Related
how do you like your EVO?
what are the quirks that are bugging you?
what phone did you come from?
and
how does it compare to that previous phone?
i have my phone pre-order sitting at best buy still.
i have my money, i have my little gift card....only thing is i've really enjoyed the past few roms on my HTC HERO and I don't feel the need for this phone because the Hero has fit me very well. that and there is no 4g here in so cali yet so what's the point?
thanks to everyone who replies
I left WiMo on a VZW xv6800
Quirks........
no signature in SMS and the native email client sucks. I can only get my main folder in Hotmail and not all my other folders were my mail is separated to.
Anyone know a better email client that will resolve that?
I thought Seven would do it but i see they dont have a client for Android as of yet.
weedahoe said:
I left WiMo on a VZW xv6800
Quirks........
no signature in SMS and the native email client sucks. I can only get my main folder in Hotmail and not all my other folders were my mail is separated to.
Anyone know a better email client that will resolve that?
I thought Seven would do it but i see they dont have a client for Android as of yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after 1 week with the stock text client i switched to handcent. it is SO SO SO SO SO much better in my opinion
i hate the mail client for hotmail/yahoo as well BUT i only really use gmail and that one is perfect for me so...maybe think about switching to gmail?
oh jeeze....thats what she said.
my evo is treating me great! my first complain was with the battery, but with a few discharge/recharge cycles, it seems to be doing well.
everything else is pretty much gravy. i love the screen, the real estate is just MASSIVE.
bottom line, you're going to love this thing
Phenomenal piece of hardware.
I love my Evo. I am still setting it up and haven't decided if I want to root or not but its awesome.
Haven't had many quirks, the soft keys are a little sensitive and I end up fatfingering them when playing some games, no biggie. Battery isn't a huge issue if you're a resourceful person. I used my phone for 6 hours before it died doing HEAVY usage. (Navigation, Trapster, YouTube streaming, Super KO Boxing 2, Pictures, recorded a 2 min video, etc)
I came from the G1, what an upgrade.
I freaking love it!!!!
engagedtosmile said:
I love my Evo. I am still setting it up and haven't decided if I want to root or not but its awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do the unrevoked root. Getting rid of it is as simple as uninstalling the app. All Root does is give you superuser/admin rights to the phone.
I love this phone. I play iMobsters on it so addicting so I haven't had too much time to play with the phone. I've taken so many pictures.
Gripes:
Is there a way to turn flash on at night so I can record video? Videos come out dark so I haven't recorded much at night.
I disabled SenseUI but I wanted to know how I can get more widgets to fill up at least 1 or 2 more pages. Any recommendations? I noticed that when I disabled SenseUI a lot of widgets don't come up in the options.
I am coming from a Palm Pre, and this phone is so amazing. I have been using the speech-to-text on text messages and it hasn't missed a word yet. I dislike the email client, but it isn't enough to make me verbally complain. I have downloaded a few apps here and there, and so far everything is working better than expected.
I do miss the track pad or ball a little. Nothing earth shattering.
I LOVE THE SCREEN BUT they should have raised the resolution.
I wish the system didn't auto start a bunch of crap. That's an android issue and people shouldn't be forced to root to get rid of it. I'm rooted so this doesn't matter anymore but battery performance and even actual device performance improves after removing all the bull ****.
I wish they was another way to turn on the device. I miss menu menu. Should be an option.
I wish launcher pro worked over sense. I like the widgets.
Otherwise I love android and the evo. I will have a hard time going back to any screen less than 4 inches. I don't miss having s physical keyboard anymore with swype and especially swype on this awesome screen.
The speed is mostly good, it will improve as things get optimized.
how about things like, how does it fit in your pocket.
does it fit in the same spot where you stored your old phone in your car
*i have a perfect slot above my radio and i think the evo may be too thin and it will fall out while driving*
i've had an htc phone since the 6700 a few years back and everything has been mini-usb now i gotta use my blu-tooth microsb cables/chargers.
ummmmmmmmmmmmm
anyone crack their screen yet?
Absolutely love the phone much better than my HD2. Only 2 quirks for me is that I cant control all volumes (media, notifications, phone calls, etc.) with one setting and that I can never tell where my battery percent is. I always have to guess if im on 85% etc. OTT it has exceeded all expectations.
dukins said:
Absolutely love the phone much better than my HD2. Only 2 quirks for me is that I cant control all volumes (media, notifications, phone calls, etc.) with one setting and that I can never tell where my battery percent is. I always have to guess if im on 85% etc. OTT it has exceeded all expectations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
uhh, there's an app for that (more like 100 apps for that). Most are free too.
gonzoangel said:
how about things like, how does it fit in your pocket.
does it fit in the same spot where you stored your old phone in your car
*i have a perfect slot above my radio and i think the evo may be too thin and it will fall out while driving*
i've had an htc phone since the 6700 a few years back and everything has been mini-usb now i gotta use my blu-tooth microsb cables/chargers.
ummmmmmmmmmmmm
anyone crack their screen yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It fits in my pocket quite well. (Is it just me or are there a lot of jokes that would go there?) I think that it being as thin as it is actually makes it better than my Hero. Just my opinion.
I got the silicone case from Sprint and it doesnt slide around in the cubby in my car at all. Next is the car mount
Led desire light. App to turn led into flashlight. Turn that on then open camera app
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
dukins said:
Absolutely love the phone much better than my HD2. Only 2 quirks for me is that I cant control all volumes (media, notifications, phone calls, etc.) with one setting and that I can never tell where my battery percent is. I always have to guess if im on 85% etc. OTT it has exceeded all expectations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use an app called battery left. It is free and really nice.
Aridon said:
I wish launcher pro worked over sense. I like the widgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-That is exactly what I was thinking when I installed launcher pro but removed it due to that reason
Aridon said:
Otherwise I love android and the evo. I will have a hard time going back to any screen less than 4 inches. I don't miss having s physical keyboard anymore with swype and especially swype on this awesome screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't even know what swype was 20 min ago. I installed it and did the tutorial, sent out a few texts. Will take some time to get used to, but so far it seems promising. Thanks.
Pros:
I absolutely love the size. Not too big, not too small.
Kickstand, HDMI out, dual LED flash, 720P recording.
Haptic feedback is great.
Cons:
For some reason, most of my incoming text messages are time stamped incorrectly. I have googled the living hell out of this problem, but can't find a legit fix anywhere.
The camera is so grainy that it feels like I'm using a camera phone from the 90's. Flash clears this up in dark lighting, but indoor photos are terrible.
Stock keyboard is a nightmare. Thank god for Swype.
Lock/Power button is hard to locate without looking at times.
Overall, I couldn't be any more disappointed in the camera. With all the time they spend on kickstands, flash, and such a massive screen I would have thought they'd spend more time on something as standard as a camera. I've read that not many people have this problem- so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this is a faulty camera in my phone.
All my friends have been amazed how much I've been tinkering with my phone all weekend. I laid in bed Saturday night for 3 hours (until about 2am) playing with all the cool apps and features of the EVO. They all laughed when I told them I was in bed until 2am (laying next to my wife) while playing with the phone. Yes, "playing" because it's been so much fun. I already had the original G1 when it was first launched 2 years ago, so all this wasn't new to me. I can't imagine how a NEW user to Android would be just blown away at first glance of the EVO.
I was first blown away of the size of the screen. It is sooo much better to view text. I was equally blown away at the speed of the phone and apps (and it's supposed to be faster with 2.2 JIT ??? wow!!). Battery was great for me. I was using everything, including 4G. I was getting tired of waiting for the juice to run out. I was blown away at the Sega Genesis emulator and speed of the games.
I don't have any complaints, but if you twisted my arm and forced me to find something to improve on I would list:
1) Action buttons on the bottom (home, menu, back, and search). They are very sensitive and I keep hitting them accidentally. Not a major problem, but still, I think they should have been physical buttons.
2) Trackball, nice to use instead of keyboard arrow buttons, but as someone else said: This is not a deal breaker.
3) 4G: I live in Houston so we have 4G coverage, but it's spotty. I was in Best Buy over the weekend talking to the ClearWire rep and we were on the edge of the city (in Katy) and he had his usb Dongle to get 4G reception. I still right up next to the antenna and we both ran speed test from SpeedTest.net. The Rep kept getting MINIMUM of 6 Mbit down and 2 Mbit up, while I was getting max 2.25 MBit down (I've since gotten 3.35 MBit down while at home over 4g). With our limited testing I would have to conclude that 4G is NOT ClearWire or Sprints problem, but more of a HARDWARE issue. The USB dongle probably had a better antenna whereas the EVO antenna didn't pick up the signal as much. We were deep inside the Best Buy store and the ClearWire 4G reception was at least 75%, while I barely got 1 bar on my EVO. I changed positions, and we made sure we were both on the same servers running our speed tests. But, 4G is still much faster than 3G, but not what I was expecting.
to the people who switched from the iphone 4 to focus. any thoughts?
In the last year and a half, I've gone through a Nexus One, iPhone 4, Samsung Captivate, and now I'm on a Focus.
TLDR version at the bottom, since after writing this out I realized this is a mini essay..
Here are my thoughts:
Android is the OS you should be on if you want (nearly) complete control and lots of features not necessarily supported by your carrier (free tethering!). Unfortunately, assuming you're on AT&T, your options for serious Android phones are limited to a Nexus One or a Captivate. Between the two, I actually preferred the Nexus. Slightly weaker CPU, but you'll get updates pretty immediately, and it's a lot easier to mod that phone vs the Captivate. Also, I never had a single problem with the Nexus One as a GPS unit, but like many others my Captivate was sketchy at best when it came to GPS.
So far, the iPhone in my experience has the best battery life. I never really had to worry about it, and I'm a fairly heavy text/web browser/email user. It's obviously going to have the widest selection of apps, though that didn't necessary mean they were all useful. If games are your thing, the iPhone was also ahead of that by a long shot. However, without jailbreaking, it really is locked down. Tethering through AT&T's rate is a joke, seeing as it uses your already purchased data plan, and outside of changing your ringtones and wallpapers, you're fairly limited in customizations. Despite this, there isn't currently an option to tether at all on WP7.
Now having a Focus with WP7, I can say that the interface is very refreshing. Sometimes I just want to stare at the home screen because 1) the live tiles are cool and 2) the SAMOLED screen is amazing with a black background and brightly colored tiles. The web browsing experience is fast, but noticeably lacking compared to Android and iPhone (due to lack of webkit/html5). It's not a deal breaker by any means, but it was something I noted. The keyboard is about on par with the iPhone.
Build quality compared to the iPhone feels just as sturdy, in my opinion, despite the plastic body. It actually feels better in the hand to me, because of the curve back and slight lip on the bottom. It's also noticeably lighter to hold and carry around. So far the battery is holding up nicely with moderate to heavy text/web browsing/email/staring at pretty tiles.
Call quality was good, found the ear piece to be a bit clearer and louder than the iPhone. The biggest difference for me at the moment is of course the Marketplace. This is where the iPhone's ~4 years on the market really shows the gap. But given that this is Microsoft we're talking about, I don't expect their market to go the way of the Pre (which I also briefly owned) and be a barren wasteland (comparatively).
TLDR
iPhone 4 has ~4 years of exposure behind it with it's marketplace and iOS functionality, and it shows. Focus/WP7 has a fresh UI and is promising with Microsoft backing it. Build quality is very different between the two, but both feel sturdy and reliable. If you're making the leap to Focus/WP7 from an iPhone 4, you shouldn't have any big regrets, so long as you're not tied deeply into the iTunes ecosystem or your life depends on certain iOS only games.
I have both still and am trying one against the other for everyday use for my needs. So far, the Focus lacks on a few things, but no deal breakers, as the functionality should come with future updates like cut and paste.
Since I fired up the Focus, it has given me hope that this OS will give Apple a run for the money.
I like the iPhone 4 but the whole iOS thing has gotten kind of stale for me after 2 1/2 years of iPhones so I bought a Focus to try out and so far so good. It lacks many of the nicities and features in the iPhone but overall it's been easier to use, it's MUCH lighter and doesn't feel like brick in my hand. I'm also a big user of Slingplayer and man, there's no comparison with the video and audio. HD shows up as bright, colorful and full screen and the audio is much louder and more understandable then when using the iPhone or iPad. I still have 3 weeks to return the Focus and I'm not committed yet but it's a damn good Rev 1 phone.
I agree with all of you but for me there have been some things I just don't understand why MS did what they did.
Notifications - There is a noticeable space at the top of the screen that hardly used. It is sometimes used for notifications as in text messages but not for email or twitter notifications.
Keyboard - In portrait its on par with iphone and even MT Android but why not a full landscape keyboard have you guys seen it? The empty space at the top of the screen is there on the side now and wasted.
Phone - 2 keystrokes to get a dialer why and to make it worse why no smart dialing in the dialer. I know you can use the search button but its not the same.
From a hardware perspective the phone is great light and long battery life so far. I just wish MS would have polished it a little more I dont really see a lot of Apple users jumping ship to it. Just my 2cents
boogieboogie said:
to the people who switched from the iphone 4 to focus. any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both a Droid Incredible and an iPhone 4 and I love the Focus and WP7 interface over both. what I'm having trouble with is the little things that allow you to control the phone more that are still missing from WP7, probably because MS rushed it to get it out before the holidays. What I miss and need on WP7 include:
A Sound Profiler that allows you to control various preset sound modes and volumes for Alarm, ringer, music, system and keyboard clicks...why is this missing
An equalizer in the zune music App
An integrated favorites app for quick dialing. I'm using the tile approach for some contacts, but it does take more real estate than necesary.
Ability to change system font size. Some of the fonts are a bit too large.
Background processing for Facebook, Twitter, and some of those other things that require that.
That ability to connect to hidden Wifi networks! Come on MS this is suppose to be a corporate phone, corporate networks are often hidden. how do you miss that!
Abiltity to fast dial using the number keys in the phone app, ala HTC Sense! Much quicker to look up contacts that way.
Contact Pictures in Call history and SMS. they are everywhere else, why not there.
Native turn by turn directions Like Android has. Come on, this is a big one the iPhone is missing out of the box and MS is making the same mistake.
the notification system is a little wacky on WP 7...if the tiles that are changing are within view, then you are good, or if you are on the lock screen you can see certain things change via the icons at the bottom, but I'd still like to see an android like pull down.
this isn't microsoft, but can someone tell me why Google Reader doesn't format on WP7 and Windows Mobile like it does on the iPhone and Android. It's annoying! and none of the Google Reader market apps like gReadie and WReader work very well....
And why can't I get WP7 on Verizon! the AT&T network seems to be extremely slow, even more so with teh focus than the iPhone.
When will this stuff be fixed!
codyt01 said:
I have both a Droid Incredible and an iPhone 4 and I love the Focus and WP7 interface over both. what I'm having trouble with is the little things that allow you to control the phone more that are still missing from WP7, probably because MS rushed it to get it out before the holidays. What I miss and need on WP7 include:
A Sound Profiler that allows you to control various preset sound modes and volumes for Alarm, ringer, music, system and keyboard clicks...why is this missing
An equalizer in the zune music App
An integrated favorites app for quick dialing. I'm using the tile approach for some contacts, but it does take more real estate than necesary.
Ability to change system font size. Some of the fonts are a bit too large.
Background processing for Facebook, Twitter, and some of those other things that require that.
That ability to connect to hidden Wifi networks! Come on MS this is suppose to be a corporate phone, corporate networks are often hidden. how do you miss that!
Abiltity to fast dial using the number keys in the phone app, ala HTC Sense! Much quicker to look up contacts that way.
Contact Pictures in Call history and SMS. they are everywhere else, why not there.
Native turn by turn directions Like Android has. Come on, this is a big one the iPhone is missing out of the box and MS is making the same mistake.
the notification system is a little wacky on WP 7...if the tiles that are changing are within view, then you are good, or if you are on the lock screen you can see certain things change via the icons at the bottom, but I'd still like to see an android like pull down.
this isn't microsoft, but can someone tell me why Google Reader doesn't format on WP7 and Windows Mobile like it does on the iPhone and Android. It's annoying! and none of the Google Reader market apps like gReadie and WReader work very well....
And why can't I get WP7 on Verizon! the AT&T network seems to be extremely slow, even more so with teh focus than the iPhone.
When will this stuff be fixed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WP7 is coming to Verizon in January along with turn by turn directions and Flash support.
I've been playing with mine for a couple hours now. I like the device itself but it's probably going back in the morning. Couple thoughts, IMHO:
The back cover is worthless. Cheap. I never know if it's going to break when I pull it off. Having a removable battery again? Priceless. The SIM slot, specifically the contact nodes themselves, are poorly designed and I think mine bent/broke when I inserted and removed my microSIM adapter with my microSIM inside it. That's insane for a new device. They are just three little prongs waiting to break. Love the TILES!!! Love the font and the clean look of the whole OS!!! Gmail refuses to display my full email box. This makes me angry. Love the screen, when displaying the primary colors of tiles and most of the apps. On the other hand I Can't stand the washed out appearance of the IE and the screen when browsing. PTI podcast works, so big points on that one. Contacts sync is annoying, particularly since I don't have anything save for email in my Gmail contacts. My choice, my fault. I don't have a Live account and really don't want one but see no choice to download anything from the Marketplace. This is tomfoolery. Love the lightness of the phone along with the 4 inch real-estate.
Interesting so far but nothing that makes me want to replace my iPhone.
bmstrong said:
I've been playing with mine for a couple hours now. I like the device itself but it's probably going back in the morning. Couple thoughts, IMHO:
The back cover is worthless. Cheap. I never know if it's going to break when I pull it off. Having a removable battery again? Priceless. The SIM slot, specifically the contact nodes themselves, are poorly designed and I think mine bent/broke when I inserted and removed my microSIM adapter with my microSIM inside it. That's insane for a new device. They are just three little prongs waiting to break. Love the TILES!!! Love the font and the clean look of the whole OS!!! Gmail refuses to display my full email box. This makes me angry. Love the screen, when displaying the primary colors of tiles and most of the apps. On the other hand I Can't stand the washed out appearance of the IE and the screen when browsing. PTI podcast works, so big points on that one. Contacts sync is annoying, particularly since I don't have anything save for email in my Gmail contacts. My choice, my fault. I don't have a Live account and really don't want one but see no choice to download anything from the Marketplace. This is tomfoolery. Love the lightness of the phone along with the 4 inch real-estate.
Interesting so far but nothing that makes me want to replace my iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity, where do you keep your phone contacts?
emjee87 said:
Just out of curiosity, where do you keep your phone contacts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my head and in a backup email labeled "contacts" that sits in my inbox. I redraft and resend the email to myself when I need to update any information. I only have about 10-15 or numbers to remember.
I like the OS very much. I think it has great potential, great upside. But the hardware side still leaves much to be desired against the gold standard Apple offering.
bmstrong said:
In my head and in a backup email labeled "contacts" that sits in my inbox. I redraft and resend the email to myself when I need to update any information. I only have about 10-15 or numbers to remember.
I like the OS very much. I think it has great potential, great upside. But the hardware side still leaves much to be desired against the gold standard Apple offering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"redraft and resend"
What?
Really?
mcmexican said:
I agree with all of you but for me there have been some things I just don't understand why MS did what they did.
Notifications - There is a noticeable space at the top of the screen that hardly used. It is sometimes used for notifications as in text messages but not for email or twitter notifications.
Keyboard - In portrait its on par with iphone and even MT Android but why not a full landscape keyboard have you guys seen it? The empty space at the top of the screen is there on the side now and wasted.
Phone - 2 keystrokes to get a dialer why and to make it worse why no smart dialing in the dialer. I know you can use the search button but its not the same.
From a hardware perspective the phone is great light and long battery life so far. I just wish MS would have polished it a little more I dont really see a lot of Apple users jumping ship to it. Just my 2cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree about the notifications. I would of love to seen Twitter or Facebook notification heck even e-mail for that matter pop up and have a option to disable it if need be. I'm sure this is something coming in the future.
Also agree about the keyboard. I am shaking my head and wondering why there is a significant amount of unused space on the screen in landscape mode.
More active live tiles. I would love to have a live tile that would update the weather for me. I'm sure there is a app in the making but it would be nice to see that.
Also...there is no YouTube app? (I'm not talking about the YouTube that brings you to the mobile version of YouTube) Is that just a way for Google to stick it to M$?
Update:
Spoke to soon about the live tile for the weather. Weather bug has an app out for it.
AllTheWay said:
I agree about the notifications. I would of love to seen Twitter or Facebook notification heck even e-mail for that matter pop up and have a option to disable it if need be. I'm sure this is something coming in the future.
Also agree about the keyboard. I am shaking my head and wondering why there is a significant amount of unused space on the screen in landscape mode.
More active live tiles. I would love to have a live tile that would update the weather for me. I'm sure there is a app in the making but it would be nice to see that.
Also...there is no YouTube app? (I'm not talking about the YouTube that brings you to the mobile version of YouTube) Is that just a way for Google to stick it to M$?
Update:
Spoke to soon about the live tile for the weather. Weather bug has an app out for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using Lazy Worm as my YouTube app in the mean time. It doesn't have all the functionality of the other YouTube apps yet, but it does keep the theme of WP7 and it works well enough.
i know this is an old thread, but i will add my 2 cents.
i owned the 3G, the 3GS, and the iphone 4. the worst of the 3 was the iphone 4. it was practically worthless as a phone. i dropped 80% of my calls with it. i returned it after a few weeks because of this.
the 3G was fine and i owned it for a year and a half, but it was really slow. the 3GS was my favorite by far, and really i have very few complaints with it.
obviously the iphone was revolutionary. it started the wave of multi-touch displays and the app world was pretty phenomenal. but the truth is that technology is uncapped now and apple doesn't have the entire market, nor should they.
while MS has some glitches, they were to be expected. the marketplace doesn't provide the number of apps that the iphone market does, but how cool is it that you get to own a focus now and be on the ground-level and see new and refreshing apps as they come to life? i find that pretty cool.
my main reason for switching was just to do something different, and so far i am very pleased with the phone. i think it does everything the iphone does and potentially more, you just have to be willing to learn new techniques as you would with any new phone.
Gonna try to not repeat what others have already said.
Loving WP7 OS and everything it does. Fresh start, smooth UI and a great design paradigm. Missing some features but nothing has been a deal breaker yet. I can tell it's just a matter of time (short time) and a lot of these features will land in the OS.
Focus is OK. It's not great. I don't like the camera as much as I did on my iPhone 4. I used to take a ton of pics with my iPhone 4 but not as much now with the focus. You have to tinker with the settings to get similar quality pics and even then not all the time. Specially in low light settings, the iPhone crushed the focus clarity-wise. In day light, they are mostly the same.
If I could have WP7 on my iPhone 4, I would be extremely happy. But that's not the case. WP7 is good enough to make up for me missing my iPhone 4's hardware so far though.
The camera is actually the reason I've shelved the Focus until there's an update for it. I have to change a bunch of settings to get a half decent picture out of it and then, of course, it doesn't save those settings so I have to do it....every.....single..........time. Hard to believe Microsoft hasn't released a fix for this by now. Well, no...not really. Typical Microsoft, actually. And the hardware button isn't doing the phone any favors, either. The iPhone's on-screen button is nice because it takes no pressure so the phone doesn't budge when you take the picture. The hardware button means you can't help but move the camera when taking a picture and if it's not taken with plenty of light good luck getting a picture that isn't smeared. And finally there's the complete lack of any real features. No panoramic shots, no effects, nothing. I use the camera all the time and the Focus' software makes it almost useless so I went back to the iPhone.
nazeeh said:
Gonna try to not repeat what others have already said.
Loving WP7 OS and everything it does. Fresh start, smooth UI and a great design paradigm. Missing some features but nothing has been a deal breaker yet. I can tell it's just a matter of time (short time) and a lot of these features will land in the OS.
Focus is OK. It's not great. I don't like the camera as much as I did on my iPhone 4. I used to take a ton of pics with my iPhone 4 but not as much now with the focus. You have to tinker with the settings to get similar quality pics and even then not all the time. Specially in low light settings, the iPhone crushed the focus clarity-wise. In day light, they are mostly the same.
If I could have WP7 on my iPhone 4, I would be extremely happy. But that's not the case. WP7 is good enough to make up for me missing my iPhone 4's hardware so far though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, I have to strongly disagree....I am a photographer, not a pro, but lots of experience and the iphone 4 camera is NOT that good. Im actually able to produce much nicer results with the focus now than my friends iphone 4. Downside is the focus doesn't save the settings you use...which will be fixed. The iphone 4 quality is WAY to oversaturated...Im not saying the focus quality is amazing...but when I change my settings its definetly acceptable quality. EV and ISO can be your best friends when used properly.
to me the focus wins hands down, my friend who is a self confessed iphone/ iphone 4 BIG time fanboy, has had all the other iphones he had got his iphone 4 like a week before he met up with me tooled around on my samsung focus for like a hour packed up his iphone 4 went to at&t store and exchanged it for a samsung focus....
Paolo01 said:
"redraft and resend"
What?
Really?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was my thought maybe it is time for him to setup a Hotmail account,
iPhone vs Focus
I have no regrets switching from iPhone 3GS and 4G to Focus.
They both have pluses and minuses, but I thing WinMo 7 is a new OS and the market place is catching up quickly.
What I miss in WinMo 7 is the customization and low level access (e.g. registry, file system).
Don't get me wrong, I love this phone and think it'd be PERFECT, but nothing ever really does come perfect and for those who are really keen on buying this, I think you should take a look at some of the things I certainly wish they'd done better.
1) No notification LED - Maybe this is a Samsung thing but for a device catered for business, I really wish they've added this small detail that can do so much good! And don't tell me to get NoLED from market either, the point of the LED is that I can see notifications without having to press any buttons.
2) Poor sound and call quality - It might have to do with the Yamaha codec that others on the forum have been complaining about. My phone before the Note was a Motorola Milestone 2/Droid 2, and Motorola beats Samsung's call quality big time. Motorola has CrystalTalk which would spoil anyone who needs to make calls all the time, whether I'm in HK's busy subway or its most crowded districts, I'm able to hear and the other party can hear me just fine. With Samsung Galaxy Note, I push my incoming call volume to the highest and can hardly make out what the other party is saying unless they voice up. The other party can hardly hear me as well. There's no noise-cancellation whatsoever. It's a tad better if you make calls without a headset, but as a girl, it looks super silly holding up the Note to my face. I use Marshall Minor earphones for conversations and they worked wonderfully well with Motorola, not that great with Samsung. I am not sure if high-end noise-cancellation earphones the likes of Sennheiser or Shure would work better but I'm no audiophile and I really don't want to have to pay half the price of the phone for some quality conversations. Music is passable, both on the speaker and on the earphones, but don't expect it to do a good job with low-bass. If you're an audiophile, you'd need a dedicated MP3 player or HTC's Sensation XE might be a better phone for you.
3) Not-so-great power button placement - The Power/Screen Off button is right where the volume rocker buttons are placed on the other side of the phone. I find myself accidentally pushing the screen off button when I really just want to adjust the volume. There's so much space on the top of the phone for this button.
4) No dedicated camera shutter button - Not really a HUGE deal here but a device this big can come with one. I recently notice that the new phones coming out are dropping this
5) Pre-installed keyboard not good enough - Coming from a Milestone which has a dedicated QWERTY slider keyboard, some might think I'm biased about this, but no, I've played with HTC's Sensation keyboards and hardly make a typing error, and it definitely made me switch to an all touch-screen device. For this one, if you don't get the Thumb Keyboard or some other keyboard you're used to, then you might find it quite frustrating to message or type up e-mails. Of course, you can use the S-pen and handwriting recognition, which I find quite pleasantly smart.
6) Poor customizability - Please note that this is not a Note-exclusive problem but with Touch-Wiz. I am not keen of the Touch-Wiz interface and immediately changed the interface to Launcher Pro, unfortunately, many of the widgets that are part of the Touch-Wiz UI can no longer be added. I wish Samsung would change that.
7) Phone does not include S-Pen tutorials as well as other Note-exclusive features - Unless you download the full 190-page manual (English version), there's not much help in getting to know the features of the phone. There are pop-ups now and then telling you certain features, but if I didn't watch a ton of Youtube 'first impression' videos, I wouldn't know of the gestures functionality and other cool features I can do with the S-Pen. However, this is not a reason for NOT buying the phone.
8) Poor Touch-Wiz Low Customizability- If you don't love Touch-Wiz, you won't like the pre-installed interface. You can always change it to Launcher Pro but that means there'd be widgets you cannot use if you don't use Touch-Wiz. I like the Calendar widget but have to make do with Pure Grid Calendar Widget if I use Launcher Pro. And for some reason, if you're a root user, you still cannot change the battery icons (I've created another thread about this), but I probably should not blame this on Touch-Wiz or the ROM Samsung uses, as rooting is fully a personal choice. I just wish we have themes to turn off the ugly green Android is so fond of using (can't wait till ICS comes out because I see blue finally!)
9) S-Pen is hard to draw with off-table - Unless you have a super steady hand, I find writing (not to mention drawing) on the Note a challenge. There's several promotional videos from Samsung showing off the artwork that can be done with the S-Pen just by holding the Note in your hand as you would a PDA but I personally doubt it'd be easy unless you're a seasoned artist with a very steady hand. However, the S-Pen is FUN to use and amazing for jotting notes, so again, it should not be something to deter you from getting this phone if you don't plan on replacing your WACOM pen tablets with this.
10) Battery Removal required for SIM or MicroSD cards access- You'd think a phone of this size will allow you to swap out at least the MicroSD without having to power off, but unfortunately, this is not feasible with the Note.
So far, these are the few "quirks" I don't like about the Galaxy Note, but otherwise, the phone never ceases to amaze others not only because of its size but it's functionality and brilliant screen.
P.S. Forgot to add one more point, there are no A/V or media ports other than MicroUSB and 3.5mm audio jack (no HDMI or other ports) which doesn't bother me but might others.
If those are your gripes, this phone must be amazing.
Thanks for your POV!
With regards to 1,6 and 8, I agree that these are Samsung wide problems at the moment. But obviously its all down to personal preference. I use ADW Ex on my SGS2 but the fact that you can't use the Samsung S widgets on it means I might actually try TW for a while first!
Just out of interest, where did you get your Not from and how much did you pay in total for it?
JoyR2 said:
If those are your gripes, this phone must be amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha...yes, other than the poor voice quality, I do think it's an amazing device.
vinokirk said:
Thanks for your POV!
With regards to 1,6 and 8, I agree that these are Samsung wide problems at the moment. But obviously its all down to personal preference. I use ADW Ex on my SGS2 but the fact that you can't use the Samsung S widgets on it means I might actually try TW for a while first!
Just out of interest, where did you get your Not from and how much did you pay in total for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it from a shopping plaza in Mong Kok District of Hong Kong. That plaza sells many 2nd hand as well as new imported phones. I got mine for HK$5760 (~USD 742), they also allowed me to trade-in my good ol' Milestone 2 so I only paid a total of HK$4160 (~USD 536).
1) Notification LED - hopefully we will get a custom kernel with BLN support soon You have rooted it, right??
8) So TouchWiz sux - but there are lots of other Launchers to choose from.
10) Actually you CAN remove the SIM and sdcard without removing the battery - you just need to pry up the edge with a small tool - they are pretty flexible.
I'll add two gripes to your list:
- The protective camera glass on the back is slightly RAISED, so it is gonna get scratched up FAST if you ever put your Note down on any dirty/uneven surface. And because the glass is actually part of the CAMERA (not the case), it's probably not replaceable.
- The S-pen is too small, and pretty laggy in some apps, making it not even worth using (like drawing). And its touch-sensitivity is pretty worthless. And you can't tap the menu/back buttons with it.
But I still love my Note And it's only gonna get better as the custom ROMs start showing up.
RashaMatt said:
8) So TouchWiz sux - but there are lots of other Launchers to choose from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...which would make some of the widgets obsolete.
RashaMatt said:
10) Actually you CAN remove the SIM and sdcard without removing the battery - you just need to pry up the edge with a small tool - they are pretty flexible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...true, but why need a tool in the first place, why can't Samsung just design it so you can remove them easily?
RashaMatt said:
- The protective camera glass on the back is slightly RAISED, so it is gonna get scratched up FAST if you ever put your Note down on any dirty/uneven surface. And because the glass is actually part of the CAMERA (not the case), it's probably not replaceable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, but my camera glass is actually indented into the area surrounded by the metal square. My Note is imported from Poland, I wonder if they have different builds?
RashaMatt said:
- The S-pen is too small, and pretty laggy in some apps, making it not even worth using (like drawing). And its touch-sensitivity is pretty worthless. And you can't tap the menu/back buttons with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you're right about the small part, I'm Asian and a girl, so my hands are pretty small which makes the pen just right, but I can understand some people with bigger hands will find using it a real pain. I do agree with you on the other points!
wendyalison said:
Strange, but my camera glass is actually indented into the area surrounded by the metal square. My Note is imported from Poland, I wonder if they have different builds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a Polish "plus" Network model too (from handtec.co.uk) - how weird. Poor quality control...
First some comments on the above gripes :
noled shows you led notifications without you needing to touch the screen. It's pretty decent. I'd rather have a real led but it's not bad at all. Try it.
If you are using the stylus you hit the button and swipe up for the menu, and or swipe left to go back. That's how you get around the button issue.
Now my gripes:
The capacitive buttons (menu, back) are WAY too sensitive and I find myself accidentally hitting them constantly. One handed use is almost possible too, but I keep rubbing those buttons and it wrecks everything.
I think I need more friction to write with the stylus - I don't use it much at the moment.
- Frank
Performance
what about the performance is there an issue or lag
as i couldn't get a conclusion of this point
ChodTheWacko said:
First some comments on the above gripes :
noled shows you led notifications without you needing to touch the screen. It's pretty decent. I'd rather have a real led but it's not bad at all. Try it.
- Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you find that NoLed impares the battery function of your phone? I have heard reviews on the SGS2 that it kills the battery while others say it is OK. As far as I am aware, NoLed turns the entire screen on while displaying its mini icons, would be nice if it could just activate a few icons on the top left or right of the screen.
I guess they put the notification LED in the Nexus, keeping it excluisive to that.
I am willing to buy the Note sight unseen because I love my friends S2's and I drooled over the LTE HD edition coming out. The Note is like 50 times better. I can't wait for my shipment on Monday!
tito17182 said:
what about the performance is there an issue or lag
as i couldn't get a conclusion of this point
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends what you're running. With Launcher Pro, I do feel a wee bit of lag when I use the Pulse widgets on one of the homescreens, I have 3 of those dragged out though and they all need to gather data, so I wouldn't expect it to go smoothly.
Otherwise, i'm playing Asphalt 6 while playing music with PowerAmp and I don't feel lag.
wendyalison said:
I got it from a shopping plaza in Mong Kok District of Hong Kong. That plaza sells many 2nd hand as well as new imported phones. I got mine for HK$5760 (~USD 742), they also allowed me to trade-in my good ol' Milestone 2 so I only paid a total of HK$4160 (~USD 536).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AWESOME!!!
I will go there first chance I get!
bbdj69 said:
Do you find that NoLed impares the battery function of your phone? have heard reviews on the SGS2 that it kills the battery while others say it is OK. As far as I am aware, NoLed turns the entire screen on while displaying its mini icons, would be nice if it could just activate a few icons on the top left or right of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, remember that this is amoled and each pixel is lit up individually. So it doesn't 'turn the entire screen' on unless you turn the entire screen white. Or you run on an lcd phone with a backlight.
It runs fine for me at the moment Although i want to do more battery tests to see what uses how much power. It could still be the case that noled drains battery via cpu usage or wakeups.
Frank
ChodTheWacko said:
First of all, remember that this is amoled and each pixel is lit up individually. So it doesn't 'turn the entire screen' on unless you turn the entire screen white. Or you run on an lcd phone with a backlight.
It runs fine for me at the moment Although i want to do more battery tests to see what uses how much power. It could still be the case that noled drains battery via cpu usage or wakeups.
Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is from the NoLed FAQ, similarly to what I have read online, opinion varies:
Q: What about battery drainage ? How much battery percentage does this app consume per hour ?
A: To answer this question, I quote our friend evilhunter101 from xda-forums.com
"That's a question that simply can't be answered for you and everyone else who wonders. Why? Because all the available settings change the battery consumption, as well as what other apps you have installed and what kernel or OS you are using. Simply put, try the app. If you like it, keep it. If not, uninstall it. You have literally got nothing to lose.
P.s. I see no difference with or without NoLED, while others swear its a battery hog. I imagine we have it set up very differently."
wendyalison said:
P.S. Forgot to add one more point, there are no A/V or media ports other than MicroUSB and 3.5mm audio jack (no HDMI or other ports) which doesn't bother me but might others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the MHL adaptor for GS2 working well~~
wendyalison said:
Yes, you're right about the small part, I'm Asian and a girl, so my hands are pretty small which makes the pen just right, but I can understand some people with bigger hands will find using it a real pain. I do agree with you on the other points!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a short guy with pretty small hands, so I'm curious about how you feel using it. Is it even possible to do anything one-handed for you? Do you feel it's comfortable holding in one hand and using the other other for navigating? And finally, is it comfortable using the on-screen keyboard, might it be too big?
Thanks for your input so far. Good having people saying what's not so good as well.
wendyalison said:
I got it from a shopping plaza in Mong Kok District of Hong Kong. That plaza sells many 2nd hand as well as new imported phones. I got mine for HK$5760 (~USD 742), they also allowed me to trade-in my good ol' Milestone 2 so I only paid a total of HK$4160 (~USD 536).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get the Galaxy Note? at the plaza in argyle street at the end of ladies market? If so I couldn't find one...
Fair comments,
Actually make me feel a lot more confident in buying the Note - just need to convince the wife now!
wendyalison said:
And don't tell me to get NoLED from market either, the point of the LED is that I can see notifications without having to press any buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not following this comment. NoLED doesn't require you to press any buttons.
wendyalison said:
It's a tad better if you make calls without a headset, but as a girl, it looks super silly holding up the Note to my face. I use Marshall Minor earphones for conversations and they worked wonderfully well with Motorola, not that great with Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, you're saying call quality through earphones is WORSE than call quality just holding the phone? This is very alarming as that's how I make most of my calls. Can anyone else confirm this?
I've been reading for quite awhile because I got myself one (it's still on the way to me, so no hands on yet). I got it mainly because it's a Nexus and I'm done with those 3rd modifications on top of vanilla.
However, I'm getting really mixed comments from all of you guys. Some said it's really nice, some said it's the worst tablet. Although things are always going back to people's own preference but from what I read, 4.2.2 did give lotsa headaches to users mainly because of leaked memory and so.
So users, can you give me your truthful comments from both pros and cons? I can only get the device by next week and after that, it will be my time to list out my very own pros and cons.
Thanks and cheers!
Nexus4 modded with cyanogen.
Yeah, you better cancel your order because some random a holes on the internet did not like something.
Well, the problem is, I can't. Plus, I'm still quite skeptical about the reboots and I have faith that it will be fixed with the update soon.
Are you one of the users?
I'm definitely ok with a bit of problems and it gives me perfect reason to root and tweak it on myself although some do claim that, it should work perfectly fine out of the box.
Nexus4 modded with cyanogen.
I'm running stock and can definitely say that the surfaceflinger memory exists. It becomes obvious when you play multiple videos (streaming or video files). When you do other activities this bug is not readily apparent.
I also from time to time get random WiFi disconnects, which are easily fixed by toggling the WiFi off/on. With that being said I really like my N10 and am using it for more than I expected when I bought it. The display resolution, I/O speed and CPU are all outstanding.
At least the memory leak can be fixed and I read that the surfaceflinger driver developer already has it ready. This gives me hope that Android 4.3 will include the fix. The N10 used as a media consumption device is very good/excellent. I am not disappointed with my purchase.
My laptop at the about same price point (after including N10 accessories) has not been turned on in over three months. All my news reading has move from my desktop PC to the N10. I was surprised at how smooth that transition went.
The only thing that really bothered me about the Nexus 10 is how it could throttle and lower CPU clocks under general usage (general being like playing a game). But then again, the Nexus 4 also does this...
Aside from that though, I find the N10 pretty awesome
The light bleed at the bottom right is the only thing that has bothered me much, but that's because the threads here pointed it out and turned on an OCD switch in me. After almost a month, I had my first two reboots last night, both while watching an hourlong streaming video from a TV network site (using Firefox with Flash). Other than that, couldn't be happier with my N10.
3DSammy said:
I'm running stock and can definitely say that the surfaceflinger memory exists. It becomes obvious when you play multiple videos (streaming or video files). When you do other activities this bug is not readily apparent.
I also from time to time get random WiFi disconnects, which are easily fixed by toggling the WiFi off/on. With that being said I really like my N10 and am using it for more than I expected when I bought it. The display resolution, I/O speed and CPU are all outstanding.
At least the memory leak can be fixed and I read that the surfaceflinger driver developer already has it ready. This gives me hope that Android 4.3 will include the fix. The N10 used as a media consumption device is very good/excellent. I am not disappointed with my purchase.
My laptop at the about same price point (after including N10 accessories) has not been turned on in over three months. All my news reading has move from my desktop PC to the N10. I was surprised at how smooth that transition went.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
espionage724 said:
The only thing that really bothered me about the Nexus 10 is how it could throttle and lower CPU clocks under general usage (general being like playing a game). But then again, the Nexus 4 also does this...
Aside from that though, I find the N10 pretty awesome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JasW said:
The light bleed at the bottom right is the only thing that has bothered me much, but that's because the threads here pointed it out and turned on an OCD switch in me. After almost a month, I had my first two reboots last night, both while watching an hourlong streaming video from a TV network site (using Firefox with Flash). Other than that, couldn't be happier with my N10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the thing that I always talk about. It's a nexus and all problems will be solved for sure by Google itself. With such a good display as well as the A15 architecture proc, it's really a beast and let alone the pure vanilla android.
People are a little bit over exaggerated about the bug, IMO. We receive the newest version and bugs are bearable with me. At least buyers should be aware of the firmware is always the latest which might be a little big buggy. Few positive comments over here are really making my day.
Another thing that bothered me is available RAM. Google states the tablet has 2GB of RAM, which is true (there is 2GB worth of RAM chips installed on the motherboard technically). Before 4.2.2, about 400MB was reserved specifically for the GPU, which is the largest amount of RAM I've seen on any Android device, so that left 1.6GB usable. Not that bad, and it still rounded to 2GB (most other devices though to be fair take like 200-300MB; but the N10 is driving a pretty beefy resolution)
WIth 4.2.2, the RAM reserved for the GPU doubled to 800-some MB (836?). So now the total RAM that the user can use on their own is 1.2GB. No longer nearly close to 2GB.
I guess nothing can really be done about it now, but I don't understand why there just isn't dedicated memory just for the GPU, or why Google doesn't just advertise how much RAM is actually available to use. This isn't an issue at all on most other devices, since the missing memory is usually a small amount, but when almost half of the advertised RAM is missing and not even user-configurable (most computers with IGPs sharing system memory at least let you specify how much you want to dedicated to it)... I find that pretty shady :/
On the other hand, I don't have any out-of-memory problems though (aside from the surfaceflinger thing), so it doesn't seem to be an "actual" issue.
I haven't really noticed anything wrong with my nexus 10 I think its great and fast. Also 4.3 is going to be released soon which should fix any software related issues and make it even smoother . I don't use my tablet as much as others might so maybe that's why I don't notice anything wrong. I generally use it 2-3 hours a day and the only thing I hat is the charging time which feels like forever and that it has a phablet ui rather than tablet look which wastes a little screen space. What they should do is get rid of notification bar and combine it with Nav bar like other tablets
Sent from my Xperia Play (r800x)
abdel12345 said:
... What they should do is get rid of notification bar and combine it with Nav bar like other tablets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use full!screen and LMT/PIE and get all the screen resolution back (full 2560x1600). full!screen gets rid of both bars and provides a notifications pop-up while LMT/PIE can be configured with all the navigation buttons plus much more. I've been using that combination on rooted stock for months now and would never go back to the waste of space that either bar takes.
I like the clean AOSP browser in fullscreen mode plus thumb controls but it does not always paint properly when used with full!screen (artifacts where the navigation bar used to be). I switched to Ocean browser which is really AOSP with a new UI and that fixed the fullscreen paint issue.
3DSammy said:
Use full!screen and LMT/PIE and get all the screen resolution back (full 2560x1600). full!screen gets rid of both bars and provides a notifications pop-up while LMT/PIE can be configured with all the navigation buttons plus much more. I've been using that combination on rooted stock for months now and would never go back to the waste of space that either bar takes.
I like the clean AOSP browser in fullscreen mode plus thumb controls but it does not always paint properly when used with full!screen (artifacts where the navigation bar used to be). I switched to Ocean browser which is really AOSP with a new UI and that fixed the fullscreen paint issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome thanks a lot man I'll try that out
Sent from my Xperia Play (r800x)
billy_overheat said:
Here's the thing that I always talk about. It's a nexus and all problems will be solved for sure by Google itself. With such a good display as well as the A15 architecture proc, it's really a beast and let alone the pure vanilla android.
People are a little bit over exaggerated about the bug, IMO. We receive the newest version and bugs are bearable with me. At least buyers should be aware of the firmware is always the latest which might be a little big buggy. Few positive comments over here are really making my day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can deal with random reboots don't worry about it. It really is something that depends on use. Watching YouTube via chrome will exacerbate the reboots. The actual app doesn't seem to eat the memory. However for my use I can't have it rebooting in the middle of a meeting or trying to dial into work so it has become something of a paperweight. I know how to consume the memory and how to avoid it but it will still eventually reboot. If your using it for goof off purposes instead of productivity you'll be fine. Also, please don't be an Android/Google apologist. They've had 6 months to fix the issue. And they don't market it as a device with buggy firmware that will reboot. If they called it Nexus 10 developer edition I'd agree with you.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
billy_overheat said:
So users, can you give me your truthful comments from both pros and cons? I can only get the device by next week and after that, it will be my time to list out my very own pros and cons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pros:
- Highest resolution tablet on the market, nobody else comes close, even latest iPad has 25% less pixels. I had a Thunderbolt display at work last year and loved working with so much screen real-estate, well, this tablet has even more pixels in 10" than that display had in 27".
- First Android device with beefy Cortex A15 CPU, the Exynos 5 Dual, still the only tablet on the market with A15.
- I actually like the build, fairly thin and I like the sticky material on back.
- For $500 for 32 GB, the one I got, you won't find any device with such high-end specs.
- Android 4.2.2 is usually fairly snappy, sometimes I go back and forth between the home screen and the application drawer just to see the snazzy zoom-in/zoom-out animation and how fast it is.
Each one of these comes with drawbacks however.
Cons:
- You want a high resolution, you have to pay for it with power draw. The display consistently accounts for about 60% of battery usage, even though I keep the brightness at about 30% under light and dial it down to the lowest setting in a dark room. The colors are good but a bit washed out, particularly when compared to an iPad. I wish it had a matte display like my Zenbook, as the glossy display does catch reflections, but I'm not sure that's possible for a tablet.
- The Exynos 5 CPU takes more power than it should and runs somewhat hot. Not as hot as the Tegra 3 in my HOX+, but fairly warm.
- I was surprised how heavy 1.3 lbs felt from the first time I held it. The battery in this thing is huge, 9Ah, compared to 2-3 Ah in most current flagship phones, like the One or S4. It probably had to be so big with that power-sucking display and CPU, but it adds weight.
- The build is a bit creaky and sometimes feels like you have to snap particular pieces back into place, probably to be expected at this cheap price.
- Android still has times when it starts lagging and everything you do takes a second or two to register. These slowdowns often come out of the blue and you're never sure what's going on. This is a mobile OS, so prepare to be frustrated when apps are backgrounded and cached data is lost, particularly if you're expecting something closer to desktop performance because of the specs. The known memory leak in 4.2.2 exacerbates this problem.
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, as I enjoy the high resolution and don't use it anywhere as much as my ultrabook. Now that I know about the memory leak, I may start trying to use it for web reading again, which I had to give up on because it was unusable when Chrome would start reloading every page for no reason. Now I know to reboot when that starts happening, so I at least have a workaround till they fix it.
I love the tablet, for the way I use it - which may be considered light use by most here - it is perfect. The memory issue is real there is no doubt about that. But it is also easily avoided. I reboot my N10 with a tasker profile once during the night and that is that. However I game on it very rarely and use it mostly for streaming movies or just browing the web. One reboot each night seems to be enough to not make these issues appear.
Having said that I have none of the other reported issues, no random reboots or whacky Wifi - I turn Wifi off when the tablet is not in use - but I am also running SentinelRom which seems to be ironing out a lot of the smaller issues. With this ROM scrolling for example has become a silky smooth affair.
Battery life is excellent, much better than the boards make it out to be. I rarely use the N10 with brightness above 25% because it is already so bright on that setting there is no need for it. There may be light bleed - hey it's an LCD after all! - but I never notice any the way I use it. The display is gorgeous in every way, shape and form and I really really like the fact that putting it on lowest brightness makes it really dark. This is perfect for using it in bed at night without getting eye cancer.
With the POGO charger the tablet even has decent charging speed.
Regarding build quality I cannot complain at all. My tablet is not creaky in the least. I had a TF101 which was way worse. I mostly use it with a Poetic smart cover and couldn't be happier. The weight is of course noticeable, but then again this is 10 inches of hardware, it will never feel light as a feather.
Still there are some undeniable software issues still present. The memory leak being one, some issues with scrolling (except when using SentinelRom) being another. But I have yet to see the "perfect" android device which so far does not exist. Google still has a lot of work to do.
rxnelson said:
If you can deal with random reboots don't worry about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not getting the random reboots you speak of. Use my tablet 3-4 hours per day, sometimes more, and do not recall having 1 reboot. AOSP browser closures, yes, though with newer versions not as much. Have 2 Nexus 10 tablets, one stock, one sw display itching between SaberMod and Buttered AOKP.
Had both theTF101 and TF700. Went with the ASUS because of it's IPS+ display and SD card slot. 5 weeks after receiving, had to send it in for charging issues..oneof my main problems with the TF101. For the slight amount of money more for the Nexus 10, it is a much better option. Check out Swappa.com-can typically get a slightly used Nexus 10 for a really good price
mpicasso said:
Not getting the random reboots you speak of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You left out my next sentence. It depends on use. I can duplicate the surfaceflinger issue with eventual reboot on stock CM, buttered AOKP, and rasbean. Obviously we use the tablet differently.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
rxnelson said:
You left out my next sentence. It depends on used. I can duplicate the surfaceflinger issue with eventual reboot on stock CM, buttered AOKP, and rasbean. Obviously we use the tablet differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also left out the statement that got me to post originally: "However for my use I can't have it rebooting in the middle of a meeting or trying to dial into work so it mass become something of a paperweight." As the OP was curious about the reliability of this tablet, I wanted to offer a different perspective.
As a tablet for business, I use it for surfing (quote obtained from website, along with any needed client info), note taking, power point and excel, E-mail, along with a few other things. In a given day, I may spend 3-4 hours, while in client homes, using my tablet. So yes, we may use these differently, but for any "business" function I have thrown at it, it works fine. I also do not do many video presentations, which may explain why I do not experience the same issues as you.
The Yotaphone 2 is now established, no longer on the horizon, so I thought we should have a dedicated thread to it, reviews about it, thoughts etc.
right, yotaphone 2 review so far.
First of all I will say that the specifications of the phone are perfect for me. Yes I like flagship specs but after a few generations of going for the best there is and having tried all the roms and UIs around (miui, touchwiz, sonys one, cyanogen, htc sense, windows, the oppo one etc, it goes on) I decided that I was bored. I wanted something completely different. Considered the jolla but when the yota 2 was announced I was instantly infatuated. Liked the idea of the first model, the second one nails it for me. And to be fair to it – a snapdragon 800 is a very competent soc, does all I need it to do and does everything fast. Currently I don’t need a 64 bit octacore chip, this one handles basically all the things I can throw at it and I don't really play the huge games anyway. Other than an occasional test of a heavy game, its gba and ps1 emulators, casual rpgs and a couple of shooters for me. Also, I read somewhere that Yota’s reasoning was they needed time to get the soc figured out with their device. Yota say they’re using the 800 to keep the heat low, preventing damage to the e-ink screen.
UPDATE: I have since realised that the phone is actually using the snapdragon 801. When announced in February it was using the 800 but it seems they quietly upgraded it before release. The phone says it's the MSM8974pro-aa which can be either 800 or 801 but the gpu clock speed is higher at 578mhz which is exclusive to the 801, so that's a lovely discovery .
On the face of it (both of them) this is a wonderfully pretty phone. At least from my point of view the aesthetics are all spot on. Everything is presented beautifully. This includes the box it comes in and everything in it. Even the charger is lovely to look at. Wonderfully compact and has yotaphone written across the back that lights up when the phone is connected. On the point of the charger, it outputs 1.5A and charges the phone in a couple of hours or so (25% to full takes between 1.30 and 1.45 hours). This adds to the convenience of the phone and lack of battery worries that I will get into later. You also get a load of earphone buds, like, loads.
The front facing screen is an excellent screen. Super AMOLED (my preference, I love the deep blacks), 442ppi on a 5inch screen produces a brilliant, crisp and clear image and the touch responsiveness is excellent. There are a few niggles with using the keyboard (slight over sensitivity with using swype input) but you soon get used to this, once your fingers and thumbs adjust to the screen this goes away I find. It’s much like using someone else’s laptop and their mouse pad is much more sensitive that yours. EDIT: I will concede that the keyboard probably needs a patch sent through, swipe input is fine but normal typing you have to learn to be more accurate than usual. Doesn't take long but if someone borrows your phone... (to be fair, no one is borrowing my Yota. There are many like it but this one is MINE).
The second screen is just beautiful. The whole back panel is made from the same piece of curved gorilla glass so you don’t notice the screen is there, it hardly feels like one but it’s joyous to the touch, smooth (so smooth) and a nice matte black/dark gray. The sensitivity is obviously slower and there are slight delays waiting for the screen to change, but these are minor and you get used to them. I’m still just wildly impressed that yota have pulled this off so well. The backscreen is excellently implemented, the yota mirror feature works like a dream, anything you want on the back can and will be. The screenlock is done using the gyroscope as well, whichever side is facing up is the one that unlocks when pressing the button. Also, the possibility of leaving some vital information like a map or a plane ticket on the back while the rest of the phone is turned off or utterly dead is likely to not be used often, possibly even if ever by some, but the fact that it can be done is a lovely bit of life insurance.
The yotapanels (configurable pages of widgets made for the EPD) are very pretty indeed and very functional. The back screen has its own phone and messaging app. My only niggle with notifications on the back is that the email part of the notification widget is at this point set to the stock email app, not customizable. Only a minor niggle as I would use the front screen for sending emails anyway but it would be nice to choose to check gmail (hoping for an update to change this). The panel grid layout and widgets can be changed to your liking, within reason. I have 2 businessy type pages with clock, calendar, weather, most called people, battery etc a news page with rss reader, emails, important apps and appy geek and a leisure page with games, book and music widget). What surprised me was downloading appy geek then finding a variety of widgets from them I could use on the panels. This gives me hope that more and more third party back widgets will be added over the course of development.
UPDATE: The widgets are better than I thought - the back panel music player associates itself with whichever music app you were playing from last. Also there are some nice easter eggs that you find as certain things occur on the backscreen which give a great sense of Yota going the extra mile. e.g. get someone to text you with just the word cool and leave the EPD face up.
On the subject of development I have received 2 updates so far, optimizing the back screen touch responsiveness, heat output, battery life, yotaenergy mode etc. Also, eventually someone will find a way to root them and then more possibilities reveal themselves. Honestly though, other than being able to use trickster mod, root explorers, remove system apps and a couple of other things I don’t miss all the little features of custom roms. Even sweep to wake isn’t as essential as it used to be for me – yota placed the lock button slightly above the right side (so your thumb is on it when the phone is front facing). This to me begs the question why doesn’t everyone else do that, it’s so much more natural, convenient and keeps the one hand ability going. Yota have made some smart decisions.
UPDATE: The phone has been rooted, Kingo root can do it with drivers you find on the yota website or other drivers online (mine was a case of trial and error). So a root file explorer, wakelock detector, system app remover and a kernel control app installed. Very happy and now its pretty much exactly as I want it.
The phone is very well put together and feels solid. This all improves with the bumper, which adds to the aesthetic further and makes you feel safer. Gorilla glass 3 on both sides or no, this is a phone you worry about dropping, 2 screens = double the vulnerability and double the worry. The back screen is wonderful to the touch but also quite slippery. The bumper gives you a bit more grip and therefore confidence. Despite the worry I have no qualms, it’s a brilliant thing to hold and have around you.
I think my favourite thing so far is being able to keep your phone locked and face down and still see the time, incoming notifications, respond if needed, read, play games and a host of other things. A simple glance is all you need, so convenient and saves those little bits of time and battery that build up over the course of a day. I still gush with appreciation when I look down.
UPDATE: I still do.
On to the battery life – it’s damn good if you want it to be, otherwise it's still not bad. 2550mah compared to 3000 may seem annoying to those that love a top spec’d beast and now that 4000mah phones are starting to come out this paltry little number is in danger of being outdated. However, this phone saves battery in so many ways such as:
1. Having the e-ink display (no battery usage except when it refreshes). How this saves battery is down to you – use the panels properly, get into chess, Sudoku and the other supplied games, use it for reading etc. Get into the habit of using it and you’ll save hours and hours.
2. Having yotaenergy mode. This is not to be underestimated. You can select what you want it to limit or turn off, if you select everything (except wifi cos obviously you need wifi) then cpu is limited, nfc and gps are off, brightness on main screen is down to minimum, the list goes on. Now, most of these I would do myself on a rooted phone, but it’s nice to have a mode that incorporates all the things needed to save a bundle of energy and implements it so well. This has the potential to save you days if used in conjunction with the back display. I use this at work and I can still check emails, notifications, play games for a bit, read etc and a work day ( 7 and a half hours ) will cost me like 5-6% + or – a few depending on the day. Granted I mostly use the back for that stuff but still, damn good so far.
3. Having a vanilla android experience. Having stock android with hardly any additions, all of which you can disable if you want, keeps the minimal drain down.
Now I’m a man that likes a phone to have a battery life that does not concern me. My old one x would require underclocking, a new rom that would need to be reflashed on occasion, greenify etc to get it through the day comfortably with decent usage and screen time. Now this is childs play, it’s a substantial weight off my mind. No real figures yet, haven’t done proper tests as it’s only been a few days. What I can say is that it’ll do a full 24h with heavy usage, wifi and data on, at least 3 hours of games and youtube, all without using energy saving or the e-ink that much and still have well over 30%. That was the second day of owning it, it’ll get better.
I turned yotaenergy on at 92% today, the first 8% drained in a few hours due to a naughty app that is now uninstalled. Going to test how it lasts over the weekend and will report back afterwards.
The bloatware is limited, some is annoying (don’t have twitter so don’t want twitter etc) but to Yota’s credit their own stuff is minimal, and I wouldn’t want to remove any of their own additions. The games chosen function great on the back screen and I dare say look better on it than on the front. There is the occasional little glitch, but most of these can be avoided or solved with a quick screen refresh of changing of modes etc.
I will stop now, I apologise for the length and hope I covered what most people wanted to hear. Will get back soon with long term battery test results.
UPDATE: Battery anxiety is truly gone. Example - took phone off charge at about 1am, up at 6.30, went to work, bit of browsing and game play during day. Got home, played bit of games, read a bit. Went out that night, stayed at a friends, got up at 11am next day. All of that was with mobile data or wifi turned on throughout. By using yota energy in times of minimal usage and EPD for standard things I saved bundles I intentionally took energy mode off when gaming and when was doing things on phone to create a fair test. When I checked gsam battery monitor it reported I'd used 50% in 34 hours, that was with 2.5 hours screen time, with about as much time spent gaming as reading and a fair amount of browsing and app updating etc. For a phone with 2550mah I'd say that's pretty excellent going. Maybe there are phones that can match it but even if so, they're not as much fun to use as this one.
If anyone has any requests for battery tests (full screen on time, how long on battery saver and EPD etc just ask).
Much TL,DR –
Very pretty phone, great front screen, back screen surprisingly useful and nice to look at and touch. Software well implemented. Hopeful for long term development improvements. Very good performance, great battery. Occasional glitch but nothing that detracts from and limits experience.
UPDATE: glitches have lessened significantly over a short space of time, haven't had one for ages.
UPDATE: there is a recurring one - the back panels app shortcuts will occasionally default to the originals. This takes less than a minute to rectify but still, hoping for it to be fixed in an update. This is only glitch I still encounter, the rest seemed to be teething problems.
Overall, loving it. Expensive but very different and a joy to use. Definitely worth it if you get a discount. I managed to get mine with 10% off and 2 bumper cases (longish story), to me that makes it great value because I honestly already see myself getting the subsequent generations, it would already annoy me not having the back screen.
Worth checking their facebook page every now and again to see if they've got another 10-20% discount going again.
Thanks for the in depth review, it's clearly hit the sweet spot for you ☺
I have a question about notifications.....when in the yota panel or yota cover mode and it is on your desk EPD facing up, what happens if you get a notification from say whatsapp or xda developers I.e. one that doesn't have a specific widget on the yota panel, is there any indication on the EPD that a notification has been received and if so can you interact with it or does it just send you to the OLED side?
Secondly, if you have your home screen mirrored on the EPD and again it's laying on your desk, will the notifications appear in the notification shade and can you swipe down the shade to check and interact exactly with them as you would on the OLED display? I.e using whatsapp as an example again , get the new message notification in the shade, swipe it down, click on the message, whatsapp opens and you type in a reply and send it....All from the e ink side.
Battery drain leads to battery anxiety, I am hoping that the yota 2 works how I've described above as I spend a lot of time lighting up the OLED on my phone just checking and responding to notifications and it could be a game changer to be able to do that from the e ink side. Saving the OLED for the more intense stuff like games, videos web browsing etc.
Thanks in advance
Mike
Sent from my GT-N8010 using XDA Premium HD app
Not a problem, it very much has and also it was a slow day at work .
The notification widget on the panels and covers has 4 items, phone, text, email and general notifications. Phone and text can be interacted with, and lovely apps they are to use as well. A great example is that if someone sends you a text that just says cool (even with third party text apps) then the text will show up and atop it is a picture of a man adjusting his bowtie. Lovely little easter egg. The email sends you to the stock email client, hoping for a way to get that to associate with gmail to come out eventually. The fourth is for other notifications (whatsapp, xda and everything else). The email and notification icons will simply send you to the front screen. You can just mirror them straight back over though. And I suppose having the phone implement everything would be a bit tricky. You never know, development might add them later. Sorry I write too much. In short, you can't interact with 'other' notifications straight from the screen but have to mirror it back.
To answer your second question - yes. If your using mirror on the home screen it will appear just as the same homescreen and same android, just on the back screen. Anything that comes up you can interact with, including pulling down the notification shade, opening your apps (in this case whatsapp) and interacting with them as you would (replying straight from the app). The only difference is its slower obviously, but still very do-able. If your going for super battery saving then it doesn't strike as a problem if you have to take a bit longer. It's enjoyable and pretty anyway, and very easy on the eyes.
So to summarise, yes, you can use the EPD just as you would the amoled. Even if you have to turn over activate the notification from a panel you can just mirror it straight back over, avoiding amoled over use.
I'm the same, always hate having the battery life hanging over me. The yota has got rid of that for me. It came off charge at 6am friday morning, its now just before 5pm - gsam says 34 hours. Battery is on 35%, both data and wifi have been on and being used constantly, games being played a lot, internet and youtube have occurred here and there. I've been trying to push it through its paces when have had the time. Had a couple of cheeky battery draining apps for first half of Friday so got rid of them but still.. It's nice to have 35% and feel confident that I could probably get another full day out of it if needed. And all in such an interesting package.
So, 48 hours battery life without a struggle with normal usage is perfectly feasible and also the charger charges it in a very short time, super convenient.
Hope I helped, sorry for the length again.
Thanks that really helped ?
I really like the idea of a more than one day battery life for moderate to heavy use, I'm out of contract in a couple of months and have been considering an xperia Z3 which has a large battery and is being reported by users as achieving 2 days use, however this phone is intriguing, I can think of so many potential uses for the snap shot on the EPD and to be able to control music and audio books etc. But it's the battery life that is most tempting with this device your quoted figures are impressive, how much were you using it during that period?
Another question if you don't mind, in some reviews and videos I've seen views of yota panels than display what look like short cuts to regular apps such as chrome, youtube, currency converter, maps, whatsapp , can you configure the yota panels to show an icon of any app in the app draw? For instance I use audible a lot and the EPD would be perfect for using and controlling audible from a short cut on the Yota panel. Would this short cut direct you to flip the phone to the OLED then mirror it back as per the general notifications you described above?
Thanks
Mike
Sent from my GT-N8010 using XDA Premium HD app
It is a nice freedom to have to be sure, to not feel you have to charge it over night. If caught in those party situations, or when just away from charger its nice to know its fine. I read some z3 reviews and the z3 seems to do something similar with battery. The z3 would almost certainly beat the yota in a hands down typical battry test but for long term endurance with conservative usage (and lots of use of the EPD) then i'm certain that the yota could take it. And even if not, the EPD is amazing to have. Keep stumbling across more uses for it. (currently replying to your review on a laptop with your reply screenshotted onto back of my yota). I would say that other than when at work (minimal usage but still some games here and there) I was using it between normal and heavy usage depending on the time. Normal - moderate for most of the time with a few sessions of heavy usage. Data and wifi on the whole time, almost always downloading and updating apps too. More than I would usually use it basically and 2 days use was a breeze. In a few days I think i'll go for intentional conservative usage and see how long it goes for.
Not at all. The app shortcut widgets have different sizes available, 1, 3 and 6 apps. Each one of these widgets can be configured, you can choose any app. Clicking on the app from the EPD will open the app directly on the EPD, it'll basically activate mirror mode without having to switch over. A wonderful feature I think. So you would be able to open audible from the shortcut and control it straight from the EPD without the need to even activate the OLED at all.
The z3 is a good phone, better processor, better camera etc. It rivals the s5, the m8 etc in terms of features. For me though, the yota covers everything pretty well, even if it's using now slightly outdated specs - it does the job happily. And the EPD adds a whole new level of functionality and makes using a phone a very interesting practice again. It's a new way of using a phone and that's what's most attractive for me.
Thanks again for your reply, it seems that the yotaphone will do pretty much all I would want it to on the EPD, it has really got my interest up now! I'm seeing a yota panel with my most used apps that would not really suffer from being on the EPD, audible, fotmob, kobo, whatsapp, beyond pod maybe even words with friends!
I think along the same lines as you in wanting something a bit different and interesting, I've had two android phones now and before that an iPhone, to be honest another straight forward android seems a little samey now hence deciding that battery life would be my priority rather than screen size or the latest cpu etc.... If only that eye watering price would drop a little come March.....
Sent from my GT-N8010 using XDA Premium HD app
Yeah above all I wanted battery life with decent enough specs and something different. I finished my contract and began saving with the express aim of getting this phone, once got the money figured might as well as no other phone appeals to me enough. The modular smartphones coming up certainly piqued my interest but I can't wait for them, wanted a new phone now. For me the yota is worth it so far and I hold out hope for the duration of my ownership of it.
Good luck to you whether you decide to go for it or something else.
20% discount offer on facebook if your still wanting dude. £444 seems pretty reasonable.
zute333 said:
20% discount offer on facebook if your still wanting dude. £444 seems pretty reasonable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh that's so tempting, i don't have face book tho, where's the discount coming from,yotaphone themselves? I've been waiting for March to see what the HTC One M9 and Galaxy S6 looks like....trouble is android now looks the same on most handsets, so will a M9 be that much different from my M7 meh.
My kids have Facebook tho, how do you get access to the discount?
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N8010 using XDA Premium HD app
yotaphone themselves indeed, celebrating 120,000 fans. Seems a bit harsh on the rest of us but i'm not one to begrudge success on a company I would like to succeed.
They all look the same now. Samsung have never been that good on the aesthetic look of their phone's imo, the m7 is beautiful in the same way as the m8 and m9 and possibly so on. And yeah, launchers are pretty stripped down now, and I find having a launcher that you can theme, or using something like dodol or themer you can get a phone looking exactly how you want, which negates manufacturers launchers anyhow. The only real difference comes from the odd gimmick here and there or in the case of the note edge a part of a screen. That one I kind of get but I'm also of the opinion that a whole second screen beats a sliver of one on the side .
Sorry, what you actually want to see is this: https://www.facebook.com/YotaPhone/posts/439221752895395
I hope the link works and the discount is still active if you go for it.
Well Zute333 thanks for the heads up on the discount , my daughter pulled up the voucher code via her FB and I've bought one at £421.80 ☺????????
It feels genuinely exciting to have something different to use over the coming months. Btw Is it a mini or micro sim?
Thanks again for helping me decide
Mike
Sent from my GT-N8010 using XDA Premium HD app
Well I'm a bit gutted if i'm honest, got mine at £495-£555 (discount still pending, long story), with the bumper. But to be fair I've had a lovely few weeks and am getting the jolla tablet for hilariously cheap price so counting it a good overall load of deals lol. Still though, £421.80 is epic, congrats and I hope you enjoy it dude. Lollipop on the way at some point, can only improve things.
It's micro sim.
EDIT: nano-sim
No worries dude.
I'm even more gutted: it seems this is only valid in the UK, as I can't change the country field to any other. Website is partly in Dutch, though.
Sad for you dude. I think they made the post in other languages for other countries but can't find em and don't know if they did one for the Netherlands.
I don't really mind having paid full price, just happy to have it. You can always wait, another offer will surely arise, the standard price will also probably drop eventually.
By the way, a reseller here in Holland says in its specs the Yotaphone has nanosim. I assume they're wrong?
---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------
Also, I see different specs on radio: some say 3G, some say 4G.
bartveld said:
By the way, a reseller here in Holland says in its specs the Yotaphone has nanosim. I assume they're wrong?
---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------
Also, I see different specs on radio: some say 3G, some say 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, no I was wrong, I got the names mixed - thought there was mini and micro, equating micro with nano. The yota 2 sim tray is a nano-sim tray.
Also it can do 4g.
Thanks.
Hi all, newbie here! i've just bought Yotaphone 2 couple days ago, can't say how happy i am with this phone so far. It's fast enough and the always-on screen is amazingly convenient. Can't say much about battery life yet as only charged it once so far.
The only couple of minor things to mention though - the back-panel is very, very slippery so can easily drop the phone out of your hands. The other thing - email notifications on the back-panel. It's configured to default email app (as mentioned in some previous posts) and looks like there's no way how i can change it to gmail which is my primary email. But am i right thinking that there should be an update to fix this?
smekla said:
Hi all, newbie here! i've just bought Yotaphone 2 couple days ago, can't say how happy i am with this phone so far. It's fast enough and the always-on screen is amazingly convenient. Can't say much about battery life yet as only charged it once so far.
The only couple of minor things to mention though - the back-panel is very, very slippery so can easily drop the phone out of your hands. The other thing - email notifications on the back-panel. It's configured to default email app (as mentioned in some previous posts) and looks like there's no way how i can change it to gmail which is my primary email. But am i right thinking that there should be an update to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey dude. Lovely phone isn't it. Yeah the back is pretty slippy, the bumper solves that problem if you can manage to get one? As for the email notification on the back, I agree, it's annoying that you can't configure it but I think they'll probably address that in an update, maybe make they're own email client like with the back sms app or something. Only time will tell on that front I suppose.
By the way, get someone to text you the word 'cool' and leave phone EPD facing up. Lovely little easter egg type addition by Yota. Figuring out various other ones over time