GPS+Google Maps: HTC One X vs iPhone? - AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL

The only previous Android phone I've had experience with was the Samsung Captivate and it had a horrible GPS. It had a hard time finding its own location and kept jumping all over the place. I absolutely hated it. Since then I've only used the iPhone, and the GPS and Google Maps implementation on the iPhone is top notch and it is very important to me personally because it is one of the apps I use most often on my phone. I absolutely love how Apple made the Maps interface so easy to search for things around you and get directions quickly.
So how does GPS + Google Maps on the HTC One X compare with iOS? Can you do everything that you do using the maps application on the iPhone as intuitively and quickly on the One X?

Google Maps on the One X is way better.
The Captivate had a hardware design flaw preventing GPS from working at all.

Definitely better. For starters there's a compass...As far as acquisition time, it's about the same (if not better) and on par with most better Android devices I've seen. It starts by using the internet (IP to geo) and then kicks on the actual GPS and acquires a more accurate lock pretty quickly (in a pretty efficient way mind you, if you go to settings > power and tap the graph you'll see the GPS usage and it should be pretty low, but might vary depending on your settings).
It is worth mentioning that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus may have (and should have) a faster lock time due to it's barometer sensor. However it's still quite acceptable in my experience with the One X.
Indoors right now it took about 5 seconds to give me a rough location (about 4 blocks away) and then about 10 seconds later it gave me an accurate location (you could see the GPS icon kick on while it did this).
Keep in mind this is a fresh start of Google maps. If it had been running in the background it would lock faster and of course the accuracy is good and if you're using it to navigate and such it's great (it's typically better than your average car GPS and I use it ALL the time for driving directions - it will speak to you).
Google maps is always hands down better on Android than iPhone because Google holds back with features on the iPhone. They want to save the best for their own devices of course.
Which is likely part of why Apple is doing their own map app...but I wonder just how successful they will be with that...

Google offers its own free Navigation app ONLY for Android. You don't have it with iPhone or any other platform. Also, Gmap is now vector drawing on Android and 3D landmark as well on Android. I don't think these features ever offered on other platforms.
The GPS hardware on OneX is perfect. I've been using this everyday. The accuracy goes down to 9 feet and hold steady. It is even better than my Galaxy S2 which has a SiRFStar chip.

I love android but I've yet to see one that locks on as fast as the iPhone 4s. I'm using the Galaxy Nexus now and it is nowhere near as fast to lock on to my pinpoint location as my iPhone 4S. I'm not a fanboy either way but give credit where credit is due.

DukeL said:
I love android but I've yet to see one that locks on as fast as the iPhone 4s. I'm using the Galaxy Nexus now and it is nowhere near as fast to lock on to my pinpoint location as my iPhone 4S. I'm not a fanboy either way but give credit where credit is due.
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But you still have to pay for a Navigation software. I don't care how fast it can lock me in my current location (typically < 10 seconds for me in Android). I want a usable turn by turn navigation software for free. That's the most important reason why I use Android.

foxbat121 said:
But you still have to pay for a Navigation software. I don't care how fast it can lock me in my current location (typically < 10 seconds for me in Android). I want a usable turn by turn navigation software for free. That's the most important reason why I use Android.
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+1
That being said, location locks fast as any other phone I've used as well

DukeL said:
I love android but I've yet to see one that locks on as fast as the iPhone 4s. I'm using the Galaxy Nexus now and it is nowhere near as fast to lock on to my pinpoint location as my iPhone 4S. I'm not a fanboy either way but give credit where credit is due.
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impossible. the iphone 4s does not have a barometer like the galaxy nexus does.
the iphone is actually quite bad with gps. it's always inaccurate. yes, i'm staring at an iphone right now.
edit-- it is possible that one phone outperforms another from time to time...but let's say "on average" x is better than y.

From hardware site, 4s and HOX have almost the same GPS hardware ( USA GPS and Russian GPS) so the performance are the same
From software site, it depends your habits
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

I can't say for everybody else but I am an avid Apple iPhone person. I've had every iPhone version created and in some cases, bought both black and white. I buy, repair and sell Apple devices as a part time side job so that should say how much I like them.
Now saying that, I love Google Maps + Navigation on the HTC One X!!! It's more intuitive, spot on accuracy and the GUI is so much more implemented in the One X. The navigation is built into the Google Maps so you don't have to download and use a 3rd party navigation software. Also when you get to the location, it shows you a picture of the building you are navigating towards. In my opinion, Maps is one of the best parts about this phone.
Now to play devil's advocate, I will say the battery aspect of this phone is not as good as my iPhone 4S was. But I am experimenting with Auto TaskKiller Pro and I think that might have squashed that complaint (more time to experiment needed).
The other thing I love about the phone is the Gorilla Glass 2. I haven't tested it's anti-scratch ability (and hopefully don't ever have to) but it's ability to resist oil is freakin amazing! With my iPhone 4S, I was always having to wipe my screen with a towel to get the grease of my finger off the screen. With the One X, there's still a little bit of grease that has to be wiped off but not near as much as the iPhone 4S. And when you wipe it off, it actually comes off. You don't have to keep rubbing it to get it to come off.
Ok that's my thoughts on the phone so far. Personally, I came into this phone expecting to take it back before the 30 day return policy was up. But I'm walking away as an extremely impressed HTC One X owner.

Google Maps is the most underrated app for finding phone numbers, addresses, websites, and obviously directions. I also use it probably more than any other app, and am always telling other people to use it more frequently.
Coming from an iphone 3G, Captivate, and Inspire 4G, I know what crappy GPS signal is like. The ihpone would get a lock after 2-3 minutes, but the Captivate and Inspire would never get a lock. I hated it.
With the One X, I am blown away by the quickness of the lock (4-5 seconds from a cold startup) and the accuracy. It gets down to 2-3 meters, and the compass is dead on. Could not be any better, IMO.
On another note, I miss the days of everyone talking about the Captivates GPS not working because people were indoors. I tried it out in the first level of my 2 story apt building, and got a lock in 5 seconds accurate to 10 meters.
---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:59 PM ----------
and also to add....Android's Google Maps app is MILES ahead of the iphones. It's no wonder why apple is replacing it with their own app

I too have good experience w Google maps..locks on fast...
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Other people have already said similar things....
Every other phone I've ever had had a slow GPS lock, I would end up turning off the GPS because because it chewed battery constnatly searching for a lock.
The one x IS INCREDIBLY fast... holy cow, a gps works like it should - it locked on to me within 5 seconds and I was driving on the highway. As mentioned, the hardware has GLONASS so its using russian satellites as well...
The GPS lock isn't just nice for google maps, any other app which looks for a location is greatly benefited because you're not sitting there waiting for a location.
I gotta say - the GPS working awesome is one of my favorite features.

After using Iphones since 2008, the GPS and maps functionality on the One x is much improved. Added search features, instant location lock, the directional layout of the map on the iphone always drove me crazy, now with Android its much more intuitive to follow your route and next moves. Navigation worked perfectly even with multiple re-routes, color me impressed. Although the spoken voice turn by turn sometimes is a bit hard to understand, it isnt that big of a deal.
I agree with this screen resisting any oil deposits, very nice.
Now coming from an iphone the things I miss are the quality of the apps, some mail links and phone numbers dont populate into executables and you have to manually enter some of that information or copy/paste which is a step behind iOS. Some slight techincal glitches happen from time to time, however the multi-tasking weakness of the One-x is by biggest complaint. After wanting "something different" than an iphone, coming to a high-end android device has me using the same apps and a very similar layout that I had on the iphone which I wouldant have guessed.

saintforlife said:
Google Maps implementation on the iPhone is top notch
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Haha. That's funny.
BTW I had the same problem with the first batch of Cappys. I replaced it and that fixed the gps. I still have my 2 year old Captivate. It's smoother and faster than ever.
Saying that GMaps on iphone is top notch is simply hilarious. Where do you get your standards?

The native Navigation feature on Android pretty much means the One X stomps over the functionality of GMaps on the iPhone. iPhone owners are always shocked when I tell or show them that Android has built in Garmin/Tom Tom-like interface (actually much better than those devices, but that is what people know) with first person perspective, voice directions, etc. When you combine this with the search power of Google, there is really no comparison.
As for the device specifics of the One X, the large screen makes it really easy to see while driving. And the GPS absolutely rocks so far. Cold start out of the box, the first time I turned on the GPS, it had lock instantly. I'm talking one second! The average is actually a few seconds, usually 5 seconds or less, but maybe a lfew seconds more when there is cloud cover. But I was really blown away to see it lock on so fast the first time it was ever powered up (which usually takes a bit longer).
---------- Post added at 02:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:27 PM ----------
danix180 said:
Saying that GMaps on iphone is top notch is simply hilarious. Where do you get your standards?
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There are actually a few interface differences on iOS version that seem better implemented. This may be what the OP is talking about. It never fails to amaze (and disappoint) me that some Google apps are better implemented in iOS than on Android. But I'll agree with you that overall, the Android versions pwns the iOS version especially once you consider the native Navigation app.
I've also noticed an odd thing, that the iOS version of GMaps sometimes shows the names of businesses (when you zoom in) that don't show up on Android. I've had a couple cases of this, where I'll be looking for the location of a restaurant of something while with my friends or wife, and the business will show up on their iPhone when they zoom in on the map, but not on my old Android phone.
In any case, if you're looking at the big picture, there seem to be some signs that Apple is going to eventually ditch Google Maps anyway (as the integrated mapping solution). The obvious reason being that Apple is currently at war with Android, and for that reason would like to stop relying on Google. Not a Mac person, but I was reading that some recent Mac applications are using an Apple-made mapping solution. Very possibly a sign of things to come for the iPhone. Little way of knowing that this change is going to come soon or not. But my feeling it is coming (and in the not too distant future).

Srgsx said:
After using Iphones since 2008, the GPS and maps functionality on the One x is much improved. Added search features, instant location lock, the directional layout of the map on the iphone always drove me crazy, now with Android its much more intuitive to follow your route and next moves. Navigation worked perfectly even with multiple re-routes, color me impressed. Although the spoken voice turn by turn sometimes is a bit hard to understand, it isnt that big of a deal.
I agree with this screen resisting any oil deposits, very nice.
Now coming from an iphone the things I miss are the quality of the apps, some mail links and phone numbers dont populate into executables and you have to manually enter some of that information or copy/paste which is a step behind iOS. Some slight techincal glitches happen from time to time, however the multi-tasking weakness of the One-x is by biggest complaint. After wanting "something different" than an iphone, coming to a high-end android device has me using the same apps and a very similar layout that I had on the iphone which I wouldant have guessed.
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we used to have mail and phone number hotlinks...til apple cried foul....as usual..
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda premium

For me it performs better than my friends iPhone 4s!

Primenay13 said:
For me it performs better than my friends iPhone 4s!
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In what regards ? Just curious...

I don't use Google Maps/Nav more than a couple of times a month maybe. But when I do, it's the pinnacle of apps. It's so amazingly vital to my needs and I could not live without it. I couldn't fathom not having Maps/Nav whenever I'm on a road trip or need to find directions. It's a Godsend and nothing touches it. It puts everything to shame.
And I know I sound like a Google fanboy, but whatever. It's true. I'd love for a competitor to step up to the plate but Google does such a fantastic job that I can't even identify any opportunities for them to improve on. Whenever they do updates and include new features I'm just blown away.

Related

Captivate or IP4?

I was in the same boat deciding between the iPhone 4 and Captivate. Here’s my experience with both. Hopefully it will help someone in making their decision. I’m in the Chicago area and ATT works pretty well for me. I won’t go into details about numbers or front facing cameras because you’ve already read about that. I really didn’t want an iPhone. I had a 3G when it first came out and had nothing but problems.
Screen: First off, both screens look great. It’s like being at Best Buy comparing tv’s. Side by side they all look a little different but once you get it home either one will look great. Ip4 has truer color but the over saturated SC really pops out at you. Even though the screen is only a half inch bigger, the border around it makes it appear bigger yet. Ip4 was easier for me to see in direct sunlight. Touchscreen responsiveness and scrolling smoothness is awesome on both. I liked the SC better.
Buttons: I like the physical buttons on the Ip4. They have a definite feel to them and are in the right location or the location that I’m use to. I got use to the SC buttons but hated the mini usb connector coming out of the top. When using a car charger or syncing to a computer it’s always in the way. Whose dumb idea was that? The buttons on the bottom of the screen SUCK. They go off after a few seconds and you have to hunt and tap around until the screen gives the desired response. Again, after a while you begin to get use to them.
Battery: When I got my SC home, battery life was terrible. About 6 hrs. of moderate use and it was dead. That gradually improved and by the second week, the battery lasted all day with 25% to spare. Since I charge it every night anyway, it wasn’t a problem. Ip4 lasts several days but again, I charge every night.
Apps: I don’t really care about how many thousand apps one has over another. Who needs 800 tip calculators anyway? I probably use about 50. Android has a free app called Missed Reminder that you can set to ring/vibrate if you don’t hear a call, text etc. (Just like my Razor V3 had). Ip4 word, excel, pdf documants right out of the box. With Android I used a free app called Quick Office that opened about 80% of these documents. Sometimes I’d get an error message and couldn’t view the file.
Email: I use Hotmail and Ip4 works great and is very fast. I had nothing but problems with the SC’s email. When I first setup my Hotmail it retrieved my mail although very slowly. I could read messages but if there was pictures or attachments the pinwheel would spin (loading) sometimes 10-15 minutes before loading all or sometimes part of the message. I tried having Gmail fetch my Hotmail which was much faster but most of the time the attachments were blank and showed up as 0 kbts. I was able to view my mail & attachments correctly if I went through the browser but that was kind of convoluted way to get it done. I even tried K-9 mail which did not help. I spoke with Samsung, posted questions on this forum as well as speaking with ATT customer service. The best solution they could come up with was to clear the cache. Their final comments were that some phones are better at email than others. I had the phone replaced but still had the same results.
Keyboard: Ip4 keyboard has bigger buttons than the SC’s keyboard so it’s a little easier for me however I think SC’s swype keyboard is the best. Once I learned how to use it I’d never use anything else. The SC’s Speak to text is cool too. As long as you speak clearly, it’s pretty accurate. Great for texting and driving as long as you’re not checking for mistakes. (My bad).
Browser: Both browsers are great and to me, they seem very similar. IP4 does not support flash. On the SC you can zoom way in on text, double tap and it word wraps to the screen so you don’t have to zig zag through the message to read it. Nice.
Wi-fi: With the SC I can be 20 feet from my wireless router and I’m showing poor signal strength. With the IP4 not only do I show a strong signal, I can pick up three of my neighbors as well.
Phone/Data: Both phones have been in cases since they left the store. Call quality is good on both phones. The SC sounds a little tinny but clear. Several times I’ve had the SC echo when I speak into it. Had to reboot it and it was fine. SC has dropped quite a few calls, more than I’m use to. Often when connected to a land line so I know it’s not the other party. Phone can be lying on a table and signal fluctuates between 5 bars and 0. At 0, sometimes calls connect, sometimes they fail. IP4 has only dropped two calls so far (3 weeks) in known dead areas.
Misc: Haven’t really had any problems with the IP4 so far. With the SC I haven’t had the random shutdown issue I’ve been hearing about. I have had the phone freeze a few times while ringing and not been able to answer a call. Had the call drop while removing it from my pocket (many times). I tried removing it by the edges, front and back, etc. I’ve had the phone pocket dial and even had my alarms deleted. I don’t know how because the phone is locked and there are several steps required to do this. I also get a lot of connection error and network error messages while I have a wi-fi or full 3g signal. In my photo’s app, all of my album art shows up as an individual photo album. I have to scroll through hundreds of albums to get to my Pictures. (Maybe I’m just missing something). I’m sure the gps issue will be fixed but It’s been six weeks. You’d think Samsung would have been all over that. It’s just some weather apps, golf apps etc. rely on gps information.
Conclusion: I love the way you can customize the SC. Between the widgets and live wallpapers it can look really cool. I like customizing; I don’t like messing with something just to get it to work correctly. I think the SC is very promising but right now it’s just to buggy for me. Everyone talks about how the Froyo update will fix everything but its all speculation. At first ATT said it was coming out the beginning of August. Then it was September. Now they claim they may not even release it and wait for Gingerbread. They can’t even send out a fix for the gps. I don’t think there’s a smartphone out that does everything. I’ve returned the SC and hopefully in the future when it’s a little more refined I’ll give android another try. As of right now I would have to recommend the IP4 by a longshot.
I can relate to some of your issues. I have both phones and each have + & -.. Overall I like the captivate more because I can do a lot more with it. For resale value the iphone always wins.
If you embed your album are as MP3 tags you won't see it. If you transfer it over as jpg files in the album folder then it gets indexed as normal picture would.
As for connection errors - I don't have that at all. I have only had one dropped call where my iPhone would drop them all the time and sometimes require 4 or 5 attempts to reconnect. You may have a bad antenna on your phone with your wifi issues too.
I lived with the iPhone 3G for 18 months before i got copy/paste and some other missing features - I figure Samsung will fix us up at some point too.
As for the mini USB cable socket - Samsung has home and car docks that set the phone horizontal, so then the plug is in a good place. Let's face it, no location is good for everybody. The bottom port on the phone was terrible for car use (for me) because I would plug the phone charger into a dash socket and then the phone was upside down when laying on the seat - yes i could buy a mount to hold it upright, but with the Samsung, the top port works for me.
Connection error may be a bit of a fluke, bad timing maybe. I didn't experience any dropped call for several days then att started doing updates in my area, 3g finally this month. My iphone 4 friend had the same issues I did for a matter of weeks now both are better. I admit the iphone is a beautiful product but I disagree about the screen, I have never seen a screen where the colors look truer to me than a galaxy s. For me I'll never give up android, so apple implemented folders, big deal I hated the iphone3g and I hate Ios4 even more. I have no icons folders or shortcuts on my home screen, just a few widgets. I use ADW launcher and use swipe up to launch the contacts, long press search to launch navigation, and home on home screen to launch phone. And I use widget locker to go to the phone, text, camera, or email. I could never fumble through pages and pages of icons for phone functions. Just because its a touchscreen it doesn't need more steps than a traditional phone. I wasn't to pick it up and call. Not pickup, unlock, press icon, press tab for number pad, call. Apples interface need work. On android I can make my own interface. I like icon screens to allow icons to be put where I want not bumped up next to other icons. I need to scan the screen too much with my eyes before I can find the right icon and a phone should be more natural than that. On paper the iphone is fantastic but in my hand android wins hands down.
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It's just a phone. Just pick one and get a new one in one and half years.
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
mwxiao said:
It's just a phone. Just pick one and get a new one in one and half years.
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I couldn't agree more. If the phone is really bad, then you have 30 days to return it. If not, then something better will be along in 12-18 months.
tonyb81 said:
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
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+1, it's like he swyped the thing in a few secs lol.
I have to agree with the battery, the Wi-Fi has to be the biggest power drainer and I would have thought it was optimised for power saving. To be honest everybody is trying to be like the iPhone if you think about it for a minute. But I'm still for Android, live without so many restrictions .
DJNgoma said:
+1, it's like he swyped the thing in a few secs lol.
I have to agree with the battery, the Wi-Fi has to be the biggest power drainer and I would have thought it was optimised for power saving. To be honest everybody is trying to be like the iPhone if you think about it for a minute. But I'm still for Android, live without so many restrictions .
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Me or the OP? I have a habit of writing run on sentences and pushing paragraphs together. And I did swype it pretty quick. But the op did write a lot.
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I must have gotten a good phone, because I wasn't experiencing any of the negatives the OP was talking about (as far as the Captivate is concerned). Wifi range is just as good as my father's iPhone 4, never had a dropped call, never pocket dialed, the 4 buttons at the bottom are always responsive, and just about all the other negatives you said.
Plus, I actually like where the USB connection is, very convenient for me. And I haven't used email on here before, so I can't comment on that.
I'm actually on my second Captivate. The first one had the capacitive touch buttons at the bottom that would push themselves. Outside of that, my wifi signal is pretty much on par with my 3GS. The difference being that the indicator shows the reception to be a bit worse, but the through put is much much better.
The call quality and reception on my Captivate is just as good as my 3GS, however, once again it shows the signal is worse. The big difference I've noticed is that I've never dropped a call with the Captivate, and with the iPhone I would drop about every fifth call.
Some of the issue posted here are non-existen for me. You guys need to give android and the phone some time to get use too. Especially if you had the iPhone for the past 3yrs. I get great battery life remember you're in control your phone do not have things running in the background if you really dont need it.
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I would have to say (coming from a 3gs) after downloading and installing the hybrid Rom and seeing what the possibilities are I would definitely say that my captivate blows my gfs ip4 out of the water. Just by switching roms I can see how Samsung and ATT did not do a good job with the firmware. I have better reception. The phone really flies through processes. Like you would expect a phone with top of the line hardware should. and when the devs get a hold of the froyo source I can only imagine how this galaxy s will perform
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tonyb81 said:
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
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+1
Also, I skimmed through your review mate, and you really seem to go on too much about little things as opposed to the core functionality of the phones.
That being said, I have experienced some of your problems to some degree, such as imperfect wifi etc.
1 more thing, doesn't captivate come with inbuilt office program such as thinkfree? Because international i9000 version does (as I have).
p.s. don't mean to sound overly critical, I do respect and thank ya for sharing your experience
i think the battery life on the captivate was poor. exchanged it for an iphone 4, sold it, and going back to the captivate, ironically. i just prefer the android UI.
kluemenadi said:
i think the battery life on the captivate was poor. exchanged it for an iphone 4, sold it, and going back to the captivate, ironically. i just prefer the android UI.
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The battery life on this is better than the aria which was horrid. I admit the 3g I had was better in that department after the upgrade to ios 3.2 or what ever it was. But the battery life on the captivate largely depends on what you are doing, running with it.
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iPhone 4 all the way. I've got a captivate and my friend went the iphone4 route. I've used both phones extensively and its not even close. Iphone 4 smokes the captivate. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it for another 22 months
iPhone 4 all the way. I've got a captivate and my friend went the iphone4 route. I've used both phones extensively and its not even close. Iphone 4 smokes the captivate. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it for another 22 months
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Can you elaborate on how it smokes the Captivate?? I had the iphone 4 and it was good, but the Captivate is just as good or better.
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lost2030 said:
Can you elaborate on how it smokes the Captivate?? I had the iphone 4 and it was good, but the Captivate is just as good or better.
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It really depends what you use the phone for. Personally, I use it for surfing the web, playing games, email, Music, texting, and GPS. Those things are the most important to me, as I basically live on my phone.
With that said, several of those things the iPhone actually does better. Surfing the web is a toss up. The Captivate has an incredible screen with a size bonus, but the iPhone has MUCH better text fidelity and pixel density. Games are a given here. The iPhone's app store just crushes the marketplace right now. Android is catching up, but Apple has those big name developers throwing good games at them every day. Email goes to the iphone as well. The email apps for the Android are sub par when dealing with certain providers like Yahoo. Apple's isn't flashy, but it does work consistantly. Music... Again iPhone is a superior mp3 player. It's easy to manage your collection and buy music on the fly. When Google Music gets up and running they'll be on a more level playing field. Texting goes to the captivate because of SWYPE. It's frikkin fantastic. Then GPS... We know what's happening here. Just waiting on Samsung to come through with the goods.
I wouldn't say the iPhone smokes there Captivate, but you really have to look at what the majority of people do with their phones. One thing that pisses me off with my Captivate is the ESPN app. What a frikkin' dog. Run it side by side with the iPhone equivalent and it's just a slap in the face. For running on equal hardware, the Android app is slow, unresponsive, and sometimes completely non-functional. On the other side of the coin... I love the customization of the Android device. I love being able to flip between widgets and launchers on a whim.
Oh yeah... And I guess I also make calls too. It's a push here, but I do like the speaker of the iPhone a bit better. The Captivate's speaker quality fluctuated from device to device quite wildly, and my most recent handset has a tinny speaker.
@Divinedark I can only agree to the appstore been better than the marketplace, and its the only thing I'm really missing. Everything else android does the same thing in my opinion or better.
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Captivate vs iPhone

So I got my captivate a few months ago, coming from the iPhone 3G & 3Gs(both great phones) and although I dragged my feet making the transition, I can honestly say I'm happy with my decision to get the Captivate as apposed to the iPhone 4. Here's why:
The iPhone is a great phone. Nobody can argue that. It has the best music player, best web browser, smoothest UI, best design, etc.
IMHO no other phone will be as good as the iPhone out of the box.
But when it comes to phones and technology, put simply, I'm a tweaker. I like to **** with things, experiment, add personal touches, etc,. In short, the iPhone doesn't really let you do that. The iPhone is the iPhone and the Captivate is more like a mini computer.
The iPhone "just works", there's nothing to **** with, and to me that takes all the fun out of it
I'd rather have a phone that "I" make work the way I want it to, rather than a phone that "Apple" makes work the way THEY want it to.
When it comes down to it I think it just depends on what kind of tech junky you are and what your use of the phone is going to entail.
For me, I'm gonna enjoy tweaking out on my phone for the next 2 years
K rant is done, that is all.
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I look at it like this: iPhone is like James Bond, the best there is at doing exactly what he specializes in. Android is like MacGyver, a little rough around the edges, but given the right tools he can do anything.
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Dungeon47 said:
I look at it like this: iPhone is like James Bond, the best there is at doing exactly what he specializes in. Android is like MacGyver, a little rough around the edges, but given the right tools he can do anything.
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Click to collapse
That's a good way to look at it lol
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Dungeon47 said:
I look at it like this: iPhone is like James Bond, the best there is at doing exactly what he specializes in. Android is like MacGyver, a little rough around the edges, but given the right tools he can do anything.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
+1
Couldn't agree more
i actually considered selling my captivate and going to a 3gs or I4 largely due to the GPS issues with the device (wifes i4 GPS works flawlessly with mapquest).
I had also considered it because i recently sold my ipod classic and had considered getting a touch but if i could do a 32gb i4 and have one device cover my phone and mp3 needs why not. (captivate isn't horrible as an mp3 player but i would miss the ability to 1. control through car stereo via ipod dedicated input 2. The enhanced sound quality of using such input.
Fortunately with my wife having one everytime i had the notion i could play with hers
mp3 playing great.......games great........web device great
But the biggest missing component from IOS is a competent notification system (lack of notifcation bar, would definitely miss the convenience of the dropdown notification bar as well as being able to place information, widgets & shortcuts on the lockscreen, and lack of mobile AP (i think the latter can be remedied via jailbreak).
As much as i like to tinker and customize i could honestly live with the app grid and lack of widgets if the iphone had a more competent and convenient notification system for managing missed calls, texts, emails etc. (I don't know if anyone has played with one but the screen that comes up when multi-tasking seems like it would have been ideal for delivery and management of such notifications. When you go into multi-task/app switching in IOS (via push the button twice quickly it then displays running apps and recent apps in the very bottom row of screen. The top 95% of screen is unused and imo wasted potential to house the notifications.
i returned my captivate cuz of battery life and gps issues and picked up the iphone 4 which i currently have now. while the gps is flawless, the battery is about the same or worse while in use. On the other hand battery lasts considerably longer when the iphones screen is off compared to the captivates battery with the screen off. (good for listening to music and audio books).
The stock ios is garbage compared to android. i had to jailbreak it and then work for hours searching for repositories and tutorials on what i can do to personalize and force the phone to have some cool features. You really take silly things like moving icons where you want them and having widgets for granted while you are on android. I miss how easy it was to access information etc. it is possible on the jailbroken ios, but the pickings are extremely thin and the few available are glitchy and leave alot to be desired.
The shoddy multitasking combined with one hard button is another pain in the ass. Multitasking in ios usually means actually closing the program and then having a quick link available to u when you want to open it again.
I am pleased that there are more high quality apps available on this iphone 4. Android is not that far behind though and i can tell that app dev for the ip has slowed. Considering the sheer mass of apps available for the ios i would expect more apps designed for the ip4 to be available. Only a very small fraction of the apps utilize the ip4's retina display. Also, when i check the jailbroken repo's for new homebrew apps, development seems to be stagnating.
I've only written about the things that are important to me. Some of my complaints about the iphone can be explained away as i'm sure some people will try to do. However, my opinions stand, there is much left to be desired.
My suggestion is to find an android phone with working gps and decent battery. Or test out a new windows mobile phone. I can't say i'd recommend the iphone to someone. If you need to replace your captivate soon, i'd suggest asking for your money back because they cant deliver on gps promises, ask for a full refund. Save you're upgrade and wait for a new wave of android phones to hit att.
I had poor battery performance and abysmal GPS at first. After conditioning the battery properly by running from full to 10% a couple of times, the performance improves significantly, and now it blows my old iPhone 3GS away in battery performance. Also, the GPS issue for me has been resolved by using Assonance ROM. I get a solid lock within about 10 seconds outside, and about 30 inside, and it holds even while I drive.
All that aside, if you just want to pick it up and have it work, but don't care to 'make it your own' then iPhone is right for you. The bottom line is whether you are happy with what you have.
My experience has been that most of my friends with iPhones that absolutely love them did not own a smartphone previously and the few that did aren't as pleased with their iPhones as they thought they'd be. Then there are the ones that just refuse to admit that an Apple product isn't as good as they want you to believe.
Miami_Son said:
My experience has been that most of my friends with iPhones that absolutely love them did not own a smartphone previously and the few that did aren't as pleased with their iPhones as they thought they'd be. Then there are the ones that just refuse to admit that an Apple product isn't as good as they want you to believe.
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Click to collapse
i have to believe this. idk who would deem most of this stuff as godly unless they havn't tried android at all.
as for what the other guy said about conditioning and gps fix, i did everything known to man to make that battery last, but i still am not satisfied with battery life in the captivate or the iphone 4. battery technology needs to catch up. Gps wise, i was really looking for a gps that could track my run's and give me distances etc. i tried roms and all the gps fix suggestions from xda but it still rarely gave me accuracy close than 10-20 meters and bounced from house to house while i was goin through my neighborhood. at least the iphone4 got one thing right.
The shoddy multitasking combined with one hard button is another pain in the ass. Multitasking in ios usually means actually closing the program and then having a quick link available to u when you want to open it again.
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Click to collapse
good call. I guess it would get easier with more use but i also don't like the 1 button method either. The multiple buttons on the captivate makes web browsing and multi-tasking a better experience imo
Dungeon47 said:
I look at it like this: iPhone is like James Bond, the best there is at doing exactly what he specializes in. Android is like MacGyver, a little rough around the edges, but given the right tools he can do anything.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Perfect +1
Ive had both. The reason i dont want the iphone anymore is the ridiculous cost to replace.I picked up both of my captivates for cheap. Overall i love my captivate...the only reason i will get rid of it soon is the gps. I also have a htc aria. If it had a bigger screen i would prefer it over my captivate. Its very fast and the gps is dead on.
I have had both also. It took several months for me to get used to the captivate. I use yahoo email and the iphone is better for yahoo email than android. This was almost a game stopper until I learned how to use gmail to basically look just like my yahoo box after forwarding my emails to gmail. The gps is still an issue but not as much since I carry a blackberry bold 9700 for work and the gps locks to 3 meters in about 20 seconds.
Once rooted and lag fixed, the captivate is pretty awesome! The screen is to hard to give up on. I think 4 inches is the sweet spot for phone screens. When I look at the screen on the iphone it looks so much smaller than before.

Had my Rogers One X for a week - impressions

Been lurking on these forums for a long time, finally decided to register to share my thoughts on the One X..
I've predominantly been an iPhone user since the launch of the 3g here in Canada. With a jailbreak and length of usage, I have my iPhone set up to do everything I need it to do almost perfectly. In the last half a year or so, however, I've become tired of looking at iOS. Every time I'd look at android devices with their big screens and useful widgets I'd feel a little pang of jealousy. Thus, I started purchasing Android devices non stop and within the last year, I tried the:
Nexus S
Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy S2
HTC Sensation
and
Galaxy Nexus again
I ended up returning / selling each of these phones for a variety of reasons, the two biggest factors were the lack of comparable pixel density and battery life. After getting rid of the Sensation I bought an iPhone 4S and was disturbed by how much worse the battery life was vs the iPhone 4. My 4 would never come close to dying and the 4S was struggling to make it through a day.
The second galaxy nexus with 4.0.4 was almost perfect BUT the samsung build quality bothered me as it just didn't "feel" like a premium device should in the hand..
I knew as soon as I saw the One X I'd have to give it a try. HTC is known for putting together phones that feel great in the hand and this is a factor for me. So far, this phone has been outstanding! I find myself unlocking it regularly just to look at the display. The battery life has been incredible, I have not come close to having the battery die on me on any given day. Granted, I do more texting, twitter, facebook, browsing and text based things vs playing games. The longest day I've had on it so far is 19h 51m with 4h 18m of screen time and I still had 11% of battery left.
Not being a hardcore android enthusiast as of yet, I don't have too much of an issue with sense 4.0. It's pretty to look at and adds some decent functionality. The downside is the minor lag when flicking between homescreens. I would hope that on a flagship, powerful device they'd be able to have virtually no noticeable lag whilst performing such tasks.
This phone does most things flawlessly, I have zero complaints regarding phone performance, call quality, text msging etc. As a phone, it seems to be working extremely well thus far. It also feels great in the hands, the polycarbonate shell almost has a ceramic feel to it. The size is a bit shocking coming from an iPhone but is easy to adapt to.
However, the device isn't without it's bugs, these are the ones I've noticed so far:
-Display: I know HTC is using two different LCD panels, mine is definitely the warmer of the two being used and the whites have a bit more of a yellowy than a blueish tinge to them. I'm not sure how much this bothers me as of yet as in every way the display seems great to look at, I run auto brightness and don't expect it to be extremely bright. I'd be interested in knowing whether anyone with a Rogers unit has a whiter or yellower display?
-Wifi seems to be an ongoing issue. At first it seemed like it would barely hold onto a solid wifi connection at home. I googled like mad and saw a suggestion regarding hard coding the IP vs using DHCP to solve the issue. I didn't think that would be the solution and found another person saying the phone seemed to work better with a wireless network mode of b/g vs b/g/n so I disabled N on my router and the wifi seems to be much more consistent now but not perfect. At times the wifi bars will just disappear for no apparent reason. I've never had an issue like this with any other wifi device at home. Also attempted a channel change. Hoping it's a software issue that gets sorted with an update
-Camera seems pretty average to me.. This is one area where I think the iPhone still excels beyond any other phone I've ever tried. Its simple camera tends to take pretty good 95% of the time. With the One X so far I had a buddy attempt to snap a quick picture of me and it wasn't great. Have tried a few test pictures around the house and the quality seems okay but not great. Keep in mind, I haven't messed with settings, just literally point and shoot. I don't feel as if though you should have to adjust settings to produce a good quality image with a camera phone, I'm not a photographer and have no real interest in learning about photography. I just want to capture a moment on demand and have it captured fairly well without much effort
-Status bar icons: Last night was the first time I've set an alarm on the phone. The icons in the status bar seemed to be going a bit nuts, the alarm icon would disappear and reappear for no apparent reason. Not sure if I just need a reboot because I haven't heard anything about this anywhere
-Call volume display: When I adjust the volume during a call, the volume display is still on the screen when I'm ending the call, which could be minutes later. For some reason it doesn't seem like it's automatically closing off the screen
Anyway, sorry for the long winded intro and thoughts. Would love to hear feedback regarding the issues I've experienced and would be glad to answer questions regarding the device for those of you still waiting to pick yours up.
Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to give us info. Good to know.
Minor723 said:
Thanks for taking the time to give us info. Good to know.
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Click to collapse
+1. Can't wait until Friday!
Hey there tawheed12! Picked up a One XL from Rogers friday last week as well, I'll share my experience with the issues you mentioned and maybe we can get a better picture of what's wrong. (no pun intended)
I too have noticed a yellowish tinge. However, I've been reading a lot on Google Books (reading a book on a screen this size is a real treat) and I've noticed that the more I use the phone with a solid, or near solid white screen, the less the yellowish tinge. It could be my imagination, but it could also be the screen needs to be "broken in". I don't know anything about the manufacturing process for this new generation of SLCDs so it might be possible it just takes time.
I tested the alarm and the call volume display issues, they don't seem to exist on mine for some reason. Alarms stick and the volume bar fades away after a few seconds. I tested normally and in speakerphone mode. I wonder if it's a third party app you're using?
As for the camera, I've fiddled around with most of the settings, and it seems to take more focused/better shots if you turn off the continuous shooting mode and frame your pictures normally. I know the high shutter speed is supposed to be a huge selling point but the bursting just seems useless to me. Still, even with it off, photos aren't brilliant or anything. HDR and Low Light modes can be useful sometimes, everything else just seems gimmicky or redundant to me. I have taken a few good shots though, if you want to compare let me know and I'll upload some.
My router is and has always been less reliable than my phone so I can't test that one out for ya
One thing I've noticed, the stock music app seems a little nonintuitive in some areas. Google Voice Actions' "listen to" command won't actually play anything, it just does a search in the app, and it will only do it ONCE. Further tries just bring you to the original search and ignore what you said. Hardly hands free. It also has random issues mixing up album arts with different albums in the queue. I've switched to Winamp in the meantime, but it's a shame because the stock app works very well otherwise.
One thing really bothering me, my camera clicks when changing focus. It was quiet at first, but it's getting louder fast. I hope there isnt an issue with our batch of phones! I'd appreciate knowing if anyone else is having this issue.
Anyways, hope I helped!
MatinatorX said:
Hey there tawheed12! Picked up a One XL from Rogers friday last week as well, I'll share my experience with the issues you mentioned and maybe we can get a better picture of what's wrong. (no pun intended)
I too have noticed a yellowish tinge. However, I've been reading a lot on Google Books (reading a book on a screen this size is a real treat) and I've noticed that the more I use the phone with a solid, or near solid white screen, the less the yellowish tinge. It could be my imagination, but it could also be the screen needs to be "broken in". I don't know anything about the manufacturing process for this new generation of SLCDs so it might be possible it just takes time.
I tested the alarm and the call volume display issues, they don't seem to exist on mine for some reason. Alarms stick and the volume bar fades away after a few seconds. I tested normally and in speakerphone mode. I wonder if it's a third party app you're using?
As for the camera, I've fiddled around with most of the settings, and it seems to take more focused/better shots if you turn off the continuous shooting mode and frame your pictures normally. I know the high shutter speed is supposed to be a huge selling point but the bursting just seems useless to me. Still, even with it off, photos aren't brilliant or anything. HDR and Low Light modes can be useful sometimes, everything else just seems gimmicky or redundant to me. I have taken a few good shots though, if you want to compare let me know and I'll upload some.
My router is and has always been less reliable than my phone so I can't test that one out for ya
One thing I've noticed, the stock music app seems a little nonintuitive in some areas. Google Voice Actions' "listen to" command won't actually play anything, it just does a search in the app, and it will only do it ONCE. Further tries just bring you to the original search and ignore what you said. Hardly hands free. It also has random issues mixing up album arts with different albums in the queue. I've switched to Winamp in the meantime, but it's a shame because the stock app works very well otherwise.
One thing really bothering me, my camera clicks when changing focus. It was quiet at first, but it's getting louder fast. I hope there isnt an issue with our batch of phones! I'd appreciate knowing if anyone else is having this issue.
Anyways, hope I helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know about the screen. It doesn't really bother me too much until I hold it next to a device with more of a blueish tinge.
I noticed the camera focusing sound too, very odd. Never had a phone that makes any type of audible noise when focusing.
I haven't used the music app so can't really help you on that one.
I'll try and take some good pics and upload them and we can compare!
My only real complaint so far is the wifi. It seems VERY shaky at much smaller distances than other phones I've had, to the point that putting my body between the phone and the router at about 20 feet makes the signal disappear. This is the only phone I've ever owned that had this much trouble with the wifi in my house. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in software.
I still haven't experienced any issues with WiFi on mine. It's rock solid.
The only thing I can think of, is that I've disabled Packet Aggregation on my router (Asus RT-N56U) due to some incompatibilities with my D-Link AP (constant disconnections). Perhaps it's the same issue.
Don't own one yet, but I've played with the demo unit at AT&T numerous times. About half the time I've had the wifi drop out on me. This is concerning and hope it can be fixed with an update. Regardless, I will be preording my unit tomorrow.
DannySmurf said:
My only real complaint so far is the wifi. It seems VERY shaky at much smaller distances than other phones I've had, to the point that putting my body between the phone and the router at about 20 feet makes the signal disappear. This is the only phone I've ever owned that had this much trouble with the wifi in my house. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I *HAVE* to assume this is a software issue. It's ridiculous how bad it is. Changing my router to just b/g did make it much more consistent but still not even close to 100%. It's constantly slower than my iPhone testing from the same spots of the house. Could always try to enable the "Best wifi performance" option or whatever but it apparently sucks down quite a bit more battery.
I can also say i have the same issues regarding the wifi! Seems to be a widespread issue.
Great news about the battery because I just mostly text and i talk about a good hour on the phone daily, not really a phone gamer, so my battery should be great fingers crossed.
UMGixxer said:
Great news about the battery because I just mostly text and i talk about a good hour on the phone daily, not really a phone gamer, so my battery should be great fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering your usage, I think the battery will be more than adequate!
I do keep my brightness on auto, limit some push notifications and keep my GPS off though I doubt the latter two make much of a difference.
tawheed12 said:
Considering your usage, I think the battery will be more than adequate!
I do keep my brightness on auto, limit some push notifications and keep my GPS off though I doubt the latter two make much of a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never have gps on since it sucks so bad on my captivate I have just given up on it for now lol
I got mine about 3 days ago - yesterday and today I have noticed the battery life improving greatly - the first few charge cycles it was a hog, but it seems to be evening out.
I've had many flagship android phones and had an iphone at 6 different times (from 3G to 4S) so I would say I've had my fair share.
This HTC One X is the first android phone I've had that truely feels high end - I LOVE the screen and its all around a great looking device. No complaints from me actually - its also the first android phone I've had I didn't immediately want to flash a new rom on. I will likely flash AOSP on it though at some point, whenever that is possible.
in short - it's a FANTASTIC phone! battery life blows the 4S out of the water.
aussois said:
I got mine about 3 days ago - yesterday and today I have noticed the battery life improving greatly - the first few charge cycles it was a hog, but it seems to be evening out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are an avid ROM flasher, you know that on new phones, and after ROM flashes, the battery meter is not calibrated. The actual battery consumption is not changing. Just the % battery that is being displayed is changing (getting more accurate).
kinda lame the "Camera seems pretty average". this is supposedly one of the strong selling points of the device. i'll have my GNex laying around for a bit after i get mine so i'll be doing all kinds of comparisons between the two. i have no doubt, though, that it's going to trump my GNex in spades.
mrvirginia said:
kinda lame the "Camera seems pretty average". this is supposedly one of the strong selling points of the device. i'll have my GNex laying around for a bit after i get mine so i'll be doing all kinds of comparisons between the two. i have no doubt, though, that it's going to trump my GNex in spades.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the at&t model the camera is clean. Compared to my iPhone 4s and vivid cameras
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
rambo8987 said:
On the at&t model the camera is clean. Compared to my iPhone 4s and vivid cameras
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
that's good to know. yeah i've been lurking on the engadget review for the international one and they had this to say:
"Now let's talk about image quality. We pitted the One X against the current cream of the crop -- the N8, Amaze 4G, iPhone 4S and Galaxy Note (which uses the same module as the Galaxy S II) plus Canon's S95 compact point-and-shoot. The camera landed somewhere in the middle of this star-studded pack, marginally beating the Galaxy Note and iPhone 4S while almost matching the Amaze 4G. Sure, it's not in the same league as the N8 (which rivals the S95 in some cases), but this is one stellar camera, especially when you consider that HTC is not positioning this phone as an imaging-centric device like the Amaze 4G."
mrvirginia said:
that's good to know. yeah i've been lurking on the engadget review for the international one and they had this to say:
"Now let's talk about image quality. We pitted the One X against the current cream of the crop -- the N8, Amaze 4G, iPhone 4S and Galaxy Note (which uses the same module as the Galaxy S II) plus Canon's S95 compact point-and-shoot. The camera landed somewhere in the middle of this star-studded pack, marginally beating the Galaxy Note and iPhone 4S while almost matching the Amaze 4G. Sure, it's not in the same league as the N8 (which rivals the S95 in some cases), but this is one stellar camera, especially when you consider that HTC is not positioning this phone as an imaging-centric device like the Amaze 4G."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me. When you get this phone. You won't be dissappointed. Esp in camera area. But again, its a phone, not a dedicated camera, so its kind of silly seeing people dis phone makers because areas like cameras, gaming, screen reso is not stelllar. Want a great camera? Lol buy a camera, want a great gaming console? Buy a game console. Want great display? Go get a 55 LCD screen tv. Maybe I'm just excited about this phone.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
I have to agree the only two complaints I have with mine. The first is the Wi-Fi it seems spotty unless I am less than ten feet from my router. The only other complaint I have is with the sense keyboard. I am testing a few alternatives so its more a preference than anything. Bottom line though the One X is probably the best device I have used in a long time.
Sent from my HTC One X

iPhone 4S for a day :O

So it turns out I forgot my phone at home today (something that almost never happens) and I snagged my dad's iPhone 4S to stay connected.
This is coming from an Android fanatic (I love my Android dearly), I will cover everything I noticed throughout my day of use.
This phone is a battery hog! The setup was power intensive for sure (GPS, wifi, and 3G data on, screen brightness 100% auto), but I barely made it through the day. Started off with 69% at 7:30am. Went all the way down to 10% by 5pm, with not too much usage (a little light web browsing and a few phone calls). You can physically see the percentage go down with every minute you keep the screen on. And the phone gets pretty warm with the slightest of use.
Call quality is exceptional. Voices sound very clear and deep, even in noisy environments.
I miss my physical keyboard I really don't know how some users can switch away from the physical keyboard. The problem is, it takes up so much space that you find yourself browsing around on such a small portion of the screen sometimes. It also doesn't get out of the way on demand, which is annoying. And editing anything is a real pain, especially because there's no trackpad to precision movements. Essentially you have to hold and use the magnifying glass to get around and edit text. Auto correct is very annoying when trying to type custom words.
iOS lags! It's just not as noticeable and in much fewer places vs android, but it will lag if you try to scroll fast through facebook posts. I actually prefer the scroll in android more than iOS. It has less weight and scrolls for longer with less flicks.
Screen is terrifically bright. No problem seeing it, even outside. Albeit a little smaller than I'm used to, it's a superb screen.
Voice mail is complicated and Siri kept activating every time I listened to voice mail. I don't know why. On top of that, voice mails play through speakerphone by default. Which means everyone can listen in on my private messages
I don't like the fact that there are no navigation buttons except for the physical home button. I like to have a dedicated button for going back and home.
iOS doesn't thread applications the same way Android does. If you click on something from one app (such as a link) a new app opens. But there's no way to go back to the old app without multitasking your way back. You can't simply press back like in Android.
I miss the fact that there aren't any widgets.
The iPhone sorely needs a notification light. I found myself waking the phone all the time just to see if anything was going on.
Design is great. Phone feels more solid than any phone I've ever owned. You pick it up and you instantly know you're holding a high end device. But I was so scared of dropping it all the time. Glass is not forgiving when dropped (no wonder nearly everyone has a case on their iPhones)
I will update this review as I see fit.
It's my honest opinion of my experience.
Feel free to chime in (NOT troll). We should be past that stage by now, seriously...
Just a quick note. If you jailbreak the iPhone, you can install Widgets, but even then they're no match for Android ones. Apple just targetted a different audience I guess
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
pijiman said:
Just a quick note. If you jailbreak the iPhone, you can install Widgets, but even then they're no match for Android ones. Apple just targetted a different audience I guess
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Yeah I have a jail broken iPOD and you really have to watch what tweaks you install or it can really bog the system down. And even after it was jailbroken I still have the "oh I miss my Android" feeling everytime the iPOD is in my hands. It was slow before and after the jailbreak, playing swamp people was laggy and made it a stove top with the burner on high. The battery lasts for me but I don't do much but facetime with my daughter. I love electronics no matter who makes it as long as its a worthy device and I think all iDEVICES are dumb phones with a pretty touch interface and a halfway decent camera. But this is all my opinion. I will never go back to an iPHONE either, I had the 3G and man it wasn't what I wanted in a smartphone at all
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk 2
Just a note the iPhone is for users who don't need the phone for entertainment (mostly anyway) its meant for people that like their phone to be simple and to just "work". Android was meant for users like us who like to tinker and get the best from our phones. Overall, the iPhone and android phones can't be/shouldn't be compared because their meant for to different types of users.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk 2
I love iOS I'm hoping for a 3.8" iPhone 5. Personally when it comes down to me, I just love phones. Gimme a Blackberry and I'll be happy. Everything can been hacked to work how you see fit. You can even underclock the iPhone! Just need to understand there file system. I've never used a non-jailbroken iOS device. iOS is **** with out a Jailbreak(But again I have this subconsciousness thing about not hacking hack-able things) So it might be OK Stock. I don't hype into "Stolen features". We all know where that leads, in the end it's giving the user what they need. At least company's are trying.
Gimme a bigger iPhone I wan't Final Fantasy built Nativity for my device! I miss these.
gtmaster303 said:
This phone is a battery hog! The setup was power intensive for sure (GPS, wifi, and 3G data on, screen brightness 100% auto), but I barely made it through the day. Started off with 69% at 7:30am. Went all the way down to 10% by 5pm, with not too much usage (a little light web browsing and a few phone calls). You can physically see the percentage go down with every minute you keep the screen on. And the phone gets pretty warm with the slightest of use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is battery, that's all. They couldn't cram any bigger capacity in there anymore.
It is too small capacity, basically akin to our "original" HTC battery crap, you wouldn't last with our "original" through the day either, yet you won't call Doubleshot a "battery hog", right? (and I'm not defending iFail here, just pointing out facts... I always stay away from any proprietary junk such as _all_ Apple products)
gtmaster303 said:
Call quality is exceptional. Voices sound very clear and deep, even in noisy environments.
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Click to collapse
Voicecall quality mainly differs by networks and the phone's actual speaker's size, in that order. Anything else plays insignificant role.
To truly compare you must be on the same network, and since you've said it was "exceptional" I assume your Doubleshot's quality was much worse - which would indicate different networks to me.
On the other hand the first iFail had spekaer about twice the size of the one in my Kaiser, therefore on the same network iFail sounded way better than Kaiser... Don't know what are the speaker sizes now in our Doubleshot and latest iCrap, but it is possible it may have larger speaker too (bigger membrane = better)
/edit try this: call iPhone to iPhone on diffrent networks (or any exactly same phone models on 2 different networks). Most likely you WILL hear voice quality difference we did this test long time ago using Rogers and Bell, and difference was very noticable. Just make sure to use really different networks, not just different providers on the same network such as Chatr & Rogers in Canada; I don't know exactly about US, but I know you guys have only 3 or 4 really different networks (and 100 different providers using them lol)
Personally I used to use Rogers and Wind (now almost only Wind) and with my MT4GS same voicecalls (i.e. from my home) over Wind sound cheap and thin, while wwhen on Rogers they sound fuller and louder (or so it sounds).
gtmaster303 said:
I miss my physical keyboard
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Yeah, well, those who never used physical keyboard won't know
Friend of mine played with my Doubleshot for whole day and guess what, next wek he already had one too and iCrap posted for sale on howardforums
That's all I have to say about virtual keyboards, lol
gtmaster303 said:
iOS lags!
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No sh*t!
Everything lags when underpowered. iFail is an iFail for a reason: everything is "under-something there, except for the look
gtmaster303 said:
Screen is terrifically bright. No problem seeing it, even outside. Albeit a little smaller than I'm used to, it's a superb screen.
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Again, I had only the first iFail (briefly) but from seeing the latest iFails in the sun I saw they aren't readable either. It doesn't matter how bright are they if they can't be read well in the direct sunlight, isn't it pointless?
gtmaster303 said:
On top of that, voice mails play through speakerphone by default. Which means everyone can listen in on my private messages
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Really? Wow. That is some sSerious software "boo!" by the iOS coders :laugh:
gtmaster303 said:
I don't like the fact that there are no navigation buttons except for the physical home button. I like to have a dedicated button for going back and home.
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That is the same "category" as lack of physical keyboard. Adding buttons would make it look less "exceptional", same goes for keyboard... "ain't gonna happen", ever, iFail must *look well* first - usability is it's distant second priority...
gtmaster303 said:
I miss the fact that there aren't any widgets.
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pijiman said:
Just a quick note. If you jailbreak the iPhone, you can install Widgets, but even then they're no match for Android ones. Apple just targetted a different audience I guess
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Not "different audience" at all! Wrong assumption, sorry
THAT is the most serious shortcoming of iOS in general. The notifications ... "subsystem" (or whatever it is called) has always been a problem of any iOS device. Unless Apple will redesign it (read: write new OS from scratch) it won't change, ever. iOS is perfect for iPod, not for devices where constant background infos/notifications should have been shown on screen... (google it!)
Same goes for multitasking, they didn't really solve it but did a major workaround rather, kinda like calling hyperthreading a dual core (again - google it)
gtmaster303 said:
The iPhone sorely needs a notification light. I found myself waking the phone all the time just to see if anything was going on.
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Couldn't agree more. I can't imagine who had such DUMB idea to make a PHONE "blind"?! (same goes for some Android phones too - one of my friends constantly wakes up his "blind" LG P-900 just to check if he missed anything, so annoying, lol)
gtmaster303 said:
Design is great. Phone feels more solid than any phone I've ever owned. You pick it up and you instantly know you're holding a high end device. But I was so scared of dropping it all the time. Glass is not forgiving when dropped (no wonder nearly everyone has a case on their iPhones).
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...and that's what I've been always saying: what is the point of buying expensive "good looking" device, if you are going to immediately make it look ygly wrapped in some gel condom or hide it in a case?
It's like buying some art sculpture and then keeping it under some cloth cover clothes so it won't get dusty POINTLESS!
(and yes, I think iPhone looks UGLY when it is wrapped in any protective covers, especially all those popular ugly gel-alike plastic "condoms", and so are any other phones too)
Oh and 1 more case in point: coworker bought iphone because it was "so thin and slick". Guess what: his iphone with that ugly rubbery-gel "wrapper" he covered it with immediately, is thicker than my MT4GS (and ugly!) yet he keep saying his iFail is thinner... lol lol lol
...just my few canadian pennies
I will concur, iOS and Android are for totally different people. They're two different takes on accomplishing the same tasks
Another note, stock alarm app was way too simple in iOS. Almost no settings at all
@OP: very interesting, thanks for the honest feedback! From an experienced Android user

HTC 8X, after 4 days of use.

Hi everyone,
I'm just here to share my recent experience with my freshly bought 8X compared to my recently sold Titan.
The device is gorgeous, and it doesn't feel as thick as it actually is (I was surprised when I read that it was over a centimeter thick in the center), and compared to my Titan, even if the size are in the same categories, I really like the 16:9 aspect in the hand. Also compared to my Titan, the screen is much better. Not in term of obvious pixel density and color saturation, but in term of feel under the finger. They simply flow on the screen, and in 4 days (of pretty heavy use) I didn't really clean the screen, when with my Titan I had to use a microfiber cloth at least once every two or three days because of the fingerprints. So yeah, I really like the feel in the hand and how the phone looks. It catches the eye, and all the people I talk too are asking me what is that nice looking phone. Regarding battery life, as I said, those 4 days were pretty heavy in use and the phone did well, lasting all day long.
I love Windows Phone since the beginning. From my Omnia 7 bought the day it was available in France, I've been in love with this OS, and managed to convert my two best friends to switch (one from iOS, the other from Android). I'm waiting for them to get their WP8 devices so we can take advantages of the rooms (we share a lot of things together, but always all three of us, so it'll be pretty handy I think). But, because of HTC's way of dealing with their products and some WP8 weirdness, I really miss some features from my Titan.
The GPS app wasn't really expensive and worked well for me in France (I drive a lot), and I was also used to flip the phone to activate speakerphone... I did that a few hours ago, and felt dumb when I realized it did nothing. In the last two days, I drove about 7 hours in places I don't really know. With my Titan, I wasn't really worried, because I had the GPS app, and when it was for shorter distance and that I didn't want to bother with that heavy GPS app, I could still use Bing maps to navigate, but yesterday and today were painful because I had none of those (thankfully, the places weren't too small so it was easy to find) because HTC didn't put the Location app on the WP8 Store, and because Bing now doesn't have a turn-by-turn navigation (Why is that ? To promote Nokia phones with Nokia Drive ??) ! Also, on Bing maps, the satellite view is blurry as hell and I even have freaking clouds over my house when it's just fine on Bing's website or even on my Titan, and let's not forget the fact that the app isn't smooth, the framerate is really poor because of the vectorized text, but hell, look at Google Maps on an Android phones, it had way more data on screen and is really fluid ! Seriously, what the f- Microsoft ?
Now, since I'm driving a lot, I'm using a car mount, and I really love the vocal commands for texts... But these last two days, I haven't been able to send a single one since the 8X doesn't understand what I'm saying with my engine turned on. With my Titan, I knew that over 90/100km/h, there was too much noise in my car, and that the voice recognition sometimes messed up. But it was true for long messages, for short answer like "thanks" or else, I could easily say "Respond [...] Thanks [...] Send" and it worked like a charm. Here, with my 8x, even on a parking, without actually driving, if the engine is on, it can't recognize a single word ! Engine turned off, it works perfectly. And the phone is actually closer from me than my Titan was ! That's an other major WTF for me. How can such thing gets worse in such a scale ? I just can't use my 8X while driving (and as I said, this is one key element from me).
Finally, my last complaint would be about the front facing camera : Why is it so slow ? If I reach 10 fps in bright light it's already amazing, I wanted to compare the wide lens with a friend, he holded me his Galaxy S III, and when the wide angle is, indeed, really nice, I felt really stupid when comparing the framerate. The GS3 wasn't far from 30fps when my 8X was looking stop-motion like. How can such high-end phone feature a such poor front-facing camera experience.
So far I like the phone, but the comparison with the Titan regarding some key features and some low-FPS from time to time for me is not really flattering. I really hope I'll be able to fix those issues I have with my phone. For navigation, I'll probably by the Navigon Europe since it's probably the better you can get, but too bad it doesn't offer a trial. But for voice recognition... I'm actually pissed.
Thanks for sharing. My only complaint after the first few days is the rear speaker is intermittent. Worked for a day, then not the next, and so on. This one's going back... hope the next one is better.
warranty
I had mine already twice in warranty repair because of the same problem... at morning the phone is just dead and there is no way to charge it or turn it on.....

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