Database Users

Considering Note 3 for upgrade

I am coming from a Samsung Galaxy S3. I am due for an AT&T upgrade early July. I was really leaning towards the new Galaxy S5 but then I saw that I could get a Note 3 for the same price. I am really torn. The advantages I see with the Note 3 are:
---32 GB hard drive space vs 16 GB in S5
---3 GB ram vs the 2 GB that the S5 has
---larger screen
---bottom speaker (which I personally prefer to rear speakers)
The advantages I see for the Galaxy S5 are:
---a better camera (though I would love to hear just how much better)
---easier to handle with one hand
---water resistance
---apparently a screen that is brighter and slightly more accurate
I would like to hear from those who have had both and would like to elaborate or mention more advantages with either device. Thanks!

First it's about size difference. If you dislike a big phone you better don't buy a note. Everything else is a lot better on the note!!! For the same price and if the size is ok for u I would even prefer the note over the s5.

I went to an AT&T store yesterday and messed with a Note 3 for a while. The screen is humongous but the Galaxy S5 isn't too far from the same size with a much smaller screen.
I've liked everything about my Galaxy S3 except battery life (I now have a 3500 mah battery) and heating issues when doing gaming with, for example, Minecraft, even at its lowest graphical setting. I just can't game for more than 15-20 minutes on this phone without it getting extremely hot. Screen temperatures easily reach 100 within that time span.
Yesterday, I played Dead Trigger on the Note 3 for about 15 minutes. The phone did get quite warm on the screen side opposite the camera. It wasn't as bad as my S3 but it was a tad disappointing. Unfortunately the S5 next to it didn't have Dead Trigger on it and so I couldn't do a "heat" comparison.
BTW, hearing a lot about GPS issues and some suggesting not to upgrade to KitKat. Has the GPS issue been fixed without me having to run a custom ROM?
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

Capa1970 said:
I went to an AT&T store yesterday and messed with a Note 3 for a while. The screen is humongous but the Galaxy S5 isn't too far from the same size with a much smaller screen.
I've liked everything about my Galaxy S3 except battery life (I now have a 3500 mah battery) and heating issues when doing gaming with, for example, Minecraft, even at its lowest graphical setting. I just can't game for more than 15-20 minutes on this phone without it getting extremely hot. Screen temperatures easily reach 100 within that time span.
Yesterday, I played Dead Trigger on the Note 3 for about 15 minutes. The phone did get quite warm on the screen side opposite the camera. It wasn't as bad as my S3 but it was a tad disappointing. Unfortunately the S5 next to it didn't have Dead Trigger on it and so I couldn't do a "heat" comparison.
BTW, hearing a lot about GPS issues and some suggesting not to upgrade to KitKat. Has the GPS issue been fixed without me having to run a custom ROM?
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
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I haven't had any GPS issues on the Note 3, but I wouldn't base your decision on the GPS anyway since it's a problem which can be fixed. Like I said before it's about your preference. Try to focus on the things you really need/want to see on your device and look also for different Android phones. There are so many good devices on the market and if you can wait there will be some more beasts coming in the next couple of months!!! Me personally god used to the size and smaller devices feel like toys when I use them.
From what I heard you need a better battery life and good gaming and over all performance. Something else?(music, camera)

Thanks for the reply. Battery life, no exaggerated heat when gaming, camera, very good speakers, and removable battery are the most important things to me. I absolutely love the HTC M8 but the camera and non-removable battery kill it for me. I would really love to have front speakers, but the other candidate, Sony Z2, has bezels too big for my taste.
I am waiting on more information on the LG G3 and this Galaxy Prime that I keep on hearing about. As mentioned earlier, I am due for an upgrade in early July and so I have time to really think about things but I like doing my research months in advance instead of last second.
I mentioned to my brother that I was considering the Note 3 and he said that is has reception issues---dropped calls, weak signal, etc. I googled it and there were some threads on the subject. Any comments on this potential issue?

Weak signals and dropped calls would be a network issue not really a handset issue
I came from a s3 to a note 3 and I'll never look back anything smaller feels miniscule now initially took time to adjust to the size of the screen but now I can't see me ever using a smaller device
Battery has served me well get a full day out of it no problem
You won't find a phone that won't heat up while gaming it's impossible to cool a device operating at full power without some sort of cooling mechanics other than heatsinks
Phone will take anything you throw at it and then some
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

I own both. (I'm using my S5 as a glorified mp3 player these days, as the screen is too small for me.) Much prefer the Note 3.
The camera on the S5 is in no significant way better than that on the Note 3. I'm an actual photographer so I haven't used any of the filters, and I set everything manually, but in term of picture quality, both are rubbish in low light. In bright light they're near equal.
In terms of screen the S5 is smaller with a higher pixel density. You can only see it when you're about 2cm away from your screen. The colours are slightly more saturated on the S5. (That's a matter of preference, I prefer somewhat more normal colours. Mainly because I can't stand the ghastly Touchwiz colours on the S5.)
Each phone heats up whilst gaming. That's what happens when the plastic case serves as the heatsink without any other fan or coolant. Particularly if you're holding it. The more powerful the device, the more it heats up.
I have no issues with GPS on KitKat. It locks quickly, is stable and has no satelite loss. Call reception is also fine, any drops in signal is entirely due to the sometimes hilariously bad coverage of my provider. (I've nagged them about that. Repeatedly. In person, at their HQ, to the network manager. No luck.)
The S5 is a bit better at handling drops and bumps. The Note 3 is a bit more fragile, so if you lead an active lifestyle or you're clumsy, consider a case.
If you have the time, I would indeed suggest waiting for the S5 Prime before making your choice. http://www.sammobile.com/2014/05/09...ith-qhd-display-snapdragon-805-android-4-4-3/

ShadowLea said:
I own both. (I'm using my S5 as a glorified mp3 player these days, as the screen is too small for me.) Much prefer the Note 3.
The camera on the S5 is in no significant way better than that on the Note 3. I'm an actual photographer so I haven't used any of the filters, and I set everything manually, but in term of picture quality, both are rubbish in low light. In bright light they're near equal.
In terms of screen the S5 is smaller with a higher pixel density. You can only see it when you're about 2cm away from your screen. The colours are slightly more saturated on the S5. (That's a matter of preference, I prefer somewhat more normal colours. Mainly because I can't stand the ghastly Touchwiz colours on the S5.)
Each phone heats up whilst gaming. That's what happens when the plastic case serves as the heatsink without any other fan or coolant. Particularly if you're holding it. The more powerful the device, the more it heats up.
I have no issues with GPS on KitKat. It locks quickly, is stable and has no satelite loss. Call reception is also fine, any drops in signal is entirely due to the sometimes hilariously bad coverage of my provider. (I've nagged them about that. Repeatedly. In person, at their HQ, to the network manager. No luck.)
The S5 is a bit better at handling drops and bumps. The Note 3 is a bit more fragile, so if you lead an active lifestyle or you're clumsy, consider a case.
If you have the time, I would indeed suggest waiting for the S5 Prime before making your choice. http://www.sammobile.com/2014/05/09...ith-qhd-display-snapdragon-805-android-4-4-3/
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That is exactly how I compare the two devices just a lot more detailed lol.
In September/October should be the note 4 release and if I wouldn't have the note 3 now I would definitely wait. (I will probably still upgrade cause of my cell phone interest/addiction)

Guys, thanks for the replies and, Shadow Lea, thanks for the detailed comparison! I'm sure that it is close, but which one would you say has better battery life?

Capa1970 said:
Guys, thanks for the replies and, Shadow Lea, thanks for the detailed comparison! I'm sure that it is close, but which one would you say has better battery life?
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I myself have always found the note series vs the s series that the note had way better battery life and camera wise your photos will about the same but since you due in July wait for note 4 or the s5 prime
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using XDA Free mobile app

Capa1970 said:
Guys, thanks for the replies and, Shadow Lea, thanks for the detailed comparison! I'm sure that it is close, but which one would you say has better battery life?
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I'd say they're fairly even matched. The S5 is smaller, but has a smaller battery. I do feel my Note 3 lasts a bit longer, but maybe because I put more effort into extending the batterylife.

I am seeking some clarity. Exactly which Snapdragon 800 chipset is in the AT&T Galaxy Note 3? This article assumes that it is the variant with ram clocked at 933 MHz and the GPU at 550 MHz:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/snapdragon-801-performance-xperia-z2,3777-3.html
However, I've seen articles that have the ram at 800 MHz and the GPU at 450 MHz. Which is correct?

Don't buy the current S5 as Samsung is going to release a better version of it with a better chipset and more RAM and Quad HD display. The Note 3 is just as good for photos, has the S-Pen, speakers at the bottom as stated before, 128 GB Micro SD slot, same screen resolution, more RAM, and almost the same processor speed. W/ the S5, you're just getting features the Note 3 will get sometime later in the year, waterproofing (case can solve that w/ good research), and an easier device to carry around. People joke about my Note 3 a bit saying it's too big, but I honestly don't care because most people use that crappy iPhone 4S or something miniscule.

IMO just wait for the Note 4 right now.

First off - prefer the Note 3 because of the larger screen, however one thing that the others haven't mentioned is that the S5 comes with Kitkat which has restricted access to the SD card. The note 3 might still come with android 4.3 (if you are lucky) which allowed full access to the SD card. Obviously if you don't use the SD card than this is of no interest however if you do then, to me, this is a really important issue. Fortunately I jusy got my phone on a two year contract so I have at least 19 months before I have to worry! (as long as I don't press the firmware upgrade button by mistake!) Hope Google put something better in place in android 4.5 or android 5 or reverse this stupid decision.

What restriction r u talking about? I'm on kk.
@op if you get the chance compare it hands on. I heard a lot of people disliking the size of a note!!! It is most important that u like your phone and feel comfortable or else u regret spending money on it and start threats about strange issues u have in the forum Good luck with your decision. And as I said before at least wait for the note 4 if the screen size isn't a problem.

Google kitkat sd card issues tons of complaints. Someone has even started a petition. Although you can save your photos and music to the sd card all apps must save to a single app specific directory and are not allowed to write to other directories. E.g.take a photo with your phone them try and edit it with another programme. Because you aren't allowed to save it to the original directory you will end up with two copies in different locations. Also when you uninstall an app any data on the sd card will be deleted! Right pain in the ...neck!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Barneyabz said:
Google kitkat sd card issues tons of complaints. Someone has even started a petition. Although you can save your photos and music to the sd card all apps must save to a single app specific directory and are not allowed to write to other directories. E.g.take a photo with your phone them try and edit it with another programme. Because you aren't allowed to save it to the original directory you will end up with two copies in different locations. Also when you uninstall an app any data on the sd card will be deleted! Right pain in the ...neck!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously the SD card issue isn't a big deal. The only problem is for old apps. But if you're using a new device, you should download apps that are optimized for your OS instead of running old apps anyways.
If the developer didn't bother with an update for a big permission change then obviously it's a sign that you should find a new app because If the app was like a banking app or something related to work, and they didn't update to 4.4 permissions, then how would you rely on them when a huge exploit for the app is released which leaked all your passwords and vital information?
Rooting allows for you to bypass this, but in all honesty, the play store is filled with new apps that always get updated weekly (especially File sharing apps) and you should use those instead. I understand not everyone can do this, but by choosing to buy a 4.4 device (even if you did an update you should have read up about changes), you automatically assume 4.4 features to be what you will live with.

It's ok. I bought a 4.3 device and read about the changes in 4.4 so I haven't updated. Personally I wanted my phone and next tablet to replace a Windows PC. Android 4.4 won't work for me. So I'll stay on 4.3 until warranty is up then upgrade and root. Next tablet will be a windows 8 not android.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Barneyabz said:
It's ok. I bought a 4.3 device and read about the changes in 4.4 so I haven't updated. Personally I wanted my phone and next tablet to replace a Windows PC. Android 4.4 won't work for me. So I'll stay on 4.3 until warranty is up then upgrade and root. Next tablet will be a windows 8 not android.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
I would definitely wait with win 8 tablets. The most r crap and the good ones r waaaay 2 overpriced. Know the win cycle one software good one bad... Windows 7 was good Vista bad XP good... Think about it

Nexus 6 Thoughts and Review from a former Note II User

I have noticed quite a few Galaxy Note II users online that are close to pulling the trigger on a new phone. I have been in that camp for a few months and finally did. I really don't have and major complaints about the Galaxy Note II but rather small quibbles about the device. So you have a basic idea of where I am coming from I'll let you know what I like and dislike about the Galaxy Note II.
GNOTE II Pros:
Good Specs - The phone has specs that are still considered above mid level and should still be a viable phone for at least a couple more years if properly updated...if.
Camera - I get pretty fair image clarity from the phone and when I need something better I'll break out a DSLR or my Galaxy Camera.
Voice - Very clear and loud.
S-Pen - Oh how I'll miss thee.
Capacitive Buttons/Physical Buttons - Well thought out for one-handed use.
Weight Its a bit heavy but I actually like the weight of this phone and could probably use it as a throwing-star analog to get the drop on somebody if I hit them square in the temple. But that really is not a concern for most people.
Hardware - Its well made and very resistant to drops with a simple TPU case.
GNOTE II Cons:
Updates - I'm on T-Mobile which has taken any chance it has to kill the possibility of future updates. Occasionally an errant voice on a messageboard out of T-Mobile Customer Support stating they have seen this in the works wafts across my screen but I have yet to see it come to fruition.
Samsung Ideology - Samsung products are good for a year then they release a new one as if you really need a new product from them. Samsung makes great products but rarely do they fix glaringly obvious mistakes after a year past its original creation. I currently am working on a Samsung monitor with a color calibration issue that has been reported and known by the company for years but never fixed but they fixed it on the new model of this monitor. My Galaxy Camera, while nice, suffers from insane Touchwiz lag and could use an update on fixing that but we won't see it because they released the Galaxy Camera 2. I am in the game for technology to last a minimum of 3 years running well. I realize the market is bleeding edge but the edge has gotten far less bloody than the G1 days. I shop for phones like I do TV's or computers now.
S-Pen Manufacturing - I've been through four S-Pens. I use it a lot for taking notes throughout the day as it feels more natural than typing on a computer screen. The S-Pen tends to randomly stop working without provocation. Then if you order a "100% OEM Samsung Factory S-Pen" most likely its a Chinese knock-off. I can't find true S-pens anymore which is a concern for owning a new Note.
Lack of Stable ROMS - Nearly everything I have tried causes issues with NFC or Bluetooth. I use bluetooth all the time for music to various speakers, headphones, or my car.
Knox - It does its stinking job too well. SU can run but it can't hide. I have lost SU so many times on this stupid phone it is ridiculous. Let alone the every 10 minutes my phone lets me know that Triangle Away is being activated. I don't do a lot of coding or tinkering but I do like finding ROM's with good utilitarian purposes. I remember swapcache back in the G1 days and enjoyed finding the next cool thing to do with my phone! We are past that time now, honestly, but if it isn't Samsung branded then Samsung doesn't want you to do it.
Samsung Services - "You have started S-Voice" NO I DIDN'T. "Saving contact to Samsung Contacts" Bad Samsung, stop it! I insanely dislike...nay..HATE how Samsung will not let you get rid of its version of things. My contact list was a thing of beauty running in the 100's with every person I needed to work with (I'm a teacher that does coordination work and administrative work for a school of 600+), their room numbers, email addresses, and everything you could think of until I bought a Samsung product. I have some names with 20 duplicates due to the way this beast handles contacts. I eventually just had executive function overload and decided to give up on being organized. I might bring that back to life soon.
Now that you have an idea of where I'm coming from this is what I think of the Nexus 6....
I like it!
The first thing I really enjoyed about this phone was the speed. I'm running it Stock, Rooted, and Encrypted (for now...maybe forever...I work at a school where my kids know how to build robots and get linux running on projectors so I wouldn't mind encryption on my devices) and loving the heck out of it. I was so impressed by simple things at first such as animations from opening folders as soon as my finger touched the screen whereas my Note II would lag for a good time without animations. In fact, turning on the device is so overwhelmingly stupidly simple to turn on. I can check the time by just pulling it out of my pocket without touching buttons where if I wanted to check the time on my Note I would have to wait 5 - 10 seconds after pressing the power button while pondering the ever present question, "Did I press that button?" which inevitably leads to "#$&(*, I pressed it again and turned it off!"
The next thing I noticed was the size and weight. It is a bit harder to use than my Galaxy Note II with one hand. I think if they reversed the capacitive Back button it would be a lot easier to use for us right handers. I may look in to figuring that out. Honestly, I almost feel like this thing is too thin and light. It feels well built and solid. Even with the SUPCASE I bought it still feels a little odd in my hands but that may be due to the weight being very centered in the deep area of the curve opposed to being consistently weighted. As a personal aside this is the first phone I have ever put a screen protector on WITHOUT BUBBLES....I..AM...A ....GOD!!! Well..maybe demigod. Needless to say, Spigen makes a fine screen protector.
Unlocking and rooting this thing was a breeze. Once I get paid in a couple of weeks I plan on donating to @WugFresh for at least a case of beer for his amazing Toolkit that will even walk you through setting up Windows 8 drivers! You can find that at http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/development/toolkit-wugs-nexus-root-toolkit-v1-9-8-t2947452
The camera is better than my Note II by simply being clearer which I'm assuming is to the better camera sensor. I haven't messed with it that much.
The screen and adaptive lighting are by far my favorite thing on this phone. I am probably in the minority on this but adaptive lighting is brilliant. I have seen a lot of people talking about how AMOLED is causing the reddish/purple/yellowish hues to blacks and grays at low light levels. I do not believe that is the fact. It seems like they are using some sort of blue light filtering for this in low light. As an insomniac I tend to send the wee hours of morning which I consider night perusing XDA, Twitter, and various other odds and ends of the internets and am so happy the screen actually gets dark. My Gnote II on the lowest setting was annoyingly bright. I thought I was a genius one day when I thought to use a blue screen filter and made it darker but lo and behold the backlit capacitive buttons attached directly to the stinking hardware on the Gnote II. Its like having someone flash their brights at you when you use one of those programs on the Note. Its annoying. The Nexus 6 takes no part in this and I would 100% recommend it for fellow insomniacs. It has helped me to get sleep a little bit quicker over the last couple days which is a nice benefit. Lets see if that keeps up though. I'm pretty immune to sleep.
Also the screen is really nice quality and reproduces blacks amazingly well. I'm an art teacher and art history buff so I usually check out different high quality images on my phone to see how good it looks. It seems to work very well at recreating the color and light of some of the paintings. My favorite to use for this test is Van Gogh's Starry Night Over Rhone. Eventually my phone gets used in the classroom when a student needs to look up an image and put on an easel (or kickstand case but haven't seen one I like yet) to display when my tablet or laptop is in use.
Battery life and charger! Its great. 'Nuff said.
I think the biggest negative so far is the volume of calls. My wife said I sound quieter than usual. I also can't hear people as loudly as I used to. The speakerphone does not travel as far as the Note when it absolutely should seeing as the speakers are fairly decent for a cell phone. I could see someone fixing this pretty easily in a ROM.
The other negative is the lack of some multitasking programs that Samsung had and of course the lack of S-Pen. I use a Huion H610 Pro at home for digital art and graphic design so I loved the fact that Samsung phones used similar tech but I absolutely abhor using capacitive styluses (styli?). I'll have to figure out something I can carry with me that will work like that with a similar feel.
Anyway, as of right now I'm extremely happy with this phone. I have had no issues as of yet and luckily no burn in however I do not like my phone to cause sunspots when I look away from it so I'm not expecting to have a huge problem with it. If you have some similar issues with the Galaxy Note II (which T-Mobile amplifies) then I would suggest jumping ship especially if you have crackflashing tendencies because there is no Samsung product without a Nexus name attached to it that will be as easy to deal with as this.
-Travis

Let me go ahead and apologize for the poor grammar and lengthy sentences. I'm sitting home from work sick today (XDA fun time does not happen between the hours of 7am to 5pm at work normally) with bronchitis. The medicine(s) I'm on must really like run-on sentences after I re-read that wall of text. I hope it helps someone after deciphering it, haha.

From one educator to another (I'm a school administrator and former classroom teacher), let me say 'well done!'. Before the Nexus 6, I was a proud Note owner for the last three years - Note 1 and Note 3 to be exact. After finding out that the Note 4 would be even more locked down than the 3, and deciding that I was getting really really tired of TouchWiz and truly loved what Lollipop's UI brought to the table, I made the jump. And I am just as pleased with my choice as you are. No more crazy contacts lists or S-Voice intrusions, amen. ......I do miss my old S-Pen though....

I'm using the Note 2 atm and I "really want" the Nexus 6 (64gb infact, hard to come by in Australia otherwise I probably would have one by now).
Using SlimKat now because the stock ROM was absolutely dreadful!! (Laaag!) The S-pen does not work out of the box on the current rom and I'm not missing it either... I'm ready for the Nexus and looking forward to using "modern speakers" on a phone.

PerthSGS2 said:
I'm using the Note 2 atm and I "really want" the Nexus 6 (64gb infact, hard to come by in Australia otherwise I probably would have one by now).
Using SlimKat now because the stock ROM was absolutely dreadful!! (Laaag!) The S-pen does not work out of the box on the current rom and I'm not missing it either... I'm ready for the Nexus and looking forward to using "modern speakers" on a phone.
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Click to collapse
I also came from the note2 on tmobile and like the OP said, there was a lack of ROMs for the phone.
i ended up pulling the trigger on a white 32gb nexus 6 (i was looking for a 64gb but they were hard to find) the other day and like it very much. I think i rooted and unlocked the bootloader within 30mins of having the phone.
just trying to enable tethering on it right now is the only obstacle for me.

simplyTravis said:
Let me go ahead and apologize for the poor grammar and lengthy sentences. I'm sitting home from work sick today (XDA fun time does not happen between the hours of 7am to 5pm at work normally) with bronchitis. The medicine(s) I'm on must really like run-on sentences after I re-read that wall of text. I hope it helps someone after deciphering it, haha.
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Click to collapse
I had a Note 4 from T-Mobile for a few days and I didn't care for it at all & I was coming from a S4 before getting the Note 4, So I decided to return it and got the Nexus 6 which is way better. I'll also be paying less then I would of been with the Note 4.

How does the screen brightness compare between the two?

How's the focusing speed compared to the note 2?
I'm trying to decide between this and the HTC m8. I have small kids so I need something with a quick focus and overall good durability. (I'm not really concerned with megapixel count.)
Thanks!

lschuman said:
From one educator to another (I'm a school administrator and former classroom teacher), let me say 'well done!'. Before the Nexus 6, I was a proud Note owner for the last three years - Note 1 and Note 3 to be exact. After finding out that the Note 4 would be even more locked down than the 3, and deciding that I was getting really really tired of TouchWiz and truly loved what Lollipop's UI brought to the table, I made the jump. And I am just as pleased with my choice as you are. No more crazy contacts lists or S-Voice intrusions, amen. ......I do miss my old S-Pen though....
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Click to collapse
I plan on getting things back to normal now thankfully. My contacts are so much easier to get through now. Right now I'm in the midst of dealing with starting up after school programs for our school and will be editing Google Docs with this thing next week so I'll get a real test of how it works. I work at a charter school (part of the biggest charter school system in Texas: Harmony Public Schools) and since we don't have a bus system our after school clubs tend to be in the hundreds daily. I run around circles making sure everything is going right and people are in the right place so its helpful to be able to pull up a list on a decent size screen to find information on the go. Our school has been around 7 years and I've been there 6 years of that with only 2 people there longer than me so I tend to be the guy to ask about anything.
Tubgirl said:
How does the screen brightness compare between the two?
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With adaptive brightness off the Nexus 6 is noticeably brighter with better black levels and a warmer tone (not yellowish.) I keep it on most of the time and haven't had any problems seeing things. It has been raining here in South East Texas since I've owned the phone so if it ever clears up I'll let you know how it compares outside but I'm assuming it will be a bit better than the Note II.
anrkee said:
How's the focusing speed compared to the note 2?
I'm trying to decide between this and the HTC m8. I have small kids so I need something with a quick focus and overall good durability. (I'm not really concerned with megapixel count.)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I did a couple of tests. First from picking it up off of a black countertop and letting it autofocus on its own in a decently lit room. The Nexus 6 won by like less than half a second to a second.
The next test was when I would tap the screen to set white balance and autofocus in a decently lit room. From the tap the Note II won by less than half a second.
The last test was in a dark room looking then picking it up to focus on a computer screen to test white balance setting and autofocus. The Nexus 6 won this hands down by a bit over a second. I think it simply achieves much quicker white balance but autofocus is slightly slower. I'll try to do some comparison shots tomorrow when I get home from work if you want.

Thanks for that. No need for test shots. You answered my question perfectly.

Totally off-topic from the Nexus 6: if you enjoy the extra duties in addition to your classroom, please consider administration! Keep up the good work for our kids.

Post your personal S6E reviews

:highfive: congrats to those who have it early.
so tell us what you think about it, the feel on the hand, how fragile does it look and feel (is it slippery like the sony phones with glass, grippy?) , hows the performance of the camera, screen, battery, etc.

It's only been half a day but my early impressions are as follows,
-Fingerprint scanner is wicked fast.
-Screen is beautiful
-It is fast fast fast. I love Samsung devices and I admit that lag was always an issue. I have not been able to slow it down yet. Really I havent. Lol. Even the recent app switcher is fast.
-Like the themeing a lot. I can't wait for more themes.
-Feels good on the hand. The edge does make it a bit different to hold but I love the curved screen. Makes using the phone a pleasure.
-I have only taken a couple pictures but they turned out great. More on that later.
I'm sure I'll have more as the days pass..

I played with the phone in a T mobile store. For about 20 minutes battery was down to 93% from 100%.,Power hungry. Could you guys confirm?
Also I found the browser cannot hide the status bar hence no full screen browsing. Please also confirm this?
S6 edge in the bestbuy which is unbranded has no ability to sort the menu alphabetically. But T mobile edge has an option to sort.

You're correct on the status bar. Too early to know on the battery. The option to sort might have come in the software update that dropped today. Not sure though.

does this look like the edge to u? i think phonearena made a mistake
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...r-but-survives-this-violent-drop-test_id67696

It looks like the edge
The regular s6 has very recognizable edge as well and that is not it
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app

avenging said:
does this look like the edge to u? i think phonearena made a mistake
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...r-but-survives-this-violent-drop-test_id67696
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Click to collapse
Yup, that an Edge, and damn did she slam that hard! Good to know it can survive what she just did, lol.

From a performance point of view there is no doubt in my mind the Edge is going to be great, the only doubt is battery life... I realise its a bit early for conclusions yet but once people have used their phones for a week or so, its the questions that everyone wants answering. Everyone's use patterns are different but as long as I can make it through a heavyish day ok, I'll be happy with that.

madpete said:
From a performance point of view there is no doubt in my mind the Edge is going to be great, the only doubt is battery life... I realise its a bit early for conclusions yet but once people have used their phones for a week or so, its the questions that everyone wants answering. Everyone's use patterns are different but as long as I can make it through a heavyish day ok, I'll be happy with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's battery is only 7% less in capacity than S5, so I see no reason why battery life would be extremely different. The screen has higher res, but CPU is much more power efficient.

Szadzik said:
It's battery is only 7% less in capacity than S5, so I see no reason why battery life would be extremely different. The screen has higher res, but CPU is much more power efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes...still, I'd rather yes some real numbers from someone who actually has the phone. We know very little about its battery performance yet, and I have seen mixed reviews with some saying its good and others poor.
I should just say that I have the phone pre ordered and I'm looking forward to getting it, battery is the only doubt I have...I'd just like to see some numbers and I think most other people would too.

madpete said:
Yes...still, I'd rather yes some real numbers from someone who actually has the phone. We know very little about its battery performance yet, and I have seen mixed reviews with some saying its good and others poor.
I should just say that I have the phone pre ordered and I'm looking forward to getting it, battery is the only doubt I have...I'd just like to see some numbers and I think most other people would too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have pre-ordered it as well, but it is still 2 weeks before shipping. We will all see in due time. People in the US are already getting theirs, so we should have some info within a week as batteries start working normally after a few charges.

Also could you guys confirm available free memory?

I went to Best Buy yesterday to get a look at the S6 edge. Needless to say, I was very impressed. Touchwiz seems lightning fast compared to 4.3 on my S4. The shortcuts and ease of access really convinced me to buy this (when green comes along). The edge display looks absolutely amazing and does, in fact, feel more immersive. I love the metal frame and the new headphone jack location. Basically, this thing looks and feels all-around perfect. The black looks BLACK in person, whereas online it gave me the belief that it was a deep-blue. Don't know if I want to settle for the white 32GB or wait a month or two in hopes of the green appearing.

varunkumars said:
Also could you guys confirm available free memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot to look. With all my apps and a couple hundred pix loaded on have 107 gigs available.

varunkumars said:
Also could you guys confirm available free memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the 32GB should have around 22-25GB available
and
the 64GB should have around 53-56GB available

Szadzik said:
It's battery is only 7% less in capacity than S5, so I see no reason why battery life would be extremely different. The screen has higher res, but CPU is much more power efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, you forgot to mention that the screen was actually more efficient, too. Not only is it 14nm, the screen is like 23% more efficient than the screen on the Note 4, iirc.

tehdef said:
Eh, you forgot to mention that the screen was actually more efficient, too. Not only is it 14nm, the screen is like 23% more efficient than the screen on the Note 4, iirc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was not aware the screen would be more efficient with that much higher resolution, but that is a good thing to know as well. Might mean all this whining about smaller battery size is just for the sake of whining.

Thanks for your answers guys. Today again I walked into Best buy and T mobile stores to do my research more. What I found,
Battery: Yesterday when I played with the phone I suspected it to be Power hungry. But I think I should take it back. Battery is ok not bad after all. I am comparing with my LG G2(has a good battery, 3000mah) and I measured the time it takes to drop every %. S6 takes a little more time than the G2 to drop which tells me the battery is good. Also the picture below. I don't have an S5 so I can't really compare with that. I played a couple of games that were installed on the phone and the battery is still ok. This is by no means a scientific way of measuring, neverthless I wanted to share this with you guys.
Although I have chargers at home, car and work still a good battery(if not the best) gives a sense of confidence. and satisfaction that I have the best phone irrespective of all the breath taking features. Don't you agree?? S6 may not disappoint I believe.
Browser/Browsing: Browsing is a breeze. No sense of lag anywhere. But the status bar doesn't hide which I assume is a part of Lollipop. I would be curious to see if a dev can come up with a mod. A full screen immersive browsing on the S6 's beautiful screen would be super cool.
Youtube/Video: Flawless like its predecessors. Nothing special to mention.
Music: Flawless sound like its predecessors. No distortion. Sound is very clean with the headphones. I listen to a lot of Music and sound quality is very important for me. When I played the music on speaker I felt some vibration I wonder what that is??? I wonder if it is the speaker giving the vibration.
Menu:Arrangement of the apps in the menu is nice and simple although I would prefer the icons to be a little smaller. T mobile phones come with an option to sort alphabetically. AT&T don't have the phone for display yet(Slackers:crying so can't tell. All in all I like this new menu. No complaints.
GPS: I didn't spend a lot of time here but I thought it locked quick enough. Nothing special and no complaints.
Screen Quality : I thought the screen is much better than S5 (in the store) and on par with the note 4. But my G2 has a different color temperature which I believe make whites look a little bluish where as S6 whites are yellowish. To me both are ok. But I really have to admit the additional pixels on S6 make no difference in picture quality (S6 vs G2). Really a 1080p screen would have been enough. To clarify I am not complaining, just my opinion. Viewing angles are good unlike G2 (LG's for that matter).
I have to tell you, normal people passing by with no phone knowledge would stop by and take a glimpse at the edge screen, They all seem to like it. Seems like edge is getting all the attention it deserves.
Build/Design: This is where S6 edge outshines every other phone in the market. In my opinion, till date this the best design ever period. I have seen some complaints about finger prints. It is not bad after all. Looks like white takes less finger prints than others. Excellent build quality and feels solid in hands. Thums up.
Single handed use: It can be used single handed with no issues. Menu is set up for single hand use which I really like. Although my hand is not very big it fit nicely in my hand. Not sure about the non-edge S6. Should be the same.
Speed This is one thing that is very crucial. All android phones I used so far tend to be fast initially but as I go adding/deleting apps and other files phone tends to get laggy. It really gets on my nerves. But even as a brand new phone they stutter at times. But with S6 it is blazing fast. No lag anywhere (at least I did not see). App drawer is a little slow to open. Samsung probably configured it to be slower on purpose. Some might misunderstand it to be a lag, just a heads up. Speed speed speed is what it is.
Camera: I need not specially tell you about the camera. There are expert reviews which claim this to be the best camera. Flawless. Double press on the menu opens the camera in split seconds which is very impressive.
I care less about the heart rate sensor so did not test it. Although I care about finger print scanner I could not test it because it is not my phone.
This is a big leap forward not just for Samsung but for android as a whole.
I was disappointed about the battery yesterday but liked it today and took some time to test all the features. I like the phone, will get one. White Color 32gb. AT&T.

tdphotos said:
the 32GB should have around 22-25GB available
and
the 64GB should have around 53-56GB available
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he meant the true amount of RAM available. (Should be less than 3 GB)

Status bar maybe due to Lollipop. Its present on my Pure Edition Moto X and my Atrix HD running CM12.
Sent from my XT1095 using XDA Free mobile app

Anyone coming from Samsung flagships?

Hi all, I'm currently using the Galaxy S5 and looking to upgrade to the G4. Anyone has switched to the G4 from Samsung's high end phones like the S6 or the Note 4? Can you give some impressions and comparisons (Camera (most important), screen, performance)? Thanks a lot!

From Note 4.... The G4 should crush the S5 except water resistance

I did it after one month with s6 edge, battery in s6 edge is so bad, other things are ok and almost identical, no lags on both phones. Camera is identical.

I came from the S5 to the G4 and haven't even had a second thought on going back
Camera is amazing. UX 4.0 beats Touchwiz (in my opinion better than S6 as well, my wife has that). Just takes some getting used to the no "hard" home buttons and the power/volume buttons on the back rather than the side but once you do it's actually more convenient knowing a case can protect them even more and are less susceptible to being damaged

I came from galaxy s3. Well, it's obvious that the g4 performs wayyyy much better

Note 4 to G4 here. So far, seems better in all aspects. Only one it might not beat the Note 4 in is battery, but I haven't had for long enough to really see how it averages. Camera is better. UI seems cleaner and easier to use. Love double tap on, as I was used to it with the HTC M8 and missed it on the Note 4. Only weird thing I had to get used to was in the cam app, the 3 software buttons don't show up (have to hit the back button in the camera view).
LG really did well with this phone

Thanks all , would love to hear more from Note 4 and S6 users too!

toughthrone said:
I came from galaxy s3. Well, it's obvious that the g4 performs wayyyy much better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made same switch. And yeah, the G4 does seem to have just slightly better performance.

Master619 said:
Thanks all , would love to hear more from Note 4 and S6 users too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll post more as I get to use phone more. Just got yesterday. So far, it's really nice. I had almost written LG off after the Optimus G. Glad I didn't. So far:
PROs for G4 vs Note 4
Lighter. Also noticeably smaller despite screen being almost same size.
Better Camera
UI - UX 4.0 really is nice and light
No Keyboard FCs! Man that was annoying in Lollipop Note 4...keyboard FC but stayed on screen, had to reboot to get rid of
Double tap on and Knock unlock code
Themes
Settings app broken down into proper sections (Note 4 Settings scrolls all day with all settings on a single scrolling list)
Can get a real Glass Screen Protector without the dreaded Halo effect around all edges (Note 4 curved edge to screen caused this no matter which glass protector I used (tried 6).
64 bit processor
Faster in real world use
Cool offers of free stuff from LG
About $200 cheaper
PROs for Note 4
Stylus (I only used a handful of times....was more of a gimmick to me)
Better battery life?
Fingerprint scanner and heartrate monitor (I hardly used either, as the fingerprint scanner required an odd hand placement for such a large phone)
Physical Home button
Just different between the 2:
Home button and volume button placements (I prefer LG after using for a little bit)
Both have IR blaster, large beautiful screens, expandable storage, 3GB RAM, excellent wireless radios.

Switched over from a Samsung Galaxy S4...I traded it in for $100 to At&T so my G4 only cost me $99 + tax on my upgrade option. Loving it so far, praying for root to get rid of the bloatware. :fingers-crossed:

I did. I have the S6e at home and I intend to switch back and fourth. The G4 feels so much bigger. The camera quality is NOT the same and I have tested them both in the same scenarios. The s6 is brighter and crisper than the G4. Stock launchers is far better and faster than TW. TW began to lag on my S6, so I installed Nova Prime and it was super fast again. Battery on the G4 is 10 times better than the S6. I got 36 hrs on my G4 and still had 25% left.

I came from a rooted Note 3. First non-phone-specific: I REALLY REALLY miss root. The ability to block ads is missed and I have to wait to restore all of my titanium backups that I have sitting till the G4 is rooted.
As far as performance goes, my Note 3 was pretty snappy. I haven't noticed very many differences in performance yet. But I've been waiting for the battery to get a few cycles before I really start pushing performance with games and stuff.
Other than that, I don;t really miss my Note 3. The G4 is smaller, looks nicer has a better (but only slightly smaller) screen. I kind of miss AMOLED screen tech for battery and contrast, but everything else makes up for it. Do not regret it.:good:

EVOme said:
I did. I have the S6e at home and I intend to switch back and fourth. The G4 feels so much bigger. The camera quality is NOT the same and I have tested them both in the same scenarios. The s6 is brighter and crisper than the G4. Stock launchers is far better and faster than TW. TW began to lag on my S6, so I installed Nova Prime and it was super fast again. Battery on the G4 is 10 times better than the S6. I got 36 hrs on my G4 and still had 25% left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an S6e as well and agree with you. I had a Note 4 before the S6e and now the G4 and it feels downright massive compared to the S6e. The Note 4 felt smaller to me because it was thinner but it was a big device as well. I got rid of my Note 4 because of it's size, I ride motorcycles almost daily and the damned thing was never comfortable in my pocket, it was just too big and rectangle and flat. The S6e is perfect size for me in that regard but I really miss having a larger display (had a Nexus 6 before the Note). Because of the slight curvature of the back of the G4 it makes just enough of a difference in my jeans that it doesn't dig the corners of the phone into my leg when I squeeze the tank in turns, etc.
Cameras between S6e and G4 seem pretty similar to me but there is a difference but I attribute that to Samsung doing a better job of processing the jpg file that's output than LG with the G4 having the ace in the hole of giving you the raw file you can subsequently edit yourself. I know that's not what most people want to do (myself included for phone snaps), but I think the LG camera is better for that reason alone as you can certainly make a better image in the end. All that said, I believe the S6e will do the same once it gets official 5.1.1 and then a proper camera comparo can be done, though in all honesty it's still a phone camera and they are both outstanding for what they are.
Same thoughts on launchers too, the iteration of TW on the S6e is much better than anything they've done before but it still suffers from the same old problems of lag ultimately. I too use Nova (on both phones) and it solves the issue. If forced to use stock, I would probably pick the LG but I do hate the DPI of 640 and everything is so damned big and there's so much wasted screen real estate. The S6e out of the box with it's adjustable grid sizes and what not better utilizes the screen.
Agree on battery life also. On the stock ROM I could make it through a day (I work 18-20h shifts at times) on a single charge but I would cut it close some days. The built in Qi charging is really nice and I have a charger at work and I can just drop the phone on it when I can make it to my office and the quick charge via the INCLUDED wall charger is awesome. So even though the battery life wasn't great, it's quite easy to top it off. I did run the leaked TMo 5.1.1 software for a week or so and the battery life on it is a completely different animal. I could make it nearly 48 hours without a top off, so again, with 5.1.1 I think the S6e will be a lot better device than it currently is. The battery life on my G4 seems great so far. I've run it down to 10% twice now and it was at about 40h off charger each time. The phone itself supports quick charge 2.0 but the included wall charger doesn't. The wall charger charges it incredibly slow so I've been using my S6e charger which charges it in about 1/3 the time. I ordered a proper quick charge 2.0 certified charger that should be here tomorrow along with a Qi sticker for the stock back. All things considered, the G4 battery is certainly longer lasting but more of a pain in the ass to recharge for now (until my free spare battery from the promo shows up lol!) and for the way/scenarios I use my phone I prefer the S6e here. My Note 4 easily crushed them both in this category, it could go just over 3 days before dying.

Coming from S5 (Verizon) to the G4 (Verizon) ...
The S6 with no SD support was a no-go for me.
Battery life seems a little shorter than the S5. I suspect it is due to the beefier processor on the G4 even though the G4 has a bigger battery. The battery on the G4 seems to drop a LOT less when unused however.
I am kinda missing my fingerprint scanner on the S5, but the knock code and "locked files" in gallery help me keep certain pictures away from prying eyes.
Speaking of pictures, this camera is awesome. Period. Check out the "My LG G4 Photography" thread by alexfoxy. The front camera is pretty good too. A lady friend took a few selfies with my phone and said "damn, your phone makes me look good!"
I don't really notice the difference in the screen (size or resolution). S5 looked good and a the size is right for my big hands. G4 is the same.
This is the first phone that I didn't immediately wish for a ROM. I am missing my ad-blocking that requires root, but the default ROM is clean and fast (maybe kudos the the processor). I did have to change home back to Apex, tho.
All in all, very happy with the upgrade.

I'm coming from the Note 4 and I'm pretty sure the G4 is here to stay with me.
I can basically echo what others are saying;
- the ui is cleaner and smoother
- overall phone seems a lot smoother/quicker I haven't had much stuttering. The Note had its moments where it'd freeze or stutter really badly, even on a custom rom
- maybe it's just me but the pictures from the camera seem sharper.
- It feels better in hand aswell.
- The double tap on screen to unlock is nice to have
- the clip tray being an option when I long press where I would usually paste is nice to see as with the Note, the clipboard only showed up in select places
It just seems nicer overall. I do hope root comes soon as I'd want to disable some stuff.
In terms of battery, I feel like the Note might of done better but then again I had certain crap apps disabled *cough* tmo my account *cough*
I can't exactly judge though since my service at work sucks so whatever phone I use drains quickly. For some reason when I had the OnePlus it did a ton better in the poor coverage areas (in terms of battery drain) but it didn't have WiFi calling which is a big deal to me.
I didn't use the spen as much as I initially thought I would. When it came to taking notes I always went back to typing them rather than writing with the stylus. Although it did come in handy for selecting certain parts of a pic online and whatnot and quickly sharing it to something like hangouts.
Fingerprint and shealth I never cared for.
I haven't "missed" my Note 4 yet. I like having new devices and I'm sure I don't use them to their potential as some others do here but for my purposes the phone is great

Even though I have the HTC One M9 Dev Edition, I consider myself coming from the T-Mobile S5 to the T-Mobile G4. The dealmaker for me were the replaceable battery and removable storage. I'm still keeping my S5 of course. I still need a root-capable device.

To ex-note 4 users
What made you switch ?

One Twelve said:
What made you switch ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding the Note 4I got irritated with it to the point where I paid off half the phone's price to get rid of it. Lollipop was an absolute mess. First, we waited forever. Then when we get it, it really messed up the phone. Issues I had:
1) Constant keyboard FC (where keyboard stays on screen permanent until reboot)...this would happen about once an hour, but only when using special characters ( . , * $ etc).
2) Upon unlocking, I would go to a black screen occasionally, requiring me to press the power button to shut off phone, then turn back on.
3) Trying to open an e-mail from notifications would take me to e-mail APP, but to a blank page with a back button.
4) Sometimes, cellular radio would choose to ignore wireless data altogether despite being in a strong LTE area.
5) Wifi calling would hardly connect, and was as likely to drop mid-call as it was to stay connected
6) Battery life went from 2 days with my usage to about 18 hours.
On top of those Lolli issues, the settings menu was a mess...scroll all day to find the menu I wanted. Missed double tap to wake too.
While I LOVED the look of the M9 and I love HTC in general, I eliminated HTC M9 due to 2 reasons:
1) The camera wasn't a contender with the current flagships and I use it as my primary camera to take pics of my kids.
2) No dual apps on same screen. It's a feature I used on the Note 4, and M9 didn't have it.
The S6 got eliminated due to 3 main reasons:
1) Looks too much like IPhone...sorry, just not my style
2) Touchwiz...granted my opinion is based on the Note 4, but I found it to be overly heavy and loaded with things I don't really use.
3) No expandable storage. I read their point of using high speed EMMC and wanting to keep system fast. What I read in that was "Blah blah blah we want you to pay MORE to get more storage". Again, goes back to too much like IPhone.
I'm not saying the G4 is perfect...I'd love it to have an 8 core processor, but it's really powerful enough as is. It's not overloaded with apps I won't really used or features I don't use. I'm sure I'll find things I don't LOVE as I use it more, but nothing is jumping out at me so far, and considering this has only been out for what...2 weeks, it's still early release, so bugs could be expected somewhat even though I've had none thusfar. I also liked the promotions LG was putting with it considering it's the least expensive of all the flagships out there (at least for us T-Mobile customers...it's $50 less than the M9, $80 less than S6, $180 less than S6E, hell, it's even cheaper than a 16GB IPhone 6).
Sorry so long

One Twelve said:
What made you switch ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im a phone whore ......... i wanted a new toy till the note 5 comes out. I pray they dont ruin it like they did the galaxy series

fatboypup said:
im a phone whore ......... i wanted a new toy till the note 5 comes out. I pray they dont ruin it like they did the galaxy series
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hah, once their sales figures come in they will not make that same mistake with the s7 is my hunch. g2-g3, m7-m8
Talk about scoring an own goal against LG
g2 vs s4 and g4 vs s6 (!)
At the time if g2 intl version was like g2 korean version i think i would have bought it.
---------- Post added at 02:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:35 AM ----------
Th3Bill said:
Sorry so long
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could continue if you want
i'm not one of those TL;DR types.

So far so good, another boring review :)

Here we go another boring review of the ZF2, I'll try to make it short and sweet...
Canadian Version, Asus Zenfone 2, 4g/64gb Silver version
What I came from?
Samsung Galaxy S5 16g, truly loved this phone when I got it less then a year ago. Has been serving me good until Lollipop update which on a 16gb version phone doesn't leave you much to play with. Even apps/games copied to MicroSD, I was left with 1 gb left on the phone to use and no idea what was chewing up the memory. My S5 was starting to lag a bit on a daily usage.
When I got the ZF2...
I wasn't looking to get a new phone but when my neighbour bought one, she had me set it up for her, that did it, I went out and bought it the next day, it was truly that good in my hands. It literally blew my S5 away in so many ways and I'll outline some of them here.
Unrealistic reviews...
I did a lot of reading that evening on the ZF2 before I got it, a good 10 hours of reading to be exact. The only things that I didn't like pre-purchase was the obvious, battery life, top power button and the non-removeable battery. I was quite amazed that a lot of people were listing negatives of the ZF2 compared to high end phones, ok ppl, this is not rated as a high-end phone although it competes quite close to them. You need to understand that you are comparing a $380 cdn phone to $800 to $1100 phones, apples and oranges folks.
Some glitches I've noticed...
Well, only one but not a huge deal. A couple of my games start up fine but controls are way off, ie. the controls are mirrored, meaning where the screen joysticks are, the sensitive is actually mirrored vertically, weird. The rest of my games are fine, just a couple I've noticed. Again, I don't play a lot of games so not a big deal. The other is we have LTE here and I'm use to the LTE icon on the status bar, on the ZF2, it just says 4G, which is basically the same thing, again, cosmetics, the speed is the same if not faster then my S5 for internet.
What I love...
Not sure what everyone is complaining about the battery, I haven't noticed any excessive drain then the usual, I get a whole day of usage from mine and even a bit left over before it hits the charger. This was the same as my S5 maybe a tad more probably because of the bigger screen. The fast charging makes up for this, the S5 took forever to charge. Also, the S5 was waterproof IF you remember to close the sync door lol.
In the end my decisions were the 64gb, you don't know how much nicer that is compared to a 16gb until you have the amount of apps/games I do Speed, this phone is insanely smooth and fast, I've used the Galaxy S6 and I'm not able to tell the difference between the two under normal use. Dual-sim, I use a US/Mexico Roam Mobility sim, so I can just leave this in my phone and activate it when I'm in those areas, nice and convenient. Screen size is nice and big but I'm not a big screen phone fan, single hand use is tough. Fast battery charging, this phone charges super fast.
Overall this phone I've had for about a week now has served me well. The screen is not as bright as my SuperAMOLED S5 but again, the price makes up for that. Screen looks good to me though, pictures are vivid, HD MKV movies play perfect, no complaints there. The outer case is fine, a little slippery, doesn't look cheap, volume buttons are oddly in the center on the back but I'm starting to like it there, I use to have fiddle around with my S5 on the sides and almost dropped the phone a couple of times doing so, the ZF2 volume buttons I think is more accessible because my index is naturally there when talking on the phone. A couple of things I did find interesting, the ZF2 has better call quality and reception then my S5 which I find quite odd for a phone that's much cheaper. Unassisted GPS works and syncs very fast using Sygic.
For the price and the caliber of this phone, I say I made the right decision. Unlocked, dual-sim, 4 gb/64gb, Quard-core, 5.5" screen, fast charging, you really can't lose. I just can't wait to get my protective case and glass screen protector, I'm really paranoid about dropping or scratching it now So, I will give it another week or so, if it performs like it does now still, my unlocked Galaxy S5 will probably go on sale with the unfortunately ZF2 incompatible Galaxy Gear watch (damn Samsung )

I can highly recommend the zenwatch to go along with your ZF2. It also punches well above its weight for the price.

Congrats Minim3. I just picked up a 4gb/64gb model in gold today from NCIX. Loving it so far.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Free mobile app

What I hate about zf2 is its black plastic bezzel got scratches easily if you are not using any case, second its button does not have any background lights

Yea I've literally received mine today but the first thing I've done is put it in a case. No matter how small a nick you get it will always annoy you.
As to backlit capacitive buttons that's a matter of preference. The last phone I had with them was the S3 and the first thing I did with it was switch the lights of as they annoyed me so much. (-:
Sent from my ASUS_Z00ADA using Tapatalk

When ppl are reviewing this phone how come no one mentions the 100GB Google drive offer, at least for me this was a fifty dollar value.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA

Yes codgib, that was a very welcome bonus. I am so pleased with this phone and the bonus.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA Free mobile app

nice review,
the 2nd sim slot is useful for me too, and the double tap to turn on/off is very useful on that big screen (even it consume power)

I've had mine for a few weeks now. I got the 1.8GHz/4GB/32GB model. I came from a 1st gen Moto G.
Pros
- Big, colourful display
- Good performance (in general and on gfx-heavy games)
- Multitasking is a breeze thanks to the RAM
- Great reception (at least compared to my previous phone)
- Native call recording
- Expandable memory
- OTG (although seemingly not NTFS. Disappointing)
Cons
- Average camera (although the app itself is much better than the base Google Camera)
- Average sound volume. I had to bump the dB levels of my mp3s before transferring to the phone (although it's fine through headphones). Misleading speaker grille at the rear of the phone (I was aware of this before purchase)
- Below average sound quality (bass seems almost non-existent/tinny)
- Average screen brightness. Can be very difficult to use in direct sunlight (The 720p model apparently has better brightness)
- Average battery life
- Power button is awkward to reach at times, saved only by double-tap on/off screen
- Volume up/down button on the rear. I use my phone to play radio/music so it sits on a table etc. Having to lift the phone to adjust the volume is a bit of a nuisance
- Can get sluggish after a while (granted, this is really more down to the 5.0 LP memory leak issue)
- Too much pre-loaded software

Yes I forgot those, good call. Was so use to my s5 buttons lighting this will take time to get use to.

Nice review, I have also had mine for almost a month now.
I am quite fond of the device, and have no major issues with it. I am still getting used to the size, and ZenUI is not my favorite., but a custom launcher makes it "feel" better to me. The latest update has done wonders for battery life, which I was initially concerned about as mine was drastically different then the one a good buddy picked up on the same day. For my usage patterns the phone works perfectly well; call quality, camera, audio, radios, and screen responsiveness included.
Some of my biggest pros for the device are: overall speed, storage, SD Card, battery life, camera, quick access lock screen apps, USB OTG, and tap to wake. Oh, and quick charging is awesome, I love it.
My cons are mostly related to all of the ZenUI apps now listed on "My Apps" in the Play Store, the occasional missed gesture, and lack of customization options for the tools on the quick settings panel (which is a nice option to have, but I would like take better advantage of it, especially from the lock screen). I would have loved to have had wireless charging, but if that is a trade off for quick charging, I am fine with it.
All in all, I am more than pleased with the device, and will recommend to anyone not scared of the size.

Maybe we are one of the lucky ones not experiencing the battery drain issue, I get a full days use with some left over on mine, which is what I got from my Galaxy S5. Yeah, I hear ya, the ZenUI is a bit gruesome but I'm a big fan of Nova Prime and that was installed pretty quickly after.
As for the bloatware, some are actually useful, it's not really creating an issue for me, just hide the apps if you don't want to see it and I use the Startup Manager to disable startup on most of them, no biggie. I am however a bit disappointed and I hope Asus reads these threads, with all the bloatware, you would think they could at least put in an app that syncs with Outlook Contacts and Calendar, it is a pretty widely used program but I'm force to buy a 3rd party app that syncs contacts and calendar. I've tried Outlook.com etc, but I'm not a big fan of dumping my contacts and calendar online and syncing that way. Samsung has Kies to do this and so does LG, really, with all the bloatware how hard is it for Asus to create a simple and effective sync app for Outlook.
I hear you with the size thing and the phone is a bit slippery, until my case and screen protector arrives, this is will be handle with extra care, gorilla glass or not I thought my S5 was big to handle, this one is bigger, will take a bit to get use to but I think the phone is worth it.
jaysus145 said:
Nice review, I have also had mine for almost a month now.
I am quite fond of the device, and have no major issues with it. I am still getting used to the size, and ZenUI is not my favorite., but a custom launcher makes it "feel" better to me. The latest update has done wonders for battery life, which I was initially concerned about as mine was drastically different then the one a good buddy picked up on the same day. For my usage patterns the phone works perfectly well; call quality, camera, audio, radios, and screen responsiveness included.
Some of my biggest pros for the device are: overall speed, storage, SD Card, battery life, camera, quick access lock screen apps, USB OTG, and tap to wake. Oh, and quick charging is awesome, I love it.
My cons are mostly related to all of the ZenUI apps now listed on "My Apps" in the Play Store, the occasional missed gesture, and lack of customization options for the tools on the quick settings panel (which is a nice option to have, but I would like take better advantage of it, especially from the lock screen). I would have loved to have had wireless charging, but if that is a trade off for quick charging, I am fine with it.
All in all, I am more than pleased with the device, and will recommend to anyone not scared of the size.
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godgib said:
When ppl are reviewing this phone how come no one mentions the 100GB Google drive offer, at least for me this was a fifty dollar value.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA
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phppt. In my case because I got 1TB when I picked up the i3 Acer chromebook last fall... 100GB is nothing...
Something that I forget to mention on the negatives, now having had the phone for several weeks now using it daily are the non-backlit capacitive buttons. In the dark, I generally hit them correctly but having them lit would've been nice to have.
The top power button doesn't really bother, but I'm not sold on the rear volume buttons.
Side mounter externally accessible uSD and SIM slots would've been better as well as a more readily user replaceable battery, beyond that I'm with the review coming from a nexus 5 with the added bonus that this phone is capable of twice the bandwidth(4G) that my n5 was capable of in the identical geopgraphical locations as well as apparently overall better antenna design(better signal reception from just above the n5 to WAY better in many cases...).

cutterjohn said:
phppt. In my case because I got 1TB when I picked up the i3 Acer chromebook last fall... 100GB is nothing...
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Nothing when compared to 1TB maybe, but it's still a considerable chunk of 'free' cloud space. I still have my 50GB from my Moto G offer and that was ~18 months ago. To be honest, I only use ~8GB on my Dropbox/Drive anyway so it wasn't a big pro.
I think their gist was that they didn't make a big (or any) deal of the 100GB. I (and most others) didn't even know it was a thing until we got the phone. The 1TB on those Chromebooks was offered as an incentive and as a kind of offset for the small SSDs that normally come with them. What's on yours? 32/64GB?

I appreciate the free 100gb of cloud storage.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA Free mobile app

100 GB or 1 TB, all I know is you can never have too much Google Drive :good:

cutterjohn said:
phppt. In my case because I got 1TB when I picked up the i3 Acer chromebook last fall... 100GB is nothing...
Something that I forget to mention on the negatives, now having had the phone for several weeks now using it daily are the non-backlit capacitive buttons. In the dark, I generally hit them correctly but having them lit would've been nice to have.
The top power button doesn't really bother, but I'm not sold on the rear volume buttons.
Side mounter externally accessible uSD and SIM slots would've been better as well as a more readily user replaceable battery, beyond that I'm with the review coming from a nexus 5 with the added bonus that this phone is capable of twice the bandwidth(4G) that my n5 was capable of in the identical geopgraphical locations as well as apparently overall better antenna design(better signal reception from just above the n5 to WAY better in many cases...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you on the capacitor buttons but I'm starting to get use to it, the double tap on and off on the screen is actually becoming very handy. I come from the Galaxy S5, the lit buttons were nice I wish they had the double tap on and off, I much prefer that.
As for the volume button, I actually find it more natural for me the way I hold the phone if I need to turn the volume up or down while speaking on the phone, personal preference. Also, I'm use to putting my phone down face down on a table/desk because I'm paranoid about something dropping on my screen, this happened to my Galaxy S3, face up on my desk, I went to pick up my coffee mug and it slipped, landed right center on my S3 screen and cracked it and the mug wasn't very high off the desk, ever since then I've been paranoid about leaving my phone anywhere face up. That said, when I'm playing music on my phone, while face down, it's much easier to adjust volume when it's easily accessible on the back top rather then on the sides. Again, personal preference.
Absolutely, side mount accessible cards would be great, but again, you're comparing a phone that's less then half the price of most of the phones that have those features. Even some of the more expensive flagship phones don't have these options either. ie. Nexus, no exp. memory, built in battery also, the new S6 Galaxy, built in battery, no SD Card expansion etc etc. I read endless reviews and I find it hilarious that people out there want a Mercedes Benz phone but want to pay Honda Civic prices. When you build a phone at this price, some corners have to be cut, then when a phone comes out with all these features and the price is high, people complain about the price, you can't win.
I love the phone for what it is and how much it broke my bank, if it does what I need it to do and it's better then my last phone, then I see it as a investment, it's a new phone, there will be issues as all new phones do, Galaxy S6 is having their list of problems just now popping up and so on. The phone is only about a month old maybe? I won't write it off, way too early, talk to me in about 6-8 months, if the same issues persist, then that's another story.
My brother just got his Galaxy S6 Edge phone, I told him about this phone and all he does is knocked the phone down because he has the "almighty" Galaxy S6 Edge, we start comparing features and honestly, it's not that big a list, yes, granted, it has a beautiful screen, bit faster processor (but if you put the two side by side and actually use it, I really can't tell that much of a dif), wireless charging but no SD expansion slot. That's great, but then I asked him how much he paid for it..... $900 plus taxes. No comments.