Develop Bugs

Question about Android games & apps

Am I the only one that thinks the games & apps for the HTC desire sucks - compared to iPhone stuff? Or am I missing out on something?

buy an iphone then. android is not for average joe

you're posting in the wrong forum.
but in answer to your question, yes, you probably are.

Games could be better but Galaxy S has a better gpu then Desire so once more phones are released like that we will see better games,
Apps are good on Android, we have 54% of all apps which are free compared to Apple who have not as many free ones. Plus more dont mean better.

Could anyone name 3 good games for android

Fifa 10, Asphalt 5, Doodle Jump

Homerun battle 3d, gangstar, raging thunder 2.

soon Angry Birds!!

Khargush said:
Am I the only one that thinks the games & apps for the HTC desire sucks - compared to iPhone stuff? Or am I missing out on something?
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Click to collapse
No your not. I'm not gonna deny m8.
I prefer my desire overall.
But Android Market compared to Appstore is Complete Rubbish.
But before anybody starts calling me an apple fanboy.
I think this time next year android market will be far ahead of appstore.

If you compare android market now to what it was a year ago, theres a huge difference in quality of apps and games.
Apple has been on the market longer hence it is more developed. so as mentioned above, give it another year

Tower Raiders is quite worthwhile too.

It's a DEVELOPMENT CHANNEL for **** sake !!! Go moan somewhere else (if only in the "General" chan)

phentex said:
It's a DEVELOPMENT CHANNEL for **** sake !!! Go moan somewhere else (if only in the "General" chan)
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Click to collapse
good point. just realised that.

Khargush said:
Am I the only one that thinks the games & apps for the HTC desire sucks - compared to iPhone stuff? Or am I missing out on something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it sucks, and doesn't have the friendliest community either looking at some of the comments above.
To put into perspective - I love Android. I support it, I use it, I have used it for over 8 months and don't see myself switching to anything else.
However, in terms of apps - well look at the quality of the iPhone apps, they look so slick and intuitive it's unbelievable. In comparison the apps made for Android using the default Views look awful. I know there's a few good looking apps, but a "few" isn't most unfortunately.
Games as well, Android does have a fair few good titles such as Asphalt, RoboDefense and so on - but that's only the tip of the iceberg. There is a very long way to go if Android wants to compete in the general consumer market directly against iPhone (whose customers buy the phone mainly for the apps anyway). I read in an article yesterday saying that most of iOS's top apps are actually games. Most of Android's are utility apps and not a single game in it's top 10.
No use saying that Android is just for intelligent people anymore. It was at the time of the G1, and was even upto the start of this year. But now the gameplan has changed, they do want to make it an OS for everyone, not just geeks. Look at the marketing for the Desire, the DroidX, the X10 and so on.
However, the future isn't that dark - there should be LOADS more games coming with as new avenues for developers to actually make decent games open up:
- Flash
- AIR
- Unity Engine
- OpenFeint
- Google own aquisitions of small game-making companies such as LabPixies
- probably other stuff I've not come across
All this stuff, along with stats showing a lot of devs switching over to Android means that that we could see a massive increase in quality games in the upcoming months.

Android market suffers becuase of lack of a2sd support for most of the phones/users...
Developers are probably trying to use as little of phone's internal memory as possible, and that's why the same apps look cheaper on android comparing to iphone.
Google really f*cked up with apps installation

djoni1980 said:
Android market suffers becuase of lack of a2sd support for most of the phones/users...
Developers are probably trying to use as little of phone's internal memory as possible, and that's why the same apps look cheaper on android comparing to iphone.
Google really f*cked up with apps installation
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Click to collapse
Totally agree that this is one of the main problems !

elburna said:
Totally agree that this is one of the main problems !
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totally agree, the desire is pretty much twice as powerful as the 3gs it just doesnt have anywhere to put the data for big games etc, thats what froyo should fix.
i think the android market has come on in leaps and bounds, it reminds me of my palm days when you could pretty much find an app to do anything you wanted for free. the only downside of that is that to a certain extent, the volume of free apps acts as a disincentive to professional developers as it may give them the impression that it will be harder to monetise their products, of course some devs may be attracted to the vibrant community that is android rather than the staid walled garden that iphone apps seems to be.
in conclusion, froyo for everyone, either that or root for all and apps2sd. maybe its time that devs developed larger programs specifically for the root market. hmmmmm

Khargush said:
Could anyone name 3 good games for android
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Click to collapse
Robo Defense, AndTangle, Andoku, Air Control, Cestos, Othello, Gameboid (generally with Pokemon for me but others available), Word Search.
Those are all the ones I play regularly

Why is android so "meh" for games ;0(

ok its starting to annoy me now... but android has been around long enough and gotten a fairly large established user base that i cant see any excuse why our games are so CRAP compared to the iphone...
I refuse completly to buy an iphone.. in fact i point blank refuse to own any single apple product... i detest the level of control the force upon every one of there products... but as much as i try to argue the fact that my desire and android OS is superior to the iphone it falls flat on its face every time i see the games available for the iphone.... so what gives?
Is it that the hardware is so poor compared to the iphone it just cant cope with the games that work so well on the iphone? is it just that no one is making games
for android seriously yet?
I scan the market and see highly rated games like throttle coptor.. or abduction... i mean really? my 4-5 year old N95 had better gameplay !!!
I love my android in every other way ( not THAT way... god some peoples minds are in the sewer.. :0) ) but i just wish there were some decent games out there that could compete with the iphone ... i just dont know why!

Why bother arguing, who cares, you like your phone they like theirs. I bought a droid phone because it does what I want I could care less if it has ****ty games If I wanted to play good games on the move i'd by a DS or PSP.

If you take a look at Gameloft's games, you'll find they are pretty much close to their iPhone equivalents. Most of them are not available on the Market, but I like Dungeon Hunter and Nova.
The games market for Android is still fledgling, but expect it to improve dramatically over the next year.
Regards,
Dave

i was looking at a review on some of the gameloft titles ported from iphone.. and in pretty much every review it said the game was far inferior to the iphone... not so much graphicaly (although they did say they ran alot chopier on the desire) but the controls are meant to be awful... as for some reason the desire and other android devices cant cope half as well with multi touch controls?

the reason why is the apps sd issue.
iphones can use all of the 16/32 gb for app storage, android can only use the onboard RAM, which isnt bigger than 512mb usually. this limits the size of apps.
Up until now, developers have been hampered by the fact that every Android phone to date has had a relatively small amount of storage available for applications (a couple hundred megabytes as opposed to the iPhone’s many gigabytes). Apps are stored in the phone’s ROM rather than the phone’s removable (and cheaper) SD storage, which grants developers enhanced protection against having their apps pirated. But it’s also proven to be a handicap.
Many of the iPhone’s most popular applications are graphics intensive, rich games. But these games often require high quality visual assets to go with them. The iPhone handles these fine — you can download massive apps over Wi-Fi or through iTunes sync. On the other hand, while the newest Android phones are certainly capable of rendering high quality graphics, their ability to handle large apps is limited by the phone’s available storage. Yes, developers can choose to download their app’s assets to the SD card after the initial install, but this isn’t a good experience for the end user.
from now on, ie with Froyo and probably 3.0 gingerbread games can be stored on the sd card( apart from smoe kb files) this will encourage more game development.

bob dylan said:
the reason why is the apps sd issue.
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Not convinced this is totally accurate! Most of the better games just have a separate download which goes direct to SD card anyway.
Regards,
Dave

I find alot of people on xda (as good of a site this is) stuck in the past!
I mean "if i want to play good games i'll buy a ds?"
So you deem £400 plus for a device a good price for something you consider to be just a phone? I'm sorry but thats nuts!
Believe it or not the most fun to be had with a phone these days is not changing what the battery icon looks like.
And to the op games on android are picking up, this is somthing i've noticed in the short time i've been with android,
Nfs shift for example, DS? I think not!
It's even said to be better than the psp version.
Then we have Raging thunder 2, Monopoly classic HD, Lets golf, Hyper jump, Hungry shark, Anytime pool,
Hero of sparta, Backbreaker football, Sims 3 HD, Crush the castle, Nova,
Tiki towers and also out this month Reckless racing and Angry birds, all good games
And to round off my rant HTC packaged and sold the desire as many other manufactures do as a "Multimedia device"
And gaming takes more money as an industry today than music and Movies put together!
Put's on flame coat and hides! LOL a DS?

Chivalryyyy said:
i was looking at a review on some of the gameloft titles ported from iphone.. and in pretty much every review it said the game was far inferior to the iphone... not so much graphicaly (although they did say they ran alot chopier on the desire) but the controls are meant to be awful... as for some reason the desire and other android devices cant cope half as well with multi touch controls?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats because the desire dosent have multi touch, it only has dual touch, that ok when you need to say move a virtual joystick and press a button, but if you need to use 2 virtual joysticks or 2 x/y axis's the desire gets confused n f'ks up lol

better drivers .. better hardware.. for a PHONE this is very good... asphalt , super ko, talking tom etc... all very good graphics... but it is . at the end of the day ... a PHONE... until the they are fully converged... will have to stick to huge games on your sd card .

Chivalryyyy said:
ok its starting to annoy me now... but android has been around long enough and gotten a fairly large established user base that i cant see any excuse why our games are so CRAP compared to the iphone...
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Click to collapse
They're not crap at all:
4 Android 3D Games Worth Buying
A Look at Android Gaming: Video Overview of the Top Games Google’s OS Has to Offer
Android may have some catching up to do, but it's catching up fast

The Nexus One and the Desire use a Synaptics ClearPad 2000 touch sensor. Later HTC phones (e.g. EVO and Incredible) are using better touch sensor (see here for more details), and I expect this to be continued in the Ace/Desire HD and newer models.
So, it's not "Android's" fault - it's the hardware. That being said, there is no reason why the game developers couldn't tweak the controls to better suit the Nexus Ones/Desires touch sensor - they just tend not to bother because many of the games are direct iPhone ports.
Regards,
Dave

Do you like your Xperia Play?

As I read around the Internet, I see mixed reviews of the Xperia Play. However, if there is one thing i've learned through forum dwelling, it's that the unhappy are 10 times more likely to speak than the content.
If you don't want to answer any of those questions down below this, at least answer the poll <3
How well does it act as a phone? Are its texting/calling abilities acceptable?
How are the games? Are there emulators that take advantage of the control pad? Are there a reasonable amount of games that use the control pad? How often do you play games on it using the control pad? (I care so much about the control pad because it is the reason i'm considering buying it )
Is it exceptionally far behind recent phones? (Obviously it is behind as it isn't exactly a new phone, but will it still be useable 2-3 years from now?)
How well does Android run on it? Does it run more smoothly on the port of ICS or on its default Gingerbread? Do either of those OS's have a noticeable impact (good or bad) on gaming (compatibility, framerate, etc...)?
Would you buy your Xperia Play again?
Any other comments and experiences you have had are very welcome as well. Thank you for your time! I'm sure this thread will help at least one more person in the future.

Redjericho said:
How well does it act as a phone? Are its texting/calling abilities acceptable?
How are the games? Are there emulators that take advantage of the control pad? Are there a reasonable amount of games that use the control pad? How often do you play games on it using the control pad? (I care so much about the control pad because it is the reason i'm considering buying it )
Is it exceptionally far behind recent phones? (Obviously it is behind as it isn't exactly a new phone, but will it still be useable 2-3 years from now?)
How well does Android run on it? Does it run more smoothly on the port of ICS or on its default Gingerbread? Do either of those OS's have a noticeable impact (good or bad) on gaming (compatibility, framerate, etc...)?
Would you buy your Xperia Play again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) The thing I like the best about Xperia Play is that it's not just good at being a game device. While I'm struggling to have any use for my PlayStation Vita, my Xperia Play's able to be an 'everything'.
2) The games are nice! Which is a very big deal for me. What I feared the most is that this would just be another OpenPandora, GP32, Dingoo A320, iControlPad or Gametel Controller; coming with all kinds of high tech, next-level hardware that people are wasting for all these old-ass games. I don't want to buy new technology for old software. I like seeing games that are actually able to take advantage of Xperia Play's full resolution and all it's methods of this-generation controls. What makes Xperia Play a winner to me is that it has all that. It's an excellent emulator, but you can get a good emulator anywhere... don't mean to be blunt, but that's nothing special. What makes Xperia Play special is that it's actually able to play the upper crust of this-generation smartphone games with dual analogs, high-res graphics and conventions of this generation. I'm playing games on it all the time... and shockingly enough, my shiny new PlayStation Vita isn't compromising that.
3) On paper, it seems like it would be far behind current phones because it's a single core. In practice though, it's running software (game and non-game) just as smoothly as the latest and greatest. Adreno 205 isn't very high-ranking on GPU acceleration, but practice always matters more than concept, and in practice I seldom see dips in framerate or hiccups in everyday use... and since it's got game controls, it's got a merit that those powerhouse phones don't. By all means, it should already be obsolete, yet everytime the next big 'benchmark' game comes out, Xperia Play has it's hands all over it. Then again, the same group of oblivious spec-counters talk **** about how every iPhone released is behind the curve at launch... yet single cores still hold their ground.
4) Android runs pretty silky smooth for me. What I will say is that you may not get the smoothest performance with that crappy standard launcher Sony puts on it's phones. With LauncherPro or ssLauncher, you see the Xperia Play being ridiculously smooth (those two launchers in particular also are a huge battery life savers).
5) I'd definitely buy it again. When I initially got this, it was a toss up between this and the Motorola Atrix. Now I see people with GS2's, Atrix, G2x, Atrix 2, GNotes that all fall in love with this single core phone I have (a few have even offered to trade their stronger phone for my weaker one that has game controls). I'll be able to upgrade again soon, and I'll likely just be using that for eBay fodder. As long as my Xperia Play continues being silky smooth and keeps providing a gaming experience that nothing else parallels, I don't see myself caring how strong phones get.

Do you like your Xperia Play?
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Click to collapse
Well, the things that I don't like about it are cpu, gpu and ram because they are not appropriate for a gaming device.
but will it still be useable 2-3 years from now?)
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Click to collapse
As a gaming device, I think it will not be usuable for games because games in the future will require Android 4.1 + more than good hardware like (1GB RAM - Snapdragon S4 CPU ... etc)
Would you buy your Xperia Play again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
da

TLRtheory said:
1) The thing I like the best about Xperia Play is that it's not just good at being a game device. While I'm struggling to have any use for my PlayStation Vita, my Xperia Play's able to be an 'everything'.
2) The games are nice! Which is a very big deal for me. What I feared the most is that this would just be another OpenPandora, GP32, Dingoo A320, iControlPad or Gametel Controller; coming with all kinds of high tech, next-level hardware that people are wasting for all these old-ass games. I don't want to buy new technology for old software. I like seeing games that are actually able to take advantage of Xperia Play's full resolution and all it's methods of this-generation controls. What makes Xperia Play a winner to me is that it has all that. It's an excellent emulator, but you can get a good emulator anywhere... don't mean to be blunt, but that's nothing special. What makes Xperia Play special is that it's actually able to play the upper crust of this-generation smartphone games with dual analogs, high-res graphics and conventions of this generation. I'm playing games on it all the time... and shockingly enough, my shiny new PlayStation Vita isn't compromising that.
3) On paper, it seems like it would be far behind current phones because it's a single core. In practice though, it's running software (game and non-game) just as smoothly as the latest and greatest. Adreno 205 isn't very high-ranking on GPU acceleration, but practice always matters more than concept, and in practice I seldom see dips in framerate or hiccups in everyday use... and since it's got game controls, it's got a merit that those powerhouse phones don't.
4) Android runs pretty silky smooth for me. What I will say is that you may not get the smoothest performance with that crappy standard launcher Sony puts on it's phones. With LauncherPro or ssLauncher, you see the Xperia Play being ridiculously smooth (those two launchers in particular also are a huge battery life savers).
5) I'd definitely buy it again. When I initially got this, it was a toss up between this and the Motorola Atrix. Now I see people with GS2's, Atrix, G2x, Atrix 2, GNotes that all fall in love with this single core phone I have (a few have even offered to trade their stronger phone for my weaker one that has game controls). I'll be able to upgrade again soon, and I'll likely just be using that for eBay fodder. As long as my Xperia Play continues being silky smooth and keeps providing a gaming experience that nothing else parallels, I don't see myself caring how strong phones get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your review! You basically covered everything that I have been searching far-and-wide to find. It's good to hear that it can also handle current generation games (for the most part) because it's always nice to have one or two pick-up-and-play mindless games, and the current mobile market excels at that.
I too believe that a device's specs don't mean much unless they are real world, so it's nice to hear from an actual user that it performs well. The main complaints I have read are lag of android and battery life, so to learn that I can improve it (at least a bit) is a very big plus.
Thanks for taking the time to help me out! Where there is one satisfied customer there is bound to be more, but I will stick around to see what others have to say as well.
Xperia-Play said:
Well, the things that I don't like about it are cpu, gpu and ram because they are not appropriate for a gaming device.
As a gaming device, I think it will not be usuable for games because games in the future will require Android 4.1 + more than good hardware like (1GB RAM - Snapdragon S4 CPU ... etc)
da
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really see it as a replacement for a true gaming device. If I wanted to play polygon-packed, particle effect oozing games, I would spring for a Ps Vita (which I probably will get some day). As long as it can run a reasonable selection of game pad optimized games/emulators, i don't mind the lack of specs.

I don't really see it as a replacement for a true gaming device. If I wanted to play polygon-packed, particle effect oozing games, I would spring for a Ps Vita (which I probably will get some day). As long as it can run a reasonable selection of game pad optimized games/emulators, i don't mind the lack of specs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are right

I've
Sent from my R800i using xda premium

How well does it act as a phone? Are its texting/calling abilities acceptable?
Excellent. 100% a good PHONE.
How are the games? Are there emulators that take advantage of the control pad? Are there a reasonable amount of games that use the control pad? How often do you play games on it using the control pad? (I care so much about the control pad because it is the reason i'm considering buying it )
Games for Android are great. SO many games are Xperia PLAY optimized. Emulator games, imo, are where it's at. Most emulated games just downright play better with physical controls. I <3 <3 <3 playing my PS1 roms on it.
Is it exceptionally far behind recent phones? (Obviously it is behind as it isn't exactly a new phone, but will it still be useable 2-3 years from now?)
I think so. Yeah it will lag a bit, especially as newer Android versions will require newer hardware, but imo we're safe for another year and a half or two. Possibly more.
How well does Android run on it? Does it run more smoothly on the port of ICS or on its default Gingerbread? Do either of those OS's have a noticeable impact (good or bad) on gaming (compatibility, framerate, etc...)?
For me using a custom rom (TrueAncestor) it's *butter*y smooth. Plays my games excellently.
Would you buy your Xperia Play again?
I most certainly would. Actually, I just did, and I am NOT regretting that desicion AT ALL. I had bought a beat up used one first and it died, but I liked it so much I bought it again.

i'll buy it ,
if one day , xperia play 2 comes , i'll buy that too , for any price
game pad is really really special H/W on phone , all i need is game and game support

I brought my play specifically for gaming as I'm sure so did everyone who has got this phone, I think it is a really good phone for gaming although it does struggle with some larger games like nova 3 but all in all the games seem to run lag less and have yet to have any issues with gaming myself, the phone itself excluding gaming is great it runs smooth, looks nice and its awesome when u show it to ur mates then flip out the controller lol, I wasn't sure about buying this phone at 1st as it does have some bad reviews and with it only having a 1ghz single core processor it didn't seem that revealing, anyway I went ahead and brought it and im yet to see any faults with it in fact after seeing mine my bro sold his iphone4 to buy one and my mate sold his sensation xe to buy one aswel which on paper is a huge downgrade, like I said some large games like nova 3 for example do lag but personally I think thats not because the phone can't hack it but that the game itself is just made crappy but a little lag on some games is worth bearing for the fact that u have a controller. This is the phone for anyone who likes gaming and if u install a custom rom and kernel its even better, I love this phone and won't ever change it unless an Xperia play 2 comes out
Sent from my R800i using xda premium

Hi, for me it's the best phone out there not only for gaming cause it can everything what a modern android phone should can. I use it every day as a normal phone and everything is fine and if you are a gamer and retrogame fan like me then there isn't something better.
Of course there a lot of more powerfull phones but as said they're just phones, and yeah i tried to play on others but with touch it's impossible to play a good game!!

Selling nexus 10 for surface, but should I wait?

I am a long time android "fanboy" but work in a Microsoft world! . I have to admit I have really liked the surface...I am selling my nexus 10 to get one, I did see that staples will be selling them for 350ish in a week or so, but should in wait until the surface 2?
Will it come out this year? Rumors say yes, but you know how that goes... Anyways just looking for input.. Get one at the price drop or wait?
Are they dropping the price to thin out the stock?
Thanks
Cdrshm
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

They didn't mention a Surface 2 at Build, which would have been the obvious time to do it. Plus I think they gave the Build attendees Surface Pros. In the past they've gotten prerelease stuff. If there was a Surface 2 coming out anytime soon it would have gotten some attention. I think you're getting a Surface now.
Tk

I'd buy one all day at that price - best thin client tablet available. Only thing lacking is in games - if your a tablet gamer, there are no gameloft, or EA games to speak of - all the other stuff is there (angry birds, fruit ninja, temple run, pinball, etc), but for me, the gameloft and EA games are the only ones id pay for, and they are non-existent.
I was hoping to sell mine for 400, and get the Surface 2 when it comes out, but looks like you can get one for less brand new. Plus no one knows when the 2 will be out, could possibly have to wait till holiday season, which is months away.

UBNAS81 said:
I'd buy one all day at that price - best thin client tablet available. Only thing lacking is in games - if your a tablet gamer, there are no gameloft, or EA games to speak of - all the other stuff is there (angry birds, fruit ninja, temple run, pinball, etc), but for me, the gameloft and EA games are the only ones id pay for, and they are non-existent.
I was hoping to sell mine for 400, and get the Surface 2 when it comes out, but looks like you can get one for less brand new. Plus no one knows when the 2 will be out, could possibly have to wait till holiday season, which is months away.
Click to expand...
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I play some games, but primarily I use it for web surfing, forums, email... that kind of stuff... I love my nexus 10, but would like a better web browsing experience. I don't want to constantly have to change it to desktop mode.... would like desktop web browsing experience (FLASH) on a tablet.... that is clean and fast!
I don't think I can go wrong picking one up for $350, I think they are only doing it for one week, so if after a few weeks im hoping I could still get 400 for it.... i wish they had more info on a release date for the surface 2... I would definitely hold out for one if they were coming this year... Thanks for you input...

cdrshm said:
I play some games, but primarily I use it for web surfing, forums, email... that kind of stuff... I love my nexus 10, but would like a better web browsing experience. I don't want to constantly have to change it to desktop mode.... would like desktop web browsing experience (FLASH) on a tablet.... that is clean and fast!
I don't think I can go wrong picking one up for $350, I think they are only doing it for one week, so if after a few weeks im hoping I could still get 400 for it.... i wish they had more info on a release date for the surface 2... I would definitely hold out for one if they were coming this year... Thanks for you input...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's all your using it for, then RT is your device - flash support built in, and with 8.1 you get outlook - but to be honest, I actually prefer the modern mail app because it is more touch friendly - that being said, when im sitting at my desk doing work, having outlook is great.
I have an Android phone - and had the original Asus Transformer - I felt that it was kind of bulky with the keyboard attachment, and when detached, it was literally the same as my phone, albeit with a much larger screen. I was running the same apps, and the same games on my phone as my tablet, so it didn't really feel like a necessary device to me. I felt more comfortable holding my phone for gaming, and would occasionally use teamviewer, or Logmein to do work on my laptop remotely (which was much slower than RT's native RDP). I honestly felt that the apps ran better on the phone than on the tablet - there was considerable lag in everything I was doing, both on my phone and tablet, which drives me crazy. It was basically a pointless device for me.
The Surface RT on the other hand, feels like a real computer. I got it on launch, and was a bit disappointed at first, but the wave of updates made it more stable, and it has been great. Since ive gotten it, I sold my transformer, and even my wife who typically used my Ipad2 for web browsing prefers the RT. I am not App crazy person, I really only use the basics, and the full web browser sold me on RT. When i read people bash the thing because it has no legacy support for windows applications i just lmao.......you never hear someone say, why doesn't my ipad run photoshop - point is, there are a lot of idiots out there. The only app i use on my phone / ipad (besides the occasional game) that is not available on the Surface is Flipboard, and that is coming out shortly.

UBNAS81 said:
If that's all your using it for, then RT is your device - flash support built in, and with 8.1 you get outlook - but to be honest, I actually prefer the modern mail app because it is more touch friendly - that being said, when im sitting at my desk doing work, having outlook is great.
I have an Android phone - and had the original Asus Transformer - I felt that it was kind of bulky with the keyboard attachment, and when detached, it was literally the same as my phone, albeit with a much larger screen. I was running the same apps, and the same games on my phone as my tablet, so it didn't really feel like a necessary device to me. I felt more comfortable holding my phone for gaming, and would occasionally use teamviewer, or Logmein to do work on my laptop remotely (which was much slower than RT's native RDP). I honestly felt that the apps ran better on the phone than on the tablet - there was considerable lag in everything I was doing, both on my phone and tablet, which drives me crazy. It was basically a pointless device for me.
The Surface RT on the other hand, feels like a real computer. I got it on launch, and was a bit disappointed at first, but the wave of updates made it more stable, and it has been great. Since ive gotten it, I sold my transformer, and even my wife who typically used my Ipad2 for web browsing prefers the RT. I am not App crazy person, I really only use the basics, and the full web browser sold me on RT. When i read people bash the thing because it has no legacy support for windows applications i just lmao.......you never hear someone say, why doesn't my ipad run photoshop - point is, there are a lot of idiots out there. The only app i use on my phone / ipad (besides the occasional game) that is not available on the Surface is Flipboard, and that is coming out shortly.
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Well I did take the plunge and purchased one! I have to say I love it... I am still running 8 but did just a few tweak's, like disabling defender.
I agree with the transformers lag. I had the TF300 and it was terrible, especially at web surfing, or downloading multiple apps.. the I/O was awful...
I would usually download the "News" apps because it was better than the website/or mobile site.. but with the RT I just go to the website...
I agree with you 100% with everything you mentioned. I have talked to a few people that "complain" that it doesn't x86 apps... but that's not the point of it... I have laptops and computers and all that...I don't want another one... I really like the 8 interface on a tablet... I would be ok with no Desktop at all... I loved my google nexus and its beautiful screen...but I really like the RT. "I really only use the basics, and the full web browser sold me on RT. " -- Couldn't agree with you More .. no changing to desktop mode, or flash issues.... I have noticed that this site on the RT is a little slow...not sure cause of all the data on one page and ads and the such...
I ran 8.1 for a little bit, it was nice, but I will wait for it to be a little more refined...or final release...
The Pro is a great machine, I just can't justify the price.... love the speed..... They are smoking fast. At work we purchased a thinkpad helix... This thing is a monster. HD Screen, I7, 8GB memory, 250 SSD.....but heavy, I didn't really enjoy it as a tablet, it got very warm, battery life sucked, and you could hear the fans running....
With the rap Microsoft gets about windows 8 and all the hate, they put out a mobile tablet device that runs "APPS, and Office Productivity) and then get beat up over it... I don't understand...
The only thing I wish I could get is: 1. A Cheap touch cover... 20-30 bucks( Wishful Thinking - I know...) ..or just a smart cover like they make for the ipad but locks into place like the touch cover.
Anyways thanks again for your feed back!
cdrshm

I have no problem using tablet with windows 8 RT, and the MS office for home and students are good enough for me to use. I have 4 windows 8 RT tablets for my family. One of my family members uses one of these tablets at graduate school. Three of our family members use Android phones but two android tablets at home are put aside now. It is great to hear that MS starts cutting down the price of Surface RT. The price of windows 8 RT tablet is within the upper range of the price of a netbook ($275 to $375 with keyboard dock) is reasonable enough to purchase.

Xperia Play games to TV? (Nintendo Switch Style)

I have a rooted Xperia Play that plays GBA and PS1 games pretty well. But I want to see if I can play them on the big screen too. Kind of like how the new Nintendo switch can handle games on the big screen and in your hand.
Obviously, there's no HDMI ports on it, and Screen Mirroring doesn't seem to be an option either. Is there any other way to get video from it to the tv?
I'd be fine with using another device to play games as well, as long as it's compatible with saves from the phone. I was thinking that plugging it into a Mad Catz Mojo micro-console as an external storage device might work. I figured I should ask first however before dropping $100~ dollars on 'useless' tech.
I have a custom built gaming computer as well, but having to fire that up to play games seems like a bit of a hassle... or at least not as fun. Especially since syncing android emulators to PC ones might be tough.
I know it won't exactly be 4K visuals no matter what I use, but it would be fun to figure out and play with. Plus... I love tinkering like this in general.

No way of doing it nativly. Your best option would be to buy a cheap android TV box or HMI stick you can pick them up on ebay for sub $50, look for one with a RK3288 and 2gb of ram, should run most things.
Most games and EMUs support cloud saving, just link the emu or game to cloud saving and you can play both on the TV or on the go with your play.

Cruxis_X said:
No way of doing it nativly. Your best option would be to buy a cheap android TV box or HMI stick you can pick them up on ebay for sub $50, look for one with a RK3288 and 2gb of ram, should run most things.
Most games and EMUs support cloud saving, just link the emu or game to cloud saving and you can play both on the TV or on the go with your play.
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By "HMI", do you mean HDMI? Either way, I read that the Mad Catz mojo could handle emulators pretty well and has access to the Google Play store. Using the same emulator would make syncing saves easier, right? I did read that cloud saving was an option, but I wanted to be sure about everything before I spent $5 on a incompatible app... or $100 dollars on the wrong equipment.