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Hey everyone! I just picked up the Samsung Captivate on launch day and it is a very impressive phone (don't ask me why big tech blogs like Engadget and Android Central haven't even done a review on such a great phone, but this is for another day) I love the screen it is by far the best looking screen I have ever seen on a mobile device and it was even a big jump coming from my Nexus One (which I still own and will never part with, long live the king). I have been very impressed, but I am having some major problems (yes I am having some GPS and some other bugs like the lag issue which hopefully can be fixed with a firmware or Froyo). Please read on and let me know if you too have any of these problems as I have yet to of seen any of these in any threads. I am really considering taking this back tomorrow and demanding a replacement and if I have the same problems I will unfortunately have to permanently return to my Nexus One.
1. I noticed from the moment I played with the phone (after the longest charging I have ever seen in a phone btw) that when I grab the phone within a second or two I lose a couple bars of service, and yes I know that "bars" mean nothing so I have been watching my phone in "Menu > About phone > Status > Signal Strength" and I have my Nexus One (on AT&T and I have never noticed any of the T-mo N1 problems with losing service) I set my phone down in many different places in town like my apartment, work, fiance's work, a couple restaurants, and even the pool and it has given me a lot of concern.
-Sitting down on the table at my home the N1 comes in at -69 dBm 23 asu and the Captivate comes in at -81 dBm 16 asu. I have never even dropped a call here on my Nexus One ever. Picking up the N1 it will jump up to between -71 dBm and -83 dBm (sometimes a little higher), but the phone still seems to run like a champ and I have owned it going on 5 months. The Captivate once picked will jump back and forth very quickly from 81 dBm to between 97 dBm and -112 dBm and will continue to jump around going from 5 bars down to between 3 and 1 bar and then I set it down and it seems to jump back up.
I don't know a lot about signal strength even though I have done some research so this may not even be a huge problem, and that is why I am asking all you wonderful people here at XDA on your opinion as I really don't want to get stuck with a lemon. I know I am an early adopter and being a huge Android fan I run the risk of "bugs" because I always want the newest, fastest, brightest, and best before anyone else (hell, that's why we all hang out here right?). I would really appreciate it if anyone could respond to this and give me some quick advice. I have given it a couple days now.
2. I am one of those people that keeps their Nexus One in the included Android sleeve and it doesn't have a scratch or mark on it. I have always kept my tech in very nice shape and you could say I am on the OCD side of things. This brings me to my second big gripe. Where the screen meets with the plastic on the top and bottom seems to have a small gap and it is collecting so much dust. I was cleaning it out in the first couple hours and this phone hasn't even been in my pocket yet (I am using my N1 and my phone during work until I find me a nice case or sleeve). It isn't just a little bit either. It hasn't made it's way under the screen so I can deal with a little dust and maintenance (god knows I did with my Nexus One). I am worried that I will run out of time and end up with a screen with dust under it and a fight with Samsung trying to replace it. I really want to root this phone and remove it's only flaws and we all know the wonderful devs here at XDA will have some great ROMs running Froyo in no time and we can't always count on Samsung to keep up with things.
These are main gripes, but like I said I am having problems with GPS (and know I am not basing my problems off of being in the house that is just ludicrous to even ***** about something stupid like that). It took me forever to get my Captivate to lock on and now it seems to triangulate by the AT&T towers and I jump all over the place, and again I have never had any problems with my Nexus One I use it all the time as my main GPS. I have been following threads on these problems ever since the Galaxy S i9000 launched over seas as I have been wanting this phone for awhile. I also have been watching the threads about the "Galaxy S Lag" that I am sure most have experienced. I kinda think some of this has to do with coming from my N1 rooted with great ROMs and Froyo for the past couple months and going back to Eclair 2.1. I know that they don't have the HIMEM (or whatever it is called) and I am only working with half of my RAM so I am a little more patient with these two problems then I am with potential hardware problems.
If you could take a second and drop a comment on this thread about how your Captivate is running and especially holding up on the signal strength and gaps in the hardware between the screen and housing I would really appreciate it. Also, if you could let me know what you all would do in my situation as I really do love this phone and it has a lot of potential for some time in the Android world. Thanks again, you all are great and the Android community is second to none. Thanks again to all you devs that work so hard for free to make all of our devices that much better and for helping us get the most life out of our hard earned high end products. Android For Life!
Cody
hi
Your observations are exactly reflecting my opinion (minus the nexus one : captivate is my very first smart phone).
I am facing all the issues u hav mentioned
1. The bars keep varying a lot but i am inclined to believe that its a software problem bcoz i never had a drop call with the zero signal. But today morning my calls were continuously dropping. It could be an isolated incident though bcoz after tht the calls did not drop.
2. To verify the fact that the signal bars could.be misleading i made quite a number of calls, was on the speaker during the calls. I was observing the signal strength menu ( the one tht shows in dB) and to my surprise ii was still on call when the strength showed 0 dB . The signal strength indicated zero for more than a minute on multiple calls but the calls did not drop.
3. GPS issue is very significant but i am confident that will be fixed.
4. And yes i too found a significant gap in the hardware where dust is already accumalating. The charging port too does not look very sturdy.
Having said all this i really love this phone and am thinking most of the aoftware issues can definitely be resolved.
WRT hardware this phone is the most powerful in terms of graphix too and i can only imagine the awesome performance when running froyo.
I think i am gonna get my phone replaced. But definitely not thinking of switching to any other phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
itzz(AN)dRoiD
Hey thanks for writing back it makes me feel a little better knowing that I am not the only one. I too think that many of the problems are just problems that all early adopters have to worry about although it is a little disheartening that Samsung launched the i9000 over seas with some of the same problems and didn't fix the two that came to America (Captivate and Vibrant). I am very aware that these things take time and I won't ever say anything especially since I am not developing myself. We have some great devs working on Android phones of all makes and providers and I have confidence that a great phone like this is going to attract some great devs and who knows maybe in a couple years I will be able to give back to the community with work on some killer Android phone as I am going to school for that kind of thing and would love to mess around with it.
I too am not to the point of giving up this great phone. I know my post was filled with negatives and concerns, but this phone is great! I feel that the phone is built great and I am not to worried of breaking it as I am with some phones out there. I am blown away by the screen and 4" seems to the best size out right now in my opinion as I have messed with the Droid X and EVO 4G and I feel that the Super AMOLED blows these screens out of the water. It is a huge jump from the AMOLED on the N1 and I still love that screen. I know this phone has some great specs and I think besides the Sprint Epic it has the best looking feel to it. It is a sexy phone indeed and has the potential (along with the EVO, Droid Inc, Droid X, and Droid 2) to lead the next generation of Android phones. Being on all four US carriers and more all over the world is going to attract a great many users and better yet a lot of great devs that should be working on this great phone. It is the fastest (spec wise) Android phone out right now and I am blown away by just how much of a difference the processors GPU makes compaired to 1 Ghz Snapdragon phones. The screen is my favorite part and the MaxTouch Sensor and Super AMOLED screen make for a very responsive device and it really feels very smooth. I am willing to be patient with things that can be fixed like software (just wait until this beast gets Froyo you will be amazed), but hardware is a different story. Coming from the Nexus One (best phone I have ever owned and I refuse to give it up with all the development behind it) I refuse to deal with hardware limitations as this will be my phone for atleast the next year. Using a generation old touch screen on such a high powered best in class (at the time of course) phone is very silly and it was and still is a huge annoyance that I have had to learn to deal with while using the N1. MaxTouch was one of the main reasons I wanted this phone along with Super AMOLED (I really can't see myself going to any other screen ATM), Hummingbird Processor (and PowerVR GPU), and overall sexiness. It's a great phone and I am sure I will enjoy it as I am enjoying it now with some minor problems I just wanted to see what other new Captivate owners are experiencing and see what I could expect if I was to exchange it tomorrow.
Again, thanks for the response and good luck! I am sure I will continue to see you around as we are now in the same Android family.
generally the dust gets inbetween the screens. But since they are together in the new Super Amoled, i don't think there will be dust inbetween the screen!
Hi Angermeans,
Regarding the GPS issue, did you try the fix from the Vibrant forums? If not, go check it out. The thread is called "Gps fix 101" in the Samsung Vibrant section of the forums. Also, before you do that enable the "Use Wireless Networks" setting under Location and Security settings, if you haven't already done so.
I too had the GPS issues and once I did what was written on there (and added the Cold Start option, as you can see in my post there, you might not need to do that), my GPS locks on in seconds, I even got a lock indoors. I also locked while driving 70mph on the freeway. At home, I compared it side-by-side to an iPhone 4 and it seemed the same. I really hope it helps you out, it's lame to have the excitement towards this awesome phone dampened like this....I hope AT&T (and Tmobile) and Samsung address this crap...it's a shocker why they even let the phone get released with this bug...this phone deserves better than this
You know what I really didn't even think of that! I did read somewhere that the super AMOLED was going to be losing part of the screen and really that was my biggest concern especially since I have spent the better part of the last five mo
nths fighting with dust trying to get under my screen with my rooted nexus one. Thanks for sharing that information that helps put my mind at ease as I swear I read that it is impossible to get dust under samsungs super AMOLED screen.
angermeans said:
You know what I really didn't even think of that! I did read somewhere that the super AMOLED was going to be losing part of the screen and really that was my biggest concern especially since I have spent the better part of the last five mo
nths fighting with dust trying to get under my screen with my rooted nexus one. Thanks for sharing that information that helps put my mind at ease as I swear I read that it is impossible to get dust under samsungs super AMOLED screen.
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I've taken apart multiple nokia phones because of dust, and it is because there is a gap between both screens. With these, it is air free. That is why they are able to make the screen so thin. I prefer not having the gap, because if you look well enough, you can see the two screens.
With "Use Wireless Networks" enabled under Location and Security settings I've always been able to get a lock within a second or two, but it doesn't seem to be a strong lock. In Google Nav, the GPS accuracy circle around my car will randomly appear, get bigger, and then disappear, and it will occasionally think I'm off the road or will take a second to catch up after I've turned. It's usable, but I wish it was better. Hopefully it can be fixed by a software update.
No I didn't but I just read something about that on a thread just a little while ago I'll haveto check that out tomorrow especially since it worked for you thanks for sharing that. This is why I love the android community and XDA forums. Now most off my concerns are put to rest and I can continue to enjoy this phone. Now time to worry about bigger problems like when samsung is going to push froyo out to this beast! I have been spoiled using the nexus one. Do all you guys have your phones rooted? I was holding off until I decided if I was going to take this phone in for another captivate.
Yeah you are right I read somewhere tonight that some people think that samsyng did this on purpose to save battery life I'll try to find the thread and post it tomorrow. Hopefully its not a ****ty GPS chip in the phone I can't imagine samsung going top off the line in everything else in this phone and then cheaping out on a chip but then again google and HTC did the same thing with the nexus ones screen so you never know when it comes to high end android phones. I have yet to see any of the top of the line android phones ber perfect they all seem to have some problem especially HTC.
I bought the case sold at the at&t store and that solved the losing bars issue.
I posted in a different thread that I changed and tweaked my gps settings and it was spot on unless i was by a tree the size of a house.
I was very happy with it for my 2 mile drive. I will use it tomorrow since I need to navigate somewhere I've never been and update on here.
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!
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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.
Hey guys. My name is Jordan. I have been on Android Central and XDA Develipers for a while now and have been working on starting to do my own reviews and stuff and have started a website I am looking to see what peoples opinions are. I have my first post up there and plan on doing more just want to get some opinions from the people on AC. Please let me know. Link removed by moderator
Oh where to begin. For me I have come from many Android Devices such as the Moto Droid 1, Droid 2, Droid X, HTC Aria, Samsung Captivate, and Dell Streak along with getting to play with many others such as the HTC Evo, LG Ally, LG Vortex,
all of the LG Optimus series, Nexus 1 and Nexus S. All of these phones have been fun and I have been in the constant toss up of weather to stick with my Captivate or move over to one of the new phones. I work for AT&T currently and we have 3 new phones that are coming out within the next few months. I took a look at everything and have been sitting there for about 2 weeks and finally decided it was time to switch. I loved my Captivate but it was behind the curve and got tired of waiting for the offical 2.2 update to come out.
So after I decided if I wanted to switch it was time for me to pick which one of these 3 new phones I wanted to go with. So I sat down and did my research and looked at everything I could. The first phone to get knocked off was the Samsung Infuse. The phone seems like it will be cool but it had some negatives. After having the Captivate and waiting for the update that kind of got me fed up with Samsung. I know that it is partly At&T's fault but is also part Samsung's also. The other thing about the phone is that it is a 4.5 inch screen. Witht that size it is pusing it beyone beleif. I personally feel anything larger then 4.3 is going to be to big. Yes the Super Amoled + screen will be nice and so will the 16 gig internal storage but to me the 2 main problems I had with it were way to large of negatives. So that left me in a toss up between the Atrix and the Inspire. I looked at the Inspire and figured that I really couldnt find any negatives about the phone. The Atrix
on the other hand is hard. I like the fact that it is Dual Core but it is also a negative where it will suck a lot of battery. Next I hate the price tag. $199 and $459 for the laptop dock. That is flat out rediculous. The $199 for the phone is fine but the Dock is to expensive. Next is Moto Blur. I am not a fan it seems to slow phones down and is a big pain in the butt for most users. So after all of that I decided the Inspire was the way to go.
So I picked up the Inspire with a 4G sim card and have been using it for the last few days. The phone has been running really smooth.
First off is going to be overall looks of the phone. The phone is absolutely beautiful. The size is just right it isnt to small, not to big, but right in between. I like the look. It dosent look like a cheap plastic phone either. It seems like it has a good build quality to it. I like where they have the buttons positioned and am happy that the speaker grill and buttons are all chrome finished. It gives the phone a nice look. The battery door is the one big negative. It is a pain to pull off but if you are a person that dosent see yourself doing this often then you will be perfectly okay with this. Another think that is kind of inconvinent is the position of the 3.5 MM headphone jack.
Next I want to go into the overall User Interface of the phone. The UI is awsome. I have always been a fan of HTC Sense and this definantly dose it justice with it being the newest version of Sense. The clock widget with the weaher and temprature is awsome.
It dose not slow the phone down at all. It is very snappy and I like the set up of it. Along with sense you get a lot of cool backgrounds that are cool and fun to use. With the new sense you are also able to create and account that will alow you to track your phone if it is ever lost and maybe even wipe the phone which I am not completely sure about that but I beleive you can.
Next is the screen. So the screen is something that I was really surprised about with this phone. To be quite honest it was my biggest fear in switching. Coming from the Super Amoled to the LCD wasnt bad at all. To be quite honest they look almost identical. The phone displays pictures and video quality very well. It works awsome and is clear I have no complaints. Along with that the screen is also very responsive. It dose not have any issues with not responding to my touch and it is clear and very snappy. Part of this snappiness is because of the nice 1 GHZ proccessor.
So how about that 8 megapixel camera? It is a very nice clear camera for both still and video quality. I have used it for multiple purposes so far. One of the big ones is when I have been working on my girlfriends car the last few days. I was able to take pictures of parts that were broken or things that may be causing the issue and they were clear and able to displayed perfectly. I sent the pictures to multiple people and they were all very surpirsed. Another nice feature is that you are able to zoom in very far with the camera. It was needed for a few pictures and kept it very clear along with a few dark shots that LED flash helped quite a bit. Video is perfect also. I was doing a few videos for a friend that was
doing some random BMX stuff also. Worked good and was able to send them to my friends for them to use as they want.
So what good is a phone if it has crappy call quality. I have used many different phones as previously noted and to be quite honest this is one of the most clear call qualities I have ever had. I have called friends on different carriers and different devices and all said that I sound clear and I was not muffled and using speaker phone was the same thing just fully clear. On my end calls came through clear and wasnt muffled also sounded amazing with the speaker phone. Both spearks are clear and allow you to turn the phone up quite a bit if need be. Another very good quality.
Signal Strength is awsome I have not had any dropped calls and seem to be running in Hspa+ and HSPDA. I have gotten signal in a few areas where I previously
would not have been able to.
So the last thing and one of the most important is Battery life. It is something that could be better. I have tuned setting and the phone seems to only get me through about 7 or 8 hours with minimal texting and internet browsing and a few phone calls that come up to less then 1 hour. This is alright but is not the best. I was able to get a 12 hour day out of my Captivate but this is something I can work around and that isnt a big issue for me beacuse I am normally out for that time and have a tendancy to charge my phone multiple times a day without even thinking about it. So for some people this may be a major negative but for me not so much.
So overall I have fallen in love with this phone and am happy with it. I will be posting some benchmark scores here soon. I will continue using this phone and can not see any issues with what I used to have.
I'm a frequent phone hopper, so I've avoided Verizon and AT&T lately because of high ETF's.
I've recently had
Old school Droid when it first came out
Samsung Vibrant
MyTouch 4g now
I hated the vibrant, it was slow, laggy, and the GPS was a ****ing piece of ****.
I love my Mytouch 4g, running sense 3.0, but the screen's too small, I have big hands.
I can't find a store with an infuse to play around with.....is it laggy at all? does it have the same problems the Galaxy S line had?
can you see yourself happy with the phone for 2 years since AT&T has such a massive ETF?
My other option is switching to Sprint, getting the Evo3D, then when LTE goes live around the holidays here, switching to Verizon
The Infuse is a great phone stock.
The screen is awesome for video.
Not laggy like gs.
But I do get some force closes with certain apps. Plume is problematic.
If I were in your shoes I would wait for the sprint phone coming soon. Basically a gs2 in an Infuse body with the awesome 4.5"screen.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
I just switched over from the captivate. My thinking was I wanted to sell my cappy while it still had some value before everyone dumped it for SGS2 and if i was gonna trade some battery life for better features I would rather have a bigger screen than dual core or NFC anyway even if the knock on this phone is that it's last year's tech.
Only had it a few days but for me it's noticeably less laggy than my captivate (both on custom roms), the screen is gorgeous and the gps works great unlike the cappy. I'm v happy so far with it...I did sell my soul and my a$$ to ATT for another 2 years to get upgrade pricing and that is such a long time...but I think 2 years without dual core and NFC won't be that big a deal and you won't see many apps taking advantage of those features before then anyway.
nv83 said:
I just switched over from the captivate. My thinking was I wanted to sell my cappy while it still had some value before everyone dumped it for SGS2 and if i was gonna trade some battery life for better features I would rather have a bigger screen than dual core or NFC anyway even if the knock on this phone is that it's last year's tech.
Only had it a few days but for me it's noticeably less laggy than my captivate (both on custom roms), the screen is gorgeous and the gps works great unlike the cappy. I'm v happy so far with it...I did sell my soul and my a$$ to ATT for another 2 years to get upgrade pricing and that is such a long time...but I think 2 years without dual core and NFC won't be that big a deal and you won't see many apps taking advantage of those features before then anyway.
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I agree with you and I had the same thoughts when choosing to upgrade to Infuse from Captivate. The only issue is that I do not get hspa+ 4G speeds. I am actually slower than 3G captivate speeds.
It's definitely faster than the Galaxy S phones stock and the GPS works better as well (though I've still seen better). It can get a bit laggy if you run stock for a while, but not to the extent of the Galaxy S line, and if you install a custom ROM with Voodoo lagfix it will of course be cleared right up. That said, may want to wait for the Galaxy S II variants unless you really have to have the 4.5 inch screen. The SGS2 will be better in every other way and has absolutely no lag even if you run it completely stock.
This is the first phone I've bought with no buyers remorse. The size screen and performance really won me over. My last day to return is this Monday. Instead of prepping the phone for a return I bought 2 docks GPS dock and a casemate barely there. /committed.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
shadow65781 said:
The Infuse is a great phone stock.
The screen is awesome for video.
Not laggy like gs.
But I do get some force closes with certain apps. Plume is problematic.
If I were in your shoes I would wait for the sprint phone coming soon. Basically a gs2 in an Infuse body with the awesome 4.5"screen.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
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Plume isn't problematic. I use it all the time with zero issues on my Infuse.
Switched from a iPhone 4 to this a week ago. Got to say that I am impressed with the phone so far. The screen is really quite gorgeous and is one of the best mobile devices I have used for internet.
A couple of things to note:
-Even though quadrant scores are not all that accurate in terms of actual speed, I got 1000-1200 average on stock and 1600-1800 on average with the Infused Custom ROM. With that said, it is a very fast device and can handle apps, games, and the internet with speed. Widgets do slow down the stock ROM, but Launcher Pro fixes that real easy.
-Battery does fairly well. On stock, I was getting a average of 15 hours on a quarter brightness with a fair amount of use. On the custom ROM, it seems to be doing much better and seems to have increased the battery life a good 5 hours+ or so. On standby, it does fairly well as long as it isn't checking for notifications constantly.
-I live in a somewhat big town in Tennessee, and my HSPA+ speeds are averaging about 1.50Mbps -3.0Mbps download, which is on par with my iPhone 4. It only dipped into edge once, and on average it will hold a signal pretty well (I get the same amount of bars as the iPhone and same connection pull, pretty much).
-Call quality is fine on my end, although some people have had problems. It is generally recommended that you do a reformat immediately when you get the phone to be on the safe side. Speaker phone mode is also fine. The sound quality is also adequate for both headsets/ear buds and just for watching stuff like youtube without them.
-Build quality-wise, it is surprisingly thin and somewhat weightless and does fit in my pocket just fine. I am not the biggest fan of the chrome bezel, but it isn't bad per-se. The back looks and feels fine, but the battery cover can be a pain in the ass to get off. It also only comes with a 2GB SD Card, although it comes with a rather large 16GB internally. I have not run out of space yet, and I have quite a few apps installed.
-Camera-wise, it is a 8MP camera and it does show. Pictures do have detail in them and look rich and vibrant. I will note that the stock camera app has TERRIBLE image stability when compared to the iPhone 4's pictures, but several apps on the marketplace fix that issue. It also only records in 720p at the moment, but that might get upgraded with Gingerbread (The rogers version is supposed to ship with both Gingerbread and 1080p recording, so that might make a difference). The front facing camera is a 1.3MP one, which is a step up from VGA.
-Flash tends to run fine in the web browser as long as it isn't a huge size dimension wize (Youtube imbedding size works fine) while anything larger might lag. Also, if there is a bunch of flash content on a page, it WILL be slow. I have been pleased with it in general, although newgrounds might run a little slow and choppy.
I will say that I am pleasantly pleased with the phone, it might not be a dual core (1.2Ghz single core Hummingbird processor), but you really do not need dual cores at the moment. I say go for it if you want a huge screen and a decent all around android phone.
I'm coming from ios and I am interested in stock camera replacement apps.
The camera and photo manipulation apps I has on the iPhone is really all that I miss at this point.
sent from my fancy pants Samsung Infuse
Ive never owned a iphone and i would like to know about the camera problems and whats needed to make it better. As stated above, there are several apps that fix it?????? "TERRIBLE image stability" ?????? What exactly does this mean?
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 recepción. 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.
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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.
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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.