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coming from galaxy s 2

So i bought a Samsung phone which isn't that bad until i started finding out the faults! The problems that i came a cross were the fact gps was poor and so was the network, yet apart from that the phone is not that bad. nevertheless I am going to get a replaced for a sensation so is that good or a bad idea?
ps i had a HTC hd 2 before

You posted in a Sensation forum.Of course we are going to say its a great idea lol

manish2039 said:
So i bought a Samsung phone which isn't that bad until i started finding out the faults! The problems that i came a cross were the fact gps was poor and so was the network, yet apart from that the phone is not that bad. nevertheless I am going to get a replaced for a sensation so is that good or a bad idea?
ps i had a HTC hd 2 before
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its a terrible idea you have the greatest phone on planet earth and you wanna give it up?

tigerz0202 said:
its a terrible idea you have the greatest phone on planet earth and you wanna give it up?
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I wouldn't go that far calling it the greatest lol. But he has a point they are good phones. If your network is poor it night be the carrier itself. At least SGS2 is quadband 3G/UMTS/HSPA

None of us can speak for the things that matter to you. The things that make us love the device might not matter to you. Try it and decide for yourself.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

its all personal preference. i would say that even though i have the sensation, i would rather have the SG2 because it seems like its more faster and the whole touchiwiz 4 looks clean. im not saying that sense 3.0 isnt clean and isnt fast, i actually love it, but in the end its all personal preference and its up for you to decide. i suggest you try messing around with the sensation before you switch

Even though i myself am a Sensation owner, i can tell ya the SGSII, despite the lower res and the tad inexpensive build quality/looks, it's still a lot better phone.
Probably your carrier. However if u still wanna go with the Sensation.. then by all means; it is after all your call at the end of the day.

saffant said:
the tad inexpensive build quality
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"tad" is putting it lightly, IMO (as someone who owned a SGS2 for several hours today before deciding that I would return it before it got scratched and otherwise damaged. Samsung is all about the numbers game, rather than the overall user experience. They don't care if the phone feels fragile if they can claim it is the lightest. They don't care if it is uncomfortable to hold if they can say it's thinner than an iPhone 4 (they do this with the Tab 10.1 as well but it's not uncomfortable thankfully).
While the SGS2 screen is stunning to behold (even in strong sunlight) coming from someone who has hated all previous AMOLED screens because of how terrible the pentile grid arrangement made them look, It's a cheap, poorly designed phone. Great specs, very fast, etc
On the other hand, you have the Sensation which isn't perfect, but feels smaller in the hand, due to the curved back and the fact that it has a narrower but taller display, has a great looking, higher res screen, and has build quality that leaves one not wanting or needing a case for the phone.
If you have the SGS2 right now and are considering the Sensation, some of the stuff I mentioned is probably bothering you like it did me. I know how it feels to have people look at you like you're crazy for wanting to swap the SGS2 for the Sensation, since that's what I tried doing at Bell Canada today

If you plan on using and relying on WiFi, it's a terrible idea. The Sensation has the worst WiFi of any android phone I've used.

I think you will find out that it's the same experience in the end. There is a number of problems on Sensation aswell ...

thanks for the replies appreciated
i think i'll give this phone another week and then see if it has changed my mind or not.

manish2039 said:
So i bought a Samsung phone which isn't that bad until i started finding out the faults! The problems that i came a cross were the fact gps was poor and so was the network, yet apart from that the phone is not that bad. nevertheless I am going to get a replaced for a sensation so is that good or a bad idea?
ps i had a HTC hd 2 before
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How can you blame the SGS2 for poor network,dosen't make sense to me but I honestly think SGS2 is the better option to sensation with regards to two things
1) Countless custom Roms already which solve a lot of problems
2) Easily flashing of the latest Firmwares via ODIN regardless of whether you want to root or not
I am already using the 2.3.4 although its not official released and its great
At the end of the day its our choice Both phones have their pros and cons but for me the (easy firmware upgrade) was the DEAL BReAKEr

I would put a facepalm pic but thats no help.
Just stay with gs2, best phone eva. Sure it has better build quality but that always hidden with the case you put on it. In fact, putting a beautiful case on the sgs2 will not add much bulk at all and still have the best hardware.

Bsketball said:
If you plan on using and relying on WiFi, it's a terrible idea. The Sensation has the worst WiFi of any android phone I've used.
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YMMV. I ran Speedtest on my Sensation with wifi this morning and got over 26Mb down. I get better signal strength around my place than I did with my Vibrant. Some people report bad wifi on the SGS2. Just saying don't take every post as the last word.

Just because the Galaxy S line is made of super light plastic, doesn't mean its fragile and breaks easily. Samsung uses the material on purpose to make the phone light. They are probably just assuming that just because phones are getting bigger doesn't mean they need to get heavier. I actually know for a fact that Samsung puts a lot of research into the plastic material they use on there Galaxy S line. Weather its made of aluminum, plastic or rubber, its still feels solid while feeling light. I haven't seen anyone with a GSII complaining of a creaky battery cover like they are on the Sensation. I can't vouch for the GSII when it comes to holding up to damage over time but what I can vouch for is the Vibrant. That thing felt cheaply built as well since it was so damn light but I can assure you. It was probably the toughest Android device I've ever owned. I dropped it multiple times and the most it ever got was scratches to the chrome bezel that went around the phone. I took house keys to its display to show off its Gorilla glass to friends and the display remained in mint condition. Finally, that phone made it through over 50 house fires in which it got wet and was banged around. In case you don't know, you usually come out of a fire dripping from head to toe with water since there is thousands of gallons of it being thrown around. I always kept the phone my work shirt pocket so it was never in a case. That phone withstood water damage and "gravity" damage and still kept on ticking. That's more than I can sat about my Nexus One which only lasted through 2 or 3 fires. It ended up getting water underneath its display.
What I'm trying to get at is just because a phone is light and made of plastic, doesn't mean its cheaply made.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

ditch that and get a nokia 5110. its way better

jrwingate6 said:
What I'm trying to get at is just because a phone is light and made of plastic, doesn't mean its cheaply made.
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But it does mean that the vast majority of people will be using a case to prevent scratches/damage, negating a lot of their time and energy spent making it thin/light.
It just kills me there's so many "phone X is better than phone Y" threads on me, and they actually think that it's black and white like that.
I hate cases. I want to see beautiful design, not beautiful design wrapped in some silicon skin. Personal opinion of course. I also like docks (blame Palm's amazing touchstone for that). Blame the Atrix for turning me on to good vehicle docks (not that I ever drive, but when I do). I also like high res screens a lot. Oh and soft touch and metal. And silky smooth, curved glass.
Plenty of people don't care. They want the fastest processor, the most ram, a big battery, and a big screen, and nothing else matters. They'll slap it in a case anyway, so build quality doesn't matter a ton. Maybe they don't even care about scratches. The SGS2 is very, very nice. Millions of people are currently loving theirs. I tried. It's not for me. Damn that screen is so beautiful though, I miss it.

_kansei_ said:
But it does mean that the vast majority of people will be using a case to prevent scratches/damage, negating a lot of their time and energy spent making it thin/light.
It just kills me there's so many "phone X is better than phone Y" threads on me, and they actually think that it's black and white like that.
I hate cases. I want to see beautiful design, not beautiful design wrapped in some silicon skin. Personal opinion of course. I also like docks (blame Palm's amazing touchstone for that). Blame the Atrix for turning me on to good vehicle docks (not that I ever drive, but when I do). I also like high res screens a lot. Oh and soft touch and metal. And silky smooth, curved glass.
Plenty of people don't care. They want the fastest processor, the most ram, a big battery, and a big screen, and nothing else matters. They'll slap it in a case anyway, so build quality doesn't matter a ton. Maybe they don't even care about scratches. The SGS2 is very, very nice. Millions of people are currently loving theirs. I tried. It's not for me. Damn that screen is so beautiful though, I miss it.
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I don't like cases or screen protectors and I rarely ever use them. That's the thing. My Vibrant did not scratch as easy as one might think. I don't think if someone adds a case to a phone that's thin and light negates the time and energy it took to get there. Its comment sense. The light the phone is, the lighter its going to be with a case on it. Just because you add a case, doesn't mean it becomes as heavy as every other phone with a case on it. Or does it? Samsung uses plastic because a WiFi frequency and cell signal can pass through it easier than aluminum or metal. We have seen deathgrip issues time and time again with phones that are built with metals.
Lastly, if you like soft touch and silky smooth curved glass then the G2X impliments those two things perfectly. The rubbery back plate and the beveled glass that curves down feels awesome. The glass us also smoother than what the Sensation has. I also like how LG beveled the G2X glass. It goes down instead of up so your fingers just glide right off the display when swiping. Its a much better implimentation than HTC's beveled glass which curves up. To bad the G2X can't run a full day without rebooting though.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

[Q] HTC Sensation or......

hello
im a new user to this forum and very happy from this.
please help me for buy a smart phone.
please comparison between sensation and galaxy sii and consider sensation is cheaper than galaxy but it has the more features of galaxy
thanks alot

Sensation is better than Galaxy. Hands down.

It's not better than the Galaxy Nexus, though...
To the OP, wait until February. The Mobile World Congress takes place then and you'll see all the new handsets being released. THEN you can make a proper decision

arzbhatia said:
Sensation is better than Galaxy. Hands down.
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Not really. If I had the chance to change my sensation to an galaxy, I wouldn't doubt a second. The crappy build, and the crappy everything, makes me want to give HTC one on the head.

TheStigx said:
Not really. If I had the chance to change my sensation to an galaxy, I wouldn't doubt a second. The crappy build, and the crappy everything, makes me want to give HTC one on the head.
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If I could switch I would do it in an instant. Can't use the phone in bed due to wifi signal, random signal drops with 3 different phones with multiple roms, low res screen, etc. Its worth only 350 now too, with phones like GS2 still holding their price.

Ali_Shaikh said:
If I could switch I would do it in an instant. Can't use the phone in bed due to wifi signal, random signal drops with 3 different phones with multiple roms, low res screen, etc. Its worth only 350 now too, with phones like GS2 still holding their price.
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Absolutely !

Hmm, everyone has different choices.
Anyway, I totally agree with Eddy over here.. you should wait till Feb.

I'd go for the sensation..the GSII feels like a cheap plastic phone for little kids to play with

I own a sensation XE while my other half owns a S2. Side by side the s2 is faster by a few seconds. But thats about it. They both run the same games as well as each other. The screens both look good (better colours on the S2 but more crisp image on the Sensation. The build quality is good on both. If you don't mind the plastic. If you like a premium feeling device I would go with the Sensation.

I'd go SGS2. My brother-in-law has one and I've had a chance to play with it quite a bit. I'm pretty envious, but I would never tell him that haha.
As for why? The legend of HTC build quality just isn't true anymore. My volume rocker has started to stick after 5 months and it's annoying, my power button double presses when I don't have the case on, wifi deathgrip really sucks, and the cellular antenna design is just terrible. Integrated with the removable back cover? Really?? That's not even getting into the fact that SGS2 is just plain out faster than Sensation.
Sensation isn't a bad phone mind you. I would trade it in a heartbeat, but I still like it. It's still a very nice high end device that does what I want it to do. But if the SGS2 was out when I so desperately needed a phone 5 months ago, I probably wouldn't be posting this.
But like EddyOS said. Best thing to do is wait if you can.

I think the only differences between the SGSII and the Sensation are
SGSII has NFC, Sensation doesn't
SAMOLED+ vs. S-LCD Display
Touchwiz vs. Sense 3.0
it's comepletely up to you.

thanks from those who responded.
see,sensation has a lot of gsII's options and it's cheaper than gsII.but,galaxy had been better in the tests.i wish i made a poll to make it easier to decide.
i used my uncle galaxy sii and i hate it's user interface and i thought the htc user interface is so better and it's more beautiful than sumsong
thank's a lot.

You won't be happy with the software on the sensation. Go SG2

HTC Sensation.....FTW !!

Backthen said:
You won't be happy with the software on the sensation. Go SG2
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ok.it's personalisation that you like this user interface or that one.i think HTC company works on the software a lot and it's software is more beautiful,more performance and.... than the others.
please talk more about their hardware and thanks a lot.

Well, here's my personal experience with both devices. I believe there's also still a topic I started hidden somewhere on the forums here when I was to decide wether to go with the SGSII, Sensation (XE) or wait for the Galaxy Nexus.
Now I'm in the possession of both the SGSII and the Sensation XE, so I pretty much have the best of both worlds. Down here is a quick overview of my personal experiences and a conclusion to why I'm using my current device (the Sensation XE).
Samsung Galaxy SII - International White Edition
At first glance it seemed like a great phone, small in design and a dedicated home button which can also wake up your phone instead of having to pry around with a power button alone. However, after holding it in my hands entirely set up with the battery in it, the weight was just way to low. I actually had to check my pockets regularly just to see if I was still in the possession of my phone. Now, I can see why people would like that, but the fact that the phone is so light comes with a price.
The durability of the phone seems to be abysmal. After inserting the battery and the simcard+MicroSD I had to put the back cover back on. That went according to plan, but suddenly I felt that the back cover wasn't matching up with the phone's housing anymore. There was a slight bulge where you have to insert your fingernail to remove the back cover which annoyed me to no end. After that, I decided to get a cover for my phone so it would stop annoying me, which it did.
Then the next issue arose with the hardware of the phone. The home button started to wiggle around a bit. no biggie I guessed, and just kept using the phone as it was. After a week or 2, a cracking noise came from the home button. Seeing as I hardly use the home button, it kind of surprised me, and I decided to think of it as a way to "crack in the device" like a new pair of shoes. Regardless, after a few more days of moderately to heavily using the phone, the cracking noise only got worse, and I decided to return the phone.
The replacement phone immediately suffered the same issue with the back cover, but with my case around it, it wasn't noticable, but the thought of knowing that it's there still annoyed me. Also, I had lost faith in the home button and tried to avoid using it as much as possible, so I only used the power button on the right side to wake my phone etc. After a while, the power button started failing to wake up my phone and I was forced to use my home button once again.
As far as software goes, the standard TouchWiz interface which comes with the phone is a immense piece of ****, excuse my language. I cannot tell you enough how much I hated it. Regardless, this is all up to personal preference, but it lagged for me at times, and only a complete reboot of the phone would restore a bit of fluidity.
The screen however is amazing. Regardless of the fact that the colors are over saturated to an extreme, the pictures and browsing I did seemed clear as day. No issues whatsoever with it. The only gripe I had with the screen was its resolution. at a 480x800 resolution, text would often appear jagged around the edges and not as sharp as I would have liked it to be. Even installling the Roboto font which is specifically made for text clarity, couldn't take away the roughness of the letters.
That's when I decided to start looking into custom roms, rooting and kernels. After trying out a multitude of roms, ranging from the golden oldies which have had quite some development time behind them to the recently released ones, the only rom which made my SGSII feel as it should be was Cyanogenmod. I must say that I was impressed by the fluidity of it. Regardless, I had to give up certain hardware acceleration options just to get a more fluid phone, which is not how it was intended in my opinion. This resulted in my feeling ripped off by Samsung.
However, the benchmark scores on the customised SGSII were out of this world. once you OC the processor to it's max and run a few benchies, you'll be quite impressed by what the device is capable of. However, in day to day use, it's impossible to keep overclocking it without having an immense amount of additional batteries stowed away in your bag, which brings me to my last point.
Before I chose to go to the Android side, I used to own an i4. Yes I know, bad choice and glad I'm back on the Android side after a year. However, the i4's battery life was simply amazing compared to the SGSII. The SGSII would not last me close to a days worth of work and I often had to recharge in the middle of the day. Note: This occured even with underclocking the processor, turning Wi-fi off and all the battery saving things which have been mentioned here on XDA. Whereas I was offended by the i4 that the battery didn't last me 2 days of moderate use (some games, browsing, video's and heavy music usage) the SGSII just left me baffled over the abysmal results it was producing. This is no different on the Sensation, but more on that in my second segment.
TLDR: Plastic device with rather bad production quality with hardware failures all around on 2 seperate devices. Great screen for colors, not so great for text. Battery life leaves much to be desired and fluidity of the device could most certainly be a lot better. A definite featherweight though, and if that's your thing, this is the ideal phone.
HTC Sensation XE Edition
The hardware on the phone is simply phenomenal. The aluminium finish really makes a difference in both style and quality. The fact that the entire frame is replacable is definitely a plus for when you accidentally drop your phone and the panel is scratched. The outside was definitely hard to remove the first time, but after inserting the battery, simcard and SD card, I didn't need to reopen the device again. Once closed up the construction still feels very solid without any mishaps on production quality. The weight of the phone is a lot more as how I like it and the rounded edges make it a lot easier to hold in my hands compared to both the i4 and the sgsII with their sharper edges.
As far as the hardware goes, people have reported both light leakages and dust under the screen, but I did not experience any of those issues on my Sensation XE. The screen is still dust free after 2 months of usage, and there is no light leakage whatsoever. I inspected the device for light leakage in a dark room under my blanket with the screen on and off for an extended period of time. The softkey buttons respond well and the volume rocker is solid as I like it. The power button is slightly more inconveniently placed, but nothing to fret about.
As far as the software goes. The Sense 3.0 interface which comes standard with the phone really makes this phone as special as it is. Unable to be ported to any other manufactureres devices, Sense provided me with sleek visuals while remaining to give me a fluid experience with the device. Ever so often the device would soft-reset itself because it runs out of memory though. Which could be seen as an annoyance at start, but hasn't happened to me after the first week for some odd reason. The Sense overlay really made my like this phone, and I have since then looked upon all previous devices I owned as inferior when it comes to their individual overlays.
The screen, standing at a qHD resolution of 960x540 which is simply great. Not astounishingly great, but it simply is wonderful. While I've always been sceptic about resolution differences on phones it has become more than apparant to me that even this tiny resolution difference on this 4.3'' screen makes a huge difference. Text is sharper, images are sharper and the overall experience is far more enjoyable. Not only when browsing, but while looking at videos and pictures as well. The colors aren't quite as vibrant as on the SGSII, but that's not something I'm actually missing. There have been talks about the screen having washed out colors at certain angles, but please, at the angles where the colors start washing out, you won't be using your device anyway.
The modding community for the Sensation seems to be quite equal to the SGSII's community, but there's one difference. The Sensation mod community seems to be a much nicer bunch compared to the SGSII, keep in mind that this is a subjective view, and should not be taken as a fact. After S-off'ing the device, rooting and installing custom roms, it's hard to stick with one certain rom while thre is so much to choose from here. Ranging from the standard Sensation roms to the XE roms and kernels, there's plenty to mess around with.
The battery life however, oh oh oh HTC, you failed there. You made an excellent device and then simply mess it all up with the battery. At first I wasn't able to get through an afternoon with the device. But that was mostly thanks to my "honeymoon" period with the device where I tried to exert its every resource. After installing a couple of different kernels and roms, I've managed to get up to 16 hours of battery out of the phone, which is more than acceptable. Keep in mind though that you might want to consider getting an extended battery.
TLDR: Great build quality with a good weight attached to it. Sense overlay really is a + for me, and the higher resolution screen definitely helps the Sensation in its presentational value. The battery life and lesser amount of ram shouldn't have been there on the flagship device, but when looking at the device in it's entirety, I must say that this is the least of my worries. Definitely a worthy device.
Conclusion:
I love my Senny, the form factor and android overlay simply made this phone into my favorite phone so far. It has also refilled my trust in HTC and its products after the failure which was the G1. I currently only use my SGSII as a backup device for when my battery dies on my Senny and is pretty much used as data storage whenever not in use, as that's all what its good for in my opinion.
Do take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I'm currently quite favorable towards the Sensation XE which I own. Nonetheless both devices have their ups and downs, but the upsides of the SGSII do not outweigh the failures.
Excuse this long wall of text and the lack of english grammar, I'm not a native speaker and I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes in here!
Regards,
Vex

Please do your own research and come to your own conclusion. Try your best to get some hands-on experience for yourself with both phones, and pick whatever YOU think is better.
I don't mean this in a condescending manner. I mean this in the most helpful manner possible, because asking one particular group for just their opinions is particularly dangerous.
When you come into our forum, you are going to get a ton of biased responses making it as if our phone is the bomb. Many responses will be critical of the other phone, even though a lot of those responses come from people who don't own that phone and/or haven't even used one before. Another hugely dangerous thing is that people will give you an opinion based on what THEY value, not what you value. You will get a lot of the "SGS2 feels like a toy" responses, which indicates that that person clearly prioritizes the feel of a phone. Those voices will crowd out the few voices of people with different values (like me), who would say things like "Sensation performs like a toy". People will say run a custom ROM, OC, different kernel, yada yada, and I've done all that, and in my experience the Sensation just doesn't run as smoothly as other phones.
There are other things that have made my Sensation experience less than pleasurable. It's just overall an under-spec'd phone IMO. Less RAM than most dual-cores, undoubtedly a pathetic amount of internal storage (1 GB, really?), an asynchronous dual-core that IMO was a poor decision, a screen that lacks in the brightness department (yes, resolution is nice, but brightness is not), software that was just plain and simple horribly finished (I love Sense but I cannot stand how much of a fail it was in terms of making sure it would run well and smoothly), a horrible speaker (worst I've heard on a phone), "build quality" that makes me question why people continue to praise HTC for that (death grip that is more significant than most phones, a creaky back, dust issues under the screen, and the backlight for the capacitive buttons leaks through a tiny crack on the side of the phone, a pseudo-unibody design), and more. The Sensation is overall just a good device, a 7 out of 10 in my book. The phones of now like the Galaxy Nexus, Droid Razr, and the like are far better IMO on paper, and I'm sure if I got hands-on experience I would like them more than the Sensation.
The issue is that clearly some people who value one certain set of aspects will love the phone. Another group of people who value a different set of aspects won't like it as much. That would be me: poor performance bothers me more than plastic build possibly could (I've had a plastic Samsung phone before, and while it was nothing to look at or hold, it was tough as heck). The thing is, my opinion doesn't matter, because I don't know what YOU value. YOU shouldn't base YOUR decision on what I value.
I suppose it's OK to get opinions from owners, but you HAVE to make sure you get them from both sides, and you HAVE to take them ALL with a grain of salt. Optimally, you'll gather opinions and then get some hands-on experience to see what really applies to you.

I wholeheartedly agree with The Janitor Mop. As you can see, both our experiences differ by quite a large margin. Therefore it is of utmost importance that you try out both devices in-store yourself to draw the best conclusion for yourself.
Even though we can outline our experiences of the device with a slightly biased opinion, the truth of the matter is that none of our needs will be exactly the same as the needs you will have for this particular phone.
So, go to your local store and ask to try out both devices!

Stealing the topic from the owner..
I'd like to ask the same question. I'm going to the US in February, and i'd like to buy a new flagship for me. I had a Nexus S, and now I'm looking for the next.
So, what currently are the best phones, hardware speaking, that are available? Don't mind the OS or brand, and I'm looking mostly for a feature phone, it must be GSM. Thank you a lot.
PS: Forgot to mention, I'm on a budget, $600 tops please.

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Thread moved to Q&A due to it being a question. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.

HTC One X for AT&T First Impressions

I guess the geek gods were feeling benevolent last week when they allowed me to participate in an HTC One X for AT&T early release. Of course I had to convince the guy at the AT&T company store that it wasn’t stolen and I really did need a micro-SIM card for it. But once that was taken care of it was all systems go for several hours of ‘getting my geek on’.
For those of you who don’t know me, I have been mucking about with smartphones since smartphones began. My first true smartphone was the HTC Wizard and the One X is device number eight. I am a retired senior moderator and have been beta testing ROMs and other software for over 10 years. Let’s just say I am not a young buck who loads his phone with music and wears out the screen sending text messages. I am a business user who relies on the phone for work, family and on occasion throwing birds at pigs while trapped on airplanes.
So these are my first impressions after about 48 hours use, some good, some odd, some not so good. Sorry HTC you asked for my honest opinion!
First off, this phone is THIN! Perhaps too thin for some users, my previous phone was also very thin, I put a case on it so it was easier to hold, I plan to do the same here once cases become available. The gorilla glass screen is almost bezel free, only the smallest amount of case is visible on the sides. The top and bottom have just enough bezel for the front facing camera and the speaker, truly an amazing piece of engineering. The case material (a proprietary super plastic that feels like metal) is matte on the front and back while smooth on the sides giving a very finished quality look and feel. The volume rocker is on the right, Micro-USB is on the left and 3.5mm port is on top next to the power button. Also on top is the micro-SIM tray slot and its associated pin hole. HTC ships a SIM tray tool with the phone but a paperclip works just fine.
The case is one piece with no removable doors (save the SIM tray), the battery is non-replaceable and there is no SD card slot. Now before you start cussing HTC for not making the battery replaceable or providing a SD slot, the device is designed to be as thin as possible and the only way to do that was to sacrifice those items. Thinking about it, I have never replaced the battery in any of my devices anyway and rarely have I used more than the included 10GB of storage. HTC has also partnered with DropBox giving each One X user 23GB of cloud storage for a year at no cost. I have no idea what will happen after the year expires but by then I will be getting a new device. For the record, the device has 16GB of user storage; however, only about 10GB is actually usable.
As a long time custom ROM user one of the first things I normally do is root and ROM a new device. If nothing else just to get rid of the bloatware, in the case of the One X this almost isn’t needed as the bloatware is minimal with only 12 apps that may be considered boat. The stock ROM is smooth, runs a quadrant score of 4800 and has little to no lag. Sure the stock ROM lacks the icons and color normally found in a custom ROM but for a stock ROM it is very good. I don’t need to tell you the OS is Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) and Sense 4.0 is onboard, you read that months ago. What I can say is that the Sense experience is significantly improved even over 3.6, the panes move easily and smoothly. As always with HTC there are a myriad of clock choices, weather widgets and other gadgets to occupy your screens. Quite by accident I stumbled upon this interesting bit, if you drag an app icon onto another app icon a folder will be created with both icons included. This may be an ICS function I hadn’t read about or a Sense 4.0 bonus, in either case it’s a great way to save space.
I would love to tell you that battery life is off the charts awesome but alas having only had the thing for 48 hours or so, it is too early to pass judgment. My first blush impression is about 10 hours of moderate use, but that may prove to be way off base… more on this after a week or so.
The superLCD screen is absolutely the best screen I have used. I can be out in the bright sun and read the display easily, the gorilla glass is rounded where it meets the bezel making the transition very clean while also making it easy to feel the edge of the glass. And what is better to put on that display than pictures you have taken with the new camera. HTC went to extremes to make sure this camera is the focus (see what I did there?) of the device. Not only does it stick out the back of the case (remember what I said about too thin?) but it takes simply beautiful pictures. The shots I have seen and taken look more like they came from a DSLR or high end point and shoot than a phone. Image processing is handled by a dedicated HTC chipset relieving the dual S4s of the task. Burst mode is probably my favorite new toy, I can now capture objects in motion and select the best frame to save. The shutter is much more responsive as well, no more push………wait……wait some more….. snap. I missed a lot of good shots waiting for the shutter on my previous HTC phone. As good as this camera is I suspect that DropBox space is going to fill up fast!
In summary; this is a very well thought out device that I am proud to own and use. HTC has taken in what we the users have told them and made a flagship device that surpasses expectations.
Russ741

One quick question: What do you think about the camera lens? Do you think it will scratch easily without using case?

fsrkewd said:
One quick question: What do you think about the camera lens? Do you think it will scratch easily without using case?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With or without a case the lens protrudes so the chance of scratching is not mitigated by a case. A little bit of common sense care should be enough to protect it.

Great review - thanks! Can you confirm whether or not there's an FM radio built in? I've heard conflicting reports, but none from someone who actually has the phone.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

Some cases actually do put a lip around the edge of the lens lens, preventing it from touching wherever the phone is.
Your review was amazing, btw.

cbasse said:
Great review - thanks! Can you confirm whether or not there's an FM radio built in? I've heard conflicting reports, but none from someone who actually has the phone.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question, wish I had a better answer. The application isn't there to test so I can't say for certain if the radio is there or not.
vioalas said:
Some cases actually do put a lip around the edge of the lens lens, preventing it from touching wherever the phone is.
Your review was amazing, btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but the lens area is much larger than other phones so I'm not sure even a case lip will be that effective. Thanks for the complement.

The last decent QWERTY?

I've got this MT4GS with a recently replaced screen giving me all sorts of problems, Tmo doesn't have any more of them in-stock for an actual replacement. So lately I've been lurking around the ApexQ forums here, considering whether I take Tmo up on their offer to replace the MT4GS with a Relay. Is this it? Is this the end of the line for higher end sliders?
I get so annoyed when I walk into a Tmo shop and they give me the stink eye over my physical keyboard.
"You should really try Swype"
"Keyboards are going away"
"No one really uses those"
"Just try the S4 out, you'll love it"
Try to swype out a thousand words, then do it with a physical keyboard. I'm a bit of a writer, it might be a tine platform for me to write from, but it works great. Sliders are niche preference, will the entire market really give that up? I'm waiting for Google IO before I make any decisions (because it's coming up pretty soon) but haven't heard any rumors of a high end slider coming down the line. Am I the only one holding my breath here?
Also, I've seen a couple of you post on these forums that have had the MT4GS, I think I would miss the 8MP camera the most. Any thoughts on switching over?

I don't have the relay but I follow it and have played with one. It feels similar in many ways to the MT4Gslide (I have this) but you can really feel the improvements in speed as well as a five row keyboard is just awesome. Being its part of the galaxy s line there should be a fair amount of updates, speculation of course as Samsung hasnt been the best at supporting hardware keyboard phones.
You will miss the camera, not that this one is horrible its just that the MT4Gslide has one of the best ever made. I'm not a huge sense fan but it is better than touchwiz (in my opinion) but more of a resource hog. It is possible to port it over to Sammy phones and has been done before, but I doubt anyone would bother on this phone.
Overall if its a free upgrade I would take it, being I refuse to buy phones from carriers this one would cost me full price and I haven't decided if that's worth it yet.
Good luck on your decision!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

i got both. here are the differences with the relay:
- relay's screen is super amoled pentile... colors are great, resolution sucks big time, pixels can be seen and the red ones are very tiny and the matrix will be very noticeable in some cases
- relay's camera is 5 mp vs 8 of the doubleshot. it is just inferior in both quality and resolution, not much else to say.
- relay keyboard is nicer imho but lacks replicated alt, shift, home, back, menu keys
- battery lasts much longer than the famous 1900mah anker for doubleshot
- the cpu is so much faster, ~2.5x from my findings, also, it heats a lot less
- it is noticeably ligher but more plasticy and flimsy
- stock ics and jb. more development going on
all in all, it is a sidegrade... you lose on some aspects and gain in some others... anyway the high end qwerty era is over since the desire-z/droid 2 period...

I've owned just about every GSM QWERTY device made for android over the past 2 years. I can safely say the Relay is one of the better phones that I've owned for a while.
The G2 was the best phone I've ever had.
The camera is not amazing. It will do in a pinch, but I would take a better keyboard over a better camera any day. The 4G Slide keyboard was horrid. One of the worst I've ever used. I use the keyboard much more than the camera, so my decision was simple. It's based on your preferences, really.
But just remember you don't have many options.

I've been using my relay for about 4 months now and overall I like it a lot.
Some good thoughts first:
The keys are very very good. I find they're slightly less conducive to touch typing than my Sidekick 4G was, but still one of the best small keyboards I've ever used. I can't imagine using a purely touchscreen phone, Swype or not. There's just no competition.
The phone is very quick. I've never once thought to myself "Man, I wish this would happen faster." The OS isn't quite 100% seamless, but it's close enough that I can't find anything to complain about. And things like videos, emulated games, etc are all full speed. The only times I've ever had to wait for something was when I was accessing files, and that's due to my bargain basement SD card.
The battery life has been great. I have no problem getting through my day without carrying a charger with me. Now, I'm not as active a user as some (I don't use facebook, for instance,) but I'm often looking things up on my phone while working, and even using the flashlight, and I always have between a half and a third of my battery when I get home.
The screen and the camera both fall under the category of "It's a phone for chrissakes, what are you expecting??" for me.
The screen is bright, vibrant, sharp. It looks great indoors and passable outside. There's enough room for what it needs to do. If you complain that you can't watch a 1080p movie on your phone, the problem is with your head and not your device. I guess if you offered me a higher resolution I'd take it, but I really don't feel like it needs more. And I wouldn't want the screen to be any bigger. If I wanted a massive screen in my pocket I'd buy an iPad. And then kill myself.
The camera is a dog, but so is every other phone camera in the world. Yes, this one is worse than many. But if you care about what your pictures look like, a $40 digital camera bought used off craigslist will take pictures which are 10 times better than the best cell phone camera on the market. And it's easier to carry a separate phone and camera than it is to have a separate phone and keyboard. So why everybody focuses on the sub-par camera is beyond me.
There's only one thing about the phone which I actually feel is bad, and that's the shape. Coming from a Sidekick 4G, the ergonomics of the phone are a big step down. The Sidekick was a fantastic phone to hold in the hands, both closed an open. The Relay is about as nice to hold as a brick. There's a small lip all around the phone that presses awkwardly against your ear, and it's got a certain awkwardness when open as well. No surprise there, the Galaxy S line has always looked like a knockoff of the iPhone 3G. Why would they start making something comfortable now? </curmudgeon.>
So, yeah. I like it and there's nothing else on the market which comes close to being as good as it. I'd buy one again. I'd suggest it to other people. But I'd also hope that this isn't the last QWERTY Android phone for my network, as there's still room for improvements.

i've came down the g1 (htc dream), g2 (htc desire z), relay lane.
i have my relay now for like 4 weeks. and there's really nothing i can seriously complain about. the cpu and gpu are fast and still come with some reserve. the memory is plenty. the qwerty is a big step up from the dz with the additional row. and battery life is just sweet the dz had the better display when you were outside. the relay's go the far better once you get out of the sunlight.
usually, when i got a new phone, i also got a better cam. but seriously: 5mp is enough for every day use. and as some already stated: it's a cell phone. if you want to have high-end-images, you don't get around buying a dedicated camera. and seriously.. it's the same with the screen resolution. 800x480 is enough for text, websites and pictures to be displayed properly and sharp on the small display. what's the use of a 4" full hd display? besides showing off? again... it's a cell phone. if you want high resolution, get a tablet.
*if* somebody asks me for a cell with a hardware keyboard there really - from my pov - is no reason not to recommend the relay.
and i think it's really a pitty it's not available here in europe and quite hard (and expensive) to get.
i really hope there will be new qwertys that will be available here as well. (the most recent here on sale is the dz).
admittedly the hardware keyboard phones are a niche, but those who want them will be willing to spend a lil more to get them.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using xda app-developers app

I have also used many qwerty phones over the years and have been using the relay for about 5 months now. Previously I have used lg shine xenon, lg shine plus (last lg phone I will ever buy) Sony xperia pro, samsung captivate glide and now the relay. The xperia pro keyboard was the best I have ever used. Too bad it had such low on board memory and only a single core processor.
I hear you on the death of qwerties I can now type quite well with SwiftKey but still love a qwerty for messaging, emails etc. I get the same look from sales staff when I have asked about qwerty sliders.
The relay is the fastest qwerty I have used, bit more than the glides 2x core tegra 2, I also found the keys on the glide to be too flat and there were only 4 rows. Good tactile feedback on the relay, keys are spaced out well and travel is easy. However as mentioned the build quality is not the best and mine has a noticeable wobble when typing. Updates seem good so far although will probably not get past 4.2. I actually went out and bought a q10 last week, loved the new OS but the keyboard was simply too small for me, and for the build quality and screen size the q10 is waaaay over priced, so decided to return it.
On a side note I did a little bit of cosmetic altering the my galaxy s3 stock 2100mah batteries and got them to fit in the relay.. As I live in canada the relay isn't even sold here, and I place battery life pretty much at the top of my list. Need that spare battery and a charger. Anyways good luck with your relay if you get it.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium

I'm sure samsung will release a follow up to the Relay, as they seem to be the only manufacturer big enough to support this niche market.
Just give them some more time. They definitely need som enew phones and fresh designs to break up all the slab phones that are coming all the time.

Well, I got the Relay. And with it I end a 8 year HTC only stint which started with the Blue Angel. Fun times...
I just got it today so not much of a chance to play with it. At the moment doing the update. Afterwards will see what else I can do. I find it a bit useless at the moment to try any other ROMs. A bit too early...

I've had 3 previous Android sliders before getting this one - the original G1, Motorola Milestone (which I gave to my husband because it was too big and heavy for me) and the HTC Desire Z. Aside from the Desire Z's incredibly stupid flipping hinge mechanism which I'm convinced was responsible for the display cable dying, it is my favourite of the four (it developed this problem where the screen would die every time I opened the keyboard - I actually disassembled it to see if I could fix it but couldn't)
This phone's not bad and I don't mind it feeling "plasticky" since it's light, while the hinge mechanism seems a lot more solid than HTC's ridiculous designs for the G1 and Desire Z, but the keyboard is LOUD. You have to press the keys really hard and I'm convinced people can hear me typing, which is really not what you want for a mobile device. If you're tweeting under the table during a boring company meeting, you better be good at pretending you're taking minutes!
I also have this weird problem, specific to the Facebook Android app, where it will jump to the top of the page randomly while I'm in the middle of typing a comment. I thought I was pressing something by accident but I've tried typing really carefully and that seem to not be the issue.
I do really miss having a trackball or optical joystick from the HTC devices. It's fine to have arrow keys on the physical kb, but when you have the phone closed sometimes you still want to be able to navigate around and click.

Really happy to have found this thread, has anybody looked at or tried the Motorola Droid 4 ??
It boasts 8MP camera and high definition display, looks like battery lasts a while.. says its splash proof and also has the 4 row keyboard.
I enjoy my glide, but they keyboard with the press on them hasn't ever given me much of an ability to type without looking at the keys..
On my blackberry after a while I was able to roll my fingers across without hardly looking at the keyboard, on computer i type 100wpm so pretty important for me to have a fast typing keyboard. even software app keyboards can't keep up and screw swipe.. without feeling where to rocker my fingers to form words im doomed to choose from autocorrect.

After a week, I've had a change of heart...

I've either cognitively dissonated myself into loving this phone, or it is really quite good. The official camera fix did some good and leaves open the good possibility that further refining will yield a great result, or I'll stick with the progress being made on the GCam port and use the native app for great monochrome shots (I love the B&W sensor and it is EXCELLENT). That said, no cases... I guess no problem - I ordered some SquareTrade insurance coverage today - if it drops or dies, they'll replace it for a hundred beans - I can handle that kind of coverage...
I'm not seeing the same quality defects others are reporting with their handsets (light bleed, TMOB signal issues, etc.) so either I got a keeper or others are being overly sensitive (nothing personal guys).
I asked for and will likely receive a return package, but I think I'll be sending it back empty. Sorry for the trouble Essential, but you are in my daily carry category now - my S8+ will stay ready for outdoor action as needed (water resistance, etc).
The aesthetics are what has done it for me... Maybe you feel the same? The feeling I get holding and using the Essential do indeed remind me of the first day with the OG iPhone - only ten years better. Hell - I still have some great pics I took with that lousy 2MP, fixed focus, no flash shooter from 2007 on my drive.
Anyway, just one man's changed opinion. If it grew on you too, please post your thoughts. I'm interested to know how many others have now caved.

rootdude said:
I've either cognitively dissonated myself into loving this phone, or it is really quite good. The official camera fix did some good and leaves open the good possibility that further refining will yield a great result, or I'll stick with the progress being made on the GCam port and use the native app for great monochrome shots (I love the B&W sensor and it is EXCELLENT). That said, no cases... I guess no problem - I ordered some SquareTrade insurance coverage today - if it drops or dies, they'll replace it for a hundred beans - I can handle that kind of coverage...
I'm not seeing the same quality defects others are reporting with their handsets (light bleed, TMOB signal issues, etc.) so either I got a keeper or others are being overly sensitive (nothing personal guys).
I asked for and will likely receive a return package, but I think I'll be sending it back empty. Sorry for the trouble Essential, but you are in my daily carry category now - my S8+ will stay ready for outdoor action as needed (water resistance, etc).
The aesthetics are what has done it for me... Maybe you feel the same? The feeling I get holding and using the Essential do indeed remind me of the first day with the OG iPhone - only ten years better. Hell - I still have some great pics I took with that lousy 2MP, fixed focus, no flash shooter from 2007 on my drive.
Anyway, just one man's changed opinion. If it grew on you too, please post your thoughts. I'm interested to know how many others have now caved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really want to like it, I'm trying real hard.
The performance sucks and is not faster than a Moto Z with a Snapdragon 821.
This phone does some really aggressive thermal throttling.
This bothers me.
I really want to like it.

I kind of came to the same conclusion the other day. Software can always be improved with updates, and there's not another phone out there built with better materials. It looks, feels, and is, an upscale phone.

tech_head said:
I really want to like it, I'm trying real hard.
The performance sucks and is not faster than a Moto Z with a Snapdragon 821.
This phone does some really aggressive thermal throttling.
This bothers me.
I really want to like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm interested to hear what you know about thermal throttling. I'm a power user and I play Royale like an idiot and I haven't even felt it get warm, nor do I see the incredible battery drain I see with other devices I've played on in the past (the Pixel XL was the worst for that power drain). Do you have CPUZ installed on it and can get some screenies of the throttling b/c of overheat conditions?

rootdude said:
I'm interested to hear what you know about thermal throttling. I'm a power user and I play Royale like an idiot and I haven't even felt it get warm, nor do I see the incredible battery drain I see with other devices I've played on in the past (the Pixel XL was the worst for that power drain). Do you have CPUZ installed on it and can get some screenies of the throttling b/c of overheat conditions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see/feel the phone get hot. That's the point, before it even gets hot the CPU gets throttled.
If I artificially cool the device or I'm in a cold environment; I can run Antutu and get close to the Qualcomm numbers for their reference platform in the 178k range. I can do that only in a cold environment. If the device is in a warm room the performance drops to 160k or so. If the room is hot or if I try to run again the performance can drop to 150k. I have seen the results drop to below 120k.
Geek bench scores are somewhat better but not great.
1900 single core and 6000 multicore.
The renderscript score is about 8000. Which puts in 33% behind an iPhone 7.

The software grew on me as more mods and ADB tweaks come out...but every time I decide to keep it and slap a skin of the back I find new scratches. Now I even have a scratch on the finish on the titanium. No clue where any of these came from. I haven't had a scratch on a phone in years... I upgrade every few months and always sell my phones mint on Swappa. I've had this a week and it's already scratched to ****. I love the look and feel and I'm happy with the software now but man..it's getting destroyed.

NeutronBomb said:
The software grew on me as more mods and ADB tweaks come out...but every time I decide to keep it and slap a skin of the back I find new scratches. Now I even have a scratch on the finish on the titanium. No clue where any of these came from. I haven't had a scratch on a phone in years... I upgrade every few months and always sell my phones mint on Swappa. I've had this a week and it's already scratched to ****. I love the look and feel and I'm happy with the software now but man..it's getting destroyed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Mine still looks like it just came out of the box, and it even took a 4 foot tumble to my bathroom floor the other day.

So I hope the new update improves performance.
Right now if the phone gets to an internal temp of 44C it will throttle to less than half the maximum frequency.
This puts the performance, when warm, behind and LG G4, Samsung Galaxy S6 and my old Nexus 6P.
Not happy.

I'm battling the decision now. I'm still in that 15 day return window, and like others am trying really hard to want to like this device.
Love the display. Don't mind that it's not AMOLED - I still get 5-6 hours SoT with moderate-heavy internet/call/text on wifi w/bt connected. No light bleed issues or lifting of panels for me, everything seems in order there.
There are some problems with the software that make me wonder if the problems I have are hardware or software. The micro-stuttering during scrolling (only while touching the screen during scrolling) could be a hardware problem, could be throttling, or could be OS optimization for this device in general. It's smooth as butter as long as I flick-scroll. Even if I slow finger-scroll vs slow flick-scroll the difference is noticeable, goes from stutter to butter. Finger-on-screen lag is like that of a bloated EVO3D trying to flip homescreens.
Then there are the definite software glitches that are present even after a full wipe of the phone (I really wish you could wipe the cache partition on this thing). This includes the occasional 10 second freeze while scrolling, the microstutters mentioned above, having to press back twice when in a conversation in the default messaging app, random screen presses when not touching the screen, regularly having to tap the screen repeatedly to get response from buttons.
And then there's the support - it takes a very long time to get response. I realize they are busy and trying to be responsive, and I am really trying to support this new company... One of the biggest problems I have is for solely existing as a consumer communications device manufacturer, they have some terrible consumer communication processes happening (or complete lack thereof). All I really want to know is that they are aware of and are working on the specific issues. Maybe I have control issues, but the dark is not a friendly place to be with 700 bucks on the line!!
I'm going to leave myself undecided for a few days and see where things go. If I don't see some kind of a software update addressing many of the issues some of us are experiencing I may have to reconsider... Despite all of the short-comings the new company has had as a baby, it's a beautiful baby. Let's just hope it learns fast I'm really hoping the screen issues I'm having are software related, but without confirmation from the company I can't say that I have high confidence right now. I love the feel and design of the device itself, though! *torn*

I am really trying hard to like this device. In terms of overall feel it's immaculate. They did very well on the design of the the phone. My issues come with software and future development. Right now there's clear software bugs and other optimization that needs to be done. If they can work on some of those things the experience on this phone would improve tenfold. Also once they get the source code and kernel out then we can start seeing more Community Development. We could also get things such as custom recovery and root. I'm hoping that in the coming weeks this phone and the community support will improve. I think I'll keep my device for while to see if that happens if not I may be lookin at a Pixel 2.

theandroidbot said:
I am really trying hard to like this device. In terms of overall feel it's immaculate. They did very well on the design of the the phone. My issues come with software and future development. Right now there's clear software bugs and other optimization that needs to be done. If they can work on some of those things the experience on this phone would improve tenfold. Also once they get the source code and kernel out then we can start seeing more Community Development. We could also get things such as custom recovery and root. I'm hoping that in the coming weeks this phone and the community support will improve. I think I'll keep my device for while to see if that happens if not I may be lookin at a Pixel 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't a massive amount of development on the pixel in relation to other Nexus devices likely due to the A/B partitions so I'm dubious on the pixel 2 at the moment

spotmark said:
Interesting. Mine still looks like it just came out of the box, and it even took a 4 foot tumble to my bathroom floor the other day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can the QC really be that hit and miss? I have zero scratches as well on front or back.

rootdude said:
Can the QC really be that hit and miss? I have zero scratches as well on front or back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. The one thing I absolutely love is the build quality. It looks exactly as the day it arrived.

Mine looks like the first day. I'm very impressed with the build quality.
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

No issues with mine fr a build standpoint. Fell a few times and no scratches. I'm using a glass screen protector even though there is a halo. Rather that scratches than the screen. The update that came out today is probably the software the phone should have shipped with initially... but we were all in a rush to get it. I'm keeping this device for sure! I also like confusing the heck out of ppl... I'm running the Arrow Launcher, blackberry keyboard and I use the iPhone sms sound for text notifications..
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

My only complaint really is I think they went too small. Most smarts phones are a little larger.

hoopsdavis said:
My only complaint really is I think they went too small. Most smarts phones are a little larger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's refreshing. I mean I love big phones, haven't used a small sized phone in years, but after using this phone for several days, I love how reasonably compact it is with this screen size. I should rephrase, I love big screen size, not necessarily big form factor. So to have this screen size packed in a smaller form, I think it's awesome.

hoopsdavis said:
My only complaint really is I think they went too small. Most smarts phones are a little larger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "small" form factor with big screen is the the biggest reason this phone came into my radar

flakko86 said:
The "small" form factor with big screen is the the biggest reason this phone came into my radar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same with me and many others. The big screen in compact size is among the major pros for buying this mobile. Besides that, I was also attracted to the clean design/material used and the pin port for 360 camera and other gadgets.
But I'm still waiting (impatiently) for how the Huawei Mate 10 pro turns out to be before I buy the essential phone. Hoping the Mate 10 pro is as compact and well built as well, combined with supposedly beast new Kirin 970 and improved dual camera, and maybe some new features like AI, Graphene battery, 3D Face recognition (all already introduced on Huawei's Honor magic). It would be the only contender to essential phone on my list. If Mate 10 pro disappoints then by that time Essential phone would be ready to ship out with 360 camera and charging dock in one go.

I have really grown to like this device. I have been using as my DD since the update, no significant issues and certainly no scratches or signs of wear. The size of the device is a key factor for me, I love the form factor.