Related
Hey guys,
Although I am not among you, I think it would be extremely helpful/eye-opening to conduct a poll of all current HTC Touch Pro owners who have had their device for enough time to make an initial assessment of the device's quality. That means probably at least a week--but use your own discretion. Just a few suggested guidelines:
Don't let the initial euphoria blur your judgment
Think for a few moments before submitting a vote
Compare, if possible, the quality of the device to, say, that of an iPhone, if you've ever owned one or used it extensively, to provide a point of reference.
I look forward to hearing everyone's input!
-Steve
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
It's the best i've used, and the best there is on the market at this moment. I've shut off TF3D though and replaced it with Mobile Shell. Now using it with great pleasure.
With the exception of the "sleeve" and somewhat slow GPS, I am very pleased with my TP.
Great device, and i bet there is more to come with some updates in the near future. That's the reason I voted Above Avarage.
As far as functionality goes, it has all I want: telephone, mail, internet and navigation. Next to that there is a lot of software out there.
A few quircks here and there ofcourse. Like almost instant fixes with Google Maps...and 15 to 20 minutes GPS fixing time with Tom Tom 7.
Battery life could be better as well
I would have liked to add some today plugins into TF3D, or be able to add new tabs
fhsieh said:
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
othersteve said:
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, maybe not with the poll, but at least for any comments. I mean everyone has different needs and expectations for the device so it'll be hard to judge the poll accurately without seeing some objective testimony.
But what am I babbling about, here's some of my thoughts:
- Not the most solid handheled device I've had (my old iPaq hx4700 was a tank), but it comes very close and is definitely not a cheap build. Better than the Blackjack and some Blackberries, but I haven't spent very much time with those and I certainly don't know how well the TPro's build will last over time.
- WM6.1 isn't perfect, but then XDA is very active. Plus there are apps for just about anything you need. I spent some time with a Nokia N800, and while it's nice that Maemo is (almost) completely open-source -- which makes for an equally active community -- you're plain out of luck if no one is developing something you need. Namely, the software probably exists on standard Linux distros, but very little of it has been ported to Maemo. This is the same reason I decided not to jump on the Android bandwagon right away.
- Finally, I now have one device that does everything I needed my old devices to do. US phone (Nokia 6300), Japan phone (SE W43S), electronic dictionary (hx4700), internet device (hx4700/N800), mp3 player.
- Same observations as others: GPS is laggy, though not really an issue since I only use it as a pedestrian; battery life isn't impressive. I will probably buy a USB battery pack later.
So far v.happy, just need to solve the backlight issue when in call, and the Sim contacts list.
I've had my TP for almost 3 weeks now - it was one of the first on the market. I have used HTC qwerty based devices for several years now and this is by far the best device. I dearly loved my Tytn II but the hardware in this device is much better.
I own a 3G iPhone also and while this device is definitely a joy to use it is far from ever replacing my TP as my preference business device.
I decided to continue to run the 3D flow against other utilities but it's far from perfect - however developed with the correct user feedback it will be a great tool.
While 6.1 runs quite smoothly on the device the interface obviously lets the device down. I also have had a few lockups but no more than other devices.
The battery is pretty shocking to be honest. I use a scheduler to shut down BT and even the radio stack at night to preserve battery but to be honest if I were going away for anymore that 24 hours I would have to take a charger.
GPS has has been quick to locate a signal but I've encountered issues with TT6 \ and or Googlemaps. I currently run IGO8 and it runs very well.
Finally this device has a half-decent web browser on it - Opera mobile is great. IE mobile is a shambles.
Micro SD is essential - currently running an 8GB card with all my music, apps and vids. No idea why they left it off the Diamond - crazy in my opinion.
If anyone has any quick questions I'd be happy to answer them.
I was hoping by going with a non-American device (which has three times the processor of its American counterparts), I would have a more stable device. Overall, best phone I've ever had. A little disappointed that I need to soft reset every couple of days.
Don't regret it...leaps and bounds over my previous device.
Wow guys, thanks a ton for the feedback so far. This is extremely informative stuff to all of us prospective buyers. Personally, I'll be getting the phone through our Sprint corporate account, but as with everything that's a significant investment I have been trying to read up as much as possible on it beforehand to accurately set my expectations and prepare myself for problems that will need to be solved.
I use SPB Mobile Shell on my Mogul right now, and while I like it, I love the flair of TouchFlo3D... I just hope it is equally useful and quick (so far to that end it seems to be not quite as useful). I think I will try replacing the default contact manager on my Pro with Finger-Friendly Friends provided that will work all right. I also hope that the US release a month or so from now will see additional improvements in terms of software stability and speed (though probably not battery life).
Apart from that, I'm quite excited about everything I have read about the device. And I've always been a sucker for statistics, so having a poll on such an educated and active forum is of remarkable interest.
-Steve
The best device that I ever owned.
Like others I´m having some troubles with the GPS (reception time) and other issues like the screen going of of on a call.
So far I kinda like it.
Nevertheless I'll vote in the pole and give a complete feedback as soon as HTC repairs it (I have a sound problem...)
Hows the sound quality of the internal speaker?
Greetings
LordK
The only problem of the internal speaker is that the volume is a little bit low (compared to my colleagues' blackberrys)
Rated it Above Average!
I am using the TP for 2 weeks now. I've experienced the 'broken glass' screen and the grey-screen once.
The device is pretty quick and TF3D works nice although there are some moment when it does something completely different than what i wanted it to do.
Issues i like to see solved:
- Album cover view in TF3D music tab
- Fix for lag with TomTom
- Battery usage
Things I love:
- Memory
- Speed
- Screen
- Keyboard
I've had mine 3 weeks so far, upgrading from my beloved HTC Universal. It's a great machine but I'm not blind to it's faults, I Like Touch Flo a lot but it's just a thin layer over old ugly windows mobile.
As powerful as it is it just isn't as responsive as an iPhone, way too sluggish, expect the usual windows mobile pauses and spinning wait cursor.
The screen is too small, I liked my big screened Universal but the screen is such high quality it goes some way to making up for being small (it really is crisp).
The keyboard is ok but it's a thumbboard, I won't be knocking out the emails I used to on it. The slide action is distinctly wobbly to me, not bad, but not the decisive slide movement I expected. The onscreen keyboard is surprisingly usable much more so than the bigger IPhone one.
Memory is fantastic, loads of it, I never bother shutting things down which I was always doing on the universal.
Lockups, yup a disappointing number but a definate improvement on the universal.
GPS, not really a problem, it seems fast, but as far as I can see tomtom5 doesn't initialise the built in gps reciever so I start googlemaps, get a fast lock then switch to tomtom I notice tomtom6 has an option for built in GPS.
Lack of headphone socket is a crazy omission, it's driving me crazy and was almost a factor in not buying it, it's only 10 quid for an adaptor but just something else to carry.
The opera browser is pretty good and responsive but the icons it uses are way too chunky considering the screen is so small, talking of chunky, the menus are all pretty huge, I found how to make the start menu smaller but most menus now eg messaging, need arrows at the top and bottom to scroll the duplo vision menus into place. Also needed a hack to get googlemail working and is so small that almost every site needs a zoom to read it whereas I found I could read a lot of sites on the iPhone without zooming.
I also hate the mini sd card being hidden inside the case, it makes changing cards a pain, I'd also rather have an sd card, for the sake of a little bit bigger unit.
I never considered the IPhone because it has no physical keyboard and it was unable to run GotoMyPC but the difference between the IPhone and the Touch Pro is responsiveness, given it's a more powerful machine it's a damning indictment of windows mobile that it's so sluggish.
I just hope that there's an Android rom released for the Raphael. I'll be getting the ATT Touch Pro (or is it still considered the 'Fuze'?) when it's available as I've been drooling over the TP for a long time now. I'll deal with WM6.1 as long as I have to, but I really like Android, and would switch to it in a heartbeat.
veljko.m said:
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vote 1 from me
Touch flow is nothing to write home about either.
using people favorites and Active Sync hates the photos you asign to them so that becomes a waste of time.
Before I get started, please don't scream. I am just *waiting* for the douchebag assault to begin, because after all, this is an internet forum and it'll happen come hell or high water no matter what I say. This post is not for the douchebags, it's for the reasonable people who are willing to discuss, listen and talk in a rational way.
I got my first fuze the day before launch (November 10th), and out of the gate it was problematic. Now, I was and still am enamored by the feature set, and the hardware is amazing when it's working right. My first fuze locked up and crashed programs *constantly*. After a week and a half I exchanged it for another, and this was a better experience, but still flawed.
Fuze #2 never once locked up, but it did crash programs pretty frequently. Not every day and not every program and not even consistently, but it did so with enough frequency to be damn annoying. The AT&T software load, as everyone already knows, is complete ****. It makes a 528Mhz phone with 8 times the RAM of my old Wizard feel slower than the Wizard with a hacked ROM, and that's just sad. I've been using my Wizard (a cingular 8125) since launch, and I can honestly say that unlike most phones the experience only kept getting *better* as the hardware aged, and it was able to do so as a direct result of the fine folks of XDA who have cooked up some really amazing ROM's. The work you guys do is phenomenal and it only gets better as time goes on.
And so I loaded up a custom ROM from here on my Fuze. It was, to say the least, WORLDS better than the AT&T stock ROM. But it still had its annoyances. Some programs would still crash. There was still hesitation here and there when using the Manila 3D UI. Finding and acquiring software to run on it is a pain. Don't get me wrong--Windows Mobile has GOBS of great software available and I've blown hours upon hours finding it, playing with it, enjoying it, over the last 2 and a half years.
Of course, that's part of the problem--to get the really good stuff you have to search endlessly all over the web to find the really great stuff for WinMo. XDA is a terrific place because there is so much stuff discussed and linked to, but even here you have to trudge through miles of posts and it's a pain, plus there's the whole process of downloading, unarchiving, copying to the device, installing to the device--only to do it all over again when the next great ROM comes out. This isn't the fault of anyone here, but it's evidence of a problem that's grown beyond the community's ability to solve--the problem is with Windows Mobile itself and the infrastructure that does--or more accurately does NOT--support it.
Let me 'splain. When I finally had enough of my Fuze, I took it back to AT&T to find something else. I dicked with the Blackberry, I hated it. I've always hated blackberry, both from an infrastructure support side and from an interface side. So that was out. I've never been an Apple guy EVER. In college we had some piece of **** Mac's that were just miserable to use and I learned very well to hate them, so I hadn't even considered an iPhone.
And then I tried it. My first response, as an official Mac hater, was to find its flaws. The camera is mediocre (2mp? LAME!). But then, I have a REAL camera for taking any serious pictures (let's face it, no cell phone camera is going to replace a nice Canon or Nikon any time soon for high end photography). The screen resolution isn't as nice as the Fuze...yet it's still better than the Wizard was, and it's not so low that it ends the world. I hate that there are no hardware buttons except for Home, Power, Mute and the volume toggle, but then, the Fuze wasn't replete with buttons either and I'd already weaned myself off the Wizard's multiple buttons anyway. And it pisses me off that I can't use a friggin' MicroSD card to cheaply expand my storage.
But then I started to see what the device is really all about, and what really blew me away is how easy it is to use and to access a fat library of good apps, both paid and free. I don't even have to leave the device, I can browse it all straight from the phone, install it straight from the phone in a single step, and when I plug it into my PC it's all synced. When the next software update happens I just sync and everything I installed is put right back where I wanted it to be.
In short, I finally see why people are tripping over the iPhone. It's not the hardware, because let's face it the iPhone is outclassed in hardware by plenty of phones, including the Fuze. It's the interface, it's the software, it's the ease of use. And for me, at this point in my life where I'm trying to do more with my time than ever before, that makes it a great device choice for me. The iPhone, simply enough, will save me time and effort, and it enables me to do things I just can't do with Windows Mobile.
Now, my sincere hope is that WinMo 7 fixes these many issues. I hope it comes with an easy and fast UI. I hope the devices have multitouch screens. I hope there is finally an integrated backend infrastructure and an app store that nets easy access to both developers and consumers of applications and games. I hope it standardizes on a required minimum of built in storage but outdoes Apple by allowing you to expand it further with MicroSD (or whatever the hell comes next, but man do I hope NanoSD isn't next or I'll never be able to find my goddamn cards). And for goodness sakes, STOP vendors from loading the damn phones with all this bloat!
Compared to what Apple's done with the iPhone OS it feels like Windows Mobile is standing still, like Microsoft has dropped the ball and just stood there slack jawed as it rolled away. Maybe it's because they're so focused on kicking Sony in the nuts in the console wars, I dunno. All I can tell you is that what iPhone's software is today, WinMo's should have been a long time ago. The only reason it's survived this long is because guys like the geniuses on this forum have made it do things it was clearly never built to do in the first place.
With any luck I'll be trading in my iPhone for a WinMo 7 device, but I guess that remains to be seen. To everyone who's done anything for this community, I want to say thanks, because you made my enjoyment of my Wizard a true joy for almost 3 years.
Thanks,
Jason
I have mostly always used WM devices but in the mix of my many phones I have used both iPhones and I too agree that the interface is much simpler, easier to use, and direct, I also agree that certain apps specifically the games on the iPhone are uncomparable to the WM devices. Lastly, also think that the ease of app searching in the iPhone is the best, just browsing through the many apps is a joy.
With that said, using the iPhone is (to me) frustrating because most if not all apps crash, the web surfing is a pain because I remeber surfing and safari would constantly close. I traded my iPhone for the fuze and updates have done little to improve these problems, my wife still has the iphone 3g and I always have the same problems on her phone. In addition, I exchange my iphones multiple times because of these problem and they kept on happening. The only truly thing I miss from the iphone are the games and sometimes the appstore. The lack of multitasking is also horrible even by using the background tasking app when jailbreaking doesn't solve this dilema.
It really depends on what you need.
I honestly couldn't care less about the whole openness debate.
At least personally, I can jailbreak and get whatever (ok, maybe not) I want on an iphone.
The ui is much more responsive, and the screen is much larger.
BUT! I need physical keys, and that pretty much was the sole reason to not consider anything else.
Yesterday, while on the train, I was reading some stuff on Opera, while listening to music on Kimona, and typing away on Word, while swtiching between apps using Task Facade. Can I do this on the iPhone? Not as far as I know.
And about the larger screen, if I need to be typing frequently, the larger screen really doesn't benefit me since half of it will be filled with a virtual keyboard; what matters is a high res display. After comparing the two side by side, my choice was pretty clear.
Then there's another thing about the whole "responsiveness" debate. Honestly, at least with custom ROM's (which is really a bad excuse, since no one should have to do this to get past the minimum responsiveness), and running one app at a time, it's very snappy.
My point is, I find it inaccurate to state that the Fuze is a gateway to an iPhone without considering the target group and general purpose of winmo devices. Granted, more winmo phones want to hit the mainstream market, but let's face it, Fuze isn't targeted to hit any of the consumers out there. At&t did absolutely nothing to market it, and that really should be enough to invalidate the statement you provided. After all this is a forum where more technically inclined people hang around.
Wow, that's a lot of words. I'm surprised my ADD didn't kick in while reading it.
If you think that the iPhone will free you from crashes, think again. Yes, the interface is slick, but it is not the flawless stable system you see on the TV adds. I had the IPhone for a month before and returned it for the Fuze mainly because I got tired of Safari as well as any other memory intensive app constantly crashing.
The phone just doesn't have enough memory to be as good as it can be. My wife still has her iPhone which I recently upgraded to firmware version 2.2. This weekend, out of the blue, I asked her how it was performing. She replied "I just has to reboot the phone a minute ago."
I figure, if I have to deal with software lagginess and crashes, I might as well have a system that is accessible and customizable instead of one that is locked down. Oh, and the few extra buttons on the Fuze certainly do make a difference. But really, I find the Fuze with a new ROM MUCH MUCH more stable than the iPhone ever was.
Nice post, well thought out and honest. I, too, have a Fuze and am considering an Iphone. The bigger screen is a major factor; the Fuze screen is just so .. small! high-res is great, but pointless when you need to zoom in so close on things to read them that you might as well be running QVGA.
It seems I have a love/hate relationship with the Fuze, as many do here. One day, it drives me nuts -- Opera freezes up, scrolls and zooms in and out and behaves weird, the phone acts slow, bad GPS fix, and so on. I get frustrated and seriously consider returning it. Then, the next day it works like a dream! Quick GPS fix, opera works perfect, I discover something I did not know about before (i.e., circling your finger on a portion of a photo to zoom in right there -- cool!) and I would be sad to see it go.
I guess all we can do is be patient. As you said, other phones got better with age; I think it stands to reason that the same thing will happen with the Fuze. As better optimized web browsers get released (i.e., Fennec) and (hopefully) video drivers get updated, the whole experience should get better. If by some miracle we get WM7, who knows what that might bring. yeah, the hardware is frustrating -- small screen, weird buttons, no headphone jack -- but I think it is enough to deal with for now if we can get the software and drivers all optimized.
Thanks for all the great replies, guys. So far I have had the iPhone for just a shade over 48 hours, and I've updated to 2.2. I've experience no crashes yet, but I did need to reboot once after installing an app last night (weird, yet no biggie to me because I'm used to it in the Windows world).
I have to agree--I HATE that I can't run more than one app at a time on the iPhone. I don't know why they do that, but I can only presume that it's done that way in order to force memory to stay free so the OS remains quick and responsive. It's kind of a ****ty tradeoff IMHO, but at the same time...I'm liking the responsiveness and I *usually* don't do more than one thing at a time anyway. It's nice to have the option though.
By all means, I don't think Fuze is a waste at all (except in AT&T's horrible software load. What the hell are they thinking? Honestly they need to fire whoever builds their ROM's and hire somebody who does this as a hobby on XDA), and I think that when it matures it'll be damn difficult to beat. I fully expect WinMo7 to eventually arrive on it (barring some bizarre hardware requirements, but who knows?), but even if it doesn't I think the ROM devs around here will eventually harness this thing into a terrific device. Unfortunately I just don't feel like waiting around, because for my almost $400 out the door I feel I should have walked out of the AT&T store with a phone that blew the doors off most others without any need for a hack.
On the bright side, by the time the ROM's are really mature and crazy fast/stable, the Fuze will probably have dropped in price substantially
For those developing ROM's, some of my thoughts on UI are:
1. Larger buttons! Especially for closing apps and using drop downs, those tiny little default X's are miserable for finger access. Finger friendly is the way of the future.
2. Customize Touchflo. I've seen some slick youtube videos with guys doing very iPhone/Coverflowish stuff and it appears buttery smooth. Of course, I could never find where to get the software to try it out, but if it's doable, heck...do it
3. I dunno if this is possible, but how about setting up some sort of repository for free apps and building a thin client that could run in touchflo, connect to the server, and snag a list of apps available and maybe even install those directly to the phone. I don't see any reason not to steal the App Store's idea, it works well and it's a joy to use. Microsoft should have done this already
Just some thoughts!
I can relate to OP. I'm upgrading form a Wizard as well (T-Mo US MDA). While new ROM's certainly made my Wizard better, I can say that custom ROM's on it were not an absolute requirement. While I continued to be more amazed by my Wizard, I just continue to be a little less pissed off at my Fuse.
XDA is the ONLY reason I have not returned my Fuze. I'm finally back to a totally stripped ROM, with no fancy I wish I bought an IPhone TouchFlo Horse ****, and no AT&T application Douchebaggery.
OP, I feel you on the lack of buttons. I miss playing pocket Nester / GB on my Wizard. I think it says alot when it is totally outclassed and still sticks around as my "GameBoy".
I definitely have mixed feelings about the Fuze. I waited to buy this over the Tilt for the camera, and I have been somewhat impressed by it. I miss the Wizard's Keyboard layout and overall style, with the buttons NOT touching each other.
@Fatheadpi,
I can't agree more (though I am rather enamored with the iPhone's UI. It's not the animation and all that crap though, it's the sheer *speed* of it and ease of getting to anything I want to get to).
Fuze is an impressive piece of hardware, yet at the same time there are issues with it--primarily software--that are really hard to overlook on such an expensive device.
The iPhone has been around for quiet a while now, and has had 2 revisions. The Fuze is fresh out of the box, so making a comparison so early in it's release is a little judgemental. it is possible that alot of out problems can be solved by a nice ROM update (like video drivers). Or just out right fixed by custom ROMs here. if you think that apple listens to what the people want, just take a look at the cut/paste, or Video recording issues.
One of the "great" things about the iPhone is one of it's biggest weakness too. The app store, while its a one stop shopping for apps, is also controled by apple, and they are the final say on what kind of programs you are allowed to run on your device. You also can write new ones (think Schaps Advance config) you have to take what they want you to have and like it. If you try to break their rules, then you might find yourself owning a brick when you sync it.
I think you need to look at this in a little bit of a different light here.
Apple has for the most part stated that they are a software company; almost all of their efforts these days are portals to Itunes where Apple makes money hence the reason for lacking hardware but great UIs and access to Itunes. They make loads more money on Itunes than on hardware.
Looking at this from AT&T's viewpoint they make money on data plans, minutes, texting, basically anything crossing their network so these types of things work great on the phone.
A third party to all of this is HTC which has to make something attractive but gets no additional money at all after you buy the hardware.
So looking at it this way, it makes perfect sense why a pleasurable experience on a Winmo device is driven by the end user, in essence no one else is interested in your problem because they don't make money off of you.
So maybe some entrepreneur out there should figure out a nifty UI like iTunes but for Winmo where a user can buy a new ROM, or try out/buy some cool apps and so forth, figuring out a cool way to upgrade the device.
The real truth here is that Apple owns everything about the iPhone, there is no one entity that owns Winmo devices so individuals end up taking over and this creates multiple and sometimes confusing paths to good stuff.
-Tim
jasongw said:
(except in AT&T's horrible software load. What the hell are they thinking? Honestly they need to fire whoever builds their ROM's and hire somebody who does this as a hobby on XDA)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they don't do that, we may have to pay more for the device. So I really don't mind all the bloatware (you get what you pay for )
3. I dunno if this is possible, but how about setting up some sort of repository for free apps and building a thin client that could run in touchflo, connect to the server, and snag a list of apps available and maybe even install those directly to the phone. I don't see any reason not to steal the App Store's idea, it works well and it's a joy to use. Microsoft should have done this already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://getgecko.org/
I think these guys are trying to do just that. The problem is, ironically, but obviously, the openness.
Then there's this. It's from handango. Never tried it, probably not even close to what apple has. It's not the lack of it, but the way it's presented, which is precisely why--and you nailed this point--iphones sell. Of course, as I mentioned previously, most winmo users are at least prosumers, so they know what to do without all the oversimplifications.
Jblakk--
I get what you're saying about comparing the two, but I have to disagree. The Fuze is brand new, but essentially Fuze is to, say, an HTC Wizard as iPhone 3G is to iPhone. That's to say, it's not new, it's merely a refinement of what's come before.
And Fuze gets a lot right, I know, just as iPhone gets a lot wrong. Yes, it's judgmental to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the fuze, but I don't see anything wrong with that. Judging is a natural and appropriate action for humans, and I'd argue we should judge more, not less (but in a rational way, not an emotional "I'll kill you for disagreeing" way). That's philosophy though, and I'm just talking phone/PDA's
I realize that Apple has final say on the app store, but from what I can see it appears that they aren't being too tyrannical about the content. There are literally thousands of apps available, and so far I've filled up 5 screens worth of apps I wanted to try out. It was easy to find them, easy to install them, and for the ones I didn't quite like, it was easy to kick them to the curb.
I have to say you're dead on about cut/paste and video recording. I can't even imagine how they left those out, especially cut and paste. I mean does it get any more basic than cut and paste? . Hopefully that will be resolved soon, I can't imagine it's all that complicated.
My point here has never been to say that the Fuze is super terrible and iPhone is the uber shizz; clearly both phones have their strengths, and both have their weaknesses. Right now, based on my experience with both and coming off the still-my-overall-favorite-phone-to-date the HTC Wizard, I feel that where the iPhone leads is entirely in the execution of the software. Windows Mobile 6 is barely a step above 5 (in fact, it IS 5 if you get right to it, 5.2.xxxx) and it's really showing its age.
I think a reasonable argument could be made that the Fuze hardware deserves better than what Windows Mobile's current incarnations have to offer. However, as I mentioned, I do think the miracle workers at XDA will pull some sweet tricks out of their hats eventually and make the fuze pretty damn sweet. And if Microsoft follows its usual pattern, WM7 will finally catch up to iPhone's OS and probably refine and improve on it in various ways. It'll be exciting to see what happens on that front
@g2tl-- Gecko seems like a great idea, I really hope they make some good progress. I hadn't heard of that before, but I'll definitely be following their progress from here on out! Thanks for the heads up!
As for getting what you pay for, that's almost always true but I think there's an exception here. On the fuze you're getting more impressive hardware, but you're getting a much less polished piece of software that's quite outdated and difficult to manage by modern standards. Now, I'm a 13 year IT geek (good lord, did I just admit that?) so I've never been afraid of getting my hands dirty, and goodness knows it's a miracle my old 8125 survived all the flashing I did to it, but at a certain point it's nice for a device to just *work* without a lot of dicking around with it.
I am sure WinMo will eventually be that software, probably with WinMo7. It's just not there yet, and I think the real shame of that is that an awesome device like the Fuze (or any flavor of the touch pro for that matter) won't really be used to its full potential because the software is lagging so far behind the device itself.
Tim, I do get all that, and you're exactly right. I also think that's where a great many of the problems with WinMo come from, the fact that carriers can just shovel piles and piles of junk onto these phones just drags down the user experience.
I'd say maybe Microsoft needs to put out their own phone where they can present a coherent experience (their new Xbox Live interface is friggin' awesome), but then I'm sure we'd have a lot of crying foul from assorted carriers and competitors who cry monopoly. There's probably no easy solution from a development and implementation standpoint, but from a consumer standpoint it's actually fairly easy: go buy the device that offers what you need.
Right now for me--and surprisingly so because I never imagined buying one of these until 2 days ago--that device appears to be iPhone. I truly do hope for a WinMo7 device or even a Fuze WinMo7 hack that'll win me back eventually. I still love the dark side
jason - Suggestion for you, as this is finally what has made me very happy with my Fuse. Probably a little too late as you're running an I-Phone.
Think about this: You were a Wizard user. When you upgraded, you probably wanted a better camera, more power, and 16 gig storage options. You were probably running an OC'd cooked rom WITHOUT TouchFlo.
Here's my suggestion.
Starting from scratch, I have the phone I wanted after about an hour's work. TouchFlo 3D just continues to piss me off. The only nice things about it were the picture viewer, weather, and the music setup. However, I have music controls on my BT Headset, and I'll probably go find the HTC Music player / plugin tonite. I have HTC picture viewer installed in an out of the way place for the rare times I look at my pics. I'll figure something out for the weather option, tho I've lived without it for a number of years.
Thinking about it, it all kinda makes sense. PC users build PC's and use Windows because we know exactly what we want and how we want it. We don't put flashy, pointless bull**** interfaces up front to slow things down. (at least pre-Vista, anyways.)
Still tho, the Raphael and Diamond needed a different control pad and button set. Macs were built around the idea that an average idiot (no offense to MacFags) could just use something. PC's are designed with a bunch of buttons because PCFags will customize that to do awesome stuff.
jasongw said:
Jblakk--
I get what you're saying about comparing the two, but I have to disagree. The Fuze is brand new, but essentially Fuze is to, say, an HTC Wizard as iPhone 3G is to iPhone. That's to say, it's not new, it's merely a refinement of what's come before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to dissagree with you there, as the hardware is so different, it's a copletely different device. I came from the Hermes(8525) and it's not even close to the same(and I did love my heremes)
And Fuze gets a lot right, I know, just as iPhone gets a lot wrong. Yes, it's judgmental to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the fuze, but I don't see anything wrong with that. Judging is a natural and appropriate action for humans, and I'd argue we should judge more, not less (but in a rational way, not an emotional "I'll kill you for disagreeing" way). That's philosophy though, and I'm just talking phone/PDA's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think what I said just came out wrong. I think over-critical would have been more accurate. I think that we look at things in perspective, and make decisions based on our needs. While I know that neither device is perfect(what one is?) we just need for figure out what job does the job best for us, and makes us happy.
I realize that Apple has final say on the app store, but from what I can see it appears that they aren't being too tyrannical about the content. There are literally thousands of apps available, and so far I've filled up 5 screens worth of apps I wanted to try out. It was easy to find them, easy to install them, and for the ones I didn't quite like, it was easy to kick them to the curb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget that not all of thoes apps are free, and you don't get demos of stuff try make sure they work as advertised. I have friends that nickle and dime themselves too death due to the app store. I don't think the idea is bad idea by any means though.
I have to say you're dead on about cut/paste and video recording. I can't even imagine how they left those out, especially cut and paste. I mean does it get any more basic than cut and paste? . Hopefully that will be resolved soon, I can't imagine it's all that complicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iPhone users have been asking for thoes 2 functions for well over a year, and they all say...Its comming soon...for a year now. I'm guessing that Mr. Jobs doesnt want you to have it for some reason.
My point here has never been to say that the Fuze is super terrible and iPhone is the uber shizz; clearly both phones have their strengths, and both have their weaknesses. Right now, based on my experience with both and coming off the still-my-overall-favorite-phone-to-date the HTC Wizard, I feel that where the iPhone leads is entirely in the execution of the software. Windows Mobile 6 is barely a step above 5 (in fact, it IS 5 if you get right to it, 5.2.xxxx) and it's really showing its age.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I won't dissagree with you on that. 6.1 was a bigger improvement that 5 to 6 was. Hopping that 6.5 will get the boost it very much needs. And don't ever forget that Touchflo 3D was HTCs way of hiding the windows interface, due to its seriously unfrendlyness. But also remember that iPhone was geared towards the casual Multi-media use, and the Fuze is aimed towards the average power user.
I think a reasonable argument could be made that the Fuze hardware deserves better than what Windows Mobile's current incarnations have to offer. However, as I mentioned, I do think the miracle workers at XDA will pull some sweet tricks out of their hats eventually and make the fuze pretty damn sweet. And if Microsoft follows its usual pattern, WM7 will finally catch up to iPhone's OS and probably refine and improve on it in various ways. It'll be exciting to see what happens on that front
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will agree with that. But just like the arguement over PC vs mac, it's not a fair comparison. It needs to be Dell XPS vs Mac, or Toshiba Satalite vs Mac. There is no such thing as a PC (technicaly a Mac is a PC too...Personal Computer). And Apple has the unfair advantage of only writing software for papriatary hardware, where Microsoft has to write software for millions of combinations of hardware, and in the end it's all about drivers.
In the end, see what serves your needs best, but I do not think that the Fuze will drive anyone to be iPhone users. With the Fuzes lack of advertising, and the Apple's Mind numbing advetising, I think that people that look at the fuze as an option already have the mindset that the iPhone just will not do what they need.
In advance let me say thanks to everyone for having such a civil discussion. I am thoroughly impressed and appreciative. I was *sure* somebody would have come in with the raving and yelling attitude by now and I've happily been proven wrong. I REALLY appreciate that; flame wars got old and boring a loooong time ago IMHO
@Fatheadpi,
Thank you for the suggestion. At some point in the future I hope to get another fuze or perhaps its successor. Of course, by then I hope for WM7 and an actual answer to the ease of use features in iPhone (I'm still a PC guy at heart, I'd love to see Apple get ***** slapped at their own game). Suffice to say, unless AT&T cleans up its act (which I doubt, they never did do right by Wizard users and it was only XDA cookers who made that device be all that it could be) I am sure that the Fuze will continue to be a "Cooked ROMs only" device.
@JBlakk,
Wow, what a nice response . I won't go point by point, but I think you've made a lot of good points, and I agree with many. Hell, I still build my own PC's (I've only recently started using Vista though, and I mostly hate it so I turn off almost all the fancy crap).
Also I think you definitely have a point about the marketing aspect and who the fuze is (or at least ought to be) targeted toward. I'd make the argument though that if AT&T is targeting the "power user" they still missed the mark with the software by loading it will all that ridiculous bloat.
I like the appearance of TouchFlo3D, but man the performance is just sad, especially on such a high end piece of phone hardware. My biggest gripe is absolutely in the software execution, but I am, to reiterate again, quite confident that as the ROM's mature and the cookers get their heads around the nuances of the phone itself, we'll see some amazing performance from Fuze.
Thanks again guys! It's been loads of fun
Jason
I'll be civil...
I understand what you are saying, if you just want something that works 99.9% of the time the iPhone is the perfect phone for you. I however like to play with things and no how much I deny it I like finding problems and fixing them, and Microsoft's products are perfect for that. Also the open source-ness of M$ is another thing that draws me to their products.
I was worried, being an open Apple hater(I have nightmares about getting iPhones for Christmas...), that AT&T would not carry another phone with a touch screen after they signed the deal with Apple. The Touch Pro is/will be perfect for me in that sense. Apple is flashy and pretty, but extremely constrained in the sense that Apple likes to keep it's followers in a choke hold, but that's my opinion too.
I also like the keyboard of the Fuze/Touch Pro/Raphael(Why do they need so many names for the same device?!)
So in short I'm not going to flame you because you chose an Apple product over a M$ one, I honestly don't care as it's your money and your decision. I think the latest Touch Pro's are better than the first release models though...but that could be just speculation.
((Also the lack of cut/copy/paste is an EXTREME drawback for me))
I also went to the darkside (iPhone) after returning my fuze. I have said it in previous posts and to my co-workers that have both iPhones and WinMo devices - it. just. works.
Being an engineer/sys admin by trade I love to tinker and tweak and rip apart and put back together stuff, but in this case the effort it took to get the Fuze/TP to a usable state [for me] wasn't worth it. I am at the stage of my life where I don't have the time to play (7 mo. old will do that to ya).
I wouldn't kick a free or deeply discounted Fuze/TP out of bed, lol, but as many have said, it's what you want out of a device and I needed my device to work out of the box.
That said, so far so good. About 2 trouble-free weeks with the iP3G.
I still come here daily to keep up on the HTC WinMo happenings to satiate my tinker desire. But the iPhone is here to stay - or until WinMo 7 drops at least.
I thought I'd start a thread to see what people's favorite features of the Captivate are. Not looking for things like "it's not an iPhone" but more of something like...
My favorite feature is the Panorama setting in the camera. I think it's awesome how you can sweep right to left, left to right, up and down, down and up and it will stitch together a panoramic photo instantly, just like that. I think that's by far my favorite feature.
Others? What do you love about the Captivate?
It's not an iphone
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
lol... I should have expected that.
Ok, so I'm totally sold on WinMo 6.5 and this is my first Android device. My gaming rig at home is 2k8R2, but virtually every other system I own runs Linux (8 at home counting VMs). I absolutely love Linux, but letting go of WinMo has been difficult - especially with the great people in those part of the forum. But more and more are moving to Android. So that's where I'm coming from on this.
0) Speed. It's wayyy faster than my 528 Mhz Touch Pro.
1) The screen. It's about 90% the size of the iPhone itself. Resolution is ok, but could be better.
2) Android. The ability to modify anything that I choose to is awesome.
3) It's not an iPhone. I FREAKING *HATE* Apple with a passion.
4) Proximity and light sensor. I expect this feature, but I also really like it.
5) 16 GB of internal memory. That's sweet, until you brick your phone and then Samsung has all of your personal data from TiBu and SMS backups. Dammit.
Things I hate:
0) It appears the GPS issues are mainly antenna-related. There have been hundreds of smartphones with GPS. How hard is it to learn from others' mistakes? This is what you do.
1) Froyo is taking way too long. It's been out for 5 months. Why do we not ALREADY have it?? (Officially...)
2) Devices are shipping with the 3-button combo broken. QA really dropped the ball on that. FAIL.
3) No flash on the back for the camera. Come on, it's one LED.
4) USB is on the top. This is totally personal, but on every other device I've had (mostly HTC), the connector is on the bottom. This is just weird.
5) This is way out of the ballpark, and a complaint about Android itself. The only thing that I dislike almost as much as Apple is Java. Yeah, we can discuss this all day, but I'll still hate Java. I'm uneasy with everything (dex files/executables) being Java based. I understand why they did it that way, and I'm glad they did something besides straight-up Java (that would make the phone unusable), but I'd prefer actual Linux binaries to run on these devices. I'm not sure why they did not do that, so if someone wants to continue this discussion, PM me and maybe we'll open another thread. I'd really like to understand more about this.
All-in-all, I really like this phone.
I love how the battery runs out of juice after about 10-12 hours and doesnt even make it through one business day. I love that!!
GPS. Because it gives so many people a reason to be unhappy. And, as I've said before, some people aren't happy unless they're unhappy. So now they're happy. And that's good.
The screen and Android.
Everything I hated about iPhone has been tended to and all of what i loved about the iPhone is intact.
Don't have to conserve power any more or carry a charger or buy a "juice case" ......Battery is replaceable on the fly.
Removable storage. No need for Syncing SW
Samsungs battery charger/phone stand is a great accessory to have....http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Batte...UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1287164024&sr=8-3-catcorr
These are all going to be comparisons to the iPhone so deal with it.. it's what I came from. It's not an "I hate iPhone" just a comparison because I loved the device when I had it.
I love the customizations that can be done with the phone. From custom ROMS, to tweaking the Icons, and I can do with it what I want to. With an iPhone I was VERY limited by what i can do.
Notification bar - I hated the bubble popup while i was in the middle of doing something else with the phone.
Speed - the phone is 100000000 times faster than my old iPhone 3G.
The ability to backup what I want to - contacts, data, applications - I can back it up. I was at the whim of Apple and its proprietary iTunes before.
The screen is gorgeous - Every thing pops and I think it's on par with the "uber iPhone 4 retina screen". It might not be as crisp or sharp as it.. but it is nice nonetheless.
The Ugly:
I hate the fact that it can be easily killed - but not necessarily bricked. One wrong move and *poof* have to restore the device and start all over again.
The battery life due to the screen being a HUGE battery hog. I am able to get 12-16hrs out of one charge. But I feel as if I have to restrain my phone usage to prolong battery life from the device.
GPS is still flaky at best. Although Samsung states this is a "software" issue - too man Captivate owners have had too many issues with it. Thankfully I don't use it all that often being a casual phone dood (i.e. I don't travel alot, and mainly use it for txt, calls, email, xda, etc...)
Samsung/ATT support by not having the phone truly ready for the public. They have finally released their official 2.2 Froyo to Europe - which means we might see it by December.
Having to had to install a tweaked custom ROM on a device that should have been working from the start.
Java - I personally cannot stand Java. I think it is slow, bloated, bulky, easily exploited, and is not a great programming language. I liken it to Visual Basic in the Linux world. But then again.. the phone could have been programmed in all C, Perl, or C++ only. *eek*. Sure it would have been screaming fast, but who would be programming for it?
Overall I have a feature rich, fast phone that is about 90% functional. As a consumer it is disappointing that my first foray into the Android world had to be so difficult. But thanks to XDA and the people taking the time to make this device work - its been completely worth it.!
I've used everything so far as mobile OSes go. WinMo 6.5, iOS, and now Android. I have to say, Android is by far the best I've used to date.
The things I love about this phone:
The screen is absolutely amazing. I go back and forth between my phone and my iTouch for apps and there's just no comparison. The SAMOLED screen blows Apple's technology out of the water for clarity and color.
We actually have real multi-tasking, not that lame app-switching-loading-an-app-from-memory that Apple calls multi-tasking in iOS4.
It's speed. I never thought I'd get a smartphone with a 1Ghz CPU in it, let alone a standalone GPU capable of 70+ fps in OpenGL. That's just insane. I can still remember using my Blackjack1 with its 200Mhz OMap CPU that we could overclock to a blistering 312Mhz!
The notification bar and the toast notifications. It's nice to be able to continue using an app without getting a popup notification that deletes everything you were working on or pushes your app to the background.
The seemingly limit possibilities of Android. It seems like you can edit just about anything on this phone. While theming the phone could probably be easier, (I wish there was something more like Winterboard for Android) the ability has always been there and there wasn't a need for something like a jailbreak to get there.
And I'm just going to group these last ones into on big category. The camera, the accelerometer, the 16GB of built in storage, the style (especially the nice carbon fiber patterned battery door), and it's lightweight and comfortable design.
I like USB on top. I can charge my phone right side up in my cup holder.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
wildting said:
I like USB on top. I can charge my phone right side up in my cup holder.
You make a very good point.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
wildting said:
I like USB on top. I can charge my phone right side up in my cup holder.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, that's the one thing I don't like. I drive an '08 Ford Focus with a manual trans. The cup holders are literally right behind the gear lever and when I put the phone in the cup holder, I'm constantly hitting it the cable whenever I go to shift. I really need to make some sort of dock for the car...
Sent from my Captivate
I love the design and feel. Metal back, corners that make it look different than an iPhone, and the perfect size. 4" is the perfect screen size, perfect.
I was contract free and could get any phone on any carrier and I thought the look, feel, size, etc of the Captivate was the best. 3.5" really too small. 3.7" close...but still not really as nice as 4" for web and games. 4.3" I was holding a damn frozen waffle to my ear...just too big.
The only real negative I have after the Cog 2.2 update (no more lag, faster, better gps, etc) is the battery sucking power of the screen. It is quite manageable with things like dark backgrounds and reduced brightness. However, there is a definite tradeoff on the screen. Personally I like the contrast ratio, colors, etc, better than the iphone4 screen's slightly higher rez. However on bright apps, the battery does take a hit. Battery in all other areas (3G talk, etc) as good as the best out there.
The thing I like the most is the look of the phone, its not squarr, it has really nice curves to it. To me it seems the cappy is the best looking phone around, all my friends are jelous that I got this phone even my friend,that has the iphone 4 lol! Second things is the screen its very clear in,sunlight. When I had the iphone I couldnt see a thing with this phone I can still see everything even in direct sun light. The snappiness of the phone is awesomee to, unlike some other phones like desire it doesnt lag at all!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I like the battery cover, and the phone's design in general :3
WoW..what is my favorite thing...more than just 1 thing for me too...Everything so far. The looks..the feel..the size of the screen..The clarity and detail I get when watching a HD movie on it that I loaded.Just being able to watch a HD movie I loaded on it. The ease of typing a message or making a phone call. The responsiveness of the screen. BTW..I have no lag and am running it stock with the Jf6 rom (is that right ?) Having a great camera helps too...All in all I am well pleased with mine and have but 2 complaints... the gps issue..and the weak usb socket...I prefer the GPS to work properly of course,and the usb socket is what it is and I'll just have to be careful on inserting the plug..but neither were my primary reason for buying this phone..I bought it for all the other reasons I already listed. My wife loves her too..I have to say I've changed my mind about the new Iphone 4's though..they are pretty nice too since bought my sons got them when my wife and myself got our Captivates a couple days ago..They are good solid phones from what I can see..some what limited to what is on them..but otherwise good solid phones..Even my boys watched in awe when I fired up the Transformer movie to show them this morning on mine..but not enough so to exchange them for what we have...They are firmly entrenched in the apple orchard..and have been since the i-pods came out..
Mac
see post #2 and#7
love the super amoled screen!!
What's not to love? Such sheer beauty and potential that I just see quirks where many see problems.
It's inanimate, though, right?
Hi long time xda fellows. Just wanted to share with you some of my thoughts
Brief Intro
This is just my personal thoughts and it only may apply to me so please don't feel offended by this article. Well, I am developing android apps for a few years now, doing this for a living. Developing various project for my clients most of the time I came across projects which involved "Make it work on android as it works on iOS" and I ended up with the same thing "I need to get an iPhone for testing". I finally took the step 4 months ago and purchased a used iPhone 5 16 GB. The reason was for getting an older version were pretty obvios: I did not wanted to spent too much money on a device which will be used primarily for testing. Iphone 5s was too expensive and 5C was basically an 5 with plastic body.
I am very picky when it comes to my daily driver device. I have owned in the past many devices, my first acceptable device was Galaxy S1 (oh, the lag of android 2.3), then went for Galaxy Nexus (which was quite a good device and I still own it and runs pretty acceptable), Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 3, LG G2. Given the fact that I have small hands, I found G2 to be quite impressive: such small bezels, pretty acceptable firmware, good camera, great form factor and battery life... until I noticed the slippery back which was the main reason to get rid of it. I can't really understand why producers tend to get this shiny plastic as back-cover which offers zero grip. All the time I had the impression it will slip from my hands. I love the back material on black Nexus 5 and I hope they'll continue to use it on the next model. The Note 3 was quote a near perfect phone, contrary to many, I liked the fake leather back as it gave me good enough grip, the touchwiz isn't that bad, stylus was working very good but, after trying to get used to its form factor for 2 months I had to give up. It was simply to uncomfortable for me use, most of the time I found myself needing to use it with one hand and couldn't. Just try to put the shopping list on it and hold the note in one hand and the grocery basket in the other and then check what you buy. But this really comes to personal preference since I gave it to my wife and she says she'll never want a smaller device.
So back to main idea, I purchased a used iPhone 5 for around 350$ while iPhone 5s it is being sold in my country for around 900$. Since I got rid of Note 3, I told myself that if I paid for it, I should use it, so I started using iPhone 5 as a daily device. This means two gmail accounts, calls, skype and instagram.
First impressions:
Where is my notification light ? After years of getting used to it I find it a bit hard to live without. Many say it is not needed but to be frankly I prefer to look at the phone on my table to see if I missed something rather than waking the screen up. Not to mention that I recently released JeFeel app on Google Play and I receive a lot of Instagram notifications. For each of them my iPhone's screen wakes up.Not great for battery life I suppose. Let be honest, how much would a blinking led cost for production ? one cent? Not to mention the other cool things like RGB LEDs on most of the android devices which can be configured to know exactly what notification you received by the color it shows.
What's with this small text size ? Went to Settings to make it bigger and it seems that the Dynamic Font size only works on some of Apple's apps and the rest simply ignore it. I have good eye view and I really find it too small to comfortable read it. Might be because of only 4 inch of diagonal or something. It was a small relief to find the Bold setting which makes things a bit better. Not to mention browsing reddit funny pictures was not that fun.
After being spoiled for years with SwiftKey keyboard, with multiple language support, swipe, fantastic auto correct, I found to iOS keyboard horrible. The auto correct gives me more trouble than helping me so in the end I disabled it. Also to press 2-3 keys to get to things like comma "," or numbers/symbols I find it far from ergonomic. Basically these were my main three things I did not like, coming from android
After three months of usage
Well, believe it or not I got used to the small text size and now I find it acceptable. Still, the screen size is too small to do serious browsing or email answering. I find the keyboard to be still a pain to use. However, I noticed a lot of other things: * I like the notification center and how notification are shown on lock-screen. Swiping a notification opens the app to which it belongs to without the need to unlock. I like how when I read an email on my computer, the notification from lockscreen gets dismissed. Quite cool.
Control center is handy and I use it mostly to toggle auto rotate lock and media volume. Is great that I can access it from anywhere but sometimes I simply open it by mistake when browsing a webpage in landscape orientation
I like how auto brightness works and it really is pleasant for my eyes.
I like the fact that there is a physical button on front, I am definitely not a fan of using the Power button. On android I specially developed StandBy Touch Advanced app to deal with putting the phone to sleep without reaching the Power key. I took a look at iOS SDK and couldn't find a way to do it so I suppose this is not allowed. I have to say inhere that many Android offered quite a nice way of waking the phone from standy by: LG has KnowckOn, HTC has something similar, OnePlus one has it, if I recall well Sony too... Double tap to wake is way more convenient than searching for power key, especially on tall devices. i5 is not the case since it is easy to reach, but I use the Home key a lot to wake the device.
I am not a big fan of metal and I never use cases, I find it slippery and cold, however given the size of the iPhone, it is easy to hold it and never had the feeling that I drop it.
Battery life is not so great, I charge it every day.However it seems to be dropping constantly and I haven't noticed any battery drain (GooglePlay services drain rings a bell on android ?) I am 95% of the time in WiFi coverage and I did a test: I disabled the Cellular data, since WiFi is always on and have found that the battery life has improved a lot. So even if data is not used, I suppose that the cell module is active, most likely waiting to do a quick switch if WiFi turns to be poor. I would have preferred an option to keep it disabled until actually leaving the WiFi area. This things make me miss tools like Tasker on Android.
I like the screen and color reproduction. There is no back-light bleed and colors look real enough for me. Best LCD screen I had. Also the resolution is more than enough for 4" and I don't miss 1080p from android
iOS feel more smooth, I remember not resetting the phone for about 2 months and it was as smooth as in day one. Transitions are smoother, rotate is smoother, app switching is smoother. I like it, I feel that it's more polished than android and even the screen seems more responsive to touches.
some apps seem better on iOS, with more attention to details. My last app JeFeel relies a lot on instagram so I am using it quite a lot to check followers and pictures. Instagram for iOS is easier to use, easier to reload, I don't know, it just feels better. I also like TapaTalk more and some other apps like Reddit pics browser, skype, dolphin browser and so on. I sure miss FireFox since is my browser on PC and I would have loved to have bookmarks sync but since I don't to that much browsing, I'm ok with Dolphin/Safari. A special mention goes to Safari for reading mode (or how it is called) when it renders the text from the page at big size, making it easier to read. Great feature.
As android developer I rely on Google services: Maps, GMail, Google+, Drive and some apps are working ok, some are bad. The biggest disappointment is the Gmail app which is more ergonomic and nicer on Android. No contact pictures, no swipe to delete, I miss these features. Also the rendered text in emails is quite small, so it's good enough for email checking if you don't have many emails.
I haven't changed my ringtone yet because from what I saw I need iTunes for that... well that sucks.
Ah the camera, I don't think I made so many pictures with a phone. I know the camera is not top of the chart, but the form factor of the phone actually made it easier for me to take it out and grab a quick picture. Note 3 had a great camera but getting it out of the pocket, 2 hands needed to use it... You know where I'm going to.
I also like the silent toggle on the left size, very convenient but I would have preferred a visual notification on status bar, that is on, like on android.
As for widgets and stuff, on my android I initially did all sort of customizations and widgets but in the end I started to install more apps, drag shortcuts around and it became a mess. Basically I ended up with a grid of icons, just as the iOS launcher is. So for me, the lack of widgets is not a negative point
I don't like the dialer, seems so... I don't know... limited. No contacts photos on Recents/Contacts list makes it look boring. I also have like a 1-2 seconds delay between the moment I pick up and the moment the caller hears me, that is annoying and does not happen with same SIM on other phones
Unfortunately after 4 months of usage my iPhone's camera started to fail. Sometimes it worked sometimes it just shown black screen. After a few more days I have realized that the screen glass on top of the phone was raised 1-2 milliliters above the frame. I went to a service center (since no warranty) and they glued it somehow back, and now the screen is ok, but the camera still does not work. One nice addition was discovering that I can disable the whole camera feature, so I did and it disappeared from apps and Control Center. I guess that is the only customization of Control center hehe.
Since the camera is not working and I don't want to put any more money on this iPhone, I don't know how long I will be using it, probably until Nexus X or Moto X+1 is released. Or why not, IPhone 6. But overall I can say that the experience with iOS was not as bad as expected. Probably it has to do with me not using so many widgets and apps. I don't remember how many times I have flashed android phones with so many custom ROMs in order to achieve a better phone. Indeed on android you get more freedom, you install custom ROMs and kernels and you squeeze some more performance but this sometimes comes with the cost of bugs and instability. This is the beauty of android, you can customize it, want a toggle of auto rotate, you have it on a custom ROM, want different screen calibration, want to hide on screen buttons, want... you get the point. On iOS you are limited, you can't customize too much and after a while I guess you just get used to it. Unfortunately Android OEM's have started to implement various techniques that will detect rooting/bootloader unlock and will void warranty. We all know the famous Knox trigger on Samsung devices, so installing a custom ROM is starting to get harder and harder without voiding warranty.
Another point I'd like the mention is updates. On android things are starting to catch up, but still with updates through carriers and all the delays, after an android version is released you need to wait for 3-6-never months for an update. Of course this is not available for nexus line. The updates are primarily for flagship devices as previous year devices will take even longer to receive an update. This really forces me to look for a nexus when I get an android device and I sure hope they will get it right this time and not make cuts on screen quality or battery size as on previous models. Motorola seems to be doing quite a good job on updates and I hope they will continue to do so in the future. Android L seems like a really big change and I think it will start to catch up on next year's flagships, so mostly on Q2 2014 but given the skinning of frameworks like TouchWiz/Optimus/and others I somehow doubt the user will see too much material changes. I hope performance will improve since I can see small lag here and there even on latest models. As for iOS8 it seems promising, the new keyboard support will allow fixing one of my major annoyances, also battery statistics will offer more info on apps battery usage. I am curious to see how widgets on Notification center will be received but seeing Apple opening is a good thing. I am also keeping an eye on their Swift language and might start learn it since ObjectiveC was never ever on my taste. I really like the swipe on screens to go back, that is implemented on some apps and I am really curious to see how on bigger screen sizes, reaching the top left of the screen for Back option will fell file. I sometimes feel the need of a Back button. I fear that on 4.7 and 5.5" iPhone one handed usage will be hurt by having hard times to reach Back within an app.
So in the end, is iOS that bad ? It depends, for me, when I use the OS for a few seconds to launch apps that I am using, it does not matter so much what OS it is, as long as its fast and reliable. I find iphone 5 to be fast and smooth and it's a device 2 years old. I bet Iphone 5s with his TouchId and 64bits would have a bigger impact on me and to be honest I am starting to see phones with screen bigger than 4"... too big. It would be interesting to find myself buying iPhone 5S as my next phone.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post, hope I haven't bored you too much.
I held off of getting s smartphone for a long time, because I never could see any decent reason to have one. Finally, considering it would be convenient for playing music on the go, I ended up getting one. I've had one for a year, and it still doesn't feel worthwhile. Granted sometimes it can be nice to use a terrible version of a web-browser without having to have a computer around, but that hardly makes it worthwhile.
When I finally did get one, refusing to get an apple product I went with Android, and haven't been too impressed with it. Can't even change the volume steps, not even custom roms touch that, making it really useless as a music player (and people told me Android is supposed to be customizable). Wanting to make it worthwhile, I asked all my friends what cool apps there are, and consistently got the reply that there really isn't any. I've scoured the Google Play Store and Fdroid countless times with the same result.
I end up with the vast majority of my apps being stuff for my phone like Nova Launcher, Kernel Adiutor, Better Battery Stats, etc, etc. Those help make the phone usable, not worthwhile. I've only found one game ever that I enjoyed playing on a mobile device, which was Quizup (before they ruined it, now there's really nothing). Is there anything entertaining? Is there anything more interesting than a graphic calculator emulator? Is there anything more useful than a flashlight? Or is a smartphone as useless as I had always envisioned it to be? Just a tinker-toy for tech enthusiasts. Is it just a phone with a few interesting but not useful things and garbage battery life in return (despite doing everything in my power to maximize my battery life and put others with the same phone to shame)? I'd prefer the much more massive battery life and better voice quality of my ancient Nokia phone. I don't want to give up on it, but I need help keeping up hope. Even Tasker is sitting around not doing anything particularly useful. At least it can make phone calls unlike a useless Android tablet. Someone please help me make it worthwhile.
Hey, what was that movie with that one guy that was in that other movie with that chick from that TV show?
How far is a league?
Why is a booby trap called a booby trap?
Where the hell am I and how do I get to where I need to go?
Boy, I wish I could hear "Handle With Care" by the Traveling Wilburys right now. I haven't heard that song in ages.
A phone is something you make calls with. A smartphone is the wealth of the world's knowledge at your fingertips.
The problem with that is that a smartphone is a cumbersome device for giving input and getting output. Even with getting as good of a tiny touchscreen keyboard as you can get (which is still bad compared to a real keyboard) and voice input (which is usually even worse in my experience with several Android solutions as well as Apple's), you still have super buggy difficult to navigate watered-down info on a tiny screen that takes more scrolling than the miles of it I've put on my mouse.
I'm never too far from a computer that I've ever had to use or would have liked to use a smartphone to get that information. I've had the world's information at my fingertips, but why would I want to use a smartphone to get it? I've tried using it for convenience, I've tried using it to augment using a computer, but I've quit trying. Maybe it would be useful if I forgot to plan things ahead of time, or forgot to bring a camera or something. But I'm looking for a way for it to be consistently useful, not something that might come in handy one day and cost me hours of charging every day. I'm still not seeing it.