Long road from Inspire to Atrix and back again - HTC Inspire 4G

Hello all!
I've had the daunting task to pick between these two phones for the last couple days. I went into the store to actually get the devices in my hand and fully expected to walk out with the Atrix. I've always had a soft spot for HTC, ever since their WoMo phones. I saw the Inspire and was super impressed at how solid the phone felt in my hand. The phone felt very responsive, and I already knew the XDA Inspire team was cranking out some awesome stuff.
I then grabbed the Atrix and was not nearly as wow'd as I had expected to be. I've been following the phone since it's announcement, and pretty much had made up my mind on the spot to pick it up. After spending a half hour goofing around with both phones, I decided the Inspire really won my heart.
Then it happened... The cold sweats... The tossing and turning in bed at night. Images of the Atrix's Tegra 2 laying waste to the earth and doing vile things to my Inspire. My horrid indecision had struck. I decided that I had obviously made the wrong choice, so the next morning I headed off to the store and bought an Atrix without returning my perfectly set up Inspire. I wanted to play with them both side by side and just return whichever one didn't make me happy.
That was a bit over 24 hours ago. After spending the last day with both of the handsets, I am closer to a decision, but it's damn tough. My overall thoughts and struggles follow:
Motorola Atrix:
-Pros:
- Bright, higher resolution screen
- Dual Core processor (even though I thought the experience was pretty weak)
- Battery (theoretical, as I haven't had it long enough to fully experience)
- This goes to the hardware again, but this phone is quite a bit more future proof.
- The handset is light enough to not remind you it's in your pocket at every step.
- GPS (This is the most rock solid phone GPS I've ever used)
- Incredibly loud speaker
- Tons of ram
- HDMI out
-Cons:
- Cheaper build quality (I feel like I need to qualify this. The phone feels solid, but the battery door is, for lack of a better word, brittle)
- Very poor color representation on the otherwise beautiful screen.
- MotoBlur - This is just a very inelegant, unrefined overlay...
- Strange compatibility issues with certain apps
- multiple force closes
- Weak social media integration
- Odd bouts of lag when least expected
- Locked Bootloader (most don't care about this, but it matters when you have a primary developer that has a history of slow patches, feature adds, and os releases.
- Chicklet keyboard is a touch small for me and requires some focus to not miss type.
**FOLLOW-UP**
- I've removed the call quality knock from the Atrix device. It turns out it was entirely my own fault, and while some people, including Motorola, are reporting issues with sound quality on some devices, mine isn't one of them.
HTC Inspire:
-Pros:
- Excellent build quality (the aluminum uni-body is a joy to hold, and has the extra added benefit of being able to be used to fend off an attacker)
- Beautiful 4.3" screen (Yes, it is big, but I'm a fan)
- Sense (I'm not a fan of these proprietary UI's, but Sense shows that HTC can offer up an experience that is easy to like, and provide an attractive interface for a phone OS that is sometimes described as clinical looking)
- The brilliant development community (currently running CoreDroid /drool)
- Very snappy performance from the second gen Snapdragon CPU
- Tons of ram (Not as much as the Atrix, but enough to be a "ton" in my eyes)
- Lovely camera (I used to not care, but I have a new son, so suddenly a camera climbed up the ladder of important features)
- Fantastic out of the box social media integration
- Has that "Just works like it should" feel to it.
- Very clear call quality
- Second best phone gps I've used
-Cons:
- The screen washes out to a grey slab in direct sunlight
- Stock battery life is horrid
- "Electric Razor" ear screen can have some jagged edges and chafe your ear
- Battery door was a ridiculous design decision
- Very current gen hardware (doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not going to be riding this phone for the next two years, but a new day has dawned and it's name is "Multi-core")
- Stock external speaker/notification volume super weak
- odd placement of the number button on the keyboard (thanks iPhone for etching that into my brain)
- recessed power and volume buttons can be a bit tough to find.
- No internal storage (this is just ridiculous)
- Relatively weak GPU
There you have it. That's what I've come up with so far. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Inspire, as so many of those issues can be (and have been) corrected through roms. In the end, I just don't really get the warm fuzzies from the Atrix. I feel like it's a brilliant set of components tied together with a really sorry software suite, and a manufacturer that doesn't really understand the strengths of their chosen platform, or the customers that choose it.
I will continue carrying both of the devices for the next couple days, but at the moment, the winner is most definitely the Inspire in my eyes. It just feels like it's been polished to a wonderful android flavored candy shine, and with the community behind it, there's really nothing I feel the device won't be able to handle for quite some time.

get the inspire if you want good development and an array of different roms/kernels to choose from. get the atrix if you just wanna use ur phone for a phone and nothing else.

this is BY FAR the best breakdown i have seen thus far. Even better than those from mobile websites and such. Nice job man.
I have a lot more to say, but i think i will just wait until i wake up i'm way too tired right now lol

ogxku5h said:
get the atrix if you just wanna use ur phone for a phone and nothing else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't he just say that the actual phone part was where the atrix was at it's weakest?

When I said that I meant pretty much very limited development until/if they crack the locked bootloader... Custom roms can only get u so far... Kernels help maximize phone performance
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App

OP, the Inspire has about 1.2 GB of internal storage (storage properties shows it as 1.13 GB).

Yeah I just got my Inspire today and coming from a Captivate, the only real ***** I have about it is the stupid battery door (who the **** thought that one up?!! I better get some more battery door replacements because its inevitable I'm going to **** this one up in no time) and the Adreno 205 is underperforming compared to the beastly SGX540 in the Captivate. Oh and the *LIE* that it has 4GB of internal storage - all ROMs report 1GB so where did the other 3GB go, HTC?!
Other than that... you can't beat 15 seconds from HTC screen to a working desktop, MIUI is the absolute bees ****ing knees of ROMs - HTC could take a lesson on how to build a UI from the MIUI project. I'd actually pay money for this and I don't pay money for ANYTHING.
Dualcore is great and all but seriously, we have a hard enough time getting iPhone developers to port their apps to Android in the first place. All I see a dual-core doing is sitting there pretty much unused unless it is an Android native application. The Adreno 205 actually hasn't been optimized as well as it could be (if you want an example, run the GLBenchmark 2.0 on it and look at all the missing polygons - BAD DRIVERS - but that's par for the course with HTC as those of us who had WinMo phones know - anyone remember that entirely disabled ATi chip in the Mogul and Touch, Touch Pro?? All we needed was drivers. At least in this case, we *HAVE* drivers unlike the Imageon series of phones HTC released and didn't get drivers made for) and from looking at various benchmarks online, it could probably take the SGX540 to task if the drivers were built to take full advantage of all the rendering capabilities the chip actually has.
I just don't see dualcore taking off until Apple releases a dualcore iPhone - most likely this June/July - until then, developers aren't going to re-code the applications they are already porting from Apple to Android in the first place, in order to support the needs of dual-core.
I'm very happy with my Inspire, especially after figuring out how to get HSUPA working with MIUI, and coming from a Captivate - that's saying a lot - the Captivate is a great device when you hack the living hell out of it.
The only other ***** is the fact they advertise 4GB of internal storage but every ROM including the stock one says 1GB. WTF at&t and HTC?

i went through the same cycle as the OP: got the inspire, was obsessed with the atrix (or it's capabilities), returned the inspire, got an atrix and bricked it in less than 2 hours trying to copy font files, got a replacement and bricked it the next day before i concluded "i couldn't make it mine". got a 3rd one, left it pretty much stock and kept it for a week before exchanging for an inspire because of in-call audio quality. (people complained that i sounded muffled. this was before Moto acknowledged the issue). i still peek at the atrix forums to see if things have changed, but nothing there has convinced me to reconsider the atrix.
i'm currently running Spike_M's Saga GB 2.3.3 port for the Desire HD (with Inspire audio quality tweaks) and i'm satisfied with my decision to stick with the Inspire. one obvious tradeoff is battery life. i've got another stock battery (as backup) and i typically charge my phone for 1-3 hrs during the workday to get me through the day. this is in addition to starting the day with a full battery.

I had the same feelings. I used both the atrix and inspire from their release dates and I really wanted to love the atrix but it just didn't impress or wow me, while the inspire did. I'll be using the inspire until further notice.
Via the XDA app for the HTC Inspire

Divinedark said:
Hello all!
I've had the daunting task to pick between these two phones for the last couple days. I went into the store to actually get the devices in my hand and fully expected to walk out with the Atrix. I've always had a soft spot for HTC, ever since their WoMo phones. I saw the Inspire and was super impressed at how solid the phone felt in my hand. The phone felt very responsive, and I already knew the XDA Inspire team was cranking out some awesome stuff.
I then grabbed the Atrix and was not nearly as wow'd as I had expected to be. I've been following the phone since it's announcement, and pretty much had made up my mind on the spot to pick it up. After spending a half hour goofing around with both phones, I decided the Inspire really won my heart.
Then it happened... The cold sweats... The tossing and turning in bed at night. Images of the Atrix's Tegra 2 laying waste to the earth and doing vile things to my Inspire. My horrid indecision had struck. I decided that I had obviously made the wrong choice, so the next morning I headed off to the store and bought an Atrix without returning my perfectly set up Inspire. I wanted to play with them both side by side and just return whichever one didn't make me happy.
That was a bit over 24 hours ago. After spending the last day with both of the handsets, I am closer to a decision, but it's damn tough. My overall thoughts and struggles follow:
Motorola Atrix:
-Pros:
- Bright, higher resolution screen
- Dual Core processor (even though I thought the experience was pretty weak)
- Battery (theoretical, as I haven't had it long enough to fully experience)
- This goes to the hardware again, but this phone is quite a bit more future proof.
- The handset is light enough to not remind you it's in your pocket at every step.
- GPS (This is the most rock solid phone GPS I've ever used)
- Incredibly loud speaker
- Tons of ram
- HDMI out
-Cons:
- Cheaper build quality (I feel like I need to qualify this. The phone feels solid, but the battery door is, for lack of a better word, brittle)
- Call quality is absolutely garbage... For what I would count as the most important part of a PHONE, the Atrix falls WAY short.
- Very poor color representation on the otherwise beautiful screen.
- MotoBlur - This is just a very inelegant, unrefined overlay...
- Strange compatibility issues with certain apps
- multiple force closes
- Weak social media integration
- Odd bouts of lag when least expected
- Locked Bootloader (most don't care about this, but it matters when you have a primary developer that has a history of slow patches, feature adds, and os releases.
- Chicklet keyboard is a touch small for me and requires some focus to not miss type.
HTC Inspire:
-Pros:
- Excellent build quality (the aluminum uni-body is a joy to hold, and has the extra added benefit of being able to be used to fend off an attacker)
- Beautiful 4.3" screen (Yes, it is big, but I'm a fan)
- Sense (I'm not a fan of these proprietary UI's, but Sense shows that HTC can offer up an experience that is easy to like, and provide an attractive interface for a phone OS that is sometimes described as clinical looking)
- The brilliant development community (currently running CoreDroid /drool)
- Very snappy performance from the second gen Snapdragon CPU
- Tons of ram (Not as much as the Atrix, but enough to be a "ton" in my eyes)
- Lovely camera (I used to not care, but I have a new son, so suddenly a camera climbed up the ladder of important features)
- Fantastic out of the box social media integration
- Has that "Just works like it should" feel to it.
- Very clear call quality
- Second best phone gps I've used
-Cons:
- The screen washes out to a grey slab in direct sunlight
- Stock battery life is horrid
- "Electric Razor" ear screen can have some jagged edges and chafe your ear
- Battery door was a ridiculous design decision
- Very current gen hardware (doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not going to be riding this phone for the next two years, but a new day has dawned and it's name is "Multi-core")
- Stock external speaker/notification volume super weak
- odd placement of the number button on the keyboard (thanks iPhone for etching that into my brain)
- recessed power and volume buttons can be a bit tough to find.
- No internal storage (this is just ridiculous)
- Relatively weak GPU
There you have it. That's what I've come up with so far. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Inspire, as so many of those issues can be (and have been) corrected through roms. In the end, I just don't really get the warm fuzzies from the Atrix. I feel like it's a brilliant set of components tied together with a really sorry software suite, and a manufacturer that doesn't really understand the strengths of their chosen platform, or the customers that choose it.
I will continue carrying both of the devices for the next couple days, but at the moment, the winner is most definitely the Inspire in my eyes. It just feels like it's been polished to a wonderful android flavored candy shine, and with the community behind it, there's really nothing I feel the device won't be able to handle for quite some time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It pretty much seems like the Atrix is the (commonly) lousy beginning of a next generation of devices while the Inspire is the fully blossomed end of the previous.... I may be wrong..
Anyways I rather have a solid device than an experimental one....

henrybravo said:
OP, the Inspire has about 1.2 GB of internal storage (storage properties shows it as 1.13 GB).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm aware. My comment was meant as an exaggeration. Most modern smartphones come with a minimum of 8GB of internal storage with the ability to expand via microSD. I was just a bit taken aback by the 4GB/1GB actual storage.

OP- The Atrix you have is NOT updated correct?
Awesome review BTW. I'm waiting for a review with an "updated" Atrix.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

I was in the same boat as you, except I didn't have them side by side. Di yourself a favor and return the atrix, there are absolutely no pros of having it over the inspire.
You can do more on the inspire, it doesn't lag, sense rules, big screen rules, not locked down (although I'm still stock and staying that way), it doesn't lag, isn't made of plastic...
And for the haters that want to hate on inspire battery life, I get basically the same out of my inspire as I did my atrix. Right now I'm 1 d 12 hr with 20% left.
Sent from my HTC Inspire using tapatalk.

acPIZZA said:
I was in the same boat as you, except I didn't have them side by side. Di yourself a favor and return the atrix, there are absolutely no pros of having it over the inspire.
You can do more on the inspire, it doesn't lag, sense rules, big screen rules, not locked down (although I'm still stock and staying that way), it doesn't lag, isn't made of plastic...
And for the haters that want to hate on inspire battery life, I get basically the same out of my inspire as I did my atrix. Right now I'm 1 d 12 hr with 20% left.
Sent from my HTC Inspire using tapatalk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I'm currently sitting at 24% after 27 hours of doing testing. Not too shabby, considering my Samsung Focus lasted 12 hours with little to no use...

projekt1 said:
OP- The Atrix you have is NOT updated correct?
Awesome review BTW. I'm waiting for a review with an "updated" Atrix.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about the OTA? If so, then yes. I did the 1.5.7 update as soon as I unwrapped it. The entire review was based around that build.
Not sure what other "Updating" you can do to a locked out phone, outside of putting on Gingerblur, which is nothing but bloatware reduction (which breaks messaging and multiple email accounts), root, and theme. It's also causing a bunch of problems with the basic functionality of the phone from what I've read. Not sure how widespread it is, and I believe it's just the newest version causing the issues. Hell, you can't even put circle battery mod on the phone. Not sure why Motorola went to that extent, but jeez...

Yea the OTA is what I was talking about, thanks.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

It's funny because i came between the same cross roads. I was following the atrix since it came out and was pretty much sold on it even while owning my iphone 4 i was going to trade some one hopefully my iphone for an atrix. I ended up dropping my iPhone and completely ruining it i ended up selling it for parts and needed a phone. So i went to the At&t store and the sales guy kept trying to get me to buy the inspire it but i was already fixed on the atrix so i bought that. After using the atrix for about 3 days i couldnt stand it there were so many bugs call quality sounded terrible i couldnt type on the keyboard at all my old iphone 4 made the picture quailty on the atrix look like a 1mp and on top of that i didnt understand how i had all that power and all my apps would randomly crash while i was using them..... so i decided i was going to take it back and get the htc inspire so far i like it alot better than the atrix even though its specs arnt up to par with the atrix i think its alot more solid an reliable than the atrix although people talk about the battery life will see how that works if its really that bad ill get a second battery but on the flip side my atrix had horrid battery life so thats not a make or break for me but will see how much i like it hopefully i wont end up with an iphone again ;-/

I am curious about the actual build quality of the phone. It seems owners are very happy with the overall quality, but both the engadget and androidcentral reviews called out poorly-fitting and-sometimes-creaky SD/SIM card covers, and engadget called out the screen not fitting properly/uniformly. I have also seen posts where the bottom right portion of the screen has 'give' to it, and pressing causes light leakage. Also, how are the viewing angles on the screen itself?
These issues may be from early production batches, I'm thinking about switching to this phone from the Captivate, and the only real issue with that phone is the GPS being flaky. The build quality is decent enough and the screen is pretty fantastic.
Thanks for any feedback!!

Divinedark said:
Hello all!
I've had the daunting task to pick between these two phones for the last couple days. I went into the store to actually get the devices in my hand and fully expected to walk out with the Atrix. I've always had a soft spot for HTC, ever since their WoMo phones. I saw the Inspire and was super impressed at how solid the phone felt in my hand. The phone felt very responsive, and I already knew the XDA Inspire team was cranking out some awesome stuff.
I then grabbed the Atrix and was not nearly as wow'd as I had expected to be. I've been following the phone since it's announcement, and pretty much had made up my mind on the spot to pick it up. After spending a half hour goofing around with both phones, I decided the Inspire really won my heart.
Then it happened... The cold sweats... The tossing and turning in bed at night. Images of the Atrix's Tegra 2 laying waste to the earth and doing vile things to my Inspire. My horrid indecision had struck. I decided that I had obviously made the wrong choice, so the next morning I headed off to the store and bought an Atrix without returning my perfectly set up Inspire. I wanted to play with them both side by side and just return whichever one didn't make me happy.
That was a bit over 24 hours ago. After spending the last day with both of the handsets, I am closer to a decision, but it's damn tough. My overall thoughts and struggles follow:
Motorola Atrix:
-Pros:
- Bright, higher resolution screen
- Dual Core processor (even though I thought the experience was pretty weak)
- Battery (theoretical, as I haven't had it long enough to fully experience)
- This goes to the hardware again, but this phone is quite a bit more future proof.
- The handset is light enough to not remind you it's in your pocket at every step.
- GPS (This is the most rock solid phone GPS I've ever used)
- Incredibly loud speaker
- Tons of ram
- HDMI out
-Cons:
- Cheaper build quality (I feel like I need to qualify this. The phone feels solid, but the battery door is, for lack of a better word, brittle)
- Call quality is absolutely garbage... For what I would count as the most important part of a PHONE, the Atrix falls WAY short.
- Very poor color representation on the otherwise beautiful screen.
- MotoBlur - This is just a very inelegant, unrefined overlay...
- Strange compatibility issues with certain apps
- multiple force closes
- Weak social media integration
- Odd bouts of lag when least expected
- Locked Bootloader (most don't care about this, but it matters when you have a primary developer that has a history of slow patches, feature adds, and os releases.
- Chicklet keyboard is a touch small for me and requires some focus to not miss type.
HTC Inspire:
-Pros:
- Excellent build quality (the aluminum uni-body is a joy to hold, and has the extra added benefit of being able to be used to fend off an attacker)
- Beautiful 4.3" screen (Yes, it is big, but I'm a fan)
- Sense (I'm not a fan of these proprietary UI's, but Sense shows that HTC can offer up an experience that is easy to like, and provide an attractive interface for a phone OS that is sometimes described as clinical looking)
- The brilliant development community (currently running CoreDroid /drool)
- Very snappy performance from the second gen Snapdragon CPU
- Tons of ram (Not as much as the Atrix, but enough to be a "ton" in my eyes)
- Lovely camera (I used to not care, but I have a new son, so suddenly a camera climbed up the ladder of important features)
- Fantastic out of the box social media integration
- Has that "Just works like it should" feel to it.
- Very clear call quality
- Second best phone gps I've used
-Cons:
- The screen washes out to a grey slab in direct sunlight
- Stock battery life is horrid
- "Electric Razor" ear screen can have some jagged edges and chafe your ear
- Battery door was a ridiculous design decision
- Very current gen hardware (doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not going to be riding this phone for the next two years, but a new day has dawned and it's name is "Multi-core")
- Stock external speaker/notification volume super weak
- odd placement of the number button on the keyboard (thanks iPhone for etching that into my brain)
- recessed power and volume buttons can be a bit tough to find.
- No internal storage (this is just ridiculous)
- Relatively weak GPU
There you have it. That's what I've come up with so far. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Inspire, as so many of those issues can be (and have been) corrected through roms. In the end, I just don't really get the warm fuzzies from the Atrix. I feel like it's a brilliant set of components tied together with a really sorry software suite, and a manufacturer that doesn't really understand the strengths of their chosen platform, or the customers that choose it.
I will continue carrying both of the devices for the next couple days, but at the moment, the winner is most definitely the Inspire in my eyes. It just feels like it's been polished to a wonderful android flavored candy shine, and with the community behind it, there's really nothing I feel the device won't be able to handle for quite some time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same trouble as OP did. Ive had both phones. I started with the Inspire and took it back and exchanged it for the Atrix and then ended up trading a guy on craigslist the Atrix for his Inspire. So now im an Inspire owner again. As far as the Atrix goes I loved the 4" display, it seems to be a great compromise between 3.5 and 4.3 and the processor is lightning fast and the battery life is better than the Inspire stock. But I love flashing Roms and I love Cyanogen Mod. I've tried a lot of different Roms on all my android devices Nexus One, My touch, Nexus One Att,Vibrant,EVO,Captivate,Hero,Backflip,Atrix. and i always end up getting rid of the ones i cant put CM (or at the very least AOSP) on em. So i guess it all comes down to personal preference but i'd rather have an Anroid phone i can modify than to have a phone thats locked down. If i was gonna go back to being locked down then id go back to the iphone 4. But personally i think ill always wind up owning a nexus phone. Being with ATT though it sucks because Google always takes forever to release their Nexus phones with ATT 3g bands. But i'll be buying an ATT Nexus S as soon as its released..

matt310 said:
...engadget called out the screen not fitting properly/uniformly. I have also seen posts where the bottom right portion of the screen has 'give' to it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get it... How can the screen not fit uniformly?

Related

Anyone come from a Aria?

Thinking about picking up a tab as soon as ATT launches, I love my captivate but dont really need two identical (hardware) devices. I was thinking about picking up a Aria throwing cyanogenmod and overclocking to 800mhz, i wouldn't mind a smaller phone in the pocket.
Anyone come from a Aria to the captivate and have any knowledge to drop?
ty!
I had an Aria prior to the Captivate and found it to be a little too small for use. The real issue I had that caused me to swap it out was the screen was so dim you couldn't see it in sunlight; that is definitely not a problem with the Captivate.
thanks for the reply, lucky here in the pacific NW the sun shouldn't be a issue. So the smaller resolution kinda sucked? hrmmm.
Started with the Aria, still use it. Have a Captivate also. To be honest, overall I like the Captivate the most. BUT the Aria has adavantages, quick snappy response, GPS WORKS, and does most what the captivate can do. Smaller screen, kind of bugged me, but can get over it. Though the captivates screen is OH SO NICE.... Gaming much better on the captivate also!
^ with a tab (hopefully) on the way the screen size should be welcome for the smaller form factor, the pocket legends beta is making me think twice now haha, looks so nice on the samoled.
gandalf21502 said:
Started with the Aria, still use it. Have a Captivate also. To be honest, overall I like the Captivate the most. BUT the Aria has adavantages, quick snappy response, GPS WORKS, and does most what the captivate can do. Smaller screen, kind of bugged me, but can get over it. Though the captivates screen is OH SO NICE.... Gaming much better on the captivate also!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was debating on if I should go to Aria or Captivate when I was getting a new phone. I picked the Captivate because of this too. I love the bigger brighter screen and very glad I went with it. I am very happy with my Captivate. GPS is good enough for me (outdoors), no random shutdowns or any other major problems.
Don't do it. I drove 30 miles to replace my Aria.
The only advantage is GPS. You'll be sacrificing a lot of performance for a smaller footprint. Aria's actually slightly thicker. Just about every spec is worse. Know that it's a mid-range phone that will feel obsolete quickly. You really feel it when loading large webpages/images and playing games.
I loved the Aria it was very responsive although it had a small scree it was really easy to browse through text on the web, GPS was good, it size is an advantage when traveling on business. Basically if you don't need a large screen this is a good phone.
I originally had an Aria that I exchanged for the Captivate. It's a neat little phone, though you won't be able to get some apps that require the arm v7 instruction set (google earth, for example), and live wallpapers run a bit slow sometimes (super mario), but all in all, it's an awesome little phone that I wouldn't mind using as my daily driver.
I ended up exchanging it for the Captivate simply because it seemed more future-proof and because the subsidized price difference was so small that it was hard to justify keeping the Aria.
With the leaks of the Nexus S today, I can see that I made the correct choice. If it turns out that the Nexus S hardware is very similar to the rest of the Galaxy S line (which will most likely be the case, considering the model number), we are basically guaranteed updates direct from google (with a little hacking to get it running on our Captivates) for a long time to come.
Update: Oh yeah, forgot to mention the speaker. The speaker is absolutely terrible. It sounds tinny and buzzy, and you'll be instantly infuriated anytime your phone rings. Watching videos on it is unbearable unless you use headphones. This is another reason I exchanged it for the Captivate.
Aria advantages are fm radio, better browser that makes text readable on the smaller screen. 2.1 os with flash that works, snappy feel do to the smaller screen needing less processing power. Small size.
Dis advantages are poor out door readability especially with screen protectors, poor battery life, I find the captivate to be better, gps didn't work any better than the captivate, actually I think the captivate is better but I seem to be a minority in that my gps works, hard to type on small screen and I'm not one to complain about touch screens, I actually prefer touch screens for typing but 3.2 inches is just to small, non multi touch keyboard. Significantly thicker than captivate, it doesn't look it but it is. call quality not as good, ringer/speakerphone not as loud, camera not as good, captivate camera has many options only winphone7 compares imho but win phone 7 is good for different reasons, also aria camera takes time to adjust to the light, apparent in videos. Stock headphones not as good as samsung stock headphones. Internal storage couldn't hold enough apps.
All in all I did have buyers remorse when I got the aria because I couldn't read the screen in day light and because the internal storage was limited but was otherwise satiated, then when I traded up for the captive I had buyers remorse because missed the fm radio, the browser and the flash player, but it all went away when I started making phone calls, and got a taste of the stock headphones for music, every bit as good as $40 v-moda ones that I had recently broken, and better than the $50 treble heavy skull candies I bought to use with the aria.
The aria was almost a good phone and if you have an sd card and don't use 100 apps and you can deal with the screen there is nothing wrong with it but for the money it might not make sense unless they have dropped the price or the whole required store credit/rebate thing. But I feel the captivate is better for more reasons than the obvious even with it's shortcomings.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897
I miss my aria's gps. It worked flawlessly.
The Aria is...
...one bada$$ little phone! I was so very opposed to going to a full-touchscreen phone. I've always had keyboards on all my HTC Smartphones and PDA's. The fact that i got turned on to a full touch screen phone via the Aria is pretty impressive in my book.
Yes it is small. But that is one of the benefits of the phone itself, considering how big all the phones are getting. At this rate it looks like we're almost headed back to the "motorola-in-a-brief-case-Nino-Brown-era". hahaha! Sure, if you have huge fingers it will be a bit of a pain to type on no doubt. But I'm a 5'11" athletic black man and I had not too many issues.
Its just about as snappy as most other "high-end" considered phones in most categories. The speaker does suck pretty bad, but i'm always using bluetooth headsets and BT stereo headphones anyway. I loved that little phone. And now my wife loves it.
I have the Captivate now. I never wanted to get anything but HTC, but I'm on AT&T and the HTC Surround looks like a joke - not to mention I do not want a first generation WP7 anyway. So to the tune of $69 (AT&T matched the Wirefly.com price) I couldn't pass it up. Aside from not having a flash I LOVE this phone and it feels about the same weight as the Aria!
All that to say...YES, the Aria is a solid phone and great switch up from the current popular trend in phone sizes.

Sensation - best phone of all time ?

What a beautiful phone !!
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
The main thing, or the sum of the parts, about this phone, is that HTC have put all their previous experience into the form factor and it shows.
For such a large screen device it feels small and light in the hand. It also looks smaller then it it.
The alu/plastic back is the perfect shape for holding and setting down. The front glass is lovely and the way you take the back off is the best way - no slide off shell that almost breaks everytime you do it, rather a release button and a smooth slide off. Even the slide-off is confidence building - the back encircles the main phone can curves round at the top. This ensures no rattling and also sealing the internals nicely.
The build quality is light and day difference from the Samsung Galaxy SII, for example. The Samsung is light and feels cheap. Worse, the last one I looked at in an O2 shop had a piece of velcro on the back slicking it to a small stand. Repeated removal meant that the thin plastic back was warped, one corner stuck off exposing some electronics and the middle had a nasty fold down it meaning it was hardly attached.
HTC Sense is the next jewel in HTC's crown. Sense 3D is no big upgrade but after some configuration it appears as jewel like as the body (I have a B&W picture background from the HTC collection) with dual clocks on the home screen, and a swiss watch skeleton clock on the lock screen).
Operation is fast and smooth. There are occasional jerks but I am sure this will be dealt with with a firmware upgrade (after all, multi-core CPUs are just introduced to Android).
The screen is a joy. Not so bright or contrasty as a AMOLED, but fantastic in its own right. The one criticism, if a bit picky, is that the contrast drops off sharply as you look at an angle. The extra 100 pixels either way over the normal high-spec android is really really useful for surfing and email (540x960).
Main gripes:
1. Not many apps using multi-core cpu
2. Not many apps using full screen resolution
3. Volume on ear piece could be a bit higher
All-in-all a great software effort for HTC's first dual core release but hardwarewise a mature and well thought out build with real ownership pleasure.
I think you could make the Moto Cliq sound amazing. You just made me so excited to have this phone.
What a phone.
Cheers
remember dude, new phones come out every 2+ Months.. And every 6 Months to a year the technology in the phone will increase and become the norm.
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Nice try, HTC Sales Deparment.
StefanB86 said:
Nice try, HTC Sales Deparment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey, I'm really open to commission if anyone is offering
dbirdflyshi said:
remember dude, new phones come out every 2+ Months.. And every 6 Months to a year the technology in the phone will increase and become the norm.
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
looks like a 1980s list
Sony xperia play -come on - no review says that ....
I would definitely own the Sensation over the iPhone 4, any day of the week. It's not even close. To me, that's a significant statement to make given how the iPhone has pretty much dominated.
Hey,
I've just come from having an iPhone 4(had it a year, and got bored), and this is my first Android phone. I must say i am happy with the phone, but the best phone ever? Not yet.
The iPhone has a great Retina screen and its build quality is great. But you have to jailbreak it to get some basic features, like bluetooth, customising themes, tethering etc.
The Sensation is great out of the box, not a snappy as i anticipated i think due to sense. But i has everything i need as stock.
Sound is a bit low, and crackly sometimes. But i am impressed.
Cant wait to root it and unlock the real speed of the phone
nick
dbirdflyshi said:
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah like the other dude said, this list looks... off a bit.
Sensation is beautiful but the best graphics?
3Gs the best phone ever? Really?
Nexus One, the best android phone ever? Maybe only to the dev community.
Fastest - Should read fastest data speeds, then yes I would agree with that one. In terms of overall responsiveness, then no.
Gaming phone - could be any Galaxy S1 (Power VRSGX540 is still a beast), GS2, or any tegra2 device out there. The Xperia play has an Adreno 205 GPU which makes it decent at best, physical controls and all. But it lines up with the rest of Sony's product lines - They make a lot of good stuff, just never the best.
colonel said:
looks like a 1980s list
Sony xperia play -come on - no review says that ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your lucky i didnt mention the N-Gague
BBOOZE said:
I would definitely own the Sensation over the iPhone 4, any day of the week. It's not even close. To me, that's a significant statement to make given how the iPhone has pretty much dominated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same way but..... give iPhone 4.3" screen and T-mo bands and we'll talk again. I don't like apple, SJ or their nazi ways but there's something fascinating about having a device that just. works. out. of. the. box. Mind you, this is coming from Android follower since day 1 (Got G1 on the day of the release). I'm sick of rooting phones just to make them work and I thought that Sensation will be the phone I can live with. I mean it does sound great on paper but in real life - software on it is big heaping pile of ****. I truly believe that HTC is getting too comfy being one the biggest names in Android game and they are cutting corners left and right. Guess what - it shows.
Can't wait for S-off and CM.
colonel said:
What a beautiful phone !!
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
The main thing, or the sum of the parts, about this phone, is that HTC have put all their previous experience into the form factor and it shows.
For such a large screen device it feels small and light in the hand. It also looks smaller then it it.
The alu/plastic back is the perfect shape for holding and setting down. The front glass is lovely and the way you take the back off is the best way - no slide off shell that almost breaks everytime you do it, rather a release button and a smooth slide off. Even the slide-off is confidence building - the back encircles the main phone can curves round at the top. This ensures no rattling and also sealing the internals nicely.
The build quality is light and day difference from the Samsung Galaxy SII, for example. The Samsung is light and feels cheap. Worse, the last one I looked at in an O2 shop had a piece of velcro on the back slicking it to a small stand. Repeated removal meant that the thin plastic back was warped, one corner stuck off exposing some electronics and the middle had a nasty fold down it meaning it was hardly attached.
HTC Sense is the next jewel in HTC's crown. Sense 3D is no big upgrade but after some configuration it appears as jewel like as the body (I have a B&W picture background from the HTC collection) with dual clocks on the home screen, and a swiss watch skeleton clock on the lock screen).
Operation is fast and smooth. There are occasional jerks but I am sure this will be dealt with with a firmware upgrade (after all, multi-core CPUs are just introduced to Android).
The screen is a joy. Not so bright or contrasty as a AMOLED, but fantastic in its own right. The one criticism, if a bit picky, is that the contrast drops off sharply as you look at an angle. The extra 100 pixels either way over the normal high-spec android is really really useful for surfing and email (540x960).
Main gripes:
1. Not many apps using multi-core cpu
2. Not many apps using full screen resolution
3. Volume on ear piece could be a bit higher
All-in-all a great software effort for HTC's first dual core release but hardwarewise a mature and well thought out build with real ownership pleasure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more! This phone has made, by far, the best first impression (and continued) of any new device I've purchased in years.
I'm not sure why the 3GS was brought up here - I went from the 3G to the 3GS and really didn't feel it was worth it (it was a free upgrade through work, so what the heck). The original iPhone can get a mention, but I wouldn't give any of the subsequent models anything special.
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
DSF said:
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the galaxy s 2 is faster but perhaps new htc software will make it up
however the margin is not worth it compared to the terrible build or Fischer price os
DSF said:
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a d*ck move you pulled there. Go back under the bridge from which you came. The OP didn't once claim that this phone was better than the GS2. He was merely stating that he's in love with his phone. Nothing wrong with that. Everyone already knows that the GS2 is superior performance wise. Now go back to your Samsung forums and leave us be.
colonel said:
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then what's this?
Smart reply what can I say..
@colonel, well sgs2 feels solid in hand. No cranks, etc.
I'm posting here just because I don't like when the true is distorted. I could easily chose the sensation but for me the sgs2 wins (raw performance, ram, storage, etc).
Have a nice day.
DSF said:
Then what's this?
Smart reply what can I say..
@colonel, well sgs2 feels solid in hand. No cranks, etc.
I'm posting here just because I don't like when the true is distorted. I could easily chose the sensation but for me the sgs2 wins (raw performance, ram, storage, etc).
Have a nice day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before you come out here looking like a complete *ahem* ...wait, too late... I was ABOUT to say that you should probably take into consideration that at this point in time this IS the best phone ever available in the United States. For any of us living here, it's a no brainer. As far as the rest of the world - can't people be allowed to enjoy anything anymore?
borodin1 said:
I feel the same way but..... give iPhone 4.3" screen and T-mo bands and we'll talk again. I don't like apple, SJ or their nazi ways but there's something fascinating about having a device that just. works. out. of. the. box. Mind you, this is coming from Android follower since day 1 (Got G1 on the day of the release). I'm sick of rooting phones just to make them work and I thought that Sensation will be the phone I can live with. I mean it does sound great on paper but in real life - software on it is big heaping pile of ****. I truly believe that HTC is getting too comfy being one the biggest names in Android game and they are cutting corners left and right. Guess what - it shows.
Can't wait for S-off and CM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree about how nice it is that the iPhone works out of the box but I have to say I was able to get up and running in no time on my new Sensation just by entering my gmail account info...boom everything was there.
As for Sense I never liked/used Sense before but IF I got stuck with it on the Sensation I wouldn't be ready to kill myself. Frankly I think CM ROMs are waaaay overrated...so they are faster, great, but half the time stuff like GPS don't work. That said I will root this baby the second I get the chance.
......NOT !!!
ps: ok, maybe the best htc phone of all time.
GS2 is definitely more powerful at the moment. But after software update, hopefully the Sensation will show big improvement. I mean Sense 3.0 runs very smoothly on EVO 3d, so there's no reason why Sensation couldn't.
Sound and camera quality on HTC, however, need to be a lot better. Samsung have this, as well as sheer power and speed covered. But of course, HTC have an upper hand in the aesthetics of the phone, both hardware and software.
While I long for GS2's unstoppable power, I really cannot stand its big, non-matchingly-colorful, unpolished interface (I don't mind the plastic build). Same with the Sensation - unbelievably beautiful look of the device and UI, but things like dust under screen, dim screen (compared to EVO 3d), whispering speaker volume and average camera quality turn me off quite a bit.
So, I'm gonna stick to my good, old blackberry and wait until HTC or Samsung
address their weakness.

First ten days with HTC One S

I received my phone from Orange Spain. The phone itself is very nice, quick and smooth and everything you have read about it in general review is correct. It is a very good phone and I am happy with it. BUT here are the things I don't like:
1. Micro oxydation is very nice looking although it smells a little like dirty hair. And, unfortunately, like it has been reported I have a small edge chipped. I don't know yet if I will return it for that.
2. The default browser is new and some HTML5 games are incompatible with it or play very slow. Android is still behind Apple iOS Safari Browser and this is very bad since I work for a mobile game network. I suspect this is not a problem of the phone but the ICS browser.
3. I have installed the Chrome browser and it crashes almost everytime I use it. Not only Chrome crashes but the whole phone. The phone freezes and the only way to reboot it is to maintain the power button pressed for a while.
4. Camera is fantastic. I tested a few times and worked very well. But the first time I really used it I could take the first picture then the screen became black. I mean, everything I should see through the camera stayed black. The buttons and menu were visible but I couldn't use them. I shut down the app and reload it with same problem. I had to reboot the phone to fix it.
I have one app (Live TV from Lyric) with a shortcut on the homescreen. Everytime I reboot, the icon disappear from the homescreen and is replaced with the Android robot icon. I have to replace the icon every time I boot. The app doesn't disappear, only the shortcut.
5. Maybe this is the most important problem. Reception is not very good and many times I loose the GSM signal totally, then it comes back. My HTC Desire had better recepciĂłn. 3G and HSDP is veery slow when reception is weak (2 bars or under)
The doubts I had:
- When I read reviews about this phone I had my doubts about the screen resolution and pentile technology. This is bull****. The screen is great and more than enough for a high end phone.
- Battery and autonomy. I don't care about having a non removable battery. All my previous ones had removable battery and I never used a spare. The autonomy of this phone is good and much better than my Desire. I can keep it running with a lot of use during a full day and probably two days on light use.
- Non removable memory. It is advertised to have 16GB user memory but the reality is way different: I have "only" 10GB available and I feel ripped off. Although I know I will probably never use so much memory (I don't store music or movies).
Conclusion: I would probably buy this phone again even after knowing the limitations. But I hope some software fixes will come.
I haven't bought one yet but i'm the same as you having doubts about the S's screen. I have viewed the S and X side by side in a shop and obviously the X's panel is much better to look at, but in my opinion it's the only thing the X has going for it over the S.
The per-core performance of the S is better, it's easier to hold and use, feels better built, the battery lasts at least as long if not longer and it's cheaper. I don't really care about NFC and the better front facing camera on the X as I'll never use them (apart from maybe the mirror app!)
The X seems laggy to me even though it really shouldn't. I know it has a fair few more pixels to push around but the GPU is marginally better than the S so should breeze through. This is especially noticable on the world clock... tap the globe to make it full screen and spin/zoom it. The S is super smooth and the X is very choppy in comparison.
So in all I think I can deal with the pentile matrix... I just don't want to buy it and have HTC announce a One S "2" in a few months with a 720p display!
kadison;
that shouldn't be a concern. because at any given time there will be coming better and better phones
- so don't worry that this one will get outdated, because it's not. Just look at the Desire HD or the Galaxy S2 (which people still buying btw)
I'm superhappy with this phone, although I can't wait for the xda development to start working on replacements to Sense 4.0
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
kadison said:
I haven't bought one yet but i'm the same as you having doubts about the S's screen. I have viewed the S and X side by side in a shop and obviously the X's panel is much better to look at, but in my opinion it's the only thing the X has going for it over the S.
The per-core performance of the S is better, it's easier to hold and use, feels better built, the battery lasts at least as long if not longer and it's cheaper. I don't really care about NFC and the better front facing camera on the X as I'll never use them (apart from maybe the mirror app!)
The X seems laggy to me even though it really shouldn't. I know it has a fair few more pixels to push around but the GPU is marginally better than the S so should breeze through. This is especially noticable on the world clock... tap the globe to make it full screen and spin/zoom it. The S is super smooth and the X is very choppy in comparison.
So in all I think I can deal with the pentile matrix... I just don't want to buy it and have HTC announce a One S "2" in a few months with a 720p display!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not many people will continuously look at a One X and a One S screen.
AMOLED displays have been impressive on my friend's Windows 7 device, and since I'm coming from a device from less than 200 PPI, it should be a great screen.
Been disappointed with my first few days with it. It seems to suffer from constant crashes where the phone reboots itself.
I've tried stock and some custom roms but am still getting random reboots.
paulpenny said:
Been disappointed with my first few days with it. It seems to suffer from constant crashes where the phone reboots itself.
I've tried stock and some custom roms but am still getting random reboots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you getting Crashes and Random reboots before you Rooted and started flashing other ROMS? or do you think it might be because you are flashing different ROMS that might have some minor bugs here and there?
jmercil said:
Were you getting Crashes and Random reboots before you Rooted and started flashing other ROMS? or do you think it might be because you are flashing different ROMS that might have some minor bugs here and there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about the original poster but this happens with my One S with the stock ROM. It seems to maybe happen when I'm at a wifi connection boundary (maybe?) but a couple times a week, I'll either:
1) notice the phone rebooting as it's just sitting idle on my desk
2) hear the "I just crashed and am rebooting" sound from the phone in my pocket
3) go to use it and notice the notification bar icon telling me it just recovered from a crash.
I'm sending the crash data to HTC every time, hoping they're prioritizing the fix because though it has never crashed on me like this while I'm using it (which is weird...), it's starting to get annoying.
I have not had a single random reboot, using WIP CM9.
jipi said:
1. Micro oxydation is very nice looking although it smells a little like dirty hair.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really regret smelling it now lol.
Agree about the display, reviews were making a big deal put of the pentile display but it's a non issue for me. Only issue I've had, coming off an iPhone 4, has been the size of the phone. Maybe I just have small hands but not finding it too comfortable to use with one hand.
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2
My girlfriend had the One X and i have the One S. I can definitely notice the difference with the pentile matrix on my phone especially with small writing and horizontal lines. (the edge of the messaging icon for example looks like a dotted line) but honestly it's only noticeable if im using the phone in bed and using it really close to my face. The One X is crisper looking but it's a little washed out compared to the One S's screen. The blacks on my screen are way darker compared to the X.
I've had my One S for just over a week now and have yet to see any rebooting or crashing. The phone has been fantastic so far except that i get absolutely terrible reception. I had a Desire before this phone and in places where i used to get full bars i can now maybe get one, if it's not in emergency mode. The signal bounces around from really good to really bad (mostly hovering around -107dbm) which is not good at all. I took the phone back and got it replaced as well as the sim card and i still have issues.
Overall i really like it, but i think i might have to take it back and get something else that can keep good reception.
Ive got my phone for about 4 days now, and its the best investment ive made in the past few years
I allready worked on a few Android devices ( Root etc etc ) but newer owned one myself, so the first thing I did was Unlocking, Rooting and flashing LeeDroid´s Firmware onto it.
And the phone is fantastic.
Far beyond what I expected.
The Battery life is great, my friends are allready pissed because their iPhone cant take so long OnScreen-Times
I really hope that there will be [S-OFF] and the Kernel Source available soon
FixedTheFernBack said:
I've had my One S for just over a week now and have yet to see any rebooting or crashing. The phone has been fantastic so far except that i get absolutely terrible reception. I had a Desire before this phone and in places where i used to get full bars i can now maybe get one, if it's not in emergency mode. The signal bounces around from really good to really bad (mostly hovering around -107dbm) which is not good at all. I took the phone back and got it replaced as well as the sim card and i still have issues.
Overall i really like it, but i think i might have to take it back and get something else that can keep good reception.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with the phone for 6 weeks now (bought it in Switzerland unbranded) and agree with you so much.
I'm thinking of sending it to Greece for "repair" although I'm not sure they can make the network reception and data connection loss disappear unless a new firmware is out, which I can update myself, if there will be (I'm on 1.78 currently).
Unfortunately, unlike you, I cannot anymore return it for a refund
I had Desire which was magnificent and am so depressed with this phone in terms of its reception! Other than that, it's magnificent as well!!!
jipi said:
3. I have installed the Chrome browser and it crashes almost everytime I use it. Not only Chrome crashes but the whole phone. The phone freezes and the only way to reboot it is to maintain the power button pressed for a while.
robably never use so much memory (I don't store music or movies).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have crash too. for example it crashes with this and this
It is a common or just a few devices have this problem?
This phone got no problems.
Got my One S a week ago. The black one. Was using a Desire before that. Here are my findings:
* Size: It is a bit unwieldy. The fact that the entire front side responds to touch doesn't make it easier to hold. I probably have to grow into it.
It feels like the chances of dropping it are higher and the results of dropping it are worse.
* Power button: A bit hard to reach and hard to press. On the Desire we have 'trackpad to wake'. I miss that.
* Reception: I don't know about actual signal, but the bars in the notification area jump back and forth pretty much between 1 and 4.
* Battery: About a full day. Of course since the device is new, I play with it more than normal. Really too soon to tell. I remember on the Desire the battery life was a bit disappointing in the beginning, but became better with time. (Better calibration? Better kernels & ROMs?)
* Body: The weight, the thinness, the shape, damn this is a marvelous piece of engineering! The MAO aluminium feels fantastic.
I don't use a case and I don't plan to. No point (for me) to hide its beauty in order to retain it. Maybe a screen protector, not sure yet. No chipping or scratching (yet?). Dropped it once, from about 1 meter, on wooden floor (not on concrete). [SH24TW]
* General performace: It just screams.
* Screen: Bigger, brighter, more pixels, yummm! (I realize that this is a counterpoint to "It is a bit unwieldy".) I am personally not bothered by pentile matrix layout
* WiFi is better: Stronger signal, faster joining, better speed, less latency.
* GPS: Was already pretty good on the Desire, but on the One S it is even better. Stronger signal, better accuracy, GLONASS.
* Camera. I'm just blown away with the awesomness of the camera.
I am very impressed so far.
-Jobo
My experience so far (have had it for 10 days now):
-Phone looks amazing - miles ahead of pretty much everything else out there. Makes my Sensation feel like a brick. That said, I agree with some that the gray finish is quite slippery and it can be hard to get a good grip. Build quality is fine, no creaks or anything.
-The non-removable battery and lack of SD slot are non-issues. Battery life is good so far and I've never used more than 5GB on my previous phones so 16GB should be more than enough.
-Screen looks great. PenTile is not a problem for me.
-Sense 4 is very nice both aesthetically and functionally, better than 3.6 and certainly at least as good as stock ICS (I have tried all three for extended periods on my Sensation as well, so they were all on an even footing).
-Very happy with the performance. No random reboots, crashes, or major bugs so far. Only issues I have are 1) Wi-Fi randomly disconnecting and then immediately re-connecting and 2) in areas with weak "4G" reception the signal will spike between no bars and full bars occasionally. Hopefully the OTA will fix these.
-Camera is excellent. Haven't had much chance to play with it but it's really, really fast and the quality is very good.
Overall, very satisfied.
Couple of weeks in.
I got 2 of these phones during the week of release, and so far i haven't got a bad word to say about it.
Reception has been superb. Not a single crash or reboot. Rooted straight away and have used several ROMs before settling with one I like. Not wanting to repeat what others have said, but i'm very happy with this phone.
My wife on the other hand, has done nothing but moan about reception issues. Although I think that says more about her, than it does the One S.
Meedmo said:
I got 2 of these phones during the week of release, and so far i haven't got a bad word to say about it.
Reception has been superb. Not a single crash or reboot. Rooted straight away and have used several ROMs before settling with one I like. Not wanting to repeat what others have said, but i'm very happy with this phone.
My wife on the other hand, has done nothing but moan about reception issues. Although I think that says more about her, than it does the One S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried extensively to convert my iPhone using wife to an Android device. I bought her a Galaxy Nexus, she said it wasn't comfortable in one hand. I got her the SGS2, she had the same complaint. Purchased the Amaze, she said the screen was too washed out (?) and Sense 3.0 wasn't her "cup of tea". I gave her a G2X for the hell of it, which she liked, but ultimately, wanted her iPhone 4 back. So, after hell and high water trying to find her the "perfect" Android device, she's back to her iPhone 4. I told her that I didn't want her to feel pressured just because I'm an Android user, and she said that the main reason she wanted her iPhone back was to facetime with her family in Canada, which I can't argue with.
So about a month later, I purchased the One S. She instantly was in shock by the gorgeous hardware design. She asked if she could use it for a few days to see if she can make the switch. So, after using it for a week (she wouldn't give it back to me), she said that she couldn't believe how vibrant the screen was (the regular consumer who has no idea what pentile is will not notice this "flaw", and that's speaking strictly from the end user who see's the screen for what it is, 4.3 inches of pure beauty), how quick and easy Sense 4 was to use, and how well it fit in her pocket. So by that point, I wanted my phone back, (I switched between an Amaze and SGS2 temporarily), and ultimately, ended up purchasing one for her. Without my knowledge, she went and got a complete guard on the entirety of the phone, as well as a white skull candy case. She's kept it in perfect condition (learns from the best =) and has officially (at least for now) retired her iPhone.
Since most of her friends are iUsers, she can boast about being the only one with common sense to use what she believes is a superior device (which it is, in our opinion). I've dealt with her whiny friends who have asked me, "why did you let her buy a droid?!" My answer is, it isn't a droid, a droid is a phone made by Motorola, first off, and second, because it's just better for her personal use, and in many ways, then the iPhone itself. They then proceed to balk on about how the iPhone just "works" etc. etc., but after they got a glimpse of the One S, she was actually able to convert a longtime iPhone user into purchasing a white Galaxy S2 for Sprint! Two down, a worlds to go, but no less, it's encouraging.
The real test begins when the "New iPhone" is released, we'll see then how she reacts. But for now, I feel as though this phone has really done well for HTC and transcended a lot of the "complications" iUsers have when trying to convert to Android. The One S has such good touch sensitivity, that it compares to that of the iPhone, where as I've noticed using the Galaxy Nexus and SGS2 that the sensitivity of touch wasn't as prevalent as these HTC devices. It's likely just perception, but it's something I've noticed.

Why I'm going to keep this phone - benefits outweigh downsides...

I've had this phone for about 10 days now and I'm coming from a GSM Galaxy Nexus 4.0.4 which I still love and adore. Having said that I've decided I'm keeping this phone because like with everything while not perfect, the benefits to it outweigh the downsides. Here's my take:
Things I love about One X:
- Screen is spectacular and best I've ever seen yet. Puts Nexus to shame. Hard going back to Nexus after using the One X
- Camera - best camera I've ever used on any mobile device yet. Not just optics but the software is fantastic. Love the burst mode/best shot, HDR actually does something, panaroma, etc. Especially coming from Nexus, it's a HUGE improvement
- LTE - yes it eats battery like nothing else but god damn it's fast and it's glorious. My first cell phone didn't have data and the first one with data had GPRS (not even EDGE) so the fact I can be standing somewhere and get 25mbps down is just mind boggling. Love it.
- CPU - the S4 is a beast, I have a PS Vita and an iPad3 so I don't need my phone to be a gaming powerhouse but this thing flies. Noticeably faster for me in many apps than the Nexus and web browsing is desktop class. I can even leave Flash to always on and I don't even notice! Definitely future proof for at least another year.
- Build quality - superb and feels very solid. NO creaking and it's light but does not feel cheap. Galaxy Nexus feels great too but still feels cheaper and flimsy compared to One X. I have the white one and it looks very very nice.
- Bluetooth 4.0 - had some problems on stock ROM (related to wifi I think) but with 1.82 it's very stable and works great. Future proofing for newer devices coming now with 4.0. I'm a big Bluetooth user so nice having the latest spec.
Things I really don't like about the One X:
- Sense 4.0 - yes it's better than previous ones (I had an Incredible and a Sensation) but it's still a piece of crap. Unnecessary UI animations and changes just for the fact they want to change things. YES there are nice little tweaks they've done but those are for me the ones under the hood and not really UI ones. The memory management/multitasking thing is a great example of one gone wrong but for me personally, I LOVE stock ICS and I can't wait for an unlocked bootloader so I can run a stock AOKP ROM on it.
- WiFi - although the 1.82 RUU seems to have fixed it somewhat, it's still flaky. I have to have "best wifi performance" checked otherwise notifications don't always come through when phone is asleep.
- Battery life - I guess I can't be too hard on it because of the screen, CPU and LTE but it still is quite unpredictable. It's NOT BAD but it's not great for me yet either. I'm sure I'll get it to a point where it'll be reliable but right now it seems all over the place.
- Power button - why in god's name do the morons at HTC stick the power/sleep button on the top of the phone when every other manufacturer has realized it's more logical to put it on the side. Especially on a 4.7" phone!! Idiots. This is annoying but I can live with it.
- Wide phone - the screen is only .5 " bigger than the Nexus but the phone is much wider in my hand and not as comfortable but not a deal breaker for me.
- AT&T Crapware - can be disabled but irritating they loaded it up with so much garbage.
- NO Google Wallet support - I MISS THIS the most from Nexus. I have a Citi card setup and used it a ton daily but now I can't
There is probably more but these are the highlights. So yes, the phone is far from perfect but I'm not getting rid of my Nexus so I will still have that. This phone has what I'm looking for which is the camera, screen, network and cpu that beats my current phone...so I'll look past the other stuff that bothers me - at least until I can flash stock ICS on it.
mobilehavoc said:
I've had this phone for about 10 days now and I'm coming from a GSM Galaxy Nexus 4.0.4 which I still love and adore. Having said that I've decided I'm keeping this phone because like with everything while not perfect, the benefits to it outweigh the downsides. Here's my take:
Things I love about One X:
- Screen is spectacular and best I've ever seen yet. Puts Nexus to shame. Hard going back to Nexus after using the One X
- Camera - best camera I've ever used on any mobile device yet. Not just optics but the software is fantastic. Love the burst mode/best shot, HDR actually does something, panaroma, etc. Especially coming from Nexus, it's a HUGE improvement
- LTE - yes it eats battery like nothing else but god damn it's fast and it's glorious. My first cell phone didn't have data and the first one with data had GPRS (not even EDGE) so the fact I can be standing somewhere and get 25mbps down is just mind boggling. Love it.
- CPU - the S4 is a beast, I have a PS Vita and an iPad3 so I don't need my phone to be a gaming powerhouse but this thing flies. Noticeably faster for me in many apps than the Nexus and web browsing is desktop class. I can even leave Flash to always on and I don't even notice! Definitely future proof for at least another year.
- Build quality - superb and feels very solid. NO creaking and it's light but does not feel cheap. Galaxy Nexus feels great too but still feels cheaper and flimsy compared to One X. I have the white one and it looks very very nice.
- Bluetooth 4.0 - had some problems on stock ROM (related to wifi I think) but with 1.82 it's very stable and works great. Future proofing for newer devices coming now with 4.0. I'm a big Bluetooth user so nice having the latest spec.
Things I really don't like about the One X:
- Sense 4.0 - yes it's better than previous ones (I had an Incredible and a Sensation) but it's still a piece of crap. Unnecessary UI animations and changes just for the fact they want to change things. YES there are nice little tweaks they've done but those are for me the ones under the hood and not really UI ones. The memory management/multitasking thing is a great example of one gone wrong but for me personally, I LOVE stock ICS and I can't wait for an unlocked bootloader so I can run a stock AOKP ROM on it.
- WiFi - although the 1.82 RUU seems to have fixed it somewhat, it's still flaky. I have to have "best wifi performance" checked otherwise notifications don't always come through when phone is asleep.
- Battery life - I guess I can't be too hard on it because of the screen, CPU and LTE but it still is quite unpredictable. It's NOT BAD but it's not great for me yet either. I'm sure I'll get it to a point where it'll be reliable but right now it seems all over the place.
- Power button - why in god's name do the morons at HTC stick the power/sleep button on the top of the phone when every other manufacturer has realized it's more logical to put it on the side. Especially on a 4.7" phone!! Idiots. This is annoying but I can live with it.
- Wide phone - the screen is only .5 " bigger than the Nexus but the phone is much wider in my hand and not as comfortable but not a deal breaker for me.
- AT&T Crapware - can be disabled but irritating they loaded it up with so much garbage.
- NO Google Wallet support - I MISS THIS the most from Nexus. I have a Citi card setup and used it a ton daily but now I can't
There is probably more but these are the highlights. So yes, the phone is far from perfect but I'm not getting rid of my Nexus so I will still have that. This phone has what I'm looking for which is the camera, screen, network and cpu that beats my current phone...so I'll look past the other stuff that bothers me - at least until I can flash stock ICS on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just went back to my Nexus for a bit and I have to keep brightness at 50%. Anything less and the Nexus display hurts my eyes after spending time with the OneX. However software wise it feels so good.
Keeping the OneX but so so happy to have a Nexus I can take a break and go back to.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
im actually starting to miss my gnex.
If i could get my boot loader unlocked and load a stock ics rom on it id change my mind.
Not a word about lack of multitasking? Really? IMO it's overweights every con you've listed all together...If just this not going to be fixed in next 20 days, I'm returning it.
And then only 10gb of space for all the apps to install and 8mp camera with 1080p video compatibility? And 600mb of user accessible RAM?
I think you got to get your priorities straight
Regarding the power button, I've owned 7 phones so far, different manufactures and all of them had power button on top. Doesn't bother me a single bit.
However the volume buttons placed on the opposite side of 3.5 jack is a bad design, because with this configuration you can't access them when the phone in the belt pouch. The 3.5 jack kind of forcing the pouch being on left side, making the buttons be at the bottom.
[email protected] said:
Not a word about lack of multitasking? Really? IMO it's overweights every con you've listed all together...If just this not going to be fixed in next 20 days, I'm returning it.
And then only 10gb of space for all the apps to install and 8mp camera with 1080p video compatibility? And 600mb of user accessible RAM?
I think you got to get your priorities straight
Regarding the power button, I've owned 7 phones so far, different manufactures and all of them had power button on top. Doesn't bother me a single bit.
However the volume buttons placed on the opposite side of 3.5 jack is a bad design, because with this configuration you can't access them when the phone in the belt pouch. The 3.5 jack kind of forcing the pouch being on left side, making the buttons be at the bottom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its annoying but not a huge issue for me yet. I also plan on rooting soon and customizing. I believe part of the issue is the minfree setting which you should be able to edit with root. Also it can't be far off before custom ROMs based on AOSP will be out. Just waiting for the boot loader to be unlocked.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Have not experienced LTE yet, but I am on "4G" here in Utah. We will get LTE by the end of the year I guess.
The screen on this thing is down right beastly. Just amazing. Compared to my iPhone 4s, damn.
I don't mind the multitasking to be honest coming from an iPhone where I never used it. It suites me fine.
Camera isn't great, I don't believe as good as the iPhone 4s, but still one of the best I have seen so far.
So far battery life I get around 16 hours, not bad, but not great.
Phone quality is there as well. No complaints from me.
I guess the only downside so far for me is the google wallet. I was really wanting to use that when switching over to android. Hopefully it will happen via att or root at some point.
mobilehavoc said:
I've had this phone for about 10 days now and I'm coming from a GSM Galaxy Nexus 4.0.4 which I still love and adore. Having said that I've decided I'm keeping this phone because like with everything while not perfect, the benefits to it outweigh the downsides. Here's my take:
Things I love about One X:
- Screen is spectacular and best I've ever seen yet. Puts Nexus to shame. Hard going back to Nexus after using the One X
- Camera - best camera I've ever used on any mobile device yet. Not just optics but the software is fantastic. Love the burst mode/best shot, HDR actually does something, panaroma, etc. Especially coming from Nexus, it's a HUGE improvement
- LTE - yes it eats battery like nothing else but god damn it's fast and it's glorious. My first cell phone didn't have data and the first one with data had GPRS (not even EDGE) so the fact I can be standing somewhere and get 25mbps down is just mind boggling. Love it.
- CPU - the S4 is a beast, I have a PS Vita and an iPad3 so I don't need my phone to be a gaming powerhouse but this thing flies. Noticeably faster for me in many apps than the Nexus and web browsing is desktop class. I can even leave Flash to always on and I don't even notice! Definitely future proof for at least another year.
- Build quality - superb and feels very solid. NO creaking and it's light but does not feel cheap. Galaxy Nexus feels great too but still feels cheaper and flimsy compared to One X. I have the white one and it looks very very nice.
- Bluetooth 4.0 - had some problems on stock ROM (related to wifi I think) but with 1.82 it's very stable and works great. Future proofing for newer devices coming now with 4.0. I'm a big Bluetooth user so nice having the latest spec.
Things I really don't like about the One X:
- Sense 4.0 - yes it's better than previous ones (I had an Incredible and a Sensation) but it's still a piece of crap. Unnecessary UI animations and changes just for the fact they want to change things. YES there are nice little tweaks they've done but those are for me the ones under the hood and not really UI ones. The memory management/multitasking thing is a great example of one gone wrong but for me personally, I LOVE stock ICS and I can't wait for an unlocked bootloader so I can run a stock AOKP ROM on it.
- WiFi - although the 1.82 RUU seems to have fixed it somewhat, it's still flaky. I have to have "best wifi performance" checked otherwise notifications don't always come through when phone is asleep.
- Battery life - I guess I can't be too hard on it because of the screen, CPU and LTE but it still is quite unpredictable. It's NOT BAD but it's not great for me yet either. I'm sure I'll get it to a point where it'll be reliable but right now it seems all over the place.
- Power button - why in god's name do the morons at HTC stick the power/sleep button on the top of the phone when every other manufacturer has realized it's more logical to put it on the side. Especially on a 4.7" phone!! Idiots. This is annoying but I can live with it.
- Wide phone - the screen is only .5 " bigger than the Nexus but the phone is much wider in my hand and not as comfortable but not a deal breaker for me.
- AT&T Crapware - can be disabled but irritating they loaded it up with so much garbage.
- NO Google Wallet support - I MISS THIS the most from Nexus. I have a Citi card setup and used it a ton daily but now I can't
There is probably more but these are the highlights. So yes, the phone is far from perfect but I'm not getting rid of my Nexus so I will still have that. This phone has what I'm looking for which is the camera, screen, network and cpu that beats my current phone...so I'll look past the other stuff that bothers me - at least until I can flash stock ICS on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm about to bring mine back because of the multi tasking. I have my gnex in my draw and it wants to go back into action. Once things get sorted out and boot loader unlocked I'll probably but another HOX
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I can't see any trouble with the One X in anyway. Multitasking if your asking me.... I switch between 2 or 3 apps at the most. I don't do gaming with it. Mostly use it for processing capacity and some programing, emails, sms, whatsapp, im+, documents to go etc... I don't use any of the stock application and most of the stock/htc apps are disabled. I've installed what I needed to operate the phone and software. Space wise... geez I have plenty of space left 6GB left after loading nearly 120 mp3's on. As if anyone is going to go through that amount in just a few days... I swap my music every month or so and never seem to be a problem. I have e nearly 3000 pictures on top of that....
I'm really wondering if it's most just because people are whining then actually having issues... just because it doesn't fit their tiny little needs... Almost also seems like you want your hand held phone to replace your desktop/laptop PC... well unless they have better batteries in the future.
LTE is great don't get me wrong but unless I'm going to transfer a large file... it's disabled just because it kills the battery. With just 4G on I can get roughly 27hrs worth of juice. I'm quite happy with that.
fluxgfx said:
I can't see any trouble with the One X in anyway. Multitasking if your asking me.... I switch between 2 or 3 apps at the most. I don't do gaming with it. Mostly use it for processing capacity and some programing, emails, sms, whatsapp, im+, documents to go etc... I don't use any of the stock application and most of the stock/htc apps are disabled. I've installed what I needed to operate the phone and software. Space wise... geez I have plenty of space left 6GB left after loading nearly 120 mp3's on. As if anyone is going to go through that amount in just a few days... I swap my music every month or so and never seem to be a problem. I have e nearly 3000 pictures on top of that....
I'm really wondering if it's most just because people are whining then actually having issues... just because it doesn't fit their tiny little needs... Almost also seems like you want your hand held phone to replace your desktop/laptop PC... well unless they have better batteries in the future.
LTE is great don't get me wrong but unless I'm going to transfer a large file... it's disabled just because it kills the battery. With just 4G on I can get roughly 27hrs worth of juice. I'm quite happy with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess your the only one on here that doesn't have a multitasking issue. Congratulations on talking down on everyone who isn't satisfied with their device. I guess my "tiny little needs" don't matter.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Bigjim1488 said:
I guess your the only one on here that doesn't have a multitasking issue. Congratulations on talking down on everyone who isn't satisfied with their device. I guess my "tiny little needs" don't matter.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the way they do multitasking on this phone has any influence on the very strong battery life, then I can deal with it just fine.
robstunner said:
If the way they do multitasking on this phone has any influence on the very strong battery life, then I can deal with it just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey that's fine but they should give us the option under the development menu. I don't need my battery to last forever. I have an office with a phone charger. I'm not worried about getting 22+ hours of battery life.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Bigjim1488 said:
Hey that's fine but they should give us the option under the development menu. I don't need my battery to last forever. I have an office with a phone charger. I'm not worried about getting 22+ hours of battery life.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More options = more confusion. You must remember, we are all like experts with android phones here on xda. Usually people are still learning how to answer a phone call on day 3 of their first smart phone, let alone an android. The wonderful part about android, and this site, is that you'll get custom roms with that option sooner rather than later. If HTC decided this was the way they wanted multitasking to improve battery life, they are going to stick with it. Being able to say the phone lasts longer than an iphone to a potential buyer is much more beneficial to sales to the common person then "it multitasks better."
robstunner said:
More options = more confusion. You must remember, we are all like experts with android phones here on xda. Usually people are still learning how to answer a phone call on day 3 of their first smart phone, let alone an android. The wonderful part about android, and this site, is that you'll get custom roms with that option sooner rather than later. If HTC decided this was the way they wanted multitasking to improve battery life, they are going to stick with it. Being able to say the phone lasts longer than an iphone to a potential buyer is much more beneficial to sales to the common person then "it multitasks better."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The normal user isn't going to to messing around in the dev menu option. I understand HTC and what they are doing but I can always hope and wish
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Bigjim1488 ,
Pleasure was entirely mine. Cheers.
fluxgfx said:
Bigjim1488 ,
Pleasure was entirely mine. Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I expect nothing less out of Canada.....A.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
robstunner said:
More options = more confusion. You must remember, we are all like experts with android phones here on xda. Usually people are still learning how to answer a phone call on day 3 of their first smart phone, let alone an android. The wonderful part about android, and this site, is that you'll get custom roms with that option sooner rather than later. If HTC decided this was the way they wanted multitasking to improve battery life, they are going to stick with it. Being able to say the phone lasts longer than an iphone to a potential buyer is much more beneficial to sales to the common person then "it multitasks better."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very very well said...in total agreement.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I appreciate OP for bringing up such a post, as i feel that the HTC One X is really a great phone (its actually perfect for me!)
Unlike others, i never see most of the commonly faced problems on the forum while using my One X.
Here are the reasons i like the One X
1. SCREEN : No doubt the best screen ever.
2. BUILD Quality is superb and the design is sleek which i like. I dont ming the unibody design or the non-expandable memory/battery.
3. BATTERY : My phone gets me through a day with heavy use easily and by the time i charge it for the night i usually have 30% charge remaining, thats almost 16 hrs with moderate - heavy usage ( temple run, reddit, voice calls etc etc). Also i am in an area with LTE. I hardly notice the drain in battery bcoz of LTE. (my wifi and data are on all the time)
4. CAMERA : has tonnes of options and better than most cell phone cameras today.
MULTI-TASKING : i have never faced any issue with it. if i exit the game (using home button), then it resumes back at the same point. Likewise, for the other apps.
Wi-Fi : Again, i never faced any issues, i have always received the emails etc promptly (maybe not immediately, but the delay isnt significant enough for me to worry. Maybe 2-3 mins max)
SENSE : This is the only thing i dont like on my phone. would've loved a stock ICS experience.
In the end, am extremely happy with my phone, as i feel its a beautiful premium hardware.

The last decent QWERTY?

I've got this MT4GS with a recently replaced screen giving me all sorts of problems, Tmo doesn't have any more of them in-stock for an actual replacement. So lately I've been lurking around the ApexQ forums here, considering whether I take Tmo up on their offer to replace the MT4GS with a Relay. Is this it? Is this the end of the line for higher end sliders?
I get so annoyed when I walk into a Tmo shop and they give me the stink eye over my physical keyboard.
"You should really try Swype"
"Keyboards are going away"
"No one really uses those"
"Just try the S4 out, you'll love it"
Try to swype out a thousand words, then do it with a physical keyboard. I'm a bit of a writer, it might be a tine platform for me to write from, but it works great. Sliders are niche preference, will the entire market really give that up? I'm waiting for Google IO before I make any decisions (because it's coming up pretty soon) but haven't heard any rumors of a high end slider coming down the line. Am I the only one holding my breath here?
Also, I've seen a couple of you post on these forums that have had the MT4GS, I think I would miss the 8MP camera the most. Any thoughts on switching over?
I don't have the relay but I follow it and have played with one. It feels similar in many ways to the MT4Gslide (I have this) but you can really feel the improvements in speed as well as a five row keyboard is just awesome. Being its part of the galaxy s line there should be a fair amount of updates, speculation of course as Samsung hasnt been the best at supporting hardware keyboard phones.
You will miss the camera, not that this one is horrible its just that the MT4Gslide has one of the best ever made. I'm not a huge sense fan but it is better than touchwiz (in my opinion) but more of a resource hog. It is possible to port it over to Sammy phones and has been done before, but I doubt anyone would bother on this phone.
Overall if its a free upgrade I would take it, being I refuse to buy phones from carriers this one would cost me full price and I haven't decided if that's worth it yet.
Good luck on your decision!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
i got both. here are the differences with the relay:
- relay's screen is super amoled pentile... colors are great, resolution sucks big time, pixels can be seen and the red ones are very tiny and the matrix will be very noticeable in some cases
- relay's camera is 5 mp vs 8 of the doubleshot. it is just inferior in both quality and resolution, not much else to say.
- relay keyboard is nicer imho but lacks replicated alt, shift, home, back, menu keys
- battery lasts much longer than the famous 1900mah anker for doubleshot
- the cpu is so much faster, ~2.5x from my findings, also, it heats a lot less
- it is noticeably ligher but more plasticy and flimsy
- stock ics and jb. more development going on
all in all, it is a sidegrade... you lose on some aspects and gain in some others... anyway the high end qwerty era is over since the desire-z/droid 2 period...
I've owned just about every GSM QWERTY device made for android over the past 2 years. I can safely say the Relay is one of the better phones that I've owned for a while.
The G2 was the best phone I've ever had.
The camera is not amazing. It will do in a pinch, but I would take a better keyboard over a better camera any day. The 4G Slide keyboard was horrid. One of the worst I've ever used. I use the keyboard much more than the camera, so my decision was simple. It's based on your preferences, really.
But just remember you don't have many options.
I've been using my relay for about 4 months now and overall I like it a lot.
Some good thoughts first:
The keys are very very good. I find they're slightly less conducive to touch typing than my Sidekick 4G was, but still one of the best small keyboards I've ever used. I can't imagine using a purely touchscreen phone, Swype or not. There's just no competition.
The phone is very quick. I've never once thought to myself "Man, I wish this would happen faster." The OS isn't quite 100% seamless, but it's close enough that I can't find anything to complain about. And things like videos, emulated games, etc are all full speed. The only times I've ever had to wait for something was when I was accessing files, and that's due to my bargain basement SD card.
The battery life has been great. I have no problem getting through my day without carrying a charger with me. Now, I'm not as active a user as some (I don't use facebook, for instance,) but I'm often looking things up on my phone while working, and even using the flashlight, and I always have between a half and a third of my battery when I get home.
The screen and the camera both fall under the category of "It's a phone for chrissakes, what are you expecting??" for me.
The screen is bright, vibrant, sharp. It looks great indoors and passable outside. There's enough room for what it needs to do. If you complain that you can't watch a 1080p movie on your phone, the problem is with your head and not your device. I guess if you offered me a higher resolution I'd take it, but I really don't feel like it needs more. And I wouldn't want the screen to be any bigger. If I wanted a massive screen in my pocket I'd buy an iPad. And then kill myself.
The camera is a dog, but so is every other phone camera in the world. Yes, this one is worse than many. But if you care about what your pictures look like, a $40 digital camera bought used off craigslist will take pictures which are 10 times better than the best cell phone camera on the market. And it's easier to carry a separate phone and camera than it is to have a separate phone and keyboard. So why everybody focuses on the sub-par camera is beyond me.
There's only one thing about the phone which I actually feel is bad, and that's the shape. Coming from a Sidekick 4G, the ergonomics of the phone are a big step down. The Sidekick was a fantastic phone to hold in the hands, both closed an open. The Relay is about as nice to hold as a brick. There's a small lip all around the phone that presses awkwardly against your ear, and it's got a certain awkwardness when open as well. No surprise there, the Galaxy S line has always looked like a knockoff of the iPhone 3G. Why would they start making something comfortable now? </curmudgeon.>
So, yeah. I like it and there's nothing else on the market which comes close to being as good as it. I'd buy one again. I'd suggest it to other people. But I'd also hope that this isn't the last QWERTY Android phone for my network, as there's still room for improvements.
i've came down the g1 (htc dream), g2 (htc desire z), relay lane.
i have my relay now for like 4 weeks. and there's really nothing i can seriously complain about. the cpu and gpu are fast and still come with some reserve. the memory is plenty. the qwerty is a big step up from the dz with the additional row. and battery life is just sweet the dz had the better display when you were outside. the relay's go the far better once you get out of the sunlight.
usually, when i got a new phone, i also got a better cam. but seriously: 5mp is enough for every day use. and as some already stated: it's a cell phone. if you want to have high-end-images, you don't get around buying a dedicated camera. and seriously.. it's the same with the screen resolution. 800x480 is enough for text, websites and pictures to be displayed properly and sharp on the small display. what's the use of a 4" full hd display? besides showing off? again... it's a cell phone. if you want high resolution, get a tablet.
*if* somebody asks me for a cell with a hardware keyboard there really - from my pov - is no reason not to recommend the relay.
and i think it's really a pitty it's not available here in europe and quite hard (and expensive) to get.
i really hope there will be new qwertys that will be available here as well. (the most recent here on sale is the dz).
admittedly the hardware keyboard phones are a niche, but those who want them will be willing to spend a lil more to get them.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using xda app-developers app
I have also used many qwerty phones over the years and have been using the relay for about 5 months now. Previously I have used lg shine xenon, lg shine plus (last lg phone I will ever buy) Sony xperia pro, samsung captivate glide and now the relay. The xperia pro keyboard was the best I have ever used. Too bad it had such low on board memory and only a single core processor.
I hear you on the death of qwerties I can now type quite well with SwiftKey but still love a qwerty for messaging, emails etc. I get the same look from sales staff when I have asked about qwerty sliders.
The relay is the fastest qwerty I have used, bit more than the glides 2x core tegra 2, I also found the keys on the glide to be too flat and there were only 4 rows. Good tactile feedback on the relay, keys are spaced out well and travel is easy. However as mentioned the build quality is not the best and mine has a noticeable wobble when typing. Updates seem good so far although will probably not get past 4.2. I actually went out and bought a q10 last week, loved the new OS but the keyboard was simply too small for me, and for the build quality and screen size the q10 is waaaay over priced, so decided to return it.
On a side note I did a little bit of cosmetic altering the my galaxy s3 stock 2100mah batteries and got them to fit in the relay.. As I live in canada the relay isn't even sold here, and I place battery life pretty much at the top of my list. Need that spare battery and a charger. Anyways good luck with your relay if you get it.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
I'm sure samsung will release a follow up to the Relay, as they seem to be the only manufacturer big enough to support this niche market.
Just give them some more time. They definitely need som enew phones and fresh designs to break up all the slab phones that are coming all the time.
Well, I got the Relay. And with it I end a 8 year HTC only stint which started with the Blue Angel. Fun times...
I just got it today so not much of a chance to play with it. At the moment doing the update. Afterwards will see what else I can do. I find it a bit useless at the moment to try any other ROMs. A bit too early...
I've had 3 previous Android sliders before getting this one - the original G1, Motorola Milestone (which I gave to my husband because it was too big and heavy for me) and the HTC Desire Z. Aside from the Desire Z's incredibly stupid flipping hinge mechanism which I'm convinced was responsible for the display cable dying, it is my favourite of the four (it developed this problem where the screen would die every time I opened the keyboard - I actually disassembled it to see if I could fix it but couldn't)
This phone's not bad and I don't mind it feeling "plasticky" since it's light, while the hinge mechanism seems a lot more solid than HTC's ridiculous designs for the G1 and Desire Z, but the keyboard is LOUD. You have to press the keys really hard and I'm convinced people can hear me typing, which is really not what you want for a mobile device. If you're tweeting under the table during a boring company meeting, you better be good at pretending you're taking minutes!
I also have this weird problem, specific to the Facebook Android app, where it will jump to the top of the page randomly while I'm in the middle of typing a comment. I thought I was pressing something by accident but I've tried typing really carefully and that seem to not be the issue.
I do really miss having a trackball or optical joystick from the HTC devices. It's fine to have arrow keys on the physical kb, but when you have the phone closed sometimes you still want to be able to navigate around and click.
Really happy to have found this thread, has anybody looked at or tried the Motorola Droid 4 ??
It boasts 8MP camera and high definition display, looks like battery lasts a while.. says its splash proof and also has the 4 row keyboard.
I enjoy my glide, but they keyboard with the press on them hasn't ever given me much of an ability to type without looking at the keys..
On my blackberry after a while I was able to roll my fingers across without hardly looking at the keyboard, on computer i type 100wpm so pretty important for me to have a fast typing keyboard. even software app keyboards can't keep up and screw swipe.. without feeling where to rocker my fingers to form words im doomed to choose from autocorrect.

Categories

Resources