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I am currently a Motorola Razr user (yes, I am way behind the times!), and it finally is time to get a smartphone. I don't want to get the iPhone because I can't stand Apple, and I think I've narrowed my search down to the Droid Incredible (I think the Droid X is a bit large).
However, I have a few questions I hope can get answered, and I need some advice:
1) Battery life- I have heard mixed things about the Inc's battery life. Most say it is not good, and some say it is just fine. If I am planning on rooting and loading a custom ROM, how would you rate the battery life? Compared to the Droid X and the iPhone 4? How long does a single charge last?
2) LED light - I know the video mode does not turn on the LED light for constant light, but I read somewhere that the Inc will get an update that will get LED constant video light - is this true? I know 720p was recently added.
3) I just checked out the phone at my local Verizon store, and when scrolling through menus/etc it tends to lag sometimes. Can this be fixed if I root and load a custom ROM?
4) I am also thinking about waiting for the Samsung Fascinate to come out, but that could be a while, and I need a phone pretty soon (in the next week or two). If the Droid Inc. is very close to the Fascinate in features (which I think it is except for the Super AMOLED 4-inch screen), would it be wise to wait for the Samsung, or should I bite the bullet and get the Droid Inc. now?
Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks in advance.
1. Battery sucks. Only 4hours of moderate use.
2. I never use the led light, so I can't help there
3. Roms and kernels fix all lag. Try cm6 or skyraider with Hydra v.08 icicles or ocov (whichever is stable). That will fix lag.
4. Super amoled vs amoled- you can see super amoled in the sun, and it is difficult with regular.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Wow u sure know a lot without having the phone. I've had the Droid incredible now for around 3 months, I used to have the iPhone then a LG dare then the Droid Eris. I can honestly say the Incredible is the best of all the phones ever.
1) battery life- battery life for Me lasted 22 hours but this depends entirely upon how you use your phone. I had maybe a half hour of music a day, 20-40 texts and maybe a half hour of all the other stuff. Now I am rooted and running a rom(cyanogenmod test 7) on my incredible and I can get possibly a few extra hours of batt.
2) Led Light - in order to use the LED light while video recording, I believe their should be an ota update comming out as earley as friday that will fix this problem and add many more features.
3) Performance - when it comes to the speed and performance of the device, that depends on what is taking up the CPU, the more apps you have running, if you download task manager to kill the apps to stop them from running, the CPU will have more ram to coordinate itself. As it stands, the phone you saw in the store probably had its ram( CPU) taken up by all the running apps. An overclocked kernel for use with a rom can also solve this problem.
4) give or take- I highly reccomend the Incredible to anyone on Verizon's network. I too found the Droid x was very large and wouldent fit my lifestyle. As for the Samsung Facinate. The incredible and facinate are very close performance wise. If I was in your position I might consider the facinate just because its newer, but I highly reccomend the incredible because its just amazing.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Avazee,
I recently got an Incredible, coming from Windows Mobile. I've been using WinMo for about 3 years now and got tired of it, mostly due to AT&Ts crappy network. Was waiting for them to get their network improved and possibly get better phones but iPhone wasn't my choice either.
Here are some of my objective (hopefully) experience so far -- keep in mind I only have it for 5 days now.
1) Size: the device is the right size for me. I tried the EVO and while it's has a really nice screen, it's too big for my needs. The Incredible I get the same hardware with a smaller size factor.
2) Battery: this was a major concern of mine when getting this phone. However, so far I haven't noticed bad battery life on it. I used it for about 2-3 hours non stop (playing games, checking emails). For the rest of the day I had only Mobile Data enable and everything else disabled (GPS, WIFI, Bluetooth). I also installed "Advanced Task Killer" which is configured to kill tasks every 30 mins. This a great program and works well so far. I have purchased the upgraded battery (1750 mAh) which does not require a back cover change. Still waiting to get it. For the usage I did today, I had about 40% battery left.
3) Customization: The same day I got the phone, I was able to root the device and load custom ROMs. While I'm familiar with the ROM process on WinMo, I think the Android is much easier to work with. There are some good guides on the forums and UnRevoked makes it very easy to root the phone. After flashing a few ROMs, I ended up flashing back the Verizon ROM and using ADB to remove a few package. Works fine for me. Don't get any lags or notice any performance issue with HTC Sense. You can always replace HTC Sense with LauncherPro or some other launcher. LauncherPro has a lot of customization.
4) Screen: AMOLED ver Super AMOLED, I don't think there's much difference, at least from what I've read and seen in videos. Haven't seen the Super AMOLED in person to compare. What I can tell you about the Incredible, is that I have no issue with the screen so far. I have it set to auto adjust the brightness which seems to work well.
Using it for only 4 days, I think it's a great phone and customization seems to be endless, or at least can keep you VERY busy.
Verizon should have a 30 day return policy so order it, try it out and see how it works for you. If you don't like it, return it and wait for the Samsung or some other ones coming up... you will not be short of options. lol.
Hope that was somewhat helpful. If you need any specific info, PM me.
mikeacela said:
Wow u sure know a lot without having the phone. I've had the Droid incredible now for around 3 months, I used to have the iPhone then a LG dare then the Droid Eris. I can honestly say the Incredible is the best of all the phones ever.
1) battery life- battery life for Me lasted 22 hours but this depends entirely upon how you use your phone. I had maybe a half hour of music a day, 20-40 texts and maybe a half hour of all the other stuff. Now I am rooted and running a rom(cyanogenmod test 7) on my incredible and I can get possibly a few extra hours of batt.
2) Led Light - in order to use the LED light while video recording, I believe their should be an ota update comming out as earley as friday that will fix this problem and add many more features.
3) Performance - when it comes to the speed and performance of the device, that depends on what is taking up the CPU, the more apps you have running, if you download task manager to kill the apps to stop them from running, the CPU will have more ram to coordinate itself. As it stands, the phone you saw in the store probably had its ram( CPU) taken up by all the running apps. An overclocked kernel for use with a rom can also solve this problem.
4) give or take- I highly reccomend the Incredible to anyone on Verizon's network. I too found the Droid x was very large and wouldent fit my lifestyle. As for the Samsung Facinate. The incredible and facinate are very close performance wise. If I was in your position I might consider the facinate just because its newer, but I highly reccomend the incredible because its just amazing.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, you have good battery life, but you probably don't use it as much as I.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Wow, thanks for all the responses, I greatly appreciate it!
ecltech, thanks for the info. I just checked Verizon's return policy, and they state that there is a $35 restocking fee for all returns. Is that true?
Also, which upgraded battery did you get, that doesn't add any bulk/size?
I just wish someone knew when the Samsung Fascinate is coming out... if it were 2-4 weeks away, I'd probably just wait until that comes out.
Thanks again for the help.
Avazee said:
ecltech, thanks for the info. I just checked Verizon's return policy, and they state that there is a $35 restocking fee for all returns. Is that true?
Also, which upgraded battery did you get, that doesn't add any bulk/size?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery I purchased is from www.seidioonline.net. I've used their products in the past for a previous WinMo phone and it works well. The battery is a slim battery while adding additional capacity so it does not add any bulk to the phone.
Yes, Verizon's return policy has a $35.00 restocking fee. I look at it as a small price to pay for using the phone for 30 days and then returning it.
Try both and see what best fits your needs. In the end it's what works best for you that matters.
Good luck!
Yeah, unfortunately, still no word on the Fascinate/Galaxy S for VZW. But if you need a phone now, you'll be happy with the Incredible.
Avazee said:
I am currently a Motorola Razr user (yes, I am way behind the times!), and it finally is time to get a smartphone. I don't want to get the iPhone because I can't stand Apple, and I think I've narrowed my search down to the Droid Incredible (I think the Droid X is a bit large).
However, I have a few questions I hope can get answered, and I need some advice:
1) Battery life- I have heard mixed things about the Inc's battery life. Most say it is not good, and some say it is just fine. If I am planning on rooting and loading a custom ROM, how would you rate the battery life? Compared to the Droid X and the iPhone 4? How long does a single charge last?
2) LED light - I know the video mode does not turn on the LED light for constant light, but I read somewhere that the Inc will get an update that will get LED constant video light - is this true? I know 720p was recently added.
3) I just checked out the phone at my local Verizon store, and when scrolling through menus/etc it tends to lag sometimes. Can this be fixed if I root and load a custom ROM?
4) I am also thinking about waiting for the Samsung Fascinate to come out, but that could be a while, and I need a phone pretty soon (in the next week or two). If the Droid Inc. is very close to the Fascinate in features (which I think it is except for the Super AMOLED 4-inch screen), would it be wise to wait for the Samsung, or should I bite the bullet and get the Droid Inc. now?
Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) battery life. Coming from a non smart phone (I had a ENV Touch) the battery life simply does not compare. That battery would last for days with moderate use, and over a week with light use. But that's one of the trade-offs with any smart phone. I charge nightly now, but haven't had any issues with the stock battery draining during a day of moderate use. Compared to my BB curve (which I still have, stupid work exchange server policies) battery life is similar when it comes to periods when the phone is heavily used, but it does seem to drain faster on standby. Overall, battery is bearable in my opinion.
2) dunno.
3) I don't notice any lag on mine. It's always been very responsive in my experience with the stock setup. Anyplace in particular?
4) The Galaxy S is the only one of the 4" screen models I've seen yet which I'd consider over the Incredible. It's still a bigger phone, and I really like the size of the incredible. The screen should be better in sunlight, and looks to have a little better color in the videos I've seen, and it also should be much better in terms of 3D processing. If it was out today, I'd definitely consider trading in my incredible for one. But it's not, and who knows when it will be released.
Overall I've been really happy with my incredible, and don't think you can go wrong with the phone. If you can hold off, the Fascinate looks like a great phone as well, but two months later, yet another phone which is better yet will be released. The incredible is proven to be a very solid phone, samsung has had some hits and misses in the past.
Cool - I am really thinking about getting the Inc., instead of waiting for the Fascinate to come out. A few more questions in the meantime:
1) Out of curiosity, is it possible to purchase a European Galaxy S and have it work on AT&T here in the US?
2) If I buy the Inc., root it and load a custom ROM, will I still receive OTA updates for FroYo and the other patch that adds the Video light?
Thanks again for everyone's help.
I've had the phone since launch... not sure how long its been now....
1) Battery life is pretty decent for a smartphone. I have the Seidio 1750mAh battery and I get 19-20 hours everyday with 30-40% left. I leave home at 5AM and I don't plug in until I go to sleep, usually around 12. I however wouldn't recommend the seidio battery as its more expensive than the TP2 battery and you get the same capacity. Take a look at Batteryboss.org. I own 3 of these Seidio batteries and if you take the plastic cover off, you can see they are all 1500-1590mAh cells. I use Gtalk all day, not much SMS, around 20 Gmails and 10-15 exchange emails a day with realtime syncing, and about an hour of talk per day. I use automatic task killer as well.
2) The 2.2 Froyo ROMs have the light on for the camcorder. Check here forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=738634
3) The lags through the menus are most likely because of everyone playing with the phone, opening all the apps, webpages, etc and never killing any tasks or rebooting. This is a "smartphone/computer" and closing programs is necessary. I have had lag in the menus usually when the phone is syncing or installing an app etc, very few though. Also the froyo with 2.6.32 gives you more available RAM and its faster, haven't had any menu lag yet!
4) The hummingbird SoC is definitely an improvement of Snapdragon, same cpu (very close) just better gpu and other small changes. The superAmoled display is mainly brighter in the fascinate, makes reading the display in sunlight easier.
Incredible Vs Fascinate? Its really a look and feel preference I'd say... You really need to touch the device and use it in person to make an informed decision. For me, the incredible is very thin and light and fits in my pocket with no case, just a zagg shield and I barely notice its there, thats why I chose it. If you need a phone very soon get the incredible from BestBuy and pricematch wirefly or amazon. They have a 30 day return policy (no restocking fee) and you can exchange it if you decide on the Fascinate.
PS. I think the incredible is still back ordered. Everyone I've seen has a 5-10 days delay... Might be worth just waiting a couple weeks to decide
I just bit the bullet and just purchased a the Droid Incredible. I'm excited - hopefully it will arrive next week.
As another stupid (I apologize in advance) question - where do start when it comes to rooting/loading the best ROM? Is there a quick link/blog post/guide that shows me?
Many thanks again for all the help so far.
Avazee said:
I just bit the bullet and just purchased a the Droid Incredible. I'm excited - hopefully it will arrive next week.
As another stupid (I apologize in advance) question - where do start when it comes to rooting/loading the best ROM? Is there a quick link/blog post/guide that shows me?
Many thanks again for all the help so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=739428
Have fun!
Avazee said:
I am currently a Motorola Razr user (yes, I am way behind the times!), and it finally is time to get a smartphone. I don't want to get the iPhone because I can't stand Apple, and I think I've narrowed my search down to the Droid Incredible (I think the Droid X is a bit large).
However, I have a few questions I hope can get answered, and I need some advice:
1) Battery life- I have heard mixed things about the Inc's battery life. Most say it is not good, and some say it is just fine. If I am planning on rooting and loading a custom ROM, how would you rate the battery life? Compared to the Droid X and the iPhone 4? How long does a single charge last?
2) LED light - I know the video mode does not turn on the LED light for constant light, but I read somewhere that the Inc will get an update that will get LED constant video light - is this true? I know 720p was recently added.
3) I just checked out the phone at my local Verizon store, and when scrolling through menus/etc it tends to lag sometimes. Can this be fixed if I root and load a custom ROM?
4) I am also thinking about waiting for the Samsung Fascinate to come out, but that could be a while, and I need a phone pretty soon (in the next week or two). If the Droid Inc. is very close to the Fascinate in features (which I think it is except for the Super AMOLED 4-inch screen), would it be wise to wait for the Samsung, or should I bite the bullet and get the Droid Inc. now?
Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
STOP READING MY MIND!!!!!!
seriously though, this post is exactly what i've been going through the last two weeks...
i couldn't decide whether to wait for the elusive Fascinate or go for the Inc or the X. throw in the rumors that tiered data is coming soon too... i've been so anxious lately.
i couldn't take it anymore so i ordered the Inc. the X is way too big for my hands to use one handed comfortably.
Sense is way better than Ninjablur. Samsung's UI stinks. The Inc has higher pixel density and a better processor imo.
i'm only worried about the crappy audio codec and slow framerates during HD recording. Man, the sound is horrible.
i sure wish i could get a solid release date on the fascinate. graphics chip is sick. BUT, i don't wanna wait too long and lose the opportunity to get unlimited data.
Avazee said:
I am currently a Motorola Razr user (yes, I am way behind the times!), and it finally is time to get a smartphone. I don't want to get the iPhone because I can't stand Apple, and I think I've narrowed my search down to the Droid Incredible (I think the Droid X is a bit large).
However, I have a few questions I hope can get answered, and I need some advice:
1) Battery life- I have heard mixed things about the Inc's battery life. Most say it is not good, and some say it is just fine. If I am planning on rooting and loading a custom ROM, how would you rate the battery life? Compared to the Droid X and the iPhone 4? How long does a single charge last?
2) LED light - I know the video mode does not turn on the LED light for constant light, but I read somewhere that the Inc will get an update that will get LED constant video light - is this true? I know 720p was recently added.
3) I just checked out the phone at my local Verizon store, and when scrolling through menus/etc it tends to lag sometimes. Can this be fixed if I root and load a custom ROM?
4) I am also thinking about waiting for the Samsung Fascinate to come out, but that could be a while, and I need a phone pretty soon (in the next week or two). If the Droid Inc. is very close to the Fascinate in features (which I think it is except for the Super AMOLED 4-inch screen), would it be wise to wait for the Samsung, or should I bite the bullet and get the Droid Inc. now?
Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say don't buy one. It's a great phone.. Best one I ever had in my opinion. If your a newb, looking for help ,without getting insulted, this isn't the phone for you!
Love the phone, hate the support. Don't get this phone if you don't know more than anyone else around here. Prepare for total Internet tough guy vengeance as they flex there "i know more unix than you!" muscles at every turn. Want a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer if a certain csv is supported by 2.2?
Prepare for a, total IRC rock em sock em, you don't know what i know, brawl as they flirt with file extensions and unix innuendos that you don't understand. Make new names in irc to mock you, and just piss all over yer newbness. Just bask in the awesomeness of there skills and eat it. YOU DONT KNOW MORE THAN ME LA LA LAA LAA LAAA LAAA!
Sums up my experience so far. Thanks IRC!
It seems in life people rarely post anything good about a product that works for them, but if it's flawed enough to anger them you can bet there will be posts from every person that has experienced one. This is why I am making this post. Unlike some of my fellow E.T, owners I haven't experienced any negative issues with this phone that I could actually say were the phone's fault.
L.O.S - The only LOS issues I have had or continue to have is the same LOS issue My Evo 4g had, My wife's Evo Shift has. It is at the same location between my home and work. So I attribute this to a network issue not the phones.
Wifi signal - I will admit that the BARS on my ET do show lower than the Bars on my Evo 4g or my wife's Evo Shift, but it gets signal in places in my house that neither of those devices ever get signal and it does it while showing zero bars. It also gets faster speeds on the same network.
Battery life - I don't use my phone any differently than I did with my Evo 4g. With my Evo, by noon I was reaching for a charger or a spare battery with the ET I haven't been below 48% when leaving work. I have played around on it and got it down to the low 20's though but that is later in the evening. I am averaging 12 hours on battery with heavy use before plugging it in at night. It is my work phone so battery life was the biggest selling point for me and it paid off. I average 50+ voice calls a day that range in time from 3 minutes to close to an hour. I receive and respond to 15+ emails a day and send about 20 texts a day. I read the news for about 20 minutes on it in the morning and check FB about 3 times a day for 10 minutes each time. I don't watch movies on it but do occasionally watch a video someone posts on FB. I listen to Audible about 3 hours a day, which isn't streaming it's just playing the files on the phone. I rarely stream and when I do the phone is plugged in to the car and I am on a road trip.
4G - I have left the 4g radio on all day and only saw about 10% more battery consumption over leaving it off. I have 4g at work and most the way home, but not at my house. My Evo 4g would have been dead in about 1 hr if I left it on without being plugged in. I have noticed the 4g radio does sleep, not sure if it does on the Evo 4g. From my usage you can see 4g isn't that important to me.
Waking up - As far as the slight delay when waking the phone. It doesn't bother me because it doesn't interfere with the function of the phone. With the Evo 4g I had at least 3 sense crashes a day where I waited longer for sense to reload. So I figure if I add up all the 1 second pauses to wake this phone up it's still less than the total time waiting for crashed sense to reload 3 times a day.
This thing is blazing fast and has a beautiful screen. I am very happy with this upgrade.
I did however have one issue that I was able to trace back to an app or at least once that app was removed the issue went away. On my Evo 4g which never had great battery life, I had used the Xscope browser and loved it's usefulness and functionality, however at about day 3 of app installs, I only install 3 apps a day in case there is an issue I know which to look at 1st, I began to see a sever battery drain. I went from getting 12+ hours a day to getting less than 8 hrs a day. So I removed the 3 apps and behold the battery drain was gone. Xscope was my favorite of the 3 apps so it went back on 1st and bam battery drain was back. So I removed it and placed the other 2 apps, Flixster and Audible, and didn't see the drain return. Not wanting to place blame or start a flame war with fans of Xscope so I am just reporting that some of your issues may be caused by Apps you have installed. I know I have friends that dump 50+ apps on a phone the day they get it and don't configure anything. Then ***** that they are having issues like battery drain or slow internet when in fact it's a misbehaving app not the phone.
These are just my experiences and are not to be taken as Gospel.
Great post. I feel pretty much the same as you about this phone. Sure it has some annoying bugs, but overall it just rocks. You can't even make this bad boy stutter.
Nannuq said:
It seems in life people rarely post anything good about a product that works for them, but if it's flawed enough to anger them you can bet there will be posts from every person that has experienced one. This is why I am making this post. Unlike some of my fellow E.T, owners I haven't experienced any negative issues with this phone that I could actually say were the phone's fault. .......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time to write this. I've been fence sitting since June (when I was upgrade eligible) to make an informed decision on an upgrade. With Sprint snatching the Sprint Premiere Gold at the end of the year, I am really on the prowl to upgrade to a device that has a solid root (without issues), a dependable phone for work (it's vital that it just work), and it be that exponential leap over my aging Evo 4G. I was pretty sure this phone would be my landing pad but was scared off by all the LOS complaints and people giving different information on whether it was kernel (root) or factory radio problems. Will continue to watch the developments here (I'm in this thread everyday) and see what is on the horizon for Sprint. My Evo actually fills the bill except for the horrid battery life that chains me to a charger or USB cable so I have a few months to decide. Throw in the impending Sprint LTE revelations and LTE enabled devices allegedly coming this summer and now another quandary pops up. My next will be my next for two years so I gotta think it through. Again thank you for your constructive input.
Hey Nannuq...well said! Welcome to the E.T. sub forum!
Very informative post. I really appreciate your insight.
Dave
I have had this phone since launch and I'm completely one hundred percent satisfied. I've had the hero evo 4g, evo shift, evo 3d, and now this phone, and I have never been as satisfied with a android device as I have with this one. Performance,Battery life, call sound quality, reception, ect has honestly been amazing. I used to change devices every six months but I don't see the need with this phone and I don't think I will ever buy another HTC device after using this phone.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
100% agree! This phone amazes me everyday. I was always a HTC fan, owing the original EVO, then the 3D, and even talked my daughter into getting the Shift over the Epic 4G. I honestly can say that I don't miss HTC at all, nor do I miss Sense 1 bit either. Samsung and Sprint did a great job on this phone. My signal blows the 3D away. In areas where I would be roaming with the 3D, the EpTouch handles without a hiccup. Wifi might show less bars, but then again, it still pulls faster speeds than my 3D did. I will definitely be very satisfied with this phone till the SIII comes out next year!
I love the phone but the wifi issue is incorrect. I have my router downstairs and frequently drop the connection whereas every other device (laptop, phone, ps3) has as great signal even outside. I think it may be the driver i'm looking into it
Sent from my sprint galaxy s2
Hi
I have a Bell HTC Desire Z. It's unlocked (although I bought it that way so I'm not sure how exactly it was unlocked) and I use it on the Rogers network. I've only had it for about 2 months. My service was alright before, it was never as good as my Blackberry on rogers, but I'd usually have 4 bars in my building. Lately however, it will constantly be switching from 4 bars to 2 or 1 bars or nothing at all. It's started sitting at around 1 bar of service in my building, and at around 3 bars outside, rarely anything higher. It will also stop sending data on a regular basis, or I'll lose 3G completely and I'll have to reboot the phone to get it to come back.
My battery life is also terrible. If I use it to make a phone calls, I'll get maybe about 5 hours of it tops. This is with wifi and bluetooth turned off, and the screen brightness under half. HTC sense is also always freezing on me. Half the time when I try to go to my messages screen it takes it upwards of 3 minutes to load them, and then when I go back to the homescreen the HTC logo appears and then a loading screen comes up. It also lags a lot when I'm switching between screens.
Does anyone know what I could do to fix these problems? Should I root it and throw on a different rom? (I was thinking MIUI). Do I have to switch to a different radio? I'm a total noob with android phones and this whole rooting and modding process, so any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated! I really like this handset, but it has enough problems that I'm tempted to jump ship and go back to Blackberry.
ETA: I'm running Gingerbread 2.3.3, if that makes any difference.
I had fast battery drain too, I switched to the ROM in this thread, and battery life is now AMAZING
use SuperWipeG2(+) and Guhl's EFS GPS fix available here before flashing G-lite
PS - you need to be rooted via the wiki before attempting any new ROM installation, as detailed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision
also you will lose HTC Sense, but you will gain amazing speed of everything and the phone working better than any smartphone!
thank you for not telling the OP to try a new radio!! you are the first person I have pushed the thaks button for lol
Greetings,
I recently upgraded to the Galaxy Nexus from my modded thundebolt running Cyanogen, both on Verizon.
This phone despite rave reviews has been a huge disappointment to me.
Battery Life This is an issue highlighted on this forum and all over the web. This phone's battery life is significantly worse than the Thunderbolt was out of the box. The latter was solved with a root and cyanogen install. I certainly hope the same can be said of the Nexus. As a medical professional, this device is simply unusable. I am currently getting less than 4 hours. The device is always running hot, as if some program is chewing through the battery, but a fix is elusive at this point. I have tried two nexus phones at this point.
Speed Another big disappointment. I have once again tried two devices, both with the quick OTA update. The device is extremely sluggish in virtually every regard. Opening programs, sliding through menus. I have actually tested my thunderbolt against the nexus on opening and running many different programs, from games, some of which are unplayable on the Nexus (may be an ICS issue) to opening simple email like gmail. The Thunderbolt is significantly faster and smoother. I admit I am a bit mistified by this one, hearing so many with rave reviews of the speed. I am not sure if this is because others are coming from much older devices or if there really is a speed issue. The Thunderbolt was clearly much faster in every regard. Again two separate
Vibrate This is a major issue for me, being in the medical profession. The device doubles as my pager, and missing pages can obviously be dangerous to my patients. I have again tested and confirmed this on two separate Nexus devices.
Voice to Text The google engine that transcribes on the fly only works with the android keyboard. Further, I have found it to be much less accurate than my thunderbolt using flex t9. I even tried the latter on the nexus, reproducing many of these problems. Not sure if this is a microphone issue on the nexus.
Games Some are simply unplayable. This may be a native problem to ICS, but my favorite game, frozen bubble plus is no longer a viable time waster.
Camera The concerns about this are well justified. It does fine in sunlight, but anything with a flash is absolutely horrid and unusable. For those who enjoy sharing a quick photo via facebook, texting, whatsapp, picasa etc, you are seriously going to be disappointed. The focus is inconsistent, and the flash over saturates the pictures. Major step behind the Thunderbolt.
There are other annoyances. Long pressing a text box allows you to change input method.
I haven't figured out if you can assign an on screen "hardware" button to a task by long pressing like you can on the thunderbolt. I have the find key on my thunderbolt assigned to the voice command. So I can long press on it and text, email, search directions etc with one simple long press. I don't see an easy way to do this on the Nexus, another major inconvenience.
In fact the only way I see to use the voice capabilities is to keep the google search bar on the home screen. I don't see the program even listed in the apps.
Perhaps many of these issues can be addressed in an upgrade, but this device's starting point is very disappointing to me, worse than the bolt.
4 hours?
I don't know what to say to any of that.
First, I easily get 18-25 hours DAILY depending on how much I use the phone. And I'd like to point on that I am a HEAVY texter (girlfriend ). Maybe you have the LTE version? I'm sure you would get ****ty battery life on LTE all the time and inside of a hospital with low reception.
Second, this has got to be the the fastest and most "fluid" device I have ever owned. I come from a dualcore Tegra 2 G2x, and the Galaxy Nexus just blows it out of the water. There is no comparison. Needless to say, I've also owned a Nexus One, Samsung Vibrant, and a G2 (The G2 with a processor most closest to your Thunderbolt).
Third, the phone vibrates just fine in my experience. If you're having troubles with it, put your incoming call ringtone on silent and raise your notification ringtone volume. That way you don't have to worry about a random call disturbing the peace.
Fourth, you must remember this is a Google Nexus device. Most games come optimized for Nexus devices. Give it time, your favorite games will be updated. In the mean time, there are plenty of other games you could play (Age of Zombies? )
Fifth, are you really going to complain about the focusing? The Galaxy Nexus has an instant shutter speed. If you want a better focus, how about you hold onto the shutter button before releasing it instantly?
I don't know about changing the input method via long press since the stock keyboard is the best I've ever used on an android device.
If you really do need a "hardware" search button, just apply a mod. If not, then just press home and it's there right at the top. Seems pretty convenient to me
I'd just like to point out to you that most of these "issues" will never be fixed as they are UPGRADES from the previous versions of android. Sorry
I am indeed an LTE user on Verizon. The battery problem seems to be real, as documented on this forum and elsewhere.
Good to hear you are doing so well, implying that there is some kind of drain issue isolated to the verizon LTE launch.
I am coming from a Thunderbolt, and while the device isn't slow, the rooted/modded bolt was significantly faster at launching gmail, yahoo mail, go sms texting, facebook etc... I suspect that this too will be fixed, but its frustrating that a more powerful device on paper is actually performing worse than an almost year old device.
Any other Thunderbolt users notice the lag on the nexus that I am referring to?
The vibrate feature is perhaps a matter of personal preference. What is fine for you, may not be nearly enough for others. I will try your suggestions though and appreciate it. I prefer to have my device in my pocket, and need to feel the vibrations as they are often emergent pages. Again, the vibration issue seems to be a real problem documented hear and elsewhere on the web.
The camera issue isn't about the speed, which is impressive. The problem is too many photos don't focus properly. The bolt took terrific pictures in comparison albeit at a slower pace. Flash photography indoors is not even passable in my opinion. Perhaps this latter problem can be or has been fixed in 3rd party camera applications. I am just not aware of any at the moment.
The gaming issue concerns me the least. I agree that this will likely be fixed with updated games quickly. I only raised it because my number one favorite game was affected!
Assigning voice capabilities to a long press is a real convenience on the bolt. I don't even have to look at the screen to make it text, email, call, find directions, do a google search, or launch an application. While you may find an alternative "easy" isn't he whole point about android the UI and being able to customize it to your hearts content. I am 100% confident that this will be addressed in some modification or add on program, but it is not easily done now.
Thanks for your kind thoughts.
I'm coming from a Thunderbolt and I noticed the slow responsiveness when calling on some apps in the Nexus right away. I guess my expectations were pretty high from the get go. I'll give it some time, The developers put a lot of work into the Tbolt to get it to perform fast, I'm sure the same will happen with the Nexus.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
The problem is you came from a device that had development optimization for almost 10 months to a brand new development phone. If you were running a stock Thunderbolt the whole time, you would more notice the difference between the two phones. I also came from a thunderbolt running MIUI ICS and Eternity ROMS, I can tell that this phone is significantly better in every respect but the camera. But, as a phone, I don't expect the camera to be awesome. The vibrate is more elegant on this phone compared to TBs brutal shock of a vibrate, I still feel it just fine.
Your other annoyances sound more like trivial irritations rather than actual device problems, aside from the battery in which case I would say turn off LTE and it would last longer. Changing the hardware buttons wasnt a stock feature on any android phone, that was part of development. People forget that these devices take a dew days to a week for battery to run properly and once development takes off, this phone will be a monster in a month's time when everything is better optimized and features are added.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
chocoyo00 said:
I'm coming from a Thunderbolt and I noticed the slow responsiveness when calling on some apps in the Nexus right away. I guess my expectations were pretty high from the get go. I'll give it some time, The developers put a lot of work into the Tbolt to get it to perform fast, I'm sure the same will happen with the Nexus.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was really surprised because the responsiveness of this device has been one of the big selling features. I agree that this will likely be corrected with OTA updates and modded devices, but out of the box I was expecting it to be faster than my nearly one year old Thunderbolt, and was disappointed it wasn't.
mb02 said:
The problem is you came from a device that had development optimization for almost 10 months to a brand new development phone. If you were running a stock Thunderbolt the whole time, you would more notice the difference between the two phones. I also came from a thunderbolt running MIUI ICS and Eternity ROMS, I can tell that this phone is significantly better in every respect but the camera. But, as a phone, I don't expect the camera to be awesome. The vibrate is more elegant on this phone compared to TBs brutal shock of a vibrate, I still feel it just fine.
Your other annoyances sound more like trivial irritations rather than actual device problems, aside from the battery in which case I would say turn off LTE and it would last longer. Changing the hardware buttons wasnt a stock feature on any android phone, that was part of development. People forget that these devices take a dew days to a week for battery to run properly and once development takes off, this phone will be a monster in a month's time when everything is better optimized and features are added.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that many of these issues can be corrected. When I bought my bolt, battery life was dreadful. After a quick root and cyanogen install, it was resolved. But out of the box, it still was a more polished experience than this device is.
These may be "trivial irritations" to you, but they are significant to me. I am looking for the most complete and polished smartphone experience. The nexus promised everything, and has not delivered as of yet in my experience. In fact there is really very little it has lived up to judging by the hype.
Clearly there are others with similar problems. I hope and expect many/most to be fixed.
This may be germane to those of us coming from an optimized Bolt, which is still a very worthy piece of hardware. I cant speak for other devices, as the only other android device I have extensive experience is the original droid incredible, which ironically is still fantastic and faster in many ways to the new Nexus in my experience.
At this point, very little of the promised features and experience have lived up to expectations. Perhaps the hype was too great, but I am hopeful this all will be fixed with software updates.
I hope people don't take this as a personal attack on the device, as I know many feel passionate about such things.
well, hardware wise the Nexus is superior to the Thunderbolt and almost as good as the Rezound. I think the main issue right now is ICS. i notice its still very buggy and lots of apps i used to use either dont support ICS or have issues running on ICS. its just a matter of time before everything is running properly.
Brand new Operating System, on a brand new phone. You have had the phone all of 4 days and expect it to be perfect already. I think you need to give it some time. You already said yourseld you modded your TB. Expect the same with this phone. And when and on a new OS you can not expect every app to work immediately. Looks like you should of waited a month to get the phone, or go back to the TB for another month and hold onto the Nexus. I currently have a TB myself.
voxigenboy said:
well, hardware wise the Nexus is superior to the Thunderbolt and almost as good as the Rezound. I think the main issue right now is ICS. i notice its still very buggy and lots of apps i used to use either dont support ICS or have issues running on ICS. its just a matter of time before everything is running properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect you are correct. I was just surprised that virtually nothing that was promised on this device has been realized at launch. I am used to new phones being buggy, but virtually every aspect of this device has fallen short at launch and not consistent with the reviews.
worm- said:
Brand new Operating System, on a brand new phone. You have had the phone all of 4 days and expect it to be perfect already. I think you need to give it some time. You already said yourseld you modded your TB. Expect the same with this phone. And when and on a new OS you can not expect every app to work immediately. Looks like you should of waited a month to get the phone, or go back to the TB for another month and hold onto the Nexus. I currently have a TB myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never said I expected it to be perfect. That is an unreasonable expectation of any device, even one that has matured and polished over time.
I do expect a flagship device to deliver on some of what was promised. This device has delivered on very few promises at launch. So far disappointed, but very hopeful it will be fixed.
makes me appreciate my hspa th even more
priapos said:
I never said I expected it to be perfect. That is an unreasonable expectation of any device, even one that has matured and polished over time.
I do expect a flagship device to deliver on some of what was promised. This device has delivered on very few promises at launch. So far disappointed, but very hopeful it will be fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But there are bugs with any device, especially on a new OS. Look at apple, they know how to bring new devices to market, but at launch iOS 5 was plagued with bugs, most notable was the battery drain.
But what promises hasn't the Nexus kept? I'm a little curious. Because to me, the Nexus line promises to bring the best hardware and software in terms of functionality, and to me the phone doesn't fall short of any expectations.
To each his own, right?
priapos said:
I am indeed an LTE user on Verizon. The battery problem seems to be real, as documented on this forum and elsewhere.
Good to hear you are doing so well, implying that there is some kind of drain issue isolated to the verizon LTE launch.
I am coming from a Thunderbolt, and while the device isn't slow, the rooted/modded bolt was significantly faster at launching gmail, yahoo mail, go sms texting, facebook etc... I suspect that this too will be fixed, but its frustrating that a more powerful device on paper is actually performing worse than an almost year old device.
Any other Thunderbolt users notice the lag on the nexus that I am referring to?
The vibrate feature is perhaps a matter of personal preference. What is fine for you, may not be nearly enough for others. I will try your suggestions though and appreciate it. I prefer to have my device in my pocket, and need to feel the vibrations as they are often emergent pages. Again, the vibration issue seems to be a real problem documented hear and elsewhere on the web.
The camera issue isn't about the speed, which is impressive. The problem is too many photos don't focus properly. The bolt took terrific pictures in comparison albeit at a slower pace. Flash photography indoors is not even passable in my opinion. Perhaps this latter problem can be or has been fixed in 3rd party camera applications. I am just not aware of any at the moment.
The gaming issue concerns me the least. I agree that this will likely be fixed with updated games quickly. I only raised it because my number one favorite game was affected!
Assigning voice capabilities to a long press is a real convenience on the bolt. I don't even have to look at the screen to make it text, email, call, find directions, do a google search, or launch an application. While you may find an alternative "easy" isn't he whole point about android the UI and being able to customize it to your hearts content. I am 100% confident that this will be addressed in some modification or add on program, but it is not easily done now.
Thanks for your kind thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you cant compare a rooted device with a custom rom and kernel to one that is just rooted stock, its like comparing my old droid 1 to the galaxy nexus, your not comparing apples to apples
now maybe it could be that i came from the droid x(rooted and running cm7) but this phone is just amazing compared to my droid x and my og droid
sure i lost some features like longpress to search but i gained so many new ones(face unlock, 4g, google wallet, ect.) that i see they weigh out the loss of that feature, just my $0.02 though
battery on the other hand though is really bad, i will get about 5-6 hours at most(im a heavy user though) i just reset my battery stats for the first time though so im gonna hope that fixes it, have you though about getting the extended battery?
I put the extended battery in yesterday and made my way home from my best friend's place (a 3 hour drive). I listened to music via Poweramp over the car stereo for 2 hours and 15 minutes of the drive and then took a 45 minute phone call. Checked the battery after all that and the Gnex was at 71% battery. My guess is those of you with issues have some rogue app blowing your battery up. And comparisons with the Thunderbolt? My friend's brother in law had a loaner Thunderbolt he got from VZW whilst waiting for a new phone to come in as warranty replacement. It was running the stock ROM. The Nexus is crazily significantly faster than a stock TB. Reiterating the point of others, just wait til the devs get 10 months of development time on the Nexus - hell, give them 2 weeks and come to us and tell us how the phone is versus the TB. I had a Rezound. Great phone, but lack of S-Off (root) and dev support is why I jumped ship back to the Nexus.
I just sold my Thunderbolt, and I don't have any speed issues with the device whatsoever. It is much, much quicker than the Thunderbolt.
My launch TB had horrific battery life. I guarantee yours did too. Only after significant modding and kernel work for months was the TB acceptable with battery life. While I agree battery life stinks right now, it will get much better, and much quicker than the TB did.
One of your programs isn't compatible with ICS and it is sucking up your battery by running all the time. Try to find out what it is.
Games/apps need to be rewritten to be compatible with ICS. Give it time.
After a month or two, this phone is going to be twice as good than it is now. We already have Google Wallet available after 3 days! It is just going to get better.
Download "Camera ZOOM Fx" and your photos will be a lot more detailed and colorful
bhazard451 said:
I just sold my Thunderbolt, and I don't have any speed issues with the device whatsoever. It is much, much quicker than the Thunderbolt.
My launch TB had horrific battery life. I guarantee yours did too. Only after significant modding and kernel work for months was the TB acceptable with battery life. While I agree battery life stinks right now, it will get much better, and much quicker than the TB did.
One of your programs isn't compatible with ICS and it is sucking up your battery by running all the time. Try to find out what it is.
Games/apps need to be rewritten to be compatible with ICS. Give it time.
After a month or two, this phone is going to be twice as good than it is now. We already have Google Wallet available after 3 days! It is just going to get better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that the battery life on the original Bolt was terrible. The starting point of the Nexus in my opinion is many leagues worse. Today I had to recharge my device 4 times. The last time was after it drained in just over 49 minutes!!
The device has been wiped and factory default, so anything that is sucking up the juice, came with the phone. Its incomprehensible that Google would launch a device with a built in program using this much juice.
Given the comments in this thread, I just spent the past half hour testing an unrooted Bolt, bought the exam same day, from the exact same store as mine. The device was quicker than my Nexus in virtually every regard. Launching gmail, yahoo mail, browser, go sms texting, scrolling, opening settings... You get the point.
I agree the device will get better. It cant get much worse in this regard.
I will be quick to root and install cyanogen.
I am very disappointed at this time, but look forward to brighter future for the device.
45 minutes? something is wrong with your phone or you are on the edge of LTE signal
priapos said:
I am indeed an LTE user on Verizon. The battery problem seems to be real, as documented on this forum and elsewhere.
Good to hear you are doing so well, implying that there is some kind of drain issue isolated to the verizon LTE launch.
I am coming from a Thunderbolt, and while the device isn't slow, the rooted/modded bolt was significantly faster at launching gmail, yahoo mail, go sms texting, facebook etc... I suspect that this too will be fixed, but its frustrating that a more powerful device on paper is actually performing worse than an almost year old device.
Any other Thunderbolt users notice the lag on the nexus that I am referring to?
The vibrate feature is perhaps a matter of personal preference. What is fine for you, may not be nearly enough for others. I will try your suggestions though and appreciate it. I prefer to have my device in my pocket, and need to feel the vibrations as they are often emergent pages. Again, the vibration issue seems to be a real problem documented hear and elsewhere on the web.
The camera issue isn't about the speed, which is impressive. The problem is too many photos don't focus properly. The bolt took terrific pictures in comparison albeit at a slower pace. Flash photography indoors is not even passable in my opinion. Perhaps this latter problem can be or has been fixed in 3rd party camera applications. I am just not aware of any at the moment.
The gaming issue concerns me the least. I agree that this will likely be fixed with updated games quickly. I only raised it because my number one favorite game was affected!
Assigning voice capabilities to a long press is a real convenience on the bolt. I don't even have to look at the screen to make it text, email, call, find directions, do a google search, or launch an application. While you may find an alternative "easy" isn't he whole point about android the UI and being able to customize it to your hearts content. I am 100% confident that this will be addressed in some modification or add on program, but it is not easily done now.
Thanks for your kind thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My GN is on order and I currently have a modded Thunderbolt. I can't stand that phone at all, and I have been rooted and running Team BAMF ROM for a while. It lags horribly even with overclock, and while on 3G I barely get 7-8 hours. I hate it.
I'm hoping your problems don't translate to mine.
Hi all.
So I got a shiny new LG G3 D855 (32/3GB Model) a few weeks ago, and yes there are things I love about it, though there are things I really dislike, and was hoping someone could help out:
1) The auto-shutoff (high heat) is inaccurate - sometimes shuts off when it's just mildly warm, but sometimes doesn't when it's actually hot. Either happens frequently some days, even when all I'm doing is browsing on Firefox with two tabs.
2) Despite the rave reviews, the battery life is HORRIBLE. Even with light use.
3) The mobile data tends to stop working at random even though it says I've got, say, four bars 4G. Is my carrier suddenly really crappy, or is it this phone?
4) My phone freezes/crashes A LOT. Thank goodness it has a removable battery.
5) This may be a SwiftKey thing, but so far the keyboard takes up to 20 seconds to show up on the lock screen.
6) Text cursor moves to wrong parts of words or sections of text boxes (it goes a split second to where it should be, then it moves..)
Etc..
Using the latest stock LG KitKat ROM, everything else also up-to-date, and it's rooted.
Have changed to ART and have tweaked it some (just call settings, UI tweaks, etc) , but nothing for performance, besides ART (i.e NOT overclocked, etc). At least the performance is quite good as-is.
I could try dumbing down the display (for battery life), but I can't help but think there would be other things that could also help, though not finding a whole lot so far. Obviously I've considered a new ROM, but I realise it's too new a phone for Cyanogen, etc to be available right now.
Thank you all
Using ART on the G3 is no beuno. Look it up around here, there are multiple threads about it.
I had an issue with my 4G data when I tried using the phone in ART. It was like it kept downloading and uploading data constantly. It was really odd, but when I switched back to Dalvik, it stopped.
Also, I would consider stop using any 3rd party keyboard with this phone. Once you get used to the stock keyboard it truly is amazing. I've tried countless numbers of keyboards and I keep coming back to the stock LG one, IMO.
The more you use it, the better it gets. Seriously.
Meow505 said:
Hi all.
So I got a shiny new LG G3 D855 (32/3GB Model) a few weeks ago, and yes there are things I love about it, though there are things I really dislike, and was hoping someone could help out:
1) The auto-shutoff (high heat) is inaccurate - sometimes shuts off when it's just mildly warm, but sometimes doesn't when it's actually hot. Either happens frequently some days, even when all I'm doing is browsing on Firefox with two tabs.
2) Despite the rave reviews, the battery life is HORRIBLE. Even with light use.
3) The mobile data tends to stop working at random even though it says I've got, say, four bars 4G. Is my carrier suddenly really crappy, or is it this phone?
4) My phone freezes/crashes A LOT. Thank goodness it has a removable battery.
5) This may be a SwiftKey thing, but so far the keyboard takes up to 20 seconds to show up on the lock screen.
6) Text cursor moves to wrong parts of words or sections of text boxes (it goes a split second to where it should be, then it moves..)
Etc..
Using the latest stock LG KitKat ROM, everything else also up-to-date, and it's rooted.
Have changed to ART and have tweaked it some (just call settings, UI tweaks, etc) , but nothing for performance, besides ART (i.e NOT overclocked, etc). At least the performance is quite good as-is.
I could try dumbing down the display (for battery life), but I can't help but think there would be other things that could also help, though not finding a whole lot so far. Obviously I've considered a new ROM, but I realise it's too new a phone for Cyanogen, etc to be available right now.
Thank you all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro I'm right with you. I got tired of my G3 after about a month and I was looking on kijiji to see how much I could sell it for and I found a guy who wanted to trade his Oneplus one 64gb + $$$ I told him keep your $$$ and I swapped for a phone worth half the price of the G3 and MAAAANN. He got screwed. LOL. The oneplus one is AMAZING!!!!
Update
Thanks for the input! Here's an update:
Maybe I got lucky, but I'm finding ART to be helpful, performance-wise. I'll try the stock LG keyboard some more and see what happens. I'd forgotten that I had put one of those signal booster stickers behind the battery (can't do links as I'm new here). Took it out, and now my mobile data connections are stable and working 100%. It's (This may surprise you) not as fast and harder to get a 4G signal without it where I am, but at least it's not annoying the crap out of me by showing a high signal and acting as if I just got disconnected.
Not sure if it's a coincidence, but the phone has been staying cooler for longer these past few days now. It's still irritating when the cursor doesn't stay where it's supposed to be, though, and you can't always zoom in all the way to help this, making copying text and editing more difficult than it should be, but perhaps a future update will fix it.
Tried nomone, but the lower graphics/resolutions I tried made the phone look terrible and the notification bar at the top was always the wrong size, so I'm looking for other things to help the battery.
I gotta say, even with what's still going on, it's still 9, 999 times better than the iPhone 5 I used before! Well, even the 6 Plus IMO. :laugh:
Thanks again. Perhaps this thread is helping others, too.
P. S. That's pretty funny the guy made that trade, LOL!