even one negative so far with the G5. Love it!
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
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Yep, I have not had any of the app crashes, LED bleeding, major chin issues ect that others have mentioned. This has honestly been my best battery life phone since the Galaxy S2 FIVE YEARS AGO. That is insane and quite telling to me, I am glad LG got this right. This is the first LG phone I have ever owned and it makes me wish I had tried their other offerings in the past, I may have been much happier. Once I get my other battery I will slap it in after work at 100% and likely will never have to worry about running out of battery again. I hope LG keeps up this trend because there are definitely a lot of us here who appreciate them being one of the last major flagship carriers to offer this feature.
Speaking of removal battery, I remember how people were literally foaming at the mouth at the loss of such features in other flagships, yet LG listened to smartphone enthusiasts and gave them more options than most other manufacturers. They definitely deserve way more credit for giving the consumer options.

I have never cared for a device's design and I'm not going to start now.
I do think the paint thingy is a good idea in order to hide the antenna lines but it seems to come off very easily, so a case would be mandatory.
Secondly, there are some QC issues across the board when it comes to the paint thingy, light bleeding out the screen, and a variable gap size where the module clips.
When you take into consideration that these days design is (almost) everything, hence the build quality, there's the rant about the G5. In all fairness, if similar issues would have arisen, Samsung or Apple would have also taken a beating.
That being said, even if I would receive a perfectly well built G5, I would still be semi disappointed :
- no camera improvement in low light situations (lights bleeding), although it is still one of the top performers
- no manual controls over filming while is was possible on the V10, why? It is clearly entirely possible since it seems to be a software development choice. I don't get it, LG says the G5 takes after the V10 but it lacks a native high quality DAC (the module is somewhat expensive and not available everywhere) and video manual controls
- this is a killer, only 32 gigs (same base storage since the G2 of old) of internal storage with no possibility to move apps the the SD card nor to convert the SD card into adoptable storage (though I would do it with ADB)
Even if it was possible natively to convert the SD card into adoptable storage, some apps like Spotify would then download everything directly to the small internal storage. I don't know why storage hasn't become a massive issue yet when you consider that OS (and skins like the LG UI), apps and photos aren't getting smaller anytime soon !
On the other hand, I love the secondary wide lens, but I fear it would be too much work to enjoy the G5 as it is. I am already juggling with different storage spaces with my G4 (internal, 128 gigs SD card, cloud and external (backups on my PC)). I need a lot of stuff offline since I'm travelling abroad quite a bit, so streaming content (Google photos, Spotify) is not always an available option.
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

BR7fan said:
I'm surprised that the complain threads are allowed to go on. It not only hurts the site,it hurts the company that made the phones. I think some of the writers that review these phones are abusing their power and becoming a bit reckless.
EDIT
Ive also noticed that a lot of complaints are coming from people with 20 post or less
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Im even more surprised that this trend of starting threads to actively discredit people with legitimate issues is being allowed at all. When people have issues with a device IT SHOULD HURT THE COMPANY. Treating a massive multi billion dollar world wide corporation like its some sort of tiny start up charity is ridiculous.
You dont want the forum having complaints because it hurts the community somehow? From where im sitting what hurts the community is misleading ignorant crap like what the OP is trying to pull. Trying to convince people nothing is wrong in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary is harmful to a community, only further hurts the reputation of the phone further. What do you think will happen when someone reads a thread like this and goes to buy the phone and finds out all the things he read where true? There goes the credibility of the community just because of some goofy ass notion that a device needs defended from itself.
Screen bleed: This is bound to happen with most all LCD devices. Even your LCD television will have this issue if the room and screen are dark enough. Some of you that have posted pictures do in fact have a relevant reason for return as it is pretty bad. But also, some of you are just being entirely too picky.
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OK find us another flagship phone with LCD screens that had even remotely close to this much backlight bleeding. Ill wait.
Didnt have that issue with my HTC one m8 or my Sony z3v. Dont have that issue with my gaming monitors either. QUALITY LCD panels DO NOT have noticeable backlight bleed. Its a staple of cheap poorly made budget panels.
AUX audio noise: This device is native 24bit lossless at 192kHz... MOST of the "cheap" aux cables you buy at the store just don't have the quality wiring inside that you need for this device, and will give you the audio hiss. You're gonna want something that is Audiophile grade (this just simply means high quality), with a thicker wire, better connectors, etc. The basic run of the mill cables just aren't gonna cut it with this device. I ended up going with THIS cable, and my hiss went away. (Your results may vary)
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Not even remotely close to true at all. The fact that you think the onboard snapdragon DAC is audiophile grade is cute but wildly incorrect. The fact that you think cables can cause this issue is even more incorrect. You dont need any sort of special size for headphone cables to be high quality thats just plain ignorance. We are talking tiny amounts of power not some 1200 watt amp powering 2 OHM subs. Go look at audiophile grade IEMs they dont run large cables at all. Your defense is flat out wrong, what causes that hiss is a number of things but nearly all would be internal. Poor internal shielding, defects in the amp etc. Cables are not going to cause this unless they are cut, or flat out defective.
Also, as a side note lossless would be your music files not the DAC, no special cables are required for higher quality audio and 9 times out of 10 that "thicker high grade" cable is just plastic and crap with the exact same amount of copper as the tiny ****.
Chin gap never bothered me so ill leave that.
The clicky power button: Really people? It's a click style power button to begin with. While I will agree the button cap (the part we actually see) could be a bit better than what it is, why is this even a quality complaint? Those of you that are shaking your phone in a silent room and "hearing" the button move are probably mistaken. While the button does have minuscule movement to it, what you are actually hearing is the OIS sensor moving. It's supposed to if you shake the phone.
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There is an issue at play here where the outer part of the button with the fingerprint sensor is coming unglued from the rest of it. Then its a matter of time before it moves the wrong way and you lose the fingerprint scanner altogether Thats the main reason you see people complaining and returning them because of the power button. The guy at my verizon store said thats the main reason he sees them coming back.
This notion that because you like the phone that you should stick your head in the sand and ignore the issues it has while trying to discredit anyone with actual issues is stupid. So is this mentality that people shouldnt be allowed to discuss said issues here. Just because you like the phone dont mean you get to sweep away all the negative attention its getting and pretend its all unicorns and rainbows in G5 land.

notinterested said:
Im even more surprised that this trend of starting threads to actively discredit people with legitimate issues is being allowed at all. When people have issues with a device IT SHOULD HURT THE COMPANY. Treating a massive multi billion dollar world wide corporation like its some sort of tiny start up charity is ridiculous.
You dont want the forum having complaints because it hurts the community somehow? From where im sitting what hurts the community is misleading ignorant crap like what the OP is trying to pull. Trying to convince people nothing is wrong in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary is harmful to a community, only further hurts the reputation of the phone further. What do you think will happen when someone reads a thread like this and goes to buy the phone and finds out all the things he read where true? There goes the credibility of the community just because of some goofy ass notion that a device needs defended from itself.
OK find us another flagship phone with LCD screens that had even remotely close to this much backlight bleeding. Ill wait.
Didnt have that issue with my HTC one m8 or my Sony z3v. Dont have that issue with my gaming monitors either. QUALITY LCD panels DO NOT have noticeable backlight bleed. Its a staple of cheap poorly made budget panels.
Not even remotely close to true at all. The fact that you think the onboard snapdragon DAC is audiophile grade is cute but wildly incorrect. The fact that you think cables can cause this issue is even more incorrect. You dont need any sort of special size for headphone cables to be high quality thats just plain ignorance. We are talking tiny amounts of power not some 1200 watt amp powering 2 OHM subs. Go look at audiophile grade IEMs they dont run large cables at all. Your defense is flat out wrong, what causes that hiss is a number of things but nearly all would be internal. Poor internal shielding, defects in the amp etc. Cables are not going to cause this unless they are cut, or flat out defective.
Also, as a side note lossless would be your music files not the DAC, no special cables are required for higher quality audio and 9 times out of 10 that "thicker high grade" cable is just plastic and crap with the exact same amount of copper as the tiny ****.
Chin gap never bothered me so ill leave that.
There is an issue at play here where the outer part of the button with the fingerprint sensor is coming unglued from the rest of it. Then its a matter of time before it moves the wrong way and you lose the fingerprint scanner altogether Thats the main reason you see people complaining and returning them because of the power button. The guy at my verizon store said thats the main reason he sees them coming back.
This notion that because you like the phone that you should stick your head in the sand and ignore the issues it has while trying to discredit anyone with actual issues is stupid. So is this mentality that people shouldnt be allowed to discuss said issues here. Just because you like the phone dont mean you get to sweep away all the negative attention its getting and pretend its all unicorns and rainbows in G5 land.
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Well said, I had 3 replacements before i anally gave up and sent the phone back. This doesn't mean i didn't like the phone, i did, i really did but I am not going to pretend those issues dont exist and or will not arise in the future.
I want a device that is future proof not only in terms of performance but build quality. A blazing fast CPU is of no use if you dont have a working button to turn the phone on or off.