I am just listing down a few thoughts for prospective Galaxy Nexus buyers, its not a review but my finding on what the Galaxy Nexus does well and what it doesnt!
I am confident that most of you have read every online review of the Galaxy Nexus by now - starting from http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/17/2568348/galaxy-nexus-review
So I will try to make it short and based on my personal experience. Mostly it will be compared to iOS/iPhone 4 as it is the viable competitor in the market and what people most definitely want to know about!
Just to give a brief about myself: I work as a Communications Specialist for a global logistics company (one of the top 3). My first phone was a Nokia 3310 - from there I have used mostly all the milestone mobile phones released imo (Including, SE T610/S700i/W900 - most of the N-series, Complete iPhone lineup, Compete Nexus lineup) I had to mention these just to ensure my credibility
So here goes:
Screen
The Good
Pentile vs. RGB - I am quite picky about this - I hated all Pentile iterations of screens till now - Yes the 720p resolution is sooo packed that you will not notice the pixels - it is as good as Retina. Colors are beautiful, vibrant and bright. So if you thought that you will miss your sharp retina display moving to Galaxy Nexus, its not the case.
The Size: if you are 6 feet and taller - this is a perfect phone for you.
The Bad
1. Grains on darker shades, I do not agree with most here who say grains exists in low brightness. I feel grains are there, its a default fault of the screen, you cannot get out of this, it gives a light textured look in darker color images (grey/blue) no matter the brightness. If you have a white background (as with websites) - grains are not visible if you increase the brightness to midway and above. If you are coming from an iPhone 4/4s, you will be impacted as I was - but I lived with it for the phone offers much better options than the iPhone 4 for me. I would also not categorize the graininess as a major issue on a daily usage, unless you are extremely picky but just knowing is still a pain.
2. Color tone was slightly off at default - to the more warmer tone
I had to root my phone only for fixing this issue - I installed franco's kernel and changed the color tone (using his update tool from market) to a slightly more cooler blue. Thanks Franco!
Speakers/Voice/Call Clarity: This is a "Phone", right?
The Good
Clear sound, beats iPhone in my opinion and is louder for the internal speakers.
The Bad
External speakers are not loud by default. There is an easy software solution though, installing Volume+. Volume+ really made the external speakers loud, even louder than the iPhone's I would say.
OS
The Good
Fantastic. Android is alot smarter now with ICS, it is faster - near blazing. One should realize, installing a thousand widgets and themes does not help the cause - my feedback is based on rooted/stock (w/franco kernel). if you play around and install various Roms here, you most definitely will complain regarding compatibility issues, over all snappiness and performance. I suggest dont do it unless you have nothing better to do all day! App switching between multiple apps is brilliant - swiping away or moving to the next is made so simple. Brilliant work hiring the webOS guys, Google!
Moving from iOS - Do not be fooled by people saying its not smooth as iOS. For me Speed is more important than smoothness and ICS is definitely FASTER than iOS. Its like, closing a window in MAC/Windows, you can either take 2 seconds to close it with a nice animation or in 1 sec, it just closes within blinking of an eye. ICS is sharp and quick. Now it might not do the animations/transitions in a SEXY WAY (so cool APPLE) - and you might feel lags while swiping between home screens (personally I havnt, yet), but you do not have to wait at any given time. I remember switching between apps/phones/contacts in my iPhone requires a slight wait - though smooth transition, in ICS that wait does not exist. You will enjoy the experience. eg. The ICS Music app is smoother at viewing album covers than the laggy coverflow implementation in iOS.
The Bad
The only small gripe I have is with the Phone app! It has improved significantly from gingerbread with the whole swiping from the Dialer to Recent Calls and Contacts/Frequent Calls. "Favorites" are setup in such a way that they take up a large portion of the screen realestate (for what good reasons ?:S) and all the contacts follow after them.
Browser
The Best
The best browsing experience on a mobile device I had in this generation of devices. The screen size is a major player, previously on my iPhones, I would just browse if I was in a desperate situation such as finding a review, text being so tiny - but with the Galaxy Nexus, you feel like browsing the net when you have time in hand.
The Browser itself is much better than Mobile Safari in every way (performance/tab switching). You will love the experience moving from iOS!
Apps
I was never a heavy user of apps, so I will not compare iOS and Android eco-systems as such. There is no doubt iOS has more sexier looking apps/more polished but android is catching up. If you are coming from iOS and a heavy app user - this might not be the most convenient move for you, my personal suggestion would be for you to wait till iPhone 5 is released please. No TheGood/TheBad here!
Battery
The Bad
Unfortunately, there is no TheGood section here, obviously the battery google/samsung have placed in here is not adequate for a device with such a large screen. You can at max survive a day (using facebook/browsing/gmail/twitter). I am not sure how long it will survive with locations/geo tracking on though. 1 day is good enough for me, so not sure about you. I keep my screen brightness to 65% bright. The battery life on the iPhone 4 is relatively the same.
Camera
The Good
It takes really quick shots.
The Bad
The image quality is not upto par with the iPhone 4, let alone 4s!
File Transfer/Mount Storage Device
The Good
You can delete/update/change files on the go while connected through usb so that you do not need to unplug and remount the storage in order to view the files on your phone.
The Bad
If you want to view/transfer files from your Phone to a Mac, such as the case with myself, I needed to install an Android File Transfer app to edit/transfer files to the phone. This is painful if you want to plug the phone into another Mac (you will have to install that app again on the machine). For PC, I believe no such app needs to be installed though.
An alternative to this is using the AirDroid app which allows you to access your files/folders/contacts and much more through wifi. A great free app indeed, thanks Alkidweller for pointing it out!
Overall Verdict
The Galaxy Nexus is a great device, it has some issues most definitely (grainy screen/mediocre battery and camera). But the ICS shines, the large screen realestate, fantastic UX coupled with an amazing browsing experience is worth the upgrade from an iPhone and with a price of $399 it gives the most bang for the buck, compare that with the $650 for iPhone 4s.
- Two modifications I used were - Franco Kernel & Franco Updater App, Volume+
- For Mac Users: Android File Transfer App/ AirDroid
Here is a snapshot of my setup - ICS stock just works!
If you like the wallpaper you can download it from mediafire.
Its a slightly modified version of Galaxy NGC 3190 by `-kol (in deviantart)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Great review and I have to say I agree with most. However, I just have to correct one thing. Yes, it would be easy to include a 'smart dialer' but as you know Android aims to be completely open source. This means that everyone should be able to build his or her own system. But smart dialing isn't open source! It's patented and can't be freely distributed. So Google have good reasons for not including that feature...
Great review, its like the rest of them.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Can you share that wallpaper?
I must have got a really loud speaker set or something mine are loud. However I have to agree browsing the net on ics is awesome I love the feature where if it has multi pages n u click down by the numbers it will magnify it for you to click on easier without having to zoom in.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
mbroeders said:
Great review and I have to say I agree with most. However, I just have to correct one thing. Yes, it would be easy to include a 'smart dialer' but as you know Android aims to be completely open source. This means that everyone should be able to build his or her own system. But smart dialing isn't open source! It's patented and can't be freely distributed. So Google have good reasons for not including that feature...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mbroeders for letting me know that about the smart dialer bit! I wasnt aware of it before. hmm..maybe will take it out of the review then.
Ryjabo said:
Can you share that wallpaper?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure - download it from my mediafire link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?paooomlowmvdnj7
Its a slightly modified version of Galaxy NGC 3190 by `-kol (in deviantart)
Re: File Transfer
Don't know anything about a Mac, but as for the file transfer thing, have you tried AirDroid in the Play Store? Should work. There's nothing on the computer to install.
It uses WiFi to talk to your router. On your computer you open a browser and go to the (local) ip that AirDroid displays, enter a pass code and it displays a nice looking interface to your phone. Transfer files, play music, send and receive texts, install and uninstall apps.
AlkiDweller said:
Don't know anything about a Mac, but as for the file transfer thing, have you tried AirDroid in the Play Store? Should work. There's nothing on the computer to install.
It uses WiFi to talk to your router. On your computer you open a browser and go to the (local) ip that AirDroid displays, enter a pass code and it displays a nice looking interface to your phone. Transfer files, play music, send and receive texts, install and uninstall apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a similar app for file transfers on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit called Wifi Explorer Pro(there is also a free version, but if I use an app a lot I always but the pro to support development), because setting up MTP in Linux is a bit of a pain. Hopefully future versions of Linux will support MTP out of the box, but for now this is the way to go. I thought Ubuntu 12.04 was supposed to support it, but I have not successfully been able to use it.
Thanks OP for the review. It's nice to see someone post an honest and candid review based on their experiences and feelings while using the device, rather than just mindlessly comparing specs. I must say that I agree whole-heartedly on most of your points.
Overall, this is a fabulous device. It has a few shortcomings, but they are easily overshadowed by what it does well. And I've also used my mobile browser (Chrome) far more on this device than I ever did on my Nexus One. The crisp display (and large size) makes it actually useful for browsing the web.
Rather than AirDroid I like the samba file share app.
Windows, mac, and in most cases linux, have support for it built in.
You effectively have direct access to the file system, which includes being able to e.g. edit files without having to download them and re-upload.
"The Bad
External speakers are not loud by default. There is an easy software solution though, installing Volume+. Volume+ really made the external speakers loud, even louder than the iPhone's I would say."
I think franco's kernel that you are already using has built-in volume booster.
also mind sharing your custom color values ?
Great review, I have to agree with pretty much all of it. Though on the battery issue I'd recommend getting the extended battery (GSM can't comment on the LTE version)
One thing you didn't mention were the onscreen softkeys, I was wondering what you think of them? I've had the phone since Dec and I don't want to ever go back to a phone without them now
isitalex said:
Great review, I have to agree with pretty much all of it. Though on the battery issue I'd recommend getting the extended battery (GSM can't comment on the LTE version)
One thing you didn't mention were the onscreen softkeys, I was wondering what you think of them? I've had the phone since Dec and I don't want to ever go back to a phone without them now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, on-screen keys are great and very customizable too
isitalex said:
Great review, I have to agree with pretty much all of it. Though on the battery issue I'd recommend getting the extended battery (GSM can't comment on the LTE version)
One thing you didn't mention were the onscreen softkeys, I was wondering what you think of them? I've had the phone since Dec and I don't want to ever go back to a phone without them now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kolyan said:
yes, on-screen keys are great and very customizable too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you both, the on screen buttons are amazing, will add it to the list. my iphone home botton broke, I repaired it twice...so I am most definitely in favor of on screen softkeys
kolyan said:
"The Bad
External speakers are not loud by default. There is an easy software solution though, installing Volume+. Volume+ really made the external speakers loud, even louder than the iPhone's I would say."
I think franco's kernel that you are already using has built-in volume booster.
also mind sharing your custom color values ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the franco's kernel volume boost was not good enough unfortunately, so I had to move to volume+, I suggest you give it a go if you are not quite happy with franco's built in one.
Here is my values for "colors multipliers" (I intentionally avoided the RGB Gamma Tweaks)
Red: 195
Green: 211
Blue: 278
I have not played with it much - I am sure if I put more time into it I could get a better combination. Let me know how that works out for you.
mythamp said:
the franco's kernel volume boost was not good enough unfortunately, so I had to move to volume+, I suggest you give it a go if you are not quite happy with franco's built in one.
Here is my values for "colors multipliers" (I intentionally avoided the RGB Gamma Tweaks)
Red: 195
Green: 211
Blue: 278
I have not played with it much - I am sure if I put more time into it I could get a better combination. Let me know how that works out for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I am using recommended franco's settings for now
mythamp said:
the franco's kernel volume boost was not good enough unfortunately, so I had to move to volume+, I suggest you give it a go if you are not quite happy with franco's built in one.
Here is my values for "colors multipliers" (I intentionally avoided the RGB Gamma Tweaks)
Red: 195
Green: 211
Blue: 278
I have not played with it much - I am sure if I put more time into it I could get a better combination. Let me know how that works out for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still can't get over people saying the speakers are quite mine is loud. and ill have to test those settings for color. Also have you had a chance to play with the ip4s seems like your review was all based on ip4 just wondered if you like this over ip4s as well.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
I HIGHLY recommend WiFi File Explorer.
Start the app, then browse to the IP address. Of course you have to have WiFi. Or WiFi Tether...
This is a great way to get files to and from the device without screwing with cables. It is also a great way to get a file from one Android device to another without having a PC to play middle man. This is also great for roms that don't have a file explorer cooked in by default.
Also with the Battery issue, I would also give the Nexus a +1 for it being removable and able to use an extended battery. I have an extended battery on my Verizon Nexus (2100mAh) and the thickness isn't noticeable (+1mm) but it extends it a few more hours.
As far as the Gray Banding... I'm at a loss. I DO know that the Nexus One had this issue too and it wasn't the screen problem but rather Google slimming down on the colors as a speed boost. I mean who needs millions of colors just to change a setting? There used to be a test like the browser would band... but the gallery wouldn't. After enough ruckus they upped the color count and it fixed.
I also think the reason for the banding is low quality images. I believe there is a hack around here that replaces the banding background with high quality images and it goes away. Who knows. It could just be the screen color limitation (16-bit vs 32-bit)
ckoadiyn said:
I still can't get over people saying the speakers are quite mine is loud. and ill have to test those settings for color. Also have you had a chance to play with the ip4s seems like your review was all based on ip4 just wondered if you like this over ip4s as well.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I had a 4s for a short while (less than 1 week) before I switched so I am basing most of my experience from iphone 4 which I have used over the last 10 months.
Related
I am thinking of upgrading from x1 to HTC desire.
But i have read the various problems in various threads about HTC Desire and am having second thoughts.
Do you (current owners of desire) recommend us (potential owners) to buy HTC Desire?
A Happy Owner :
redrazr7791 said:
1 - Loud enough that I almost dropped it when I turned it on
2 - Beats the iPhone. Good quality pictures in browser
3 - Sort of colorblind, so I can't tell.
4 - Everyday use is acceptable. Besides you have the option of carrying an extra battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Find me the phone with no problems and I'll buy 10.
Best phone I have ever had. I tried out Iphone 3gs and HD2 ON o2 for two weeks on both sets under their returns policy, sent them back. Got the Desire with T Mobile, brilliant, great phone, great price plan. Have had no issues with it. Some issues on this forum have been sparodic and not the norm, most have been dealt with. Compare the issues with other handsets on other forums including Iphone there are shed loads of issues out there.
dexteral said:
I am thinking of upgrading from x1 to HTC desire.
But i have read the various problems in various threads about HTC Desire and am having second thoughts.
Do you (current owners of desire) recommend us (potential owners) to buy HTC Desire?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% yes, go and buy it now.
Better than iPhone by miles and you are not locked down by Apply monopoly of DRM and Apps
dexteral said:
I am thinking of upgrading from x1 to HTC desire.
But i have read the various problems in various threads about HTC Desire and am having second thoughts.
Do you (current owners of desire) recommend us (potential owners) to buy HTC Desire?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) If you are going to switch from iphone to Andorid...then initially you may feel that you have missed lots of apps that iPhone has... yes, thatz true.. you cannot not compare the iphone apps with android apps...
2) with respect to the phone.. i would say its a 100% buy... screen is excellent 100times better than iphone.. The touch screen is brilliantly done…no issues till now I am using it for past 27days... below are the few things I found it difficult...
a) I could not setup my office exchange server email on HTC desire.. but, it used to work fine on the my iphone.
b) i got the phone thru T-mobile UK.. The problem is when I browse the internet I cannot receive incoming calls.. (This problem is only when your are browsing the internet in 'G'.. no problem when browsing in 'H'). Not sure if the same problem exists with other networks.
c) Battery life is not good.. i have to carry the usb cable all the time with me (just in case..)
3) I tried to play few .mp4 files that i downloaded from youtube.. image quality is excellent but the sound output was not good (i am using the inbuilt video player).
4) Music player is not as good as iPhone... very low volume compared to iphone... supplied ear phones are very big in size for my ears..
thanks!! am planning to change sometime in a weeks time,
with so many threads on problem with HTC desire, that was making me doubt my decision!!
please also tell any one feature u like most about it
I've been wondering the same thing. Lots of posts about issues etc.
Can anyone advise on these:
1. Low speaker / ringer volume
2. Poor Image quality on browser
(I download and view images in my job so high quality is vital)
3. Screen colour issues - pink hue
4. Battery Life !
I'm sure I'll think of some more..
Thanks
1. Never had that issue, but I don't use the loudspeaker
2. You'll get this as it's a mobile browser - stick to a PC/Mac for big images
3. Only the HTC website is noticeable IMO
4. nearly 48hrs without a charge at the mo
albert_htc said:
I've been wondering the same thing. Lots of posts about issues etc.
Can anyone advise on these:
1. Low speaker / ringer volume
2. Poor Image quality on browser
(I download and view images in my job so high quality is vital)
3. Screen colour issues - pink hue
4. Battery Life !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 - Loud enough that I almost dropped it when I turned it on
2 - Beats the iPhone. Good quality pictures in browser
3 - Sort of colorblind, so I can't tell.
4 - Everyday use is acceptable. Besides you have the option of carrying an extra battery
I would recommend it if you don't mind carrying a spare battery or buying an external one if you're going to use it heavily day to day. (assuming you don't have access to somewhere to charge it) As the battery life can be very temperamental although it will last at least 8 to 10 hours of light use. This may be fixed in the future to give longer battery life but you're not going to get more than a day out of this phone if you are using it for more than a few hours a day.
Other than that it's generally a very good, powerful phone. There are the odd complaints here and there but most of them should get solved eventually or can be worked around or are minor things you don't really think about / notice from day to day. Things that need to be sorted out or improved can be found in one of the threads but I've had no major problems.
The only thing I would say is as I like to have a huge amount of apps on my device so more program memory would have helped. I get around this by storing the apps I don't regularly use on my sd card using app monster I think and then reinstalling them and installing something else. It doesn't take long to do and I haven't needed to do it yet in the month I've had it so it's a minor problem for me.
So to sum up even though what I've said about the phone above doesn't seem to positive I really love this phone. The phone is good enough to do nearly anything the other smart phones specialize in and do it well. I've used it to briefly edit and access large office documents, browse the internet (including most flash sites I use even worked with a few audio streaming sites and even quite a few videos, for ones that didnt work I found apps like engadget and bbc iplayer beebplayer.), listen to last fm, record as well as download videos and upload straight from the phone, get the tube status, next train times, search, stocks, my notes, use for car navigation, listen to music, IM and play games (3d applications and games are improving and look good). All these feature I've used so far have worked perfectly for me. This is only the tip of the iceberg for me and I'll use more features as I need them. The android app market is great and still growing at a fast rate, Google apps can be very useful and are free too.
SorryI couldn't just mention one feature I use when I use so many!!!
i would be fair with you. The phone has issues like any other phones. none is perfect. HTC sucks big time in their updates ..... everybody knows it but what makes ppl still buy htc is the xda forum and the ability to install custom roms.
i am 100% sure all the minor issues you have read about till now will be solved with custom roms. but until then, we should be able to get root.
so my advice, wait and see if the htc desire gets rooted properly with new recovery image . once this is achieved, just go and grab yourself a desire as it is one of the best out there.
if not , then consider your other options. the samsung galaxy s will be out soon
neoraiden said:
I would recommend it if you don't mind carrying a spare battery or buying an external one if you're going to use it heavily day to day. (assuming you don't have access to somewhere to charge it) As the battery life can be very temperamental although it will last at least 8 to 10 hours of light use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8-10 hours on light use? Seriously?
I'm about to plug it in after 17 hours of what I'd consider medium to heavy use. Wi-fi on constantly, push email, replied to and sent 20-30 mails, FriendStream and weather set to sync every hour, couple of phonecalls, hour or two of browsing, some messing with Google Sky and a live wallpaper running!
I come from wimo. Traditionally feature rich but sluggish and unstable at times. Desire is my first Android. Not as feature rich as wimo, but lightning fast with the Snapdragon. When travelling home this evening, was watching a movie on the nicely colored screen (800x480), got a call, answered it with sound on the headphone and talk handsfree via the mic, and resumed watching video again, all without any hickup or problem. That's impressive. Of course, this is only a very small aspect of a phone, but it still impresses me after 2 weeks of ownership. Can't wait until arrival of 720p recording, divx support and some work on the Bluetooth stack.
Wekkel said:
Can't wait until arrival of 720p recording
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has it been confirmed by HTC??
I'm curious about that too. I don't think I've heard any direct confirmation that it will actually record in 720p, but I've seen a few places say 720p playback.
The Snapdragon is supposedly capable of both, though.
albert_htc said:
I've been wondering the same thing. Lots of posts about issues etc.
Can anyone advise on these:
1. Low speaker / ringer volume
2. Poor Image quality on browser
(I download and view images in my job so high quality is vital)
3. Screen colour issues - pink hue
4. Battery Life !
I'm sure I'll think of some more..
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Very loud - maybe a bit tinny, but like every other smartphone I've heard, the speaker must be tiny. Anyway after hearing the startup jingle, almost fainting, and then reading 'quietly brilliant' I reconsidered HTC sense of humor
2. Excellent quality, images are compressed only in 3G and I'm not sure if this happens regardless of the handset or the browser
3. This is very personal and varies between handsets-you can always have it replaced if its really bad. Personally I notice it only under 40% brightness
4. Like every other smartphone it depends on your usage. I can go very well through a day/day and half of light-medium use, but you surely can waste the battery in 6 hours of continuous heavy usage. Spare batteries are always a good idea and cheap nowadays. After a week of usage:
- very light usage: 2+ days
- normal usage: 1.5 days
- heavy usage: 1 day, barely
- worst I've done: 5 hours (heavy GPS and 3G, high brightness, installing lots of stuff)
Like in every other handset I had, I think what kills the battery is (in order): GPS - 3G - High Brightness - Calls - Sensors - File Access - etc
With regards the pink hue, I notice in the big sticky that HTC have replied to one of the posters and said they're working on it.
Personally, I didn't even notice it until I read about it here
Well i have had my desire for a week now, and i'm very satisfied with it. the pinkish tint don't annoy me, and i actually never noticed until i read it here. Other than that i don't understand people complaining about poor batterylife, as my phone is still at 20% after 12 hours of heavy use the first days, and that is with around 5-6 hours of awake time. With normal use it last at least 2 days.
720p recording has been mentioned by some HTC official back in February/March but I would not consider that a hard promise. You will find it right away with Google.
heavy use which includes: WiFi/ friendstreem /emails/ weather/ game/ download /installing and more
battery life is about 12 hours
+ display is fantastic
+ performance is great with pictures and videos (watching)
+ screen size generously big
+no problem with WiFi and networking up to now
+ you enjoy Eclaire on this hardware
+good on-screen keyboard
-still no root access so no other fonts languages yet
- HTC sense is not really that hot as it seems to
-I can can not find a grip for wrist band on the phone
- camera focus really dodgy and almost slow shooting
o. optical is not bad I don't really use t
hat much
at the end nothing is perfect
and yet I am really happy with this phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
I`m a bit confused right now ... i really loved the HTC evo 4G but since i live in India ... i cant get my hands on that...
The only good phones i am left with are desire , xperia x10 or samsung galaxy
Pls let me know which one should i go for
And i wanted to know how are the games in desire .. are they even comparable to iphone games??... and can it be jailbreaked like the iphone????
heres a youtube vid of nova on the desire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vn2DuPeE-E
Avoid the Xperia X10, mainly due to the terrible terrible battery life and the fact it's still running Android 1.6, as well has having much lower performance than the Desire and Nexus One which use almost identical internals.
As for 'jailbreaking', in Android circles the equivalent is known as 'rooting' to enable you to install all the awesome custom firmwares available on this forum to enable new features, speed up your device or even get the latest versions of Android before they're even released.
Games-wise, there is a decent selection, but truthfully the iPhone is the king of mobile gaming. I haven't found this to be a problem however, as I realised after owning an iPod Touch before my android phone that with most games I'll play them for a few minutes when I download them and then never really touch them again. I use music, video, email, social networking and general internet browsing far more.
As for Desire vs Galaxy S...kind of hard to choose.
Galaxy S Pros and Cons:
+ Large, amazing Super AMOLED screen
+ Most powerful Android device out, especially it's GPU (for 3D games)
+ DivX video support
+ Video-out if you want to connect it to a screen
+ Reportedly great sound quality for headphones
+ Battery life better than most other high-end Android phones
- The phone itself looks like a cheap iPhone ripoff (why Samsung why?!)
- Samsung use their 'TouchWiz' interface on top of Android which looks kind of ugly and adds little
- Samsung don't have a good track record with updates...they've confirmed Froyo but no word on whether it'll ever get anything above that
- Reportedly all custom roms will need to be based off Samsung's official roms, so won't have as large a variety as HTC phones
- Apparently many users have had GPS problems
HTC Desire Pros and Cons:
+ Huge variety of custom roms
+ Similarity with Nexus One means since Nexus One gets updates first, most can be quickly ported to Desire
+ HTC Sense interface on top of Android looks great and improves usability (especially the widgets)
+ HTC's default apps for mail, weather, etc are extremely well designed
+ Will most likely be able to run Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) ported from the Nexus One once it's released
+ Very good build quality and nicer-looking hardware
- Battery life not as good
- Smaller screen that's regular AMOLED rather than Samsung's new variety
- Not as powerful as Galaxy S
Hope that helps! I'm currently in the middle of deciding between the Desire and Galaxy S myself, so done a fair bit of research and tried both out.
AXIS of Reality said:
- Not as powerful as Galaxy S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as you can see my quadrant score says diffrent
That would be because you're running Froyo, which the Galaxy S has been confirmed to be receiving later this year. =P
The more apt comparison is lower on that graph showing the 2.1 Desire and Nexus One far lower than the 2.1 Galaxy S.
well thanks for that .. i am leaning towards htc desire more now ... just to confirm are there any better andriod phones in the market which are gsm and available outside US ??
AndroHero said:
as you can see my quadrant score says diffrent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which battery meter are you using?
vinayendra: since you mentioned only games in your post, my advice to you is to avoid android platform and go with Iphone if games are your priority...
If you still need to choose between these 3 phones, Galaxy would be your choice, cause it's better GPU will be advantage with games
I cant speak for the galaxy S but having used both desire and the xperia the desire wins hands down. The xperia is really laggy and the old version of android is a deal breaker. Once sony pull their fingers out and update the xperia it might be a different story but I dont think we will see that for a few more months yet
the only advantage the xperia has is the large internal apps storage, you dont need to root it if your wanting loads of apps unlike the desire
AndroHero said:
heres a youtube vid of nova on the desire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vn2DuPeE-E
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
id love to know how to get that game running on my desire, I had it for my palm pre and loved it but the desire just gives me a black screen then it closes
djoni1980 said:
vinayendra: since you mentioned only games in your post, my advice to you is to avoid android platform and go with Iphone if games are your priority...
If you still need to choose between these 3 phones, Galaxy would be your choice, cause it's better GPU will be advantage with games
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Games or not my priority .. i already have a ipod touch ... for me the main things are cool apps maybe even GPS , email and very good user interface ... i have a htc 3G touch ... it really sucks ...after having that i had decided not to go for HTC again ... But i cant buy iphone 4 as it takes a year to come to my country ... and i heard andriod phones are awesome ... so going back to HTC
So anyone owns a desire .. plz tell the pros and cons of desire which u felt while using
Take the desire you wont regret it.and someone already mentiond pros & cons on page 1.
You only have to choose
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
AXIS of Reality said:
That would be because you're running Froyo, which the Galaxy S has been confirmed to be receiving later this year. =P
The more apt comparison is lower on that graph showing the 2.1 Desire and Nexus One far lower than the 2.1 Galaxy S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you not read? it clearly says samsung galaxy s 2.2 on the benchmark
pms said:
Which battery meter are you using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the one that comes with the expresso theme for 2.2 sence roms
AndroHero said:
can you not read? it clearly says samsung galaxy s 2.2 on the benchmark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, actually it says <2.2, which is 2.1
djoni1980 said:
LOL, actually it says <2.2, which is 2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh yeah so it does lol
If you have access to those phones in India go and try them out in person because you won't have a clue on what everyone is going on about except for prior experience on your old Touch.
An Android phone is perfect if you live your online life through Google, if you don't I suggest you move.
An iPhone is known for simplicity and just working until you somehow manage to get yourself into the zoom feature and you're screwed unless you know the zoom out function. These high end phones are true powerhouses in pocket computing and are for more than showing off to your mates that you have a cool phone. If that's all you're going to do, you deserve an iPhone. If you're rolling up your sleeves and learning how to individualise yourself from every other Android user out there then you will quickly learn about live wallpapers, widgets, shortcuts and button combinations. Go further than that and its roms, themes, radios, adb commands so on and so forth.
Know what you want and shop according to it. One of these phones will tick most if not all of your needs and wants. Or something in the near future will. Between the 2 phones, out of the box you are looking at a difference of interface more than anything else. Really suggest you go try them out.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Jabbafat23 said:
If you have access to those phones in India go and try them out in person because you won't have a clue on what everyone is going on about except for prior experience on your old Touch.
An Android phone is perfect if you live your online life through Google, if you don't I suggest you move.
An iPhone is known for simplicity and just working until you somehow manage to get yourself into the zoom feature and you're screwed unless you know the zoom out function. These high end phones are true powerhouses in pocket computing and are for more than showing off to your mates that you have a cool phone. If that's all you're going to do, you deserve an iPhone. If you're rolling up your sleeves and learning how to individualise yourself from every other Android user out there then you will quickly learn about live wallpapers, widgets, shortcuts and button combinations. Go further than that and its roms, themes, radios, adb commands so on and so forth.
Know what you want and shop according to it. One of these phones will tick most if not all of your needs and wants. Or something in the near future will. Between the 2 phones, out of the box you are looking at a difference of interface more than anything else. Really suggest you go try them out.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd mostly agree with that.
Android phones really are 'enthusiast' phones, in the sense that you get out of them what you put in. For example, customising it to work exactly how you want and look how you want it to look.
The iPhone is made as a very controlled system, so you have only the absolute minimum freedom (ie: change your wallpaper or order of icons). This is ideal for many people who want something that just 'works' and has been tuned to be an intuitive experience for the majority of people.
Android is based around making your phone uniquely yours, such as through the use of the homescreens to fill with whatever you want (widgets, controls, shortcuts, folders, etc). What this means is it requires more time and attention than an iPhone, but the end result is a phone and way of working that is of your own design.
Think of it like Lego:
- the iPhone is where you follow the instructions and get what is shown in the picture on the box (which can annoy people who want to do their own thing).
- Android is where you are given a pile of lego bricks to build whatever you want, so it's far more personalised even if it's not as polished as the iPhone (which can confuse or put of people who prefer a guiding hand and it to be done for them)
I'm happy to sacrifice some polish in the interface for the chance to really make my phone mine, but there are many who feel the other way. That's why it's great we have the oppurtunity to choose between Android and iOS (and soon Windows Phone 7, which seems like a halfway point between the two).
thanks for all that ... Now i am convinced to go for a desire which i will buy sometime this week
i have a small doubt ( a n00b one) .. whats the use of "rooting" and installing ROM`s???.. is it the same as "jailbreaking" in iphone where i can install paid apps and games for free and play with my looks ?? ... or is there anyother use??
i have HTC Desire which i bough from a friend in England, (i live in Seattle) and absolutely love it. My co-worker has Tmobile Samsung Vibrant. Ill give my impressions and quick pros and cons, i may sound little bias but here it is.
Samsung Galaxy Pros
Large SuperAMOLED screen, true 800x480 res, multitouch (Which, while is brighter than the Desire, not that much better, almost cant tell the difference.)
Better battery life, Galaxy also comes with 1500 mAh battery whereas Desire come with 1400 mAh ( again only one day of test with moderate use)
Better GPU
16 Gb of internal storage (which is a huge plus)
720p @30 frames video capture (which also is possible on the Desire with a custom ROM)
Cons
Built quality is extremely cheap, back is shiny plastic which is prone to scratches
Has ugly iphone 3GS style bezel around the screen
No camera flash (this one is a huge let down by Samsung which is beyond any comprehension)
Ugly UI which is a blatant iOS rip off (this one may be strictly preferential depending if you like iOS look or not)
Samsungs proven lack of support track record
Not clear whether gonna have large dev support on XDA
External speaker is horrible, tiny sound (Desire is the same)
That is all i can think of at the moment
Desire Cons
Uses old Clear pad 2000 touch panel which lacks true multitouch support or supports it in a broken way (you can google Nexus one touch screen problems, there is 70 pages plus thread about it)
Uses Cheap Pentile pixel arrangement, which some argue is better for media but horrible if ou spend most of the time reading text on your device. ( you can google Pentile on Nexus One, Anandtech.com has very informative article about this)
Eternal speaker is horrible, sound is tiny and quite
video capture is crap
When using on low brightness, screen has pink hue
Battery life is mediocre
Pros
Built quality is way better than Galaxy, also looks sophisticated compared to Galaxy
Camera flash
Huge support from XDA developers since it is almost identical to Nexus One
Runs Sense, although i equally hate Sense, it is a lot better that TouchWiz
Has hardware buttons (this one is a deal breaker for me as Galaxy touch sensitive buttons are unresponsive at times and generally suck)
AMOLED is almost as good as Galaxy's ( aside from cheap ass touch panel that HTC used on Desire and Nexus One, why HTC why)
That is all i can think of at the moment. I am eligible for an upgrade with Tmobile, but i think ill keep the Desire. Just better phone aside from crappy screen. Hope this helps
With devs like utaka giving up n samsung's ****ty attitude,is the future of AOSP development in the dark for this great device with the AOSP roms vanishing slowly?
aamitabh28 said:
With devs like utaka giving up n samsung's ****ty attitude,is the future of AOSP development in the dark for this great device with the AOSP roms vanishing slowly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the best of my knowledge, there is substantial dev support for the Note II. CM is rolling of nighlies even as we speak and PA is not left behind. JellyBam is also adding his own humble contribution. There are also substantial rom cooks dishing out various verities.
I understand initially, devs kicked against Sammy's policy but I guess Sammy was given a last chance, and we saw some dev activities. I for one actually waited till I saw activities befor ordering mine.
If Utacka is giving up, that will be a shame because, he made us good PA rom in Note I
It's a Great loss..for the community.I loved his work
As for cm 10.1 entropy says its dead on 4412 devices due to lack of sources..darn samsung..why cant they just release the frickin sources!
Not gonna cry too much.. Touchwiz > AOSP in my opinion.
- Camera is way better with a lot more options, notably burst mode and widescreen.. why does stock force you to take 4:3 pictures? this isn't 1998 anymore, all monitors/TVs are widescreen
- Gallery is much improved with different view types, video previews, play on hover, etc..
- FB contact integration out of the box, no need to mess around with Haxsync or other apps
- Multi-window, that alone trumps stock
- T9 Dialer
- Smart stay: When reading long text I got used to touching my screen every 30 seconds to keep it from turning off, never again
- Smart rotate: call this a "gimmick" all you want, but it's really nice to be able to lie down and read something without first disabling auto-rotate
- Contact list: smoothly integrated with the Phone app, no more ugly white theme that's oddly out of place with the rest of the UI
- S-Beam is much faster and more practical than Android Beam (you have both in Touchwiz anyway)
- Not counting all the s-pen apps since those are specific to the Note 2
- Overall feel of the OS feels less segmented and more cohesive
- Loads of small improvement all across the OS, things that make you say "oh nice, I don't need 4-5 steps to do that anymore"
So not too sad to see all the buggy AOSP roms disappear
gabster21 said:
Not gonna cry too much.. Touchwiz > AOSP in my opinion.
- Camera is way better with a lot more options, notably burst mode and widescreen.. why does stock force you to take 4:3 pictures? this isn't 1998 anymore, all monitors/TVs are widescreen
- Gallery is much improved with different view types, video previews, play on hover, etc..
- FB contact integration out of the box, no need to mess around with Haxsync or other apps
- Multi-window, that alone trumps stock
- T9 Dialer
- Smart stay: When reading long text I got used to touching my screen every 30 seconds to keep it from turning off, never again
- Smart rotate: call this a "gimmick" all you want, but it's really nice to be able to lie down and read something without first disabling auto-rotate
- Contact list: smoothly integrated with the Phone app, no more ugly white theme that's oddly out of place with the rest of the UI
- S-Beam is much faster and more practical than Android Beam (you have both in Touchwiz anyway)
- Not counting all the s-pen apps since those are specific to the Note 2
- Overall feel of the OS feels less segmented and more cohesive
- Loads of small improvement all across the OS, things that make you say "oh nice, I don't need 4-5 steps to do that anymore"
So not too sad to see all the buggy AOSP roms disappear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% agree with u , in the other hand i really love aosp roms but not for the Gnote
if u want to run aosp on note2 just throw ur s note pen in the drawer it will become like useless mouse :silly:
i know that maybe aosp roms a bit faster or lighter on ram but note2 have 2 GB of ram and beast cpu so there is no problem with TW
and samsung is the fastest company after Google to update their devices after Google ( i don't have problem waiting 2-3 month to get new android version after google release it )
I bought the note for the spen and its features.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
It's a great loss... I think that we have a bad future... :crying: I hate Sammy roms...
bxt-sp said:
It's a great loss... I think that we have a bad future... :crying: I hate Sammy roms...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
buy a Nexus :silly:
Sure, but the Nexus doesn't have 5,5", 3100mAh, SD-Card, removable battery, spen,... I prefer my Note phone...with AOSP roms!
aamitabh28 said:
With devs like utaka giving up n samsung's ****ty attitude,is the future of AOSP development in the dark for this great device with the AOSP roms vanishing slowly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not trying to start a flame war, but did you read his post?:
Im gonna order sony phone (Xperia T or new sony phablet 2013) and continue my work there. Thanks for this and one last time: im not gonna stop updating as long as 4.1.2 is still maintained by CM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gabster21 said:
Not gonna cry too much.. Touchwiz > AOSP in my opinion.
- Camera is way better with a lot more options, notably burst mode and widescreen.. why does stock force you to take 4:3 pictures? this isn't 1998 anymore, all monitors/TVs are widescreen
- Gallery is much improved with different view types, video previews, play on hover, etc..
- FB contact integration out of the box, no need to mess around with Haxsync or other apps
- Multi-window, that alone trumps stock
- T9 Dialer
- Smart stay: When reading long text I got used to touching my screen every 30 seconds to keep it from turning off, never again
- Smart rotate: call this a "gimmick" all you want, but it's really nice to be able to lie down and read something without first disabling auto-rotate
- Contact list: smoothly integrated with the Phone app, no more ugly white theme that's oddly out of place with the rest of the UI
- S-Beam is much faster and more practical than Android Beam (you have both in Touchwiz anyway)
- Not counting all the s-pen apps since those are specific to the Note 2
- Overall feel of the OS feels less segmented and more cohesive
- Loads of small improvement all across the OS, things that make you say "oh nice, I don't need 4-5 steps to do that anymore"
So not too sad to see all the buggy AOSP roms disappear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's true, Samsungs ROM is much more useful with this thing. It's just that, this thing is ugly as hell. Compare it to CM Theme Engine - fresh look with the snap of a finger. Outer beauty beats inner beauty? Well, for now I'd stay with Samsung ROM.
Sent and typofied with Note II
No pen no interest, that's what it comes down to I reckon
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
It is not about how sammy roms are more feautured or more beautiful it is about having the possibility of choice. Every populer Android device has this CM or AOSP options until now. And Android is my choice because of its possibilities of being able to transform into different user experiences.. I must decide this, not the company who stoles and lies to the people about discussing and deciding to release the source even though they have to according to the GPL.. . I honestly do not know how many people does not even root their phones but still there are a lot of people out there who believes in the potential of android software to get even better an dthose people deserve to have the option to choose what is best for themselves.. besides I want to believe more developers will develop their 3rd party apps and games for the more available sourced chipsets.. so the-once-most-powerful exynos is going to go down on the developers' preference list..
_delice_doluca_ said:
It is not about how sammy roms are more feautured or more beautiful it is about having the possibility of choice. Every populer Android device has this CM or AOSP options until now. And Android is my choice because of its possibilities of being able to transform into different user experiences.. I must decide this, not the company who stoles and lies to the people about discussing and deciding to release the source even though they have to according to the GPL.. . I honestly do not know how many people does not even root their phones but still there are a lot of people out there who believes in the potential of android software to get even better an dthose people deserve to have the option to choose what is best for themselves.. besides I want to believe more developers will develop their 3rd party apps and games for the more available sourced chipsets.. so the-once-most-powerful exynos is going to go down on the developers' preference list..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. Absolutely. It's about having the possibility of choice.
I'm not happy at all my phones going on eBay while I can still get a few ££££ .... Samsung just lost a customer....
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
You can use the S Pen with CM or AOSP roms. There are plenty of apps in Google Play that work with the S Pen and most are better than Samsung's S Note. I use Freenote. I use CM and I do not miss any of the Samsung features such as multiview and S Note.
bxt-sp said:
+1. Absolutely. It's about having the possibility of choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the support. If i was living in another country where i could believe the justice would apply to everyone adn Samsung exists as a company, i would sue Samsung and would not hire a lawyer. I would just say 'we hire the technology for a limited time nowadays. We do not buy it. And if we "tag" the reasons why we choose them by words Android would not get the "perfection", "smoothness", "defragmantetion", "optimised" words. It would get the "customiseblity", "wide range", "choices".. So this means everyone who pays great amount of money to their Android devices actually are aware of the fact that things could go "bad" or they would want more out of their devices. Very very few people buy their products "only" for Gmail checking and book reading. Once you go to the Google Play the problems start and people also start to seek solutions to their problems for their "not-so-cheap" devices. They start to search because deep down every Android user knows there should be a solution to their problems since many many people are using these devices and they paid very high amounts. But as i said, we just hire them. So there is no excuse when the service that we pay for are not there for us. And releasing the sources when a few more devices with Exynos 5 are out will not do any good to anyone because the "hiring" process works with the "valuable in the right time" rule. So there is no meaning of releasing the soruces after our devices are out of date and out of interest anymore. Because once newer devices are out it is going to be like we have paid good amount of moneys for a long await, long enough to reduce our devices values. Once we lose the dominating advantage of our CPUs and GPUs, there will not be any use for the sources because people will be already moved on and we wasted money for a waiting which got us lose money and time. So this is clearly cheating customers, lying and also not obeying to the GPL rules'
So even though i love Samsung devices if there will not be any upcoming good news by the new year My new device will never be a Samsung.. because i was supporting them for supporting my country with some scholarships but with a few hours of search i have learned they got involved with "bribing business" and did not even bother to fire the guy. And also are lying to the public about the sources, they can not even be a man about not releasing the sources. And i am very very sure a few thousand of people would listen to me about phone advises in the popular Turkish forums (i have advised hundereds in face to face). So i will not sink the company obviously but i will not let them get any money from a high amount of people either.
gabster21 said:
Not gonna cry too much.. Touchwiz > AOSP in my opinion.
- Camera is way better with a lot more options, notably burst mode and widescreen.. why does stock force you to take 4:3 pictures? this isn't 1998 anymore, all monitors/TVs are widescreen
- Gallery is much improved with different view types, video previews, play on hover, etc..
- FB contact integration out of the box, no need to mess around with Haxsync or other apps
- Multi-window, that alone trumps stock
- T9 Dialer
- Smart stay: When reading long text I got used to touching my screen every 30 seconds to keep it from turning off, never again
- Smart rotate: call this a "gimmick" all you want, but it's really nice to be able to lie down and read something without first disabling auto-rotate
- Contact list: smoothly integrated with the Phone app, no more ugly white theme that's oddly out of place with the rest of the UI
- S-Beam is much faster and more practical than Android Beam (you have both in Touchwiz anyway)
- Not counting all the s-pen apps since those are specific to the Note 2
- Overall feel of the OS feels less segmented and more cohesive
- Loads of small improvement all across the OS, things that make you say "oh nice, I don't need 4-5 steps to do that anymore"
So not too sad to see all the buggy AOSP roms disappear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But Touchwiz do not have tablet mode
Sent from my GT-S6102 using xda app-developers app
Elle233 said:
But Touchwiz do not have tablet mode
Sent from my GT-S6102 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what
Alot of roms dont have tablet mode.
I agree Sammys stock rom isn't the nicest looking but at least give it a few months until there's some decent update before flashing new roms and complaining about stock and lack of development. I don't think the UI will change all that much but just use go launcher or something. If your rooted just freeze everything you don't need wit TB.
People are OBSESSED with new roms and I think alot of ppl do it just to say "Oh you have a Note II, me too. Look at my custom ROM and how cool I it looks". Instead of "Oh you have a Note II, me to. Look how smooth and fluid it works"
Then again I prefer roms build off sammys base (prob all in my head)
Who knows what's happening anymore. I see developers moving to the xperia t...but then I see locked boot loaders and no working camera (cm10).
I see our note 2 with no support from Samsung, although they did say something would happen by the end of the year and no one has patience.
The HTC one x has no expandable memory and the poor tegra 3 chip that was pretty much outdated 2 months after its release.
There's really nothing that can run aosp as well as a nexus device. But then again, they lack features like expandable memory.
So in the end no one will ever be happy with anything.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
Sorry - I ran a couple of searches and skimmed a half dozen pages in each of the sub-sections - so apologies if I didn't find something obvious...
I like the Glide, have rooted it successfully and am more or less happy with it but for a couple of things. First, the camera doesn't seem as sharp as my Sony Xperia Ray, which is also an 8 mp and not even as good as the 5 mp on the Behold II. I have several camera apps, so I'll try out some of them - could be operator error, I guess. I do use auto settings most of the time - is there something I could set manually to see if that helps?
Also, the audio volume on calls seems fine but not so great on audio books or video files. Even with headphones. Are there any options - media players that can take it to 11 or maybe custom roms that might help?
Finally, it's been forever since I've had an AT&T phone - is there a list of safe to freeze/uninstall programs? I'd rather not flash a custom rom right unless I have to, since this is my main phone but I'd like to get the AT&T specific stuff out, since I'm using Straight Talk.
Thanks!
terryowen said:
Sorry - I ran a couple of searches and skimmed a half dozen pages in each of the sub-sections - so apologies if I didn't find something obvious...
I like the Glide, have rooted it successfully and am more or less happy with it but for a couple of things. First, the camera doesn't seem as sharp as my Sony Xperia Ray, which is also an 8 mp and not even as good as the 5 mp on the Behold II. I have several camera apps, so I'll try out some of them - could be operator error, I guess. I do use auto settings most of the time - is there something I could set manually to see if that helps?
Also, the audio volume on calls seems fine but not so great on audio books or video files. Even with headphones. Are there any options - media players that can take it to 11 or maybe custom roms that might help?
Finally, it's been forever since I've had an AT&T phone - is there a list of safe to freeze/uninstall programs? I'd rather not flash a custom rom right unless I have to, since this is my main phone but I'd like to get the AT&T specific stuff out, since I'm using Straight Talk.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Numbered for ease of reading
1. Megapixels do not indicate image quality. It simply means how big you can blow up an image without sacrificing clarity. There's a lot of factors that play into image quality, such as the sensor, f stop, aperture, lighting, etc. And yes, I've seen lower MP cameras produce better pictures than higher MP cameras. I suggest you research more on what makes a camera tick if you still have questions, or feel free to post here. Try messing around with the settings, if that helps... But don't expect crap pictures to look amazing with the flick of a setting.
2. Try any of the equalizers you can find online. Most people seem to like Beats, Volume+. There are many to choose from, including the ones already built into some players, such as the stock player. I personally like the DSP manager included with CM roms. It has a good amount of options, and can make even the worst headphones sound halfway decent.
3. Consult this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22110205&postcount=131
found from the bottom of this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1621350
Read through that thread, as it's a great place to start if you're new to this device.
4. Welcome to the Glide
gtmaster303 said:
Numbered for ease of reading
1. Megapixels do not indicate image quality. It simply means how big you can blow up an image without sacrificing clarity. There's a lot of factors that play into image quality, such as the sensor, f stop, aperture, lighting, etc. And yes, I've seen lower MP cameras produce better pictures than higher MP cameras. I suggest you research more on what makes a camera tick if you still have questions, or feel free to post here. Try messing around with the settings, if that helps... But don't expect crap pictures to look amazing with the flick of a setting.
2. Try any of the equalizers you can find online. Most people seem to like Beats, Volume+. There are many to choose from, including the ones already built into some players, such as the stock player. I personally like the DSP manager included with CM roms. It has a good amount of options, and can make even the worst headphones sound halfway decent.
3. Consult this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22110205&postcount=131
found from the bottom of this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1621350
Read through that thread, as it's a great place to start if you're new to this device.
4. Welcome to the Glide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also numbering - for consistency...
1. Are you saying the Glide has a crap camera? I thought it was the same as the S2 and on gsmarena, the samples look better than the Ray. I guess I assumed that Samsung would have improved the camera between the 5 and 8 mp - but the Glide output seems very noisy when I look at the pictures on my PC. I care quite a lot about the camera quality and I know from past phones that software updates can often make a huge difference.
2. Thanks for the tips. Hopefully that will help the audio but you seem to infer that system wide (like for video) I need an updated rom?
3. Saw that post (searched for bloatware but only read the posts that seemed specific) and it links to a post about a deodexed rom zip file.
4. Thanks!
I hope I didn't sound too negative - I do like the Usb OTG and having a keyboard again. And I think the Glide meets the Mobile Ubuntu basic specs, so that might be interesting, too. I can even deal with the sound quality but the camera... well, we'll see, I guess.
I did buy Volume+ and it made a huge difference. Not with every video player but enough to make it worthwhile.
terryowen said:
Also numbering - for consistency...
1. Are you saying the Glide has a crap camera? I thought it was the same as the S2 and on gsmarena, the samples look better than the Ray. I guess I assumed that Samsung would have improved the camera between the 5 and 8 mp - but the Glide output seems very noisy when I look at the pictures on my PC. I care quite a lot about the camera quality and I know from past phones that software updates can often make a huge difference.
2. Thanks for the tips. Hopefully that will help the audio but you seem to infer that system wide (like for video) I need an updated rom?
3. Saw that post (searched for bloatware but only read the posts that seemed specific) and it links to a post about a deodexed rom zip file.
4. Thanks!
I hope I didn't sound too negative - I do like the Usb OTG and having a keyboard again. And I think the Glide meets the Mobile Ubuntu basic specs, so that might be interesting, too. I can even deal with the sound quality but the camera... well, we'll see, I guess.
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The captivate glide has a solid camera. Not the best, but also not the worst. Best camera phone I've had was my old MyTouch 4G Slide. It took better pictures than a GS3, and just about any other phone out there (on par with an iPhone 5). If you're rooted, just back up your phone and start deleting stuff. If it affects your daily routine, or you need something back, you can always restore. Either that or try a custom rom. But you can safely remove all the ATT branded apps, in addition to some other apps preinstalled. If you see what comes on an AOSP rom, you will get a better idea of what's necessary and what isn't.
terryowen said:
I did buy Volume+ and it made a huge difference. Not with every video player but enough to make it worthwhile.
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You're welcome :good:
I'm glad that worked out for you
Captivate Glide was built for businessmen, so you can't ask for a good camera or voice quality as the physical keyboard takes alot of spaces, but they are not crap, you can tweak the images with pixlr or line camera, worth a try
tienlp said:
Captivate Glide was built for businessmen, so you can't ask for a good camera or voice quality as the physical keyboard takes alot of spaces, but they are not crap, you can tweak the images with pixlr or line camera, worth a try
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I concur, the call quality is surprisingly bad. Voices sound muffled overall
I used to think that glide has a crap camera and i tried various camera apps to have an improvement. Some xda users just let me focus on how to use it correctly and they suggested me to simply use the stock camera app being careful and focusing on staying stable and use the focus function (it is to say, tapping on the screen to make the frame get green).
I have to say that after a few tries it actually worked. I used to think that camera was poor but i can get very good pics now, and they're good when i download them on pc as well. It's all up to you and your stillness in taking the photo.
Hope it helps.
gtmaster303 said:
I concur, the call quality is surprisingly bad. Voices sound muffled overall
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Strange, my calling sound is normal, maybe this is because of the firmware or the network
After a month or so with the Glide, I've compensated for some of the problems with the Volume+ and Wake Lock, which keeps it from dying at times, especially overnight and draining the battery. I still have issues with staying connected to wifi, which the various keep-alive programs I've downloaded so far haven't helped much (miss having a radio, internet radio with wifi issues isn't fun).
The camera seems to be helped a lot when I use the various scene modes, which I rarely used on other phones (other than macro). Not sure why the automatic is so awful but if I pick the right scene, things turn out much better. I already owned Pro HDR Camera, so when it took better pictures than the automatic I knew it was possible, at least.
The Glide was always going to be an interim phone, unless the Ubuntu thing works out, so I'm okay with it now that things are stabilized. It doesn't say much for Samsung's quality that there are so many issues, but with the keyboard being practically extinct, they have a built-in market.
Pulled the trigger on this bad boy, and I must say it's elegant in its simplicity.
1) Android One, while not unique to this device, is the perfect combo. No BS vendor or manufacturer bloatware and quick security updates - done.
2) No real pictures taken yet, but in playing around with it, the camera seems much better than my Essential's snapper.
3) I am a business user, so I don't need the 845 for gaming... that said, there's nothing that feels 'slow' about the Nokia
4) It has a nice build quality feel without being as heavy as the Essential phone
5) The screen is very nice
I'll check in later with some more input. The only thing I am on the fence about is unlocking and root. It's been #1 on my agenda for so long, it's strange to think of owning a device with out. However, the ACTUAL use I have for root is so limited at this point... I'm not so sure I'll miss it. Of course, that's assuming Nokia won't eventually provide the keys to the kingdom... which they might.
In installed my favorite music player, Neutron, and it auto detected some hi res / optimal settings. Sounds awesome!