Database Users

So I got to compare the old with the new.

(WARNING: This is long.)
My father got word of the Nexus S (he's not much into technology) and wanted one, so I went to Best Buy today to play around with it. I figured I would compare it against my Nexus One with Gingerbread and see how big the difference is.
I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the new Nexus, since it's pretty much a standard Galaxy S device with a few niceties. It was disappointing to find out that it wasn't even convincing me to feel anything.
The Hummingbird CPU on the Nexus S is indeed as fast as it seems, but the experience doesn't feel that much faster than on my Nexus One (especially when using Launcher Pro). I suppose it would be better for Live Wallpapers, but I never caught on to that. I tested a YouTube video both in HD and standard quality, and neither stream played any better on the S though they looked a bit nicer on a bigger screen. It's a definite, hands-down improvement for mobile gaming, though.
The device itself definitely felt as plasticky as the Vibrant, but it's not terrible. However, I prefer the metallic feel of the Nexus One.
The screen is bigger and a bit brighter, but it also has a cooler color temperature, which may contribute to that brightness a bit. Colors from the camera lens seemed less saturated than those on the Nexus One, though they could also be closer to the actual results. I really liked the front-facing camera; I hope video calling takes off soon. (Has FaceTime even been open-sourced yet?)
The S booted up WAY faster than the Nexus One. I did a boot comparison and turned it on about a half-minute later by accident and it still booted before my Nexus One finished.
These differences would be acceptable for an upgrade, but I'm not sure if I'll feel comfortable with losing the microSD slot and trackball. The SD reader can really come in handy, and makes transfers super easy since tons upon tons of phones and laptops have one. (Then again, the Windows Phone 7 team decided to do something similar here as well, so it could be the sign of a trend. I hope not.) Trackball notifications were really, really nifty too, though not as important as the SD reader.
Other than T-Mobile making it unreasonably difficult for me to actually upgrade to the device, the deal-breaker for me was that it didn't seem nearly as innovative as the Nexus One was for me. I could be biased because my first experience on Android was on the G1...and we all know how wonderful that device was. Because of that, hoping onto the Nexus One was like a BIG breath of fresh air and a big reassurance that Android is an exceptional alternative to the iPhone universe. I feel even more so with devices like the G2 (the device I'm set on getting now), Droid X and MT4G, which have been HUGE upgrades from the devices that preceded them. The Nexus S, on the other hand, doesn't even have Wifi Calling (though I guess it'll get it at some point?) or HSPA+. I can't justify spending a small fortune on that.
As for my father, I'm getting him a Nexus One. Coming from an original iPhone, he, and my wallet, will definitely appreciate it.

It wasn't worth it the moment I heard it wouldn't be covered by the phone insurance and no SD card swap. G2 wasn't worth it either in my opinion

Does make you wonder about no ins coverage
I only played with one at Best Buy, but came to many of the OP's conclusions!

No insurance coverage? Wow, that's weird.

Re: boot time, were you comparing a fresh NS against a full-o-****e N1, or was it like for like?

Rusty! said:
Re: boot time, were you comparing a fresh NS against a full-o-****e N1, or was it like for like?
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Click to collapse
Like for like; N1 is running the Gingerbread ROM that's being developed, which comes with a few apps but nothing heavy. That might have slowed its boot time a bit.

Rusty! said:
Re: boot time, were you comparing a fresh NS against a full-o-****e N1, or was it like for like?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I picked my NS from CPW yesterday and have been comparing it with my soon to be retired N1.
I've got FRG83D on the N1 (completely stock, no apps) and it takes twice as long to boot as the NS... but the NS only feels 'half done '! It's still got the old market, it can't see some apps on the market, and it feels Buggy... guess that's why the N1 doesn't have gingerbread yet... they haven't finished it!
The NS screen is nice but the back button doesn't work half the time! Wifi is more sensitive on theN1, 3g is more reliable on the NS. The NS feels a lot quicker but its hard to tell if its the phone or the OS.
I'm waiting on an official GB update for the N1 before I decide which phone goes on fleabay...

lf2k5 said:
I picked my NS from CPW yesterday and have been comparing it with my soon to be retired N1.
I've got FRG83D on the N1 (completely stock, no apps) and it takes twice as long to boot as the NS... but the NS only feels 'half done '! It's still got the old market, it can't see some apps on the market, and it feels Buggy... guess that's why the N1 doesn't have gingerbread yet... they haven't finished it!
The NS screen is nice but the back button doesn't work half the time! Wifi is more sensitive on theN1, 3g is more reliable on the NS. The NS feels a lot quicker but its hard to tell if its the phone or the OS.
I'm waiting on an official GB update for the N1 before I decide which phone goes on fleabay...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back button is a known issue -try and get a swap from CPWH.
To chip in my experience:
Went from a N1 with MIUI (was in love with the ROM, it's awesome, quick looks amazing etc) to Stock NS.
Have to say, N1 has been sat at home not used since the S arrived. The screen on the S is simply amazing, so responsive to touch looks fantastic. The "proper" multi-touch is great too - especially in google maps.
The S feels nice to hold - especially in landscape. The extra bulges make a big difference, it sits very nicely in the hand.
It feels a little less sturdy that the N1 does, deff lighter and doesn't feel like it'd take well to being dropped.
Still slightly worried about the screen - since no one seems to know how easily it'll scratch yet.
Speed wise, the S is quick. Navigation is about the same as N1 on MIUI (maybe a little slower), apps load wise, everything feels nippier.
The phone does lack a few features, but no doubt these will be added over the coming months - either officially or via the dev community.
It remains to be seen how the dev community will take to the S. Early days show a couple of custom roms, kernel and recovery and a few of the "bigger" names starting to work on the phone....
Is the S worth the upgrade - it depends. The overall experience IMO is better than the N1. It seems (so far) easier to get along with out. There's a few features missing - if these are must have's then the S isn't for you.
Go and have a play with one if you can.
FWIW - my fiancée is IN LOVE with the S. She normally hates smartphones, but this seems to be an exception...

You Can Have It
I just came back from Best Buy returning my Nexus S.
Yeah the touch screen had a little more snappy response
and the gpu makes it a little faster than my Nexus One
but the phone is not worth wasting a two year contract
on. Its just not much of an upgrade over the N1.
The lack of any way to move the curser was the last straw.
No track pad or track ball, no NS for me.

I did side by side tests clicking each app simultaneously and both my nexus one and the S loaded identical speeds for most everything.
I was however impressed with the quality and feel of the build of the nexus s. Much more solid and high end feeling than I thought it would be.

RogerPodacter said:
I did side by side tests clicking each app simultaneously and both my nexus one and the S loaded identical speeds for most everything.
I was however impressed with the quality and feel of the build of the nexus s. Much more solid and high end feeling than I thought it would be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got a Nexus One (traded a old netbook for it ) but had a EVO for a while now. Friend I traded with got a Nexus S so I got to play with both a lot. The bottom line is that most apps are pretty simple and would probably run fine on a 400 MHz CPU, but the apps that don't (Google Earth, Maps in 3D view, 3D gallery app, Games, etc) usually require a decent GPU to run 100% smooth, and it becomes obvious that the Adreno 200 can't keep up. It may run decently (20-30 FPS) but once you put the N1 or EVO side by side to the NS you can see that the apps are buttery smooth on second gen hardware.
It also pisses me off that I can't run a LW paper without causing the home screen to lag under 20 FPS while doing certain actions - especially the Microbes wallpaper which looks cool as hell IMO.

I say I will upgrade to watever phone Cyanogen upgrades too... and thats just being real honest loool.
Sent from my Nexus One...

Award Tour said:
usually require a decent GPU to run 100% smooth, and it becomes obvious that the Adreno 200 can't keep up. It may run decently (20-30 FPS) but once you put the N1 or EVO side by side to the NS you can see that the apps are buttery smooth on second gen hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not necessary the Ardeno200 to blame. Gingerbread has got a much better 3D stack they bought from outside, while the N1 and Evo are still using the old one. Currently it is not clear where the NS performance advantage is coming from.

draugaz said:
It is not necessary the Ardeno200 to blame. Gingerbread has got a much better 3D stack they bought from outside, while the N1 and Evo are still using the old one. Currently it is not clear where the NS performance advantage is coming from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can replace the Nexus S with a SGS running 2.1 and you'll see the same results. Its the GPU, we all know it's that. If it wasn't for that weakness, the Nexus One would still be as speedy as the newer phones.
Sent using Tapatalk

Award Tour said:
You can replace the Nexus S with a SGS running 2.1 and you'll see the same results. Its the GPU, we all know it's that. If it wasn't for that weakness, the Nexus One would still be as speedy as the newer phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure? As far as I can tell, the SGS UI is not significantly "smoother" than nexus one.
On the other hand, everyone drools how buttery smooth the WP7 devices are, and almost all of them are using Adreno200. And they even consider some "serious" 3D gaming with XBL.

Does anyone have any infos in regards to battery life on the NS? What is the battery life on the Nexus S? I think comparing battery life with the Nexus One is useless for now, since both devices are not running 2.3 yet!

draugaz said:
Are you sure? As far as I can tell, the SGS UI is not significantly "smoother" than nexus one.
On the other hand, everyone drools how buttery smooth the WP7 devices are, and almost all of them are using Adreno200. And they even consider some "serious" 3D gaming with XBL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm sure, seen it with my own eyes. The SGS suffers from weird lag to due the file system but with it fixed it runs fine, and even without it fixed it still runs smoother in things that rely on the GPU (those things I mentioned). But like I said, weird issues (like the file system lag) aside, running through a list shouldn't require a lot of power; it's when you hit apps that do need the power that you realize the difference.
...and about WP7, I agree. But this isn't WP7, and everything Google has shown so far isn't as optimized. The Adreno 200 will always be weak compared to every other high end GPU but I hope that Honeycomb w/ full HW acceleration (if it even supports the Adreno 200) can at least bring some life to it like WP7 has.

Award Tour said:
Yeah, I'm sure, seen it with my own eyes. The SGS suffers from weird lag to due the file system but with it fixed it runs fine, and even without it fixed it still runs smoother in things that rely on the GPU (those things I mentioned). But like I said, weird issues (like the file system lag) aside, running through a list shouldn't require a lot of power; it's when you hit apps that do need the power that you realize the difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Comparing stock for stock, when I scroll a list I can hit 100% CPU utilization on a N1, and ~84% with NS.

Best AT&T LTE Device?

Considering getting the Skyrocket on AT&T ... looking for experts opinions on the best Android device currently available or soon to be available for AT&T.

I had my choice of all of them, and the Skyrocket was by far the best.
The LG Nitro is an LG, plain and simple. Gorgeous but unresponsive screen, laggy, no dev support, gets blisteringly hot.
The Vivid's dev was stunted due to an originally locked bootloader (they couldnt even get root permanently), and in my opinion it has a really heavy, clunky frame.
The Skyrocket has some screen issues so make sure you get a good one, but it's the easy choice (to me). The Nokia Ace (WP7.5) is coming soon, as is the Sony Xperia super-phone. I'm looking to the Xperia in February, but if you don't want to wait that long...

Thanks going to go with the White Skyrocket and see what comes next.
Someone said that there was a way to get CM9 to work with the Skyrocket.

Wait a week and see what comes out of CES

entropism said:
The LG Nitro is an LG, plain and simple. Gorgeous but unresponsive screen, laggy, no dev support, gets blisteringly hot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unresponsive screen? You're crazy, I have NEVER experienced whatever it is you call an unresponsive screen.
Lag? The "lag" on my nitro is so minimal I only notice it in extreme circumstances. Once we get hardware acceleration from ICS, I expect that to dissapear for the most part.
No dev support? The ball is rolling, my guess is that we are days away from CWM. We had perma-root on day 1.
Blistering hot? This phone gets no hotter than any other high-spec smartphone I've seen as of late, mine has never gotten too hot to handle. The hottest I've ever noticed is when playing Homerun Battle 3d while plugged in with setcpu set to always stay at full speed.
The biggest drawback is battery life. But it seems that all 720p phone(including the GN) are having this issue. With tweaks I get from 8am to 10pm EASILY with medium usage. I also carry a spare battery in my wallet.
The thing is, you don't see me or any other Nitro user bashing on other AT&T phones just to satisfy some urge to feel I am superior. Head on over to the Nitro HD forum and have a look.

Yeah no need to bash on other Android phones. Now bashing on Apple phones, well....

Ha, true that...
Sorry for the rant, I just reread that post and it does have some unnecessary 'tude. I will say that I really have no opinion or allegiance to LG, Samsung or whatever, a corp is a corp.
After all, it wasn't so long ago that people said about Samsung Android phones ", The Samsung is a Samsung, plain and simple."
I'm gonna edit out the first line.

red_solo_cup said:
Unresponsive screen? You're crazy, I have NEVER experienced whatever it is you call an unresponsive screen.
Lag? The "lag" on my nitro is so minimal I only notice it in extreme circumstances. Once we get hardware acceleration from ICS, I expect that to dissapear for the most part.
No dev support? The ball is rolling, my guess is that we are days away from CWM. We had perma-root on day 1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so... the complaints of unresponsive screens and lag that are all over the Nitro forums are what, exactly? If you go to a store and demo the phone, you experience it as well, and I'm NOT talking about the phones on the wall that are running the demo software. The same issues were there with the Thrill, though the Nitro improves on it a bit. As for getting hot, I've held a few while charging/in use, and it got HOT. Hotter than comfortable, and far hotter than other phones.
As for dev support: You've had root since day one, great. There's pretty much nothing else, after a month of release. It's not selling well in stores, and there are no major devs even giving this a try. At least when the Thrill came out, you had one of the CM team and gtg465x plugging away at some form of progress. Seems like this is going even slower than the Vivid, and that had a locked Bootloader hindering its progress.
I'm not sure why you're getting so upset, to be honest. It's a phone, with major flaws, made by a company RENOWNED for putting out phones with major flaws. It's also a company RENOWNED for nonexistant software updates, so I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for ICS. Just ask the Thrill people who were promised GB a month after release, and I'm pretty sure they're STILL waiting for the update. So yeah, still not sure why you're getting so upset.

Touchwiz sucks. Go for the vivid, sense is silky smooth with the increased RAM and has a lot more polish and features than touchwiz. Plus, the skyrocket has tons of screen issues.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

Honestly, I dont like any of the current LTE selection ATM mainly because I hate Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs on android (most underperforming of any dual core in real world use)
But the least crappy of the three would be the Skyrocket imo

My advice dont get any att phone specially lg you wont have any dev support and you wont get any updates att the worst provider ever
Sent from my LG-P925 using XDA App

I'm actually waiting for the Sony Ion since I do not like any of At & t's offering for their LTE phones as of current moment.

i'll go for the Samsung NOTES LTE if i were crazy enough to use AT&T

.
Thread moved. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
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If you want 720p, get the LG Nitro HD. Using a different launcher removes lag. I use SPB Shell 3D and I haven't really had any lag since I downloaded it. Only lag comes from zooming on the internet but it isn't horrible. It does get kind of hot, but I use a case, and it's not burning or anything. Just noticeable. The battery life starts out awful but strangely over a month or so ends up going all the way up to above average. I get 6AM to 11PM easy, with a good amount left over. The only problems are lack of dev support, temperature, messed up compass, and the stock launcher.
If you don't care about resolution I'd get the HTC Vivid, but the Skyrocket is fine too. Sense is great, the phone looks and feels better, and the resolution is higher.

The Galaxy Note comes out this week so you go just wait for that. Skyrocket is an awesome phone too though. Got to compare the too along with the Galaxy Nexus at CES this year and you really couldn't go wrong with either of the three. Although, I like the Galaxy Note the most because of it's size. Looks like you are holding a tablet up to your face when you are on the phone.

Willanhanyard said:
The Galaxy Note comes out this week so you go just wait for that. Skyrocket is an awesome phone too though. Got to compare the too along with the Galaxy Nexus at CES this year and you really couldn't go wrong with either of the three. Although, I like the Galaxy Note the most because of it's size. Looks like you are holding a tablet up to your face when you are on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too. i love my note. feels awesome holding this 5.3 inch slab of gorilla glass on my face!!

I still think the Skyrocket.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW

Well for half the price of the Skyrocket II, the Vivid still is a great competitor. It isn't as fast but like one of the guys said above me, Sense is silky smooth. It's pretty thin but still huge to carry around. Personally, since I have big hands this bodes well for me. The display is really clear and, no pun intended, vivid. The battery seems to last me through the day, and that is with quite a bit of browsing, texting, and using a somewhat bright setting. That's with the stock battery. I have had no problems with the touchscreen so for me this is a fantastic phone. Comes with Gingerbread 2.3.4
Speed: 8/10
Display: 10/10
Battery: 8/10
Durability: 9/10
Camera: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Every time I ran speed test on Skyrocket and Vivid, side by side at local at&t stores here in Austin, the Vivid was significantly faster.

[Q] Considering a Nexus 4, a few questions for long time N4 owners

Considering picking up a Nexus 4 and would love to hear some pros and cons from long time users of the N4 on XDA that have had the phone for months now, and their real-world usage and opinion (like how the performance/battery holds up after x months of use). I also wouldn't mind hearing about comparisons to other phones with regards to performance if other N4 owner have/use other phones, older or new.
Some background info:
I'm coming from a 2010 HTC Windows Phone, so I'll probably be blown away by what a 2012/2013ish phone hardware is like. WP7 on my HTC HD7 still runs very fast/smoothly in the core OS experience, but once you get to 3rd party app load times on startup, it becomes painful. On top of that MS has all but abandoned WP7, and features-wise, its seriously dated and missing key basic but essential features of smartphone OS's, like ahem orientation lock and a more modern mobile web browser, not even 3rd party apps can help there.

Like you said any 2012/13 phone will amaze you from the phone you have now. You might not even notice the differences between all these new phones.
The closest comparison to this phone would be the s3.
nexus 4 slightly outperforms the s3, you would most notice the smoothness between the two. Battery life, they're roughly the same, except if you use your phone a lot... like extensively than the better choice is the s3. Camera is also better on the s3. Storage goes to s3. But I feel the nexus is the more complete phone... I guess you can say less hiccups.
I would probably choose s4 and htc one over nexus though. Haven't played with them yet, but simply because they're newer lol
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I love my n4. I'm not a "long time" owner being 2 weeks of owning it, but I'll tell you I love it. I came from a One X running a custom rom and it didn't compare to the speed of the stock n4. It may be a dual core vs quad but still, aosp is just fantastic. Battery is pretty good I'd say. It gets through the day, I'll show some pictures. The lack of LTE and storage isn't a big deal to me because all my music is coming from the cloud and HSPA is fast enough. I haven't even switched to the HSPA+ plan yet because lazy. However, it doesn't play music near as loud as my One X through headphones, but they have a mod for that.
Oh and it charges pretty fast.
Sent from my fridge using XDA Premium

I love my n4. I'm not a "long time" owner being 2 weeks of owning it, but I'll tell you I love it. I came from a One X running a custom rom and it didn't compare to the speed of the stock n4. It may be a dual core vs quad but still, aosp is just fantastic. Battery is pretty good I'd say. It gets through the day, I'll show some pictures. The lack of LTE and storage isn't a big deal to me because all my music is coming from the cloud and HSPA is fast enough. I haven't even switched to the HSPA+ plan yet because lazy. However, it doesn't play music near as loud as my One X through headphones, but they have a mod for that.
Oh and it charges pretty fast.
View attachment 2056162
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Sent from my fridge using XDA Premium

Nexus all the way. It's been a little less than a month of owning it, and it's great. Everything works like it's supposed to work, custom ROMs are easy to install, and I unlocked the bootloader/rooted it in a little less than an hour.

I got mine since december of the past year, and I love it more than ever, looks amazing, runs smooth, can run any game without lag, it fit my needs.
I must warn you to be careful don't drop it
My sister have an galaxy s3 and honestly the Nexus 4 is at higher level

I have the S3 and Nexus 4 and Whereas I love my S3, the N4 is the better phone all around. The S3 has it's better things like storage, LTE, S Calendar, OMLEAD (sp.) Screen (where black background takes no power but on N4 it does) and the camera. The camera is by far the best. Beats the heck out of N4 so if you take alot of pics, you'll want the S3. The N4 does okay on its camera but is no where near S3. BUT...performance wise, the N4 wins, hands down. ASOP is better in my opinion as some of these custome UI's really take a lot of power, etc. Plus, for $350, you get a highend phone for a midrange price. It's a no brainer in my opinion.

I'm happy with my N4. If you need an unlocked phone, for the price you seriously can't beat it. If price is no issue, I agree with Teo032 and I'd go with S4 or HTC One based on hardware.
The one thing about the N4 I'm still getting used to is the lack of storage size. I STRONGLY suggest getting the 16 GB. I got the 8 and I would totally pay $50 for another 8 gigs. I think it currently comes with a free bumper, if not, get one, they're actually pretty cool and my N4 kept slidding off crap because the screen is so smooth.
Good luck!

Nearing two months here. Upgraded from the LG Optimus 2X, the world's first dual core Android.
I absolutely love my N4. For the price it's a steal. The performance just blows me away (I am running CyanogenMod, not overclocked) compared to my old phone which had s**tty drivers and often had lag spikes even with overclocking.
If you compare the N4 to a stock unrooted Galaxy S4 or HTC One (the two powerhouses of 2013), you will actually find that when exiting apps and going around the home screens, the N4 is faster than either phone, because those two powerhouses have to deal with the overhead of rendering an ugly custom skin that adds no value Of course when actually inside an app those two phones will be the performance kings, but the N4 is no slouch either - it nails pretty much every game I throw at it.
These are the only real reasons to forgo the N4 in favour of something else:
1. You have the $$$ and want better build quality
2. You can't live with only 16 GB of internal storage, non-expandable
3. You like having a removable battery (or at least a removable cover to make accessing the SIM easier)
4. You want officially supported LTE that isn't 1700 Mhz
5. You think 4.7" is too big (a fair reason) and want something more compact.
If none of those points apply to you, then by all means, GET THE NEXUS 4!!! Also as a bonus you can load on a Metro UI skin if you miss WP

It's been like ~2 months now, and as most lads above I can sincerely say that it was the best choice possible at the moment (still is imo). Seeing that I simply agree with most of whats above this post, peformance wise n stuff, ill poke it from another point of view. Being an iphone4 user (jailbroken of course), the very first time I had the chance to fiddle with the nexus4 - it stole my heart completely. Versatility is just beyond any limits and if youre looking for a smart purchase, good performance/price ratio AND quality product - N4 is the best choice possible right now. The reason ive been using an iphone for quite a bit was actually lack of android based quality products (well, apart from a couple of htc's maybe ). It is crucial for me since I hate using a phone that reminds me of a plastic toy. N4 is the perfect solution in this case - official android based product combined with decent materials. You have to keep in mind though - it is a fragile piece of equipment and if you have like slippery hands (lol) or simply drop the phone pretty (too ) often - you must get yourself a case/bumper (i would recommend a piece of screen/back protector as well) cuz it might hurt if it bangs the floor

The Best...just saying

I have it for a long time and i must say its a nice phone.
You must be aware tho that there are random wifi issues on this phone that will probably be corrected with a system update.
The stock rom is ok and the stock google kernel uses the perf. branch so do not expect great battery life on stock even when the phone's idle.
A protective case is required or you will screw the back glass easily.
Photosphere is a nice feature included on the phone.
Phone overheats easily
You see the digitizer on screen
But its a great phone and im happy with it. Nothing would beat the galaxy s2 i had lol
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Ordered mine on day one and received it the following week. I came from an iPhone.
I have had no issues other than Android itself. Some of it is half baked, and fixes can be non-existent. Battery life is OK if you come to the conclusion that some apps are the main cause of poor battery life on Android... it is a bit of a free for all here. I have seen significant improvement since installing Qualcomm's Battery Guru. I have seen 13.5 hours on battery with 2hr 46min screen time and 50% battery left. While it ain't quite an iPhone, it is more than sufficient.
The phone is very poorly documented and much of how it works is a "discovery by braille" experience. The stock mail client is unusable for business... thankfully I found a better one (AquaMail). The little speaker on the back is useless. I mean USELESS.
If I had it to do over again I don't think I'd do anything differently. The only other phone I would consider at this point is the HTC One (almost twice the price). At $350 I am very comfortable using my phone and not worrying about damaging/losing it. If I toast it it is not that big a deal to replace it (unlike the $600-$800 for some competing phones). It does almost everything well, and the little rough spots are minor. I do miss the accessory/software ecosystem that is iOS, but at this point I think I would miss widgets and the open file system even more.

As far as aging goes, I've had mine for a while and it's stood the test of time. My battery life has only gotten better and better, but that's mostly due to constantly improving custom kernels (I use Faux123's). It plays all the games out there. The only drawback is storage.
Sent from an N4 blessed with AOKP and sanctified by Faux123!

Choppy browser + warm backplate

I have a poor upgrade experience from S3->S4 T-Mobile 16GB version. I'm actually considering selling the S4 after only 10 days to be honest.
It's laggy, especially in the browser. When scrolling it's like it's with 25FPS. Very far from the smooth S3 experience. And when I try to scroll, it's if the phone takes 0.5 second to power up. So the first cm I move my finger, the screen doesn't respond to. It's not everytime it happens though. I'm thinking it could be the CPU governor, but then it should only happen once, and I can replicate it over and over within few seconds.
Second problem - it's hot as hell. The backside is heating up just browsing. I haven't even used the phone for Youtube or gaming yet.
I've tried installing a Google Edition image 4.3 from here, the Android system runs fine, but the browser experience plus the heat is exactly the same problem as with the Samsung TW 4.2 firmware.
*EDIT* Removing the animations in the developer menu doesn't do any good... Just removes the animations. The device LAGS.
I'd really like some input on this - I can't be the only dissapointed user with this

I've upgraded from the HTC One S, and I've been quite underwhelmed with this phone. Battery life and screen is an improvement, but I've been getting those same bugs that you've reported. The gaming performance on this phone isn't even that good on simple games like flow, even with a processor with double the cores, clocked higher and the new spec GPU. Starting to think that maybe the HTC One would have been a better choice.
Meh, sorry for rambling and tl;dr-ing, but yeah, I have the same issues.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

kylepont said:
I've upgraded from the HTC One S, and I've been quite underwhelmed with this phone. Battery life and screen is an improvement, but I've been getting those same bugs that you've reported. The gaming performance on this phone isn't even that good on simple games like flow, even with a processor with double the cores, clocked higher and the new spec GPU. Starting to think that maybe the HTC One would have been a better choice.
Meh, sorry for rambling and tl;dr-ing, but yeah, I have the same issues.
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It's nice knowing I'm not alone. I've never before gone back before, but I'm really seriously considering it. The phone is not totally new anymore and the Google "vanilla" edition hasn't cured anything. I'm seriously thinking it's bad hardware.

The build quality is absolutely awful on this phone, I'm petrified to put it in my pocket as so many people have had their phone bend and break just from putting it in the front pocket. Sadly, my network won't let me go back, but if I had the chance, this phone would be gone. The amount of pointless bloatware on this is beyond insane, I haven't gone onto the Google edition yet but I bet the performance would improve. Annoying that I won't be able to uninstall applications.
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Maybe u should upgrade the firmware to get rid of the lags ... on my phone i have almost no lag at all but i have the exynos version
Heating is a problem that u cant do much about ... i don t know if a custom kernel may help to deal with it
And the phone is a big plastic device but the story behind the broken screens in pockets doesn t sit well with me ... its perfectly possible to happen but people tend to exaggerate a lot ... especially on internet or blame their fault on other things so despite i m being worried too about the fact it cant be so easy to brake the screen

1 week in... And I'm losing faith. Fast. - Updated.

9 Days ago, I made the decision to switch networks due to Sprint's inability to handle MMS, data, signal, calls, or anything else. I walked into a T-Mobile store, and after a brief credit check, I was told I can choose any phone I'd like. My original intent was to hang onto my Nexus 5, which I absolutely loved, but I was told I was required to get a new phone. I wasn't exactly upset knowing I'd be getting a new phone, so I walked over to the displays and struggled for over 20 minutes trying to decide which phone to get. I eventually whittled my choices down to two phones. The LG G3 and the HTC One M9. After a bit of research and test driving, I chose the HTC One M9.
It is a seriously nice phone. The materials used to craft this baby are top notch, and definitely give the impression of quality. I very much like the way it looks and sounds, and even though it could be unwieldy to hold (slippery), I got around that issue by slapping a nice Spigen case on it. HTC's Uh Oh protection is a nice touch and the specifications are equally as impressive, which helped sell this phone to me. The thought of a 64-bit 8-core CPU was exciting.
It's my first flagship phone; everything should be impressive. And yet, I'm kind of not impressed. My two main complaints about this phone are the button placement (I think having the power button and volume buttons on the same side of the phone and right next to each other is kind of silly, then again, my N5 wasn't like that, so I could just be used to that layout. ) and the performance. Yes, you heard me, the performance. I don't even care about the joke of a camera this thing has, it's really the performance of the cutting-edge octacore CPU that they slapped in this thing that really frustrates me. Out of the box, this phone comes underclocked due to overheating issues. That, to me, is downright laughable. Did anyone at HTC test this phone? A flagship device whose performance is throttled from the moment you turn it on. That's like buying a Corvette straight from the dealer, starting up the car and finding out that Chevy disabled two of the cylinders in the engine to ensure it didn't overheat. It's not just the thought of this that bugs me, the performance of the phone is actually terrible at times. My Nexus 5, given it was running a 5.1.1 ROM, was butter smooth in all but the most complicated of situations. This phone, however, limited to a paltry 1.5GHz and another cluster that is slow to wake up and help out, struggles with some truly mundane tasks. For example, swiping to my Google Now Cards is laggy, loading Google Messenger is choppy and slow. Scrolling, in general, is almost never smooth. I've tried different ROMs, Kernels, and governors but can never really find a nice balance between performance and battery life. The CPU is ALWAYS up to something too. Even when the screen is off. My Nexus 5 would achieve, regularly, about 70-75% Deep Sleep throughout the course of a day. It sipped battery. This phone achieves, on a normal day, about 60-65%. Thankfully it has a larger battery than the N5, otherwise I seriously doubt it'd last as long.
Overall it's been bittersweet experience. I really like this phone, I want to love it, but I can't. I realize that this device is still in its infancy and HTC can roll out updates to hopefully iron out some of these problems. I also realize that the community for this phone is also in its infancy, and that down the road, there may be terrific alternatives to Sense 7 and the Stock Kernel. But I have 5 days left, and the idea of swapping this phone out for something better is slowly starting to grow on me. I've been toying with the idea of getting an Xperia Z3 or LG G3 instead. It'll cost me $50 to swap the M9 out for a different phone. On the other hand, my mind is telling me to be patient and that it'll work out in time with this phone. So I turn to you. Anyone else share the same frustrations with me? What do you think I should do? Should I wait or should I swap this baby out for something else?
UPDATE June 8th 2015:
I went to the T-Mobile store the day after posting this. I researched and thought long and hard about the decision I had to make. After a while I came to the conclusion that I would be paying $50 (Restocking fee) to essentially downgrade to another device. In fact, the only other flagship device that even appeals to me at this point is the LG G4, which seems to be getting along as well as the S6 and One M9 have been (from what I've read). Thanks to recommendations from others in the community, I made some changes that have greatly improved my experience with this device. I'm still not a huge fan of Sense 7 nor am I astonished by the Camera's performance, but a new launcher restored much of the stock Android feel and an upcoming firmware update promises to improve the camera. Performance while multitasking is fantastic and while there are a few hiccups here and there, I can't say my experience is any worse than what it was with my Nexus 5. The Battery life, a common complaint from others about this phone, is fantastic in my eyes. It's nice to sometimes forget about charging my phone at night, waking up the next morning and still having enough juice to get me into the afternoon.
Overall, I've only recently concluded that I did not give this device a fair chance for as long as I should've. Coming from my Nexus 5, the change was a bit of a shock. I suppose that played into my initial disappointment. I'm actually starting to fall in love with this phone. Compliments and exclamations of wonder and impact are common from others that I let check out my phone, even from die-hard iPhone fans, which is always nice. I figured that I should update this thread because I see the conversation still continues. No phone is without its flaws, my beloved N5 was hardly without its own. Many "flaws" are a matter of perspective. I'm confident I've made the right choice with this device, and I look forward to the bright future that lies in store for it (please God, give me an AOSP ROM).

ps. The 1.5 clock only applies to the A53 cores. I'm sure people more technically inclined and chime in and confirm this.
I've had nothing but smooth operation on this phone. I am on Leedroid at the moment, but was on international stock rom before and was just as smooth.
I'd be looking as to why you are experiencing the performance issues, and if you're not happy, I'm sure the consumer protection laws in the US allow you to return it for something else?
Best of luck

You are in the 14 day window go an return it

Go get your nexus 5 back or talk to someone who isn't trying to hose you into buying a new phone.
https://support.t-mobile.com/message/389200
Granted I don't know if the specs on your phone didn't match up to what was described in this link, Or if you had it leased.

Alcolawl said:
My Nexus 5, given it was running a 5.1.1 ROM, was butter smooth in all but the most complicated of situations. This phone, however, limited to a paltry 1.5GHz and another cluster that is slow to wake up and help out, struggles with some truly mundane tasks. For example, swiping to my Google Now Cards is laggy, loading Google Messenger is choppy and slow. Scrolling, in general, is almost never smooth. I've tried different ROMs, Kernels, and governors but can never really find a nice balance between performance and battery life. The CPU is ALWAYS up to something too. Even when the screen is off. My Nexus 5 would achieve, regularly, about 70-75% Deep Sleep throughout the course of a day. It sipped battery. This phone achieves, on a normal day, about 60-65%. Thankfully it has a larger battery than the N5, otherwise I seriously doubt it'd last as long.
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Yeah, I've noticed the lag when swiping to the goole now screen. I'm confident that performance will be better when they give us 5.1, which by then they'll have figured out how to best optimize S810. Best to test out your options, you might even want to consider the M8 which has GPE 5.1 ROMS ready for it. That phone performs and has excellent battery life.

Cryosx said:
Yeah, I've noticed the lag when swiping to the goole now screen. I'm confident that performance will be better when they give us 5.1, which by then they'll have figured out how to best optimize S810. Best to test out your options, you might even want to consider the M8 which has GPE 5.1 ROMS ready for it. That phone performs and has excellent battery life.
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Have you installed the xposed fix memory leak apk? That may help with lag on 5.0.x

BUBBA DUB'S said:
Have you installed the xposed fix memory leak apk? That may help with lag on 5.0.x
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Yeah I have (doesn't it only fix that off screen animation bug?). The lag when scrolling to the google now screen affects my M8 as well if I recall correctly.

Cryosx said:
Yeah I have (doesn't it only fix that off screen animation bug?). The lag when scrolling to the google now screen affects my M8 as well if I recall correctly.
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I thought it reduced the over all RAM usage from the system over a prolonged period of time. I thought that might affect lag overall on the phone, but I could be mistaken. I haven't experienced any lag on my device yet so I was just throwing out ideas.

Have you tried rooting and putting leedroid on it. It's a beast. No lag. No stutter. Smooth

I never experienced any lags except when gaming during charging the battery with a speed charger.
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BUBBA DUB'S said:
I thought it reduced the over all RAM usage from the system over a prolonged period of time. I thought that might affect lag overall on the phone, but I could be mistaken. I haven't experienced any lag on my device yet so I was just throwing out ideas.
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Same, lag isn't a problem except for when using google now launcher and swiping to the left for the google now screen. It's minor, but annoying nonetheless. For the OP who was used to the Nexus 5's smoothness it's probably extremely noticeable.

Cryosx said:
Same, lag isn't a problem except for when using google now launcher and swiping to the left for the google now screen. It's minor, but annoying nonetheless. For the OP who was used to the Nexus 5's smoothness it's probably extremely noticeable.
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True, I actually got rid of google now because it was annoying me every time my phone slipped out of my hand and started it. I still am hopeful knowing the m9 should get multiple updates in the future and run 5.1.

dondavis007 said:
I never experienced any lags except when gaming during charging the battery with a speed charger.
Sent from a mobile gadget...
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why would you game while charging the s810 is power hungry i would be careful not killing my battery this way

reubenskelly1992 said:
Have you tried rooting and putting leedroid on it. It's a beast. No lag. No stutter. Smooth
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Wont make a difference, its the phone to blame to for now. I got 2 devices both same problems at times and tried everything for it, the roms run fine but battery life still bad and weird charging problems for me

v1rk said:
Wont make a difference, its the phone to blame to for now. I got 2 devices both same problems at times and tried everything for it, the roms run fine but battery life still bad and weird charging problems for me
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Weird

hamdir said:
why would you game while charging the s810 is power hungry i would be careful not killing my battery this way
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Because I only gaming before going to bed. Look at my sig and guess if I keep it long enough to notice
Sent from a mobile gadget.

dondavis007 said:
Because I only gaming before going to bed. Look at my sig and guess if I keep it long enough to notice
Sent from a mobile gadget.
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still you are brute forcing the M9 into throttling its GPU this way and about the best thing on the M9 is actually gaming speed thanks to it's very powerful GPU

Coming from a M8, at first i was a little frustrated for the overheating and the camera of the M9. But then, neither the m7 or m8 were great cameras.
I read a lot of reviews and even started thinking of selling the M9 but swap for what? S6 ? God no, please, no more touchwiz. Lg,i had the lg3 and it was L(a)G and slow, much slower than the M8 (i know, different screen's resolution). So, in the end, i prefer keep the M9, the camera improve a lot with the update, and many more updates will come.
Then, there is sense 7, sense is one of my favourites android skins. Light, smart and very, very fast. I absolutely have no lag in M9 (all stock). And i use a lot blinkfeed, i missed it in any non Htc phone. And there is the boomsound, the touch to awake screen...

When you say you have lag with Google Now cards, I'm assuming you are using the Google Launcher. I have noticed some lag here and there with the Google launcher, but the stock Sense launcher performs admirably. It's quick and never seems to drop frames when gaming either. How did you leave the phone stock before you started flashing different ROMs to it? I think that may actually be the issue. Every review of the M9 has stated that the phone is smooth and HTC's software is better than ever. Messing with the software may be what's causing the poor experience.

hamdir said:
why would you game while charging the s810 is power hungry i would be careful not killing my battery this way
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I occassionally play a round of Boom Beach, Clash of Clans or Limbo while the phone is on the charger. Can you elaborate a bit on how this could "kill the battery"? Is it related to charging while the GPU is cranking up the thermals?
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nickmgray said:
When you say you have lag with Google Now cards, I'm assuming you are using the Google Launcher. I have noticed some lag here and there with the Google launcher, but the stock Sense launcher performs admirably. It's quick and never seems to drop frames when gaming either. How did you leave the phone stock before you started flashing different ROMs to it? I think that may actually be the issue. Every review of the M9 has stated that the phone is smooth and HTC's software is better than ever. Messing with the software may be what's causing the poor experience.
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I'm using the stock Sense launcher and my phone is buttery smooth. While I don't use the Google Now Launcher, Google Now performs great on this phone.
All of the games that I play are also super smooth. Granted, I don't play games that demand a high frame rate, but those games that I do play are far smoother on this phone than my old M7.
The one issue I had with the phone was what seemed like spotty issues with wifi. I did a cache partition wipe yesterday and it seems to have helped the issue.