Develop Bugs

Honest review from a critical nerd (me)

I've has my Galaxy Nexus for a couple of days now, on the Three network in the UK.
I hate how most people in reviews rave about phones when they have just forked out for them, and fail to mention any real negatives - presumably because they refuse to accept that something they've spent £500 on might be less than perfect. When you buy one and it's missing features or isn't quite what you expected, it's very annoying.
Here are my thoughts so far. I consider myself a power-user, and have tested almost everything. Overall, people are right. This is the best phone I've touched. I think once devs start optimising their apps to work properly on ICS it'll be even better. Fingers crossed that Cyanogen will address lots of the annoyances below.
I hope this is useful for someone
The Good:
Feels much more complete and unified.
It's lightening fast.
Most of the best bits of Android have transferred.
Screen looks great.
Face unlock works much better than I thought. Even in low light.
I've only had one crash despite installing a tonne of apps and testing every feature. [EDIT: a few FCs today. Mainly from the pre-installed Google Earth).
Radio seems to work fine on Three UK, unlike the SGS II which has data issues due to fast dormancy. Data speeds are great.
Browser generally much better.
Text input much better, but editing is a little confusing and seems to vary depending on app. [EDIT: This is actually phenomenal. I've always had a hardware keyboard or Swype before so no practice on these keyboards. After only 48 hours, I can literally type without looking. It is very good at correcting mistakes.]
Screen size is great for me, as I use my phones as mini-tablets. Doesn't feel bulky in my pocket at all.
BLUETOOTH STEREO FINALLY DOESN'T DISTORT - I can hear hi-hats again instead of just distortion. There is a bit of constant crackling though.
Screen remains responsive when charging. I have had an issue where it wasn't registering touch properly when charging on my Milestone, Desire and SGSII so this is really nice.
The Bad:
EVEN THOUGH I'M SUPPOSEDLY IN AN UNAFFECTED BAND, IF MY PHONE DROPS TO 2G, AND SOMEONE WALKS NEAR ME MAKING A PHONECALL IT PUTS MY PHONE ON SILENT.
The 'menu' button is unpredictable. For example, in most apps it appears at the bottom with the softkeys. In Market it's up at the top, near the search button. In some apps, it has gone. Seems to vary and is confusing.
You're stuck with the Google search box on you home screen. I hate this.
Now the button has gone, if an app doesn't have a search icon, you've lost the ability to search.
Also means no long press search, so you have to go back to the home screen for voice commands. This also means that regardless of what launcher you use, if you want voice search, you NEED to have the Google search widget on your home screen.
No USB Mass Storage – they've opted for media device profile instead. My Xbox recognises it but can't play any content. It doesn't work with my car stereo. It doesn't work with my TV. My laptop will see it, but I can't see certain hidden folders. This has just removed a huge aspect of flexibility from Android. It's no longer universal, and more like an iPhone now in that respect.
Icons are as ugly in real life as everyone expected.
Blue theme clashes with everything except blue. Blue icons on blue background feels very bland.
There is a huge problem with speech to text, whereby it is very slow, and seems to just write a list of names out of my contacts directory rather than writing what I say! Video here: http://youtu.be/qHVptz2EtMk
No longer accepts certain file formats over Bluetooth.
Camera seems buggy when reviewing photos. It works confusingly.
Gallery is not very intuitive at all.
Browser doesn't display Javascript animations properly.
Dropped a few calls.
Wifi range isn't as good as my other Androids
Front facing camera doesn't aim inwards towards your face. It points straight forward at 90 degrees, but it's positioned on the right of the device, so your face isn't central unless you hold the phone at a bit of an angle facing away from you. [EDIT - this is getting very annoying now. You have to have the phone screen pointing almost away from you to video call]
Bluetooth calls don't seem to work. Caller can't hear what I'm saying. [EDIT - I'm told it works on newer kits. Mine is a Jabra stereo receiver]
Bluetooth music has a constant crackling behind it, but it's barely noticeable in loud music.
All albumart appears in the phone gallery.
Google Talk seems to sign out after a while. It's showing all of my contacts as away even though I know they're online. Signing out and in again fixes this temporarily, but I'm guessing I would miss video calls whilst offline.
Phone has gone to permanent sleep about 3 times in 2 and a half days now. Requires a battery pull to get it back on.
Apps - If you can't live without these, I'd recommend waiting to buy until they're fixed
No menu button is shown on Facebook, so there's no way to set it up to sync contacts or notifications. This means no contact photos for now.
Twitter on the other hand syncs all my contacts, despite me telling it not to.
Doesn't support Swype as yet.
Doesn't support MX Video Player.
iPlayer not available in the Market.
Grooveshark app doesn't work due to lack of flash player. You can use Dood's music streamer for a functional but unattractive alternative.

Thanks for the review and honesty. It would be nice if you kept this updated as either your opinion changes or things are fixed from either Google or app developers.

Is web browser as smooth (scrolling, pinch to zoom) as one on the galaxy s2?

I really beginning to wonder if Verizon is going to put these out there in two weeks without some fixes/improvements in place. I mean, if December 8 is real, these phones have got be in sealed boxes already. People will be returning them faster than they sell them.

hrcro said:
Is web browser as smooth (scrolling, pinch to zoom) as one on the galaxy s2?
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Click to collapse
It feels a lot smoother than my Galaxy S II did.
I'm about to test the bluetooth quality, as crackling audio was my biggest pet hate from previous Android versions.

Can you resize the search widget? If we are stuck with it maybe something smaller will help minimize that particular drawback.

have you got an otg usb cable? can you hook up a thumb drive?
Sent from my Google Nexus S using Tapatalk

suomaf said:
have you got an otg usb cable? can you hook up a thumb drive?
Sent from my Google Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, please test it. whole forum with owners GN but nobody had test this opportunity yet

I hope yopu don't mind but I am going to hijack this thread and also post a quick review from a similar nerd is maybe over critical. Saves starting a new thread.
The Good
ICS is very polished, much more so than any other version of android, it tries to stay consistent through the whole phone where as in previous versions it was one of my main annoyances.
The device looks fantastic.
The speed is very good, I wouldn't say it is any faster than a SGS2 with a custom rom IMO but it is a lot smother in animation etc. so it feels a lot faster.
The screen is very nice, playing videos when the screen is set up to an acceptable brightness are amazing with colours a lot more natural than the SGS2 or the yellow tint of the iphone 4.
Radio is very good also, getting full signal in my house where as before i would only receive 2-3 bars.
Text input is a lot better although i have found it is unable to keep up with my typing, although it is putting the letters down it almost seems like there is a little delay in the animation of them magnifying.
Notification light is back and I am glad, as I missed that feature on my SGS2.
Has everything, NFC, noise cancelling mic, 720p display and ICS. Its pretty much future proof (in terms of the next few years)
Zero shutter lag is a very good feature
Bad Points
The screen although very nice on full or half brightness is not very good on auto brightness. It is so much lower compared to all my other smart phones it is almost unusable I find so I have had to manually set the brightness.
Auto rotate as I have mentioned in another thread is very inconsistent, very fast in some apps nearly non existent in others.
Sound quality is quiet, not poor quality but very quiet. My SGS2 and iPhone 4 over power it when playing videos.
The browser is fast but it is not as fast as my SGS2 running Check Rom Revolution HD. It is deffo faster than the iPhone 4.
The camera is not great, its not bad but the quality feels like it is from a year old device. Quite grainy, not as good as the SGS2 or the iphone 4s unfortunately.
And lastly a few quirks which I am sure will be sorted out with an over the air update, occasional stutter when opening app draw, gallery doesn't seem terribly smooth when going through photos and the auto rotate is just annoying me.
Other than the above I don't want people to read this and think it is doom and gloom because it isn't. This is a very very good device, I am glad I purchased it because it is still the best phone on the market in my opinion.
Every phone has its niggles but that is why this forum is so great, I am looking forward to the community baked roms which always make a device go from very good to just awesome.
To answer some question, you can't resize the search bar. Its not really a widget its sort of like the controls at the bottom, permanently there.

when typing does it type well, what I mean is it off when typing and you keep getting bad letters up, I had that problem with the SGS2 someone mentioned it was a screen problem that it kept jumping
thanks

bmstrong said:
Can you resize the search widget? If we are stuck with it maybe something smaller will help minimize that particular drawback.
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Click to collapse
Nope, can't resize it. It's there permanently. You'd have to install another launcher.
Added a few more to the list, mainly to do with Bluetooth.

Is FM radio working with Spirit FM Radio app?

justabrake said:
when typing does it type well, what I mean is it off when typing and you keep getting bad letters up, I had that problem with the SGS2 someone mentioned it was a screen problem that it kept jumping
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it types really well, I don't think I have mistyped once on there and I type real fast.

Good lord. That's a lot of negatives. Thanks for the honest review for undecided minds like me. Just two questions. If you use a 3rd party launcher (for example adw) will the google search bar still be present? Secondly, how does the GPS perform in terms of fix time and accuracy? Does barometer really help GPS fix time? Thanks

luffyp said:
Secondly, how does the GPS perform in terms of fix time and accuracy? Does barometer really help GPS fix time? Thanks
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Click to collapse
The GPS fix for me is very fast, easily within a second or so. Much faster than my Desire was, that's for sure.

A lot of those negatives either will be resolved soon by Google or they won't be a problem for the majority of people
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

OP > when typing does it type well, what I mean is it off when typing and you keep getting bad letters up, I had that problem with the SGS2 someone mentioned it was a screen problem that it kept jumping
thanks

mike freegan said:
You're stuck with the Google search box on you home screen. I hate this.
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Click to collapse
Ugh.
This is going to be problematic with my live clock wallpaper that is displayed at the top of the screen. Anyone else use WP Clock?
Here's an example of the live wallpaper I'm talking about:

luffyp said:
Good lord. That's a lot of negatives. Thanks for the honest review for undecided minds like me. Just two questions. If you use a 3rd party launcher (for example adw) will the google search bar still be present? Secondly, how does the GPS perform in terms of fix time and accuracy? Does barometer really help GPS fix time? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you have to bare in mind that ICS is a big over haul, so if we were to list all the positives it would be a pretty big list. I am just venting my negatives of the device, but when you compare them to how good the device is they really are small and I would rather have this handset than any other. I forked out for both my SGS2 and the Galaxy Nexus sim free and i am not dissapointed with either. If you are undecided on whether to upgrade you have to look at the fact that this phone does have everything, is a developer phone and has ICS written specifically for it. I would say go for it.
If you use a 3rd party launcher the Google search will not be present, my GPS has been excellent, I have used it for a few car journeys and it is just as good as my SGS2 which was superb.

jms.flynn said:
Well you have to bare in mind that ICS is a big over haul, so if we were to list all the positives it would be a pretty big list. I am just venting my negatives of the device, but when you compare them to how good the device is they really are small and I would rather have this handset than any other. I forked out for both my SGS2 and the Galaxy Nexus sim free and i am not dissapointed with either. If you are undecided on whether to upgrade you have to look at the fact that this phone does have everything, is a developer phone and has ICS written specifically for it. I would say go for it.
If you use a 3rd party launcher the Google search will not be present, my GPS has been excellent, I have used it for a few car journeys and it is just as good as my SGS2 which was superb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep I know, ICS seems to be the biggest change among the previous Android versions. Together with Google & developers' support, it's why I want to jump ship to the Nexus line. At the moment I'm leaning towards it, just wanna read more reviews. Although the volume adjusting problem that many people are having is a bit of a concern. Hopefully it will be fixed by a software update.

[Q] No Text Rewrap on defualt browser?

This is my first non-HtC phone and am quite disappointed and frustrated at the lack of pinch to zoom as well as text rewrapping with the default browser on my GSM Galixy Nexus. I tried other browsers(Chrome, Dolphin HD and Opera)but all with mixed results. Dolphin didn't zoom at all, Crhome did but doesn't rewrap and Opera did both but only on certain sites. What's the deal here? Are HtC phones the only ones on the planet that are capable of performing this no-brainer feature on mobile web browsing, or is there a browser or custom rom that anybody can suggest to me, that will do this for me. Having to squint to read text is no fun and quite headache inducing, and text not fitting the screen properly, all but negates the point of having a large screen if I'm constantly having to zoom left and right to read it all. Thanks ahead of time for anyone willing and able to help remedy this maddening issue.

The text will reflow, you just have to double tap the text after you pinch. Its not like htc that doed it automatically.

RogerPodacter said:
The text will reflow, you just have to double tap the text after you pinch. Its not like htc that doed it automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm this and thankfully it isn't like the HTC way, it is optional and I love it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

issue pretty much solved
Well thankfully after going through a stock 4.0.1 rom to a custom 4.0.2 to now a 4.0.3 rom I finally have the more consistent pinch to zoom capability with the browser. It doesn't rewrap quite as well but at least it does it. I'm curious as to why you and other prefer it not to work like HTC does it? What's the downside to having it rewrap automatically? I'm fine with double tapping to do it too just as long as it does it. But if you can skip that step altogether, why not?

happyhd2owner said:
Well thankfully after going through a stock 4.0.1 rom to a custom 4.0.2 to now a 4.0.3 rom I finally have the more consistent pinch to zoom capability with the browser. It doesn't rewrap quite as well but at least it does it. I'm curious as to why you and other prefer it not to work like HTC does it? What's the downside to having it rewrap automatically? I'm fine with double tapping to do it too just as long as it does it. But if you can skip that step altogether, why not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just like options haha
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

happyhd2owner said:
What's the downside to having it rewrap automatically? I'm fine with double tapping to do it too just as long as it does it. But if you can skip that step altogether, why not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate this automatic text wrapping feature. The only time I really use pinch to zoom is when I want to fokus on something "small" and hard to hit like a link (I use double tap to zoom in on a paragraph for reading. I find that much more convenient). When the text automatically rewraps after zooming I almost all the time lose my original zoom target. It's so annoying that I was glad to see that Google only rewrap text on demand.
But I think many like the automatic text rewrap. All I can say is that I'm not one of them.

Just fyi the galaxy nexus works the same as my nexus one. Stock android browser has always functioned like this, its not new. Htc always changed it on their devices.

Well, I've since found a rom where the browser does a little better with the zooming in and rewrapping, so I can finally put that behind me. I guess the tid bit that you mentioned about the stock browser acting that way shouldn't have been too big of a surprise to me. When I had the HD2 with Windows 6.5, I was so excited at the ability to port Android roms to it, so I put one on there based off of a Nexus One rom. The browser acted just as you said. Only roms meant for HTc phones and of course genuine HTC sense roms all acted the way I'm used to. I guess I was just so flabbergasted and frustrated that automatic text rewrapping was either not as in demand by other users I would have imagined, or that HTC had some how weren't allowing others to tweak the browser in that way. Double tapping is a fine and fair compromise though.

gokpog said:
I hate this automatic text wrapping feature. The only time I really use pinch to zoom is when I want to fokus on something "small" and hard to hit like a link (I use double tap to zoom in on a paragraph for reading. I find that much more convenient). When the text automatically rewraps after zooming I almost all the time lose my original zoom target. It's so annoying that I was glad to see that Google only rewrap text on demand.
But I think many like the automatic text rewrap. All I can say is that I'm not one of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might try giving Chrome Beta a try. In the default ICS browser, double tapping pretty much just zooms you in by a random/arbitrary amount. Chrome Beta acts a little more like the iPhone in that when you double tap on an element (like a paragraph or picture) it zooms to fit that element on screen. Works perfectly IMO.

Galaxy nexus browser experience

I come from HTC sensation, T-Mobile galaxy s 2, galaxy s 2 I9100, international galaxy note and I believe the galaxy nexus has the overall best browsing experience. It loads pages SUPER FAST!!! Flash content loads up in no time, scrolling is very smooth so is pinch to zoom ( not as smooth as the galaxy s 2 but can't complain), the resolution and the screen size is also awesome. I love the lab feature when u get rid of the address bar and use the quick controls I think its very intuitive. For a phone with " lower " specs than the competition I say the nexus kick some serious ass in the browsing department. Your thoughts?

barondebxl said:
I come from HTC sensation, T-Mobile galaxy s 2, galaxy s 2 I9100, international galaxy note and I believe the galaxy nexus has the overall best browsing experience. It loads pages SUPER FAST!!! Flash content loads up in no time, scrolling is very smooth so is pinch to zoom ( not as smooth as the galaxy s 2 but can't complain), the resolution and the screen size is also awesome. I love the lab feature when u get rid of the address bar and use the quick controls I think its very intuitive. For a phone with " lower " specs than the competition I say the nexus kick some serious ass in the browsing department. Your thoughts?
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Click to collapse
I agree. The BEST thing about this phone is the 720p screen. Mhl adapter to my TV and watch Netflix, or flash videos on the big screen!
I always use Dolphin, but I'm tempted to start using stock browser.

WAIT get ics browser+ . Same as stock but with added goodies. Quick controls i couldnt live without no more! I beg you to give it a go! Btw the developer is BEANSOFT. Hope this helps

Forgot to say it in my OP but the only thing that bothers me sometimes in the browser is when you double tap to zoom sometimes instead of zooming, it clicks on a link or pic or whatever is on the page. But yeah, excellent browser!

Chrome beta is nice too, just no flash.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I really like Chrome too...... Dolphin is not bad either

I enjoy Chrome too over the Stock browser and it's apparently going to be leaving the beta stage fairly soon.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/24/2972671/chrome-for-android-coming-soon

barondebxl said:
Flash content loads up in no time... Your thoughts?
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Click to collapse
What’s a Flash content? Is this the animated stuff that people used to use make their web pages more annoying?

Adobe Air really helps with YouTube hiccups. Trust me. I dont know what is going on with YouTube these days but the loading lag is very annoying. Air helps.
Sent from my Xoom using xda premium

If you think the browsing is good, which it is, install ics + browser. Holy hell is it good.
Then with aokp you hide the bottom buttons, and wow what a browsing experience!

RogerPodacter said:
If you think the browsing is good, which it is, install ics + browser. Holy hell is it good.
Then with aokp you hide the bottom buttons, and wow what a browsing experience!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what he said, the gn is my first phone that i browse with regularly. websites look amazing fullscreen 720p without the nav buttons. quick controls makes navigating sites so easy.

I haven't been able to use anything but Chrome since switching to the GNex. The way it handles tabs blows all other Android browsers out of the water, in my opinion. Add to that the ability to sync your open web pages across all your devices! I find that I do not miss the lack of flash; if I absolutely need it I will fire up ICS Browser +

thunderinacircle said:
I haven't been able to use anything but Chrome since switching to the GNex. The way it handles tabs blows all other Android browsers out of the water, in my opinion. Add to that the ability to sync your open web pages across all your devices! I find that I do not miss the lack of flash; if I absolutely need it I will fire up ICS Browser +
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do like the concept of the chrome browser, how you can switch pages by swiping through them is very nice, also the tab management looks cool. But for some reason chrome, for me, isn't as responsive as the stock browser. When I'm trying to pinch to zoom or scroll through the page it takes a couple of second before registering my gestures. As far as ICS browser + it's pretty much the same as stock but with more features. While its cool that it adds more quick controls I think it's annoying that they take a big space when u activate it. Sometimes you just wanna scroll and they appear taking a big chunk of the page. I personally prefer the stock browser but who am I to say which is best for others.

barondebxl said:
I do like the concept of the chrome browser, how you can switch pages by swiping through them is very nice, also the tab management looks cool. But for some reason chrome, for me, isn't as responsive as the stock browser. When I'm trying to pinch to zoom or scroll through the page it takes a couple of second before registering my gestures. As far as ICS browser + it's pretty much the same as stock but with more features. While its cool that it adds more quick controls I think it's annoying that they take a big space when u activate it. Sometimes you just wanna scroll and they appear taking a big chunk of the page. I personally prefer the stock browser but who am I to say which is best for others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right on. I like some of the stuff paradigm, aokp and ezekeel put out but I keep coming back for stock. Google polished ICS well.
sent with 3g courage. better recognize. 4g courage coming soon. stock up on diapers.

RogerPodacter said:
If you think the browsing is good, which it is, install ics + browser. Holy hell is it good.
Then with aokp you hide the bottom buttons, and wow what a browsing experience!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what i use (read my other post) how good are quick controls!

When I first got the phone I decided I was going to stick with a lot of the stock options to begin with and see how they fared, and I'm still using the browser. I gave Chrome a try briefly, and may have stayed on it, but then changed the DPI to 240 which it doesn't like, so I'm back on the stock.
It's smooth and responsive, and I'm a huge fan of the quick menu enabled in the labs section. My brother got a Nexus recently, and one of the first things I did for him was to set up the quick menu options for him in the browser.

Yeah is good. The only thing I don't like is the bookmarks, is all random not like the htc browser that you can sort by mostly used.

The ics + browser quick controls handling of multiple tabs is unmatched. Even chrome doesn't do it for me.
Plus chrome is not as smooth at all.

I love Chrome Beta, and it keeps getting better. No flash is a non-issue; Adobe officially dropped support for mobile flash last November. They're going to instead focus on HTML5-- something that Chrome *does* support, and quite well I might add.

Jelly Bean Browser Zoom Too Sensitive

I've used just about every browser but have been pretty happy with the stock Android browser since ICS until now.
I've noticed since I've upgraded to JB official version via ota that just touching the screen and scrolling starts zooming. This doesn't always happen and is hard to intentionally replicate because it seems to happen more on some sites than others but it is becoming increasingly annoying.
I like just beinc able to double tap to zoom but now it seems to zoom at random with just one press.
The other small improvements to the factory browser are pretty nice but I'm not sure what's going on here.
I Googled this issue and even tried to look up specific JB changes pertaining to the stock Android browser but haven't seen anything about single touch zoom or rather random zoom.
Any thoughts (besides just download xyz browser)?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Your touching the left or right side of the screen, slide up is zoom in, slide down is zoom out....was trippin me out to until I figured out where to touch. Allows for one finger zoom and works in dolphin as well, prolly other browsers but haven't tested any yet.

epic4GEE said:
Your touching the left or right side of the screen, slide up is zoom in, slide down is zoom out....was trippin me out to until I figured out where to touch. Allows for one finger zoom and works in dolphin as well, prolly other browsers but haven't tested any yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent that seems to be correct. Thank you. It was driving me crazy.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Does anyone know how to disable this? I HATE IT!

^ this..

Bump. I hate this as well. It's redundant when we already have a gesture for zooming: pinching. And we can't afford to waste any more screen real estate on our phones.

Ditto
hope there's an option soon to disable. hate going to stock email app, opening an email, wanting to scroll through fast to read but instead zoom that thing large enough for my great grandmother to read. And it always seems easier for me to zoom in rather than zoom out. hahaha

Too annoying!
Hard to believe there is no option to disable this obnoxious annoyance. I'm fairly new to Android but if this was my old winmo I'd scour the registry and surely locate an entry to tweak.
Is there somewhere similar on the Android filesystem or through the terminal I could begin to look for a tweak?

koma312 said:
Hard to believe there is no option to disable this obnoxious annoyance. I'm fairly new to Android but if this was my old winmo I'd scour the registry and surely locate an entry to tweak.
Is there somewhere similar on the Android filesystem or through the terminal I could begin to look for a tweak?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I read in the MOAR thread that it was disabled in MA6.

Android is hard-coded. Samsung are morons.
koma312 said:
Hard to believe there is no option to disable this obnoxious annoyance. I'm fairly new to Android but if this was my old winmo I'd scour the registry and surely locate an entry to tweak.
Is there somewhere similar on the Android filesystem or through the terminal I could begin to look for a tweak?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I am finding is the Android environment is pretty much all hard-coded. So unless the developer have you a setting where you could flip a switch, you're stuck with it, or you are downloading customs from here.
I actually like the slide zoom feature although as others have stated, at first I thought there was a bug that was causing it to zoom on its own. l suspect, like you I am used to using the slider in Windows at the right edge to scroll down the page of email.
Anyway, I have since gotten used to it and now am not going to perform the update to MA6/MB1 because I depend on it for one handed email.
What is most frustrating is to know they know it is a hard-coded environment and they could have just as easily added a switch to disable the feature (which by the way is undocumented - and Samsung chat support will tell you doesn't exist) rather than to simply disable. it.

SprintGalSII said:
What I am finding is the Android environment is pretty much all hard-coded. So unless the developer have you a setting where you could flip a switch, you're stuck with it, or you are downloading customs from here.
I actually like the slide zoom feature although as others have stated, at first I thought there was a bug that was causing it to zoom on its own. l suspect, like you I am used to using the slider in Windows at the right edge to scroll down the page of email.
Anyway, I have since gotten used to it and now am not going to perform the update to MA6/MB1 because I depend on it for one handed email.
What is most frustrating is to know they know it is a hard-coded environment and they could have just as easily added a switch to disable the feature (which by the way is undocumented - and Samsung chat support will tell you doesn't exist) rather than to simply disable. it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, so they did disable it. I was going nuts trying to figure out why it no longer worked. I was actually starting to like it too- it was pretty handy for one-handed browsing. They should've just kept it as a settings option.

[Q] A bit disappointed of the Tab S (stuttering/lag).is there any trick to fix them?

Hi guys I just bought my Tab S 10.5 (T800) a couple of days ago, however I'm finding some annoyances, that are giving me a headache when using it and are making me think, to return it
1) When i'm scrolling a website or flipboard in my usual way/speed the text/images appears to jump a tinny bit like if it's stuttering, instead of smooth transitions.
2) When the keyboard "launches" it doesn't matter if I turn off the animations or put them at .5 or 1x, when on the browser I'm trying to type something on a search bar there is a white tail before and after the keyboard launch, this tail makes the content on the bottom of the keyboard to appears like a flash. However this doesn't happen when trying to type an url, This is better noticed on a dark background for example go to this site mary-black.net (or whatever site which has an embedded search and uses a dark background) and launch the keyboard trying to type something on the search bar and then hide the keyboard.
The keyboard "white tail" doesn't happen on my sero 7 pro running an AOSP rom, however it has some stuttering while browsing, but I though it was because some kind of underpower, because my S4 running a touchwiz rom it doesn't stutter at all it's like butter on every single scrolling page/app/etc but it has also that "white tail" sometimes but it's so quick and is not my main browsing device, so I was trying to replace my main tablet an ipad 2 (7.1.2) which it browse like a champ exactly as my S4 and is way better than this Tab S
yeah I have tried a lot of browsers, maxthon, chrome, firefox,opera, dolphin, boat, and the less worst is the stock one
Oh and also it seems to not hold webpages on ram, because when I go to a link and then go back, instead of showing me the content right away, it shows a blank page and suddenly the content, however this a problem because if i was on a search or something it brings me to the top of the page again, and also typing something on a search is laggy, the letter don't go with the keystroke.
BTW: I don't use touchwiz launcher, I'm using nova/apex.
I have enabled also Force GPU Rendering and Turn off/on hardware overlays. nothing seems to fix it.
Also have found that the performance is not consistent at all, sometimes the apps load very fast, browse very fast and it's a pleasure, but sometimes it lags, yeah not like a minute or so, but the overall experience using it, is not something I was expecting, I was expecting at least the same behavior of my S4 and S2 and way better than my old ipad 2, and unfortunately none of those are met
Any ideas ?
Thanks.

You need to do a video to prove it, that's how it goes around here.

1) same here. I is only slight stuttering and only when scrolling intensively, but it is noticeable. I tried all the browsers, but best in this regard is stock browser, followed by chrome browser (which I currently use). Some of the other browsers have even more severe problems regarding scrolling and also impose certain lag registering scroll gesture.
2) I am using TouchPal and not seeing any keyboard "white tail".
3) Webpage caching: yes, it does not keep pages in RAM and requires a reload. Particularly annoying when on a mobile connection. I've not yet come across any browser that does a proper RAM caching of pages. Also the OS seems to grab the RAM. E.g., when you have multiple tabs open and switch between Apps it does reload all the tabs. Ridiculous. At 3GB the Tab S should have plenty of RAM.
Overall the Tab S hardware is capable enough to provide a smooth user experience even with the above issues. But still I am hoping for some fix.
Probably some tweak of the memory management could help? Also investigation of background load. Seemingly there are to many services that do indexing, report back to Google or Samsung, check updates etc. Probably also the Mali-T628 GPU has some premature driver implementation? Or maybe the Samsung color enhancement for AMOLED is the culprit?

kenkiller said:
You need to do a video to prove it, that's how it goes around here.
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Click to collapse
Cool, I have a feeling that you tough I was trolling , well here they are, this one shows the ugly white tale, and it also happens using google keyboard, and any keyboard.
http://youtu.be/kfUbyTVjF6I
As you can see that "white tale" is not present when trying to type an url.
Here is one with the stutter very visible.
http://youtu.be/f9DHYdlc4d0
Here is one showing the reloading on going back. which btw it also shows how with only one finger touching the screen it sometimes act as 2 (pinch to zoom) this little problem is very rare but it's not the first time has happen, and you can see the lag on the keyboard before launching also, there is that "white" then the keyboard.
fingers http://youtu.be/axCsmkgCXws
Here is one comparing the scrolling on the same content first the ipad 2 and then the tab S
http://youtu.be/0TYgm43eBxc
The ipad also has a bit stuttering, but not as much as the S, which IMO this should not be happening, the S has way more power/ram than the old ipad 2
I hope yours is not acting like this, could you please provide a video if yours is working at it supposed to be..
pibach said:
1) same here. I is only slight stuttering and only when scrolling intensively, but it is noticeable. I tried all the browsers, but best in this regard is stock browser, followed by chrome browser (which I currently use). Some of the other browsers have even more severe problems regarding scrolling and also impose certain lag registering scroll gesture.
2) I am using TouchPal and not seeing any keyboard "white tail".
3) Webpage caching: yes, it does not keep pages in RAM and requires a reload. Particularly annoying when on a mobile connection. I've not yet come across any browser that does a proper RAM caching of pages. Also the OS seems to grab the RAM. E.g., when you have multiple tabs open and switch between Apps it does reload all the tabs. Ridiculous. At 3GB the Tab S should have plenty of RAM.
Overall the Tab S hardware is capable enough to provide a smooth user experience even with the above issues. But still I am hoping for some fix.
Probably some tweak of the memory management could help? Also investigation of background load. Seemingly there are to many services that do indexing, report back to Google or Samsung, check updates etc. Probably also the Mali-T628 GPU has some premature driver implementation? Or maybe the Samsung color enhancement for AMOLED is the culprit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the more you start using the tablet, the more stuttering it appears, and also when trying to open the recent apps, sometimes there is also a lot of lag until everything appear. The problem with this is they are not predictable.
I tried that keyboard and is doing me exactly the same (white tale), I think this is because instead of launching the keyboard and the placeholder at the same time, they are launched a different time, and I have just confirmed this enabling Layout boundaries under developer options. :/

My 8.4 works exactly as yours. That's how it is.
white tale seems to be some re-rendering issue of the app, not the keyboard.
One might check with Cyanogenmod whether it persists there too. Pretty sure it is some SW issue, HW should be plenty capable.

pibach said:
My 8.4 works exactly as yours. That's how it is.
white tale seems to be some re-rendering issue of the app, not the keyboard.
One might check with Cyanogenmod whether it persists there too. Pretty sure it is some SW issue, HW should be plenty capable.
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Click to collapse
I bet it's software issues, launching the placeholder for the keyboard before and after the keyboard. But to be honest I don't want to install Cyanogen or aosp to this tablet, because that will break sidesync, multi window, s planner and s finder. if I would need to flash those roms to be able to enjoy the hardware then I would go with a boring but trusty ipad or wait to see what is announced on september at the IFA.

- Similar hardware used on phones with 1080p screen to drive 1600p screen, which is almost twice as many pixels to render. The GPU is working extra hard but should still cope.
- TouchWiz makes this much worse and through past discussions, this is mostly the cause of the lags and stutters. If you use some other popular launcher, lags and stutters would almost be non-existent.
- iOS on iPads and iPhones are smooth because Apple only need to focus on optimising on their own hardware. Android on the other hand has to work on so many combinations of hardware out there, it's much more difficult to make things buttery smooth like iOS.
I see these issues as well on my 8.4, but not enough to get bothered by it, but would welcome any improvement through OTAs.

Replacing the launcher has zero effect on anything except launching an app!
There might be some touchwiz related code behind the scenes, but to replace that you need a revised ROM.

ShadowFlare said:
- Similar hardware used on phones with 1080p screen to drive 1600p screen, which is almost twice as many pixels to render. The GPU is working extra hard but should still cope.
- TouchWiz makes this much worse and through past discussions, this is mostly the cause of the lags and stutters. If you use some other popular launcher, lags and stutters would almost be non-existent.
- iOS on iPads and iPhones are smooth because Apple only need to focus on optimising on their own hardware. Android on the other hand has to work on so many combinations of hardware out there, it's much more difficult to make things buttery smooth like iOS.
I see these issues as well on my 8.4, but not enough to get bothered by it, but would welcome any improvement through OTAs.
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Click to collapse
I'm using Nova or Apex, yeah those don't have lag on the major of transitions, but sometimes they stutter just a bit, yeah not a breaking deal. But the stuttering while browsing/reading and the keyboard issue is making me have headaches, and that will not be solved using another launcher.
I understand that point regarding iOS, but trust me, my S4 is running on a touchwiz rom and it doesn't act like this tab S, geez even my old S2 never acted like this.

Regarding three Samsung bloatware, there are replacements for each of them, if you really need that. I personally think, most of it is just premature and unnecessary. Multi window for example. What do you do with that? I just have GMD gesture control with some user defined gesture to switch between the last apps.

pibach said:
Regarding three Samsung bloatware, there are replacements for each of them, if you really need that. I personally think, most of it is just premature and unnecessary. Multi window for example. What do you do with that? I just have GMD gesture control with some user defined gesture to switch between the last apps.
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Click to collapse
I run excel spreadsheets while browsing for making quotes, compare values and stuff like that, need to compare spreadsheets with word documents, to give you an idea I use 3 monitors for my desktop.
So actually multiwindow is a very usefull "gadget" for me, and that's what got my attention, the 3gb of ram I though well this will handle my workload with out a problem, 10.5" screen good space for multi window, and well the exynos ? I would prefer a snapdragon version, but I don't need LTE on my tablet as always I can theter from my S4, and none local store have one with snapdragon in case I need to return it or something.
And yeah GMD Gestures is a must for a tablet.

I now own two of these devices, a 10.5 and an 8.4. I use Nova Launcher. Even running stock OTA I have never experienced any scrolling lag or stutter using the stock browser. My only complaints were some keyboard lag which I believe disabling DVFS improved and using a firewall hack to speed up embedded video steaming. Other than that and the typical pageload lag JavaScript causes I have had zero lag or stutter issues with either tablet.
As setup currently both of these tabs are completely smooth.

mitchellvii said:
I now own two of these devices, a 10.5 and an 8.4. I use Nova Launcher. Even running stock OTA I have never experienced any scrolling lag or stutter using the stock browser. My only complaints were some keyboard lag which I believe disabling DVFS improved and using a firewall hack to speed up embedded video steaming. Other than that and the typical pageload lag JavaScript causes I have had zero lag or stutter issues with either tablet.
As setup currently both of these tabs are completely smooth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait.... So yours are not showing that white tail or the keyboard placeholder like mine is doing it here http://youtu.be/kfUbyTVjF6I ?

CyberManiaK said:
Wait.... So yours are not showing that white tail or the keyboard placeholder like mine is doing it here http://youtu.be/kfUbyTVjF6I ?
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Click to collapse
OK I see your problem. The fade animation is working properly when you select the address bar but not when you select a text box on the actual website. I think this is just the website re rendering as the keyboard closes since you were interacting with it. You only really notice it because the background of your website is dark.
I believe this is a stock browser thing as it does not do this using Dolphin.

mitchellvii said:
No. Mine does a nice fade and drop down animation. What yours is doing should not be happening.
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Click to collapse
Yeah that kinda of fade is what I'm not getting, it only does that fade when i'm typing on the address bar, but when i'm typing on something inside a webpage that trail appears. In what build are you ? Mine is NFB, hope anybody else can confirm if they have it or not and what mods are running.
I did factory reset but didn't solve it.
EDIT: Well this happen on white pages also, "covering" what is on screen. I did that on a dark background because is more apparent. If I enable layout bounds on developer options it shows that the placeholder is triggering before the actual keyboard. Tomorrow i will make a video with the layouts enabled.
And mine is doing it with every browser i have tested.

CyberManiaK said:
Yeah that kinda of fade is what I'm not getting, it only does that fade when i'm typing on the address bar, but when i'm typing on something inside a webpage that trail appears. In what build are you ? Mine is NFB, hope anybody else can confirm if they have it or not and what mods are running.
I did factory reset but didn't solve it.
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I changed my original post. I think you missed it. Yes I am getting same thing in stock browser. This does not occur using Dolphin. Not a Tab S issue. A stock browser issue. The dark background of your website makes it more noticeable.
Update. Does it in Chrome browser too. If that bothers you try Dolphin browser.

I got the same white tail issue also in chrome browser.
Dolphin doesn't do that, gives a bit better re-rendering. But Dolphin mini also struggles. Weird.
Both are slightly more sluggish in scrolling, that's most important, so I sorted them out.
Also that nonsens gesture implementation (requires to press a button first) did not win me.

There is one thing the stock browser by far does the best of any browser I have tried. Play embedded video clips. Dolphin? You may as well not bother. Expect 10+ second load times. Using a little firewall hack I'm getting almost instant video loads in stock with no buffering lag.
The little white flash when closing the keyboard is a non issue for me, especially when using a website with a white background. Don't even notice it.

maybe try to debloat the ROM and then go into developer options to change the animations to .5 or disable them entire(I disable them in all android devices I own)

Well I don't know what happen, I did some factory reset like 3 in a row, then the first thing I did was, go straight to update chrome to 36.0.1985.131 and now it's working at it should. Yeah with some occasional stutter, mostly when launching an app. But not like was doing it before. The white tale is still there but not as heavy like it was before.