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Samsung S4 in Vanilla flavor????!?

Just read this article in CNN...
(CNN) -- A month after being released to mostly positive reviews, Samsung's flagship phone is getting some validation from Consumer Reports. The publication has run all its tests, kicked the phone's tires, and named the Android-powered Galaxy S4 its top rated smartphone.
The previous list-topper was the Optimus G, a solid $100 4.7-inch phone from LG that held Consumer Reports' No. 1 spot for several months. The Optimus G is now ranked as the No. 2 smartphone, followed by the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Apple iPhone 5.
Consumer reports bases its ratings on a number of extensive tests and rates the devices in categories including ease of use, display and voice quality, portability and battery life. The $200 Galaxy S4's weakest scores were in video quality and portability. Like all the other smartphones on the list, it also had mediocre scores for voice quality, a sacrifice that seems common in the smartphone market. The publication also lamented the lack of one-button phone access.
Consumer Reports specifically called out the S4's 5-inch, 1080p touch-screen, multitasking in split view, and a built-in IR feature as some of the handset's standout features. The abundance of features were seen as appealing to more advanced users without complicating the phone for more entry-level users. The publication said the device's camera was "among the best phone cameras for photo quality."
The Galaxy S4 is an update to Samsung's wildly popular S3 phone, which was one of the best selling smartphones of the past year. Samsung was the leader in the smartphone market in in the first quarter of 2013, according to research firm IDC, and it looks like its latest offering will help it hang on to that top spot for the time being.
Last week, Google announced a new version of the Galaxy S4 that will run a pure form of the company's Android mobile operating system. That unlocked and uncluttered phone will cost $649 when it becomes available at the end of June.
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CNN article
Googled it further...
Google Releasing a Samsung Galaxy S4 with Stock Android OS
By Matthew O'Connell, Content WorksMay 16, 2013 10:28 AMprint
Exciting news for Android and Google lovers came out of the annual Google I/O developers conference yesterday. The keynote speech from CEO Larry Page, which lasted more than 3 hours, announced a new variant on the Samsung Galaxy S4. The new Google version of the popular smartphone will run on a stock Android operating system, a potentially appealing prospect for a lot of tech geeks.
The Samsung Galaxy series has built a huge following due to its impressive hardware. On the S4, a 1080p screen with 441 ppi, a 13 megapixel camera, and a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon processor are among its most impressive pieces of hardware.
The stock Android Jellybean 4.2 OS on the upcoming Google S4 eliminates the Nexus branding that other Galaxy devices have held and comes with a completely unlocked bootloader. The themes and skins that have identified Galaxy software will be replaced by a basic and direct Android interface, and it will have no preinstalled apps bogging it down. That will make for a cleaner and more customizable phone, ideal for developers who seek the capability to modify their devices (hence its announcement at the developers’ conference).
Perhaps because of Google’s backing or perhaps because of the lack of Nexus branding, the stripped-down, unlocked Google S4 will carry a lower price tag than other Galaxy iterations. When it hits the stores June 26, AT&T and T-Mobile members will be able to pick up this developer’s dream device for a relatively light $649.
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pcworld article
Will an official S4 Vanilla ROM be coming soon???!? :fingers-crossed:

lenovo taking over motorola

hello ,I am thinking about buying moto g , but after lenovo bought motorola , i am afraid it will stop the support for motorola devices , is that true?
and will someone tell me about the call quality on the moto g? i heard it is bad
thanks

So far so good, Moto G is among the very first devices to receive KK 4.4.3
Lenovo isn't stupid, they know that much of Moto's appeal is fast updates. Cheap alone doesn't cut, there are 100s of cheap Chinese devices - but most of them never see updates.
For me, call quality is OK.

renatohm said:
So far so good
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Lenovo hasn't bought Motorola yet.

GoneTomorrow said:
Lenovo hasn't bought Motorola yet.
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Technicalities. For all practical purposes, yes they have.
As you can see in new launches, Moto E, Moto G 4G and the rumoured Moto X+1, all have MicroSD slots. No Nexus phone/tablet and original Moto G/X, all under Google, have the slot. Simply put, they want you to spend on Google Drive, and a MicroSD spoofs that.
---------- Post added at 09:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 AM ----------
hrashdan said:
hello ,I am thinking about buying moto g , but after lenovo bought motorola , i am afraid it will stop the support for motorola devices , is that true?
and will someone tell me about the call quality on the moto g? i heard it is bad
thanks
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Summing up, Moto G is amazing. I bought for myself and my wife, and we are both loving it. The only downside, in my humble opinion, is the lack of a MicroSD slot.
Just be sure to buy the 16GB version, especially if you are into games/recording videos, as these will eat up space in no time.

When you put it like that, Lenovo buying Motorola isn't such a bad thing. Lenovo laptops(especially the ThinkPad line) are very good too. I still remember how the CEO Yang Yuanqing took his annual bonus and gave it to his workers. I am sad by this shift in owners because I really was hoping for more phones to be made(assembled) in the US for the jobs. Having written that, the US market has spoken when it came to the Moto X so here I am with my Moto X, knowing this phone is probably the last of its kind because the US market values the price and specs more than the experience and where it came from.

renatohm said:
Technicalities. For all practical purposes, yes they have.
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That is strange as they are still being managed by Google. Lenovo has no control or influence over Motorola at this point.

alpha-niner64 said:
When you put it like that, Lenovo buying Motorola isn't such a bad thing. Lenovo laptops(especially the ThinkPad line) are very good too. I still remember how the CEO Yang Yuanqing took his annual bonus and gave it to his workers. I am sad by this shift in owners because I really was hoping for more phones to be made(assembled) in the US for the jobs. Having written that, the US market has spoken when it came to the Moto X so here I am with my Moto X, knowing this phone is probably the last of its kind because the US market values the price and specs more than the experience and where it came from.
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Consumers seem to value price, specs, and most importantly brand. The only reason people buy Samsung phones is because, oh, Samsung! It's a popular brand!
It kinda sucks.

Lyokacanthrope said:
Consumers seem to value price, specs, and most importantly brand. The only reason people buy Samsung phones is because, oh, Samsung! It's a popular brand!
It kinda sucks.
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I would qualify this as something more than just popular brand. I'd make your argument for Apple products though! With Samsung, I can list some qualitative features that distinguish Samsung from the rest: AMOLED, removable battery, microSD, no on-screen buttons, plastic build-quality?? I've read enough peoples' opinions to know that they want to move away from Samsung, but can't because no other brand offers what Samsung offers.
I hope that Motorola will move backward to the days of microSD and removable batteries(doubtful).

MicroSD is already back.
Brand is not exactly what most people want. They want bang per buck, usually. Sure, some people with cash to spare buy due to the brand.
As you mentioned, some Samssung features are hard to find in others. But most Android phones now have on screen buttons. So, how to be the best in class when most fellas are basically the same? Price.
Price alone won't cut in some cases - smartphones, for example. 1st time smartphone buyers may be seduced by dirt cheap, but after a while some other things become priorities. That's when you want the most bang per buck. And that's where the Moto G excels.
Great price for the specs, especially screen. Camera is not top of the line but will do for the majority of people, casual shooters. SoC not top of the line but very good for the average user. Battery is decent, telephony is OK. So, you have a very decent phone at a very good price. Add to that blazing fast updates, and you have a winner. For the majority of people, the phone is more than enough. Phones with simmilar SoC/RAM/internal storage are a lot costlier. Let alone the 720p screen, which even costlier rivals lack.
Sure, the removable battery is nice to have, as are wireless charging and NFC, but not mandatory. What really annoys me is the lack of MicroSD. You have to backup stuff often. Google will be happy if you use Drive for that, but in Brazil prices for mobile data are too high, and even landline internet is not that fast, so many people, including me, use the USB cable for that.

I'm not worried
hrashdan said:
hello ,I am thinking about buying moto g , but after lenovo bought motorola , i am afraid it will stop the support for motorola devices , is that true?
and will someone tell me about the call quality on the moto g? i heard it is bad
thanks
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I owned several thinkpads, both before and after Lenovo bought the brand from IBM. While I would say the quality and available technology had become more mainstream over the years, the high-quality service that was provided by IBM always remained. I had a motherboard replaced on my T400 when it was a month old. That was I believe the 3rd generation of Lenovo product.
I just replaced my old Motorola V60 phone on my voice-only line with a Moto G, partially because it will be one of the last pre-Lenovo phones and because my old phone was dying, but I have no worry that the phone will be supported at least as well as other brands mid-level phones and probably better than most.
Now, if Lenovo would just bring back quality slider phones under the Motorola name, I might be able to give up my blackberry as well.

thank you all , couldn't get better answers than these

Lenovo is a fairly new company compared to Moto But its already Number One in PCs and Number 3 in smart phones.... Lenovo is known for paying the highest salaries in the industry in China
Lenovo knows how to turn money bleeding companies into profit making ones in No time
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

jaspreet997 said:
Lenovo is a fairly new company compared to Moto But its already Number One in PCs and Number 3 in smart phones.... Lenovo is known for paying the highest salaries in the industry in China
Lenovo knows how to turn money bleeding companies into profit making ones in No time
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
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Yep, I also have a Lenovo laptop, and I gotta say, the hardware build quality is incredible for the price (2 years later, battery still lasts 3 hours like when I first got it). The software made by Lenovo looks ancient, but works really efficient and has 0 impact on cpu and ram (by 0, I don't mean 0.01 or 0.1, I mean 0, ZERO)
I really hope to see the same quality on the mobile devices (well, this is exactly the description of the moto g stock rom)
Sorry for bumping the thread, just wanted to say this. [emoji85]
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Zenfone 2 doing well in Japan

http://m.pocketnow.com/2015/07/24/budget-smartphone-demand
Nice to see that demand for the Zenfone has been high in Japan. I actually got mine imported from Expansys because I wanted the cheaper 550 model, which wasn't released here, and because the 551 sold officially here is significantly marked up in price (though still about the cheapest thing you can find in Japan with decent specs). But it seems ASUS have been shifting a lot of the official JP model 551 nevertheless. Japan has up until recently been terrible for freedom of competition and choice in mobile, with the three big established carriers holding a cast iron grip of the market in a cartel-like manner. A combination of the rise of dirt-cheap MNVO carriers and government intervention (forced unlocking especially) to curb the anti-competitive practices of the big 3 has started to change this. ASUS are obviously one of the main beneficiaries of this - breaking into the market with the Zenfone 5 and seemingly expanding their presence with the Zenfone 2.

Asus is a Taiwanese Tech company since 1989 and one of the 1st to release computer components to consumers. I am sure that they are able to bring down cellphones price/performance ratio considerably. Found this on wikipedia:
'ASUS is the world's -largest PC vendor by 2014 unit sales . ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies"
They are partners with Intel (Created in 1968 ; released world's 1st CPU in 1971) since their release so they pretty much know what to build and how to code for their products.
I still remember building my 1st desktop with an Asus motherboard 16 years ago LoL Hands-down, I only use Asus motherboards as they are know to rarely fail and even then, their support is top notch. They always use their products in Overclocking Tournaments for a reason.

aziz07 said:
Asus is a Taiwanese Tech company since 1989 and one of the 1st to release computer components to consumers. I am sure that they are able to bring down cellphones price/performance ratio considerably. Found this on wikipedia:
'ASUS is the world's -largest PC vendor by 2014 unit sales . ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies"
They are partners with Intel since their release so they pretty much know what to build and how to code for their products.
I still remember building my 1st desktop with an Asus motherboard 16 years ago LoL Hands-down, I only use Asus motherboards as they are know to rarely fail and even then, their support is top notch. They always use their products in Overclocking Tournaments for a reason.
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Agreed. Running an asus motherboard and asus monitor on my current build. I have never had an "indian call center" support experience with them. Always competent english speaking operators. Very nice people and very knowledged.

kanagawaben said:
http://m.pocketnow.com/2015/07/24/budget-smartphone-demand
Nice to see that demand for the Zenfone has been high in Japan. I actually got mine imported from Expansys because I wanted the cheaper 550 model, which wasn't released here, and because the 551 sold officially here is significantly marked up in price (though still about the cheapest thing you can find in Japan with decent specs). But it seems ASUS have been shifting a lot of the official JP model 551 nevertheless. Japan has up until recently been terrible for freedom of competition and choice in mobile, with the three big established carriers holding a cast iron grip of the market in a cartel-like manner. A combination of the rise of dirt-cheap MNVO carriers and government intervention (forced unlocking especially) to curb the anti-competitive practices of the big 3 has started to change this. ASUS are obviously one of the main beneficiaries of this - breaking into the market with the Zenfone 5 and seemingly expanding their presence with the Zenfone 2.
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Recently, I realize that config_init.sh has the description "ZE550ML_JP" in firmware 2.19.40.22 and 2.19.40.23. There was no this description in 2.19.40.12.
I don't know this means ASUS is trying to sell ZE550ML here in Japan or not.
If so, ZE550ML will accelerate to change the market share of carriers in Japan.

yota phone rival - or not? the oukitel u6 dual screen

just seen something similar to yota phone the oukitel u6 dual screen - dont think its as good but its cheaper
take a look
Oukitel U6 dual-screen smartphone up for pre-order for $270

kam1962 said:
just seen something similar to yota phone the oukitel u6 dual screen - dont think its as good but its cheaper
take a look
Oukitel U6 dual-screen smartphone up for pre-order for $270
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Ah, China is at it again.
Quality-wise their EPD looks similar, but the software side seems to be severely lacking when compared to Yotaphone 2. Not to say that Yotaphone 2's current software was something out of this world. Anyways, competition is always welcome.
The price is also much more in line with what they are offering.

OUKITEL U6 - worth it
Jeopardy said:
Ah, China is at it again.
Quality-wise their EPD looks similar, but the software side seems to be severely lacking when compared to Yotaphone 2. Not to say that Yotaphone 2's current software was something out of this world. Anyways, competition is always welcome.
The price is also much more in line with what they are offering.
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It is said that OUKITEL U6 pre-sell online, and it starts shipping from September 15, 2015.
but the shipping date of Yota has not announced to the public. Because all I've seen so far is CGI renders, concepts, and pre-orders with no definite release date. I even don't know if it exists.

Any updates?

Last year I've researched the dual screen phones before I purchased YP2, as of January there were 4 manufacturers in China in various stages with one manufacturer saying they release the phone in January but didn't. There is another startup in U.S. with plans to release similar phone as YP, but as of January not available yet.
I decided to go with SISWOO R9 DARKROOM simply because it had the best specs, a relatively active user forum (the company SISWOO was even actively looking for ideas) and they already build a good reputation for high quality phones in Europe. SISWOO is higher quality than say XIAOMI and price is a bit higher. They have distributor network in Europe compared to XIAOMI which only sells online.
So I put down money in Aliexpress waiting waiting for the R9 ..and nothing. Wasn't ready to ship by the date it was originally announced (Jan 18). I cancelled order, got money back eventually.
I decided to purchase YP not only because it was the only dual- screen phone commercially available to me but also had best software for dual screen.
However, as OP saying hardware-wise they are similar to YP - with exception to screen (better scree), internal memory and processor - plus DUAL SIM card (every Chinese phone) and SD card. The Chinese phones have no software, so it's just mirroring you can do and running aps - but no native apps for ink screen. The design of YP is so much better and it's a quite a looker, the only other area would be shape - it's easy to slip. The Chinese phones appear to be safer to hold.
Price - YP costs about double but you get pretty good hardware for it.
If somebody looking for value phone with dual screen ink, it's best advice to wait for a few months, there will be more choice.

Honestly, Oukitel and Siswoo are just copying Yotaphone... Specs may be higher, but implementation and software are poor and I don't trust much in updates in next 2 years... even one year... IMHO

TKPL said:
Honestly, Oukitel and Siswoo are just copying Yotaphone... Specs may be higher, but implementation and software are poor and I don't trust much in updates in next 2 years... even one year... IMHO
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Though haven't Yota basically given up support for the YP2 already? I mean they stated no more version updates, just some EPD apps is to come. It's a great phone, but in light of the stagefright metaphor it feels a bit irresponsible of them not to patch it asap seeing as if I recall correct they made the first YP after the news about NSA snooping on everyone. It at least gave me the idea that security as main focus with their phones.
Now I can't think of any brand that has patched the metaphor exploit yet except for the Nexus line of phones so they are not alone in sharing the irresponsibility, just not as security concerned as would be expected.

I am wondering if it's a question of market viability or copyrights for the dual screen feature. I am surprised there is no major phone manufacturer that would come with dual screens. It's the only way to go to differentiate phones since the screen is the biggest energy consumer and there are plenty of people who use ebook readers. Not sure why is YP and only handful of Chinese manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon and nobody else.

What is the main difference between One plus and Samsung mobile?

Specifications

Gsm arena website, all your answers will be there.

Samsung - Innovative technology, class leading hardware, class leading software, and more intangibles than any other smartphone.
Oneplus - kept the same philosophy from the first day... combine all of the features that other phones already have into a flagship then keep the price lower than most of the other flagships ??*

2 different phones

Headphone jack, SD card, wireless charging, reliability.
Oneplus like apple and the rest want you to pay for a gimped phone. Although it looks like samsung wants to join the club and start removing sd cards and headphone jacks from their new phones. Maybe they have a strategy to lose more business to Oneplus in some sort of stock manipulation scam?
The other negative of Oneplus is their fast charging is very proprietary.

Swarai said:
Samsung - Innovative technology, class leading hardware, class leading software, and more intangibles than any other smartphone.
Oneplus - kept the same philosophy from the first day... combine all of the features that other phones already have into a flagship then keep the price lower than most of the other flagships ??*
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The last OnePlus phone that was actually a bargain was the 3T. Since then OnePlus prices have risen sharply. OnePlus do not make phones--they mod an existing OPPO model but the markup of the OnePlus version over the original OPPO phone got much higher starting with the OP5. Honor and Xiaomi make much better phones than OnePlus with far superior build quality at much lower prices. OnePlus is primarily focused on specs on paper rather than offering good phones at reasonable prices.