Database Users

Why Apps2SD is such a BAD IDEA (tm)

This is in the Wiki, but thought I'd repost it here for all those who ask the same silly questions.
What Apps2SD does is shift all of your user applications (that would normally be installed on your phone's /data partition) and moves them onto a specially formatted ext2/ext3 partition on your SD card. This gives you the ability to install more apps than you would normally have the ability to. Sounds great huh? What's so wrong with that?
On the G1/Dream/ADP this app is a must - those phones have only a 256MB flash and only have 75MB for their data partition - it's
outrageous. Apps2SD/Cache2SD are great as they offload it the stuff to the SD card and reduce the limitation.
The HTC Magic (both 32A or 32B) and Hero are the next generation of Android devices though, and these phones have twice the flash of the previous generation (512MB). A large chunk of that (300MB) went to the /data partition, so installing apps isn't an issue.
There's also a number of real disadvantages to using http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Apps2SD&action=createApps2SD:
It will probably slow your apps down as it's thrashing the sd more - even if you have a class 6
you'll reduce the life of your sd card
you won't be able to remove your SD card/mount it on your pc if you wanted to without your phone crashing/apps dying/hanging/etc.
if your SD card is dodgy in the slightest then it will also cause the above.. crashing/hanging/random coredumps, etc - and you'll probably just blame the rom you're using rather than realising it's your SD card.
In the same vein, CompCache/Swap space/Swapper, et al are just as silly if you're a 32A/Hero owner.
Even on the G1/32B's it offers very dubious performance improvement - and there's no need with the 32A/Hero as you have plenty of ram. If you do install it you have all the same negative points I just listed above apply there too as they each use your SD card in much the same way.

Very old.
That post is quite outdated. The information there is relevant and fluid; however, whoever still follows that thread as being something to "take heed" to prior to allowing transfer of their APPS, CACHE, and DATA to the SD card they use...is entirely too broke to even own an Android-based platform.
SD cards nowadays; even the more efficient ones typically cost less than $30, including high-end retailers such as Best Buy and Fry's Electronics.
Who even worries about that crap anymore? That's such nonsense if you ask me. The fact is:
- Even if you could prove with some form of an exact science that utilizing those abilities and storing various amounts of data on your SD card was remotely harmful and could "wear down" (thus lessening the lifespan of the card) it would show that these results would be inconclusive until about a FULL YEAR had gone by.
Run-on sentence. I'm aware. But I had a point to make.

I just finished trying out app2sd in my magic for a few days and everything ran noticibly slower. I also disliked the notion of taking apps offline while copying via usb. I think this article raises valid points. *If* you aren't running out of room, then just leave it. You gain absolutely nothing.
DT

Hahahaha! I was reading for hours and hours of confusing tricks as how to do app2sd and whatever. Now comes a totally destroying tale!
I think ita worth it for a learning session to experiment.
My experience with previous sevaral Symbian phones, as most of them allowed applications to be installed on sd cards and nothing ever went wrong.Fring, Nimbuzz,Maps etc were on almost all times .Especvially Fring or Nimnuzz.
I like mu HTC Magic and put Enom's latest Tmobile ROM.It is fast and stable.Why couldny Android writers gave us the choice in first place- to select you appliocation to install in phone or storage memory like Symbian or WM? Is it something they forgot? Can it be included in future major updates?

It's not a concern of mine.
To put my response earlier quite simply:
I have 4-5 microSDHC cards laying around. All of which are Class 6. I'm not really concerned about "killing" an SD card sooner than it expected. It's an SD card for Christ sake.

Radix999 said:
[*]you'll reduce the life of your sd card
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Click to collapse
I don't think it's a big deal because nowadays most flash memory come with lifetime or at least 5 years warranty. And by the time my 16GB microsd dies, I probably can buy another one for less than 10 bucks.

tengtengvn said:
I don't think it's a big deal because nowadays most flash memory come with lifetime or at least 5 years warranty. And by the time my 16GB microsd dies, I probably can buy another one for less than 10 bucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure the cost of the card is the last thing to worry about. What if you have pics, docs, video that you haven't backed up for some reason and it takes all your info with it. Besides are people actually installing that many apps? I can't see needing or using more than what the phone can store.
Clinton

Money ain't nothing but paper.
Yessssir.
I could make it rain.
SD cards are so cheap. What's $20 to most people...nothing! Enough said. Thread closed. Lol.

While the cost of a micro SD card is neglible, the damage to your phone when you lose all your apps, preferences, settings and get random hangs, errors, slowdowns while the SD card dies IS an issue.
And who cares if you have a dozen or even hundreds of microsd cards - once you've configured Apps2SD then you're prettymuch stuck with the one you have - try and remove it and be prepared for a screwed up phone.
All this hassle for such little benefit!

Wow.
Radix999 said:
While the cost of a micro SD card is neglible, the damage to your phone when you lose all your apps, preferences, settings and get random hangs, errors, slowdowns while the SD card dies IS an issue.
And who cares if you have a dozen or even hundreds of microsd cards - once you've configured Apps2SD then you're prettymuch stuck with the one you have - try and remove it and be prepared for a screwed up phone.
All this hassle for such little benefit!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro, common sense...
BACK YOUR **** UP AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE.
Problem averted. I'm a busy guy, but find plenty of time to periodically, whether it's bi-weekly, etc. to back everything up.
We're gravy.

Radix999 said:
2. you'll reduce the life of your sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As was said, I doubt it will really matter.
And if it does... I prefer to down my SD card, which I can replace (and normally, not all recorded data vanish suddenly if it wears down ! you should only see total memory decreasing, and maybe loosing "some" data)...
....instead of my phone internal memory which I won't be able to replace at all !
I have a magic so for now I can live without apps2SD, though even now I am forced to make choices to get some free space.

Here are some of the issues I had running Apps2SD on my G1:
Backup for root users wouldn't backup apps that were on the SDcard.
If I unmounted or removed the card even with the phone off, many apps would disappear or become corrupt.
Sometimes things would go wrong and the only fix was to reformat and partition the SD card. I had big problems when I was testing Hero roms. I used two different cards and they both had similar issues even though they checked out fine.
Here is why I love Apps2SD:
There are so many great apps for Android and the memory limitations of the G1 would have kept me from being able to give dazzling demos.
Just getting it set up before all the tutorials were available taught me plenty about rooting around the Android guts.
It was really cool to be able to say "oh, you're out of memory? I've got 72MB free with 80 apps installed, but it's no big deal."
I say go ahead and try it out, but be prepared for the worst. I don't remember if Nandroid backups got the apps from the SDcard. I got a Magic PVT 32a with 288MB and never looked back.
Enjoy!

Bwhaha!
I don't back my computer up very often? Hard Drive....What Hard Drive? BIOS is all I got.... Pretty funny!

I don't think anyone is arguing against backups, and I agree the sd destruction argument is somewhat dubious, but that doesn't change the others! The point was: absolutely if you're running a 32b mboard apps2sd is worth a look, but as a magic user, I'm telling you I've tried it and went back after 2 days. The earler post about it being worth it as an experiment might well be true, but I wish I had read that article first!
DT

hi Radix999!
Thank you for porting 32a. My question is, how do i disable App2SD?
I'm using linux so i don't have problem with partions, my problem is to unmount /data/app folder.
Also, will nandroid backup /data folder as well?
Regards

if interested to disable:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5246028

Reignzone said:
Yessssir.
I could make it rain.
SD cards are so cheap. What's $20 to most people...nothing! Enough said. Thread closed. Lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The cheap cost of replacing flash memory won't make the other points go away... and you still have the risk of losing your data. Throw all your money at your phone and you still can't mount your SD card without crashing some apps... all that paper ain't gonna make your apps run faster on Apps2SD than it does on system memory
To begin with, if you got all that dough, why don't you go get a 32A? Or better yet, go grab one of the shiny new phones running Snapdragon, no need for Apps2SD there

the biggest advantage from app2sd for me is not the fact that I can save phone memory even though I have like 80 games and 40 apps installed; but it's because it will save me a lot of time re-installing each and every single app and game between roms testing.
and the biggest disadvantage from app2sd is that your phone depends on that tiny little plastic too much. it wont even turn on without that piece of plastic; and thats very weird cuz i thought app2sd only move other apps (not system apps cuz your system apps are still in /system/app) to your sd card which means system apps should still be able to start your phone without the microsd. But I guess I was wrong cuz my phone wouldn't turn on wihout the sd card installed.
jus my $.02

APP2SD how?
How do you do apps 2 sd? i want to try it out. can some one help or point me to a different forum?
-rooted mt3g 32b

I think the whole life reduction theory is pure b.s whats the difference between you using your micro sd card on the daily bases to transfer data from a computer or having it transfer data in your phone via apps2sd? None at all they use the same transfer mechanism correct?.I have a G1 and a behold 2 been using the same 4GB micro sd card for over 2 years in my G1 I even swapped it and now I use it in my behold 2 (without formatting and without loosing my apps) and have yet to endure any problems/lag slow downs maybe the people who complain simply have no knowledge of the device.both of my phones are rooted with swap partitions and custom firmware and are 2/3 faster than what they were when they came stock.With that being said it will not slow your experience down if you know what you are doing.And you can remove your SDcard without damaging your device you just have to take the BATTERY out before you take the SDCARD out.I do this on the daily bases depending on which phone I prefer to use and theirs no evidence to support the reduction in life for the microsd cards atleast not on any of my devices.

Free movie with your purchase of Vibrant!

If you watch this, then you would know that you get Avatar for free with your phone. Sounds like a desperate move from T-Mobile to differentiate it from the other variants. I'm jealous.

They are just having a movie to show off the screen just like for Transformers on the HTC HD2

Desperate? Uh, why?
The AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Galaxy S phones will probably come barebones with nothing besides the phone, a battery and the charger. T-Mobile always includes some extras and accessories with their phones. Like the headset, MicroSD adapter, an extra back cover, Avatar, and a GoGo free trial.

great - a movie about 8' tall blue smurfs
that's why i'm buying the phone

Got my vibrant today. Its a nice phone coming from the nexus. oh ya the avatar movie is DRM (.dcf) unlike the one in HD2 where its just a mp4 file.

that explains why i couldnt copy the file to my hard drive. i dont mind the movie being drm but if thats the case why not install it on the phones built in memory.. if a change memory cards the movie is no longer available.. its kind of a give and take

meh, the quality its not that great still some artifact not that sharp

so what if i wanted to copy it to a bigger micro sd car would I be able to do that?

No, each movie is registered to 1 sdcard/device

That sucks. I was planning on buying a 16 gb class 6 micro sd card and placing the movie in there with all my music and movies in to the extra 30 gb ( 16 internal and 14 external )

the internal is also formatted so its actually 13.1 gb available space

oh so I guess Avatar isn't going to be apart of my phone if I can't even put it on another card

Watch the movie once (if you really want to watch it on your phone that is) and then swap sd cards. How many times will you want to watch that movie on your phone anyway. Personally, I'll probably take a quick look at it and that's about it. I'm much more interested in playing my own movies and shows on this thing than watching Avatar over and over.

If you have it on Bluray just make a DRM free copy of it and put it on your new microsd card. While its cool to have, how often will you sit down and actually watch the movie. What you could also do is carry the extra card with Avatar on it with you, like your wallet or something. And when you want to watch it pop it in.

speoples20 said:
If you have it on Bluray just make a DRM free copy of it and put it on your new microsd card. While its cool to have, how often will you sit down and actually watch the movie. What you could also do is carry the extra card with Avatar on it with you, like your wallet or something. And when you want to watch it pop it in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have a blue ray copy of avatar how do i make it drm and less then 2gb so it will fit in my sd card

I had absolutely no problem copying the movie from the original 2gb card to my 16gb. It plays fine.
Of course I have no interest in watching it again, but I keep it on to show off to friends.

Yes. It works if you copy it to a another SD Card. It will probably work only on that phone. But it will work on any SD Card. I copied it to a 4GB SD Card and it works fine.

lmfaznboi said:
No, each movie is registered to 1 sdcard/device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whoa, really? that sucks. Since this is XDA, we can't really talk about options, but I'm sure there are a multitude of ways to strip the DRM.
I kinda doubt that they locked it to sdcards, as ^^ indicates.

Once again, the movie works fine if you move it to another SD card. I moved it to my 16gb card and it works just fine. I think it is just registered to the device, not to a specific SD card. Move it at will!

how do i make a link to the new placement of the movie on the internal drive?

The only only reason, i didn't buy one.

Ok this is not another i hate nexus s thread, but it's just my own opinion, on my only main issue, with the nexus s. I know to most of you, this will not be an issue, but for me the lack of a micro sd slot, put me off. I went into my local Carphonewarehouse and they had them in stock, i admired it and what a beauty it was, and ofcourse i new before going , it didn't have a micro sd slot, but the temptation was too much. I made the same mistake, when i bought my 16gig iPhone, and by the time, i had tom tom installed, which is over a gig, in size, fifa is also nearly a gig, and so are most of the racing games, i was fast running out of memory. By the time i had my music on the phone, it was already grasping, for space. I also like some android apps to download YouTube to watch later, and i also have a tendency of keeping my over 3000 plus family photos and video,s on the phone,so the 16gig, is just not enough, in the long run. I have an iPhone 4 32gig, and even then i still have to constantly uninstall and install apps mainly games, due to space, so for me this is the deal braker, and am struggling to understand why they left this out, because with the explosion of gaming due to come to android, the lack of expandable memory, will be a right pain, mark my words on this one.

marvi0 said:
Ok this is not another i hate nexus s thread, but it's just my own opinion, on my only main issue, with the nexus s. I know to most of you, this will not be an issue, but for me the lack of a micro sd slot, put me off. I went into my local Carphonewarehouse and they had them in stock, i admired it and what a beauty it was, and ofcourse i new before going , it didn't have a micro sd slot, but the temptation was too much. I made the same mistake, when i bought my 16gig iPhone, and by the time, i had tom tom installed, which is over a gig, in size, fifa is also nearly a gig, and so are most of the racing games, i was fast running out of memory. By the time i had my music on the phone, it was already grasping, for space. I also like some android apps to download YouTube to watch later, and i also have a tendency of keeping my over 3000 plus family photos and video,s on the phone,so the 16gig, is just not enough, in the long run. I have an iPhone 4 32gig, and even then i still have to constantly uninstall and install apps mainly games, due to space, so for me this is the deal braker, and am struggling to understand why they left this out, because with the explosion of gaming due to come to android, the lack of expandable memory, will be a right pain, mark my words on this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't compare app sizes on iPhones and Androids. iPhone app sizes can range from 5megs all the way up to 2 f'ing gigs.
Android apps have a limit of 50megs.
I actually have an iPod Touch 2G, 8gigger, Mod Edit: Talk of Pirated Content, and I'm not even up to 4gigs of it filled. I did have an iPhone 3GS 16gig a year ago and had 4 GPS apps, and I only used up about 8gigs.
You have have some real issues or an app hoarder if your 32gig iPhone is running out of space. (Unless you use it for music too)
But since you're having space issues still with a 32gig why have an iPhone at all? It has no expandable memory either. Rather weird you're bashing on the Nexus S with no expandable memory, yet you have an iPhone 4 32gig with no expandable memory and also having space issues.
Also btw, on Android, you can upload all your pics to picasa, and they are all accessible from the Gallery app at any time.
EDIT: I think this complaint about no microSD card is the worse microSD card complaint I've ever heard... comparing it to iPhone apps.... sigh.

remember that the 1gig of space for apps is not the 15 gigs of space as an SD card, so Fifa may be extremely large but the initial app is installed on "phone memory" and the extra is downloaded to "sd card"

The lack of an external SD card is bothering me less and less the longer I have the device. App space is a non-issue IMHO as they just don't require much space. While it would be nice to carry my entire music collection around with me, I wouldn't be able to do it in an acceptable format anyway as I have something like 120GB in FLAC and ultimately, I don't generally need to have more than 20 or 30 albums at hand.
All of this will be moot once Google launches their music service. Haters like to point out that streaming isn't a solution due to 5GB data caps, but I stream Last.fm in high quality mode an average of 4 hours per day and have never hit my cap.

mmas0n said:
The lack of an external SD card is bothering me less and less the longer I have the device. App space is a non-issue IMHO as they just don't require much space. While it would be nice to carry my entire music collection around with me, I wouldn't be able to do it in an acceptable format anyway as I have something like 120GB in FLAC and ultimately, I don't generally need to have more than 20 or 30 albums at hand.
All of this will be moot once Google launches their music service. Haters like to point out that streaming isn't a solution due to 5GB data caps, but I stream Last.fm in high quality mode an average of 4 hours per day and have never hit my cap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
20-30 albums at hand ! I find even that too much. For me it would be 6-8 albums that I m currently listening to wanting to listen to. Thats more than enough for me for a month long period Then swap them

the missing microSD support does bother me quite a bit, as I'm a heavy user. (16 GB of MP3, 1.5GB of Apps, not counting my collection of 720 HD movies, now i can't have all of that after switching from SGS, due the space constrain)
but luckly having a true unlimited internet over 3G/HSUPA it's a little bit less of a worry, but i'd still prefer to have access to Removable storage.
So i started this topic in DEV http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=885837
if they can unlock the USB to allow and mount external HDD & or USB memory sticks, then we'll be in good hands

Does anyoneknow if the NS as a sd card inside the phone or if its using nand memory?
If its a microsd inside, couldnt we swap it if the phone was taken apart?

j2l84u said:
Does anyoneknow if the NS as a sd card inside the phone or if its using nand memory?
If its a microsd inside, couldnt we swap it if the phone was taken apart?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NAND memory

nxt said:
I actually have an iPod Touch 2G, 8gigger, jailbroken with TONS of pirated apps/games, and I'm not even up to 4gigs of it filled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Come on - some of us are developers. Don't be so cavalier about stealing others' work. I'm sure you've rationalized your behavior internally, but you're a part of the problem.

jimmypopulous said:
Come on - some of us are developers. Don't be so cavalier about stealing others' work. I'm sure you've rationalized your behavior internally, but you're a part of the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't even use my iPod anymore. I only said that as an example, and I hate Apple and only have an iPod for testing and experience, not for personal use. For the Android, I've actually bought tons of apps. The refund period for the Android helps with making purchases too, too bad it's 15 minutes now though.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

16GB limit is probably the most limiting factor of the NS. That and the lack of a notification LED too.
NAND is supposed to be "lightning" fast but my experience with copying files to and from the NS is that it is way slower than an SD card. I know there are some tweaks out there to speed it up but still.
I wonder if the internal access for the CPU and apps is as slow; if so what is the advantage of NAND over SD?
Joe

I see no big issue with the amount of memory and lack of expansion. Your looking at a very small group of people that need more memory build in. 16gb is plenty for the majority of users.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I'm using my iphone 4 for music but the nexus s is such a pleasure to use.There's always m spot or spotify for music
Shame about no sd though, was weird choice.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I'm not sure why people keep creating these threads? We really don't care why you didn't buy a Nexus S. We did and we know all about your reason and it didn't bother us as much obviously.

Per forum rules, don't get XDA in trouble; please don't talk about pirating apps, games, or movies. Thank you, and enjoy the holidays!

Any felt the need of sd card yet?

I'm thinking of buying LG Nexus 4 but before that i wanted to ask people whether they felt the need to have an extra card slot for the phone. Also how much out of 16 GB is available for personal use...any general comments about the phone itself would be helpful...
Cheers!

shad0wboss said:
I'm thinking of buying LG Nexus 4 but before that i wanted to ask people whether they felt the need to have an extra card slot for the phone. Also how much out of 16 GB is available for personal use...any general comments about the phone itself would be helpful...
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think about 13 was available? A quick google might answer that question more precisely I'm not using the phone for music or lots of movies. I don't expect to run into difficulties in that area.

16gb is plenty,
NEXUS 4 USER

To be honest, 16GB is too much space for me. I have around 1.3 gigs of my dev stuff, some apps (NFS Most Wanted People complain all the time about how they need 32/64GB of storage but the only reason I can think of needing that much is for music and movies. You can stream those as well so it's not a big deal.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

16GB is probably enough for most, but you can always get a wifi storage device if you need more.
i just bought a pqi air drive and put a 32GB class 10 sd card in it for movies/ music etc.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/PQI-...orage-to-Smartphones-and-Tablets-254927.shtml
also check out the Ravpower wireless drive.
http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower®-Wireless-Drive-For-Smartphones-Lightning/dp/B00AQUMZRA

First of all, I don't own nexus 4 but a galaxy s3 with expendable micro sd slot. But I do want to get nexus 4 as well!!
From my personal usage, 16gig is simply not enough. I play lots of heavy games most of them from gameloft, each will take >1gig space and I do shot pictures videos and have tons of other applications installed as well.
I put videos, pictures and musics on sd card but still, only 2.3gig left on internal storage.
I know maybe vanilla android will be smaller than touchwiz but considering >10gig video and pictures that I have, 16gig just won't be enough .
Of course, you may not be like me and can use cloud storage. In the end, it's how you use your phone for the most, and regardless nexus 4 or other phones, it will be the same.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app

I've not installed any games yet, but I imagine once I do, the space will begin to go quickly. Music I'm less worried about, I stream mainly from YouTube etc. Video recording will be interesting though.
I would have preferred an SD card option, just because it's a fallback. An SD model would have probably convinced me to go for an 8GB N4, but no SD meant I had to go for the 16GB one.
The lack of OTG on this phone is a worry, but at the end of the day, considering the relative ubiquity of WiFi/3G internet in most developed countries, I don't think it's a big problem for streaming video, music etc, so really it's just games and what not that might be the struggle. I'm thinking of setting up a dropbox, (First time for me) which would be good for videos, and music and what not. I'm just not convinced of the price thats all. 2GB isn't very much, and as I have a pretty unlimited web server I could take advantage of that.

h.han said:
First of all, I don't own nexus 4 but a galaxy s3 with expendable micro sd slot. But I do want to get nexus 4 as well!!
From my personal usage, 16gig is simply not enough. I play lots of heavy games most of them from gameloft, each will take >1gig space and I do shot pictures videos and have tons of other applications installed as well.
I put videos, pictures and musics on sd card but still, only 2.3gig left on internal storage.
I know maybe vanilla android will be smaller than touchwiz but considering >10gig video and pictures that I have, 16gig just won't be enough .
Of course, you may not be like me and can use cloud storage. In the end, it's how you use your phone for the most, and regardless nexus 4 or other phones, it will be the same.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I m coming from SGS3 16Gb+32Gb mem card.
And I had to adjust. I have some music (had to choose what I m not listening to too often, haha).
About 1.5 Gb of nandroid+5/600 mb of rom and flashable stuff.
I ve had to stop walking around with whole seasons of TV, that s for sure But it's doable.
In the end, no matter how much space you do have, it ll get filled up with things that you don't actually need, so that s OK to pick and chose I ve got to say that I m not having any issue thinking about apps or not, I just get all in there and it fits!
So that s my experience, all in all, you have to think how to adjust, cause you ll have to do so.
Also, cloud storage? I ve got 1.8 Gb of data/month on my plan so yeah, that won't work. Since it s not when I m near Wi-Fi that I need to be mobile !

I wanna say that before I had the Nexus 4 I was thinking that 8GB is more than enough! And in my country there is only the 16GB version but boy I am glad that this was the case! On 16GB you have 12.92GB (don't ask me why theres 3GB less I don't know how system can take more than 1GB) and on 8GB you have only 5.67GB!
Now i have like 2,5GB free space left on my 16GB version! It is okay I wouldn't mind having more space though I didn't have any problems yet. But I noticed some games are very big if you are a games 16GB might be too small (I'm no gamer though most of my space is taken by music).

AW: Any felt the need of sd card yet?
My storage was full. but after getting rid of all the junk.. old roms etc it was ..ok:thumbup:
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

It has been a compromise for me. I'm also a musician and like to carry my entire music collection with me. I wasn't a fan of using the cloud because when I'm underground in the subway and I want to hear a song and if it's not cached I'm screwed. It has taken a bit of adjustment. I have a 32GB GS3 with a 64GB card and between music, videos, movies, pictures I filled more than half of the 64gb card.
I also don't have as many apps installed on my N4. I've definitely had to scale things down a bit. Although, I am having an easier time dealing with it then I thought I would.

I have 8gb and what I miss from my s2 (16gb + 32gb sdcard) is all the backups, roms I had.. Besides that, everything is fine

I bought the 16 GB version and haven't needed one yet. I ended up buying a 32GB Nexus 7 which is mainly used for heavy games like Vice City and NFS, leaving me with quite a bit of storage left on my Nexus 4. I stream all my music from Google play since I have unlimited data and Wi-Fi is pretty much everywhere I go.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

Any comments on the performance compared to S3? physically as well? I know that adreno 320 is much better than the mali 400 but by how much?

graffixnyc said:
It has been a compromise for me. I'm also a musician and like to carry my entire music collection with me. I wasn't a fan of using the cloud because when I'm underground in the subway and I want to hear a song and if it's not cached I'm screwed. It has taken a bit of adjustment. I have a 32GB GS3 with a 64GB card and between music, videos, movies, pictures I filled more than half of the 64gb card.
I also don't have as many apps installed on my N4. I've definitely had to scale things down a bit. Although, I am having an easier time dealing with it then I thought I would.
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Click to collapse
use google music. even when i used sd i couldnt put my collection on it, i had to cut it in half. with gm i have my entire collection with me whereever i go. i live in two countries with long travels in between without connection - its as easy as tapping on the stuff i wanna listen to while being offline. you can make it even easier if you use playlists. i wasnt sure about cloud either but the way i see it, it works pretty well. i'd even say better than cutting my collection in half to fit 32gb.

graffixnyc said:
It has been a compromise for me. I'm also a musician and like to carry my entire music collection with me. I wasn't a fan of using the cloud because when I'm underground in the subway and I want to hear a song and if it's not cached I'm screwed. It has taken a bit of adjustment. I have a 32GB GS3 with a 64GB card and between music, videos, movies, pictures I filled more than half of the 64gb card.
I also don't have as many apps installed on my N4. I've definitely had to scale things down a bit. Although, I am having an easier time dealing with it then I thought I would.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you read what i posted about wireless drives? might help you.

molesarecoming said:
use google music. even when i used sd i couldnt put my collection on it, i had to cut it in half. with gm i have my entire collection with me whereever i go. i live in two countries with long travels in between without connection - its as easy as tapping on the stuff i wanna listen to while being offline. you can make it even easier if you use playlists. i wasnt sure about cloud either but the way i see it, it works pretty well. i'd even say better than cutting my collection in half to fit 32gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using GM. The only thing that sucks is sometimes I will be underground in the subway and feel like hearing a song out of the blue. If it's not a song that is cached then I'm out of luck.
theabsurdman said:
did you read what i posted about wireless drives? might help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I did. But I don't know if I'd want to carry it around with me. For that I could just carry my GS3 with me
I really was turned off by the lack of storage on the N4(I wasn't going to get one for that only reason) but I'm making due. If anything it keeps me on top of keeping my phone tidy and organized because instead of just leaving everything on the SD card I now clean it out every couple days to remove stuff taking up space. And instead of having like 50 games installed I only have the ones I'm currently playing installed

isn't there a way to unscrew the thing and replace the inner one? I think there's an inner sd card which can be replaced...I mean, my friend has htc mozart and it also doesn't have a proper slot for external card however if one unscrew the back, there's a card deep inside which can be replaced with a bigger one...Isn't it the same with Nexus 4?

For me 16 GB is plenty of space, the only thing I miss the SD slot for is easy transfer of files. I don't have to plug the phone in to transfer files.
I haven't tried the NFC / BT or WIFI (can;t use in corporate network) for file transfers.
Other than that I have been very happy with this phone, no root, stock ui, I am loving it.
PHR

I have my nexus 7 for the movies and honestly I don't understand people watching movies on a tiny screen.
I also don't understand people who "knows" more than 2500 songs.
And the ones who can play 5 different game loft games on a daily basis.
So 12 isn't enough for obsessive compulsive people who has to have everything with them.
I bet they carry a huge bag stuffed with stuff as well. In case they suddenly happen to go on a holiday or something.

Not Fair

The fact that"system memory* takes up 6GB when you first get the tablet is ridiculous. A 16GB tablet and you're already down to 10 straight out of the box.
Sent from my VK810 4G using xda app-developers

roghitmanx47 said:
The fact that"system memory* takes up 6GB when you first get the tablet is ridiculous. A 16GB tablet and you're already down to 10 straight out of the box.
Sent from my VK810 4G using xda app-developers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's par for the course with JB + bloat that mfg's install these days. At least you can throw in a 64GB (possibly even the 128GB) microSD card and have plenty of storage for media and extra apps. Not sure if you flash one of the debloated/deodexed ROM's if you free up a lot more space in the 16GB memory?

skay said:
That's par for the course with JB + bloat that mfg's install these days. At least you can throw in a 64GB (possibly even the 128GB) microSD card and have plenty of storage for media and extra apps. Not sure if you flash one of the debloated/deodexed ROM's if you free up a lot more space in the 16GB memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, it is pretty common. The bloat is not nearly as bad as thought, plus I think LG's apps are quite nice.
Video player - Certainly one of the best stock players I have seen, allowing many video formats, though I still use BS Player.
QRemote - is hands down the best of its kind.
Qtranslator - is a very impressive tool IMHO. You point the camera at a sign or text, it scans it, and will translate it into any language of your choice.
QVoice - the voice-activated personal assistant is fascinating though imperfect. Still, it understands commands such as "Wake me in 40 minutes", and will automatically set the alarm to ring for you. Of all the LG apps, it is the heaviest, requiring three files totaling roughly 150MB. Understandable nonetheless.
Video editor - Very practical, and very efficient.
LG weather widget - Frankly, I think this is the best weather/clock widget I have seen on any phone/tablet, better than HTC, Samsung or other. Not only is it very attractive with high resolution graphics, but if you go to landscape it instantly changes shape to show several days forecast. With the lock screen on, it will display the weather on your screen. For example, if it is raining, it will look like it is raining on the screen. A cool effect.
The other apps are quite standard, such as music player, memo, notebook, and a few others.
No doubt this all adds up, but not GB worth, and people would be far more critical of LG if new buyers found themselves missing these basic features. Still, if you hate this, feel free to go for one of the CyanogenMod ROMS, or the stock-modified LRS.

Well see I have the Verizon variant and there is still not a root for it yet. I have a 32GB SD card in it now but I would like to have more system memory too.

roghitmanx47 said:
Well see I have the Verizon variant and there is still not a root for it yet. I have a 32GB SD card in it now but I would like to have more system memory too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? What difference does it make whether it is System memory or external?

Because the more stuff that's on the internal memory the slower the tablet will perform? That's kind of a proven fact.

roghitmanx47 said:
Because the more stuff that's on the internal memory the slower the tablet will perform? That's kind of a proven fact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would kind of like to see that proof.

android404 said:
I would kind of like to see that proof.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So would I.

Seriously? You guys don't believe that if you have 10MB free of internal memory that the tablet or phone will perform slower? That's not a thought that's ever crossed your mind?

roghitmanx47 said:
Seriously? You guys don't believe that if you have 10GB free of internal memory that the tablet or phone will perform slower? That's not a thought that's ever crossed your mind?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would it cross our minds? You are completely wrong.

You're right

roghitmanx47 said:
You're right
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In any case, consider the situation of owners of tablets such as the Nexus 7 or an iPad Mini who have no easy option to upgrade the storage space, since these do not accept microSD cards. IMO they are the ones who should be heading this thread.

roghitmanx47 said:
Well see I have the Verizon variant and there is still not a root for it yet. I have a 32GB SD card in it now but I would like to have more system memory too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is root via kingo, just not recovery.

roghitmanx47 said:
Seriously? You guys don't believe that if you have 10MB free of internal memory that the tablet or phone will perform slower? That's not a thought that's ever crossed your mind?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Limited Free space on the storage part of an android device typically only causes a performance impact if trim is not working on the device and therefore the remaining free space gets fragmented badly (typically no longer an issue), or if cache files can then not get created by the software that is trying to cache. This statement is assuming that the additional carrier bloatware can be disabled from always running in the background and hey, you are reading this on XDA which means we can typically root the device and use Titanium Backup (or similar tools) to freeze the bloat that wants to run in the background. Just having less storage space on a storage device which isn't fragmented and is using a modern file system which has sufficient remaining space for caching should have no impact on performance in practice...

burgeke said:
There is root via kingo, just not recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am unable to get kingo to work on VK810, will not even recognize that my device is connected.
I am beyond frustrated trying to root this tablet. Any help would be appreciated. It also doesn't appear to be a driver related issue, as I've tried all drivers that other have recommended and worked for them.