XDA IIs in my grubby little mitts!!! - MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 General

Ok, so my XDA IIs has arrived today. Having installed a screen protector, its been sat on charge now for some 4.5 hours.
Comments so far....
Case looks much better than that of the XDA II - ok, it will be interesting to see how it wears given time, as I must say the old device has no marks on it at all.
I have tinkered with the landscape mode, and can see quite a few uses for that too.
I have enabled wi-fi, and although it found my wireless network, and connected after entering the WEP code, in the status is says scanning network, and no other information is showing!!!!! I can however connect to the internet quite happily, but I was expecting another icon on the status bar (Which is not there!!!) Am I missing something here????
Missing Blackberry functionality currently I have installed the three month trial of Smatner - this seems to work well as an interim measure, but the inability to have multiple accounts is certainly a flaw - maybe its because its a demo???? The website is not very informative!
Have not installed any other software currently, as I feel a few resets will take place over the weekend
The 02 interface is slick, but I still find it annoying. On the XDA II you could de-install it, but as yet I have not found a way to do this on the IIs???? Any answers to that????
Slide out keyboard is very nice, like the blue lighting. As yet I have not used them which is quite interesting, but I think thats just because I am playing with other things at the moment.
Anyway......I'll leave it at that for now
Celtic

hi,
is your keyboard and mechanism loose with a gap between the keyboard and the screen ? or is it rigid with no gap ?

Rigid and no gap - all feels fine - just the wifi thats confusing me!!!

Related

Still Using Harrier/Blue Angel Because You Prefer It?

I'm testing the waters a bit to see what the HTC enthusiast community thinks of the Blue Angel and Harrier in comparison to HTC's current product line.
While the Wizard and TyTN are fine products, they clearly are not the Blue Angel's design. The display has been downsized to 2.8 inches, and the Omni's handheld use is significantly diminished.
So, please vote in the poll. We'll try to let decision makers at HTC know if you want the Blue Angel brought into the 3G era.
I think there should be a 3G Blue Angel but they should still be progress in the development of more devices similar to the Tytn as the Tytn is proving one of the most popular devices I have seen and I feel is opening up mobile computing to people who thought about getting a connected PPC but didn't like the bulk of the units which had the features to make them useful.
Personally I stick with my BA because of how large the screen is and IMO the only phone that is worth switching too is the TyTn.
I also like how much thinner it is than any of the current HTC phones with a keyboard.
Meh... just my $.02
for Me its the screen, could do without the keyboard as i never use it.
I was using a Blue Angel (Harrier) on the Verizon EVDO network. It is a terrific device. I can watch videos real time. The larger screen is also awesome and much easier on tired eyes.
I finally put my Blue Angel aside and have been using primarliy a Wizard.
Even with all the Tweaks and overclocking, the Wizard is relatively slow. However, the Wizard has been much more reliable and is a much better phone.
I'm just about ready to order a TyTN because it seems the bugs are getting worked out. I'd rather have a Blue Angle sized unit with all the new Windows Mobile Features.
It looks like all the future HTC phones are small screened. The HTC Herald looks like a verizon/sprint EVDO (possibly Rev.A) phone. Looks great but still no Blue Angel.
I'd like to have a TyTN type phone for everyday, and then an "Arch Angel" phone with a large screen to travel with. It should have a fast processor, accept Standard SD cards.
I think you almost need two devices depending what you are doing. A 3G Blue angel with the same screen or possibly a VGA one for some tasks and a Tytn for most of the time. I have a Tytn on order but I will still use my IIs a lot because of the screen.
I love my BA. I had executive, then, IIi(alpine)..now back to my BA
Its a complete device(for those who dont want GPS)
Ditto. Screen (so many new devices have such small screens). Keyboard. Large RAM memory (yes I know WM5, but persistant storage read/write is slower). Still the best device.
Although, there's always something missing (GPS/FM Radio/a huge internal memory/Some devices even have TV!/direct USB access without an adater/EDGE/3G/etc.).
Love the BA form factor
I've gone thorough half a dozen phones in the past couple months trying to find an ideal unit for me. Seems everyone these days want the cute little phones that you could swallow if you got it too close to your mouth. Whats the point ? If its just for making and receiving calls fine, but if it's meant provide visual display and input (emails and surfing) than why wouldn't you want it big bright and loud ? Within reason of course..but some of these newer phones with all the great features are too small to make them easy to use. In my case it has to be Quad band as I need the 850 for CellularOne in my area.
I had a Blackberry 7100 which was great for push mail and work stuff but not so hot for display or web stuff. I just bought and then sold a very nice Hermes (Softpoint/Jasjam) device which was probably the best phone I have seen for coverage and features. It flat out worked great. I just could not see me using that needle size stylus on the 2.8 inch screen for very long. The display was nice but just too small enjoy using for me. It might work as a heads up display, but for my main device it need to be bigger. I mean... do you really want to run GPS map apps on this while your driving ? Or shop on eBay while squinting at that little thing. It looked MUCH bigger in the Ads
I've run a Symbian based Nokia e61 (still do) and find it one of my favorites for ease of use without a touch screen. It's not a touch screen but you would never notice with the neat smart key layouts and center joystick control. The display is not huge but the layout works great for web use and the browser is very quick. The problem with this phone is it seems to have a weaker over all RF module and I constantly loose my GPRS lock when going through fades and the only way to get packet (GPRS) back is to power cycle it. Maybe it's just my phone thats bad but the dealer won't exchange it as this point and I really doubt their "repair" shop would even find the problem.
I just bought, powered up and re-boxed an Ipaq 6945/15 device. Worked good signal wise and packet data stuff/Wifi devices were good. The phone just has a overall cheap feel to it. The keyboard is a joke (compared to my e61) and the joystick and side buttons are hard to use. Would it be that much more expensive to put a rubber tip on the joystick ? The 240 x240 display was weak and grainy as well. It has about 15 minutes on it and will listed for sell at a auction site near you soon ! I am waiting for my first BA device I just purchased off the web (O2XDAiis) and hope it's what I'm looking for. The 2003se software will new for me and it will probaly go to some version of WM5 soon after I get it. I'm hoping the screen is bright and pretty and I can actually use the "touch" screen with my finger instead of digging for a matchstick while cruising at 70 miles an hour. I like heft too, it signals quality to me. I searched long and wide for a 3.5 inch display, quad band phone and found Nothing but the older BA at this point. I'd love a new device to come out with WM5, 3.5 to 4 inch display, bright screen and the latest interfaces. I'd buy one RIGHT NOW.
Guy
BA all the way...big screen..nice keyboard..
I thought I would put my .02 cents in on this topic since I had a BA for 2 years and just recently got a Cingular 8525.
I did a pro's and con's list to help me make it very clear which phone I wanted and why. I'll just share the list with you...
Pros FOR the 8525 over the BA:
- Edge speeds are about 5x faster than regular GSM (120-150kbs)
- 3G speeds are about 30x faster (800-850kbs)
- Universal USB charger
- 2mp camera is much higher quality
- Camera application is much more advanced
- Native WM5 OS. No hacking or slowdowns from non-supported upgrades
- Jog Dial (this is a big one... Can't be without it now)
- MUCH improved bluetooth reception for handsfree
- Wifi type g and b (noticeably faster)
- Free push email w/ web2mail (simply amazing, no more disappearing gmail!!!)
- Smaller form factor... nicer fit in my hand than BA
- BT headset can start VoiceCommand. No need to touch the phone anymore.
- No soft reset to make the WiFi work start up
- PTT will be supported in the future and might be nice to have.
- Multiple sounds play without garbling (ie. VoiceCommand announcement and ringtone)
- Sharper more vibrant screen (the clarity and overall quality difference is significant)
- MUCH louder speakerphone and ring volume
- I like the navigation pad a bit better than the BA and it seems much more responsive.
Cons of the 8525 compared to the BA:
- Micro SD format max's out at 2GB (at the moment)
- No standard headphone jack
- Battery drain is higher due to 3g and push email
- The main buttons are a bit cramped around the navigation pad, but you get used to it, just like anything.
On the con side... Micro SD cards (typically) come with a standard SD card enclosure so you can use it with standard flash card readers or even put them into standard SD card devices like phones or the BA even. This is a nice thing in case you want to transfer information from one device to the other. Mini SD seems to be the real loser format out of the three in my opinion.
The headphone jack isn't really an issue for me so far. Yeah it would be nice to listen to the tunes with whatever headphones I choose, but I'm thinking a dedicated music player would be better anyway since I'm already running my battery into the ground as it is, but that doesn't change that my options are certainly limited. I'm sure someone will come up with an adapter solution soon. I've already seen some, but they are still getting better.
Battery drain is a big one... Other than disabling 3g and turning off direct push... I don't see a way to save battery. I just turn the back light down as low as it can go and use vjlumosiii (handy little app) mapped to a button to get max brightness when I need it.
Overall... I have to say that the 8525 is going to be a device that I will use for the next 2 years or so with MUCH fondness. I loved my BA and after having it all tricked out was still better than many peoples phones.
That's just my opinion on these 2 devices. I like them both... but the 8525 is going to be my work horse no doubt about it.
Mark
Apple Ipod.. The next gen BA ?
http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Looks like my next BA replacement. It's everything a new BA should be if they upgrade it... Now I just need to see one on eBay and someone to provide unlocker for it ..
GapBoyT said:
Personally I stick with my BA because of how large the screen is and IMO the only phone that is worth switching too is the TyTn.
I also like how much thinner it is than any of the current HTC phones with a keyboard.
Meh... just my $.02
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but it's only 240x320.. maybe if they released a new vga version with a good camera/ wifi g/i/e, native WM5, id be down, the BA just too big!
Gvotuc said:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Looks like my next BA replacement. It's everything a new BA should be if they upgrade it... Now I just need to see one on eBay and someone to provide unlocker for it ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
baaaaaad idea man.. why do you think apple is getting sued by cisco.. they don't think things through! Hence the intel macs killing the g5's in benchmarks on OSX, APPLE Should stick to software!! (And ive got cingular!)
Yup, yup.
Still using my 6600 and love it!
The screen size and the full size SD card is what kept me from going to a 6700.
i've got the BA PH20B on 02 (2yrs now) i use it alot with tomtom, i was thinking of the HTC 3300 its got built in GPS, 2.8'' TFT-LCD 240 X 320 with 65,536 colours, but only a 201mhz chip so gotta look into it more. and i found out you can get it with out the navigation software. save a few pennies there.

[Q] SE liveview

Does anyone know how well the xperia play works with SE's liveview? I heard many people had bluetooth problems if they had less then 50MB free RAM on their phones (Seems weird :/) But I have nearly 250MB of free ram after a few days of normal usage and an update fixed a lot of peoples problems. But still it seems a bit phone specific, did anyone test it with a xperia play?
For those who wonder what liveview is: http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/accessories/overview/liveviewmicrodisplay
2th oled display for cell phones working over bluetooth, you could wear it as watch for example.
It's supposed to be functional with all 2.x.x Android phones, and Sony Ericsson's website even states it on the compatibility list.
All sources seem to point to "yes" =].
I know it's compatible, but a lot of people had problems with specific phones that where officially supported. They had a lot of random disconnects on certain phones.
yes.... i am using with XP and the disconnection issue is still there with latest firmware update.
got it as well but i dont thing its ram related
I have it, it does work, albeit a little sketchy at times. More often then not it pisses me off, the clock works ok on it, the Facebook almost never updates, forget about text messages showing up. RSS feeds on it quickly pile up and a lot of the apps you find in the market just don't work well. For instance, some of the apps lock the watch into that app only, the only thing to do at that point is a hard reset by holding power for 15 seconds. Hard reset is something you become very use to with this thing. Intermittently it loses connection for no reason at all, sometimes it even refuses to connect, doesn't matter which firmware you have installed.
The battery life on the thing is flat out horrible too, if you're lucky it will make it through the day, but only if you barley use it. I've grown accustomed to shutting off my phones Bluetooth and using it for a watch only, it will keep time but not access the apps without Bluetooth, at least that way I can make it more than a day with the clock function. It does control the music player pretty well, even displays the artist and title on the phone. It has a pretty cool function to dismiss call too, although not to answer them. The interface on the watch itself doesn't lag much, its pretty snappy when it works. Another glaring issue is how hard it is to remove from the watch band to charge the thing, the sucker snaps in there very tightly and the first few times its nearly impossible to remove, after awhile though it will become very lose from constantly inserting it and removing it. I got around this by purchasing a third party watch strap and bending a slight curve in it near the mini usb port, I can actually charge it while its mounted on the watch now.
Overall though, this thing is a gimmicky piece of ****, splendid way to waste money with little satisfaction return. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
I have Liveview and im using it with my Xperia X8
Build
Build Quality is not that good, specially it pops out in the clip every now and then, because of Bad Design.
but you can sort it out by changing the strap or have a customized strap and make your liveview permanent on the clip, so no more accidentally popping out in the clip.
but for me i just used a double adhesive tape at the back and sides of liveview so it will stick to its clip no more problems after that
Connectivity
I have used it on SE Stock Eclair 2.1.1 and even Custom Rom 2.2.1/2.3.4, and updated Liveview and Liveware Application, It's Pretty stable and no Annoying disconnections, and really depends on available RAM you have actually, In my X8 i got a maximum of 80mb Ram after starting the liveview/liveware app to run it, but if my ram goes like 25mb(lowest) then disconnections issues will occur.
that happens only when playing games that are ram hungry.
I used it everyday when i go out usually 8hrs a day and i will have 1 or 2 disconnections, but after i reconnect it it will in 2-3s and its fine again.
Liveview Updates
Messaging/Calls/Miss Calls are instant, but i cannot say the same way with Facebook/Twitter/RSS feeds, but you can update them manually
Plugins
There are alot of available plugins in the market right now, but some simple plugins that you might need is still not available, for me i want a Notes plugin, but no luck at all
Battery Life
It can last up-to 2-3 days of 8hrs a day on a single charge, really depends on how you use it.
When would choose to use this over your phone? it seems to do nothing more than what your phone does?
transpec said:
I have it, it does work, albeit a little sketchy at times. More often then not it pisses me off, the clock works ok on it, the Facebook almost never updates, forget about text messages showing up. RSS feeds on it quickly pile up and a lot of the apps you find in the market just don't work well. For instance, some of the apps lock the watch into that app only, the only thing to do at that point is a hard reset by holding power for 15 seconds. Hard reset is something you become very use to with this thing. Intermittently it loses connection for no reason at all, sometimes it even refuses to connect, doesn't matter which firmware you have installed.
The battery life on the thing is flat out horrible too, if you're lucky it will make it through the day, but only if you barley use it. I've grown accustomed to shutting off my phones Bluetooth and using it for a watch only, it will keep time but not access the apps without Bluetooth, at least that way I can make it more than a day with the clock function. It does control the music player pretty well, even displays the artist and title on the phone. It has a pretty cool function to dismiss call too, although not to answer them. The interface on the watch itself doesn't lag much, its pretty snappy when it works. Another glaring issue is how hard it is to remove from the watch band to charge the thing, the sucker snaps in there very tightly and the first few times its nearly impossible to remove, after awhile though it will become very lose from constantly inserting it and removing it. I got around this by purchasing a third party watch strap and bending a slight curve in it near the mini usb port, I can actually charge it while its mounted on the watch now.
Overall though, this thing is a gimmicky piece of ****, splendid way to waste money with little satisfaction return. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
couldnt have put it any better myself!

Hacking the Sony Liveview

Despite the bad reviews I picked up a Liveview yesterday. Was $50 brand new off Craigslist. And surprise surprise, it turned out to be a turd. Well, I don't like to waste money, so I set about modding it. Thought some people here might be interested to see what I did.
So far I've waterproofed the case. Next I'll be building a better strap, one that doesn't make it huge or block the USB port. http://www.jax184.com/projects/liveview/liveview.html has everything I've done so far on it.
Nice i got that thing and it "worked" but still with the having to restart it all the time was very annoying but i ended up sending mine back
So I've been using the Liveview for a couple days, or at least trying to. Even after doing a full reset of the device, reinstalling the software on my phone and removing all the plugins, it has a battery life of about 6-8 hours. In that time I turned the screen on twice, and it briefly lit up to tell me of an incoming call. No texts, no alerts, and I don't have farcebook/twatter/etc turned on. It sat 2 feet from my phone the entire time. If I actually try to use the damn thing to, say, control the media player, the battery goes dead in 2 to 3 hours.
Pathetic...
I've decided I'm going to build it into a custom case for a friend of mine with a much larger battery, since the stock one is completely and utterly useless. So much for my gasket job...
Not sure if the battery is just dying on yours or what but if I never touch the screen, mine lasts for a couple days at least (and that's with alerts!). Sad to hear yours has issues :\
Mine's brand new and running the latest firmware/software with the bare minimum of functionality enabled, so I'm as confused as you.
I have a liveview and i absolutely love it. I dont have any connection issues but i mostly just use it as a watch with out having it connected over bluetooth and the battery lasts for days when i do that. I do have an issue now where i dropped it and the select button on top doesnt work anymore
Can I connect multiple liveviews to my phone?
I just bought 4 of them for $15 a pop !! Sweet
I know I can use it with torque which is cool
what else can I do with them? Can I run album art to it from say player pro? or Pocket Casts?
is there a decent list somewhere of "interesting" things you can do with the little buggers?
Hi, do someone know the dimensions of the battery, because i have one with death batt. and need a replacement.
nice mod! Based on the pictures I can see the battery size in case I need to replace it, by the way using notifications my watch last 2.5 days, using a plugin last only 30minutes or less
nerys71 said:
Can I connect multiple liveviews to my phone?
I know I can use it with torque which is cool
what else can I do with them? Can I run album art to it from say player pro? or Pocket Casts?
is there a decent list somewhere of "interesting" things you can do with the little buggers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I just got one for $15, I wanna find some cool things I can do with it. What have you done to set yours up?
its a pain in the freaking butt. cool potential poor execution.
it constantly gets disconnected when something goes wrong ON THE DROID SIDE. terminating the app and relaunching it solves the problem for X period of time (few hours ??)
the most convenient access is also the worst designed. the watch band. YOU CAN NOT CHARGE IT WHILE IN THE WATCH BAND.
what freaking moron though that was a good idea to force us to remove it (VERY difficult) to charge it.
if the software bugs get worked out I may look into modding the stinking socket so I can charge it while in watch mode (thinking of RIVETING the case to the band) then I won't need the little watch pin thingy that is keeping me from charging it while its in the watch band.
and there is just not that many "cool" apps to use for it yet or the few out their are poorly executed.
how hard can it be to reliably push the freaking album art to the watch ?
nerys71 said:
its a pain in the freaking butt. cool potential poor execution.
it constantly gets disconnected when something goes wrong ON THE DROID SIDE. terminating the app and relaunching it solves the problem for X period of time (few hours ??)
the most convenient access is also the worst designed. the watch band. YOU CAN NOT CHARGE IT WHILE IN THE WATCH BAND.
what freaking moron though that was a good idea to force us to remove it (VERY difficult) to charge it.
if the software bugs get worked out I may look into modding the stinking socket so I can charge it while in watch mode (thinking of RIVETING the case to the band) then I won't need the little watch pin thingy that is keeping me from charging it while its in the watch band.
and there is just not that many "cool" apps to use for it yet or the few out their are poorly executed.
how hard can it be to reliably push the freaking album art to the watch ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brother....
For disconnect issue , install this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ishii.app.liveviewcharm
Its really bad remove device all time from strap : (
Hope it help you
2 Generations of Liveviews
Just to be clear, there are 2 versions of this device floating about... The older one goes for around $20 and is not much more than a novelty... The newer model runs around $100 and seems to have fixed the battery life issue... One should look at the Pebble once it is available as a possible alternative...
openliveview
Drewmungus said:
+1 I just got one for $15, I wanna find some cool things I can do with it. What have you done to set yours up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started creating a usable gui for the openliveview project. Theo openliveview project is an open source reimplementation Of the liveview app.
You van follow the development in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1422106&page=26
Note: you have to uninstall the liveview app bevore you van install openliveview
probbiethe1 said:
I have a liveview and i absolutely love it. I dont have any connection issues but i mostly just use it as a watch with out having it connected over bluetooth and the battery lasts for days when i do that. I do have an issue now where i dropped it and the select button on top doesnt work anymore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This might help you. It won't solve the issue of select button, but it'll help you read notifications.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40041226
Where can you find one for 15 bucks? Even if it did nothing, I'd want it for 15 bucks, just to have as a key for my phone using tasker. I supposed I could get any old bluetooth headset, but I wanted something wearable.
jadenguy said:
Where can you find one for 15 bucks? Even if it did nothing, I'd want it for 15 bucks, just to have as a key for my phone using tasker. I supposed I could get any old bluetooth headset, but I wanted something wearable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, $15 is AWESOME!
$18 with Free shipping on ebay buy it now is the best price I can find so far.
I bought four of them and donated 2 to the local hackerspace.
Would be wicked to control more than one at once. I'm trying to find some chick to wear two as earrings.
Perhaps one controlled with Sony app and one Open Liveview App each for one mac address.
Contrary to earlier post, I seem to be able to have both Sony and Openliveview apps installed at once (though haven't tried RUNNING both) yet.
My battery life across the two that I've evaluated and (a third I lost to the ocean) seems significantly better than the average reported above.
But a LOT of variables have changed since the OP. New firmware, new app, new phone, new bt stack, new android versions...
My impression IIRC is that this thing is ROCK SOLID on CyanogenMod7 or CM9 on evo 3d.

Now that you had the A100 for a while any problems

Now that I have had this tab for a month. Its now starting to act up. Browser force closing, touch screen can be difficult to navigate (too sensitive) it will often open apps when swiping through screens, and overall performance is getting really slow. I have added a memory card to free up some memory but doesn't help. So I'm wondering what the community experience for us that has had the device for awhile.
Sent from my A100 using xda premium
I really like my A100 overall. Three things that are starting to kill me about it are:
1: Battery life; I've attempted to remove all/some/certain apps, turn off syncing, set sync long, turn wifi/gps off, remove "bloat", turn screen brightness low etc.. For the last two weeks I've tried a lot of different methods to save battery. Still, last night I went to sleep with it at 60-70%(on my latest method to save battery) and woke up with it completely drained. Might need to exchange it I guess.
2: Viewing angles. Thought I could deal with it no problem. However, when I use it as an e-reader (or anytime is portrait) the viewing angles make it difficult to look at the screen for extended periods of time. I have to tilt the left side back more so I don't strain my eyes.
3: Live wallpapers; Many are unusable. I have 4 widgets total and only use 3 home screens. On many of the live wallpapers I use, the swiping of screens either is very laggy, or has a very obvious delay in the time I swipe to the time the screen actually moves.
Performance has started to get slightly worse, not too bad though. I have started to get force closes on some apps and the browser. May end up returning / selling this and get something else. Pity, I really like it other than the first two annoyances..I can live without live wallpaper.
Battery life is a sore point for me as I'm sure it is for everyone. The screen isn't great, but it's not bad enough to bother me much.
I haven't had any software problems fortunately, or at least not any that aren't common with the whole Honeycomb live beta that Google has been running all year. Hopefully ICS will fix a lot on the software side.
That being said, I'm coming from a Nook Color(with a Kindle Fire also considered). Since I paid in the same price range for this($189 on Black Friday) the trade offs as compared to the Nook/KF aren't too bad and at the end of the day I do like having a full tablet with out having to turn it into an ugly hack job(I'm especially looking at you Nook Color)
For $200, I'd say I got my moneys worth, and I might even say it's worth it for the $260 BestBuy is still selling them for, but anything higher, and I'd say it'd be too much to pay for this thing. It's not a high quality tablet, the screen and battery life seal the deal on that one, but it's definitely not the worst tablet I've seen out there. It's miles better than all the cheap Chinese crap tablets, but it doesn't to much to exceed the standards of the "upper crap" brands like Archos.
I'd say the thing is worth about $250.
For now, I think 7" is the sweet spot for tablets. (I previously owned a 10.1" Asus Transformer, which had great battery life and a beautiful screen but was awkwardly big/heavy).
And that said, the A100 is the best 7" tablet currently available (including the new 7" Galaxy Tab, simply because it lacks a microSD slot. I wouldn't trade my microSD slot for 3 more hours of battery life and an IPS screen, especially if the deal added $100+ bucks to the price.)
- I give the screen a B+ (I do wish it didn't solarize from the bottom viewing angle, but it's otherwise bright and clear.)
- Real world battery life, C+ (6 hours is fine enough in practice because I charge nightly, but it'd be awesome to have 12 hours--save me from bringing the charger on short trips, etc.)
- The industrial design I don't care at all about. I have it in the phenomenal Blurex leather case, so the lame blue plastic/silver swirl thing on the back is a non-issue to me.
Really, Acer made all the right compromises. My next tablet will probably be the Transformer 3 when it comes out in a year, hopefully it'll have 300 ppi screen and will dual boot Jelly Bean and Windows 8. If Windows developers embrace ARM , I think a Transformer 3 + laptop dock will mean I'll never buy another PC.
Until tablets can replace laptops (early 2013), a cheap but fullspeed 7" is a great device.
I've had mine for about 2 weeks and I have seen some slowdown when booting up and scrolling in the app drawer from time to time but most likely due to having installed so many apps. Battery has been better for me. I have my wifi to turn off when screen is off and also have a wifi toggle widget to turn off wifi when I'm playing a game or sometimes I just turn off wifi completely when I'm not using the tablet which only drains my battery about 1-2% per hour. Overall usage I would say I get the normal 5 hour mark. Viewing angle is not much an issue for me as I always look at the tablet straight on and its much sharper than my older Samsung tab 7. The only issue I still have is the screen not being responsive or some are saying too sensitive. There's a thread on this already. I'm hoping this will be fixed via software. This is my 3rd one however since my other 2 had wifi issues. I fixed one but it still had screen touch issue so I exchanged and all 3 was the same. So far I'm happy for the $248 I purchased it for. I bring this thing everywhere i go since it fits inside my jacket pocket.
Mainly battery life is the sore point for me.
The screen is more sensitive than my iDevices but nowhere as bad as my LG Evo phone was. A bit more sensitive than the Blackberry Playbook.
Disabling the capacitive home button was a must for me. I would hit it so many times when holding it in landscape view, it drove me crazy.
The screen, I agree with everyone else about the viewing angle from the bottom not being good.
Of course, there is always room for improvement. The hardware in the PB is great, especially the screen and battery life but the software is way lacking in comparison to Android.
At $250, it is a good tablet. I wouldn't pay more for it than that.
It's the perfect size and I take it almost everywhere.
DaveRichardson said:
And that said, the A100 is the best 7" tablet currently available (including the new 7" Galaxy Tab, simply because it lacks a microSD slot. I wouldn't trade my microSD slot for 3 more hours of battery life and an IPS screen, especially if the deal added $100+ bucks to the price.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Galaxy Tab 7 Plus does have a microSD slot.
http://cdn.androidcommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/P1080005.jpg
I bought one.for my daughter and have been playing with it for 2 weeks now..Rooted it as soon as.I took it out of the box and installed a few root apps like ad free to keep her from clicking on ads.
For $250 I have to say I am pretty impressed. I have loaded it up with a bunch of educational apps as well as games. So far I have not had one force close on any app. Battery life is ok and WiFi is fastest device off same router as my dinc and t60.
I am not sure what you guys expect for 250, but if you can find any Android device that doesn't need.to be charged daily, then you aren't using it.
Just my opinion
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
My thoughts exactly for the price it cant be beat. Very happy with the purchase. here is a screen cap of my a100 i never turn off wifi, this was with light usage. with regular use gaming/browsing for me I still get 8hrs.
For personal use the A100 is the perfect tablet, it easily fits in the inside pocket of a jacket, and despite complaints from others that the screen and battery life is not ideal, I think the screen is adequate and after 7 weeks I once had an empty battery. It is complete with Android 3.2, HDMI (works great as HTPC), 3.5mm audio connector, GPS, dual camera (not its strongest point), micro USB slave (missing USB host), Micro SD slot, and replacable battery. Upgrade to ICS is available next month. Moreover, it is much more affordable as similar products from its competitors.
Has anyone tried to use the tablet with it lying on any surface. Recently i discovered that with it on a bed or table lying flat the touch screen is practically unusable. Using a stylus for note taking is useless, it doesn't register every stroke and writing is broken up.
Sent from my A100 using xda premium
qhinton said:
Has anyone tried to use the tablet with it lying on any surface. Recently i discovered that with it on a bed or table lying flat the touch screen is practically unusable. Using a stylus for note taking is useless, it doesn't register every stroke and writing is broken up.
Sent from my A100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the touchscreen has some issues. If you lightly swipe the touchscreen on the browser it will zoom in I dunno why
@qhinton:
If you must use the A100 while it's lying on a table or a bed, try turning it upside-down first. There is no backlight on the bottom edge, only on the top edge. Viewing from above the top edge, or flipping the A100 upside down and viewing from below, is much better that way. Not perfect, but better.
Another remedy is to get an easel case, so you can prop the A100 at a comfortable viewing angle.
OpaPiloot said:
For personal use the A100 is the perfect tablet, it easily fits in the inside pocket of a jacket, and despite complaints from others that the screen and battery life is not ideal, I think the screen is adequate and after 7 weeks I once had an empty battery. It is complete with Android 3.2, HDMI (works great as HTPC), 3.5mm audio connector, GPS, dual camera (not its strongest point), micro USB slave (missing USB host), Micro SD slot, and replacable battery. Upgrade to ICS is available next month. Moreover, it is much more affordable as similar products from its competitors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has a user replaceable battery?
jschall said:
@qhinton:
If you must use the A100 while it's lying on a table or a bed, try turning it upside-down first. There is no backlight on the bottom edge, only on the top edge. Viewing from above the top edge, or flipping the A100 upside down and viewing from below, is much better that way. Not perfect, but better.
Another remedy is to get an easel case, so you can prop the A100 at a comfortable viewing angle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I found that trick out from using a Viewsonic GTab. What I was explaining is that the tablet needs to be grounded to work properly. So basically if your not holding it the tablet struggles with registering your gestures. Whem laying it on a bed or table the tablet touch screen would be very sporadic.
Sent from my A100 using xda premium
qhinton said:
Thanks I found that trick out from using a Viewsonic GTab. What I was explaining is that the tablet needs to be grounded to work properly. So basically if your not holding it the tablet struggles with registering your gestures. Whem laying it on a bed or table the tablet touch screen would be very sporadic.
Sent from my A100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have major sensitivity issues try my fix posted here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1347123&page=6
This has mostly fixed the issue for me, still shows up every once in a while but after doing this fix there was a huge improvement for me.
WiFi keeps turning itself off every few minutes. checked all the settings and it still does it. none of my other Android devices do this, only the Tab 7"
after two months of use.
I'm very satisfied of this tab. No "problem" at all.
Battery life: is good if used well. Obviously could be better, but with a double core and a so large display is very good. It surprises me when i play HD games for long and i see almost no change in battery life.
Wifi: signal reception is good, no problem. Connection speed at my home is almost 1Mb/sec checked on tablet.
Display and touch: angle of sight is small for a tablet, but colors and luminosity is very good. Touch screen is very very sensible but i like it. With the screen saver the touch is perfect.
Performance: I'm agree with my colleagues about the live wallpaper. Sometimes they are too slow. The computing speed of this tab is very very good. Opening apps, photos and hd video is vey fast. It's definitely a fast tab
Camera: Is good enough. I've recently bought a Galaxy S 2 with a 8mp camera and I see the difference from the 5mpx of the A100 but is still capable of very high detailed photos.
Voip and VideoCalls: I use this two features a lot since I'm often away from home and both are very good. No lag at all. Video is clear and fluid, audio too. The microphone volume is low I think, but is not a problem if you can hold it closer to you.
Handling and Style: I can bring it inside a pocket and go wherever I want. Is not heavy, it doesn't need a separate bag to be kept with you. Is the perfect size in terms of mobility. The shape is cool and can be handled easily. Maybe the back of the cover would be better completely gray or black.
No problem apart from the fact that i cannot delete bloat cuz i dunno which system app will brick if i delete em, weight since i hold it in portrait mode often, FCs, lastly screen ratio. Prefer it wider and shorter.
jay_993 said:
No problem apart from the fact that i cannot delete bloat cuz i dunno which system app will brick if i delete em, weight since i hold it in portrait mode often, FCs, lastly screen ratio. Prefer it wider and shorter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mess up you should be able to just flash any of the update.zip in the rom thread to bring those files back. You will need to reroot if were already rooted.

Question On display camera.

Can anyone explain how this is a feature? I mean it doesn't bother me. But the more I think about it . The less it feels like a feature. And more it feels like something fishy. I don't know enough about stuff to understand access to data under a proprietary feature. But at the bare minimum I've never thought you know what this phone needs is that small crappy front facing camera to be in the display . I think I prefer it not there at all since the phone opens the back camera is sufficient for both. End of the day I believe this will be my last samsung. I hate the front screen and inside screen is cool and impressive but still kinda annoying. In my mind these devices should come with all the quirks ironed out. I still enjoy my note 3 rooted as much if not more. And the note 20 ultra was a solid device but wasn't a big upgrade from my 10+. Bare minimum samsung not including accessories is just lame. I would have probably made the closed screen slightly larger for easier use on the go and then the use on the inside screen for less often use in casual settings.
Just my thoughts a month in and was curious to hear others thoughts. I know it's probably and amazing device for someone who doesn't upgrade frequently but as someone who does it was probably the device that has ended my desire for new and cool over tested and true. .
Anyone stumble across any lesser known features or functions that aren't well known?
Customization wise:
I use wavelet and my bose in car sounds amazing.
And have good lock/nice lock until hex is functional again.
Ad block
and system ui tuner that doesn't seem to be adding much
and I tried to see if I could use adb and 3c but it doesn't seem to improve much or increase any functional use but I just had it long ago and thought I'd see if it was useful
The latest update has improved my mobile service in rural areas near by sprint on tmobile experience
I haven't debloated because honestly the device probably wouldn't improve much with less and I'm kinda waiting to understand what all is needed until my account is fully tmobile. I assume nothing they have changes much but since it can't currently be unlocked on tmobile side I'm curious to how it's locked since it's not supposed to be sprint sim compatible. But still has the sprint unlock uicdd on device hidden with tmobile unlock visible. I also hope someone comes out with a case that has a tiny bluetooth keyboard , I think that would be kinda cool.
Ok
I know that for everyone, no device is perfect. As much as I LOVE this Fold 3, it's not perfect, but it's about as close as a mobile device has come for me. Then again, I know that I am also an edge-case as I use my Fold 3 in a way that most others do not. I use it as a Mobile Office. I call it my 3-pocket-laptop (look on YT for a video titled 4 pocket laptop to see what I am getting at).
I have a foldable BT KB with Trackpad, folding Tablet Stand and a 20kMah battery pack I take along and I can literally work from anywhere I have signal. I even made a portable, battery powered monitor (from an old Laptop and some parts I had to order (controller and the like)) I made that I can stuff in a backpack and have an even better experience when on the go. I no longer need to carry my work laptop with me with this setup.
So yeah, I get why it may not work for you, but for me, I love it.
Talderon said:
I have a foldable BT KB with Trackpad, folding Tablet Stand and a 20kMah battery pack I take along and I can literally work from anywhere I have signal. I even made a portable, battery powered monitor (from an old Laptop and some parts I had to order (controller and the like)) I made that I can stuff in a backpack and have an even better experience when on the go. I no longer need to carry my work laptop with me with this setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pics please! I've seen the Mr Mobile video you're referring to, that was a fantastic idea!
Talderon said:
I know that for everyone, no device is perfect. As much as I LOVE this Fold 3, it's not perfect, but it's about as close as a mobile device has come for me. Then again, I know that I am also an edge-case as I use my Fold 3 in a way that most others do not. I use it as a Mobile Office. I call it my 3-pocket-laptop (look on YT for a video titled 4 pocket laptop to see what I am getting at).
I have a foldable BT KB with Trackpad, folding Tablet Stand and a 20kMah battery pack I take along and I can literally work from anywhere I have signal. I even made a portable, battery powered monitor (from an old Laptop and some parts I had to order (controller and the like)) I made that I can stuff in a backpack and have an even better experience when on the go. I no longer need to carry my work laptop with me with this setup.
So yeah, I get why it may not work for you, but for me, I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw that video and thought it was completely awesome what he did with the Z Fold3 and turning it into a complete desktop solution and even his Microsoft only co-worker was impressed with it.
vinokirk said:
Pics please! I've seen the Mr Mobile video you're referring to, that was a fantastic idea!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll get some pics up soon. I am redesigning the "monitor" case now and want to have an all-in-one unit to show off.
truckerdewd said:
I saw that video and thought it was completely awesome what he did with the Z Fold3 and turning it into a complete desktop solution and even his Microsoft only co-worker was impressed with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I am former MSFT myself and several people there want me to try the same thing with a Duo 2 (which they are sending me) and do a comparison. This will be fun!

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