Develop Bugs

is this phone any good

Hi, I have been offerred this phone free on an upgrade for my HTC touch HD, is this a decent enough upgrade, how does it compare to the HD2?
I have read lots of reviews but lot of them conflict each other, my main areas of concern are as follows:
1. What is the battery life actually like?
2. Is the screen as bad as people say in daylight?
3. What is the camera quality like for stills?
4. Has there been any offical announcments about the DIVX / 720p video recording update?
5. Is there a decent video player comparable to Coreplayer which supports muliple codecs?
Thanks

1. Not the best, but good enough. I use the device pretty heavily and it gets down to about 15% by the end of the day. Light usage can probably last 2 days.
2. It's as good as any other AMOLED device.
3. Pretty good. Low-light shots are not that great. LED flash helps but often it's either not bright enough or the shots get washed out.
4. No
5. Not sure. But I personally prefer to encode my videos so that the default player can accept it.

Thanks,much appreciated.

The developer community for the HD2 is comparatively erm, developed at the moment. Obviously it's still early days, but seeing as the Nexus One tends to be the modder's choice of phone, like the HD2 is for WinMo, I think the Desire will always be in the Shadow of the Nexus to an extent.
A friend with an HD2 struggles to make his last the whole day. He always carries a spare battery. The HD2's screen is very nice, but side by side with the Desire, everything seems washed out and the advantages of AMOLED are clear. Outdoors in sunglight the Desire's screen is poor but not unusable. Using my phone outdoors has never caused me any major problems. I would say the HD2 is more aesthetically pleasing device overall and more customisable at this stage, but with 2.2 almost certainly coming to the device, I think the Desire is a sound choice and don't regret buying it.

I've got an HD2 and I used to cook ROMs for it - WinMo is easier to get your head around than Android IMO - and the community is more developed as WinMo has been around longer. However, I prefer the Desire as the size is better (HD2 is nice but it's huge!!) and it runs better out the box. My HD2 was only good after I'd played about with it

Hardware wise they are very similar. 1ghz Snapdragon, 576 memory. The HD2 has a massive 4.3 inch screen compared to the Desire's 3.7 inch... Put pretty much any phone next to the Desire though and the Desire will make the other phone's screen look quite poor. The clarity and color on the Desire is just... well... it blows any other phone out of the water as far as screen quality. The camera I have found is quite good. The low lights though can sometimes get washed out, but I have found that is an issue even on normal cameras so not really here or there. The phone over all is pretty good. The battery life is kind of sporadic, it really depends on what you do with it, and what you have going. Sometimes it can last days without dropping below 50%, other times I find it dropping like 10% every 20 minutes. I am thinking 2.2 will help out with battery life a bit... and the longer I have the phone the better the battery life seems to get. Between the two devices, it pretty much comes down to which operating system you prefer. I dislike Windows Mobile, and like Android. They are similar phones spec wise, the only thing the HD2 has over the Desire is screen size, and even then the HD2 screen is no where near as nice as the Desire's. If you do want/need the massive size, you could wait for the HTC Supersonic to come out. It's basically an HD2 with Android.

I briefly bought a few phones before settling for the desire. All I can say is its like the leatherman of phones. You just have to hold one of these things & you won't look back

I had lots of smart phones in the past, mainly Win Mobile ones and then deflected over to the other side (iPhone). Not going to get into a debate what is better, but the in my opinion iPhone was and still is a great device. The new iPhone will be even better.
Saying that, I went for this device because it was much more configurable and has much more potential without "jail breaking" etc.
Compared to other devices I'm still impressed about the speed, responsiveness and generally it has been much more "bug free" than any smart phone I have owned in the past and I've owned a lot. I have not had it reboot on me once yet (2 weeks of solid use).
I have a few forced closure of apps but that's an app issue. What made the iPhone great was the apps that was written especially for the iPhone and hopefully the android market will reach that same heights in the future.
Battery life is not great, but I've never had a smart phone last more that a day without charge, but I use it a lot during my train journey into work and have push email, plus other data intensive apps. I bought this phone to give me all this functionality and I find no point in trying to get more than a day if I have to sacrifice not being able to use the phone to its full potential.
Screen is good, nice and crisp. I don't watch movies on the phone, but I encoding it would be better to have it in a resolution suitable for the phone.
In conclusion, I think this phone is worth it, I don't regret buying it and not looking to buy anything else, until....... iPhone 4g.

Thanks again everyone for your comments, these have been really helpful.

[Q] HTC HD7 vs Samsung Focus

I'm not sure which phone to get. I have the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate right now which is just like the focus and i like the captivate (coming from the iPhone 4). I'm just not crazy about android and I have always been a lover of windows mobile. The HD2 is one of my favorite phones out and that's basically the HD7. So which one would you go for. My contract is up with at&t on November 9th so I'm not sure if i should stay and go with the focus or switch to t-mobile and get the HD7. What it really comes down to is The super amoled screen which I love vs the 4.3" screen which I love.

I would go with Dell Venue.

I'm going with the Focus myself.

Haha I'm in the exact same spot. I have a Captivate but am considering going over to WP7. Stuck between the Focus and HD7.
From a practical standpoint I'm leaning more towards the Focus simply because it has an accessible Micro SD slot and of course the superior screen quality. But I love the HD7's form factor and screen size.
Need to see the HD7 in person to determine if I'm willing to take the step back in screen quality. That's really the deciding factor.

I just pre-ordered the HD7. Don't trust engadget's review of the screen. Every other video of the phone shows it is much more vibrant and the blacks are a lot deeper. Probably because every time engadget showed it was at an angle, when realistically the phone will only be viewed directly.
EDIT: I'm coming from an amoled equipped Nexus One.

ryotgz said:
I'm going with the Focus myself.
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Click to collapse
As am I. I was originally going to go with HD7/Venue but then decided Focus.

I have to go with the HD7. I have been a fan if HTC for years. At&t 8125, T-Mobile Mda, wing, G1, touch pro 2, HD2, It's only right for my to go back bow that they have another top notch device. I love my vibrant the screen is amazing but
4.3 inches for movies is just better seeing that everything thing is close to being the same. I can live with 16gigs I have 32 right now and have used only 10
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I'd say the Focus because the size is perfect, has a super AMOLED, and is said to have a slightly more responsive screen.
I'm personally hoping the Dell Venue Pro eventually hits Verizon since T-Mobile is just a launch partner.

manlisten said:
Haha I'm in the exact same spot. I have a Captivate but am considering going over to WP7. Stuck between the Focus and HD7.
From a practical standpoint I'm leaning more towards the Focus simply because it has an accessible Micro SD slot and of course the superior screen quality. But I love the HD7's form factor and screen size.
Need to see the HD7 in person to determine if I'm willing to take the step back in screen quality. That's really the deciding factor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know its so hard to make a decision. I love my super amoled but the hd2 has the same screen as the hd7 so if you want you can make your comparison from there.

Halabeaster54 said:
I know its so hard to make a decision. I love my super amoled but the hd2 has the same screen as the hd7 so if you want you can make your comparison from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put the HD2 and the HD7 next to each other and you will see that the HD7 is clearly a better screen. The screen is more comparible to the evo.

Windows Phone 7 is a complete programming break from all earlier incarnations. It would stand to reason that some features wouldn't be implemented in the first pass. Windows Mobile was losing market share at an astonishing rate, and one of the bigger reasons was the lack of a cohesive, polished, smoother user experience. Despite the ability to tether and cut/paste. The marketplace has obviously spoken, and said that user experience is far more important that feature set. Why would a for profit company emphasize the exact ideology that resulted in nothing but eroding market share, when other companies took the exact opposite approach with mind blowing success?

Focus.
Better screen. Much better camera. Expandable memory.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I wouldn't jump on the hd7 just yet. I'm using the hd2 because my iphone4 got stolen and im tired of paying full price for iphones, I would stick with ur iPhone get it unlocked for t-mobile, and use it until something goes wrong, or sell it on ebay for some ridiculous price and get yourself covered for the hd7
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

im on the same boat... i have an evo and need to dump sprint since its signal absolutely blows at home...
originally i want to get me an hd7, but im getting a bit worried after reading some initial reviews (poor build quality, sub par camera) ill hold off on judgement on the screen till i see it personally since i have a newer build evo (hw3) and the screen looks fantastic compared to the hd2 and early evo's (hw1-2), so if the hd7 uses the same screen then it will pass...
on the other hand there is the samsung focus with the super amoled screen, vastly superior battery life reported by reviews, and superior camera, my concerns with this one is the lack of camera flash, plasticky build, and at&t's tiered data plans (has anyone had issues with this since it was applied?)
bottom line...
HD7:
+ screen size, dual flash, kickstand (love it), more developer attention, unlimited data (tethering?)
- battery capacity, average camera, average build, inferior contrast
Samsung Focus:
+ super amoled screen, camera quality, slimmer, battery life
- cheap feel, no camera flash, limited data
opinions? ? ?

mike21pr said:
\
...
Samsung Focus:
+ super amoled screen, camera quality, slimmer, battery life
- cheap feel, no camera flash, limited data
opinions? ? ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the negatives: I've heard mixed reviews on the 'cheap feel,' some say it's not that bad, and even feels pretty good. There is an LED flash on the back, and I still have an unlimited plan.
For the positives: You didn't mention the expandable storage that the focus has, which for me is a huge plus. I've also seen a video with a Samsung exec jabbing his pen into the screen showing that it wont scratch (gorilla glass or something similar?).
Lastly, I'm not sure the battery life is a plus (maybe it is compared to the HTC?), as several sites list it as only average or even below average.

eknutson said:
For the negatives: I've heard mixed reviews on the 'cheap feel,' some say it's not that bad, and even feels pretty good. There is an LED flash on the back, and I still have an unlimited plan.
For the positives: You didn't mention the expandable storage that the focus has, which for me is a huge plus. I've also seen a video with a Samsung exec jabbing his pen into the screen showing that it wont scratch (gorilla glass or something similar?).
Lastly, I'm not sure the battery life is a plus (maybe it is compared to the HTC?), as several sites list it as only average or even below average.
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Click to collapse
thanx for the clarification i must have missed the flash on the back
battery life on super amoled is awesome compared to lcd's, that is till you go to an app that has a white background (email, web, facebook, twitter) so i guess thats something i have to keep in mind...
if i could somehow get unlimited data it would be a wrap

Just read through the thread and having owned a HD7 for a week now i'll give you some pointers:
Pro's
- The Screen is superb. It's huge, bright (brightness on high, not auto) and colours are vibrant. I've had the desire with it's AMOLED screen and can say the difference is minimal, plus when you've got them next to each other the HD7's sheer screen size outways the miniscule (even unnoticable) difference in quality. It is not the same screen as used in the HD2.
- The Build quality is brilliant. No creaks or bends, and the kickstand is firm and sturdy.
- The screen is the most responsive i've ever used. It's fantastic and imo (dare i say it?) better than that apple one. It responds instantly to your touch and scrolling through menus/webpages/etc is flawless. The pinch to zoom is incredibly impressive compared to others too.
- The camera is brilliant. It's crisp, the LED's are rediculously bright, and it takes pictures really quickly. I've been taking about 5 or 6 pictures per 10 seconds which is good if you're like me and take loads then pick the best one.
Cons
- The Battery life on my particular HD7 is dreadful, i get a day and a half at the most with what I would say is average usage. I have to charge it every night which i'm not too fussed about but if that bothers otehrs it's definately something to consider.
- The autofocus on the camera during video recording can be hit and miss. Sometimes it out-focuses itself, but if you hold it for a second or 2 it sorts itself out, so not a problem for me really.
*EDIT* After a further 2 weeks i can confirm Battery life has stabalised and after a "full day" (7am till 11pm) of use i still have half a battery left.

Can the HD7 take an SD card as currently looking at various win 7 devices

Here is the deal guys, Windows Phone 7 was never supposed to have SD card support, I think 16 gigs is more than enough, but anyways. Every time you change the Omni in the focus, you have to reformat I believe your device, so keep that in my mind.
Why MS didn't put SD support is beyond me, but what Samsung did is just use that as expendable memory, it sort of creates 1 partition, if I am understanding it correctly
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

TheGTeam said:
Can the HD7 take an SD card as currently looking at various win 7 devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a long thread in the HD7 section about that

mozart vs omnia

having had the mozart for a week I'm thinking of changing it to the samsung cause i'm not that happy with it :s
poor loudspeaker sound volume
dolby just seems to be pointless and not an improvment to sound
seems to have poor battery usage
havn't had a samsung version in my hand yet so can any comment on at least those 2 problems? is it worth the swap.
The screen on the sammy i'd probs prefer as its a lot more vivid (cant from a desire anyway to wp7) and the slightly bigger screen size and I can loose the camera and be happy with 5MP instead of 8MP.
But is the phone actualy better? any advice would be handy before I blow more money lol

The battery life should be better on the Samsung.

All the reviews I read stated that the Omina is better than the Mozart.
* Most HTC WP7 devices are known to have very weak batteries (sometimes 1.230mAh). The Omnia 7 has a 1.500mAh battery.
* The Omnia has a great S-AMOLED screen when the HTC only has a S-Lcd or even an old Lcd screen.
* Also the Omnia 7 has apparently a high quality camera and can take nice pictures or videos. The camera of the HTC is not that good.
* Speakers are always awful on most HTC phones, so the Omnia 7 can only be better.
I used to like HTC, but definitely the Omnia 7 is far far better

think all phones have a battery problem these days they need to discover a new way to power things A day's power on a phone shouldnt be a hard acheivment though rather than say half a day.

thanks artur thats a good help and from the vids etc I'm starting to think the sammy could be better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKvRNcYyx1E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEvjM_w5e3Y
Difference between S-Amoled and Lcd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKtqWFeUynM

People are blowing AMOLED out of proportion. Remember that the WP7 UI is pretty text and contrast heavy. The Pentile pattern in AMOLED lends itself well to pictures, but not at all to text. You'll be having color fringing on all text.
If you go with SLCD, you might have a little light bleed on dark surfaces, that's mostly just noticeable when it's pretty dark around you, but you get really sharp text and no in-your-face colors (yeah, AMOLED has vibrant colors, but they're annoying with time).
Also, when lit up bright, AMOLED draws way more power than SLCD. If a majority of your activity is browsing the web, you'll be dealing mostly with websites that have white or bright backgrounds.

yer i've scoured youtube like a hooker lol all the vids are kinda the same so wanted someone with a voice now think i'm gonna swap to sammy. HTC hub isnt even that good yet anyway so that's no loss.

The problem with S-Amoled:
S-Amoled is great for black. Because the contrast is very high and the black will be truly black.
But on the contrary S-Amoled will not be good for white. It's kind of blue.
Therefore it will be more difficult to read the text on webpages than with lcd.
Also S-Amoled is supposed to consume more battery when the screen displays white color (e.g. when you browse on the Internet).
S-Amoled is also weaker when you are outside.
****
Why you would not wait for the DELL Venue Pro. I think it will be the best WP7 device?

omnia 7 and if thats not upto scrath then i'm going desire HD again on android.
BTW the 8MP camera on the htc seems pretty crap, lots of blur and unviewable pics even though its clear on the screen. There's a long delay with the 2 flashes and the pic taking which makes it terrible. Thats with the default settings though as i've not touched it.

Omnia or Mozart? Are ou kidding?
The Omnia 7 is one of the best WP7 device on the market. The Mozart just an average phone.
Omnia 7 definitely. for the quality of the camera, for the quality of the screen, for the bigger battery, etc.

the sound dosnt seem to be that loud on my samsung omnia 7 either. im goona try different headphones.......

How are you finding the Omnia 7? I have a HD7 I bought a week ago and am unhappy with it, I'm thinking of returning it and getting a Omnia 7 instead.

The only thing i'm concerned about is the camera...I really like both phones. And in my opinion the only diffrences is the display and the camera. I know the diffrences between SAMOLED and SLCD...So the only thing missing is the diffrence in camera.
Is the Mozart 8mp camera better, or is the omnia 5mp camera better.
Could someone, whos tried both tell me his/hers opinion.
I know omina have more camera options, but does that give omina better pictures than mozart.
And how about startup time, from pocket to actually taking the picture.
Mozart have a LED flash, omnia has camera light only, does that give mozart advantage?
So if someone can help me in not buying the wrong device...

I can tell you right now the Omnia will have a better camera. It's not about pixels. The sensor is what matters and HTC's usually are pretty bad.

ericc191 said:
I can tell you right now the Omnia will have a better camera. It's not about pixels. The sensor is what matters and HTC's usually are pretty bad.
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Click to collapse
I agree that HTC camera usually are pretty bad...But what about now?
Is Omnia the better one? I know that the sensor are the key feature here...But still 8mp are more than 5 mp...
But which one is the sharpest?

I got the Omnia 7 nearly 2 weeks ago and can say without a shadow of a doubt its better than and HTC device Ive ever owned (from early win mo, to android, its been HTC all the way for me - just to provide evidence of non bias).
The camera is excellent on the Omnia, for both pics and video (I'm editing some bonfire night footage right now so will link to it once done), will also link to some random shots taken in different environments.
From boot time, to general use the phone is simply blazingly fast - and from what I read in another post it seems that samsung used Nand memory in this phone, hence the blazing speeds for games and boot (opposed to built in SD card).
The only negative is its 8GB, and thats it, but I never intended my phone to hold a musical backup nor do I see it as a grind to swap out music thats getting tired, videos are another story as they are generally a 'watch once' media (especially on the phone).
I cant faukt sound quality, I moved from a hero and the difference on audio quality is astounding (mainly use it in the car using the stereo audio in), brilliant.
The screen, well - this is simply astounding, its so clear, no blurring like people have mentioned and the colours are brilliant, to the point where non techy and techy folks are WOW'd by it completely! its my iPhone killer

gingepaul79 said:
I got the Omnia 7 nearly 2 weeks ago and can say without a shadow of a doubt its better than and HTC device Ive ever owned (from early win mo, to android, its been HTC all the way for me - just to provide evidence of non bias).
The camera is excellent on the Omnia, for both pics and video (I'm editing some bonfire night footage right now so will link to it once done), will also link to some random shots taken in different environments.
From boot time, to general use the phone is simply blazingly fast - and from what I read in another post it seems that samsung used Nand memory in this phone, hence the blazing speeds for games and boot (opposed to built in SD card).
The only negative is its 8GB, and thats it, but I never intended my phone to hold a musical backup nor do I see it as a grind to swap out music thats getting tired, videos are another story as they are generally a 'watch once' media (especially on the phone).
I cant faukt sound quality, I moved from a hero and the difference on audio quality is astounding (mainly use it in the car using the stereo audio in), brilliant.
The screen, well - this is simply astounding, its so clear, no blurring like people have mentioned and the colours are brilliant, to the point where non techy and techy folks are WOW'd by it completely! its my iPhone killer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, I look forward to seeing some pictures and video if you recorded some.

I've bad my omnia 7 since release date, and it's absolutely amazing. The screen is perfect, I've had no trouble in the sun, no bluey whites that people have mentioned. Also there is no problem with text at all. The phone is really nippy, and much better than other phones running off SD cards.
I also tested out the camera a lot, and love it. The pictures are amazing quality.
I also took some firework footage in 720p, i need to edit it together too. Only one thing i can fault when recording, sometimes the auto focus stopped focusing on the fireworks, which is understandable i guess. i was surprised how well it picked them up anyway. It always managed to pick up the lasers too. (please note this is coming from a complete novice to taking videos).
But overall the 720p video footages is amazing, especially from a phone :O
*EDIT*
Forgot to add, the favourite bit about my phone is the screen, because it is just amazing, when the blacks are so true, you can't see where the edge of the screen is, it blends in with the phone, what iphone can do that?!

First things first, I have the Omnia 7 and I love it. But at the same time, I know it's not going to be for everyone!
Everyone is waxing lyrical about the screen. The screen is indeed fantastic and especially with the black theme with coloured highlights and white text of WP7, the screen really is something to behold.
But having said that, there are factors which people should consider when getting this phone.
Sure it is faster than phones using the microSD cards but which would you rather have? 5GB of usable space, or upgradeable capacity?
For some, 5GB is not going to cut it...a few albums and a few videos and that's your phone full.
You can upgrade the likes of HD7 with a higher capacity card and it will run a little slower than the Omnia 7 but at least you will have most of your music stored on it.
so it's down to screen and speed vs capacity.
like I mentioned before, I have my dedicated mp3 players for music so the Omnia 7 is perfect for me.
If for some reason you prefer the below par sound that your phone will give you and would like to use your phone for music, then I'd have a good think!
plus the HD7 and Mozart screens (esp the latter) are really good.. just don't look at the Omnia 7 screen first!

HTC Eternity leaked: 4.7" Display, Front Facing Camera.

Competition for Nokia is starting, which is great for us
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/30/htc-eternity-leaked-1-5ghz-4-7-inch-display-front-facing-came/

Peew971 said:
Competition for Nokia is starting, which is great for us
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/30/htc-eternity-leaked-1-5ghz-4-7-inch-display-front-facing-came/
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Click to collapse
Yeah, just stumbled accross it on twitter. Pretty much reminds me of my next handset.

4.7 and 1.5 Single core. Fake. Or 4.3 with overclocked 1ghz, real.

Happy with the CPU and front facing camera, not so happy with the screen size. That's huuuge

Have to ask, what so special about this? Big screen, which could be too big and no AMOLED, slight bump in processor speed, typical crappy htc camera and of course inadequate storage. Heck even Dell now has 32GB DVP's. Since FFC's will likely come on most Mango handsets what has this got over a Nokia with a proven record in phone cameras and better build quality? Plus this looks like just another htc android handset so design wise again is behind Nokia. Add in Samsung and their Super Amoled II screens and this is not that impressive to me.

cmon htc......a screen that big needs an amoled display not SLCD. a sumsung device similar to the infuse 4g running wp7 will easily top this. in my opinion.
my next wp7 device must have and amoled screen and i was hoping it will come from htc, might just go Samsung or nokia depending on what tmobile picks up

efjay said:
Have to ask, what so special about this? Big screen, which could be too big and no AMOLED, slight bump in processor speed, typical crappy htc camera and of course inadequate storage. Heck even Dell now has 32GB DVP's. Since FFC's will likely come on most Mango handsets what has this got over a Nokia with a proven record in phone cameras and better build quality? Plus this looks like just another htc android handset so design wise again is behind Nokia. Add in Samsung and their Super Amoled II screens and this is not that impressive to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude u read my mind.....plus freaking one!

efjay said:
slight bump in processor speed
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A slight bump? It's a 50% bump. A 1.5 GHz single will probably outperform a 1 GHz dual core in most smartphone applications for the time being. This is the best CPU we can possibly get from this round of devices, I'm glad to see someone using it.

efjay said:
Have to ask, what so special about this? Big screen, which could be too big and no AMOLED, slight bump in processor speed, typical crappy htc camera and of course inadequate storage. Heck even Dell now has 32GB DVP's. Since FFC's will likely come on most Mango handsets what has this got over a Nokia with a proven record in phone cameras and better build quality? Plus this looks like just another htc android handset so design wise again is behind Nokia. Add in Samsung and their Super Amoled II screens and this is not that impressive to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really care for this particular phone (4.7" is mad anyway) but I like the idea that OEMs are prepared to make better phones this time around. If anything this gets me excited for Samsung's next phones.
Sent from my Samsung Omnia 7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Can't say I would want this size of phone, though it does sound nice. 4.3" is as big as I would care to go.

what a monster of phone
compared to the desire hd its again bigger:
http://versus.io/en/htc-eternity-vs-htc-desire-hd

MartyLK said:
Can't say I would want this size of phone, though it does sound nice. 4.3" is as big as I would care to go.
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Click to collapse
Have you ever played with the Infuse? It feels somehow smaller than the Inspire yet the screen is massive and sooo beautiful.

ryude said:
Have you ever played with the Infuse? It feels somehow smaller than the Inspire yet the screen is massive and sooo beautiful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a DVP (4" screen). The Infuse (4.5") makes my DVP look like Shaq to Vern Troyer. I can only imagine what a 4.7" screen would be like.
Anyway, that's overly large, for me anyway. I'll be looking at the next Samsung or more than likely Nokia, as Sammy is doin' wonky things with firmware.
But, I'll be keeping an eye out for the Acers and Fujitsus. All depends on what hits T-mobile. Either way, good to see that the OEMs are stepping up their hardware game, even if the designs aren't all that original.

Way to big, my max is 4"

Seriously, don't complain about 4.7". I have a 5" Dell Streak and it's perfectly pocketable and the browsing and gameplay experience is second to none.
Having said that, as much as Mango is a much more desirable release of WP7, I'd much prefer this device with Sense and Android Honeycomb.

It will be better if HTC trim outside screen area so they can have 4.7" screen with smaller size than the current design

That's a freaking huge phone. Curious: when you say the dell streak is pocketable, do you mean in normal jeans pockets ?

A few of my colleagues have dell streaks, and no they are not pocketable. They use a belt clip to hold it to their waist.

if the entire back panel was a battery, it would rock. too bad it won't be, and it will suck, like all phones' batteries do now.
someday they'll sacrifice being the thinnest for longevity. someday.

PG2G said:
A slight bump? It's a 50% bump. A 1.5 GHz single will probably outperform a 1 GHz dual core in most smartphone applications for the time being. This is the best CPU we can possibly get from this round of devices, I'm glad to see someone using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Complete bull****.

What a boring Sunday, I'ma make a long post to kill time.

I'm gonna talk about my one week+ old HOX, and like always, I have a lot to say.
To start with, my last phone was the Omnia II, and it was a piece of ****. I had no idea someone was capable of producing something so stupid I'm just totally shocked I mostly used it as a regular phone+music player. It sucked mainly because of the WM6.5 OS, its just funny how someone could even sell such a thing and call it a smartphone. Firstly the performance sucks and it's obvious, nothing goes beyond 10fps in WM6.5, you'd be lucky to get over 5. The music player playlist scrolls at about 3fps, the keyboard has a half second to one second lag, the browser runs at about 0.8fps, it is a full featured browser but you can barely browse the most plain mobile sites. With performance like this, multitasking can kiss my ass, how about get any single task done right before you can multitask? That resistive touchscreen also sucked, I was stupid I didn't do enough research to know the difference. Why would you have a phone screen that is NOT covered with glass? Why? Ignoring the obvious hardness differences, it sucks when those reflections on my screen are distorted, I wanna see a perfect mirror reflection, I'm a perfectionist ok? And of course there are about three apps for WM. I know there are more but they look like windows 95 and has tiny ui elements designed for styluses so they don't count. And those ones that look like windows XP or with lame 3d themes, SPB shell or some ****, those don't count as well.
Look at iPhone! That's how it should be done, everything must be perfectly smooth period. If its not smooth it's not even worth mentioning I don't care how many features you have. iPhone 4 really kicked android in the ass with that retina display. I still don't get it, even today people are releasing phones with this "qHD" resolution, wtf? That's just laughable it's lower than a phone released two years ago! With a much smaller screen! Really? Who's gonna accept that? Sometimes they even call it their "flagship" product, gimme a break. 720p is the minimum period.
So just a few weeks ago I was struggling to decide between the iPhone 4s, HOX the S3, and Sony's yet to be released waterproof 1.5ghz dual core phone. I can't wait for the Sony because iPhone 5 is coming out by the time they release it so that's out of the question. I already have the iPad so I decided to try out an android phone, already got a taste of iOS. I picked the HOX and here is why.
The Galaxy S III isn't as good looking as the HOX to begein with. Maybe Samsung has been having too many problems with patents their design is severely compromised it looks like a really cheap phone but obviously with latest technologies like that screen and its thickness. That bottom part looks really bad it reminds me of a really ugly version of the Omnia II, it looks so 2006 if you unrest and what I mean. That top part also look really bad with those obvious holes for sensors and cameras, they should be hidden like on the HOX. The back side and the rim also look like a very cheep phone but thinner and bigger.
The galaxy s3 screen is also bigger I think, but with the same resolution which makes its bigger size a negative fetus because it's harder to use. Oh wait, in fact it's of a lower resolution because of that pentile ****, it only has 2/3 the number of sub pixels as the HOX. The amoled display is vibrant but that's not equivalent to good because it's too vibrant and the colors are inaccurate. Take a look at a professional display review of the s3 all three primaries are way off they are over saturated. White balance is non existent it's too blue and sometimes green it hurts my eyes. The amoled display is also far dimmer than the HOX, doesn't bother me much but it's also a down point.
The S3 is slightly faster and has a bigger battery. But the Sense UI also look better and no I'm not a fan of flashing ROMs anymore. Honestly I don't give a **** about performance as long as it's smooth I'm happy, and I don't play 3d games at all. I saw this review concluding the s3 has a mich much battery life, I don't know what to say about their stupidity, it must have been tough finding someone to do that video review with a straight face. They test battery life by playing a video that's basically a static image, on max screen brightness. Ok to start with, the HOX has a much brighter screen, in fact, 60% brighter if I remember correctly. So the HOX shouldn't be competing on max brightness. It should be on 60%. Secondly that S3 has a freakin amoled display how can you compare that with an LCD? That stupid video they use is mostly dark blue with a small rainbow so the total display output of an oled display displaying that image is probably less than 33%. So, we should have the HOX's screen brightness decreased by another 66% down to 20% max brightness to be fair. Or, we should have a video with realistic scenarios like full white google home pages. But of course, the s3 with a bigger battery and it's more advanced processor is probably better on battery life in any case, just not by THAT much.
But that battery life advantage doesn't nearly compare with the HOX's much better looking unibody and its solid feel. HOX's better camera quality and speed. HOX's studio quality display, I just wish that display is 10-bit, cuz sometimes you see banding. Beats Audio is mostly advertising but it's not a bad addition.
However, using the HOX for a week, I found a couple of problems with android phones. For example, they're never ashamed of releasing unfinished products are they? How come LWP pauses when I swipe between home screens? Wtf is that all about? Releasing a feature that's partly or completely useless? It's not too bothering on non-parallax and slow LWPs, but that's not the best part of having a LWP is it? That's a big one but there are also some small ones like the photo stack widget, it resets to the first picture all the time. I can't uninstall useless ****s like google+, showme, latitude, local, locations, navigation, car.... I mean do we not have enough navigation apps already? I don't even think you can uninstall the setup wizard. In iOS you can't uninstall newsstand or reminder but at least you can hide them in a folder and their icons look really good, much better than "show me" at least. The system also doesn't come with a file manager, I wonder how youre supposed to empty your download folder, do you just let it eat up all your storage? And oh, the three dots of death, not too bothering, but it just leaves you thinking if HTC even test their phone, might as well just not have any of the touch buttons so I can feel lest wasteful?
and honestly, I don't like android's multitask system, because you don't know what's running and what's not running. In iOS you always know nothing is running, you don't worry about battery life. But in android they could all be running for all I know, but sometimes I also want an app to run in the background. There should be a better way to manage that. Like having a multitask bar like iOS, have most apps go on save state, but you can allow certain apps to run a background process which could be independently managed from save state. So I don't have to either kill an app or let it eat my battery.
Overall, I'm still really satisfied with the device. It's generally as smooth as the iPhone, browser performance is on par with the iPad2 which is good enough. Audio performance is also good with my Etymotic Research MC-5. And the screen is just a treat sometimes I press the power button just to see the beautiful screen showing my wallpaper. And the unibody, it feels much better than the S3 glossy plastic.

thx for this objective review
all ur info r 100% spot on
enjoy the hox, upcoming update that we have it leaked will solve the 3dot menu and 90% if the bugs also boost performance by a good margin (real performance not benchs)
yea too bad HTC made a very big mistake
they worked so hard for such a great device and total reboot for them but then shot themselves in the foot by rushing it out as they were worried about the s3 but it really had the opposite effect many of the early new comer adopters jumped ship (1.26 was a disaster)
speaking of the s3 my employer shares all ur points and he is dying to switch it with the hox

starting from ICS you can disable system apps (not all but most of them, maps and google+ for sure for example, and they bother you... like they bother me, lol)
just dont update them and from application's settings tap "disable" and they'll disappear from launcher (i guess it just "chmod -r" the apk), you dont have to be rooted for that
i've picked mine yesterday, used and bought 06-29 but the owner wanted to try the S3 and payed it a good price... it's awesome, no wifi issues of yellowish screen.
so far i'm really entusiastic...

jacobgong said:
But of course, the s3 with a bigger battery and it's more advanced processor is probably better on battery life in any case, just not by THAT much.
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Click to collapse
Great write up. And your bottom line conclusion's spot on. No phone is perfect. You compare the good against the bad against what's important to you and decide from there. No one's "wrong" in picking any of the phones you mentioned if it's "right" for them. After using the phone for a couple of months now there are some things that I'd like to see done differently and make me wonder what HTC was thinking. Then there's things that are so well done and seem so intuitive that they just make me smile. I just played a two hour and forty minute movie using HTC Watch via Media Link and not only did it work flawlessly in 720p, it only consumed 20% of my battery. The fact that a phone, any phone, can now do that is pretty amazing.
As for battery life. Exynos Quad is highly overrated; that or Teg3 is underrated. Comparing the One X to the SGS3 and adjusting for the differences in battery size, the One X actually performs better than the SGS3 in all but video playback where the darks of the content favor AMOLED. It's meaningless in real life because of the smaller fixed battery in the One X, but HTC, Nvidia, or both deserve a lot of credit for extracting that type of efficiency from a chip that's not exactly modern.
Enjoy your new phone...

But for some reason HTC decided you shouldn't be able to disable Google+ or show me, or setup wizard. While you can disable Facebook and YouTube.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

jacobgong said:
But for some reason HTC decided you shouldn't be able to disable Google+ or show me, or setup wizard. While you can disable Facebook and YouTube.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uninstall updates then you can disable.