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I'm thinking of getting this amazing phone, but would like to find out what it's really like from you guys first before I make the purchase.
Well i loved it in the beginning, then after all the problems and issues such as lags, hangs, and GPS crap, i sold the phone. But since then I've been looking at other Android smart phones and none of them seem to be better currently.
So, I think i made the right choice by selling the phone (i sold it at a profit of US$100) now ....
then a few months later i will recheck if Samsung has fixed all these problems.. If they have, then i would repurchase the phone, and i'm sure at that time the price has dropped by quite a bit....
I just can't afford using a phone that gives all these problems at the moment.....
If samsung cannot fixe all these problems in the future then i'll choose something else....maybe 3 months from now there will be a pletora of good android smartphones....
Buying the phone right now would be unwise since you will be paying high price only to have to install this and that fixes and patches and hacks and what not in order to fix the all the bugs that samsung hasnt ironed out since launching the phone. Unless of course, that is your hobby....
But for me, if i had to do all these things with the phone, i wanna get paid by samsung.... not the other way around.....
I've got the Tmobile USA Vibrant version. I don't think the problems that are being reported are as prevalent as people might think - I believe that folks that aren't having any problems are not bothering to come to these forums on the web, researching issues, so who you see reporting problems are folks that are having issues, looking for solutions
there's also a certain percentage that are researching tips, improvements, shortcuts or tweaks (which is why i'm on the web).
My vibrant's gps is actually showing incredible accuracy, better than my MyTouch 3g and than my 2 yr old garmin nuvi 680 indoors where neither would show any satellites and the vibrant does, and outside it's faster than the garmin nuvi in calculating / recalulating but i suspect the A-GPS plays a major part in that.
the signal "issue" is a prime example of folks imagining an issue where there isn't one (think about it, the signal bars are reporting signal strength on the weak side and then when you choke the phone in the "death grip" it further degrades the displayed signal strength, but phone calls for the most part aren't dropping. That death grip is like putting your phone inside a metal soup can, and then wondering why signal dropped. Mine will show the weak signal when i death grip it but is still pulling 3G (at increased download speeds over my MyTouch 3G/HTC Magic) in a weak Tmobile coverage area
I've got no lag issues - but i haven't downloaded but a few apps, about 10, no task killers, and i really haven't used any of the samsung apps, as folks are reporting those seem to invite lag
for what it's worth, I'm extremely happy with this phone's performance.
I absolutely love mine. First smartphone, great GPS, good battery life, great apps, awesome screen, I can't put it down and I've had it for over a week.
larryccf said:
I've got the Tmobile USA Vibrant version. I don't think the problems that are being reported are as prevalent as people might think - I believe that folks that aren't having any problems are not bothering to come to these forums on the web, researching issues, so who you see reporting problems are folks that are having issues, looking for solutions
there's also a certain percentage that are researching tips, improvements, shortcuts or tweaks (which is why i'm on the web).
the signal "issue" is a prime example of folks imagining an issue where there isn't one (think about it, the signal bars are reporting signal strength on the weak side and then when you choke the phone in the "death grip" it further degrades the displayed signal strength, but phone calls for the most part aren't dropping. That death grip is like putting your phone inside a metal soup can, and then wondering why signal dropped. Mine will show the weak signal when i death grip it but is still pulling 3G (at increased download speeds over my MyTouch 3G/HTC Magic) in a weak Tmobile coverage area
I've got no lag issues - but i haven't downloaded but a few apps, about 10, no task killers, and i really haven't used any of the samsung apps, as folks are reporting those seem to invite lag
for what it's worth, I'm extremely happy with this phone's performance.
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I think you're right in your assessment of new people coming to forums and what not. It's a biased sample for sure, personally, I was waiting to get on device where I actually had a reason to be here, this is it. So, while I didn't come to fix issues, I have learned a fair share and helped out a bit.
I'm upto 150+ apps showing in LauncherPro drawer, this includes some factory installed items and doesn't include all of my widgets (I keep two running at all times) and other things. My main lag only occurs during software installs, other than that everything else feels blazingly fast.
Really like this phone. After suffering the window mobile, this is definitely a great phone to have.
Its this or iphone. I have use iphone and I don't miss it one bit.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I am in same boat the OP, I am close to getting it, but what I am hearing is a somewhat mixed bag. Really would love to heard the good and the bad about the phone.
So far the biggest gripes I have come across are lack of notification light (I would miss that), lag on the other hand fix makes it even faster , lack of camera flash. But i really like what I have seen what the Hummingbird can do..
HyBry said:
I am in same boat the OP, I am close to getting it, but what I am hearing is a somewhat mixed bag. Really would love to heard the good and the bad about the phone.
So far the biggest gripes I have come across are lack of notification light (I would miss that), lag on the other hand fix makes it even faster , lack of camera flash. But i really like what I have seen what the Hummingbird can do..
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Here's a good write-up of "the good and the bad" http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=730131
The poll thus far seems fairly conclusive though.
bottom line is that if you are prepared to do a little customising then it can be the best phone out there atm (and lets face it why go android if you dont want to customise? thats what the iphones for right?...)
its only going to get better too as time goes on.
JF3 firmware out of the box and you may run into a couple of problems.
I own mine now for about 3 weeks and over all i heavy use it, my girl friend tells me that i touch my phone more often and tender then her which i think its an indicator of how much i love my Phone, even for native Xvid Support.
But of course there are thinks i really dont like at the Phone. I have much lags, but i also use much and diffarent kind of software at the same time. So maybe i have lesser lags if i dont use the phone like a Hardcore Home PC.
But there is one kind i think its an Knock Out Death Reason to not buy.the Phone before these Bug isnt fixed in an Newer Original Samsung FW.
The Timestamps of the Digital Camera are not written on File System layer. Of corse the are correctly written into EXIf and the digital image where named to the exact TimeStamp, but no attributes in the Fat are written. So if you organize your Pictures on a Nas, you can run into really big troubles.
But i hope thes issue will fixed in the next FW update.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
I'm loving mine, though it really did need to be rooted and the minfree* settings tweaked, the defaults are very bad - Samsung should be fixing this in the new firmware for all devices though. I have very few issues with the device and things I thought were potential problems before I bought it have turned out to be less so.
- Lack of search button/it's integration into the menu button is fine - I was worried because I used menu longpress to hide/show the keyboard a lot on my magic but no apps I'm using require this anymore since most android devices are keyboardless, this used to be fairly necessary when a lot of apps were developed on the G1. If you voice search with longpress of search on other devices a lot it could be an issue for you though.
- Plasticy feel/design of the back, it's nicer than it looks, feels solid despite being light and I'll be putting a resin case over it which disguises most of the horrible iphone 3G derived elements of the hardware anyway.
- Samsung customisation is actually quite nice once you've installed ADW launcher, I like the wifi/bt switches in the notification tray and the media player/in call controls that appear in there when those are active, it's a crying shame there's no widget for the media player though. Your tastes may differ but overall I think most of the customisations are good - with very noticeable exception of the homescreen.
* see here for an explanation, the default for EMPTY_APP and CONTENT_PROVIDER is some figure under 30MB, bump them up to 60 and 50 respectively and the phone runs brilliantly.
the greatest phone i've had to date, it's like a gameboy+office+email+movieplayer+mp3player+photoalbum+GPS+laptop+renote+terminal+web+wifi+bluetooth+phone, in 1 tiny little package
it sure beats my old HTC Athena in quality and speed, weight, durability, ease of use, amount of hacks and accessories for it
Had my UK spec galaxy for about a month. Not had any of the reported issues. Gps is great. Had 16 feet accuracy last night. Very little lag. Only when launching an app for the first time. Have zero regrets getting it. At least 3 other people have got one after seeing mine and they love it too. Highly recommended. Froyo will be amazing. But its the best out there even without it.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Yes, I freaking love it.
Intratech said:
Yes, I freaking love it.
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LOL reminds me of the McDonald Ads "i'm Loving It! ta ta da ta ta . . ."
Or who the German Maci says : Ich liebe es! Lol
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
No, not very happy with it.
It's my first Android headset, I sold my 3GS to my sister figuring I'd finally give Android a chance. The homescreen is nice, notification system is brilliant and so on. But the system has a couple of major flaws...
It's just not as smooth, as easy to use or as elegant as iOS4. There's lag, the market is absolutely horrendous and Fring managed to break the camera so I had to uninstall that to get it back. I don't know what the eff Google are doing, but they need to bring the full marketplace to all countries. But even then, it's not very impressive. Yes I've rooted mine, yes I have market enabler, and it feels wrong. I should not have to do that just to get access to the rest of the market.
And this is, in my opinion, the biggest issue with Android today. I tried to find an app as good as AutoStitch or Pano for Android, but no, there is no such thing in the store. I tried to find a couple of high-quality games, I couldn't find any. I want Let's Golf 2, Worms and many others on this thing. I tried to find a photo editor comparable to PhotoForge and PhotoGene, or something similar to ColorSplash, and again, no. And what about synthesizers, virtual guitars and other fun apps? Haven't seen any.
This phone got me excited, but then I just realised... What's the point? All that power, but nothing is using it. All that power, and we still have lag all over the OS.
I'm sure people are going to hate me for this, but I am a bit disappointed by both the phone and the OS. I do have high hopes for Froyo, but flash support and a snappier OS probably won't be enough for me to keep it. I have bought over a hundred apps on my old 3GS, and I think I'd like those back now.
EDIT: If you think I'm wrong, if you have found the apps I'm looking for then by all means link me to them. I want to like this thing, I really do.
i like PhotoStitch, i keep a copy with me
Asphalt 5 is great, i consider that a quality game
Lets Golf 1 is also available
heck they even have my favourite Bejewled 1
they might not have version 2 of the software, but it will come soon.
Android is fairly new, it's only on version 2
there was not many apps nor games until Android 1.5 got matured.
Iphone OS is at least 2 version ahead of Android, give it some time for it to mature, and you'll see the big picture.
AllGamer said:
i like PhotoStitch, i keep a copy with me
Asphalt 5 is great, i consider that a quality game
Lets Golf 1 is also available
heck they even have my favourite Bejewled 1
they might not have version 2 of the software, but it will come soon.
Android is fairly new, it's only on version 2
there was not many apps nor games until Android 1.5 got matured.
Iphone OS is at least 2 version ahead of Android, give it some time for it to mature, and you'll see the big picture.
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Oh yeah I have Let's Golf, bought that in Gameloft's own store. Very nice.
As for the rest, not a big fan of racing games I'm afraid.
And yeah I know it's a new platform, but they've been bragging about it's growth for a while now and yes I'm sure they have 100,000 apps in the store. I just can't find the good ones, the store needs an overhaul.
I'm afraid I just can't give it more time. I might have to return a year later or so.
WiseDuck said:
EDIT: If you think I'm wrong, if you have found the apps I'm looking for then by all means link me to them. I want to like this thing, I really do.
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Sounds like someone didn't do any research before a big purchase. If you liked how the iphone operated and all the apps for it, why did you switch?
Before I bought my SGS, i went on androlib to look for apps I would need on my phone. I didn't find everything I was looking for, but at least I knew what was there and what wasn't. I also looked around all the android forums (like android central) for any android-specific issues I might encounter.
I'm on verizon and I have an upgrade available next tuesday and am looking at using it as soon as possible(totally frustrated with old phone.) Originally, I was thinking I would like the Droid Bionic, and since its release date is so close to my upgrade date, it seemed like that would be the route to go. However, I recently started doing some research on where I could find the best prices for a phone, and found the discounts on Amazon to be excellent! At this point, I can't imagine the Bionic costing anything less than $300, maybe 250 on amazon, but the Xperia Play is being offered for FREE!! The $300 price tag is a little hard to stomach, and I'm thinking if I get the play now, I can wait for the 2nd generation of LTE devices without the battery concerns.
I'll admit that I hadn't really considered the device before because I didn't think I'd be much of a gamer on a cell phone. I play games now, but they are mostly like angry birds, words with friends, robo defense, and other simple games without a real need of a dedicated controller. The phone being free, however, compelled me to do a bit more research.
Now, after reading nearly every review and watching nearly every video on the play, I am seeing more and more things I like about the device. I even went to the verizon retail store and played around with one (and some of the other contenders) for awhile. There are a few things I like about the Play, and some others that are of a little concern, and I was hoping that some of these questions could be answered by someone who has used the device for a period of time.
Some Good points:
I really like the feel of the phone, it feels different and "unique" even when closed compared to the endless range of black slabs out there. Being a guy who doesn't need to cram the phone into a pair of skinny jeans, I don't find it too bulky to handle.
Is this comfortable for everyday usage, though? Does the phone feel solid in the hands without all the security devices on it like in the store? Are the buttons workable? I wouldn't say I have exceptionally large hands, but they aren't small either, will I find it awkward to press those small front buttons or the unlock/power button?
Seeing a vanilla build of gingerbread was very, very nice. It reminded me of handling the nexus S and how impressed I was when I first saw it after using HTC Sense for nearly 2 years. Is there any real functionality lost because of this? Also: Since It is a vanilla build, I would assume OTA upgrades may be easier to obtain(sort of like the original droid) Does anyone know of Sony's plans to continue support for this (Maybe up through ICS)? I have been stuck with 2.1 for what seems like forever, and don't want this to be a problem in 2 years when I'm trying to download an app that isn't supported in older versions of Android. I'm not opposed to rooting, but I think that manufacturer support says something about what a company thinks of its products.
OMG THE SCREEN!!! I don't know about anyone else, but to my eyes, that is just about the best looking screen I have ever seen, even compared side to side to the qHD display on the Droid X2 I prefered the display on the Play hands-down. However, I am wondering if the front coating is durable. I don't think I would want to put a screen protector between my eyes and that gorgeous LCD.
In general:
Is the phone responsive for everyday tasks? (Gmail, Calender, Texting, Phone Calls, Internet Browsing, Music playback, Youtube, Facebook, Maps, Weather, News Widgets (such as pulse)) I use these all daily quite frequently and it can sometimes take up to 30 seconds just to open up my messaging app after receiving a notification of a new message. I doubt any more modern phone could be this bad, but any hint of slowdown now could be a bad omen of what is to come. I'm not too concerned with multitasking except for maybe loading a webpage while I switch over to messaging to answer a text, or for running an update service for weather notifications in the background.
Is it easy to type on compared to other phones in the 4 inch class? Does the shape or design of the phone impede this in any way? It was kind of hard to tell in the store due to the security devices in place.
With the usage described above (checking email, facebook, news, weather, etc. approximately once per hour, with about 30-45 minutes of phone calls, 20-30 texts, and less than an hour of gaming a day) would it be reasonable to expect this phone to last all day on a single charge? I currently have a large extended battery for my phone and it would be nice to not have that extra bulk. If this isn't reasonable, are there extended batteries/covers available for the play?
Is the lack of internal storage a problem, or is it possible to install apps to sd? (and is the speed acceptable if done so)
Any general bugs/glitches that should be known before deciding on this phone?
Anything that the phone might be a little zippier at if it had a dual core processor (besides more graphically intense games)?
How is the call quality/ability to hold a signal? This has been stated in a few reviews, but I am hoping the that issue has been fixed as of now (specifically the phone reverting to 1x in an EVDO area) I am in the city so signal strength shouldn't be an issue, but the ability to hold 3G definitely is.
How is the camera? I'm not looking for an SLR replacement, just something that will take snapshots where you can tell what something is without excessive noise/blotchiness. Is the front camera as horrible as they say? No one seems to post examples of pictures taken with that. Also, there is some confusion as to the HD recording capabilities of the phone. From what I have gathered, it is possible, but there are several steps involved. What are these steps?
Any possibility of Netflix support in the future?
In general, are you owners happy with your decision, and is it one you would repeat if you had to do it today (given the advantage of the Play being at least $130 cheaper than my next consideration, the Droid X2)
Sorry this post has been kind of long winded, I think I have addressed most of my concerns about the device in question that have not been answered by reviews from months ago (possibly prior to some software bug fixes)
Thank you in advance for your help!
The phone feels pretty solid for everyday use, and the curves make it easy to hold in a pocket.
If your worrying about a screen protector, SURPRISE. Theres already one on there.
I've never had any problems with the apps for everyday use. They open quickly, and pulse works quite well.
Some people find battery an issue, I dont. In between trains I do about 2 hours of gaming, check email every 2 hours, post Twitter updates, and still have half a charge by the end of the day.
The camera isent as great as other phones, but it works.
For Netflix support, you can find the .apk someone on the XDA site, and it works perfectly.
Get it if your into gaming on the touchpad.... Otherwise I don't see why you should.
For a phone that has nearly the same specs as the galaxy s, it runs a lot smoother. There are no lag issues, it has ran everything I've thrown at it smoothly.
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
I m using the PLAY too, and I found my HD2 with android runs a bit smoother.
the SE software is improving thou, it has been 2 updates, and the speed actually increase after each update.
Only get it if you want to have a game pad or the NAVIGATION pad (up down left right)
i love using the play with navigation pad.
I cant find any other current android phone with navigation pad other than the play.
Deoxlar said:
Get it if your into gaming on the touchpad.... Otherwise I don't see why you should.
For a phone that has nearly the same specs as the galaxy s, it runs a lot smoother. There are no lag issues, it has ran everything I've thrown at it smoothly.
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
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I'd say it's worth it.
The only real thing that might keep people from taking it seriously is the fact that it's not a dual-core phone. When you actually see it's performance though, you notice immediately and forever after that it's silky smooth even on a single-core.
It's replaced damn near everything I use; and, most importantly: manages to be great at gaming without being mediocre at anything else.
I'm definitely interested in gaming on the gaming pad, as I can say pretty definitively that the reason I don't play too many games on my phone is because the controls are cumbersome or feel like the games are "dumbed down" to be able to be played with lackluster controls.
I have seen the performance a good single core phone can have (including that of the Play), but am kind of wondering, is it a little too late in the game to even be considering anything other than a dual core phone (I'm having this same delemia over possibly going with the Droid charge) I skimped a little on my first android phone, and because of my experience with that, I am scared that something I get that isn't top of the line now will be utter crap in 18 months - 2 years time.
The combination of acceptable (or great, according to some) performance, the game pad, and the price (in that order) make this appealing.
Sony Tablet S or P coming this month
I just got mine yesterday and I definately recommend getting one.
Feels solid, awesome games and its gonna get better soon as Playstation are soon to announce PSP games for the Xperia Play.
GO GET IT!!!
ps3taker said:
Sony Tablet S or P coming this month
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But these are tablets, is there any chance of a device with a form factor similar to the play coming anytime soon?
I got the xperia play around a month ago maybe 3 weeks ago. The phone is very solid its super fast i have not had any slow down with the phone to this date so dont worry about the core cpu's yet.
The phone is awesome, its amazing for gaming and if your still not into that its still an awesome phone i would say its the best single core phone you can buy.
The only thing i am disappointed about with the phone is the **** wi-fi radio it has terrible signal, it keeps me connected most of the time but around my house i usually only have 2 bars but with my brother's iphone and my old android phone i would be having 3 - 4 bars.
clewis said:
I got the xperia play around a month ago maybe 3 weeks ago. The phone is very solid its super fast i have not had any slow down with the phone to this date so dont worry about the core cpu's yet.
The phone is awesome, its amazing for gaming and if your still not into that its still an awesome phone i would say its the best single core phone you can buy.
The only thing i am disappointed about with the phone is the **** wi-fi radio it has terrible signal, it keeps me connected most of the time but around my house i usually only have 2 bars but with my brother's iphone and my old android phone i would be having 3 - 4 bars.
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Yeah i have the same issue, Galaxy S II has full reception and my Xperia only gets around 2-3 bars although it does keep reception. Thinking Sony might update the modem driver with the next update *fingers crossed*
Yea, the wifi is definitely weaker then most devices. I went out to buy a netgear range booster router and it fixed my problem though.... I can't believe how good netgear routers are...
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
the only reason i can think to make you buy the phone is the gaming pad. that is all. you will never get a better gaming experience on any other latest phone like Galaxy X II or Droid. i mean never
its a gaming phone and target for gamer. i strongly suggest you look for other phone if you not into gaming. i just dont want you to regret it when you bought it.
regarding the wifi, the signal reception is working great if i point the device to the router directly
just my opinion..
Like other have said, if you game on your phone get it. If not, get something else. All the rest is just waving your hands.
It is a solid android phone with a game pad. Nothing more, nothing less. If you never slide your game pad out, why carry it around? If you do slide it out, supported games (including emulators) are a completely different experience to every other phone. I cringe thinking about what Minecraft would be like if I had my thumbs all over the screen.
before i go rambling about my previous phones, all i can say is:
GO FOR IT
putting that aside, i was previously using a hd2 running android via the sd. i also had a htc desire issued by the office. i was content with both phones until the office decided to get rid of the desire. apparently, marketing was able to strike up a good deal with the network provider and thus issued us a bunch of iphone 4s. with the desire gone, i was thus left with my hd2 to run android. the problem was, i wanted a purely dedicated android device given that i would most likely never visit windows again. don't get me wrong, the hd2 is fantastic as it's reputed to be the most versatile (and hackable) phone. i've been reading up on the xperia arc as it has nice reviews. however, i was attracted to the xperia play even more because of in my opinion it's taken the lead in the "swiss army" fight amongst phones. i'm not a true gamer but i have enjoyed playing ps1 back in the days. with that, the play allows me to revisit those days and once again play with my fav games.
secondly, the phone itself is fantastic overall. the interface is fluid, i've experienced no hangs or freezes (not counting the psx game that doesn't run with fpse). battery is awesome and i really love the loudness of the media player. this was one of my gripes when i was still using my hd2: the volume needed to step up a notch or 2. i got myself the white xperia play and people in the office are really loving it.
i've already rooted my unit. as i have home and contents insurance i'm not worried about damaging my play. but say i did run into a situation which results in my phone being bricked/damaged/etc. i would most likely get my insurance company to replace it with the same. unless i find the other phones such as the evo or sensation coming up with a gamepad AND something else that the xperia play doesn't have, i'm definitely sticking to this phone for quite a long time.
Actually, if you are not into gaming.... After you get the phone and see the games available... You will be!
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
Made a post about wishing Google had some form of backwards compatabilty a few weeks ago and it was kinda poo-pooed
Skip ahead to yesterday. Got my nexus 6 and within 1 hour i was unlocked and rooted with a custom recovery and unencrypted thanks to Wugs great tool kit.
Spent the next day getting used to 5.0 and setting up my phone... Tonight i breath a sigh of relief and I'm ready to actually enjoy my device.
Now whatever your thoughts are on gaming on a Mobil device you have to face it these devices are built for this very thing. These phones don't have all this horsepower and big beautiful screens for the internet and Facebook.
So i fire up Gta Vice city...it won't load a game, try the new one Gta Sa, and menus don't work can't save and load when in game. Tried the new Xcom Enemy Within game and graphic artifacts everywhere games completely unpayable. Over half of all the games i own don't work.
I have a brand new $700 device sitting on my counter while i have to use my nexus 5 under 4.4.4 to actually do the things i want to do! Something is wrong with this picture. Sure some of these problems will be fixed by devs over time... But who the hell knows when. Some companies have 30-40 games across multiple platforms...it could take forever (and usually does) for them to make updates...Now knowing that why does google not have a backup plan to make sure older software works on newer devices?
Why should google care about what developers make? Google rules, developers have to adapt and change the code based on Google decides to bring in each new version.
Sent from my Nexus 6
oneplus said:
Why should google care about what developers make? Google rules, developers have to adapt and change the code based on Google decides to bring in each new version.
Sent from my Nexus 6
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Because the developer has already made their money... The consumer is the one who is stuck with a product that doesn't work.
Let's see Google crack down then and pull every grand theft auto game from the market till rockstar updates them...But we all know that's not going to happen.
I have no issues playing GTA SA on my Nexus 6. Mine is rooted and unencrypted but otherwise stock 5.0.0. I actually am really enjoying this phone for gaming, something I've never really liked on phones before.
I'm not sure what has been done on your device so I can't give any instructions on how to fix your issue other than to not blame Google for issues with a few apps, especially when you're not using the device as completely stock/as intended by the manufacturer...
Weirdo0815 said:
I have no issues playing GTA SA on my Nexus 6. Mine is rooted and unencrypted but otherwise stock 5.0.0. I actually am really enjoying this phone for gaming, something I've never really liked on phones before.
I'm not sure what has been done on your device so I can't give any instructions on how to fix your issue other than to not blame Google for issues with a few apps, especially when you're not using the device as completely stock/as intended by the manufacturer...
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Menus become laggy after a little while of playing, cant load/save game. I checked reviews on google play many others on a nexus 6 are complaining of the same
That's weird... I've played probably 3 hours over the weekend of GTA SA and never once noticed a problem. I'll watch for issues as I continue playing it though.
Weirdo0815 said:
That's weird... I've played probably 3 hours over the weekend of GTA SA and never once noticed a problem. I'll watch for issues as I continue playing it though.
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Any other games you have tried? Anther one of my favs is Segas Jet Set Radio... That game would look awesome on this big screen... Doesn't even start
Any time you hit a major OS update, you run into compatibility issues at first. I knew going in that I'd run into a few quirks.
But I ran into similar issues when I first got my G3... lots of apps weren't able to cope with the increase in resolution and needed to be updated. Waze had some serious map rendering issues, for example. But it got sorted.
It's the price you pay, sometimes, to be an early adopter.
I'm downloading a couple other games and will report back (though it may not be until tomorrow when I can report back). I'm downloading the following:
Baulder's Gate Enhanced Edition
GTA Vice City
GTA III
Dungeon Hunter 4
Asphalt 8
Modern Combat 4 (older but I haven't bought the newer versions)
I notice a lot of apps aren't compatible such as dead trigger 2. I side loaded DT2 works fine. There were others as well can't remember which ones. Mostly games
Hand76 said:
Made a post about wishing Google had some form of backwards compatabilty a few weeks ago and it was kinda poo-pooed
Skip ahead to yesterday. Got my nexus 6 and within 1 hour i was unlocked and rooted with a custom recovery and unencrypted thanks to Wugs great tool kit.
Spent the next day getting used to 5.0 and setting up my phone... Tonight i breath a sigh of relief and I'm ready to actually enjoy my device.
Now whatever your thoughts are on gaming on a Mobil device you have to face it these devices are built for this very thing. These phones don't have all this horsepower and big beautiful screens for the internet and Facebook.
So i fire up Gta Vice city...it won't load a game, try the new one Gta Sa, and menus don't work can't save and load when in game. Tried the new Xcom Enemy Within game and graphic artifacts everywhere games completely unpayable. Over half of all the games i own don't work.
I have a brand new $700 device sitting on my counter while i have to use my nexus 5 under 4.4.4 to actually do the things i want to do! Something is wrong with this picture. Sure some of these problems will be fixed by devs over time... But who the hell knows when. Some companies have 30-40 games across multiple platforms...it could take forever (and usually does) for them to make updates...Now knowing that why does google not have a backup plan to make sure older software works on newer devices?
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Ah well.
Welcome to the bleeding edge, OP. Someone told me iOS is better at this if you want to go there.
welcome to a new OS, this is what happens across the board for all devices when a new OS is launched.
on windows, when you get a new OS update, not all software is prepared for it, same as everywhere else.
I personally have not had any issues with any games i have running on 5.0 and i game with a lot of big RPG's
Bards Tale is gorgeous on here BTW
toyfreak said:
Welcome to the bleeding edge, OP. Someone told me iOS is better at this if you want to go there.
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Lop. You should have seen the compatibility issues on iOS 8 and developers not being ready for bigger screens. They're still having problems!
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Its actually kind of funny. Google actually tried to offer solutions to this problem this time around. They released the L preview builds and early api for app developers to have everything they needed to test and build their apps to support the newest OS version. Of course very few devs used those tools to get a jump on it . . .
Yeah gaming is hit or miss...clash of clans runs wonderful but my castle clash runs barely good enough to play.
however i do have the latest software and what already appears to be awesome dev support so I hope this gets ironed out. The phone has the power the run the games even on the high res screen.
As an application developer, it would be nice to actually have the device to test on. Right now, I have to rely on the emulator for the Nexus 6. I don't make mobile games, but if their engine relied on Dalvik, you may be waiting a while for the game engine to be updated to ART (I don't think this is an issue as I've never had issues with gaming on my Nexus 7 tablet). More likely, you are dealing with an issue with resources not matching the Nexus 6 DPI... therefore, you're stuff looks out of whack, or can't click on menu items. You'll have to wait for more devs to get a hold of physical devices. The emulator is good for a lot of things... but there are somethings that are just broken for development...
Some examples I noticed
1) You have to turn off "Use host GPU" to take screenshots/record video off the emulator.... Disabling "Use host GPU" makes the emulator run like crap... takes like 5 minutes to boot on my machine.
2) Cannot rotate device anymore. With Gingerbread, you could rotate the device and test out your layout-land resources... nope, not anymore... at least not on anything >= Ice Cream Sandwich
3) HAXM... not an issue for me, but I get a lot of questions on my YouTube channel about why my emulator is smooth. I use intel processors on my computers. Many use AMD and development with the stock android emulator is a nightmare. I don't know if Genymotion fixes this for those as I haven't had an AMD processor since before Android existed as a mobile OS.
4) Freezes up randomly. Its just not as stable as a real device. Obviously this could vary on machine to machine. For some reason, my Nexus 4 emulator freezes way more frequently than my Nexus 5 emulator.
5) I store some files I need to test my app's database in Dropbox. I used to be able to download the file and run it in my program to create my database. I can't do this anymore. It works fine on my physical device, but I don't think my Note II will be getting Lollipop anytime soon. I need to test SD Card storage options and the emulator just doesn't work for this.
My Nexus 6 was promised to leave the warehouse by December 3rd... even paid overnight shipping.... still hasn't even been charged from my account. My point: Improvements will happen... we just need devices before we can fix a lot of issues with lollipop. Motorola/Google have really screwed this release up.
Thanks for the post Rufflez.
And for the person who brougt ms Windows up... That's a terrible comparison.
I have 10-15 year old games on cds that still work on win 8/7. Windows even has a comparability mode built in. Would be nice if android had the same.
This happened last year with kitkat (except wasn't as bad) and now again this year with art/5.0.
Google thinks devs are going to update all their software every year??? Isn't that expecting too much.
modern combat 5 plays absolutely incredibly on the n6! graphic would rival any console game.
Hand76 said:
Thanks for the post Rufflez.
And for the person who brougt ms Windows up... That's a terrible comparison.
I have 10-15 year old games on cds that still work on win 8/7. Windows even has a comparability mode built in. Would be nice if android had the same.
This happened last year with kitkat (except wasn't as bad) and now again this year with art/5.0.
Google thinks devs are going to update all their software every year??? Isn't that expecting too much.
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This may be wrong, but I think Google likes to make software not backward compatible due to security features. In Windows, having the ability to run a software made for Windows 95 is great, but with a built-in emulator, old existing security loop hole will exist in newer version unless they patch up. What Google is doing forces all apps to change to meet the security standard so this allow Google to have more control of the apps development vs having a large QA team to release security patches similar to what Microsoft is doing on windows. Not to mention having backward compatibility (not just KitKat) will increases the size of android l os, which is not ideal on mobile device
As someone who has been hunting for a good Android tablet for months now, I read a LOT of forums and user-reviews. One thing that I've noticed time and time again is that devices that are powered with Nvidia's Tegra processors have an unusually large amount of unhappy users, and the complaints are more or less the same.
- Poor wifi strength/speed
- Touch screen input problems
- Random shutdowns/reboots
- UI Lag
- Device heating up when doing things that are not traditionally intensive tasks.
It's not a Marshmallow (or even Android) problem guys. The combination of some/all of the above problems is comparatively unheard of on Exynos and Snapdragon powered devices. I'm not an engineer so I don't know whether it's a problem innate to the hardware or poor driver support or something else, but I'm enough of an Android fan to have seen a really obvious pattern emerging when looking to buy a device and comparing reviews. I've personally experienced these problems on the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 and there's a whole giant army of unsatisfied Nexus 9 users out there, and now the Pixel C is sounding like a similar story. You'll recall similar stories about the Nexus 7 2012 as well.
I really wish Google would have waited a little longer and used a next-gen Snapdragon chip in this tablet, it would have been great.
Most of those issues would make sense because of poor software that doesn't utilize the Chipset properly. Not because of the CPU/GPU itself.
It would make sense if you were blaming the touchscreen controller and wifi chipset itself.
I myself have few issues with my Pixel C, and the issues I do have are across all my android devices.
All this speculation about the issues of this device are unnecessary. If you have the device then report your issues to Google for the benefit of all.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
sleepinlight said:
As someone who has been hunting for a good Android tablet for months now, I read a LOT of forums and user-reviews. One thing that I've noticed time and time again is that devices that are powered with Nvidia's Tegra processors have an unusually large amount of unhappy users, and the complaints are more or less the same.
- Poor wifi strength/speed
- Touch screen input problems
- Random shutdowns/reboots
- UI Lag
- Device heating up when doing things that are not traditionally intensive tasks.
It's not a Marshmallow (or even Android) problem guys. The combination of some/all of the above problems is comparatively unheard of on Exynos and Snapdragon powered devices. I'm not an engineer so I don't know whether it's a problem innate to the hardware or poor driver support or something else, but I'm enough of an Android fan to have seen a really obvious pattern emerging when looking to buy a device and comparing reviews. I've personally experienced these problems on the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 and there's a whole giant army of unsatisfied Nexus 9 users out there, and now the Pixel C is sounding like a similar story. You'll recall similar stories about the Nexus 7 2012 as well.
I really wish Google would have waited a little longer and used a next-gen Snapdragon chip in this tablet, it would have been great.
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thing is the nvidia tv device does not have the big lines of problems and it is the device closest to pixel c.. i'd guess the magnets are a source of havoc.
I did some digging today in open source repos - all the below are just assumptions, I don't want to be a smartass.
If issues seem to be hardware related, usually it's the kernel, not the actual HW. One thing is sure, Google/Nvidia guys are working hard to get things right.
Some examples:
There are even separate branches in the Chomium kernel repos to stabilize the Pixel C: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+refs - search for "stabilize-smaug" here.
This is almost surely the fix for the repeated key issues of the keyboard (was merged in mid-December): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+/5e09b5b68e2a09257cad69870989b7977797f09c
If you search for "touch" on the Chromium gerrit, there are literally dozens of fixes, most of them already merged. One that I think is related to the Pixel C, and might be a key one: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/320202/
I've also found a change related to the Pixel C that is still under review, Nvidia guys were talking about a deadline of next Thursday (14th January), until they need to fix something: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/314327/ - scroll down to the comments.
So, let's hope we'll receive an update by the end of the month. The only thing that I think can really be HW-related is the Wifi issue, but I hope I'm wrong.
PS: This is a bit unrelated, but I've found out from the device tree that the Keyboard firmware can be separately updated (the above fix is actually for the keyboard FW). The FW update will be the part of the system update, and after the first boot once you connect the keyboard a notification will appear to ask you to confirm the update. Afterwards it will apply the update via Bluetooth. Code here: https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/dragon/+/marshmallow-dr-dragon-release/DragonKeyboardFirmwareUpdater/
sethyx said:
I did some digging today in open source repos - all the below are just assumptions, I don't want to be a smartass.
If issues seem to be hardware related, usually it's the kernel, not the actual HW. One thing is sure, Google/Nvidia guys are working hard to get things right.
Some examples:
There are even separate branches in the Chomium kernel repos to stabilize the Pixel C: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+refs - search for "stabilize-smaug" here.
This is almost surely the fix for the repeated key issues of the keyboard (was merged in mid-December): https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+/5e09b5b68e2a09257cad69870989b7977797f09c
If you search for "touch" on the Chromium gerrit, there are literally dozens of fixes, most of them already merged. One that I think is related to the Pixel C, and might be a key one: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/320202/
I've also found a change related to the Pixel C that is still under review, Nvidia guys were talking about a deadline of next Thursday (14th January), until they need to fix something: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/314327/ - scroll down to the comments.
So, let's hope we'll receive an update by the end of the month. The only thing that I think can really be HW-related is the Wifi issue, but I hope I'm wrong.
PS: This is a bit unrelated, but I've found out from the device tree that the Keyboard firmware can be separately updated (the above fix is actually for the keyboard FW). The FW update will be the part of the system update, and after the first boot once you connect the keyboard a notification will appear to ask you to confirm the update. Afterwards it will apply the update via Bluetooth. Code here: https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/dragon/+/marshmallow-dr-dragon-release/DragonKeyboardFirmwareUpdater/
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i'm thinking if a few big issues do not get resolved by next weekend [1/15-1/17] google may experience a large volume of returns prior to the 1-22 deadline for holiday purchases. google may want to put out an ota in hopes a lot of the issues go away. very nice post, btw, i appreciate all the digging.
OP is correct in his assumptions on the tegra processors. There are always issues with devices that have them especially when the device is first released. Usually it takes about 6 months to get rid of the issues with software/UI updates. The tegra k1 devices did not become stable until July 2015; more than 8 months after there release.....
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
sethyx said:
So, let's hope we'll receive an update by the end of the month. The only thing that I think can really be HW-related is the Wifi issue, but I hope I'm wrong.
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Thanks for the digging but they have until around Jan. 22nd to get a fix out. I am not going to go on faith that the two major issues will be fixed. (wifi/touchscreen). The fact it was launched with these issues present on most of them is troubling.
dkryder said:
i'm thinking if a few big issues do not get resolved by next weekend [1/15-1/17] google may experience a large volume of returns prior to the 1-22 deadline for holiday purchases. google may want to put out an ota in hopes a lot of the issues go away.
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Click to collapse
That is what I am thinking as well. I think a lot of people do not notice the wifi download issue because they are either close to their router or are not comparing the speeds next to other devices. I noticed it on day 2 when I was viewing my imgur albums and noticed considerable slower page load compared to other devices. That opened up a can or worms right there.
The touchscreen issue is very noticeable though. Hope these get fixed asap.
For what it's worth i'm 2 floors away from my router and on my 2nd Pixel (first one had a dodgy touchscreen) and the speed is completely fine
atg284 said:
Thanks for the digging but they have until around Jan. 22nd to get a fix out. I am not going to go on faith that the two major issues will be fixed. (wifi/touchscreen). The fact it was launched with these issues present on most of them is troubling.
That is what I am thinking as well. I think a lot of people do not notice the wifi download issue because they are either close to their router or are not comparing the speeds next to other devices. I noticed it on day 2 when I was viewing my imgur albums and noticed considerable slower page load compared to other devices. That opened up a can or worms right there.
The touchscreen issue is very noticeable though. Hope these get fixed asap.
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My speeds compared to my 6 p were virtually identical. Router on another floor some 25 yds away.
bill3508 said:
My speeds compared to my 6 p were virtually identical. Router on another floor some 25 yds away.
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Must be nice. What router are you using? Are you on wifi AC or N ?
atg284 said:
Must be nice. What router are you using? Are you on wifi AC or N ?
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This was my post a while back. 4000 sq ft 3 level home. Upstairs router is a Asus rt66, down stairs is a Actiontek or something like that. I have two different providers , one capped and the crappy dsl is not. I live out in the sticks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=64460576
bill3508 said:
This was my post a while back. 4000 sq ft 3 level home. Upstairs router is a Asus rt66, down stairs is a Actiontek or something like that. I have two different providers , one capped and the crappy dsl is not. I live out in the sticks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=64460576
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Very odd. I have the same router and get noticeably slower download speeds abound 25-30ft from the router. On a different floor but still. I kind of live out in the sticks as well. Both units had the same exact issue. just wish this wasn't a problem.
atg284 said:
Thanks for the digging but they have until around Jan. 22nd to get a fix out. I am not going to go on faith that the two major issues will be fixed. (wifi/touchscreen). The fact it was launched with these issues present on most of them is troubling.
That is what I am thinking as well. I think a lot of people do not notice the wifi download issue because they are either close to their router or are not comparing the speeds next to other devices. I noticed it on day 2 when I was viewing my imgur albums and noticed considerable slower page load compared to other devices. That opened up a can or worms right there.
The touchscreen issue is very noticeable though. Hope these get fixed asap.
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I love the tablet and really would like to keep it, wifi issues are a deal breaker though, but I'll be happy to wait till the end of the month provided Google officially accepts the issues, confirms they are not hardware related (not sure if the forum post will be enough) and commits to a fix by the end of the month or at the very least extends the return period sufficiently. Just one guy's opinion.
Mine acts weird with the speed test app. It shows slower download speeds than my service provides during a speed test but will max out my service when actually downloading.
rohmbd said:
Mine acts weird with the speed test app. It shows slower download speeds than my service provides during a speed test but will max out my service when actually downloading.
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I thought the same until I did side by side comparisons with other devices and there is a web based speed test that you can do as well:
http://testmy.net/
I am a bit curious about the noveau driver. I read that its graphics performance isn't very good in comparison to nvidia's own linux driver when testing desktop gpus in Ubuntu. Why, given this information, would Google use noveau? Also, would Google have forked noveau for ryu?
jamesrick80 said:
OP is correct in his assumptions on the tegra processors. There are always issues with devices that have them especially when the device is first released. Usually it takes about 6 months to get rid of the issues with software/UI updates. The tegra k1 devices did not become stable until July 2015; more than 8 months after there release.....
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Did you mean 2016? I'm a Nexus 9 owner and bought it mostly to play Clash of Clans... Yeah, it can be a lame reason to buy a tablet but it is the truth.
When you reach TH8 (Clash of Clans players know what I'm talking about), CPU &/or GPU can't handle the graphics... Well, I guess that it's still missing something to be solved on kernel side or even the bionic for denver still hasn't been optimized enough since using a custom kernel and OCing CPU and GPU makes graphics somehow become more fluid (while in the game) and the constant stuttering that causes the touch screen input problems (huge problems on this part, I have to touch three of four times on the same place for it to recognize what I want to do) or the lags almost disappears.
Now you're gonna say "But Nexus 9 is a beast and I run X game with it and it's fluid!" Yeah, I hear ya and you're right, but something is going on with this tablet and I still can't figure it out what it is... Is it the non-optimized kernel or the non-optimized bionic? Who knows... OCing is just hiding something that needs to be fixed in my opinion... Oh... Did I mention that the kernel defconfig doesn't have multi-core scheduler support activated (CONFIG_SCHED_MC)?
sethyx said:
The only thing that I think can really be HW-related is the Wifi issue, but I hope I'm wrong.[/URL]
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It seems that the WiFi issue was also caused by the kernel... https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/321155/4
sethyx said:
It seems that the WiFi issue was also caused by the kernel... https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/321155/4
Not cool, NVIDIA, not cool.
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This is actually great news as hopefully it isn't the magnets or some other hardware related issue and can be fixed.
sethyx said:
It seems that the WiFi issue was also caused by the kernel... https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/321155/4
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Just FYI that patchset has nothing to do with the WiFi
I'm sure I'm not the only one having issues with this game on the 6p. At least a quarter of the time I start the game, it freezes and eventually crashes when the first car shows up. At least half the time, the sound is off enough that I mute it. A lot of times, the game is jittery, sometimes to the point I have to force close and restart. I was dealing with it, but then I played it on an iPhone and was shocked at how much faster it loaded and how smooth it played. That is hard for me to say, not being an Apple fan.
Is there anything others have done to minimize these issues? Or, is this just how it is on these phones. I did try searching for answers, but couldn't find anything related to the 6p and RR3. Honestly, I think my old Note 3 handed it better, which makes me think that maybe I wasted my money.
I appreciate any help,
mmmbusby
mmmbusby said:
I'm sure I'm not the only one having issues with this game on the 6p. At least a quarter of the time I start the game, it freezes and eventually crashes when the first car shows up. At least half the time, the sound is off enough that I mute it. A lot of times, the game is jittery, sometimes to the point I have to force close and restart. I was dealing with it, but then I played it on an iPhone and was shocked at how much faster it loaded and how smooth it played. That is hard for me to say, not being an Apple fan.
Is there anything others have done to minimize these issues? Or, is this just how it is on these phones. I did try searching for answers, but couldn't find anything related to the 6p and RR3. Honestly, I think my old Note 3 handed it better, which makes me think that maybe I wasted my money.
I appreciate any help,
mmmbusby
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iPhone comparison isn't fair... There's like 5 currently used different iPhones vs. thousands of different Android devices. Optimizations are hard to be done for every single phone. RR3 may not even be optimized for 6.0.1. And we don't the resolutions that the game runs on a different phones...
That being said, for me RR3 lags when I enter race which has many players on it.