I've had the Galaxy Nexus for a little over a day now and overall I am very impressed both with the hardware and the improvements made to Android.
The main issue I'm having is with the browser. It scores really high in all the javascript benchmarks and rightware browsermark (much higher than my GS2) but it feels no where near as smooth. I have them both side by side here, and on certain sites like theverge.com and ironically android.com the difference is really noticeable. Scrolling on the Nexus browser has that 'silk dragged over splintered wood' effect where it seems to momentarily snag going over heavy sections of the site. Don't get me wrong, its still smoother than the majority of phones out there but the gs2 I think had the browser scrolling absolutely nailed.
How is this explained? Is GPU acceleration actually enabled? I'd love to hear the opinions of other owners.
//
Well, welcome to 2011, the year where computer processing power has started to play a role on website performance. HTML5 and JavaScript heavy sites simply depend on processing power and memory these days in ways websites of yesterday did not.
I have a desktop computer that can run many games in high graphics, like Starcraft 2 and Dragon Age 2 and so on, but The Verge website is really slow to load and scroll on my computer. It simply is not a well-done website technically.
Android.com website however depends heavily on high-end HTML5 technologies and is a very high-resolution website that seemingly lags a little on my computer.
I am not surprised at all that handheld devices would have some problems with those two sites.
I would say there are two reasons for this, even though ics is hardware accelerated.
1. Gn screen is higher resolution than the sgs2
2. The gn has an older gpu than the sgs2
That could well be, but i didnt think gpu ui acceleration was all that taxing.
On the plus side, there is no more checkerboard effect! Now when the browser is not keeping up you get the background colour of the webpage instead. How the awful checkerboard effect became a standard in the first place ill never know.
Hi there galaxy nexus users... I have a white sgs2 is very nice but im sick of flashing 3-4 times a week because of lagg and bugs ,freezez ,soft reboots etc
super-amoled plus is nice but when i loaded the nexus live wallpaper and saw those pixeleted stripes i was very dissapointed
i want to change it with a galaxy nexus but i have some drawbacks and can you clear my mind and tell me if they are true or false
-first is the gpu before sgs2 i had sgs1 with sgx540 witch was a bad gpu(of course i could be samsungs fault with there shi**y firmwares and drivers)
how is gaming performance on galaxy nexus? for example is gta 3 workink smooth (sgs2 its smooth but still laggs:|)
-does the display have any tint sgs2 is a yellowis green tint with a kind of low brightness + gamma problems:| i don`t have warranty so i dont want to buy a new display)
-hows the sound quality?
-camera ... im not a photographer
-and finaly i read here on the nexus thread that GN dosent have gorilla glass but it is scratch resistent?
thx for answers
burner07 said:
Hi there galaxy nexus users... I have a white sgs2 is very nice but im sick of flashing 3-4 times a week because of lagg and bugs ,freezez ,soft reboots etc
super-amoled plus is nice but when i loaded the nexus live wallpaper and saw those pixeleted stripes i was very dissapointed
i want to change it with a galaxy nexus but i have some drawbacks and can you clear my mind and tell me if they are true or false
-first is the gpu before sgs2 i had sgs1 with sgx540 witch was a bad gpu(of course i could be samsungs fault with there shi**y firmwares and drivers)
how is gaming performance on galaxy nexus? for example is gta 3 workink smooth (sgs2 its smooth but still laggs:|)
-does the display have any tint sgs2 is a yellowis green tint with a kind of low brightness + gamma problems:| i don`t have warranty so i dont want to buy a new display)
-hows the sound quality?
-camera ... im not a photographer
-and finaly i read here on the nexus thread that GN dosent have gorilla glass but it is scratch resistent?
thx for answers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-The GPU is fine, it's a beefier version than what was in the SGS1 I believe (it runs at a high clockspeed at the very least). It will run pretty much any modern android game great.
-It seems like at extreme angles there's a bit of a greenish tint. At low brightness you'll see some banding, especially on greys. This is a factor related to AMOLED screens in general.
-Quiet but fine. You can use Volume+ (I think that's what it's called) if you want it louder.
-Camera is actually pretty good.
-Ish.
burner07 said:
Hi there galaxy nexus users... I have a white sgs2 is very nice but im sick of flashing 3-4 times a week because of lagg and bugs ,freezez ,soft reboots etc
super-amoled plus is nice but when i loaded the nexus live wallpaper and saw those pixeleted stripes i was very dissapointed
i want to change it with a galaxy nexus but i have some drawbacks and can you clear my mind and tell me if they are true or false
-first is the gpu before sgs2 i had sgs1 with sgx540 witch was a bad gpu(of course i could be samsungs fault with there shi**y firmwares and drivers)
how is gaming performance on galaxy nexus? for example is gta 3 workink smooth (sgs2 its smooth but still laggs:|)
-does the display have any tint sgs2 is a yellowis green tint with a kind of low brightness + gamma problems:| i don`t have warranty so i dont want to buy a new display)
-hows the sound quality?
-camera ... im not a photographer
-and finaly i read here on the nexus thread that GN dosent have gorilla glass but it is scratch resistent?
thx for answers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- From what I have heard GTA3 runs smooth on the GNexus I know the most intensive game I have played (Asphalt 6) runs perfectly fine.
- I haven't noticed any of these issues.
- Sound quality is good, but coming from the speaker on the back, can be a little low.
- I love the camera, it got a bad rap at first but once people adjusted to it we have seen a lot of good pictures.
- I have had a screen protector since day one so I cannot answer that.
Agree with the back speaker, that's something known.
As far as gaming concerns I'm coming from a Sgs and I think is great, no issues so far and Sgs was laggy at all times.
I hand to return my first sgn cos I found a hairlike crack on the screen, 2cm long, but the screen is scratch resistant for sure.
so its a good deal to change my sgs2 with a galaxy nexus? i want it for gaming music social apps and of course display
burner07 said:
so its a good deal to change my sgs2 with a galaxy nexus? i want it for gaming music social apps and of course display
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did it and never looked back.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
burner07 said:
so its a good deal to change my sgs2 with a galaxy nexus? i want it for gaming music social apps and of course display
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no problem doing those things plus use it for work email (Which is important) and haven't had any problems for about 2 months now.
ok so ive got galaxy nexus with android 4.0.2 but is very laggy it was rooted and bootloader unlocked... so i donwlaoded GN toolkit and flashed google factory stock rom 4.0.2 bootloader is still unlocked but the phone is very laggy:|
what should i do? how can i install 4.0.3? thx
burner07 said:
Hi there galaxy nexus users... I have a white sgs2 is very nice but im sick of flashing 3-4 times a week because of lagg and bugs ,freezez ,soft reboots etc
super-amoled plus is nice but when i loaded the nexus live wallpaper and saw those pixeleted stripes i was very dissapointed
i want to change it with a galaxy nexus but i have some drawbacks and can you clear my mind and tell me if they are true or false
-first is the gpu before sgs2 i had sgs1 with sgx540 witch was a bad gpu(of course i could be samsungs fault with there shi**y firmwares and drivers)
how is gaming performance on galaxy nexus? for example is gta 3 workink smooth (sgs2 its smooth but still laggs:|)
-does the display have any tint sgs2 is a yellowis green tint with a kind of low brightness + gamma problems:| i don`t have warranty so i dont want to buy a new display)
-hows the sound quality?
-camera ... im not a photographer
-and finaly i read here on the nexus thread that GN dosent have gorilla glass but it is scratch resistent?
thx for answers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-I understand the GPU they used is more for displaying 720p quality, but not so much built for gaming. I read that in an article. PM if you want the link. I have to go back and dig it up.
-Sound quality is what it says, but I created my own ringtone and boosted the sound so I have no problem. Just when listening to music or watching a video wear headphones for now or use volume+.
-I'm no photographer myself, but a camera that takes pictures decently on a phone and has flash is good enough for me.
-scratch resistant? No. I have a couple of nicks on my screen that I can't explain. I'm very careful with my phone (or so I thought) and still scratched it. Hope you don't do the same.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I have a one x, which uses the same krait processor, and among the myriad of problems, the most annoying is the lag and poor responsiveness when swiping on the tiles. It visibly lags behind when I touch it. The animations are not smooth and the tile pops up noticeably later after touching them. This causes a lot of errors and missed tiles. I have to move deliberately slowly and push down with some pressure. The rest of the game is buggy as hell to, like hangups and triggered sounds and crashes. The score counter is always screwed up, not showing the word count for one person or the other, probably because its not optimized for HD screens. My old galaxy s ii had the same lag problems, and now my newly arrived galaxy note also has the same atrocious lag problems. I can get 30-40 words more on my old ipad 1, since it is very smooth and I can let my fingers fly, either in original size or upscaled.
Has anyone tried the game on an SGS3? Are the lag problems a symptom of the android version in general? While I'm at it, I'd like to complain about how choppy the animations and panning are in words with friends.
katamari201 said:
I have a one x, which uses the same krait processor, and among the myriad of problems, the most annoying is the lag and poor responsiveness when swiping on the tiles. It visibly lags behind when I touch it. The animations are not smooth and the tile pops up noticeably later after touching them. This causes a lot of errors and missed tiles. I have to move deliberately slowly and push down with some pressure. The rest of the game is buggy as hell to, like hangups and triggered sounds and crashes. The score counter is always screwed up, not showing the word count for one person or the other, probably because its not optimized for HD screens. My old galaxy s ii had the same lag problems, and now my newly arrived galaxy note also has the same atrocious lag problems. I can get 30-40 words more on my old ipad 1, since it is very smooth and I can let my fingers fly, either in original size or upscaled.
Has anyone tried the game on an SGS3? Are the lag problems a symptom of the android version in general? While I'm at it, I'd like to complain about how choppy the animations and panning are in words with friends.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, yes.. on all android devices, scramble runs horribly especially in the end of the game where it shows which words you've found. The scrolling is beyond slow. I have a nexus 7 tablet and it runs pretty slow as well especially compared to my iPhone 4S. I love android.. but some of the apps just can't compare.
The developers of the app are to blame. They chose to cheap out on the android version, making a horrible port from iOS.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Hi,
currently I am thinking about swithing from N7 2012 (grouper) to 8.4 (non-LTE) and I am little bit scared from what I read here or on any other sites...
I read lot about lags, poor performance, these problems were slightly mentioned even in reviews. But when I am reading here how many problems 8.4 user`s have I am thinking of buying Shield Tablet.
Can anybody please provide his own opinion on the 8.4 version? Is really real life performance that bad? - Benchmarks show different things...
Thanks for your replies...
senel said:
Hi,
currently I am thinking about swithing from N7 2012 (grouper) to 8.4 (non-LTE) and I am little bit scared from what I read here or on any other sites...
I read lot about lags, poor performance, these problems were slightly mentioned even in reviews. But when I am reading here how many problems 8.4 user`s have I am thinking of buying Shield Tablet.
Can anybody please provide his own opinion on the 8.4 version? Is really real life performance that bad? - Benchmarks show different things...
Thanks for your replies...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 8.4 Tab s and performance wise I think it's good. I haven't noticed any lags. I'm not running anything out of the ordinary though. I don't play games on it. Mostly for media consumption. Battery life has also been good. It can comfortably last a day browsing and watching videos.
Quality control on the other hand I'm not too happy about. This is my third Tab S. The first two had a dead pixel, so I exchanged them. On this one no dead pixel, but there's a pink tint on a slight tilt. It's noticeable when I put the Tab S on a desk for example in portrait orientation. Obviously in that case I would be viewing the device tilted since it would be uncomfortable for me to put my head directly over it over the desk.
I am afraid of input lags mentioned here on forums. I'd like the tablet for taking notes and mainly consume content.
I am not hardcore gamer, but sometimes I like to play games like FIFA or Autumn Dynasty.
YouTube videos shows pretty good gaming performance and also pretty significant lags in Touchwiz. Are there really that bad or is was solved by update?
I would say it's pretty decent replacement for Nexus 7. Shield tablet also looks good (and has stylus - big plus) but the display and is not as good.
senel said:
I am afraid of input lags mentioned here on forums. I'd like the tablet for taking notes and mainly consume content.
I am not hardcore gamer, but sometimes I like to play games like FIFA or Autumn Dynasty.
YouTube videos shows pretty good gaming performance and also pretty significant lags in Touchwiz. Are there really that bad or is was solved by update?
I would say it's pretty decent replacement for Nexus 7. Shield tablet also looks good (and has stylus - big plus) but the display and is not as good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TouchWiz has been fine for me. No lag.
senel said:
I am afraid of input lags mentioned here on forums. I'd like the tablet for taking notes and mainly consume content.
I am not hardcore gamer, but sometimes I like to play games like FIFA or Autumn Dynasty.
YouTube videos shows pretty good gaming performance and also pretty significant lags in Touchwiz. Are there really that bad or is was solved by update?
I would say it's pretty decent replacement for Nexus 7. Shield tablet also looks good (and has stylus - big plus) but the display and is not as good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not going to pay 5 dollars to test a game for you, but I would be happy to download fifa14 and any other free game to test for you.
I am getting unbearable lag in Simpsons Tapped Out, so I'm curious to know how other games perform on this tablet. Let me know if any games come to mind that you would like me to test out
senel said:
I am afraid of input lags mentioned here on forums. I'd like the tablet for taking notes and mainly consume content.
I am not hardcore gamer, but sometimes I like to play games like FIFA or Autumn Dynasty.
YouTube videos shows pretty good gaming performance and also pretty significant lags in Touchwiz. Are there really that bad or is was solved by update?
I would say it's pretty decent replacement for Nexus 7. Shield tablet also looks good (and has stylus - big plus) but the display and is not as good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love my Tab S 8.4, but I have two concerns about it:
- Screen homogeneity
- Performances
Let's start with screen homogeneity:
I exchanged the tablet several times and tested some more in stores. All of them were affected by screen homogeneity issues. I am being really touchy here, as it is only visible in specific situations: Extremely dark homogenous images that are not black, looked at in the darkness. The background used for TouchWiz settings for instance si affected: When looking at it in the darkness, I can see a gradiant from a dark deep blue to a lighter, green tinted blue. It looks quite good, but it's a deflect known as "mura effect".
Besides that, this is pretty much a non issue when looking at bright/mixed colors. The colors are vibrant, the contrast increadible, the blacks are black and the viewing angles are excellent. The counterpart is that the low quality of some textures become much more obvious with such a good screen.
Now, the performance part is more annoying:
Coming from a Note 8.0 and a Nexus 7 2013, I was hoping for much better performances on the Tab S 8.4. And I am disappointed.
The unit does to be swifter, but it's lacks smoothness. It could be related to the amount of pixels to display, to the lack of GFX power, to poor Exynos/Firmware optimization, to TW issue... but the result is a lack of perceived performances compared to my previous tablets.
Again, I am being touchy: I am used to perfectly smooth animations on 2013 tablets, and I notice stuttering and slower animations in general on this one. Here are some examples comparing Nexus 7 2013 to Tab S 8.4:
- Opening/Closing windows or apps animation: This one is 100% smooth on the N7, while often stuttering on S 8.4. At its best it can look smooth, but N7 will still look smoother. It also affects fading effects during loading times: In the playstore for instance, when loading a new page the fading effect tends to stutter.
On another hand, apps are loading slightly faster on Tab S 8.4.
- Games: I tested Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8, and am now installing Fifa 14. Both game are running ok, but suffer from DPS drops. Riptide GP2 automatically goes for average settings, and still doesn't run as smooth as it does on my N7.
- Perfect Viewer (Comics reader) and Moon+ Reader (e-book reader): Two of my favourite apps, both of them are quite obviously running smoother on my N7 than on Tab S 8.4. By smoother, I mean scrolling pages with a higher FPS.
- Web browsing: No issue here, the pages are loading quickly (maybe even faster than on N7)
- Benchmarks: No issues here either. The Tab S 8.4 is a killer in benchmarks, with theorically a good 50% more performances than N7 2013. It looks like the power is there, and is optimized for benchmarks.
- TW scrolling: Extremely smooth, nothing to report here. Every launcher I tried ran smoothly when it comes to scrolling, but all are still affected with transitions during loading times.
As a bottomline, my feeling is mixed up. The power is obviously there, but it looks like only few apps are optimized for it. I hope to see improvement in future firmware, official or not.
Because even through these issues, this is an increadible piece of hardware. Difficilt to handle without a cover (it is too thin, and so are its borders), but well built, extremely slim and with an increadible display. It would definitely be an iPad killer if it was backed up by as much optimization efforts as Apple puts in its devices.
ukael said:
I love my Tab S 8.4, but I have two concerns about it:
- Screen homogeneity
- Performances
Let's start with screen homogeneity:
I exchanged the tablet several times and tested some more in stores. All of them were affected by screen homogeneity issues. I am being really touchy here, as it is only visible in specific situations: Extremely dark homogenous images that are not black, looked at in the darkness. The background used for TouchWiz settings for instance si affected: When looking at it in the darkness, I can see a gradiant from a dark deep blue to a lighter, green tinted blue. It looks quite good, but it's a deflect known as "mura effect".
Besides that, this is pretty much a non issue when looking at bright/mixed colors. The colors are vibrant, the contrast increadible, the blacks are black and the viewing angles are excellent. The counterpart is that the low quality of some textures become much more obvious with such a good screen.
Now, the performance part is more annoying:
Coming from a Note 8.0 and a Nexus 7 2013, I was hoping for much better performances on the Tab S 8.4. And I am disappointed.
The unit does to be swifter, but it's lacks smoothness. It could be related to the amount of pixels to display, to the lack of GFX power, to poor Exynos/Firmware optimization, to TW issue... but the result is a lack of perceived performances compared to my previous tablets.
Again, I am being touchy: I am used to perfectly smooth animations on 2013 tablets, and I notice stuttering and slower animations in general on this one. Here are some examples comparing Nexus 7 2013 to Tab S 8.4:
- Opening/Closing windows or apps animation: This one is 100% smooth on the N7, while often stuttering on S 8.4. At its best it can look smooth, but N7 will still look smoother. It also affects fading effects during loading times: In the playstore for instance, when loading a new page the fading effect tends to stutter.
On another hand, apps are loading slightly faster on Tab S 8.4.
- Games: I tested Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8, and am now installing Fifa 14. Both game are running ok, but suffer from DPS drops. Riptide GP2 automatically goes for average settings, and still doesn't run as smooth as it does on my N7.
- Perfect Viewer (Comics reader) and Moon+ Reader (e-book reader): Two of my favourite apps, both of them are quite obviously running smoother on my N7 than on Tab S 8.4. By smoother, I mean scrolling pages with a higher FPS.
- Web browsing: No issue here, the pages are loading quickly (maybe even faster than on N7)
- Benchmarks: No issues here either. The Tab S 8.4 is a killer in benchmarks, with theorically a good 50% more performances than N7 2013. It looks like the power is there, and is optimized for benchmarks.
- TW scrolling: Extremely smooth, nothing to report here. Every launcher I tried ran smoothly when it comes to scrolling, but all are still affected with transitions during loading times.
As a bottomline, my feeling is mixed up. The power is obviously there, but it looks like only few apps are optimized for it. I hope to see improvement in future firmware, official or not.
Because even through these issues, this is an increadible piece of hardware. Difficilt to handle without a cover (it is too thin, and so are its borders), but well built, extremely slim and with an increadible display. It would definitely be an iPad killer if it was backed up by as much optimization efforts as Apple puts in its devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your exhaustive post. It gives me pretty good overview over the 8.4 situation and basically confirms my worris. However I`m still tillted towards to buy it.
I read that using 3rd party cases that covers whole back causes back cover deformations. It would be major issue for me if it`s true. Samsung stated that it was SW issue, however many users were complaining about poor plastic used to back cover. So I understand that solution is to OEM cover. Am I right?
And another question: About the year ago Samsung stated that future Exynos 5 power devices (http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/09/samsungs-exynos-5-octa-hmp/) will use 8 cores at same time. This was only mention I found since then. What`s the situation now? Can 8.4 use all 8 cores simultaneously?
senel said:
Thank you for your exhaustive post. It gives me pretty good overview over the 8.4 situation and basically confirms my worris. However I`m still tillted towards to buy it.
I read that using 3rd party cases that covers whole back causes back cover deformations. It would be major issue for me if it`s true. Samsung stated that it was SW issue, however many users were complaining about poor plastic used to back cover. So I understand that solution is to OEM cover. Am I right?
And another question: About the year ago Samsung stated that future Exynos 5 power devices (http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/09/samsungs-exynos-5-octa-hmp/) will use 8 cores at same time. This was only mention I found since then. What`s the situation now? Can 8.4 use all 8 cores simultaneously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not seen any tab affected by the back cover issues. The quality of the back on mine looks excellent, and feels great.
I personally use the official book cover. It's a little bit heavy, but extremely slim and nicely hardened. Once in position, it has a strong grip on the tab and becomes an efficient support with multiple viewing angles.
senel said:
Hi,
currently I am thinking about swithing from N7 2012 (grouper) to 8.4 (non-LTE) and I am little bit scared from what I read here or on any other sites...
I read lot about lags, poor performance, these problems were slightly mentioned even in reviews. But when I am reading here how many problems 8.4 user`s have I am thinking of buying Shield Tablet.
Can anybody please provide his own opinion on the 8.4 version? Is really real life performance that bad? - Benchmarks show different things...
Thanks for your replies...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man, I have the SM-T700 rooted and with the SkyHigh kernel, OCed to 2.1GHz, and UVed and it's fully stable, as well and runs cool. I absolutely love it. Build quality is very good, feels solid but light. For me, everything is perfect! It runs games and all apps incredibly. The smoothness of the touch input is the 2nd thing I noticed were very good. The first was the ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL display! I could hardly spot a single pixel from 2 Inches away!! The colors are brilliantly vibrant! I would definitely recommend it for any and all uses. I can't find a single flaw!(and I've tried to!) The book cover case is also very nice, sturdy, and feels good in your hand! Definitely a great choice! Excells in performance and beauty!
---------- Post added at 01:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------
senel said:
Hi,
currently I am thinking about swithing from N7 2012 (grouper) to 8.4 (non-LTE) and I am little bit scared from what I read here or on any other sites...
I read lot about lags, poor performance, these problems were slightly mentioned even in reviews. But when I am reading here how many problems 8.4 user`s have I am thinking of buying Shield Tablet.
Can anybody please provide his own opinion on the 8.4 version? Is really real life performance that bad? - Benchmarks show different things...
Thanks for your replies...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take my tablet everywhere! And I have no issues with battery life! Real life performance for me is very good! No hangs or lags with touchwiz for me.
---------- Post added at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 AM ----------
senel said:
Thank you for your exhaustive post. It gives me pretty good overview over the 8.4 situation and basically confirms my worris. However I`m still tillted towards to buy it.
I read that using 3rd party cases that covers whole back causes back cover deformations. It would be major issue for me if it`s true. Samsung stated that it was SW issue, however many users were complaining about poor plastic used to back cover. So I understand that solution is to OEM cover. Am I right?
And another question: About the year ago Samsung stated that future Exynos 5 power devices (http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/09/samsungs-exynos-5-octa-hmp/) will use 8 cores at same time. This was only mention I found since then. What`s the situation now? Can 8.4 use all 8 cores simultaneously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep! The little cores take on smaller tasks while the big ones do the heavy lifting.
Once more, thank you guys for feedback.
Today, I ordered tablet, price was little bit ridiculous in my country - almost $600 for non-LTE variant, lol.
Next problem is cover, Samsung does not sell their`s covers in my country and I dont want to pay another $80 - $120 on ebay for Samsung book cover or flip cover.
Can somebody recommend me good cover? I am thinking about this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Baseus-Leather-Case-Cover-with-Sleep-function-For-Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-S-8-4-T700-/281400790543?pt=US_Tablet_eReader_Cases_Covers_Keyboard_Folios&var=&hash=item4184cb4e0f
Hi,
I've just got my G3 - switched from a Nexus 4, and before that I've had a range of budget Android offerings. I'm loving the device so far, but one thing was really bugging me. We have a huge resolution - great, for me thats best put to use by displaying more information on the screen (Hi def youtube videos are all well and good, but not of that much interest to me) - so why isn't it using it?
A bit of fiddling revealed that for some reason it was set to use huge fonts - why did they do that? Turning it down to minimum helps with the search/browser issue, but still the rest of the interface doesn't seem to be scaled to take advantage of all those pixels.
I'm using Apex launcher - been using it since the early days when you really needed a third party launcher so have go used to it, but that lets me use a much bigger grid, and scale the icons to something more appropriate.
Is there anything else I can do though? I'd rather not have to fiddle with build.prop, or have to install Paranoid Android (If that ever becomes an option). The notification area seems very chunky in particular.
I guess maybe it is all a design decision - Windows has gone for big chunky controls, probably showing my age. More of a command line guy!
Carl
agree on the notifications especiallly
I just came from an M8 and this screen is bigger, much higher res, and yet less information on the screen. Seems very daft.