[Q] When philosophy matters - General Questions and Answers

(this post is a bit long, if you want to read it fast go directly to my questions.)
Hi everyone,
I'm about to buy a phone in order to kind of "fix" myself on a device since I have owned seven phones in the last six months.
I'm considering many devices by many constructors but I would like to have other people opinion about the one to choose.
I'll try to make it short:
To give an idea of my questions right now I will go fast over the experience I had with the main devices I onwed recently.
THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNINTERESTING PART FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS NO TIME TO LOOSE SO SKIP IT IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT A NOOB'S EXPERIENCE
Galaxy Nexus: fastboot is awesome, love the fact it is closer to Google but I was very disapointed when I learned that Samsung modifies even the Nexus's software, cm9 on it is as nice as fastboot. Screen drains to much battery and is not as beautiful as should be with such a high pixel density. Also suprisingly a bit laggy. Had to be sent to samsung it had a problem with the cpu...
Optimus 3D: the 3d is not a joke since it works but... Haven't had this device for long but I was unsatisfied with the stock rom (LG's main problem).
Motorolla Atrix: favorite device! Screen is as beautiful as GN on my opinion, with cm7 or 9 it becomes really nice on sftware too. Battery life is the best point of this device and the best I've had.
Optimus 2x: tried it for a few days, like the nvflash facility and the hardware capacity but only MIUI based on GB was a correct software for me, cm7's not too bad but cm9 is still very buggy.
Nexus S: for the hardware specs it is by far the best on software side, feels more solid than the gn. Battery is just average and speed is not really sufficient for my usage, expecially for switching apps on the stock ROM, cm9 or latest MIUI.
END OF THE UNINTERESTING PART (I hope)
So, here i am with experience from Samsung, Motorola and LG. Hardwarewise I have no problem with LG or Motorola but with Samsung it is less convincing.
Software, I would like to begin to develop for the next device I will get, I am an intermediate developper in Java and a decent Linux user. So it would be nice that the device has open drivers.
Here is my problem, I want to buy a device that I will keep for at least two years, I will try ArchlinuxARM and that kind of project with it.
My hesitation goes between the HTC Amaze 4G at 40$, the Galaxy Nexus at 50$ and the optimus 2x for free. I considered the sIII too but it will be 200$ and it is not worth it for me.
As I am not really confident with the durability of the GN, my mind is more with the Amaze for now but I only tried it in a store with, of course, the stock ROM. The 2x is like the less interesting option, I think.
>>> HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS! <<<
Am I right to think that the HTC Amaze 4G has tougher hardware?
Are the drivers open source or are they going to be soon? I read somewhere on the forum that people were asking HTC to release the sources, is it likely to happen?
What is the state of the ics based ROMs for the Amaze? Stable? Fluid? Comparated with cm9 nightlies on the GN?
Why the * is the Galaxy Nexus laggy?????????????? This device is supposed to be Google's flagship actually but, you know, it is just not as fluid as I think it should be.
The title of this topic is talking about philosophy, it is because I care about the constructor's philosophy. I mean, do you think that one of Samsung or LG or HTC is producing better hardware and/or is easier to fix at home? Do you think one of them is a bit less likely to produce with programmed obsolescence in mind?
Thank you for reading this loong post!
Thank you even more for giving me your opinion!

HTC will only be releasing the source for the kernel. All the other drivers for non Nexus phones are and always will be closed source. If you want to really develop with open source then your best bet is a Nexus.
sent from my cell in Arkham

This is actually quite sad that big companies like that don't participate more into open source software. I understand easily why M$ doesn't but it is harder to understand why the hardware manufacturers don't help the community...
Oh wait I just understood! Other companies that have even worse ROMs than HTC would be able to use their ideas.
I still think that it will change someday in the future. It cant continue like this indefinitely while more and more people learn about thé existence of open source and how better it can be than closed source.
But now I thought I had made a decision and that messes my mind once again I know now that thé Nexus series is the only way to be fully open source but there still is the point of hardware durability and that is somehow mlre important since it stays easier to use and develop for a phone that works!
What about the amount of hardware defects on one and the other?
My GN was overheating a lot, does the Amaze has this problem too?
Sent from my android

Related

[Q] Developers Next Phone (Android)... HTC, Samsung, Motorola, other?

Hello All. I am just wondering about how developers feel about the bootlock from Motorola versus the lack of support from Samsung, and the battery woes of HTC. What kind of phone are you guys planning on getting?
My personal view seems that Samsung makes a pretty good phone, and who cares if they don't support it because DEVs make better roms anyway. What do you all think? What is the phone of choice?
I'm curious about this as well. I'm looking at all the next gen stuff and wondering which tablets and phones will end up being supported by devs and most of all CM. I'd like to get an xoom or a galaxy tab 10", but if all the devs are planning on buying the HTC flyer I'd go that way just to ensure I have the the dev's device of choice. I guess the best bet is to wait for everything to be released and see what happens?
Bump ........
Well I'm no dev, but I'm planning on sticking with Samsung more than likely. You're totally right- even though Samsung doesn't support it, devs do (better than Samsung ever could), and the hardware is better than anything out there.
Anyways, why do we all root and use custom ROMs? Because we're dissatisfied with stock software. So company support doesn't matter much to me.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
You asked about phones. IMO, tablets are a different topic entirely (different use cases, different pocket! ), so all I'll say is that when I get a tablet, I'll just get the best one for the best price I can afford
As for my next phone: I'm kinda bummed. I'm VERY happy with my Desire HD, but NFC has caught my attention, so my next phone will be:
-slightly smaller than the DHD
-have NFC
-have the best screen (outdoor visibility) I can find
-last a full day with heavy usage (my DHD fits the bill after using JuiceDefender and SetCPU)
As for who makes it: I don't care, as long as it's rootable (and everything seems to get rooted ). But my last couple of phones have been HTC, as they seem to jibe with my upgrade curve
wow... Guess Devs aren't reading my lowly post. haha

Its getting busy in here :-)

Wow this area of the forum is getting busy, last week there was just a few of us, now the numbers are increasing fast. I knew this phone was going to be popular, just wait till the USA gets it too
Welcome new O3D owners.
Pete
i was just thinking the same i'm a member since yesterday but i followed this forum a few days before that and it's getting real busy awesome
mmm, when is supposed to be out in USA?
I guess we all just know a good phone when we see it.
Can't believe I was considering a Galaxy S2 or an HTC Sensation over my O3D. What was I thinking?!
Lagamorph said:
I guess we all just know a good phone when we see it.
Can't believe I was considering a Galaxy S2 or an HTC Sensation over my O3D. What was I thinking?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really dude, what were you thinking. Forget about the 3d, Optimus is still better than them. Tri-Dual and the Omap4 is the key
I noticed so excited when I purchased my LG because I'm not so sure whether it is true the right smartphone for me and if it gets the community it deserves. But what amazes me it goes fast because it is not yet available everywhere. I think there are still some great things to come
I'm very close to buying one.
My main concern is that the standard 2D 5MP camera is going to be rubbish up against the Galaxy S II. However, my software support fears have been alleviated by the fact CM7 has been confirmed.
I hear the 3D really is quite excellent.
See this thread if you have a decent pictures to share - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1174827
well i started in this forum with my HTC Elfin, then Xperia X1, then Motorola Milestone, then Galaxy S, then Galaxy S2 (for two weeks) and now my journey ended with this masterpiece of a smartphone!
looking forward to flash and test and flash and so on
Robboftw said:
I'm very close to buying one.
My main concern is that the standard 2D 5MP camera is going to be rubbish up against the Galaxy S II. However, my software support fears have been alleviated by the fact CM7 has been confirmed.
I hear the 3D really is quite excellent.
See this thread if you have a decent pictures to share - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1174827
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone tell me why cm7 is so much talked about...whats so special about it? A video? I looked at the about page, and it seems its just a malware protector, themer ect. Nothing special? We already have themes?
borgqueenx said:
Someone tell me why cm7 is so much talked about...whats so special about it? A video? I looked at the about page, and it seems its just a malware protector, themer ect. Nothing special? We already have themes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its so much more than just themes. there is deffo no malware protection. most manufacturers would probably describe it as malware!
cyanogenmod is a completely from the ground up customised version of android operating system designed for the power user with the intent of maximising the control over and performance of the raw hardware. it allows you to fully manage the settings and behaviours of your device to suit the way YOU like it.
i will honestly never buy another phone that does not have cyanogen available for it, its that good.
Things do seem to be picking up now in these forums which is nice to see.
hefonthefjords said:
its so much more than just themes. there is deffo no malware protection. most manufacturers would probably describe it as malware!
cyanogenmod is a completely from the ground up customised version of android operating system designed for the power user with the intent of maximising the control over and performance of the raw hardware. it allows you to fully manage the settings and behaviours of your device to suit the way YOU like it.
i will honestly never buy another phone that does not have cyanogen available for it, its that good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it will give us full root, and contain alot optimalisations to make the phone even faster?
borgqueenx said:
So it will give us full root, and contain alot optimalisations to make the phone even faster?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it's not that easy...
cyanogenmod is a opensource version of android.
normal customroms are basing on firmwares of the company.
cm7 not. its based on the officual code from google.
on the one side the programmers are able to change the code more easyer and deeper than the firmwares, on the other hand its harder to port cm7 to a new device with all the hardwaresupport.
and yes cm7 is always rooted
pros of cm7:
faster (not from the beginning on)
more funktions
cooler
cons of cm7:
at the beginning there are always bugs (due the different hardware)
some functions never work (for example tv-output of the galaxy s)
at the beginning batterydrain
so at the beginning the cm7-ports to a new device are buggy, slow, batterydraining and don't support the full hardware.
but after a lot of new releases it's really great! blazing fast, cooler, batterysaving and and and
Just got my P920 hope the amount of users will grow everyday

Disgruntled Sensation owner

I have an htc sensation and am extremely unhappy with the software support it has gotten. Not putting any blame on the devs, they have been great to us but the fact of the matter is that we are still on cm7 alphas, not even nightlies, and ics support is looking pretty bad. Kmobs has made some progress, so I'm going to wait a while to see what he has to offer along with whatever else the cm team gives us. And that's ignoring the hardware issues like poor reception and a shoddy screen (Ghosting and scan lines on an lcd made in 2011? seriously? That's ignoring the fact that my a** produces deeper blacks than this thing. I know it's an lcd, but come on! I swear to god I'm never buying an htc phone ever again).
Assuming that doesn't end well, would you guys recommend I "downgrade" to a nexus s? I wouldn't be able to afford a galaxy nexus (whenever the hell that launches on t-mobile, no way I import one) I could sell my sensation and get a used one for a pretty good price. Or should I just tough it out with my sensation and get a galaxy nexus when its second hand price drops?
Basically, what I'm asking is do you gs owners feel compelled to upgrade to the galaxy nexus or are you still content with your devices?
I'm happy with my phone as it is. Yeah, I could get a Galaxy Nexus if I wanted to pay for it outright, but there'll be another one next year, and there's nothing wrong with my NS. I wouldn't mind a Galaxy Nexus, but for me, my phone's doing what I need it to
tehgeekguy said:
I'm happy with my phone as it is. Yeah, I could get a Galaxy Nexus if I wanted to pay for it outright, but there'll be another one next year, and there's nothing wrong with my NS. I wouldn't mind a Galaxy Nexus, but for me, my phone's doing what I need it to
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what really bothers me about the sensation, it doesn't do what I need it to do. HTC Sense is a complete mess imo, and cm7 (which is what I'm currently running) is incredibly buggy due to it still being an alpha. (the browser will crash about every tenth page you load) Thanks for the input.
gonintendo said:
I have an htc sensation and am extremely unhappy with the software support it has gotten. Not putting any blame on the devs, they have been great to us but the fact of the matter is that we are still on cm7 alphas, not even nightlies, and ics support is looking pretty bad. Kmobs has made some progress, so I'm going to wait a while to see what he has to offer along with whatever else the cm team gives us. And that's ignoring the hardware issues like poor reception and a shoddy screen (Ghosting and scan lines on an lcd made in 2011? seriously? That's ignoring the fact that my a** produces deeper blacks than this thing. I know it's an lcd, but come on! I swear to god I'm never buying an htc phone ever again).
Assuming that doesn't end well, would you guys recommend I "downgrade" to a nexus s? I wouldn't be able to afford a galaxy nexus (whenever the hell that launches on t-mobile, no way I import one) I could sell my sensation and get a used one for a pretty good price. Or should I just tough it out with my sensation and get a galaxy nexus when its second hand price drops?
Basically, what I'm asking is do you gs owners feel compelled to upgrade to the galaxy nexus or are you still content with your devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your first mistake.. the nexus s is not a downgrade. not even close. just because it doesnt have a dual core cpu, doesnt mean anything. as a matter of fact, my nexus s doesnt know that it doesnt have a dual core, and im not telling it
i have a friend thats very disgruntled with his sensation also. and for pretty much the same reasons that you gave. the only thing that i can say to ease your pain is that morfic, the creator of the Trinity line of kernels(for the ns/ns4g), has just received a sensation to develop on. im hopeful that the sensation will be seeing some great kernels in not to long of a time span. so, heads up
simms22 said:
your first mistake.. the nexus s is not a downgrade. not even close. just because it doesnt have a dual core cpu, doesnt mean anything. as a matter of fact, my nexus s doesnt know that it doesnt have a dual core, and im not telling it
i have a friend thats very disgruntled with his sensation also. and for pretty much the same reasons that you gave. the only thing that i can say to ease your pain is that morfic, the creator of the Trinity line of kernels(for the ns/ns4g), has just received a sensation to develop on. im hopeful that the sensation will be seeing some great kernels in not to long of a time span. so, heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, that's why I put downgrade in quotes, everything about the phone in terms of specs is worse than the sensation, but I think it's a better over all phone. Thanks for the heads up though, I'll definitely keep track of this this morfic guy.
simms22 said:
your first mistake.. the nexus s is not a downgrade. not even close. just because it doesnt have a dual core cpu, doesnt mean anything. as a matter of fact, my nexus s doesnt know that it doesnt have a dual core, and im not telling it
i have a friend thats very disgruntled with his sensation also. and for pretty much the same reasons that you gave. the only thing that i can say to ease your pain is that morfic, the creator of the Trinity line of kernels(for the ns/ns4g), has just received a sensation to develop on. im hopeful that the sensation will be seeing some great kernels in not to long of a time span. so, heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fully agree with this. My friend had a Sensation, and even though the specs look better on paper, my phone could out-perform his easily, especially with Morfic's or Ezekeel's kernel.
tehgeekguy said:
I fully agree with this. My friend had a Sensation, and even though the specs look better on paper, my phone could out-perform his easily, especially with Morfic's or Ezekeel's kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a slippery slope.
the 1.35x higher resolution skews 2D and 3D benchmarks.
benchmarking sense roms with the unoptimized libsqlite implementation drops IO scores
so it stacks up quite nicely now where i can actually benchmark a sensation hands on
flashing cm7 alpha10 on sensation right now to do some further test on a more familiar platform.
user experience is great on sensation so far btw
I'd wait till the ics OTA drops for the nexus s. Right now ics roms are pretty stable but they are no where near as smooth as gingerbread roms. No one knows how well ics will transfer to single cores, so your sensation may be better for the long run because of the duel core.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
morfic said:
It is a slippery slope.
the 1.35x higher resolution skews 2D and 3D benchmarks.
benchmarking sense roms with the unoptimized libsqlite implementation drops IO scores
so it stacks up quite nicely now where i can actually benchmark a sensation hands on
flashing cm7 alpha10 on sensation right now to do some further test on a more familiar platform.
user experience is great on sensation so far btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For sure. It's a gorgeous phone, and I've always liked the Sense UI. I think it's the best OEM UI out there. I think once the phone gets some more attention it'll definitely be a nice piece of hardware. Honestly, if I were in the OP's position, I would probably hang on to the phone if I could... but it seems it doesn't meet his needs.
morfic said:
It is a slippery slope.
the 1.35x higher resolution skews 2D and 3D benchmarks.
benchmarking sense roms with the unoptimized libsqlite implementation drops IO scores
so it stacks up quite nicely now where i can actually benchmark a sensation hands on
flashing cm7 alpha10 on sensation right now to do some further test on a more familiar platform.
user experience is great on sensation so far btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually disagree about the ux on sense. There are a lot of little things that really bother me. The way that the notification drawers sometimes takes a second to slide down for no apparent reason, the unlock animation, the lack of a bookmarks button in the browser (you have to hit menu), and the choppiness of the app drawer to name a few. imo, cm7 is a much more pleasant to use os, but that has been really buggy for me on my sensation. Sense is definitely a love/hate affair, and I really hate it lol. (Which is strange because I actually liked sense 2.x quite a bit, 3.0 was a step backwards imo.)
tehgeekguy said:
For sure. It's a gorgeous phone, and I've always liked the Sense UI. I think it's the best OEM UI out there. I think once the phone gets some more attention it'll definitely be a nice piece of hardware. Honestly, if I were in the OP's position, I would probably hang on to the phone if I could... but it seems it doesn't meet his needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am definitely going to hang on to it for at least a month or two, I just wanted to see how you nexus owners like your phones as I don't have any friends with them.
gonintendo said:
I actually disagree about the ux on sense. There are a lot of little things that really bother me. The way that the notification drawers sometimes takes a second to slide down for no apparent reason, the unlock animation, the lack of a bookmarks button in the browser (you have to hit menu), and the choppiness of the app drawer to name a few. imo, cm7 is a much more pleasant to use os, but that has been really buggy for me on my sensation. Sense is definitely a love/hate affair, and I really hate it lol. (Which is strange because I actually liked sense 2.x quite a bit, 3.0 was a step backwards imo.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious, which ROM are you running? Not sure if you're on stock or a customer Rom, but when I had my Inspire I ran Android Revolution most of the time (when I wasn't on CM) and the performance improvement over the stock ROM was amazing. I talked my friend into throwing Android Revolution HD (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098849) on his Sensation 4G and he keeps mentioning how much faster it is now.
tehgeekguy said:
Just curious, which ROM are you running? Not sure if you're on stock or a customer Rom, but when I had my Inspire I ran Android Revolution most of the time (when I wasn't on CM) and the performance improvement over the stock ROM was amazing. I talked my friend into throwing Android Revolution HD (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098849) on his Sensation 4G and he keeps mentioning how much faster it is now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on cm7 right now. I have tried arhd, but that gave me really bad battery life, no matter which kernel I used. I tried a few others, I think insert coin was one of them, but none really felt as snappy as cm7. Some were smoother, but multitasking and opening apps is much quicker in cm7. I'll take the buggyness of cm's current state on the sensation over sense any day.
My ns4g with aosp's ics ROM is incredible. Probably going to take a break from my EVO 3d and use it as my daily driver for a while once the OTA drops
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
First why in the he'll would you get an HTC phone if you didn't like sense, dumb move, should have got the g2x. It will get better for aosp, quit crying..
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G
gonintendo said:
I have an htc sensation and am extremely unhappy with the software support it has gotten. Not putting any blame on the devs, they have been great to us but the fact of the matter is that we are still on cm7 alphas, not even nightlies, and ics support is looking pretty bad. Kmobs has made some progress, so I'm going to wait a while to see what he has to offer along with whatever else the cm team gives us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're asking a bit much there. CM for Sensation is being done by one guy. One guy with a real life and a real job and real commitments that don't involve coding an OS for a bunch of - quite frankly - ungrateful users. KMobs is an utter perfectionist, but he has good reasons as to why we don't have nightly releases for the Sensation yet (a9 is just about perfect but a10 introduced a bunch of bugs... and to be honest, I'd prefer he focused on getting CM9 alphas out the door).
The real fact of the matter is that the Android market is much broader than it has ever been. Two years ago, we were looking forward to the Droid and Nexus One as our saviours from the 528MHz MSM720x-infected designs that were around. All we really had to choose from was the HTC Dream/G1, Magic/MT3G and Hero, which all shared basically identical internal designs. Nowadays you can point at just about any brand of phones and they'll have a truly lustworthy Android handset competing for your dollars and marketshare, so therefore the developer base has splintered accordingly. It's therefore only natural that handsets will have less 3rd-party developer support as time goes on.
And that's ignoring the hardware issues like poor reception and a shoddy screen (Ghosting and scan lines on an lcd made in 2011? seriously? That's ignoring the fact that my a** produces deeper blacks than this thing. I know it's an lcd, but come on! I swear to god I'm never buying an htc phone ever again).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, this interests me. I haven't had these issues. In fact, my Sensation has far better reception than my two previous phones (LG Opitmus 2X and Samsung Galaxy S). I've definitely not noticed any ghosting or scanlines on my screen. Dust under the screen, yes. Power button funkiness, yes. At the risk of sounding like a Sensation/HTC apologist, I'd suggest that your phone has some kind of fault and you should get it looked at.
Basically, what I'm asking is do you gs owners feel compelled to upgrade to the galaxy nexus or are you still content with your devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GS Owners? Well, I assume you're addressing Sensation owners here
I'm very tempted to upgrade to a GN. I won't though, mostly for the following reasons;
Removable SD Card - GN only has internal memory, muddied by...
USB Mass Storage - GN uses MTD which is a suboptimal ux, IMO. In a nutshell it means that all the writeable media on the phone presents as a single unified area with the user accessible /sdcard/ just being a directory rather than a separate partition & device as it is otherwise. It's probably The Future, but right now I hate it.
Offscreen buttons - I hate capacitive buttons as they are, but at least they're not taking up screen real estate
Build quality - The Sensation feels glorious. Samsung devices tend to feel cheap.
unfnknblvbl said:
I think you're asking a bit much there. CM for Sensation is being done by one guy. One guy with a real life and a real job and real commitments that don't involve coding an OS for a bunch of - quite frankly - ungrateful users. KMobs is an utter perfectionist, but he has good reasons as to why we don't have nightly releases for the Sensation yet (a9 is just about perfect but a10 introduced a bunch of bugs... and to be honest, I'd prefer he focused on getting CM9 alphas out the door).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just FYI, there are 2 other guys that are working on Sensation from the CM team. Not gonna post links since I don't care if you believe me or not, but you can find them on kmobs g+ feed. They just don't post on XDA, and don't release things until the next build has enough to warrant a release. They've been saying we'd go into nightly status soon, but either there are a couple of problems that they haven't found solutions to, someone is busy with their lives, or someone got pregnant (joke).
nrvnqsrxk said:
Just FYI, there are 2 other guys that are working on Sensation from the CM team. Not gonna post links since I don't care if you believe me or not, but you can find them on kmobs g+ feed. They just don't post on XDA, and don't release things until the next build has enough to warrant a release. They've been saying we'd go into nightly status soon, but either there are a couple of problems that they haven't found solutions to, someone is busy with their lives, or someone got pregnant (joke).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't mind knowing who those guys are actually; so I can follow them myself on G+.
unfnknblvbl said:
I think you're asking a bit much there. CM for Sensation is being done by one guy. One guy with a real life and a real job and real commitments that don't involve coding an OS for a bunch of - quite frankly - ungrateful users. KMobs is an utter perfectionist, but he has good reasons as to why we don't have nightly releases for the Sensation yet (a9 is just about perfect but a10 introduced a bunch of bugs... and to be honest, I'd prefer he focused on getting CM9 alphas out the door).
The real fact of the matter is that the Android market is much broader than it has ever been. Two years ago, we were looking forward to the Droid and Nexus One as our saviours from the 528MHz MSM720x-infected designs that were around. All we really had to choose from was the HTC Dream/G1, Magic/MT3G and Hero, which all shared basically identical internal designs. Nowadays you can point at just about any brand of phones and they'll have a truly lustworthy Android handset competing for your dollars and marketshare, so therefore the developer base has splintered accordingly. It's therefore only natural that handsets will have less 3rd-party developer support as time goes on.
OK, this interests me. I haven't had these issues. In fact, my Sensation has far better reception than my two previous phones (LG Opitmus 2X and Samsung Galaxy S). I've definitely not noticed any ghosting or scanlines on my screen. Dust under the screen, yes. Power button funkiness, yes. At the risk of sounding like a Sensation/HTC apologist, I'd suggest that your phone has some kind of fault and you should get it looked at.
GS Owners? Well, I assume you're addressing Sensation owners here
I'm very tempted to upgrade to a GN. I won't though, mostly for the following reasons;
Removable SD Card - GN only has internal memory, muddied by...
USB Mass Storage - GN uses MTD which is a suboptimal ux, IMO. In a nutshell it means that all the writeable media on the phone presents as a single unified area with the user accessible /sdcard/ just being a directory rather than a separate partition & device as it is otherwise. It's probably The Future, but right now I hate it.
Offscreen buttons - I hate capacitive buttons as they are, but at least they're not taking up screen real estate
Build quality - The Sensation feels glorious. Samsung devices tend to feel cheap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like some dumba** mod didn't read my post and moved it from the nexus s forums to the sensation forums. The point of the thread was not to complain about cm development on the sensation, I realize that it's a labor of love and that the team working on it is small, the point of the thread was to ask galaxy s owners whether they feel proper CM support and stock OTA updates are worth the downgrade in hardware.
And no, my phone is not defective, it has one of the auo screens which have been confirmed to have scanlines and poor pixel response times.
@the guy asking me why I bought an htc phone: htc phones have always been famous for having great cm support and their hardware is really nice.
I feel that my Sensation is a bit slow sometimes, but I'm trying to tell myself that it'll all be great when ICS comes out (either via HTC or CM9).

HTC profits PLUMMET...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402691,00.asp
HTC profits plunge 70% over the past year, and I have a few ideas why.
1) Build quality clearly took a backseat to production numbers. Just take a look at the AWFUL devices (such as the Sensation) that HTC has produced recently. Dust under the screen, cheap components, and shoddy assemblies are not good for business!!
2) SENSE!!! Anyone think it was/is a coincidence that as soon as HTC started forcing Sense on all its phones the numbers took a dive? I dont, and clearly the market agrees with me. Sense is probably one of the worst conceived and implemented "enhancements" to ever hit android and that has obviously hurt HTC big time.
3) Trying to compete as an iphone replacement. Lets be honest, the iphone IS the 800 pound gorilla in the room. However, by churning out 20 "different" yet basically identical phones in 12 months HTC is only diluting its brand. Further, the Sense based "enhancements" only appeal to small minded folks who would choose an iphone, not real android fans. Sure, Sense (and IOS) look 'pretty' but neither provide any functionality. In addition both Sense and IOS are bloated, slow, and take for ever to get updates.
In summary, HTC tried to be everything to everyone and it backfired. They should go back to building QUALITY phones with proper software. Let the little kids, teens, and tweens go buy iphones, and let Sense die a FAST death! FIX THE BUILD QUALITY and people will buy your devices!! I dont know what else I can say about that. If HTC insists on making multiple phones, at least provide SOME level of differentiation! 20 phones that look identical is not a product set, ITS CONFUSING TO CONSUMERS.
Thank you and have a nice day.
HTC had a bad year ( and it's their fault ) but the good thing is that they 've learned. They are focusing on the ONE series this year and I must say those phones are the best available right now ( each in its league ).
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
Well said......i used to b an htc fan nd i jumped to sammy lately due to the dilution.u referred to. Very similar phones within a very short period of time. What were they thnkng? They had no time i bet to innovate due to the demand for productn. Htc remind me of dubai.....grew too big in too little time! Now the dive comes.....but they forecasted that to say the truth. I mean expeert would have recommended that htc continue doing wat they 1st started to do......quality in low numbers....low cost meant high return! I guess their board got greedy at one time. I really doubt they can turn thngs arnd seeing how ruthless the market is. No place 4 mistakes.
Although I do agree with you in some case I also strongly disagree in others.
I'm a really big android fan and I really like sense I think it's the best OEM skin but I also like AOSP a lot , so that is just an opinion. I consider it one of the best skins its the most bloated one too. And your statement about iOS being slow, bloated and taking forever to update... Wtf iOS is definanatly not slow and its one of the smoothest ,and all of the supported iPhones and iOS devices get updates on the same day that it is released.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G with Beats Audio using xda premium
i've gone back and forth between stock android and sense, and i often prefer sense. i'd like to think i'm not small-minded.
Oh...well ,it's fun while it last. My next phone I wanted the best looking screen. If T-Mobile USA release the One X, I would have bought it in a heart beat. But it's not going to happened, so I'll wait for Samsung 1080P screen hehe.
Sent from my Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
Sure they made some mistakes in 2011, but they've learned and we can already see the results in the One line which has come out to glowing reviews everywhere. As long as HTC can stand their ground and refuse carriers' requests for custom designs (which I believe is what was behind the scatter-shot approach they took last year) they will be fine. I still think HTC's build quality is the best in the Android world (I have had none of the problems people have mentioned with my Sensation aside from the dust, and my current phone has been dust-free for several months now), and nothing on the One series looks to change that.
And, I must say, having used Sense 3.x, 4, and AOSP, the latter isn't all that people make it out to be. In my daily use I can still find areas where Sense (especially 4) does things better - for example, in the lock screen, music player, browser, and home screens. I have not seen any speed advantage to AOSP over Sense that doesn't require a benchmark to show, and there is nothing I can do in stock ICS that I can't do in Sense. Also, I find the AOSP minimalist look becomes tiresome after a couple days, while Sense 4 does not, while looking just as nice. Caring about the aesthetics of the UI is not "small-minded" as long as one doesn't give up functionality - and Sense 4 does not.
Every big company has their software ontop of android running its a normal thing while i agree that sense is bloated but i disagree where you say its slow ...
I was running stock and didnt feel lag at all + the custom sense widgets are good looking if you'd ask me ...
The main reason why its falling its because they make too much device in short time and they don't put enough effort into them id rather love to see them release very few devices a year but work really hard on them ...
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
This article was a reality check and EVERY HTC Executive should read it.
Obviously you have only used HTC for a while now. I actually totally disagree.
I owned a Samsung Galaxy i9000 as my last phone. To give you an idea of how the top phone of the market performed at the time:
1) Everyone suffered terrible lag. This was never fixed. Sometimes the phone would just freeze up for a minute. Happened to me once when I wanted to take what would have been a great picture
2) The RAM was so limited because of the requirement for the CPU/GPU, that there wasn't enough to webbrowse for longer than 20mins without the phone crashing
3) The GPS on none of the units worked that well. Over time they added what appeared to be smoothing algorithms, but, at the end of the day, it was mostly unusable for driving, because the signal constantly dropped.
4) A huge amount of units had failing flash quite quickly. My phone (which wasn't an i9000M) had this problem.
5) No OTA updates, and the PC software to do updates was terrible. Seriously, this is something HTC perfected years ago.
6) TouchWiz was complete garbage. To give you an idea of how garbage it was, by default, the apps weren't even sorted alphabetically.
I suspect that a large number of these problem is caused because since Samsung manufactures their own components, it would look bad if they used their competitors components.
Also, you complain about Sense, but Sense is actually EXCELLENT. Only recently has the AOSP interface been half decent, and in comparison to other phones, it has been amazing.
HTC also regularly updates their phone software, of even their older phones. On the i9000, we got 2.1 and 2.2, and they were bloody difficult to install because Kies didn't work on many computers (no OTA supported either). And other manufacturers like Sony Ericson do an even worse job for software. iPhone's get all the updates, BUT, on the other hand, iOS can't play FLAC files, and you HAVE to go through their app store.
Sorry, but, I TOTALLY disagree. The popularity of phones appear to have more to do with advertising than anything else these days, and Samsung's boost is simply because of their collaboration with Google. But, in all honesty, the i9000 should have been recalled.
andrewluecke said:
Obviously you have only used HTC for a while now. I actually totally disagree.
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That is incorrect. In fact, I was one of the first importers of HTC phones (to the US) over a decade ago when they were just getting into Windows Mobile. I have probably had, sold, or used every HTC model that was compatible with US GSM or CDMA bands since the year 2000. As such, I speak from YEARS of experience and I can honestly say I am disappointed. Clearly my disappointment is not something I alone feel, since a 70% drop in profits indicates something is SERIOUSLY wrong.
As I said in my OP, HTC can fix this problem fairly easily. All they need to do is FOCUS and produce a GOOD product that people actually want. I personally think the whole "one" line is garbage, and I eagerly look forward to its demise in 18 (or so) months when Google forces ALL manufacturers to use a STANDARD (ie stock) version of Android. Until then, we will have a fractured, unsupported, miserable selection of phones. Check out the following graph for a better understanding of what Sense and other "enhanced" overlays have done to Android.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/10/27/android.support.seen.lagging.iphone.by.wide.margin/
Those stats are a few months old, however the fragmentation has only gotten worse with ICS. Enjoy!
Stock markets are like roller coasters. Htc has been on a roll up as of late...so now it's down time! Next year it will be back up...nothing to worry about
Interesting chart at the end. But i actually agree. HTC needs to focus more of what they make. One high-end and one cheap model, and possibly one with keyboard like Desire Z would suffice.
But they release too many models and in fact i just knew long ago that it was a poor business model evolving, and there would be too many phones to keep updated in the end. Thats was one reason why i dropped out of Android/htc for a while coz i thought the phones that kept coming in loads of models was just "experimental" pieces to flex muscles with tougher and rougher specs, with little care about them. And thus the fear of losing updates could easily be a reality.
Hats off to Apple anyways that keeps their products healthy for some years before they are discontinued.
Sensationaly sent from my Sensation.
Sindroid said:
Interesting chart at the end. But i actually agree. HTC needs to focus more of what they make. One high-end and one cheap model, and possibly one with keyboard like Desire Z would suffice.
But they release too many models and in fact i just knew long ago that it was a poor business model evolving, and there would be too many phones to keep updated in the end.
Sensationaly sent from my Sensation.
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Spot on - how many different handsets did they release last year? Way too many.
Different UIs like Sense actually help sell devices. While a lot of folk here might go for the native aosp look, it's very dull and uninteresting to the average user (compared to iPhone and even WM7). It's really only the different manufacturers UIs that differentiate product offerings, otherwise wouldn't they all look the same?
cr1960 said:
Spot on - how many different handsets did they release last year? Way too many.
Different UIs like Sense actually help sell devices. While a lot of folk here might go for the native aosp look, it's very dull and uninteresting to the average user (compared to iPhone and even WM7). It's really only the different manufacturers UIs that differentiate product offerings, otherwise wouldn't they all look the same?
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I agree they would all look the same and a android phone wouldn't be so special anymore for example people would stop buying android phones if they were all running pure google rom... Because it would be all the same thing it would get quite boring..
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
I agree with your views about build quality.
HTC have cheapened out on the components. They are using cheap EMMC chips, which are prone to frying, thus bricking your phone, on their devices from 2011 (Desire S)
But I strongly disagree with everything else you say.
Liking Sense or not is subjective. But I can tell you that I bet at least 70% buy HTC devices for the Sense experience. It's HTC's way of differentiation from the rest if the Market. If every OEM released pure AOSP, they would all virtually be the same. Hardware would only be the key factor. HTC's hardware isn't as good as Samsung's (specs wise) but in 2010, it clearly proved that the Desire was better than the Galaxy S...
Why?
Because of the Sense UI experience.
2011, things changes. Yes the SGSII was the phone of the year, due to its mighty specs.
But Sense is not as bad as you describe it. If you detest Sense so much, why did you buy the phone?
Also, I want to layout out - I'm not an Apple Fanboy, but I strongly disagree with what you say. Seriously, iOS slow and bloated?
It's clean and fast. The only slow iOS devices I encountered was the iPhone 3G.
How is it bloated? Apple load up minimal applications on the device. To some extent I agree with you about Sense (by default they load up so much junk - still doesn't take away the fact Sense is a good UI though)
And iOS slow with updates? Are you kidding me? It's much faster than Android updates from OEMs. But that comes back to the point with HTC being crap at software updates. I agree with you there! They are so damn slow with the ICS update for other devices (even though I have no intentions of using the official update)
So yes, HTC have become worse. (But I think they are goog to get higher profits etc in Q2,3,4 due to their new One lineup)
But, I don't think its fair that you bash Sense UI. Or bashing iOS with incorrect/false facts.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium
shahkam said:
people would stop buying android phones if they were all running pure google rom... Because it would be all the same thing it would get quite boring..
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That is a ridiculous statement and totally wrong. ALL Apple phones are exactly the same yet they sell millions of them. If all android phones ran the same OS it would be BETTER for users and they would sell MORE devices. That way manufacturers could focus their development around actually adding value. For instance, some would use a higher quality material, others would include a really great camera, others would build a physical keyboard, etc. Right now the manufacturers/carriers are focused on horrible overlays (cough, SENSE, cough...) that they never update. The end users is suffering now, and the Android fragmentation diagram I linked to is proof of this.
webmaster said:
Just take a look at the AWFUL devices (such as the Sensation) that HTC has produced recently. Dust under the screen, cheap components, and shoddy assemblies are not good for business!!
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Me, my fiancee and my best friend all have Sensations and none of us have ever had any build quality problems. My biggest problem was the terrible battery life at launch, but with an Anker battery, successive Gingerbread updates, then a custom ICS ROM from here, it's all good.
It strikes me that HTC have invested millions into phones no-one has asked for. Sensation XE and XL with royalities going to Dr. Dre? What were they smoking when they thought that up? Do they not realise that top-spec HTC phones are for geeks such as myself, and geeks don't listen to Dr. Dre.
Well, I don't anyway.
And as for the One series... iPhone wannabes, complete with no SD-card slot and a fixed battery. Not the right direction to be headed imho.
I do agree with the large number of products being released hurt their image, but I'd have to think a large part of that was due to the huge popularity of the GS2 (and sebsequently the GNex) which leapfrogged Samsung ahead. And the iPhone is always the behemoth in the room. I like my phone, but I hated how they had 15 variations of it in the year. I can barely tell the difference between any of the Sensation models and the other HTC phones (thunderbolt, desire, desire HD, etc etc) all looked very similar and confused consumers.
I like where they are going, but my next phone will likely be a Nexus because I don't want the Sense overlay anymore--nothing against HTC though. If they made the next Nexus, I'd be stoked.
Big_Rich_1983 said:
And as for the One series... iPhone wannabes, complete with no SD-card slot and a fixed battery. Not the right direction to be headed imho.
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No SD Card is a shame. But I do think spec wise they are going in the right direction. People slated the Sensation for having slightly lower specs than the GS2 e.g. in terms of RAM and Internal Memory and they seem to be rectifying that.

[Q] Why isn't this phone getting any development?

Buyer of the blaze here, after i turned in my Amaze 4g due to battery problems (even with a custom rom, it was literally dead after 5pm, with nothing but heavy talking and minor web use), i honestly love this phone. It's snappier, has an AMAZING battery for a smartphone, and basically easier to hold in my hand.
The question i do have, though, is why isn't this phone getting any development compared to similar phones like the S2 and the blaze? like the others, its pretty futureproof, and as fast, if not faster than them. Does it have a locked bootloader? Did samsung do something to make it hard to root? Does the recovery not work? seriously whats up with this lack of dev support?
Basically i just want an ICS rom to remove the damn bloatware and make the battery last even longer. I know samsung is coming out with ICS, but knowing their track record, it could take months before we get it, and even worse, contain the same bloat as it has now.
tl;dr why are there no roms or devs working on this phone?
No Samsung phone comes with a locked bootloader, and root has already been achieved. This phone is considered mid range even though it's a baby sgs2 that's why I think most devs aren't knocking at our door because there are higher end phones out now and in a couple weeks. We should be seeing ports or something. The phone is relatively still new as well.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using XDA Premium App
Here's a thought, maybe because they aren't paid to?
I gotta say, the android community clashing with the traditional linux OSS community is an interesting thing to watch. In the linux world you wouldn't see so much sense of entitlement as you see with android devices. I guess that's because with a linux install, the community is still more full of tech minded people than it is of novices. With android, it's been thrust into the hands of the unsuspecting consumers.
The sad fact is that this is a being treated like a middle-of-the-road phone. Devs do like their sexy and sadly this device isn't as sexy as a SGS2 or the upcoming SGS3. Therefore interest is low. With the multitude of phones growing at such a rapid pace, there isn't enough talent out there to cover them all. If you want rom development, you gotta go for the phones the developers will want. And you also shouldn't buy something that has just come out.
From a tech side, even though this seems to have the specs of an SGS2, it seems internally to be wildly different from an SGS2. It is named in the SGS family and it'd not similar to anything there either. It's all ext4 (fairly different).
I've been working on this phone in my spare time trying to get a build that would run. I am not a programmer but thought that my skills were enough to hobble together a working CM7 device profile. I thought I could look at similar devices and come up with a working hybrid of other devices. Here's the thing.... there don't really seem to be any (or many) other msm8660 in the official repos. It's hard to find other devices that are similar to this one.
With ICS coming out for this phone at some point, I'm not even sure I want to spend that much time focusing on CM7 anymore since presumably we'll be able to get native drivers for the cameras at that point.
If you want to help, then offer to take up a collection to commission a dev's time or send someone a phone. It's difficult to do this process from a distance. I spent money on my own hardware and I'm deathly afraid of damaging my flash memory with constant flashes and what not.
dr4stic giving you a thanks just wasnt enough
dont forget man your always welcome in teh irc channel, may not know a whole lot but whatever i do know i happily share
oh and official no, but for the msm8660 you might wanna look here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1230
the evo 3d has that cpu and is gsm as well
lol
Yeah, I imagine that first line in my post is what did it too ;-)
Thanks so much dude for all you've done. I know I'm welcome. It's just that after my day job (and some of my night job), the last thing I wanna do is look at a computer. And I got told this week I've got a 90 day deadline to complete 2-3 of the biggest projects and migrations I've ever had to do for my work.
As for the evo 3d, I actually did look at it, as well as the skyrocket. There are just too many quirks. Plus I believe the msm8660 handles part of the camera interface and the Evo 3D has a very funky implementation in that space. It ended up just looking more confusing to me than helpful :-(
From the way things are looking, I'm REALLY starting to look forward more to doing this for ICS. I get the sense that I might have an easier time there. I do, however, plan to keep moving forward ;-)

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