[Q] New Device recommendation - General Questions and Answers

I've been using my HTC Touch Pro with WM 6.1 for about 3 years now. Great device with a lot of free apps, but the time has come to put it down and replace it with something. I need some feedback on new devices/OS. Here is what I need:
1. Slide out keyboard. This limits my choices but is a must have feature for my needs.
2. Larger more responsive screen than Touch Pro. TP has a small screen, so there seems to be many choices.
3. More responsive touch screen. I can't seem to fine tune my TP screen and the OS seems to bog down sometimes.
4. Ability to run on the 3G and/or 4G network of T-Mobile (and/or ATT)
5. Unlocked or simple to unlock.
6. Good amount of ram, rom. at least as much as TP. More is better.
7. Decent battery life with replaceable battery as I also carry a spare.
8. Advice on OS. I've always used MS O/S but the android OS sounds great.
9. Availability of free and varied apps. There are so many available for TP, biz, games and travel.
10. Easily customizable, without flashing of roms. I have become lost in the ocean of roms for TP that I just stick with stock and eliminate all the extra vendor crap. I'm really not able to get my head around cooking though.
11. I'd like to be able to sync address book, calender and files with outlook. MS, keeps eliminating that ability from their new OS. Why do they do that?
I know this is a lot to ask, but I'd like to hear what others recommend as I don't know much about android, but many devices are sporting it now. I don't know if I like the look/feel of windows 7. Is Mango any better?

I know this is a lot to ask, but I am not familiar with android os, but most new phones run this. Any phone recommendations?

Joe_PDA said:
I've been using my HTC Touch Pro with WM 6.1 for about 3 years now. Great device with a lot of free apps, but the time has come to put it down and replace it with something. I need some feedback on new devices/OS. Here is what I need:
1. Slide out keyboard. This limits my choices but is a must have feature for my needs.
2. Larger more responsive screen than Touch Pro. TP has a small screen, so there seems to be many choices.
3. More responsive touch screen. I can't seem to fine tune my TP screen and the OS seems to bog down sometimes.
4. Ability to run on the 3G and/or 4G network of T-Mobile (and/or ATT)
5. Unlocked or simple to unlock.
6. Good amount of ram, rom. at least as much as TP. More is better.
7. Decent battery life with replaceable battery as I also carry a spare.
8. Advice on OS. I've always used MS O/S but the android OS sounds great.
9. Availability of free and varied apps. There are so many available for TP, biz, games and travel.
10. Easily customizable, without flashing of roms. I have become lost in the ocean of roms for TP that I just stick with stock and eliminate all the extra vendor crap. I'm really not able to get my head around cooking though.
11. I'd like to be able to sync address book, calender and files with outlook. MS, keeps eliminating that ability from their new OS. Why do they do that?
I know this is a lot to ask, but I'd like to hear what others recommend as I don't know much about android, but many devices are sporting it now. I don't know if I like the look/feel of windows 7. Is Mango any better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Large list of demands consider phones like:
- Droid 2 Global;
- Galaxy Epic;
- HTC Desire Z.
These are some of the current selection of high end droid phones with a Querty board. If you'll just wait a lil longer there are likely to come out some more phone with a dual-core 1.2Ghz.
Good luck.

with QUERTY:
Motorola CLIQ 2 - android 2.2, 1420mAh
DELL Venue Pro - windows phone 7, 1Ghz, 1400mAh
HTC Desire Z - android 2.2, 800Mhz, 1300mAh
Nokia E7 - symbian^3, 1200mAh
without QWERTY and dual core cpu:
HTC Sensation - dual core 1.2 Ghz, android 2.3, , 1520mAh
Samsung Galaxy S II - dual core, android 2.3, 1650mAh
LG Optimus 2X - dual core 1.0 Ghz, android 2.2, 1500mAh
Motorola Atrix 4G - dual core, android 2.2, 1930mAh

Thanks for the recommendations. I am researching these and other devices. A few related questions though:
1. If I get an Android phone, do they come with MS Office Mobile apps?
2. Also, with Android, can I sync my Outlook contacts and appointments with MS Outlook on my desktop?
3. Any newer devices in the pipeline? Preferably something tht runs on T-Mobiles HSPA+.

Related

Fastest & Most Responsive VGA PPC Phone?

Hi everyone,
I was just wondering what are the fastest & most responsive VGA-screen PPC Phones out there (or coming by end 2009)? I quantify performance in terms of 2D graphics, and I've been using SPB Benchmark Graphics benchmark. Of course, one can always argue there's more than 2D graphics in terms of speed, but slow phones really pissed me off. I used to had a HTC Universal and that was a steaming pile of junk. Switched to HTC Hermes 2-3yrs back... and it's been barely tolerable.
Right now, I've only found 2 "fast" VGA PPC Phones - ASUS P565 and Samsung Omnia II. However ASUS P565 is a questionable VGA phone since it's screen is a puny 2.8" size (might as well get a ASUS P552W). Both have a graphics benchmark of around ~2500, which is quite sad since that's equivalent to the Eten M600 speed (ok it runs as a QVGA). Compare this to Samsung Omnia I (~5000) or the ASUS P552W (~11,000) both of which uses the slower Marvel 624MHz CPU, Monahans and Tavor generation respectively.
I read that Toshiba TG01 Snapdragon is coming soon, but are there any concrete benchmarks done on it?
So, does anyone know if there is any fast & responsive VGA PPC Phones out there? Or do we have to wait for Snapdragon, Tegra or Marvell's 1GHz CPU? Can we expect such CPUs to make VGA screened phones fast enough? Or should I just get the ASUS P552W which means giving up my QWERTY keyboard , and wait for another 2-3years?
Hi
I can think on Tosh tg01 that is already on sale as the fastest to this date (I believe)
On december some snapdragon tosh models will be launched! perhaps HTC also...
Other ones not so fast but also good options are:
Touch pro 2
Hero
Acer M900?
YOu cannot treat a processors MHz as the be-all-end-all. Its an indicator and nothing more. You cannot compare processor speeds across diferent manufacturers either.
And no matter how fast the processor, if the drivers/design around it is sh*t, the phone will suffer greatly. A good example of this, Acer Shell to access contacts can be a little slow, SPB Shell however, is instant.
You can only compare by running the same app performing the same task on each phone. Benchmarks try to do this but can become far too specific at times. Again, they are a (good) indicator but not the be-all-end-all.
On a side note, I have an m900 and if you turn off Acer Shell (coz it sucks!) it is VERY fast.
When you want speed, why do you need speed exactly? Are you talking about accessing contacts etc? Are you talking about screen orientation or maybe playing games?
Your best bet is try and get hold of devices, install the required game/software and THEN see how responsive it is.
Monty Burns said:
YOu cannot treat a processors MHz as the be-all-end-all. Its an indicator and nothing more. You cannot compare processor speeds across diferent manufacturers either.
And no matter how fast the processor, if the drivers/design around it is sh*t, the phone will suffer greatly. A good example of this, Acer Shell to access contacts can be a little slow, SPB Shell however, is instant.
You can only compare by running the same app performing the same task on each phone. Benchmarks try to do this but can become far too specific at times. Again, they are a (good) indicator but not the be-all-end-all.
On a side note, I have an m900 and if you turn off Acer Shell (coz it sucks!) it is VERY fast.
When you want speed, why do you need speed exactly? Are you talking about accessing contacts etc? Are you talking about screen orientation or maybe playing games?
Your best bet is try and get hold of devices, install the required game/software and THEN see how responsive it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easier said than done, I would love to have a try out by to replicate real-life performance one has to install all the apps one normally use, so it's not practical unless you have a dozen friends with different PPC Phones. While benchmarks aren't perfect, I don't see anything better to replace it. Sure, there is software optimizations and driver stuff, but if it sucks... no matter how much you cook your ROM and optimize, it sucks.
Take for example HTC Universal. That is one slow piece of junk. No matter how much optimization you do, you're not going to beat say the current HTC Hermes that I am using in terms of responsiveness. Another example is the last 1-2 yrs of HTC <Insert Model> running Qualcomm CPUs. So many users have reported the unbearably slow speed, and it doesn't help that many of them come with VGA resolution screens. Almost all evidence point to date that VGA phones are slow and crappy... and I was wondering if technology has advanced the point whereby this can be rectified.
Speed? It's the most importing thing when dealing with PPC Phones. For many years now, I the name Pocket PC is a real misnomer, as previous generation and maybe even current generation of phones acts in no way like a real personal computer.
What is acceptable? Fast 2D graphics. Instant response when I click on something, as I was using a laptop. No lag. No lag when rotating the screen. Faster loading of webpages instead of waiting for ages... and then it crashes. And btw I use Phone Weaver, Pocket Plus and SPB Diary on my Today screen, which makes it more taxing on the 2D system. Sure the HTC Universal with a fresh install can rotate screen in 1-2 seconds when optimized, but load in all my Today plugins it takes like 10-20 seconds!
Next comes fast 3D graphics and the ability to play movies. Right now my HTC Hermes can't play normal sized video files, i.e. 640x480, XVID/DIVX. Of course you can always recode with a lower res, but what's the point? It's all extra work.
Ronnie,
Have you thought about doing the 128MB memory upgrade, and overclocking the CPU on the Universal? May help things a bit.
Some other devices that may be faster:
Xperia X1
Acer F1
02 XDA Flame
Asus P835
Here is a site that test floating point and OGL performance in smartphones. Donot know how legit it is however.
http://www.glbenchmark.com/latest_results.jsp?benchmark=glpro
Most certainly don't look to HTC.
e.g. Kaiser - even if the CPU/GPU supports faster performance, they don't deem that necessary and don't include the required drivers.
The video 'hack' to speed up 2-D performance for the Kaiser proves that there are even more inefficiencies/missing drivers for that HTC phone.
I would suggest that the new Acer Tempo range and new Samsung Omnia's are a good way to investigate. Both these brands are selling the fact that there chips have built in 3d graphics and I believe the Samsungs even come with a free 3d game - could be wrong though. Either way, you wouldnt sell the fact you have a 3d games capability if you haven't programmed proper 3d drivers - something HTC have never really done afaik.
Again, the Acers are only showing a 528mhz (something like that anyway) but don't be fooled by a mhz rating. For example, just because a snapdragon is showing a 1ghz processor doesn't means its faster than a 528mhz Samsung... if you use google you will find plenty of winmob experienced people that feel its not as fast as it should be.
edit: Im sure the Samsung Omnia II's come with a Need For Speed Variant?

Nokia N900 with Maemo better than a WinMo phone?

What are your thoughts about the new Nokia N900 that comes with the Maemo OS? It comes with a good 600 mhz processor and it has a capacitive touch screen. Maemo seems to be more stable than Windows mobile and it can also handle a native full skype client. Probably a VOIP comunication using this Nokia N900 will work much better...
The downside probably is that there are not too many applications for Maemo yet, but it is an open source OS, so it seems promising...
What are your thoughts?
It look good but I´ll stay with HTC and WM for now
Promising devices are coming!
Saludos,
I thought hard about the N900 and had it on pre order.
Somehow I ended up with an Acer neoTouch...don't know exactly what happened in between
The Acer neo touch seems good but the battery seems like too small for a 1 ghz processor...
The Nokia N900 has a 600 mhz processor but running with Maemo which looks like a lighter and faster OS. Also, the capacitive touch screen is much better for a phone when you are on the go. Plus it is a Nokia and it should be good quality.
Evolution.....?
Guys n girls, - quick addition - 99.9% sure its resistive touch screen peeps.....
My advice......
Don't overlook this beast.
This is seriously the missing link. Bare with me with my slight rant below, it is going somewhere.....
Many many of us XDA'ers never even had a snff of Nokias last generation winners, the N95 and n95 8GB as we had our heads buried in the HTC sand.
Not bad sand to be in really IMO but I was SO glad that I took the jump and got a N95 8Gb to compliment my HTC Ameo (and fit in jeans pocket...etc)
The Carl zeiss lensed camera, the music play back ability - dedicated buttons (lol a 3.5 Jack) the Power VR graphics chip (with PROPER drivers for Fs sake) and ease of use + a bevy of applications that I presumed were only on Windows mobile......
Good web browsers
core player - using the chipset....
last FM and EVERYTHING you would want made this device the best bit of kit of its generation.
The OS, s60 V3 - although not as hackable as Win mo at first was opened up by hackers.......themes, transitions, full access to all files in device. It was all there. The N95 with its OMAP 2xxxx platform and full open GL 1 support was the best device of its generation. Even now, I use it with my work sim and always stuff it in my bag....
After the N95 Nokia released the N96 which was the same hardware - minus the PowerVr chip and with TV tuner - not EU comliant, added OS extension, Nokia F8ck*d it up big time with that device. It was not an update to the n95 but a side step.
Then, S60 V5 was anounced - now being spouted as Symbian ^1
Nokia offered the 5800 and the n97 as the first devices on this platform. In the same vien however as the N96 - OMAP 2xxx platform - NO Graphic acceleration - i.e. No PowerVR chip for me and many others, this was still not a successor to N95.
Samsung one upped them with their i8910 (Omnia HD) this was running the newest TI specced platform - very suprisingly not using a samsung processor but still running the TI OMAP 3430 platform with Arm Cortex A8 and Power VR supporting Open GLEs 2.0
ooo - that got me excited, with its 720P video and capacative touch screen, I HAD to have this device. So I bought one, good kit, bad platform.
Sony have just done the same thing with their Satio, S60 V5 with Omap 3430 (and a very good camera)
But where were Nokia in this? Where was their answer? What were they doing? N97 is popular but pretty lame really. (only 128 ram!!)
Then the Meamo powered N900 was announced.
I didnt know that Nokia had released previous Linux powered Maemo devices, I definitely didnt know that this was in any way a remotely popular platfiorm but the comunities are there already and growing quickly.
Maemo as an open linux platform, seems to be the best thing for us users who are constantly looking for a mobile Win XP replacement.
I am under the impression that it will be MUCH easier for applications that have been developed for Linux to be ported over to this platform than has ever been seen on a Desktop to mobile conversion route - regardless of platform.
The N900 is running Omap 3430 - full open GL es 2.0,
There is a proper camera (thanks Nokia) and o wow, resistive touch screen - !!!
So no multitouch - but hello accuracy and handwriting recognition
The Omap 3430 and supporting chips in this device seem to outperfrom the Qualcomm Snapdragon evuivalent being used in the HTC Leo and the big Toshiba brick (Tg01) not by much really, they are both good platforms.
Now I love my Omnia HD - there isnt a better small media playback and recording device for me - not that small. It will play any 1Gb DIVX movie I throw at it and LOL - it plays Quake 3 with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard like my old P3 with a Geforce 4 in it....and the TV out is outstanding.
The issue - its not a mobile PC like my Touch pro 2 or my ameo or at a guess like the Leo or Toshiba.....
I cant use a mouse and keyboard to give me a PC experience whilst on TV - or monitor out. Task manager is wrong, there is no task bar to select things.....you have to hold the device to get the working feel of it.
I am under the impression that the n900 will bridge this gap between hand held device and PC and it will bring the niceness that is Nokia Innovation with it.
My wish would be to LOLOL, see a section opened up on XDA developers for the N900 and - the best bit would be if Nokia gave away a big bunch of devices say 1000 to the best of the best on here to get the topic all hot and steamy.
- Then I could leave my mansion and get in my porcsh next to that slag from Transformers and go to the whitehouse.
Huba huba
end of drooling rant over n900.
Maemo will not have the great support of XDA and that is a good reason for stay with WM and HTC
Just my opinion,
I have been following the development of the N900 closely for a while now, simply because it blew my mind.
Unfortunately it was postponed and now it's postponed for another three weeks in Sweden. No more waiting for me because I wont be able to fully enjoy it until the highly anticipated Xperia X10 hits the market.
I have to say I'm tempted by the N900. Up until now I was totally convinced my next device would be WinMo. Here are the pro's and con's for my usage pattern:
In my opinion what speaks for HD2:
Huge screen; fast processor; very slick looking interface; runs all the software I want, most notably the MLO outliner and backs it up on the PC,connects to my SonyEricsson BT watch (thanks moneytoo!) which displays caller id, rss feeds, sms's, mails, enables answering mails with a pre-set message with push of a button without having to take the phone out etc (some 40 or so functions run from the watch); can run Garmin XT which to me is the best GPS software out there due partly to the user community in South America updating Garmin maps almost weekly (which can be extremely valuable); the largest user community base in XDA-developers (with 1.9M members, close to 260K active members, over 4M posts in 323K threads), edits all MS Office programs
Against:
Capacitive screen, not fully flash enabled browser (?), not as good camera, no webcam, no VGA-out, only 16k colors, expensive; not as pliable and adaptable - will get older quicker than the N900, I suspect.
What speaks for the N900
The N900 obviously has way better browser/webaccess, has a frontal cam that works for chatting at least between Nxx0 units, and possibly with PC's as well (it works on the N8xx, which are older devices, but it may be blocked by the service provider on the N900, this is an unknown yet, if it does work, though it's a huge plus, to me) a better, and protected rear cam, better video filming and, possibly, playback, 32 gb of internal memory, vga out, runs Open Office; I would hope it has better phone and sound quality, but don't know;resistive screen viewable in sunlight afaik (I prefer resistive as it allows for handwriting and precision), 16M colors, ability to run Debian based software - although I have no idea whether that software will do anything useful for me, more colors on screen
Negative on the N900:
the biggest drawback is it doesn't run some key software I'm dependent on, such as a really capable outliner like MLO, enabling multiple contexts with backup on a pc, afaik [anyone with suggestions for a solution are welcome, I've looked into NoteKeeper but it's not quite there, yet]; another biggie poor GPS apps that in addition requires full on connection to work afaik - although I hear that today Nov 13, Sygic released a version for Maemo - but I would prefer Garmin for the SouthAmerican maps; I know this may seem minor to most users, but it doesn't hook up to my SonyEricsson BT watch which is a nice gadget and support to the mobile; doesn't [yet] allow editing of MS suite documents; doesn't play FLAC files; smaller screen; and although the Maemo.org user community is very helpful, it's smaller than XDA, and most of its 38000 active users seem to be hardcore Linux programmers, and I'm not sure I can speak there "language," whereas I've been hanging around XDA to understand at least hardSPL, ROMs etc.
I'm no programmer, not even really a superuser of any of these. N900 shows a lot of promise on the software side, but will it be fulfilled? It will probably improve more over time than the HD2.
An alternative would be the Acer neoTouch, as it is WinMo and has a resistive screen, but then it doesn't enjoy XDA-support (although there is a small user group on here anyway).
I have to apologize for what I said about the N900 having a capacitive screen. I am dissapointed now that I know that the N900 has a resistive screen. I find the capacitive screens better for a phone considering that these devices have to be used only with fingers and on the go, specially with just one hand only.
I see that the HD2 has a capacitive screen and comes with a native WM 6.5... Is it a tendency? I mean, Is WM 6.5 supposedly designed more for a capacitive screen instead of a resistive one? Maybe this is Microsoft's intention... Everybody says WM 6.5 is more fingers friendly, then it should come with a capacitive screen... So, maybe in the near future, all WM phones will come with 6.5+ OS and capacitive screens like the HD2 which is now the first one to start this tendency.
The N900 doesnt have a Garmin application yet, but there is one for Symbian, so maybe there will be one for Maemo in the future.
Is Maemo as hackable as WinMo is?
hgrimberg said:
I see that the HD2 has a capacitive screen and comes with a native WM 6.5... Is it a tendency? I mean, Is WM 6.5 supposedly designed more for a capacitive screen instead of a resistive one? Maybe this is Microsoft's intention... Everybody says WM 6.5 is more fingers friendly, then it should come with a capacitive screen... So, maybe in the near future, all WM phones will come with 6.5+ OS and capacitive screens like the HD2 which is now the first one to start this tendency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far the HD2 is the only WM6.5 phone with a capacitive screen, I think. WM7 and onwards are likely to ship on phones with capacitive screens, but WM6.5 devices will generally still be resistive.
my next device will be the n900. its in a different league with that OS.
So if it seems that WM is moving towards the capacitive screens with WM 7 then it is silly to buy now a phone with WM 6.5 with a resistive screen that a year from now or less we all will want to switch to WM 7 and it wont be possible because of our hardware limitation... If this is the case, we will better wait for a WM phone with capacitive screen and WM 6.5 like the HD2 or one with a sliding keyboard (that doesn't exist yet).
It seems that Microsoft ended up with the conclusion that a capacitive screen with multitouch, like the iphone, is better and more practical for a phone. That is probably why they are calling their OS, Windows phone now and they are trying to move away from the idea of calling their devices a PDA...
The N900 looks very promising but I can't understand why Nokia is not aware of this tendency and comes up with a resistive screen now.
hgrimberg said:
So if it seems that WM is moving towards the capacitive screens with WM 7 then it is silly to buy now a phone with WM 6.5 with a resistive screen that a year from now or less we all will want to switch to WM 7 and it wont be possible because of our hardware limitation... If this is the case, we will better wait for a WM phone with capacitive screen and WM 6.5 like the HD2 or one with a sliding keyboard (that doesn't exist yet).
It seems that Microsoft ended up with the conclusion that a capacitive screen with multitouch, like the iphone, is better and more practical for a phone. That is probably why they are calling their OS, Windows phone now and they are trying to move away from the idea of calling their devices a PDA...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no guarantee that even the HD2 will receive an official WM7 upgrade when WM7 launches. WM7 could well be a year away; and I don't think the original Touch HD got an official upgrade to 6.5. HTC isn't very interested in offering compelling upgrades for discontinued phones, they'll want you to upgrade to the HD3 instead!
Of course there will likely be an unofficial upgrade in the form of a custom ROM someone here on XDA produces; but the same may well apply to resistive-screen devices.
IMHO i hope that Nokia will release after this N900 a similar E-series device, simply because they're made better of N-series and others.
Don't you think that Maemo could be compared to Android, not as OS but as way of thought?
Hope I get myself understood and thanks to all who write very helpful informations on this forum.
P.s. I had Nokia N70 ---> HTC P3600 and then i came back to symbian with N95 8gb, only because of better phone features.
think it's nice enough that nokia goes from symbian to a linux flavour but
doubt they can make it they should have gon android and modded it like motorola droid and htc's devices
the android app store is only getting bigger and doubt nokia can get enough developers their way
It is very important to be aware that there are only 2 OS's in this world that have a native Skype client with full VOIP features. These are the Windows Mobile operating system and Maemo. Android only has Skype lite, same as Symbian and in a way, same as Blackberry with iskoot.
Why is this? Hardware limitations or just agreements between phone manufacturers and telecomunications companies?
It seems that Google also had an agreement with Skype to not develop a client for their OS to not upset the telecomunication companies... Instead, they developed Google talk that works the same way as Skype lite by calling you back and using your GSM minutes.
The Nokia N series, like the N810 Tablet is not very famous probably because the cell phone carries almost never had it as part of their offers most likely because it was the only Nokia phone that was able to handle VOIP through skype which terrifies the telecomunication companies. The Nokia N900 will probably end up the same way. It is smaller in size than the N810 but it has a Maemo OS that can handle a full skype client.
seems a lot of people dont really understand much about android or how its designed/implemented. may i help inform you by pointing you to this valuable read:
http://tree.celinuxforum.org/CelfPu...achFile&do=get&target=Mythbusters_Android.pdf (http://www.embeddedlinuxconference.com/elc_europe09/sessions.html#Porter)
take note peeps.
orb3000 said:
Maemo will not have the great support of XDA and that is a good reason for stay with WM and HTC
Just my opinion,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. XDA is the greatest asset HTC has.
I've been hanging 'round the N900 www.maemo.org talk forum because I'm seriously considering the N900. The XDA community certainly seems to be a much more friendly place for newbies.
The attitude among some (definitely not all) of the maemo.org talk members is like "well unless you master command line then this phone is not for you." For an example, check the second comment in this thread:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35625
Their attitude results in little battles between themselves and newbies (and there will probably be a lot of newbies on that forum) in the discussion threads.
In addition as it is a developer centric community for an open platform, there's a structured work flow approach to support the open source development which newcomers have to understand.
I believe XDA is a more mature community and went through the growing pains a long time ago.
I had an n810. trust me the hype is not necessary for maemo. i am much happier with my lg incite that i ever was with my n810. also wtf is with nokia expecting me to pay for their gps software that came preloaded. also the bluetooth never worked correctly. but i have to say i really liked the build quality and the design of the outside of the n810
josefcrist said:
I had an n810. trust me the hype is not necessary for maemo. i am much happier with my lg incite that i ever was with my n810. also wtf is with nokia expecting me to pay for their gps software that came preloaded. also the bluetooth never worked correctly. but i have to say i really liked the build quality and the design of the outside of the n810
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apart from the BT never working correctly, and paying for software, say some more about the maemo tablet user experience. They certainly seem to have their following.

Android Tablet Discussion

I was thinking that a Generic Android Tablet Discussion thread would be a good idea. No matter the brand , maker size etc. Talk about them here.
Im debating between the Archos 101 and waiting to see if the Moto tab is good.
Whats Out There
I have been keeping a keen eye out for the variety of higher end tablets and here is what I have sort of come up with so far:
Samsung Tablet (7")
Motorola Stingray (10")
Viewsonic viewpad (7")
LG Optimus pad
SteamTV Elocity pad (7")
Archos Family of pads (3"-10")
They all have there merits, and the minor things that make them not so great. But here is a list of the gamot of features you can look for. Some of the tablets have alot of them, some have none, its basically what you want to do with it:
3G
WIFI
GPS
Bluetooth 2.1 or 3.0
Capacitive Screen
USB port(s)
(Micro) SD card slot
HDMI
G-Sensor
Accelerator meter
Geomagnetic sensor
Light Sensor
Front Camera
Back Camera
Google Apps Integration
NVIDA Tegra 2 versus 1GHx CPU w/ GPU
1024 x 600 resolution versus 800 x 480
RAM
Disk Space
Version of Android (2.2 now 3.0 later)
-MW
I know they are poppping out of the woodwork now. My biggest thing is that the majority are really expensive. Like the new Toshiba announced today is $540. THat is why Either the Cruz or Archos will match all my criteria. But the nice thing is that there seems to be a ton of different options.
Toshiba Folio 100
10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen
1024 x 600
Android 2.2 (Froyo)
NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
16 GB internal storage (32 GB available SD expansion)
Adobe Flash 10.1
1.3 MP front-facing camera
Mini-HDMI
USB 2.0
Bluetooth 2.1
WLAN (802.11)
Mobile broadband (available Q1 2011)
I've been disappointed with the IFA ones as almost all of them have 3G which means here, onerous data contracts or ridiculous prices w/o.
Archos underwent feature regression(e.g. no GPS), and has some whacked prices for the 70 & 101. The rest seem kind of useless to me too small and at least the smallest two don't have any way of expanding storage which makes them kind of useless as anything other than a portable music player.
The Viewsonic is the Olivepad one? Didn't seem to be all that great.
Toshiba Folio MIGHT have been nice, but that Tegra will likely make it expensive.
...just too many hawking 3G and not enough that have useful extras like higher res cameras, GPS, mics, and maybe bluetooth... i.e. I'm just meh'ed by IFA offerings... Witstech A81-E is still looking good and they just got another new fw release 8/31...
Good catch, forgot the toshiba one. Here is what I am looking for a tablet:
3G (mainly so I can have google apps)
7" Display
Capacitive screen (OMLED prefered)
1024 x 600
Android 2.2 upgradeable to android 3.0
front camera
1 GHz CPU (perferably the tegra 2)
GPU (if no NVIDIA CPU)
front camera (dont care about a back one)
A-GPS
Bluetooth (at least 2.1)
WIFI B/G/N
USB
8+ GB internal storage
SD card slot is nice but not manditory
HDMI is nice but not manditory
Which matches up with the samsung tab, but the British price I found had it at over 600 British pounds, which converts to over 1000 US dollars.
-MW
mothy said:
I know they are poppping out of the woodwork now. My biggest thing is that the majority are really expensive. Like the new Toshiba announced today is $540. THat is why Either the Cruz or Archos will match all my criteria. But the nice thing is that there seems to be a ton of different options.
Toshiba Folio 100
10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen
1024 x 600
Android 2.2 (Froyo)
NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
16 GB internal storage (32 GB available SD expansion)
Adobe Flash 10.1
1.3 MP front-facing camera
Mini-HDMI
USB 2.0
Bluetooth 2.1
WLAN (802.11)
Mobile broadband (available Q1 2011)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn that is expensive.
Im mainly looking for a ereader, web surfer, watch some videos on trips, and check my gapps when on wifi.
Check out the stream tv elocity pad. No 3g, but no gps ether. the reason why everyone puts on 3g is because it's the only way to get google apps on it, until google changes their requirements for google apps.
-MW
Sent from my Android for Telechips TCC8900 Evaluation Board (US) using XDA App
My wishlist is 2ghz processor at least 50gb harddrive maybe even (dare I say it) windows 7. I would like my tablet to replace my laptop. Android just isn't ready yet.
I saw talks of honeycomb [url="http://phandroid.com/2010/09/02/android-3-5-honeycomb-to-be-on-samsungs-next-generation-of-tablets-in-2011/]"here[/url] on the samsung tablet. That might be nice . Or that isn't going to be outdated in a few months
Asadullah said:
My wishlist is 2ghz processor at least 50gb harddrive maybe even (dare I say it) windows 7. I would like my tablet to replace my laptop. Android just isn't ready yet.
I saw talks of honeycomb [url="http://phandroid.com/2010/09/02/android-3-5-honeycomb-to-be-on-samsungs-next-generation-of-tablets-in-2011/]"here[/url] on the samsung tablet. That might be nice . Or that isn't going to be outdated in a few months
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think a 2Ghz CPU, as of right now, is over powered for android. I have a Gentouch78 tablet that runs at 600MHz and it seems to run OK. My 1GHz nexus one has had no issues, and I have it multi tasking several apps at once sometimes. It will get really hot, especially when I toss the car charger on it while its doing all that, but never seen it slow down to unresponsiveness. As for the HDD space. I dont use mine much for multi media, so 50gb would be overdoing it for me. Just the ability to have an SD card slot would be enough for me, that right there is 32 gb.
Now dealing with the android OS itself, this is where things are starting to get wierd. You have 2.2, which is really a phone OS, you have 3.0 which is really a tablet OS, and so the current samsung tablet is supposed to be 2.2 and will get 3.0, but now this 3.5 is where it gets confusing. Some of the stuff I have been reading is stating that 3.5 is going to be an entirely different OS completly, or at least have an entirely different usage beyond that of a tablet or cell phone. And that you will have to buy an entirely new piece of hardware to use it because samsung already said their current tablet wont get 3.5 when it comes out, but i twill get 3.0. This is making me think that 3.5 may be the google chrome OS, which from what I am hearing I am not a total fan of. So basically, the idea as I understand it, is that the hardware will just be the input/output device and all the applications will be stored on teh cloud as well as the work being done will be done on the cloud. This is all nice and dandy until either 1) everyone gets on all at once and bogs down the system or 2) the cloud or network goes down and the device is worthless. Thats why I like android right now. If you have no data connection you can still do work. Now some things on android that do run off the cloud, like the GPS, if you need to reroute and you loose the data connection, since all the work is done on the back end you cant get anywhere until the data connection comes back.
Since Android is a full fledge Linux OS I think it can do whatever you need it to do, you just need to port the apps over. So i think it can replace a laptop, but there will always be certain things that make a laptop easier to use that are unrelated to the android OS, like a real keyboard. With phones, for instance, I still feel more comfortable texting on a physical keyboard on my blackberry then I do on the virtual keyboard on my nexus one. Now can I develope a web page, photoshop some images and toss them on the web page, with android? If they ported the apps over then sure why not, the physical keyboard will just make it easier. But as soon as you start talking windows 7 you are changing the entire hardware requirements (ARM CPU versus an x86 CPU) which will allow you to run your favorite web development software and photo editing software, and now your 50gb of disk space will be all chewed up with the OS and applications but no room for media, and with the new hardware requirements the price goes up (not like the samsung tab isnt expensive either) but then the bottom line is its still awkward to use because of the lack of a physical keyboard.
Now I am just using web development/photo editing as an example, simplier tasks, like email and web surfing, will require less and are easily done on the android OS. But the bottom line is to use the right tool for the right job, outline your requirements and find a solution that best fits your needs. I believe that android will be a decent laptop replacement if all your doing with your laptop is surfing the web and sending email but if your trying to do less casual stuff, like photo editing and web development, then android right now is obviously not enough, but in the future it might be. It goes back to the age old question, does hardware push the software industry, or does software push the hardware industry?
-MW
Here is the Archos 101 in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZD4Mdkt40g
You can see all the new Archos line in action here:
http://archosfans.com/
Nice...
@mothy: They're all very nice and all..but taking out the GPS is like taking a step back.....Price is nice, but I'm sure there'll be cheaper WITH GPS before too long.
marcelol said:
@mothy: They're all very nice and all..but taking out the GPS is like taking a step back.....Price is nice, but I'm sure there'll be cheaper WITH GPS before too long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe..but for me I have no use for GPS on a tablet....but that is just me. Just like all new technologies price points will get better with maturity of product.
Hello, I am newbie in using (or just having) android tablet and I am seeking one that will suits me. I found this one
Code:
gpccn.com/picshow.asp?id=31&fl=Tablet%20pc
and like it.
I want
capacitive multitouch screen
fast CPU
7 to 10 inch screen
HDMI, USB, G-sensor etc
It looks that this device have all of this, but it has just 512MB nand and it has 1366x768 and I dont know if nand will be enough and if there will be any use for such high resolution if there is no possibilities for using market
What do you thing? Is there anybody who knows this company? Anybody with tablet 1366x768?
Thanks for any reply
ondrapopik said:
Hello, I am newbie in using (or just having) android tablet and I am seeking one that will suits me. I found this one
Code:
gpccn.com/picshow.asp?id=31&fl=Tablet%20pc
and like it.
I want
capacitive multitouch screen
fast CPU
7 to 10 inch screen
HDMI, USB, G-sensor etc
It looks that this device have all of this, but it has just 512MB nand and it has 1366x768 and I dont know if nand will be enough and if there will be any use for such high resolution if there is no possibilities for using market
What do you thing? Is there anybody who knows this company? Anybody with tablet 1366x768?
Thanks for any reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm.... looks like they took a screenshot of an android VM running on ubuntu and photoshopped it into their device. If they don't have any pictures of the tablet in action, I'd be really dubious...
Finally I ordered this one, so will post some review when it arrives.
So I tested tablet I ordered few weeks ago and realized that this is the same device as Advent Vega. I test quadrant benchmark and got 2200 points without any customization of rom.
Screen is nice and response is fast. I can recommend this one.
ondrapopik said:
So I tested tablet I ordered few weeks ago and realized that this is the same device as Advent Vega. I test quadrant benchmark and got 2200 points without any customization of rom.
Screen is nice and response is fast. I can recommend this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell us where you got it from please? Thanks.
Itaintrite said:
Can you tell us where you got it from please? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found it on alibaba.com ( w w w . alibaba. com/product-tp/111757797/Nvidia_10Inch_tablet_PC_with_Capacitive.html ) or you can try web I posted before

Help - Finding device /w Stylus (repl.PDA - phone or tablet)

Hi all!
first - I know, there is one similar thread, but slightly different and w no answer which I am wondering for
I am advanced IT user, currently owning and IPAQ 114 PDA and Xperia X10i phone.
I bought X10 because WM6 went unsupported and a lot of software was abandoned. What a pity...
When I started using X10 I thought that my PDA will be completely out of my live, and i will sold it fast.
But, many problems / unexpectations i found after short usage of X10:
- really bad display accuracy (I used ipaq for drawing schemes)
- senses only hands (we are having now here about -22 degrees of Celsius )
- bluetooth limitatons (160s ???)
- software main ecosystem is I think not so good
- many other details, but screen makes me angry often after 1 yr and is main problem for mw
So, thats why I am looking for device, which can supply my old Ipaq. I`d much rather use some basic phone (using only phone + SMS) and some kind of portable mobile assistant like PDA.
After stupid I***** boom, manufacturing and developing stylus based devices almost stopped I see.
I am looking for something with resistive touch screen - phone or MID or tablet. But in portable packing - less than 6" inches screen (dont need X cores and X MB of RAM and storage). Stylus holder would be great, but I think that something like this really doesn`t exists
Ideally based on Android - only because of apps.
For example - I found a device which almost ideally fits my needs - Benq S6 UMID, but its`s x86 based (doesn`t matter so much) and main problem is OS - noone has ported Android for it... (love Linux, but need few commercial apps )
Does anything like this exists?
Thanks for any response or idea !
Samsung Galaxy Note!
Galaxy Note would make a great device.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
HeliumX10 said:
I am looking for something with resistive touch screen - phone or MID or tablet. But in portable packing - less than 6" inches screen (dont need X cores and X MB of RAM and storage). Stylus holder would be great, but I think that something like this really doesn`t exists
Ideally based on Android - only because of apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Galaxy Note. It doesn't have a resistive screen - but it's capacitive, which is easier to use with your hands, and features an EMR stylus - like a wacom tablet - which is bound to be a lot more accurate than resistive.
Also happens to be pretty much the fastest dual-core android out there.
Or HTC Flyer, a bit dated but it was the first Android tablet designed with stylus usage in mind

[Q] wp7 vs android - cpu question

I am an android user, running my galaxy s2, upgraded from the galaxy s, and love the system.
I was looking at the wp7, tho mostly for the wp8 version, like the idea of cross compatibility between phone, tablet and PC. This is the one thing I give apple credit for, but since I could never go for ios, Windows is the only other real option here.
The biggest thing I've noticed with the WP7 models out there, is from a hardware side, they pale in comparison to the android models; there are no wp7 devices that have the same kind of processing power that my S2 has, and certainly nothing compared to the HTC One X, or the S3.
Can anyone answer this question? I've looked around, haven't found anything that really seems to address this disparity in processing powers between these two system; especially when they are made by many of the same manufacturers as the competing android devices.
Is it an issue with the os? Android requires more power to deliver the same performance, or are the WP7 just under powered? Even the top of the line versions like the Lumina 900 has only a single core processor, not to mention only 512mb ram, this is half the memory and processing power of my S2, which is a year old already.....
Hello
doesnt htc titan have dualcore? lumia is overpriced dont get it

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