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Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade.. and the hardware itself is getting old(while still running ICS thanks to our great community, it raises the question how much farther will the phone be able to be updated..)
a cheaper alternative maybe? or its just that good..
That's exactly what manufacturers wants to hear from consumers. Why buy phones that have lasting dollar values and gets frequent software updates when you can buy a new expensive one every year that doesn't have great built quality and with zero to almost no software update?
Android can use a bit cleaning up on the performance side, even the Galaxy Note stock rom have hiccups because of the bloatness, with quadcore phones they'll have more excuss to bloat and put animations in. Windows Phone 7 seems to do fine with single core. It's not like my Galaxy S is struggling with any of the new games at 800x480 resolution.
Well we already know Samsung said "Nope, ain't gonna happen" for ICS on the Captivate even in spite of builds being made available by the talented folk here at XDA and at other places online. The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based, and I get higher benchmarks with this ROM than the stock KK4 AT&T Gingerbread 2.3.5 ROM with:
- Quadrant
- Antutu
- Vellamo (with Vellamo I actually get slightly higher scores than a Galaxy Nexus, unbelievable)
and several others I've tried recently. So much for being "inadequate" or an underpowered device...
So, Samsung, stop whining and making excuses and just give us some ICS source so people can make a pure ROM I suppose.
Doc's v9 is nice since it's currently a beta and completely unthemed, but a lot of stuff won't install properly on it from Play (although I can install them from the APKs if I remember to manually save them in between ROM swaps).
It's a great phone, it has a beautiful design overall (one of my all time favorites, with the HD2 still being the king of all smartphones to me), USB and headphone connections on the top - I hate it when they're on the sides or bottom, and the main draw being the Super AMOLED display.
People still buy 'em, so Samsung keeps making 'em and AT&T keeps selling 'em.
Works for me.
Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade.. and the hardware itself is getting old(while still running ICS thanks to our great community, it raises the question how much farther will the phone be able to be updated..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The R&D and tooling have long been paid for and there are still people buying. It's practically free money for them. The longer they're made, the cheaper they can get. The cheaper they can get, the more they're sold.
I sought this phone out actively because I liked my Epic and knew how to root & fix it easily. I didn't want a contract and for $250 brand new vs $600 for a Note it was a no-brainer.
Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simple, it sells. And with it running 2.3.5, it's very much up to date OS wise. It's not ICS, but at this point what is?
The early adopters are a rather small crowd of people that seems large to us because they are the tech obsesses folks that make xda what it is. They count for next to nothing compared to the "average user."
This phone is exactly what Samsung aimed for it to be, a Flagship. It was way a head of the curve when it first came out, and is still a great phone. It's been muddied by the early releases but, the fact that Samsung still won out (and is the top selling android manufacturer) means it really was an excellent device (and family of devices).
It's time is almost up though, because ICS really is beyond its abilities.
br0adband said:
The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based
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Click to collapse
But it can't. We don't even have half the features, almost everything new to ICS has been stripped out because we don't have the hardware for it. Sure, the core OS can be made to run on our phone, but even at that we can't run it properly. The things your comparing against are to that of 2.2, ICS is not some dinky internal tweaks. It's a whole new OS, it's 4.0 not 2.4. Now I'll admit that most of the new parts to ICS are little more then shiny buttons that don't serve us much good. But it's rather easy to dismiss things you've never been able to do before. Once you get your hands on a phone actually built for ICS, that is then made future-proof like the ours was, you'll look back at the cappy and laugh at it.
DaNaRkI said:
Once you get your hands on a phone actually built for ICS, that is then made future-proof like the ours was, you'll look back at the cappy and laugh at it.
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Click to collapse
Had a Galaxy Nexus - the flagship Android 4.0 device - and couldn't stand it so I returned it and decided to wait on something better. Then the Galaxy Note came out and I can't wait to see what ICS can really do on that device, but since I can't actually afford one I guess that won't matter anyway.
Found this Captivate on craigslist for $60 and it's been fantastic since the moment I bought it. I swear the SGS feels more responsive and stable running a "hack" ROM of the same OS than the Nexus did/does. Yes it could just be some placebo effect, I suppose. A benchmark using Vellamo puts this SGS running an ICS ROM (at 1.2 GHz) outpacing the Nexus, go figure - a single core device running an unofficial hack of an OS besting the dual core flagship device for that very OS... ain't it cool?
There may be some aspects of ICS that the SGS can't do (NFC, etc) but they just so happen to be features I don't give a damn about, either so... it all works out in the end.
phone is sold
as long as ppl buy it.
u can get iPhone3gs u know - @ great price.
br0adband said:
Had a Galaxy Nexus - the flagship Android 4.0 device - and couldn't stand it so I returned it and decided to wait on something better.
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Click to collapse
The Galaxy Nexus is not a flagship, just like the Nexus S was not. It's a debut phone and like the other Nexus phones, a developers phone. It's mean to showcase the abilities of ICS, not push the limits of a phone. Our phone came out before the Nexus S, yet that phone has a lot of the exact same internals. Why? ours was made future-proofed, nothing better was needed for GB. The Galaxy Nexus was also not top of the line at it's release, just compare it to an SGS2. Future proof would have meant that LTE was designed into the phone at start, not added later.
But you do bring up a very good point that I already admitted to, most of the new abilities are rather unnecessary for a phone. But I don't doubt that once a good ICS phone comes out we'll find ways to work them into our daily life. Just like we have for all the unnecessary things that the Cappy can do now.
The Captivate is a pretty solid phone still. I still have mine kicking around that I use now for playing music since my Galaxy Nexus doesnt have external memory (and apps are getting bigger and bigger in size so I need all the space I can get) so this phone does quite well for that.
I think I would still be using this phone if it had a bigger screen (I got big hands) and if Samsung was continuing to update this.
i use my spare captivate as a skype phone (between rom tests).
and where is the phone still being sold?
I was perfectly ready to leave the Android platform for WP7. Either for a Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II.
But with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S3, I'm kinda being lured back to Android.
Anyone in this kind of predicament? And if so... Any advice?
I'm currently using a HTC Desire. But by now it's very outdated, slow and likes to crash lately.
I really like the design of WP7 but I think it's no alternative to Android. Just think about the possibilities to customize ur system. I really need something new once in a while.
But the design of the SGS3 does not really satisfy me. I really don't like these plastic cases...
IMHO if you were about to jump ship the GS3 shouldn't really make you change your mind. It's definitely not a game changer. Sure it's a good phone, but if I still had my GS2 I wouldn't upgrade yet. If I'll ever go back to Android it will be for no less than a Cortex-a15 and an edge to edge SAMOLED+ HD. If I were you I'd get a Lumia 900 while I wait for the GS4, or even for the iPhone 5 or 6. At least you'll have the chance to try WP for a good while, and if you like it you may also consider getting an Apollo device when they come out. I'm very likely to go for this option, I've been pretty happy with WP7 in the last 5 months. No matter how hard I try, I can't really keep a phone for more than a year, I get bored easily I guess
Sent from my Lumia 800 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Its not always about being able to customize your phone. Sometimes its just about being able to USE your phone. I must be getting old because working on android is starting to get boring. Is the Beta test over? I think when people say customize what they are really saying is updating to the latest version of Android because the manufactures aren't doing it. Why should we have to do something that is somewhat expected of the phone manufactures? I'm still waiting on official ICS for my Xoom and Rezound. One thing you can say about WP and iPhone when an update comes out EVERYONE gets it at the same time, not when a phone manufacturer gets to it. That is really starting to get old for me. Maybe I should go back to the old flip phones they never needed updates..
just my 2 cents.. (who cares right?)
Just purchase a used GS2, you have a Desire and you may keep your next device for a long time.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
zone23 said:
Its not always about being able to customize your phone. Sometimes its just about being able to USE your phone. I must be getting old because working on android is starting to get boring. Is the Beta test over? I think when people say customize what they are really saying is updating to the latest version of Android because the manufactures aren't doing it. Why should we have to do something that is somewhat expected of the phone manufactures? I'm still waiting on official ICS for my Xoom and Rezound. One thing you can say about WP and iPhone when an update comes out EVERYONE gets it at the same time, not when a phone manufacturer gets to it. That is really starting to get old for me. Maybe I should go back to the old flip phones they never needed updates..
just my 2 cents.. (who cares right?)
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Click to collapse
Honestly I don't mind "forcing" an update from time to time. Also, people should start to understand that once that a new version of the software comes out your phone won't brick itself. I mean, if I had an ICS device now I probably won't give a damn about JB when it comes out. ICS is pretty much a full experience, JB will definitely be a minor update, like 2.2 to 2.3. Anyway I must say that I feel pretty much like you. Toying with the phone all day can be fun for a while, but once you're not a teen with nothing to do anymore you may wanna have a phone that just works with no gimmicks. That's why I'm happy with WP7 now. I'm still a nerd tho, don't get me wrong: I'm getting an Android tablet as soon as a good one comes out (Exynos quad please), but basically just for fun. As to my PHONE it's all a different kind of business right now, if you get what I mean
Sent from my Lumia 800 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
zone23 said:
Its not always about being able to customize your phone. Sometimes its just about being able to USE your phone. I must be getting old because working on android is starting to get boring. Is the Beta test over? I think when people say customize what they are really saying is updating to the latest version of Android because the manufactures aren't doing it. Why should we have to do something that is somewhat expected of the phone manufactures? I'm still waiting on official ICS for my Xoom and Rezound. One thing you can say about WP and iPhone when an update comes out EVERYONE gets it at the same time, not when a phone manufacturer gets to it. That is really starting to get old for me. Maybe I should go back to the old flip phones they never needed updates..
just my 2 cents.. (who cares right?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lots of truth. And with that in mind, I might be tempted to move to iOS or WP7.
But, although I don't live to flash new ROM's all the time or customizing the phone constantly, I do have my phone customized just the way I want it and the way it is most useful to me. This includes, having a custom ICS ROM (I tried 2, settled on one and haven't moved for months, except for updates which are OTA and pretty simple). I don't think I could get either iOS or WP7 (probably mostly because of the lack of some of the apps I have on Android) to behave the way I want them to.
In the case of iOS I speak out of current personal experience. My personal phone is a SGS with ICS. The company I work with gave us iPhones. It's a pain in the ass to use that thing. Simple things such as turning stuff on or off, and the notifications are a joke. Lack of widgets is another weak point for iPhone, among many, many other things. The only really strong point is the camer which takes great pictures. But I end up taking them with my SGS because getting them off the iPhone is another goddamned chore.
I can't begin to count the times when I was doing something on the damn iPhone that takes me a zillion finger taps and thinking "this would be so simple on my SGS with a widget or shortcut or w/e".
In my case it's not really about customization for customization's sake. it's about productivity and, like someone said, being able to use the phone in a simple way. The phone adapts to the way I think, not the other way around.
The GS2 is one step forward and three steps back. It won't be as smooth, as good looking, or as user friendly as WP7, I guarantee that.
i will still go for a S2, and with the S3, S2 price will definitely drop.
the rom community for S2 is pretty awesome too, so yeah another plus point
I find the iPhone bland and screen has washed out colours. Ppi doesn't make a huge difference
Sent from my Galaxy SII i9100 running ICS Remix Rom 1.8.1 with Siyah Kernel
I don't like the WP, android is much better. I'm gonna stay with my SII for now
I don't choose wp7 because market place is not supported in Malta which suck .I know many ppl like me.
Sent from my SGS2 powered by cm9 love
bartoloandre98 said:
I don't choose wp7 because market place is not supported in Malta which suck .I know many ppl like me.
Sent from my SGS2 powered by cm9 love
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Microsoft must improve the worldwide support, here in Italy Bing is "beta", and doesn't really work well, so we're stuck with beta software. God, they should at least give us the option to change the default search engine, being forced to use a third party app just to "google" for something is pretty lame.
Sent from my Lumia 800 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
You still cant change search providers? It's 2012 for goodness sake.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
I believe you should stick to android but SGIII shouldn't be the phone that brings you back. Plastic is a pretty bad material
I'd wait for the price drop and get a SG2. It's a great phone and there's a lot of great ROMs out there.
I bought an Omnia W and kept it for 3 days. Hated it. All of it!
Returned it to the store and got my self a 1 month used SG2... couldn't be happier!
Zmaina5 said:
I believe you should stick to android but SGIII shouldn't be the phone that brings you back. Plastic is a pretty bad material
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plastic is more durable than metal or any other material. Take a galaxy s2 and an iPhone and drop them at shoulder height. The galaxy s2 will have a little dent in the plastic. The iPhone would be completely shattered
Sent from my Galaxy SII i9100 running ICS Remix Rom 1.8.1 with Siyah Kernel
astratb said:
I'd wait for the price drop and get a SG2. It's a great phone and there's a lot of great ROMs out there.
I bought an Omnia W and kept it for 3 days. Hated it. All of it!
Returned it to the store and got my self a 1 month used SG2... couldn't be happier!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may also consider the Gnex actually. Right now you can find it at a lower price compared to the GS2: here in Italy I can find it online for 359€, pretty good considering that the GS2 can't be found for less than 400€, and it's kind of a more "dated" device...
Sent from my Lumia 800 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Buyer of the blaze here, after i turned in my Amaze 4g due to battery problems (even with a custom rom, it was literally dead after 5pm, with nothing but heavy talking and minor web use), i honestly love this phone. It's snappier, has an AMAZING battery for a smartphone, and basically easier to hold in my hand.
The question i do have, though, is why isn't this phone getting any development compared to similar phones like the S2 and the blaze? like the others, its pretty futureproof, and as fast, if not faster than them. Does it have a locked bootloader? Did samsung do something to make it hard to root? Does the recovery not work? seriously whats up with this lack of dev support?
Basically i just want an ICS rom to remove the damn bloatware and make the battery last even longer. I know samsung is coming out with ICS, but knowing their track record, it could take months before we get it, and even worse, contain the same bloat as it has now.
tl;dr why are there no roms or devs working on this phone?
No Samsung phone comes with a locked bootloader, and root has already been achieved. This phone is considered mid range even though it's a baby sgs2 that's why I think most devs aren't knocking at our door because there are higher end phones out now and in a couple weeks. We should be seeing ports or something. The phone is relatively still new as well.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using XDA Premium App
Here's a thought, maybe because they aren't paid to?
I gotta say, the android community clashing with the traditional linux OSS community is an interesting thing to watch. In the linux world you wouldn't see so much sense of entitlement as you see with android devices. I guess that's because with a linux install, the community is still more full of tech minded people than it is of novices. With android, it's been thrust into the hands of the unsuspecting consumers.
The sad fact is that this is a being treated like a middle-of-the-road phone. Devs do like their sexy and sadly this device isn't as sexy as a SGS2 or the upcoming SGS3. Therefore interest is low. With the multitude of phones growing at such a rapid pace, there isn't enough talent out there to cover them all. If you want rom development, you gotta go for the phones the developers will want. And you also shouldn't buy something that has just come out.
From a tech side, even though this seems to have the specs of an SGS2, it seems internally to be wildly different from an SGS2. It is named in the SGS family and it'd not similar to anything there either. It's all ext4 (fairly different).
I've been working on this phone in my spare time trying to get a build that would run. I am not a programmer but thought that my skills were enough to hobble together a working CM7 device profile. I thought I could look at similar devices and come up with a working hybrid of other devices. Here's the thing.... there don't really seem to be any (or many) other msm8660 in the official repos. It's hard to find other devices that are similar to this one.
With ICS coming out for this phone at some point, I'm not even sure I want to spend that much time focusing on CM7 anymore since presumably we'll be able to get native drivers for the cameras at that point.
If you want to help, then offer to take up a collection to commission a dev's time or send someone a phone. It's difficult to do this process from a distance. I spent money on my own hardware and I'm deathly afraid of damaging my flash memory with constant flashes and what not.
dr4stic giving you a thanks just wasnt enough
dont forget man your always welcome in teh irc channel, may not know a whole lot but whatever i do know i happily share
oh and official no, but for the msm8660 you might wanna look here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1230
the evo 3d has that cpu and is gsm as well
lol
Yeah, I imagine that first line in my post is what did it too ;-)
Thanks so much dude for all you've done. I know I'm welcome. It's just that after my day job (and some of my night job), the last thing I wanna do is look at a computer. And I got told this week I've got a 90 day deadline to complete 2-3 of the biggest projects and migrations I've ever had to do for my work.
As for the evo 3d, I actually did look at it, as well as the skyrocket. There are just too many quirks. Plus I believe the msm8660 handles part of the camera interface and the Evo 3D has a very funky implementation in that space. It ended up just looking more confusing to me than helpful :-(
From the way things are looking, I'm REALLY starting to look forward more to doing this for ICS. I get the sense that I might have an easier time there. I do, however, plan to keep moving forward ;-)
I was originally thinking about getting an international Galaxy Tablet, but as much as I'd like a tablet as a phone...I know it's not the ideal solution for multiple reasons (lack of warranty, primarily).
Anyway, a friend can get me one brand-new for $250, and it'd be a decent upgrade from my HTC G2. I know development for it isn't the best, and ICS probably won't arrive at least for another month (and it'll suck going back to Gingerbread after having used ICS for a bit on my G2), but I don't want my G2 to completely crap out and have to buy a new phone on a whim like that (and it'd be nice to have the G2 available as a backup).
Not interested in the Galaxy II (I get that it has better features, but it just looks/feels so cheap to me), and the Galaxy III is a nice phone, but I won't use half the features/power and it'd be an extra $100 or so. Nothing else on T-Mobile really appeals to me.
That being said, other than the previously-mentioned lack of development, are there any issues with the Blaze that I should know about? Or any major reason (other than development) that I should go with the GS3 instead?
If you've only ever used a AOSP style CM capable device (like me) you may regret going to something that only runs TouchWiz. Sure, you can change the launcher, uninstall swype and install the better version, and root it to uninstall a bunch of apps you don't want/need... but there are other things you can't change.
The lock screen, phone call screen(s) and some other things are remarkably slow and unresponsive, and is this ridiculous attempt to bring ICS looks and features to a poor gingerbread implementation. I don't understand how a company can make a phone with dual 1.5Ghz cores perform some things so slowly when my 1Ghz MT4G was responsive as hell. The phone feels "nicer" in the hand than some other samsungs I've held but that's about all it has going for it. Oh, and it supports T-Mobile's WiFi calling.
And yeah, the development is going REALLY slow and will likely remain so, even with the generous help of the guys that are making moves on this phone now.
If I had the choice again, I wouldn't. I will never again purchase a phone that isn't already supported by some AOSP style ROM. I thought root was enough and I'd get by with it, but I was wrong.
But that's just me.
dr4stic said:
If you've only ever used a AOSP style CM capable device (like me) you may regret going to something that only runs TouchWiz. Sure, you can change the launcher, uninstall swype and install the better version, and root it to uninstall a bunch of apps you don't want/need... but there are other things you can't change.
The lock screen, phone call screen(s) and some other things are remarkably slow and unresponsive, and is this ridiculous attempt to bring ICS looks and features to a poor gingerbread implementation. I don't understand how a company can make a phone with dual 1.5Ghz cores perform some things so slowly when my 1Ghz MT4G was responsive as hell. The phone feels "nicer" in the hand than some other samsungs I've held but that's about all it has going for it. Oh, and it supports T-Mobile's WiFi calling.
And yeah, the development is going REALLY slow and will likely remain so, even with the generous help of the guys that are making moves on this phone now.
If I had the choice again, I wouldn't. I will never again purchase a phone that isn't already supported by some AOSP style ROM. I thought root was enough and I'd get by with it, but I was wrong.
But that's just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well then, wasn't exactly expecting to hear that on this of all boards - it's definitely good to hear, though, as I didn't realize how serious reviews were about the device being bloated like that.
My only other choice I'd be remotely interested in would be the HTC Amaze, and not that I don't like HTC, but I've read the battery life isn't the best, and there's issues like backlight bleeding and whatnot. I guess I'll just wait to get the GS3 and hope there aren't any major issues.
Yeah, sorry
For the price, if the community were more active, I'd say it's a great deal. But if it isn't active now, the sad truth is that it won't get more active down the road. And I wouldn't wait for the likes of me to actually succeed in getting CM9 running on this thing...
As a comparison, the HTC One S has been around half as long and has like 10x the interest and activity. Just walk around their XDA Android Dev subforums and you'll see what I mean. Mind you, the 1S has the same CPU, memory, and other misc. features. The storage and battery are fixed, but that's the only downside. It's got a slimmer package and more accessories available. The blaze is dead in comparison.
TouchWiz just irritates me, but I make do with the phone, and maybe I'm being picky. Ask if you can test drive the thing... insert your sim and make/answer some calls... do some basic things and just know that's pretty much how the device will always be. If you could live with that, then so be it.
For a T-Mobile compatible phone, I'd just get a new Galaxy Nexus, or a 1S. The Galaxy Nexus will be the first to run Jelly Bean, and you'll also have support for a fairly long time from the likes of the CM team and AOKP, et al. It has some great features too. Just food for though
dr4stic said:
Yeah, sorry
For the price, if the community were more active, I'd say it's a great deal. But if it isn't active now, the sad truth is that it won't get more active down the road. And I wouldn't wait for the likes of me to actually succeed in getting CM9 running on this thing...
As a comparison, the HTC One S has been around half as long and has like 10x the interest and activity. Just walk around their XDA Android Dev subforums and you'll see what I mean. Mind you, the 1S has the same CPU, memory, and other misc. features. The storage and battery are fixed, but that's the only downside. It's got a slimmer package and more accessories available. The blaze is dead in comparison.
TouchWiz just irritates me, but I make do with the phone, and maybe I'm being picky. Ask if you can test drive the thing... insert your sim and make/answer some calls... do some basic things and just know that's pretty much how the device will always be. If you could live with that, then so be it.
For a T-Mobile compatible phone, I'd just get a new Galaxy Nexus, or a 1S. The Galaxy Nexus will be the first to run Jelly Bean, and you'll also have support for a fairly long time from the likes of the CM team and AOKP, et al. It has some great features too. Just food for though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I'll try and look into the Blaze in person more before I totally dismiss it, then. After hearing numerous issues with the 1S (between random reboots, screens failing, really hot temperatures, data/service issues, and even stuff as weird as the capacitive buttons being completely unresponsive - all reasons people have returned it, according to a friend at T-Mobile), I'm staying away from it, at least for the moment; I like everything else about the phone, however, and don't care about lack of expandable storage or removable battery. Not a fan of the lack official accessories (and accessory choice in general), however, compared to most Samsung phones.
And nothing against the Nexus but...it just doesn't appeal to me. I can understand any of the numerous reasons to go for one, but it just doesn't stand out to me in any way; I'd much sooner get the Galaxy S 3 for the better specs and camera alone.
magus57 said:
I guess I'll try and look into the Blaze in person more before I totally dismiss it, then. After hearing numerous issues with the 1S (between random reboots, screens failing, really hot temperatures, data/service issues, and even stuff as weird as the capacitive buttons being completely unresponsive - all reasons people have returned it, according to a friend at T-Mobile), I'm staying away from it, at least for the moment; I like everything else about the phone, however, and don't care about lack of expandable storage or removable battery. Not a fan of the lack official accessories (and accessory choice in general), however, compared to most Samsung phones.
And nothing against the Nexus but...it just doesn't appeal to me. I can understand any of the numerous reasons to go for one, but it just doesn't stand out to me in any way; I'd much sooner get the Galaxy S 3 for the better specs and camera alone.
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Click to collapse
I believe the Nexus also has various issues. I honestly don't understand where are all the pessimism is coming from. We are getting the official ICS update, so CM9 is likely to get to us. We are also funding a developer to help him buy a Blaze and improve his ROM. I'll admit the development is slow, but that's to be expected for a carrier specific device that got no advertising. Descent due development will come in time I think.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
dr4stic said:
If you've only ever used a AOSP style CM capable device (like me) you may regret going to something that only runs TouchWiz. Sure, you can change the launcher, uninstall swype and install the better version, and root it to uninstall a bunch of apps you don't want/need... but there are other things you can't change.
The lock screen, phone call screen(s) and some other things are remarkably slow and unresponsive, and is this ridiculous attempt to bring ICS looks and features to a poor gingerbread implementation. I don't understand how a company can make a phone with dual 1.5Ghz cores perform some things so slowly when my 1Ghz MT4G was responsive as hell. The phone feels "nicer" in the hand than some other samsungs I've held but that's about all it has going for it. Oh, and it supports T-Mobile's WiFi calling.
And yeah, the development is going REALLY slow and will likely remain so, even with the generous help of the guys that are making moves on this phone now.
If I had the choice again, I wouldn't. I will never again purchase a phone that isn't already supported by some AOSP style ROM. I thought root was enough and I'd get by with it, but I was wrong.
But that's just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's funny, but that's exactly how I feel about my Blaze. I thought rooting it to get rid of all the bloat would be enough, but I want more, and there just isn't more out there, despite the efforts of our lovable and hard working dev's. And you're right - the call screen sometimes just isn't responsive at all and I wind up being unable to answer calls, especially if it's coming from an app I'm already running, such as a game. So from now on I'm coming to XDA and doing developmental research before getting a phone. Right now I'm leaning towards a Galaxy S2 (even though the S3 is a faster phone and all - it just does not feel right IMO).
While the lack of development is discouraging to "early" adopters, I really love the form factor (can't stand the 4.3" screens or bigger) and the build quality is surprisingly nice.
Having used CM before on another device, it is weird not having it on here. The lack of customizability is a bit frustrating. But I'm patient. I really think the price point, performance potential, and friendly size will make this a winner once ICS and the appropriate sources/information are released.
So I got a chance to play with one a little bit (basically brand-new, just factory reset)...I'm not seeing the sluggishness/delay you guys are talking about, particularly with the phone calls (receiving or placing). Maybe I'm just used to the delay/sluggishness on my G2 that I don't notice it, but I'd imagine removing all that bloat (and removing stuff like built-in ringtones) would help a decent amount...
magus57 said:
So I got a chance to play with one a little bit (basically brand-new, just factory reset)...I'm not seeing the sluggishness/delay you guys are talking about, particularly with the phone calls (receiving or placing). Maybe I'm just used to the delay/sluggishness on my G2 that I don't notice it, but I'd imagine removing all that bloat (and removing stuff like built-in ringtones) would help a decent amount...
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Yeah, I have none of the sluggishness issues either. Stock may be bloated but its pretty damn snappy. I've used a MT4G with CM7 and my Blaze is much more responsive overall, it even handles flash without breaking a sweat.
I'm really happy with this phone despite not having much rom support. Coming from a defy there are two things that I don't miss: battery pulls and random reboots. Never happens on this device. For me that makes it worth giving up AOSP...at least for now.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2
Just out of curiosity - I've heard that internally there are many similarities between a Blaze and a Galaxy S2. Has anyone ever tried throwing an S2 ROM on their Blaze and, if so, what were the results? Just curious.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
sparkie6point0 said:
Just out of curiosity - I've heard that internally there are many similarities between a Blaze and a Galaxy S2. Has anyone ever tried throwing an S2 ROM on their Blaze and, if so, what were the results? Just curious.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
they are similars but don't recommend something like that iif you don't know what might happen. Because flashing wrong kernel/rom can brick peoples phone.
sent from my batcave
sparkie6point0 said:
Just out of curiosity - I've heard that internally there are many similarities between a Blaze and a Galaxy S2. Has anyone ever tried throwing an S2 ROM on their Blaze and, if so, what were the results? Just curious.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The B4G is specifically very much like the T-Mobile GS2 (The T989). They are both based on the msm8660_surf board, with the same CPU, GPU and many of the same sensors. There are differences, specifically with the panel (display) and a few of the sensors. The differences are enough that it doesn't quite work on our device. Yeah, I've tried ;-)
What I've been doing is specifically trying to port a number of the things for our device into the ICS kernel available for the T989. My goal is to come up with a bootable ICS kernel for our device. I think that's gonna be the biggest stepping stone to a working CM9 or AOKP build for our phone.
The B4G has nothing other than specs in common with the other SGS2 phones on the market, save for maybe the AT&T SkyRocket. They all use different CPU's and GPU's on a different platform all built by Samsung... and thus different sensors.
I've had a lot of phones starting with the Nexus One (actually the Eris but I try to forget). So far the only issue I see is the ability to "crack flash". IMO sooner or later you'll have a phone that just won't have every developer swooning over it. if for no other reason than there are so many phone out there. (remember the threads when the Nexus came out?)
I bought this phone because it met all of my needs and had good specs. I had the G2x and the Sensation (sold on gave another to my son) but ths phone is better. The extra Ram is noticeable difference IMO and the size of the phone is right for me.
We could have all opted for the Galaxy SII and I'm sure everybody looked at the threads and saw what was going on so........participate........and relax a little.........the phone works very well.
I remember summer of 2011 when I bought this phone. I'd previously owned a couple of windows phones but took them back because a) nothing seemed to work, and b) nothing that didn't work seemed to be fixable. c) things that did work didn't work very well.
I bought an infuse 4g and my wife got an atrix 4g. (I'd considered the atrix as well, but heard stories of bricking and overheating... and moto's webtop strategy looked pretty half baked.)
I was on AT&T and decided to stick with them. The only other real android option at the time was the HTC inspire, which I didn't really like. I also considered the iPhone, but my experience with running itunes on a PC and using a 30gb ipod really soured me on Apple at least for a while.
Really why i opted for the Infuse boiled down to Samsung's promise to update phones for 18 months (didn't happen obviously) and the hackability. Samsung phones seemed easiest to hack in case support ever ran out and something needed fixing.
I waited patiently for gingerbread. When it took forever I found XDA and ran zeus 5.2 for months. Even with a few minor battery glitches and the very rare force close or reboot it was much nicer than stock FroYo. Then I tried CM9, which almost feels finished, but battery issues and random reboots seem to get worse over time and require reflashing. Then on to a couple other roms and now CM10. I do love the bells and whistles of CM10, but it does feel like it might just be too much for our outdated hardware.
Maybe I'd be better off had i never discovered XDA, because I've wasted more than a few hours backing up, flashing, re-installing apps, etc. :laugh:
I suppose when it comes right down to it, I'm not sure I've ever been 100% happy with my infuse, but my wife on the other hand is at least 99% unhappy with her atrix 99% of the time. That phone really is bordering on terrible, even the higher res display always looks grainier.
Now it's almost 2013 and I'm sure those of us on contracts will be moving on to something else in the next few months.
Phones with 2gb of RAM running jellybean sure look nice, and it looks like google is going to have a much more comprehensive nexus program.
i use a lot of google services for work and also have a nexus7, so I'm probably stuck with android for the long haul, but to be honest every glitzy new Android phone from a Carrier just looks like something that will be the next months forgotten red headed stepchild left for dead and never updated again after heavy promotion.
In the beginning of Dec 2011, no-one in my family had smartphones.
Then my wife decided we needed to outfit the entire family of five with smartphones for Xmas.
Faced with purchase of 5 phones, we looked only at the ones that were “free” (if you want to call a 2-year contract free..).
Infuse had much better hardware than iPhone 3 which was offered free at the time IIRC
It was also the biggest and baddest of the offered free ATT Android phones at the time.
Pantech Crossover was one of the only other free ATT Android choice at the time...'nuff said (doesn't hold a candle to our beloved i997)
Today, everyone else in my family is stil on stock Froyo. I moved to on rooted Gingerbread stock which I think makes me look really adventurous and with-it in their eyes (you have my permision to LOL). I haven’t ever used anything else except briefly trying a few custom GB ROMs.
I’m very happy with my phone and OS. I have a hard time imagining what it is that I’m missing because I haven’t seen what other phones/operating systems have to offer. I use my phone for a lot of things and spend a lot of time exploring the apps available on my current OS, but I don’t foresee upgrading my os again in the near future... perhaps not until the next phone in Dec 2013. Maybe if all my friends had SG3’s and Notes running JB and CM10, then I’d start being unhappy with what I've got. But I’ve got my Froyo family and most of my friends are iphoners.
Maybe if you want to be happy with your Infuse, you should surround yourself with people who use Froyo
I've loved my infuse. I was dying for a smartphone for a year lol hyping over the release of the iPhone 4. Then I saw on cnet the leak of the infuse. I decided I needed that phone lol. I got the infuse the day it came out, it was soo much fun. Then maybe 4-5 months later I found on some website how to flash Gtg's over lock kernel, starting my hacking journey. Used android forums, when I guy recommended xda. Switched to xda, and it's been really nice. Lol idk what my next phone will be, I picked up a iPhone 4S from my friend for a small price to pay (he wanted a tmobile concord, to replace his tmobile phone and he is a noob lol, never unlocked the 4s.) but I'm looking at the Optimus g, one x+, or the gnote 2, I was thinking of selling this 4s to get one, but it's really starting to grow on me, and I've invested enough mods in it I may just keep it forever . I used to be a die hard android fan, but really you have to look at the good and bad things about each operating system, like android moving files and easy hacking, or ease of use, no hang ups, and just plain simple to use. Being honest, the 4s was probably good for me to get, I was spending too much time of my life trying to develop/hack, while I've been letting some schoolwork slip by... Haha. Still love and use my infuse though, not going to let that go, my friend was like ill buy it from you for 300-350, I said no! I love my infuse. It's just an awesome phone, even better it was my first smartphone lol.
I'm not sure that you can throw anything at the Infuse that it can't handle!!!
I am running AOKP JB and its soooo much smoother than ICS ever thought about being. You owe it to yourself to try a JB ROM before you get rid of a perfectly functional phone.
My Infuse was my first Android phone and have actually have zero complaints.. no matter my noobish adventures, if something went wrong I was able to get it back and working again.. (with the help of the amazing community here) so it was a perfect introduction for me..
I moved to the note a couple weeks ago and don't even have my Infuse anymore, but I still read the infuse forum everyday..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
My wife was the first to get a smartphone, the iPhone 3GS, she loved it and I was jealous. I was stuck with a dumbphone and wanted to upgrade. Did my research and at the time (Oct '11), the Infuse seemed to be the logical choice. It combined all of the features I wanted in my new phone. I got it, loved it, and it was much bigger and better than my wife's iCrap. I had it for months without doing anything to it. Then I had just gotten the GB update from Samsung, so I was happy with them and my "new" phone. It ran great with GB, but it left me wanting more. I came to XDA and got started. I started with GB ROMs and the one I used was awesome and very stable. I still wanted more. Made the switch to JB. I loved the way it looked but the ROMs I tried were not very stable. I kept going back and forth from GB to JB to GB. I had a list of features I needed the devs to work out for JB for me to stay with it. Once those feature were added/stabilized, I made the permanent switch. I now run the ParanoidAndroid ROM from Scott Hart. He works tirelessly for the Infuse and we appreciate him for it.
For a while after a stated flashing, my wife was insanely jealous over my Infuse as compared to her POS 3GS. It was bigger, faster and ran newer software. She couldn't wait for the 5 to come out. I lobbied her to switch to an Android, but she was still loyal to the fruit. About a month before the 5 came out, she lost her 3GS. Without a phone, she asked me what she should do. I offered her one of our older spare backup phones. She didn't want that. She said let's go get the best one I can. Which was the Galaxy S3. Within an hour or two, she had forgotten all about Apple and was now fully a member of the Android community. She even wants me to root it soon! Even though it's an American company, and I should support it, Apple is so inflexible that it feels great to convert another one over to the dark side!
I am due for my upgrade in February, and I'm gonna wait for the Galaxy S4. I need quad core and at least 2GB of RAM or I'm just gonna keep my Infuse.
Let's see, before I had my Infuse I had these smartphones:
* Motorola 9qe that I flashed to make a 9qh. ((Windows Mobile 6.0)
* HTC Kaiser, (Windows Mobile 6.1)
* HTC Touch Pro 2, (Windows Mobile 6.5)
When I first heard of android, and learned that it was based on Linux, my initial thoughts were along the line of "Yeah, lets bring Linux to the phone because it's been SO successful on the desktop. NOT!!! This is going to be the biggest bust ever." I was wrong.
I switched to Android because out of all the user reviews that I read regarding Windows Phone 7 seemed to give only negative reviews, and it just seemed to suck. I decided that WM 6.5 was the last version of Windows Mobile that I would ever use, and decided to switch to Android because I don't really like PALM, and I hate Crapple products.
I bouught the Infuse because it was on sale for $9.95, and was running Android 2.2.3, (I think it was Froyo). No other reason for the initial purchase, as the Infuse is my first Android device. My next phone will likely be a Samsung Note, (or whatever is on sale next july).
I'm a Mac person for the most part. I've been using Macs since OS9 and don't see that changing in the near future (although I do like some Linux distros). However I'm not a fan of the walled garden model that everyone, including Google, is chasing right now, especially Apple's increasingly closed hardware. Seriously, you can't even change your own battery now! The iPhone and iPad represent the worst of these tendencies and for that reason, I've never wanted one. I knew I wanted an Android phone, but didn't know much about them. Basically, the Infuse was on sale, recommended, and looked nice.
It's not been easy. There are so many terrible guides out there on Android/Mac compatibility, I've wasted a lot of time and money trying to get my phone to work with my computer the way I want it to. It's all good now! I really appreciate the Android dev community and for that reason I'll stick with Android. I'll probably get another Samsung phone since I tend to like their designs and because I like how much they bother Apple!
Whizzpopper said:
I'm a Mac person for the most part. I've been using Macs since OS9 and don't see that changing in the near future (although I do like some Linux distros). However I'm not a fan of the walled garden model that everyone, including Google, is chasing right now, especially Apple's increasingly closed hardware. Seriously, you can't even change your own battery now! The iPhone and iPad represent the worst of these tendencies and for that reason, I've never wanted one. I knew I wanted an Android phone, but didn't know much about them. Basically, the Infuse was on sale, recommended, and looked nice.
It's not been easy. There are so many terrible guides out there on Android/Mac compatibility, I've wasted a lot of time and money trying to get my phone to work with my computer the way I want it to. It's all good now! I really appreciate the Android dev community and for that reason I'll stick with Android. I'll probably get another Samsung phone since I tend to like their designs and because I like how much they bother Apple!
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I think Google will only chase this to an extent. Openness has it's appeal, and I think androids source code will always be open, even though 3rd parties like amazon will put pressure on it. I like what I'm hearing about google's new nexus strategy. I'd really prefer stock android of any manufacturer skin at this point. I have a nexus 7 and didn't even bother to root it.
4.2 or whatever they are calling it looks like manufactuers skins will only be a theme which can be easily removed, and of course after ICS you can disable any crapware you don't use.
While it might close android a bit, google needs to do something so that we are not always wading through manufacturer/carrier finger pointing for updates.
Android does have a weakness in apps. iOS still has more, but the quantity is not so much the problem as quality. Earlier this year I think Google finally laid down some solid guidelines for best practices for developers, but still many developers don't follow them. The menu button on my N7 for example. sometimes it's up at the top, sometimes it's down below with the soft keys.
Apple is obviously far more strict. Even so it has not seemed to hinder development at all. There's always jailbreak, and if I were to ever buy an iphone i'd do that ASAP if for nothing else other than widgets.
For Samsung I do really think they've dialed in their product line much better. Having one phone instead of a bunch of custom phones for carriers is a big deal. They no longer seem to take the shotgun approach. There's a big distinction between the note and the GS3, and they seem to be committed to releasing a new version once a year which avoids the option anxiety/paradox of choice we've had in the past. I'd guess that would make updates easier and more streamlined.
It also doesn't leave us feeling burned when you buy a brand new phone and 2 months later the newer better version is on the shelf. I suppose that's my one gripe about the infuse. It was a big deal for about two months. Samsung made promises and broke them almost immediately.
I do still love the display and form factor though. Although when i first got it i actually almost felt self conscious answering phone calls on it because it was so huge. Just a year later it's average if not slightly below average for phone size though.
I got my Infuse in January after washing my previous non-smart phone in the wash. I've been addicted to Android ever since! :victory:
Got my Infuse in August of 2011. For 4 years previous to that, I was using an LG Chocolate dumb phone on Verizon. I was sick of Verizon's prices, and knew I wanted to go Android but refused to get a Motorola (have had nothing but poor experiences with them in the past) so I went to the AT&T store to play with their phones. Ended up walking out with an Infuse that day.
Since then, my time with the Infuse has been sorta bittersweet. I can't see myself ever purchasing anything but a Samsung Android (hey! I actually like Touchwiz), but if I could do it over again I think I would've gone for the Galaxy S2. While GB ROMs were great for my phone, the jump to ICS and now JB has presented some annoying problems. Most notably is the Android OS battery drain bug, which always seems to attack my phone when I most need it on the go. It never happens at home on Wifi, but it ALWAYS seems to happen when I switch over to data when I'm leaving my house. Needing your phone for a 2 hour drive, and having it die in 45 minutes is NOT cool.
Problem is, I enjoy the added functionality of JB, so going back to GB isn't really an option. I don't necessary share the same opinion as other people that JB runs flawlessly on our 512MB of RAM. While it is smooth 99% of the time, those times when it isn't smooth seem to really cripple the phone. And, like I said before, the Android OS drain bug is really annoying. I like to reboot my phone every morning, and I never know if the drain bug is going to present itself after reboot. It's like Russian roulette.
So, while my experience with my Infuse has been pretty good, I definitely won't be sad to move on from it when the time is right. If Google can offer the Nexus 4 unlocked at a decent price, that might be where I go, unless I can find a Note 2 or S3 at a decent price.
Infuse is a great phone. It was my first android phone, and I really had no issues. I've been flashing lots of roms but I'm running Zeus 5.2 for couple of months now because It has best battery life plus It is error-free (No SOD, No dropping signal, mms etc). I like ICS and JB but I really want everything to work perfectly. And I already have Samsung Galaxy tab 2 running CM10...
One real problem I had with infuse... is that if you see other phones less than 4.5" I have problems lolzz.
I still have about 8 months before my 2 year contract is up so I'm still gonna enjoy it for a while.
I'm thinking of changing it to whatever they have the best (probably Note 2 or S 4).
I got my infuse about 2 weeks after it came out i wanted it because i was moving away from blackberry. I didnt like iphones and wanted an android because of all the things you can do. It was a 4.5 inch screen at the time the first screen that big and i just wanted it. my experience has been good at fist i had to get use to the size of the phone and it being touch now om bored i hate it and i want a new phone. My next phone will be the galaxy note 2 i was thinking about the galaxy s3 but changed my mind bigger screen quad and lte yay.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2
Two reasons why i bought samsung infuse:
1) 4,5 in. amazing Super Amoled Plus display
2) 8 px camera
If I'm going to change my smartphone I will be buy Samsung S II.
Why not Samsung S III? It's to big for me.)
picklnows said:
Two reasons why i bought samsung infuse:
1) 4,5 in. amazing Super Amoled Plus display
2) 8 px camera
If I'm going to change my smartphone I will be buy Samsung S II.
Why not Samsung S III? It's to big for me.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
c'mon dude its only 0.3" bigger...
slicingtaco said:
c'mon dude its only 0.3" bigger...
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old joke:
..for some, the extra .3" could mean the difference between, "Oh" ...and... "Ahhhhhhhhh"
slicingtaco said:
c'mon dude its only 0.3" bigger...
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Click to collapse
Man, the difference in size between Infuse and S II subtle.
Although the difference between them 0.2 ".
S III it's to big....
Sorry for bad english.
the infuse will back up my note2 on tmob. it was a damn good phone!well still is realy,but 5gbs and 100 mins for 30$ is good enough for me,just need to root and use an app for the wifi calling.now i just need wendsday to get here!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the time, I was looking at the Atrix, Infuse and Inspire. I originally got the Inspire but didn't care for the sound quality so, I got the Infuse. The screen was what attracted me to the Infuse. I would have like my next phone to have been a Nexus device. But with the lack of an SD slot, I don't think it will be the Nexus 4. Yes, Google probably wants folks to use their cloud services but the lack of an SD simply doesn't make sense to me.
The Infuse was handed down to me so it was not really my choice.
I initially hated it with the stock Froyo. It was too unstable. OS would get corrupted and I would have to reflash. As a result I would lose all my bookmarks and contacts. I would have to add these back manually. The bluetooth was also unusable.
Now I am on JB and it is a completely different phone. I realized it was the OS that was bad and not the phone. Everything works great: Phone, WiFi, music, GPS and bluetooth. Some people have issues with battery drain with 3G. I don't have a data plan and don't need one. I am near a WiFi connection for most of my day. I like the fact that I can sync my contacts and bookmarks to my google account.
I am not sure of my next phone. It would be a dual core GSM phone (not CDMA). Other than that I have not given it much thought.