Had Note 8 (VZW) for 48 hours now coming from GS8 - best Android phone I've ever used - Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Guides, News, & Disc

I've never owned a Note but I've owned countless Android devices and iPhones too. I got my VZW pre-ordered Note 8 on Tuesday and have been using it a lot since then. This is by far the best phone (Android or not) I've ever used especially in terms of out of the box experience.
Coming from an S8 some thoughts:
- Super smooth and animations don't stutter at all - not sure how much of this has to do with 6GB of RAM and Android 7.1.1 (GS8 has 7.0)
- AMAZING multitasking - finally. My average free RAM has remained about 1.5GB (60-70% used) the last 48 hours. Apps that I haven't used for over 24 hours are still in memory and even multitasking heavy apps like Facebook, Twitter, browsers, etc. is no problem. FINALLY!
- Battery life for my usage has always been so-so on the GS8 the best I could get was 3.5hrs for example. Yesterday I took my phone to work and used it for the whole day without charging (9 hrs) and had 2 hrs of screen on time - left work with 60% battery life! That is incredible for me personally since again I have not done anything to tweak or optimize - everything is on and I used it heavily.
- The screen (even coming from a GS8) is just breathtaking. The quality, brightness and colors are awesome. Outdoors it gets so bright that it almost looks like an e-ink display. HDR videos on Amazon and Netflix look really great
- Fingerprint sensor location is not great but it's fine for me coming from GS8
- Camera seems as good as GS8 but haven't used it as much as I would like yet
- Size is perfect, it's tall but the width is perfect for holding and the keyboard is super comfortable (GS8 felt too narrow)
If you have any questions feel free to ask below. Thanks and for those waiting, it's totally worth the wait

Thanks for all these tidbits! I have been concerned with the lack of excited posts from people who have received the phone - this is awesome to see!!
Especially excited about proper RAM management. Thank goodness Samsung has learned!
Also really glad to hear that scrolling is smooth and no stuttering. Stupid test model had me worried. Thanks again for this post, I am so relieved and even more excited now!

What's your screen resolution op?
Out of the box, i read on one of these android reviews that the highest screen resolution is not selected out of the box, in order to maintain better battery life.
Since you didnt tweak anything according to your post, i assume you did not adjust the screen resolution?
I'm getting the note8 today and the first thing i will do is enable the highest screen resolution and make sure the battery performance is set to highest performance.
This will be my first every Sammy product so im looking forward to it. I have an asus zenfone 3 deluxe special edition with 6gb max and half a terabyte of storage. Ther hardware in it is top shelf but the screen is no where near the resolution of the note 8.

marctronixx said:
Out of the box, i read on one of these android reviews that the highest screen resolution is not selected out of the box, in order to maintain better battery life.
Since you didnt tweak anything according to your post, i assume you did not adjust the screen resolution?
I'm getting the note8 today and the first thing i will do is enable the highest screen resolution and make sure the battery performance is set to highest performance.
This will be my first every Sammy product so im looking forward to it. I have an asus zenfone 3 deluxe special edition with 6gb max and half a terabyte of storage. Ther hardware in it is top shelf but the screen is no where near the resolution of the note 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes first thing I did was change to QHD resolution and I'm running at that since the first 5 mins of owning the phone. It does come at 1080p like the GS8 so I knew to change it. So I assume if you left it at 1080p it would be smoother, faster and last even longer!!
PsiPhiDan said:
Thanks for all these tidbits! I have been concerned with the lack of excited posts from people who have received the phone - this is awesome to see!!
Especially excited about proper RAM management. Thank goodness Samsung has learned!
Also really glad to hear that scrolling is smooth and no stuttering. Stupid test model had me worried. Thanks again for this post, I am so relieved and even more excited now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, everyone uses phones differently so hopefully it works for you!

Related

Is there a better tablet coming soon?

I bought a 32gb Nexus 10 from Staples over the weekend and am enjoying it, but I realize that I'm seven months late to this hardware (while still paying full price). Is there anything coming in the next month that I should return this unit for? A high PPI is a must at this point.
Thanks.
Samsung was trying to get a Nexus 11 going and had specs for it, but at the time Google had not yet approved the production of it. No word has been heard since then about a new model upgrade for the Nexus 10.
trimalchioinwestegg said:
I bought a 32gb Nexus 10 from Staples over the weekend and am enjoying it, but I realize that I'm seven months late to this hardware (while still paying full price). Is there anything coming in the next month that I should return this unit for? A high PPI is a must at this point.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The next Nexus 7 will probably come out in a month or so, if you're okay with a 7" tablet. If you must have 10", the high-end announcements so far are a new Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, not coming till the fall, and the Toshiba Excite Pro, coming next month, both running Tegra 4 and with the same 2560 X 1600 resolution as the Nexus 10. If you want a stylus, the Toshiba Excite Write is the same as the Pro, but with a Wacom digitizer and a stylus.
There are always new announcements being made in the runup to the holidays, this is just what we know so far. We can't say how good any of these devices will be, as none of them are out yet.
Just got the Toshiba Excite Write
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
babblin5 said:
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will keep my tablet thanks. At least I know my benchmark scores are 100% raw horsepower and not shady nVidia "optimizations".
brees75 said:
I will keep my tablet thanks. At least I know my benchmark scores are 100% raw horsepower and not shady nVidia "optimizations".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suit yourself, but that's a lot of wasted CPU cycles and amps there for a misplaced sense of "power." Mobile devices are all about optimization right now, and if the reports show the device to be fully usable, then you're unlikely to run into issues. Certainly this has my eye.
babblin5 said:
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get your hands on it? None of the major tech sites have even reviewed it yet and they say it's not supposed to be delivered to buyers for another week.
How does it compare to the Nexus 10 otherwise? Specifically, the resolution is the same, but are the colors as good or better? Forget about benchmarks, do you notice any differences in a quad-core A15 compared to the dual-core A15 in the Nexus 10 in real-world use? What is battery life like with such a powerful CPU? Do the speakers go louder than the Nexus 10's speakers, when cranked up to the max? Can you post some pics from the rear camera, so we can see how good it is?
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, so I doubt I'll be picking up another tablet for a while. But I'm curious how these upcoming spec-hogs will compare to the current spec-hog king, the Nexus 10.
joakim_one said:
How did you get your hands on it? None of the major tech sites have even reviewed it yet and they say it's not supposed to be delivered to buyers for another week.
How does it compare to the Nexus 10 otherwise? Specifically, the resolution is the same, but are the colors as good or better? Forget about benchmarks, do you notice any differences in a quad-core A15 compared to the dual-core A15 in the Nexus 10 in real-world use? What is battery life like with such a powerful CPU? Do the speakers go louder than the Nexus 10's speakers, when cranked up to the max? Can you post some pics from the rear camera, so we can see how good it is?
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, so I doubt I'll be picking up another tablet for a while. But I'm curious how these upcoming spec-hogs will compare to the current spec-hog king, the Nexus 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a Nexus 10 at the moment for direct comparisons, but I personally think the brightness and color are at least on par. I do feel that the viewing angles aren't quite as high however in the Write. Don't know if this has anything to do with the digitizer or not. The pic of my kitteh was taken with the rear camera in room light, but I'll shoot a few more and post.
I also think that the Write's Tegra 4 delivers the goods in gameplay, even when set to balance mode, there's no stuttering in anything I've thrown at it so far, and Autocad 360 rendering is blazingly fast in real time 3D view, even when rotating fully rendered 3d models. I'm not sure how well the Nexus 10 would handle the same stuff, especially in power saving mode.
I do question the battery life a bit, as it seems to chew through the battery at times, and at this point I'm kind of doubting the life claimed by Toshiba. I'm not sure if the current kernel build is fully optimized yet, as there's at least one major issue when streaming or watching video, both through Google Play or from a file saved on the SD card. The screen goes black after a few seconds of playback, although the sound continues to play. Pressing the power button to put it in sleep mode, then again to wake it up, solves the issue and everything plays and streams fine after that. YouTube streaming doesn't have this issue. Also, it doesn't matter which player you use, it still does it, which leads me to believe that the unit I got might still have an early, unoptimized build on it. I seriously can't see them mass shipping with that kind of readily apparent bug, but who knows?
The sound is also a bit odd. It seems pretty muted, even at full volume, when playing any type of media. Games are plenty loud though, and the stereo separation and surround enhancements are simply stellar, even when I have the thing parked on my lap. I strongly suspect that there's some sort of limit as to the max volume switched on in the hardware to avoid blowing out the speakers or something, or it could be in the kernel itself...I honestly don't know at this point. I just know that the maximum volume is significantly lower in media playback for some strange reason.
As for how I got it, I'm just as amazed as you are. I pre ordered on July 2, and the shipping date showed July 3 on my order. I called toshiba and asked them if this was correct, and was told that they weren't scheduled to ship until the 18th. I thought they'd go in and change the date after I called attention to the ship date, but it stayed showing the 3rd. Low and behold the next day I got an email with a tracking number, and sure enough it arrived the following Monday due to the delay caused by the 4th (2 day shipping).
Was it a mistake? I have no frigging idea, and feel pretty privileged to have one before any of the major sites have reviewed it. Here's a pic of the tablet and box it came in, to satisfy any doubters that might be out there, as well as the invoice that came with it.
babblin5 said:
Was it a mistake? I have no frigging idea, and feel pretty privileged to have one before any of the major sites have reviewed it. Here's a pic of the tablet and box it came in, to satisfy any doubters that might be out there, as well as the invoice that came with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, sounds like a nice device, although with some early hiccups. This is the first Tegra 4 device on the market, now that the Nvidia Shield has been postponed, so I was curious how it would do.
How long does it last in normal, continuous usage? My Nexus 10 goes about 5-6 hours.
joakim_one said:
Thanks for the info, sounds like a nice device, although with some early hiccups. This is the first Tegra 4 device on the market, now that the Nvidia Shield has been postponed, so I was curious how it would do.
How long does it last in normal, continuous usage? My Nexus 10 goes about 5-6 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say it's at least 5-6 hours, but nowhere near the 9-11 that Toshiba claims.
Here's some photos off the rear camera of the Excite Write.
Excellent stuff, thanks for posting babblin :thumbup: I have one heading my way (shipped July 12th) and will admit to a certain amount of trepidation since that last 5 tablets I've tried to buy (2 Nexus 10, 2 Nexus 7, 1 Xperia Tablet Z) were faulty out of the box.
I'm curious — although I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough unless it's a total dud — does stylus pressure register in any drawing app (eg. SketchBook)?
TellTenPeople said:
Excellent stuff, thanks for posting babblin :thumbup: I have one heading my way (shipped July 12th) and will admit to a certain amount of trepidation since that last 5 tablets I've tried to buy (2 Nexus 10, 2 Nexus 7, 1 Xperia Tablet Z) were faulty out of the box.
I'm curious — although I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough unless it's a total dud — does stylus pressure register in any drawing app (eg. SketchBook)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure, but I'll check into it. I did use it to sign a PDF though, which was pretty cool...
babblin5 said:
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the available ram after reboot? The N10 GPU takes 800 meg now so only ~1.2gig available.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
no.
this tablet will long for the next 3 years at least
rxnelson said:
What is the available ram after reboot? The N10 GPU takes 800 meg now so only ~1.2gig available.
T
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have quite a few things running in background, and it's using .89 gb
To the OP...
There is "ALWAYS" a better tablet coming soon. You should never, ever, ever purchase a tab because of what is around the corner.
Of course this means that you'd never, ever, ever own a tablet either
I don't see a problem with an N10 purchase around this time, after all, I purchased one last month. The closest "reviewed" tab is the Sony 10.1" tab and it's not enough of a boost over an N10 to warrant upgrading from the N10 to one.
Specification wise, other than a microSD slot (which has less benefit with each release of Android due to DRM), camera and the ability to take it swimming (water isn't good for the Nexus), the N10 still seems to have the top specs. Screen resolution, audio quality and several GPU benchmarks appear to have the N10 still in the lead.
This fall? That's when you'll likely see some 10" tablet refreshes.
babblin5 said:
Here's some photos off the rear camera of the Excite Write.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, there's no way the Nexus 10 produces shots like those, with its below-average camera. Looks like a clear win for the Excite Write camera, though I barely use the camera on my Nexus 10, so not a big deal for me.
To answer my own question, the Toshiba Write doesn't get pressure sensitivity — much less good performance — out of either SketchBook Pro or Ink. It does, however, do a nibble job in HandyNote Pro which is why I bought it.
The normal swiping and app switching is not quite as smooth as I was expecting from the "next gen" Tegra 4 — especially not in Balanced performance mode. I also find it odd that it has a dedicated charging port which I keep mistaking for the headphone/mic jack, but at least it charges reasonably quickly which is good because battery life leaves something to be desired — like more of it.
Nevertheless, I'm still giddy from actually being sent a tablet without any discernible defects. 6th time the charm And it only took 8 months.
Update - July 29, 2013:
I celebrated too soon — defects discerned.
1) Brightness fluctuates even with Auto-brightness OFF. The screen seems to go brighter when displaying light content and dimmer when displaying dark content. It does it abruptly and annoyingly at any brightness and there's no way to disable it.
2) Dust under screen protector or, worse, glass. The Write, like the Xperia Tablet Z, seems to have a factory installed screen protector over the glass. Whether the dust was under this protector or the glass I could not tell. The two Nexus 10 I had (and returned) had stuff under the glass so it's possible.
I contacted Toshiba Canada and they sent me a box to send it back to them for service. At least they're paying for all the shipping.
After a week's heavy use, I have to say that either the OS is still unoptimised for the hardware, or the tablet I got was defective (not beyond the realm of possibility). The Balanced mode was very stutter-y and sluggish especially in app switching. Maximum Performance mode was smoother but ran real hot and got about 6 hours battery life.
Furthermore, some apps (including the built-in Think Free Office) flickered when the onscreen keyboard was engaged. Also happened with the xda-developer app and Flick Note and a few others but not with Google Docs or Evernote so I suspect it's down to app/OS optimisation for high res screens. Does the Nexus 10 have this problem?

[Central] Moto G reviews 2013-12-12

[Central] Moto G reviews​This thread is a collection of reviews, tests and more about MotoG :
Here is a summary :
Written review (first sight) about our device by @lavafire
Full length review by gsmarena
Unboxing, Head to head with n5, Speed review, and video sample by @AndyCr15
Review and How to change back cover by @AndyCr15
Review by Android Central
Unboxing and Build Quality, Short Review, Display Quality and Video Playback, Speaker Test, LED Test, Benchmarks, Gaming Performance, Water-repellent Coating Tes, Sample 720p Video, Sample Slow Motion 720p Video, Autofocus Test by @jonmorris@shem2409
Review by @jonmorris
Review by @mobiletechReview
Scratch and drop test
Hard core testing
Feel free to share any link that should be here
Thanks. I have others if they're useful?
Unboxing
Head to Head
Speed Review
Video Sample
Fantastic phone!!!!
good morning! I just ordering in amazon.es (http://www.amazon.es/Motorola-Moto-...uad-Core/dp/B00GOYN5TE/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b)'m from Spain, but I still need to wait a while to make it available for sale this terminal.
is this acceptable terminal requirements for today?
reggards from spain! and see you guys
PD: I've subscribe to this channel http://www.youtube.com/user/androidandyuk
Android central
Moto G review
http://www.androidcentral.com/moto-g-review
The Moto G easily the best cheap Android phone you can buy right now. (And probably the only Android phone at this price point that delivers a user experience of this quality.) Every criticism of the Moto G has to be framed against its ludicrously low price. It’s frankly amazing that a manufacturer is able to put together a device like the Moto G for £135 and make money selling it.
Nuthin' but a 'Moto G' thang
Great phone, but it doesn't have sdcard slot
Had Moto G for about 24 hours now, I am so impressed with this phone. I really want to let everyone know about it I have compared this phone a lot with Samsung S4, not because I hate it, instead it was my last phone and I have used it for months, so have a good idea of what I am on about
Screen
Some may consider the resolution on this phone being too low, compared to the high end flagship phones this is about 100 ppi less. But does this mean the screen is bad? No. In fact, I am loving it more than the AMOLED on Samsung s4. First of all, I am just going to say that above 300ppi I can't tell the difference. To me, 400+ ppi = higher battery drain + requires more CPU + requires more GPU. Just why? Maybe there are some untold benifit of higher ppi screens, but to me I just don't see any advantage what so ever. Apart from the fact you could say to your mate "my phone's ppi is higher than yours...". So this to me is a big thumb up!
Speed
Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention speed of this phone. My S4 was running stock android 4.3 means I should see a massive different when I switch to this phone. But the reality is not the case, it really doesn't appear to be that much of a difference. There may be 1/5 of a speed difference when opening apps, but that is like 0.2 seconds? Even for inpatient person like me, it is more than acceptable. At the end of the day, it make you think what Samsung is doing with their snapdragon 600, when moto g can keep up using a snapdragon 400... This is on stock android, don't even mention touch wiz... But seriously find a review video or go to a shop and see it for yourselves.
Software/ROM
Well not much to say here, it is running basically stock Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks e.g. camera.
Storage
8gb or 16gb, it is always the question. Previously i'd say get 16gb, more future proof, however I choose 8gb this time. Not because of the 50gb gdrive storage (pointless if you have no internet connection), instead you could get OTG so if you really want to watch films on trips you can do that. Otherwise, 5.5gb is enough for general app installs. For photos, turn on auto google+ photo back up (or dropbox backup whichever fits u better) then delete the photos on your phone once they are uploaded.
Camera
Haven't really tested it, but at least ok from what I can see and don't expect it to match DSLR
Hardware/Ergonomics
+ Curved back, easy to hold. I especially like the dented "M" logo, it gives more grip, helps when I need to touch the top of the screen.
- Phone is a bit heavy, for people like reading lying down for a long time might be a bit of a pain.
+ Back cover is removable, awesome! In fact, there a lot of covers coming out soon.
- Although, back cover is hard to remove and a bit slippery, not so awesome.
+ Volume key & power key on the same side.
- Clean design, coming from HTC and Samsung, I really enjoy this kind of simple design. I don't like the HTC/Samsung logo on the most obvious place on your phone kinda ruins the look of the phone.
+ No physical keyboard (some may consider this to be a minus instead of a plus), I am just glad don't need to worry about menu wearing out over time
- Speaker on the back side of the phone
+ Due to curved back, no speaker sound is actually trapped when you place it on the back
+ Both headphone port and micro-usb port are located middle of top and bottom side of the phone respectively, again just simple and nice to look at
- No 4G connectivity. Not a problem for me, as I don't even get 3G where I live, a lot of people living in cities might find this some what a deal breaker.
- No removable battery
- No expandable storage
Battery Life
All i am going to say is 4.5 hours screen on time, 60% left. :good: I am not convinced the stats is accurate, so testing it right now to see if it is really that good.
Update: second time, 4hours22min screen on time, 8 and half hours on battery, 43% remaining.
FM Radio
I was never a radio fan, always thought it was kinda out-of-date technology. Then I moved to an area where there are hardly any 3g/2g coverage at all on the way to work, karma i guess... You might say just download music from google music/sportify, but I don't change my songs frequent enough and it just gets old. Conclusion: always better to have a phone that has FM radio than a phone that doesn't.
Notification light
It is plain silly to me why some OEM would even consider not include a notification light on their phone. *cough* iphone. *cough* windows phone. It make things so much easier, when all you need to do is glance at it rather than turn on the screen, then turn it off again just to check if your missing anything important. There is no more needs saying, it is just playing annoying without one, so another plus.
Value for money
For most of the people, money is a key factor when buying a new phone. Even if the price is not a burden, you might still get the same feeling as me, thinking it cost quite a lot and make the promise to use it for 2 years or more. Well, with this phone you won't get that. In fact, I brought mine thinking I will use it as a back up phone since no other phone has its spec in its price range. But after I started using it, I couldn't put it down. Now I am not even considering getting nexus 5 which was going to be my main phone.
What I look forward to
Hell this is XDA, obviously I want lots and lots of ROMs XD. But I also can't wait for 4.4 to come out and ART to be stable. I imagine it would make this phone even faster. Saw some comparisons between Dalvik and ART, have to say ART wins hands down especially considering it is still in development stage.
Final thoughts
So happy with this phone, and mostly happy about Motorola stepping up and giving us this product. This is important in the sense, they are fighting a price battle for us, the consumers. We should show some support to let the other OEMs know it is not about how much they spend money on advertising, it is giving us a great product with a reasonable price instead of throw in some latest chips and mark it £599 rubbish which is basically what is happening right now.
Tips
I would recommend everyone get this phone, and get the 8gb version. Since it cost so little, no one could moan at you when you get a new phone next year
lavafire said:
Had Moto G for about 24 hours now, I am so impressed with this phone I really want to let everyone know about it I have compared this phone a lot with Samsung S4, not cos I hate it, but simply because it was my last phone and I have used it for months. So have a good idea of what I am on about
Screen
Some may consider the resolution on this phone is too low, compared to the high end flagship phones it is about 100 ppi less. But does this mean the screen is bad? No. In fact, I am loving it more than the AMOLED on Samsung s4. First of all, I am just going to say that above 300ppi I can't tell the difference. To me, 400+ ppi = higher battery drain + requires more CPU + requires more GPU. Just why? Maybe there are some untold benifit of higher ppi screens, but to me I just don't see any advantage what so every apart from the fact you could say to your mate "my phone's ppi is higher than your...". So this to me is a big thumb up!
Speed
Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention speed of this phone. My last phone being Samsung S4 running stock android 4.3 means I should see a massive different when I switch to this phone. But the reality is different, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. There may be 1/5 of a speed difference when opening apps, but that is like 0.2 seconds? Even for inpatient person like me, it is more than acceptable. At the end of the day, it make you think what Samsung is doing with their snapdragon 600, when moto g can keep up using a snapdragon 400... This is on stock android, don't even mention touch wiz... But seriously find a review video or go to a shop and see it for yourselves.
Software/ROM
Well not much to say here, it is running basically stock Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks e.g. camera.
Storage
8gb or 16gb, it is always the question. Previously i'd say get 16gb, more future proof, however I choose 8gb this time. not because of the 50gb gdrive storage (pointless if you have no internet connection), instead you have OTG so if you really want to watch films on trips you can do that. Otherwise, 5.5gb is enough for general app installs. For photos, turn on auto google+ photo back up (or dropbox backup whichever fits u better) then delete the photos on your phone once they are uploaded.
Camera
Haven't really tested it, but at least ok from what I can see and don't expect it to match DSLR
Hardware/Ergonomics
+ Curved back, easy to hold. I especially like the dented "M" logo, it gives more grip, helps when I need to touch the top of the screen.
- Phone is a bit heavy, for people like reading lying down might be a bit of a pain.
+ Back cover is removable, awesome! In fact, there a lot of covers coming out soon.
- Although, it is hard to remove and a bit slippery, not so awesome.
+ Volume key & power key on the same side.
- Clean design, coming from HTC and Samsung, I really enjoy this kind of simple design. I don't like the HTC/Samsung logo on the most obvious place on your phone kinda ruins the look of the phone.
+ No physical keyboard (some may consider this to be a minus instead of a plug), don't need to worry about menu wearing out over time
- Speaker on the bottom of the phone
+ Due to curved back, no speaker sound is actually trapped when you place it on the back
+ Both headphone port and micro-usb port are in the middle of top and bottom side of the phone respectively, again just simple but nice to look at
- No 4G connectivity. Not a problem for me, as I don't even get 3G where I live, a lot of people living in cities might find this some what a deal breaker.
- No removable battery
- No expandable storage
Battery Life
All i am going to say is 4.5 hours screen on time, 60% left. :good: I am not convinced by the stats, so testing it right now to see if it is really that good.
FM Radio
I was never a radio fan, always thought it was kinda out-of-date technology. Then I moved to an area where there are hardly any 3g/2g coverage at all on the way to work, karma i guess... You might say just download music from google music/sportify, but I don't change my songs frequent enough and it just gets old. Conclusion: always better to have a phone that has FM radio than a phone that doesn't.
Notification light
It is plain silly to me why some OEM would even consider not include a notification light on their phone. *cough* iphone. *cough* windows phone. Makes thing so much easier, when all you need to do is glance at it rather than turn on the screen, then turn it off again just to check if your missing anything important. There is no more needs saying, it is just playing annoying without one, so another plus.
Value for money
For most of the people, money is a key factor when buying a new phone. Even if the price is not a burden, you might still get the same feeling as me, thinking it cost quite a lot and make the promise to use it for 2 years or more. Well, with this phone you won't get that. In fact, I brought mine thinking I will use it as a back up phone since no other phone has its spec in its price range. But after I started using it, I couldn't put it down. Now I am not even considering getting nexus 5 which was going to be my main phone.
What I look forward to
Hell this is XDA, obviously I want lots and lots of ROMs XD. But I also can't wait for 4.4 to come out and ART to be stable. I imagine it would make this phone even faster. Saw some comparisons between Dalvik and ART, have to say ART wins hands down especially considering it is still in development stage.
Final thoughts
So happy with this phone, and mostly happy about Motorola stepping up and giving us this product. This is important in the sense, they are fighting a price battle for us, the consumers. We should show some support to let the other OEMs know it is not about how much they spend money on advertising, it is giving us a great product with a reasonable price instead of throw in some latest chips and mark it £599 rubbish which is basically what is happening right now. Basically
Tips
I would recommend everyone get this phone, and get the 8gb version. Since it cost so little, no one could moan at you when you get a new phone next year
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impressive review! thanks mate.. I would get this for Christmas soon.. till it reach our region soon.. anyway, If you could make a full video out of this review, I would love to watch it.. thanks
Stop full quoting! Argh...
@lavafire Thanks, this describes the Moto perfectly, good for people who are considering yet.
Not a full review (I'll be posting that next week) but here's my blog entry about it: http://jmcomms.wordpress.com/2013/1...of-success-to-date-lies-in-the-budget-moto-g/
Battery life looks too good to be true and I hope everyone gets as gooder results as you
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
shure2 said:
Battery life looks too good to be true and I hope everyone gets as gooder results as you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in my video review, I got some of the best battery life I've ever seen from my Moto G.
SHEM's Moto G Videos
Here are my Motorola MOTO G Videos:
Unboxing and Build Quality:
Short Review:
Display Quality and Video Playback:
Speaker Test:
LED Test
Benchmarks:
Gaming Performance:
Water-repellent Coating Test:
Sample 720p Video:
Sample Slow Motion 720p Video
Autofocus Test
Sample Slow Motion 720p Video 2
jonmorris said:
Not a full review (I'll be posting that next week) but here's my blog entry about it: http://jmcomms.wordpress.com/2013/1...of-success-to-date-lies-in-the-budget-moto-g/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please comapre Nexus 4 and MotoG interms of
Camera, performanceand other relevent fields.To
me some of the specifications seem similar.
i guess only the experienced users can actually advice
which one to buy.
Regards
Shikhar
AndyCr15 said:
As mentioned in my video review, I got some of the best battery life I've ever seen from my Moto G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
shure2 said:
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Note had a 5.3" screen.. That makes screen 38% bigger.
Also, the software makes a difference. And maybe the Snapdragon 400 is more efficient than the Exynos used by Samsung
I was going to say, your maths is a bit off there at 10%. You need to look at the area, not the diagonal length.
If you think back to when 4.5" screens where the norm on top end devices, most batteries were less than 1600mAh. The Desire HD for example had about 1300mAh I think.
http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/the-motorola-moto-g-an-impressive-addition/
....software optimization can go a long way, Motorola has compared the Moto G’s performance with the Samsung Galaxy S4, when performing minor tasks. Despite Moto G’s mid-range SoC, lower amount of RAM and less powerful graphics chip, the handset apparently manages to make a call 1.1 seconds faster than the Galaxy S4, it answers a call 1.2 seconds faster, returns home 0.5 seconds faster and boots up 5.3s quicker too....
:silly:
shure2 said:
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's look at the numbers,
The Galaxy Note has a 1280x800 @5.3 inch screen -> 4.49" × 2.81" = 12.62in²
The Moto G has a 1280x720 @4.5 inch screen -> 3.92" × 2.21" = 8.65in²
-> The Galaxy Note has a screen 45.9% larger than the Moto G
-> The Galaxy Note also features a battery 25% larger than the Moto G
Remember, that the 4.5 and 5.3 numbers are the diagonal size and do not linearly represent relative screen sizes
The Moto G has a better (battery:screen size) ratio than the Galaxy Note.
How have you found the vibration motor on it? - to anyone who has one in hand yet.
The one in my Skate seems to make more noise than movement :laugh:

Post your personal S6E reviews

:highfive: congrats to those who have it early.
so tell us what you think about it, the feel on the hand, how fragile does it look and feel (is it slippery like the sony phones with glass, grippy?) , hows the performance of the camera, screen, battery, etc.
It's only been half a day but my early impressions are as follows,
-Fingerprint scanner is wicked fast.
-Screen is beautiful
-It is fast fast fast. I love Samsung devices and I admit that lag was always an issue. I have not been able to slow it down yet. Really I havent. Lol. Even the recent app switcher is fast.
-Like the themeing a lot. I can't wait for more themes.
-Feels good on the hand. The edge does make it a bit different to hold but I love the curved screen. Makes using the phone a pleasure.
-I have only taken a couple pictures but they turned out great. More on that later.
I'm sure I'll have more as the days pass..
I played with the phone in a T mobile store. For about 20 minutes battery was down to 93% from 100%.,Power hungry. Could you guys confirm?
Also I found the browser cannot hide the status bar hence no full screen browsing. Please also confirm this?
S6 edge in the bestbuy which is unbranded has no ability to sort the menu alphabetically. But T mobile edge has an option to sort.
You're correct on the status bar. Too early to know on the battery. The option to sort might have come in the software update that dropped today. Not sure though.
does this look like the edge to u? i think phonearena made a mistake
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...r-but-survives-this-violent-drop-test_id67696
It looks like the edge
The regular s6 has very recognizable edge as well and that is not it
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app
avenging said:
does this look like the edge to u? i think phonearena made a mistake
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...r-but-survives-this-violent-drop-test_id67696
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, that an Edge, and damn did she slam that hard! Good to know it can survive what she just did, lol.
From a performance point of view there is no doubt in my mind the Edge is going to be great, the only doubt is battery life... I realise its a bit early for conclusions yet but once people have used their phones for a week or so, its the questions that everyone wants answering. Everyone's use patterns are different but as long as I can make it through a heavyish day ok, I'll be happy with that.
madpete said:
From a performance point of view there is no doubt in my mind the Edge is going to be great, the only doubt is battery life... I realise its a bit early for conclusions yet but once people have used their phones for a week or so, its the questions that everyone wants answering. Everyone's use patterns are different but as long as I can make it through a heavyish day ok, I'll be happy with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's battery is only 7% less in capacity than S5, so I see no reason why battery life would be extremely different. The screen has higher res, but CPU is much more power efficient.
Szadzik said:
It's battery is only 7% less in capacity than S5, so I see no reason why battery life would be extremely different. The screen has higher res, but CPU is much more power efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes...still, I'd rather yes some real numbers from someone who actually has the phone. We know very little about its battery performance yet, and I have seen mixed reviews with some saying its good and others poor.
I should just say that I have the phone pre ordered and I'm looking forward to getting it, battery is the only doubt I have...I'd just like to see some numbers and I think most other people would too.
madpete said:
Yes...still, I'd rather yes some real numbers from someone who actually has the phone. We know very little about its battery performance yet, and I have seen mixed reviews with some saying its good and others poor.
I should just say that I have the phone pre ordered and I'm looking forward to getting it, battery is the only doubt I have...I'd just like to see some numbers and I think most other people would too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have pre-ordered it as well, but it is still 2 weeks before shipping. We will all see in due time. People in the US are already getting theirs, so we should have some info within a week as batteries start working normally after a few charges.
Also could you guys confirm available free memory?
I went to Best Buy yesterday to get a look at the S6 edge. Needless to say, I was very impressed. Touchwiz seems lightning fast compared to 4.3 on my S4. The shortcuts and ease of access really convinced me to buy this (when green comes along). The edge display looks absolutely amazing and does, in fact, feel more immersive. I love the metal frame and the new headphone jack location. Basically, this thing looks and feels all-around perfect. The black looks BLACK in person, whereas online it gave me the belief that it was a deep-blue. Don't know if I want to settle for the white 32GB or wait a month or two in hopes of the green appearing.
varunkumars said:
Also could you guys confirm available free memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot to look. With all my apps and a couple hundred pix loaded on have 107 gigs available.
varunkumars said:
Also could you guys confirm available free memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the 32GB should have around 22-25GB available
and
the 64GB should have around 53-56GB available
Szadzik said:
It's battery is only 7% less in capacity than S5, so I see no reason why battery life would be extremely different. The screen has higher res, but CPU is much more power efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, you forgot to mention that the screen was actually more efficient, too. Not only is it 14nm, the screen is like 23% more efficient than the screen on the Note 4, iirc.
tehdef said:
Eh, you forgot to mention that the screen was actually more efficient, too. Not only is it 14nm, the screen is like 23% more efficient than the screen on the Note 4, iirc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was not aware the screen would be more efficient with that much higher resolution, but that is a good thing to know as well. Might mean all this whining about smaller battery size is just for the sake of whining.
Thanks for your answers guys. Today again I walked into Best buy and T mobile stores to do my research more. What I found,
Battery: Yesterday when I played with the phone I suspected it to be Power hungry. But I think I should take it back. Battery is ok not bad after all. I am comparing with my LG G2(has a good battery, 3000mah) and I measured the time it takes to drop every %. S6 takes a little more time than the G2 to drop which tells me the battery is good. Also the picture below. I don't have an S5 so I can't really compare with that. I played a couple of games that were installed on the phone and the battery is still ok. This is by no means a scientific way of measuring, neverthless I wanted to share this with you guys.
Although I have chargers at home, car and work still a good battery(if not the best) gives a sense of confidence. and satisfaction that I have the best phone irrespective of all the breath taking features. Don't you agree?? S6 may not disappoint I believe.
Browser/Browsing: Browsing is a breeze. No sense of lag anywhere. But the status bar doesn't hide which I assume is a part of Lollipop. I would be curious to see if a dev can come up with a mod. A full screen immersive browsing on the S6 's beautiful screen would be super cool.
Youtube/Video: Flawless like its predecessors. Nothing special to mention.
Music: Flawless sound like its predecessors. No distortion. Sound is very clean with the headphones. I listen to a lot of Music and sound quality is very important for me. When I played the music on speaker I felt some vibration I wonder what that is??? I wonder if it is the speaker giving the vibration.
Menu:Arrangement of the apps in the menu is nice and simple although I would prefer the icons to be a little smaller. T mobile phones come with an option to sort alphabetically. AT&T don't have the phone for display yet(Slackers:crying so can't tell. All in all I like this new menu. No complaints.
GPS: I didn't spend a lot of time here but I thought it locked quick enough. Nothing special and no complaints.
Screen Quality : I thought the screen is much better than S5 (in the store) and on par with the note 4. But my G2 has a different color temperature which I believe make whites look a little bluish where as S6 whites are yellowish. To me both are ok. But I really have to admit the additional pixels on S6 make no difference in picture quality (S6 vs G2). Really a 1080p screen would have been enough. To clarify I am not complaining, just my opinion. Viewing angles are good unlike G2 (LG's for that matter).
I have to tell you, normal people passing by with no phone knowledge would stop by and take a glimpse at the edge screen, They all seem to like it. Seems like edge is getting all the attention it deserves.
Build/Design: This is where S6 edge outshines every other phone in the market. In my opinion, till date this the best design ever period. I have seen some complaints about finger prints. It is not bad after all. Looks like white takes less finger prints than others. Excellent build quality and feels solid in hands. Thums up.
Single handed use: It can be used single handed with no issues. Menu is set up for single hand use which I really like. Although my hand is not very big it fit nicely in my hand. Not sure about the non-edge S6. Should be the same.
Speed This is one thing that is very crucial. All android phones I used so far tend to be fast initially but as I go adding/deleting apps and other files phone tends to get laggy. It really gets on my nerves. But even as a brand new phone they stutter at times. But with S6 it is blazing fast. No lag anywhere (at least I did not see). App drawer is a little slow to open. Samsung probably configured it to be slower on purpose. Some might misunderstand it to be a lag, just a heads up. Speed speed speed is what it is.
Camera: I need not specially tell you about the camera. There are expert reviews which claim this to be the best camera. Flawless. Double press on the menu opens the camera in split seconds which is very impressive.
I care less about the heart rate sensor so did not test it. Although I care about finger print scanner I could not test it because it is not my phone.
This is a big leap forward not just for Samsung but for android as a whole.
I was disappointed about the battery yesterday but liked it today and took some time to test all the features. I like the phone, will get one. White Color 32gb. AT&T.
tdphotos said:
the 32GB should have around 22-25GB available
and
the 64GB should have around 53-56GB available
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he meant the true amount of RAM available. (Should be less than 3 GB)
Status bar maybe due to Lollipop. Its present on my Pure Edition Moto X and my Atrix HD running CM12.
Sent from my XT1095 using XDA Free mobile app

If you're on the fence about buying this tablet you should read this.

I'm going to save you a lot of trouble if you're considering this tablet and are unsure, as I just put this thing through a lot of testing.
First off I would like to say that I think this is a fantastic tablet. It is just the right size, has an excellent build quality, and runs pretty good all things considered. This has a decnet running/looking Samsng UI, especially considering that it's an older build running on a slower processor. If this tablet had a better processor and maybe stylus support it would be a killer tablet with no competition. It's sad that Samsung doesn't take this size range seriously any longer.
Now for the badish part. This tablet is great for gaming, perfect size, great screen, good enough speakers (mount them stereo next time Samsung!) However it just won't handle intensive gaming stuff, such as Order and Choas 2 or Rules of Survival with the settings turned up. It will certainly play them if you don't mind the low FPS though. Definitely playable FPS for sure, but it won't be butter.
I was curious to see if this was a Samsung processor optimization problem like it is with the Tab s3, so I did some testing to find out. I can confirm that flashing LOS 14.1 it did nothing for the gaming performance. The tablet was quicker and less laggy overall, but the gaming is still limited by the GPU. This tablet also is so good out of the box that it doesn't need the help of LOS anyway.
So there you have it. Great little tablet, just don't expect any sort of massive gaming performance and don't even think about voiding your warratny to try a custom rom because it won't help. In this size range it is really the ultimate for gaming, so I figured a lot of people would be buying it for that, and I wanted to give a heads up. The benchmark scores don't tell the whole story sometimes. I hope they refresh this tablet in 2018 with a better SOC and keep it alive.
Thanks for the info seh6183. :highfive:
You need to tell us what hardware you are testing as the 2015 is using Exynos and the 2016 is Snapdragon. From previous posts on here, the consensus is that the 2015 has the better GPU for gaming but the 2016 is faster.
I don't game on my tablet so I can't add anything to your observations.
I have the 2016 S2, and it is fine for light gaming. However, it heats up fairly quickly if you are doing anything graphically intense for long periods and throttles pretty noticeably. Even fairly simple apps, like Alto's Adventure, will eventually become unplayable if you don't take a break periodically to let the SoC cool down.
Masteryates said:
Thanks for the info seh6183. :highfive:
You need to tell us what hardware you are testing as the 2015 is using Exynos and the 2016 is Snapdragon. From previous posts on here, the consensus is that the 2015 has the better GPU for gaming but the 2016 is faster.
I don't game on my tablet so I can't add anything to your observations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Snapdragon 652.
I just bought a new 'open box' from BestBuy for $209.
I'm not a gamer or user of graphics, mainly a business user. I had the latest 9.7 iPad for a week, and I just kept feeling like one of my arms was tied behind my back.
So I returned it and bought the Samsung Tab S2.
seh6183 said:
Snapdragon 652.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update seh6183. :highfive:
Are you able to update the title of your post or your initial post to reflect this? Others may find this useful.
Would be interested to hear from a 2015 owner on how it handles the games you mentioned.
I cant imagine buying thos for gaming... If you want to game on a tablet I would just go with the iPad. The new iPad 2017 is so much better than this, and you can get one new for 250 and a bigger screen. I went with tablet only because I can torrent and use my Micro USB to USB 2.0 adapter for music and videos on torrents. Thats literally the only upside to going with an Android tablet nowadays
JoRocker said:
I cant imagine buying thos for gaming... If you want to game on a tablet I would just go with the iPad. The new iPad 2017 is so much better than this, and you can get one new for 250 and a bigger screen. I went with tablet only because I can torrent and use my Micro USB to USB 2.0 adapter for music and videos on torrents. Thats literally the only upside to going with an Android tablet nowadays
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, not the ONLY one, but yeah - most of the best games come out for iOS first and then, if ever, for Android. On the flip side, Android lets you actually use your device like a computer and not merely a media consumption machine. I consider that a pretty big plus.
JoRocker said:
I cant imagine buying thos for gaming... If you want to game on a tablet I would just go with the iPad. The new iPad 2017 is so much better than this, and you can get one new for 250 and a bigger screen. I went with tablet only because I can torrent and use my Micro USB to USB 2.0 adapter for music and videos on torrents. Thats literally the only upside to going with an Android tablet nowadays
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it has to be Android for little things like power toggles, screebl and the OLED screen.
seh6183 said:
I'm going to save you a lot of trouble if you're considering this tablet and are unsure, as I just put this thing through a lot of testing.
First off I would like to say that I think this is a fantastic tablet. It is just the right size, has an excellent build quality, and runs pretty good all things considered. This has a decnet running/looking Samsng UI, especially considering that it's an older build running on a slower processor. If this tablet had a better processor and maybe stylus support it would be a killer tablet with no competition. It's sad that Samsung doesn't take this size range seriously any longer.
Now for the badish part. This tablet is great for gaming, perfect size, great screen, good enough speakers (mount them stereo next time Samsung!) However it just won't handle intensive gaming stuff, such as Order and Choas 2 or Rules of Survival with the settings turned up. It will certainly play them if you don't mind the low FPS though. Definitely playable FPS for sure, but it won't be butter.
I was curious to see if this was a Samsung processor optimization problem like it is with the Tab s3, so I did some testing to find out. I can confirm that flashing LOS 14.1 it did nothing for the gaming performance. The tablet was quicker and less laggy overall, but the gaming is still limited by the GPU. This tablet also is so good out of the box that it doesn't need the help of LOS anyway.
So there you have it. Great little tablet, just don't expect any sort of massive gaming performance and don't even think about voiding your warratny to try a custom rom because it won't help. In this size range it is really the ultimate for gaming, so I figured a lot of people would be buying it for that, and I wanted to give a heads up. The benchmark scores don't tell the whole story sometimes. I hope they refresh this tablet in 2018 with a better SOC and keep it alive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far the only bad side of this tablet that I saw was mentioned the battery life (as they reduced it from S1) and the speakers.
My main concern is the speakers which are at the bottom - how do they behave when you hold the tablet in landscape for watching a video? Is all the sound on the right side? Can the speakers be accidentally covered off with the hand that's holding the tablet? How is the sound on this thing?
My Nexus 7 (2013) is seriously showing its age now and due for an upgrade.
I'm considering this (T713/715) or the Huawei Mediapad M3 (or lite) 8.0 which is not at all supported on XDA so I would be stuck with it's software and bloatware whether I like it or not.
atirage said:
I'm considering this (T713/715) or the Huawei Mediapad M3 (or lite) 8.0 which is not at all supported on XDA so I would be stuck with it's software and bloatware whether I like it or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same boat, but it's vs the M5 and I'm more of a reader. It's a tough decision.
stoatbroker said:
I'm in the same boat, but it's vs the M5 and I'm more of a reader. It's a tough decision.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your a reader at night, it's all about the reduced eyestrain of the OLED screen. For me, the M5 is overpriced considering I picked up an M3 for only $180.
Surprise, it was known from the beginning that it has slow gpu, but also not the best cpu, they are continuing this with s3 and s4. They ar selling it for big money and yet, no wonder sales ar low
Extreemator said:
Surprise, it was known from the beginning that it has slow gpu, but also not the best cpu, they are continuing this with s3 and s4. They ar selling it for big money and yet, no wonder sales ar low
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me the S3 and S4 bring little new to the table.
The S2 (when first released,) had that awesome screen. Even though I never intended to own any Samsung product due to touchwiz, I was sold when that Samsung handed me the 8" version in a store. The combination of killer screen and stupidly low weight set this apart from all opposition. For the 8" version, it could be argued this is still the case.
As long as Samsung keep giving us security updates for the S2, I'm not that interested in the S3 and S4 as 9.7" is too big for me.
So, I bought the 8" wifi version (T713) and I'm severely disappointed with battery life: around 6h SOT!?
I keep reducing the brightness but battery percentages just melt away. I don't know, maybe the LineageOS battery life is better, or a custom kernel would help. (I'm still on stock)
Other things I dislike are the volume/speakers - they're easy to cover up and don't sound so great. Not to mention they're basically mono in landscape mode, I hate that on my phone!
The tablet has sharp edges, very uncomfortable to hold and it hurts my hand after a while, fortunately I can buy a silicone cover for this problem. The rest will stick with me
I come from the Nexus 7 2013, and this is definitely a side-grade. The only thing that I missed on the Nexus is that it struggled with hi-res 60fps video (couldn't even do higher than 720p60).
Oh well.
Not much choice in the Android tablet market currently, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this one.
No problem,in the future it will not be Android tablets anymore,so you will not have choises at all.
Google just removed tablets section from Android page,take a look at http://www.android.com/tablets/ .
Cheers
viasat said:
No problem,in the future it will not be Android tablets anymore,so you will not have choises at all.
Google just removed tablets section from Android page,take a look at http://www.android.com/tablets/ .
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are very few redeeming qualities left keeping me on the Android side of the fence anyway, and Google seems intent on killing them. The ease of data management, and the ability to run apps that wouldn't have a shot in the App Store (like Nova Launcher, Solid Explorer, etc.) are about the only things keeping me in the ecosystem. Otherwise, it seems like every time I look, the iPad Pro gets more and more attractive.
atirage said:
So, I bought the 8" wifi version (T713) and I'm severely disappointed with battery life: around 6h SOT!?
I keep reducing the brightness but battery percentages just melt away. I don't know, maybe the LineageOS battery life is better, or a custom kernel would help. (I'm still on stock)
Other things I dislike are the volume/speakers - they're easy to cover up and don't sound so great. Not to mention they're basically mono in landscape mode, I hate that on my phone!
The tablet has sharp edges, very uncomfortable to hold and it hurts my hand after a while, fortunately I can buy a silicone cover for this problem. The rest will stick with me
I come from the Nexus 7 2013, and this is definitely a side-grade. The only thing that I missed on the Nexus is that it struggled with hi-res 60fps video (couldn't even do higher than 720p60).
Oh well.
Not much choice in the Android tablet market currently, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TBH atirage, 6h of SOT is very good for the 8" tablet. My T715 has only ever managed 5h. I doubt lineage will increase battery life by much. At the end of the day, that 4000Mah has to power a hell of a big screen.
I find the tablet the best I've ever held, (also had a Nexus 7 2013 in the past.) but I just hold it in the bottom corner, not attempting to get my hand the whole way around. Agreed about the poor quality speakers.
The thing I've liked about this tablet the most in the last 2 years is the solid, (not ever fantastic,) performance. I've suffered no bugs and everything just works as well as the day I've bought it. :angel:
Not to be all negative about this tablet: the performance is great, granted I didn't fill it up with apps and games yet but I'll see how it will hold up over time.
Even in battery saving mode (70% CPU) it's still blazing fast and a joy to use.
I got a silicon case on it so the handling became better.
And I got used to the sound - it's not good, but passable and loud enough to watch a few YouTube videos in a quiet environment.
I managed to install SABS on it (and make it work), so I got ad blocking now and the ability to disable apps I don't need/use (Samsung bloatware) so I'm hoping battery life will improve a little bit.
It's growing on me.
It was a weird transition from the Nexus 7 (2013), but that fellow got so sluggish that I wanted to chuck it at the wall. That's why I needed the upgrade and the ability to play qHD nicely, and the S2 tab does it oh-so-well.
Anybody can suggest a nice blue light filter app for it?
atirage said:
Not to be all negative about this tablet: the performance is great, granted I didn't fill it up with apps and games yet but I'll see how it will hold up over time.
Even in battery saving mode (70% CPU) it's still blazing fast and a joy to use.
I got a silicon case on it so the handling became better.
And I got used to the sound - it's not good, but passable and loud enough to watch a few YouTube videos in a quiet environment.
I managed to install SABS on it (and make it work), so I got ad blocking now and the ability to disable apps I don't need/use (Samsung bloatware) so I'm hoping battery life will improve a little bit.
It's growing on me.
It was a weird transition from the Nexus 7 (2013), but that fellow got so sluggish that I wanted to chuck it at the wall. That's why I needed the upgrade and the ability to play qHD nicely, and the S2 tab does it oh-so-well.
Anybody can suggest a nice blue light filter app for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad your starting to see the advantages of this tab atirage: :victory:
You'll also notice the screen picks up far fewer fingerprints than the Nexus 7 2013. Don't know what Samsung have done with the glass but its much better. Even though the FP reader is very 1st gen, its still nice to have and better than a pin every time.
I find the sound to be much better if you put the tablet of a flat surface so the sound reflects off it.

Why I already sent my Note 20 Ultra back!

Well I am honestly shocked by this. I sort of expected the S20 Ultra not to meet my standards but not the Note 20 Ultra! Decided to stick with my Note 10+ for a bit until maybe Z Fold 2 or Note 20 Ultra drops in price or for another who knows how long.
Anyways thought I would share with you guys why I decided to stick with Note 10+ over the Note 20 Ultra.
First off the Note 20 Ultra is nowhere near a bad phone, much of an improvement over the S20 Ultra which I thought was junk. The main highlights of the device just didn't seem worth $1300+ to me.
Screen overall is literally just a hair bigger and actually a hair less vibrant and saturated then the Note 10.
Screen refresh rate still not sure why this is such a huge deal. Can you tell a difference? Yes slightly depending on what you are doing. Sort of like 4k on a tablet or small laptop really just not worth it imo
Cameras, oh yes the cameras. Glad to see the autofocus issue was fixed from the S20 Ultra and photos are great no matter what camera but the main sensor unless you are using the 108 mp for extreme detail and then you lose HDR look very similar to the Note 10. Only huge difference is the zoom lens on the Ultra and it is a big one. 5x zoom looks great and even 10x in most cases looks very good and usable. This is the only thing that made me actually want to keep the 20
Everything else is pretty much the same again as Note 10+ nothing else worth mentioning really
Few photos of the differences in whites and camera bumps and the pretty much same screens
shagy38 said:
I M also thinking Bout returning the note 20 ultra Nd sticking with my note 10 plus. The battery life isn't the great on the note 20
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still love my note 10 even after sending the ultra back. No regrets besides Samsung still hasn't issued me credit! Says they didn't receive phone smh
ok boomer
If i had the 512gb note 10 plus instead of 256 I may not have got the note 20 ultra either (did get 512gb on it) since i just basically needed the extra storage.
Note 10 plus is such a great device honestly and the 20 may have some advantages but its by no means a huge upgrade. More like a baby step upgrade lol.
You're also forgetting the 80% less latency time with the pen. So for me, that with huge camera improvements and 120hz refresh was a no brainer for me trading in my S10+. I notice the 120hz. It's a pretty big difference compared to 60hz Samsung panels.
Its not just the refresh rate increased but the touch response rate was increased a lot too. Samsung's touch response in on their 60hz displays just always seemed laggy to me.
On a side note the haptics are the best I have ever felt in a Samsung phone. On par with some of the best. I also love matte/frosted back phones too. Feels so good in the hand.
You are right about the vivid color saturation. I noticed that being a less too. I actually wrote an entire thread about it here. Now that I have the phone manually adjusting it 1 notch cooler in display settings and keeping manual brightness around 85-90% has resolved that for me.
So do you plan to wait for the Note 30? Or likely to get something else before that?
I understand why he's returning it. So far, I'm underwhelmed this year. And I've had a note every single year they made one.
oneandroidnut said:
Screen overall is literally just a hair bigger and actually a hair less vibrant and saturated then the Note 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with your overall assessment, Samsung should have offered more colors in 512GB as that would have encouraged some Aura Glow users to bite for the upgrade. Can't believe no eSIM support(yet) either on the US model
AndroidPurity said:
You're also forgetting the 80% less latency time with the pen. So for me, that with huge camera improvements and 120hz refresh was a no brainer for me trading in my S10+. I notice the 120hz. It's a pretty big difference compared to 60hz Samsung panels.
Its not just the refresh rate increased but the touch response rate was increased a lot too. Samsung's touch response in on their 60hz displays just always seemed laggy to me.
On a side note the haptics are the best I have ever felt in a Samsung phone. On par with some of the best. I also love matte/frosted back phones too. Feels so good in the hand.
You are right about the vivid color saturation. I noticed that being a less too. I actually wrote an entire thread about it here. Now that I have the phone manually adjusting it 1 notch cooler in display settings and keeping manual brightness around 85-90% has resolved that for me.
So do you plan to wait for the Note 30? Or likely to get something else before that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touch response should be the same as last year right? It was an improvement over s10 but note 10 I think.
I've never had a laggy flagship but I also disable a lot of stuff and have an unlocked unbranded one so that might help as well
I will give you haptics they felt very good, not that the other devices Samsung makes are bad it felt like an upgrade for sure. $1300 one though no lol
Screen color is weird not sure what's going on there and maybe I will get a fold 2 or keep waiting who knows
dottat said:
I understand why he's returning it. So far, I'm underwhelmed this year. And I've had a note every single year they made one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup note used to have so much innovation and now it's just a bigger s phone with a pen lol
VICosPhi said:
Agree with your overall assessment, Samsung should have offered more colors in 512GB as that would have encouraged some Aura Glow users to bite for the upgrade. Can't believe no eSIM support(yet) either on the US model
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I don't understand why the regular model went down from 256gb to 128gb. That makes no sense to me either and why can't I get a red one like India or wherever. They need to have more options in storage and colors.
Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk
I'm super concerned about this battery bit right off the bad. Getting worse results than my 1 year note 10+ that hadn't been factory reset in a long time. It appears the cpu never sleeps cores and 5g chews through a lot at the same time. So if I want the same battery life as my 10+ I have to shut off 5g and lock resolution to 60hz middle setting. After that, it might as well be a note 10 with a battery mod.
oneandroidnut said:
Touch response should be the same as last year right? It was an improvement over s10 but note 10 I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope its 240hz. Direct quote from GSM Arena review....
"This one comes with 240Hz touch sampling too for speedier detection of touch input."
https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note20_ultra_5g-review-2149p3.php
I believe all 60hz display Samsung phones were 120hz touch sampling before. Either way they were less than 240hz before.
But yeah the color profile is really the only issue I have with his phone. Although its not bad enough for me to return it. Especially since I love everything else so far.
If I keep it at 90% manual brightness, on vivid, with the color temp scale 1 notch cooler its improved. But its still not quite as good color profile as the One Plus 8 Pro I also have. Still good enough for now while I hope they put out a software update to tweak the color calibration of the vivid display mode.
AndroidPurity said:
Nope its 240hz. Direct quote from GSM Arena review....
"This one comes with 240Hz touch sampling too for speedier detection of touch input."
https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note20_ultra_5g-review-2149p3.php
I believe all 60hz display Samsung phones were 120hz touch sampling before. Either way they were less than 240hz before.
But yeah the color profile is really the only issue I have with his phone. Although its not bad enough for me to return it. Especially since I love everything else so far.
If I keep it at 90% manual brightness, on vivid, with the color temp scale 1 notch cooler its improved. But its still not quite as good color profile as the One Plus 8 Pro I also have. Still good enough for now while I hope they put out a software update to tweak the color calibration of the vivid display mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah so it looks like s20 and note 10 are 120hz so pretty decent so incremental improvement there each year. How's your battery life been? I can't say much as the couple days I used it didn't seem great but that doesn't mean anything. My note 10 is on its 14 hour and still at 44% battery left!! Don't think the note 20 would be able to top that
Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk
oneandroidnut said:
Yeah so it looks like s20 and note 10 are 120hz so pretty decent so incremental improvement there each year. How's your battery life been? I can't say much as the couple days I used it didn't seem great but that doesn't mean anything. My note 10 is on its 14 hour and still at 44% battery left!! Don't think the note 20 would be able to top that
Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say for sure yet. But it seems good. Well into the good category for me. Certainly not excellent, but good.
Keeping it 90% brightness, haptics on, FHD @ 120hz adaptive, light theme, and my first full day today I got about 6.25 hours of SOT over course of about 16 hours.
I didn't take a screen shot, but plan to do more accurate monitoring over next couple days since I been so busy setting it up and exploring settings.
I got 7 hours of screen on time. That's pretty impressive! I was upset with battery life but today was awesome.
120 Hz
Mix of wifi and mobile data
Lots of pictures
Couple hours of YouTube
Auto brightness
Always on display on always show
Light theme on system, some apps dark themed
Normal day, honestly - so 7 hours was excellent!
Ok good that seems pretty good then!!
heres mine from 95% to 1%
Yes the color profile is awful. I need to trade in my note 8 which looks much more sharp and vivid.
So after speaking to Samsung and their sub repair shop. I have heard the following.
The display may have different tint because of the new gorilla glass, also there's a built in blue light filter to protect user eyes beside the one that u can toggle and last most of these emoled displays developing ghosting effect after long period of usage at hight brightness. Something that Samsung probably considering as it will be costly to start changing them for people who complains.
I have replaced twice on edge 7 and s8 phones.
cool story bro. I'm keeping my new phone.
Got my N20U 3 days ago, coming from a Mate 10 Pro. What a disappointment the Exynos version of this phone is.
Doing basic tasks like writing this very comment while a YouTube video is playing in the background heats the device up so much that I want to put it down again. The performance is fine if you set your screen to 120Hz, but that also drains your battery faster than anything else (and heats it up even more, yay!). 3h of SOT is a ****ing joke. Sure the S-Pen is responsive, the screen is nice, the device is snappy and rarely has any problems with things you throw at it, One UI is One UI, but is it worth the money? Absolutely not. Especially not if you have a Note 10+ or similar.
Don't even get me started on the camera. Capturing something at 4x zoom looks like a Van Gogh painting.
Second and last time I'm trying Samsung. Stay away from Exynos if you can.
I am between 2 and 3 hours of screen-on time and battery is at 70%. This is getting better by the day! Snapdragon here, but it was not nearly this good initially. Got over 7 hours of screen on time yesterday and today is looking to beat that!
My battery life has been pretty solid. I had the s20 ultra and the battery life on that was a hair better I think. In between these two phones I had the OnePlus 8 pro and the battery life on that was atrocious for some reason. So it has been a breath of fresh air to get great battery life again, lol.
My only gripe is no esim/nano dual sim. That was the main reason why I switched from Note 10+ after being told those features were present in the US model.

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