I've been seeing a lot of blowback on what many are considering sub-par specs for the Galaxy Nexus. I'm not sure it deserves as much criticism as it's getting.
Processor
The Complaint:
1.2 GHz isn't 1.5
The chip comes with the outdated SGX540 GPU
The Possible Reason:
The s2 Exynos apparently doesn't work well with LTE right now. Personally, I'd prefer LTE latency to HSPA+ with a marginally faster processor.
The GPU does suck, but unfortunately there aren't really any other chipsets available right now offering something better for LTE.
And keep in mind, the OMAP 4460 is BRAND NEW. This is not the same OMAP 4430 that has been in other phones to date. The clock speed was tuned down to 1.2 GHz in order to avoid delays when the 1.5 speeds were not stable.
While the GPU may suck, apparently the OMAP 4460 has some nice features in the way of media/video processing, which was behind Google's decision to go with that chipset.
Update: That media/video processing feature is called the IVA 3 -- it is a hw video decoder/encoder that supports [email protected] for h.264, MPEG-4, and h.263, VP8, etc. In essence, it allows for low power consumption while playing back HD quality video (and this makes a lot more sense as to why Google decided to go with OMAP for their new 720p resolution device). More info: http:// blog . webmproject . org/2010/10/demo-of-webm-running-on-ti-omap-4.html
Camera
The Complaint:
5 MP isn't 8
Sample pictures aren't mind-blowing
The Possible Reason:
Instant shutter and panoramic photos.
The Galaxy Nexus takes photos REALLY quickly, and the panoramic photo capability depends on that. This means the phone needs both a fast lens (search Wikipedia for "Lens speed") and likely a sensor capable of operating at those speeds. It's quite possible that they had to sacrifice in MP in order to get those speeds.
So yes, the camera is not as "good" as other phones might have, but the marginal decrease might be what's allowing it to run circles around other cameras in photo speed and generate some impressive panoramas.
Those seem to be the two major complaints right now. Also, I admit my hardware knowledge isn't as in depth as some others on xda, so I welcome any additional info. Thoughts?
For me it would be the Camera and lack of SD card.
I can deal with 5MP if it also had better image stabilization. The pics I have seen were not sharp. However, the fast AF and panoramic mode are bad ass.
The lack of a SD card is just annoying. As a developer, it would be nice to have this support.
Based on previous Nexus devices (One and S) i think NO see a
FM radio. Too bad...
The lack of SD card is kinda annoying.
The only two "sub-par" items that were listed is rather "meh." You will never tell the difference of 300Mhz. You can run your benchmark tools, but, user experience is nil.
Camera MP doesn't mean anything if the phone can't take decent pictures at all. If you're worried about anything over 5MP, then, you should carry a real camera.
For an FM radio... if it's lacking the hardware.... Tune In Radio app is a sweet replacement.
The Nexus phones sets the standard for all smartphones. This phone seems to be "above-par" to what is currently out there.
My gripes:
1. Way too close to the SGSII form factor. I found the SGSII to be insanely uncomfortable for me. It's far too thin to be so wide.
2. No SD card. Instant fail for me. It's not that the built-in memory isn't enough, it's that Samsung has a history of Nexus devices with failed memory and no way to fix it because there isn't an SD slot.
3. Samsung's total plastic body builds are lightweight, sure, but they feel like cheap pieces of throwaway junk. The Amaze, IMO, makes the SGSII feel like a chump (for reference, I don't use most HTC devices due to Sense, I prefer stock software but I love HTC's build quality).
4. It's made by Samsung. Again.
bfspider said:
If you're worried about anything over 5MP, then, you should carry a real camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more.
JaiaV said:
My gripes:
1. Way too close to the SGSII form factor. I found the SGSII to be insanely uncomfortable for me. It's far too thin to be so wide.
2. No SD card. Instant fail for me. It's not that the built-in memory isn't enough, it's that Samsung has a history of Nexus devices with failed memory and no way to fix it because there isn't an SD slot.
3. Samsung's total plastic body builds are lightweight, sure, but they feel like cheap pieces of throwaway junk. The Amaze, IMO, makes the SGSII feel like a chump (for reference, I don't use most HTC devices due to Sense, I prefer stock software but I love HTC's build quality).
4. It's made by Samsung. Again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
#3 has been connected with a metal chassis. If you take a look around some of the reviews, a few sites notice that difference.
kromem said:
I've been seeing a lot of blowback on what many are considering sub-par specs for the Galaxy Nexus. I'm not sure it deserves as much criticism as it's getting.
Those seem to be the two major complaints right now. Also, I admit my hardware knowledge isn't as in depth as some others on xda, so I welcome any additional info. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the device is meant for DEVELOPERS, not normal folks basically, that was probably their mentality
thus all the lack of high tech stuff, except for the screen
bfspider said:
#3 has been connected with a metal chassis. If you take a look around some of the reviews, a few sites notice that difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of them do have some internal metal chassis that acts like a skeleton of sorts, if I am not mistaken. That doesn't stop them from feeling like cheap pieces of trash.
I won't be able to jog faster with this phone, as it's slightly bigger and heavier than S2.
Galaxy S II weight = 116 grams
Galaxy Nexus weight = 135 grams
AllGamer said:
the device is meant for DEVELOPERS, not normal folks basically, that was probably their mentality
thus all the lack of high tech stuff, except for the screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anything, that makes less sense. Normal people don't even know what OMAP or a SGX540 is.
And I kind of meant thoughts on whether or not my reasoning relating to the hardware choices seemed sound.
kromem said:
I've been seeing a lot of blowback on what many are considering sub-par specs for the Galaxy Nexus. I'm not sure it deserves as much criticism as it's getting.
Processor
The Complaint:
1.2 GHz isn't 1.5
The chip comes with the outdated SGX540 GPU
..snipped..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha even the 540 is upgrade for me, I'm still using the OG Droid with it's SGX530 toting OMAP3 chip. So a dual core OMAP4 is a vast upgrade for me.
Plus the lack of an SD card is no big deal for me...16GB of onboard storage is more than enough for me, meaning it doesn't really need an SD card as much as my Droid does.
For a while, I was sort of disappointed with a couple of the GN's specs, but I'm now very excited. Let me address the specs in question:
1. GPU : The GPU is the Nov 2007 SGX540 while the current ringleader is the Jan 2009 SGX543MP2. The difference is that the GN's GPU is clocked at a speedy 384 MHz, almost double that of the 200 MHz clock speed of the SGX543MP2. With that knowledge, plus the fact that I won't be playing console-quality games on a touchscreen, I was pretty much satisfied.
2. CPU : I first cringed when I heard that the GN was going to have a Ti-OMAP processor instead of the Exynos, but I was sort of happy when I learned it might be the OMAP4470, a beast of a phone. Then I checked Wikipedia, and was disappointed to learn the 4470 is coming out in Q2 2012, meaning I would have to settle with the lesser version. I'm still uneasy about this aspect, but the fact that Google has chose this processor specifically inclines me to think it will be optimized thoroughly. Just look at the iPhone4 vs the iPhone4S; a dual-core, plus a beefed up GPU don't make the phone any faster, as the OS has been perfectly coded to the hardware already. The GHz make no difference in real life, aside for half a second. Besides, more ICS devices are coming up according to Black_man_x, with AT&T leading in specs for now (the GSMarena Nexus Specs leak is probably that phone) so the best phone is perpetually going to be "right around the corner".
3. Camera: I knew this was going to be a 5MP shooter, as I predicted Google would push Google+ and instant upload with this model, which allows unlimited storage to 5MP photos. The camera is also hard coded to the CPU, which is why you get 1080p on a 5MP camera, which was previously unheard of (at least to me). Some 8MP still can't even do 1080p, resting at 720p only. Plus you get awesome features such as continuous exposure and photo capture while recording.
4. No SDCard slot: I never use microSD's so this isn't a problem for me. I can see how it would affect others though. I prefer internal storage over anything, as it's fast and secure. I just need to keep a NANDroid at all times on the device though
Honestly, everything else was amazing. The LED notification totally surprised me, as I thought it was going to be like the Epic's (a lame blue light at the top). I love the form factor and size, and I'm personally going to buy the HSPA+ model. I hate CDMA with a burning passion, and T-Mobile has got a new prepaid $30 5GB Unlimited Plan with 100 Mins and Unltd Texts that I can abuse. Whenever I feel like it, I can hop on over to AT&T, switch to 3 in the UK when I travel, or go with a local carrier. I made the mistake of buying the Nexus One a couple of months before the Nexus S landed, not going to make the same mistake again
where has it been confirmed the prime will ship with the 4460?
edit: aaaaand here's my answer:
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/24529-ti-confirms-omap-4460-is-in-nexus-galaxy
eric b
IMO nothing is wrong with the Camera, plus by now everyone should know that Megapixels don't mean a damn thing -_- this camera is actually pretty damn beast.
i think you misunderstand lens speed. the aperture of the lens for this camera really shouldn't be affected by the sensor. perhaps you mean sensor speed.
people still had the same complains with the NS...........I doubt we will be seeing any Nexus device jump as far ahead as the N1 did
For all those complaining about the lack of SD card slot I'm guessing you don't have a Honeycomb tablet with an SD card slot. Even with the latest Honeycomb update that came out about a month ago Google still doesn't have the SD card working like most expect. It is nothing like an SD card under Gingerbread. I believe they want people to use a new storage API to interact with the SD card so many apps don't see it or consider it read-only. Applications using the new storage API are read/write. It's a change and I think many existing Froyo/Gingerbread era apps will need to be updated for Ice Cream Sandwich.
That said my guess is Google still hasn't worked out these kinks with SD cards for early Ice Cream Sandwich either. Therefore going with all internal storage and no SD card option avoids the problem and will provide the best user experience. Motorola on the other hand has taken a beating from Xoom owners like myself that waited 6 months for any kind of SD card support and even then found it lacking.
The lack the sd card is a bit of a downer, if samsung goes the same route with the partitions as they did on the sgs2 then we'll only have 11.5gb of free space left on the sdcard.
wat no sd card? blasphemy!
Hi I'm interested in buying this phone.
I don't know much about the specifications needed to better ensure future updates. Were many 7.5 phones updated to 8.0?
I know that with other OSs, at this time, if you want future updates you need a phone with a minimum of 1GB of RAM, and this phone has 512MB, and while it is said to run very smoothly on that, I wonder will it get 8.5 or 9.0? I hate when phones are dumped by manufacturers. I hate to say it but Apple doesn't do that (I'm coming from Android however).
Also related to OS and efficiency, do screens burn battery very significantly on this OS? They don't on the iPhone 5, but kill the battery on 2012 Androids.
Thanks :good:
Well this explains the battery/screen performance...:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-windows-phone-8s-1098442/review/9
I'm planning to sell my old Z1C for a 5.5 inch Zenfone 2 (2gb)... Will it be worth it? How's overall performace on this? App compatibilities (the mobile Intel processor is foreign to me)? Official and dev support?
2k14 said:
I'm planning to sell my old Z1C for a 5.5 inch Zenfone 2 (2gb)... Will it be worth it? How's overall performace on this? App compatibilities (the mobile Intel processor is foreign to me)? Official and dev support?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I happen to love my ZF2 ZE551 4/64 since it can run Windoze 7 & 8 w/ a custom kernel supporting kvm. Just my 2 cents
ycavan said:
I happen to love my ZF2 ZE551 4/64 since it can run Windoze 7 & 8 w/ a custom kernel supporting kvm. Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Woah! Windows Phone roms??! That sounds fantastic... But compared to your 4gb device, how will the 2gb one fair? I do basic multitasking, multimedia browsing and my Z1C's 2gb has served me well though...
P.S. My budget doesn't grasp the 4gb model
2k14 said:
Woah! Windows Phone roms??! That sounds fantastic... But compared to your 4gb device, how will the 2gb one fair? I do basic multitasking, multimedia browsing and my Z1C's 2gb has served me well though...
P.S. My budget doesn't grasp the 4gb model
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, no desktop Windoze... not windows phone Please see this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/zf2-running-windows-7-using-kvm-t3153299
tbh? I'm sure the 2gb phone will be fine for most anything. I have yet to find any apps that don't work on my ZF2 & most Android apps are NOT going to use 2 gigs of ram.
Don't think you'll have any problem with the 2GB version. Is it the 1.8ghz or the 2.3ghz model? Again, it shouldn't make a huge difference - the two chips have identical architecture, the same base speed and the same gpu. The only difference is the higher spec one can turbo higher in bursts. There are some corners cut to sell a device as cheaply as the Zenfone range, but powerful performance isn't lacking, and though it is a low to mid-range device I believe you get more than you pay for and it punches above it's weight. I came from an iPhone 5 to my Zenfone ZE550ML and I love it.
kanagawaben said:
Don't think you'll have any problem with the 2GB version. Is it the 1.8ghz or the 2.3ghz model? Again, it shouldn't make a huge difference - the two chips have identical architecture, the same base speed and the same gpu. The only difference is the higher spec one can turbo higher in bursts. There are some corners cut to sell a device as cheaply as the Zenfone range, but powerful performance isn't lacking, and though it is a low to mid-range device I believe you get more than you pay for and it punches above it's weight. I came from an iPhone 5 to my Zenfone ZE550ML and I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the ZF2's stance in the high-mid range of the market however I'm concerned whether the ZF2 will be a downgrade from my Z1C... I'm particularly hoping the ZF2 as similarly snappy and capable as my Z1C but with the advantages that come as a phone thats released this year as opposed to the 2013 Z1C.
Also the Z1C has an amazing camera that has served me well. How's the ZF2's camera?
Well, benchmarks suggest the Zenfone 2 has quite a big performance advantage over your Z1C, and most users on here will probably tell you that it is very smooth and snappy to use in real everyday usage too. The camera on the Zenfone has its detractors, but mostly they are comparing it to things like the Galaxy S6 or iPhones. It is not perfect by any means, but a capable camera given the price. All reviews I have read pretty much slate the Z1/Z1C's camera though, so you might find that the Zenfone's is at least on a par.
I'm looking to change my iphone 5c. I know the performance of the two phones is almost the same.
This would be my first Samsung. I'm a bit scared of switching because friends of mine had S4 (not mini) variants with major issues including replacement of mainboard).
The reason I am looking at this phone is that I want something with more freedom and future proofing ( removable battery, sdcard, nfc, IR ) and a bigger screen, while being around the $150-$200 price range
So:
Would anyone recommend buying it today?
Has anyone used this phone more than a year or two? I'm looking for a phone to last me at least 2-3 years, as I don't change them that often.
How is the rom availability and performance and stability of the available custom roms?
The s4 mini is a decent old phone. It is compact, it is powerfull enough to do most of the work we do on smartphones in 2016.
It has an excellent (A+) development community. You will surely love the little features like removable battery, sd card, ir blaster etc.
I have used them a lot. Battery life on this phone, from my experience is just above average. Although my phone now suffers some ghost drain.
The phone has official cyanogenmod 13 support which is phenomenal. Some high end phones still do not have that support.
In terms of stability as of now cm12.1 is the most stable and all roms based on cm12.1, like aicp, ressurection remix etc are very stable and daily driver
worthy. CM13 will be stable soon. The work devs put into this phone almost makes me cry, :crying: Samsung takes money and gives no updates, while
these awesome guys do it for free, with limited resources.
The performance of this phone is adequate for most 2016 needs as i said earlier. Recently i ran antutu while on cm13, I got a score of 33K. Which is on par
with most midrange chipsets these days that have 8-10 cores Not that benchmarks matter a lot, but real world usage is brilliant. I have very few lags or
memory issues with this phone. It holds up really good with moderate-slightly heavy usage. But ofcourse with really hardcore use, phone may stutter here and
there. But performance for a midrange phone from 2013,... this is great.
Samsung more or less maxed out the technology on the S4. There's very little the S5+ offer over the S4 and even regression in some categories. The S6 might have more cores and memory, but it handles tasks poorly and can't be modded. The S5 has useless bloat features and no real RAM or processor update over the S4. Most of the "innovation" now is cosmetic.
The S4 Mini might not have the best camera, but specs-wise it's comparable to the full power S3 LTE, with the S4 interface. With CyanogenMod's Lolipop/Marshmallow roms and the Brazilian Kitkat bootloader, there is no fear of being locked into a specific ROM, as you can flash from JellyBean through Marshmallow without problem.
It's an underrated phone. I don't agree with sansak that the development community is A+, because these forums are rather quiet for such a modable phone. The phone is thankfully still supported among other things.
Is it relevant? Very yes. Just because it's "old" does not mean "bad". Galaxy S quality plateaued after the S4.
Looking to get back into the Android modding world.
These things are important to me:
Custom Roms / rooting / unlocked bootloader
Fast
Large screen
(Stylus)
Expandable storage
Wireless charging
Don't care about headphone jack
The Note 9 (certain versions, either Exynos chipset or the n9600?) seems to meet all of these criteria, but... the a50 is *so* much cheaper.
Other than the stylus obviously, is the a50 comparable to the Note 9?
I mean, yeah, it is slightly behind in resolution, the scratch-resistance of the glass, the CPU / SOC, RAM (6 GB vs 4 GB), but it has a much better camera (which is kind of important to me, but not a game breaker).
I don't care that the Note 9 is water/dust resistant.
I would be using the phone on Ting here in the U.S.
Edit: I am also considering the Google Pixel (3, 3a xl, 4 XL) and the OnePlus 6T or Pro 7
I say don't get A50 if you want to play around with it. Yes, it's a great value phone, but only for average users. So far there's only few GSI ROMs and it's still somewhat buggy for most people.
Consider a OnePlus phone instead. It has great support for custom ROMs and tweaks.
I've got a Note 9 and the wife has an A50 (which I update etc as she's rather technophobic ... )
They are actually very similar in size, just that the N9 is noticeably heavier - though I personally don't have any issues with that. I use the stylus quite a bit so that's another point in its favour, as is the ability to use custom ROMs/root it/etc. Oh, I'm in the UK so have the Exynos version.
Not sure about the A50 being 'buggy' as the one we have works fine in day to day use on a completely stock ROM. Android 10 should be out for it anytime soon as well.
Oh, and the N9 is also noticeably faster, just installing apps, for example.
That's my experience anyway.
Dude, I don't know where in the US do you live (regarding to phones prices), and I don't mean to be rude, but this question makes no sense at all. You're comparing a flagship phone to a mid-range budget phone from nearly the same time.
It's fairly obvious that a higher-end, more expensive phone will be better in almost every aspect. No need to compare at all: SO MUCH better hardware, absolutely better camera (more quality and functions such as a better pro mode), additional functionality (DeX, MHL), etc. It's only fair... since one retailed for something like 800 dollars (N9) and the other one for around 280 USD...
By the way, I would certainly not recommend Samsung if you're into modding. Samsung phones are OK but they lack a lot of community development and customization mainly because of Exynos chipsets and locked bootloaders. There are obviously a few exceptions such as some international models that use Qualcomm processors, but that's it.
EDIT: what I meant is that the price difference between both phones, translates into A50 being a less capable product in every aspect. It's not bad at all for it's price, but keep in mind it's a 250 dollar phone. If you can afford N9, it's a flagship, and certainly not too old to be relevant in 2020.
If you can't go for it, maybe set for something in the middle like an A70? That one comes with a Snapdragon SoC, which brings support to GCam and stuff.