Worth it for ~$250? - Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G

I was originally thinking about getting an international Galaxy Tablet, but as much as I'd like a tablet as a phone...I know it's not the ideal solution for multiple reasons (lack of warranty, primarily).
Anyway, a friend can get me one brand-new for $250, and it'd be a decent upgrade from my HTC G2. I know development for it isn't the best, and ICS probably won't arrive at least for another month (and it'll suck going back to Gingerbread after having used ICS for a bit on my G2), but I don't want my G2 to completely crap out and have to buy a new phone on a whim like that (and it'd be nice to have the G2 available as a backup).
Not interested in the Galaxy II (I get that it has better features, but it just looks/feels so cheap to me), and the Galaxy III is a nice phone, but I won't use half the features/power and it'd be an extra $100 or so. Nothing else on T-Mobile really appeals to me.
That being said, other than the previously-mentioned lack of development, are there any issues with the Blaze that I should know about? Or any major reason (other than development) that I should go with the GS3 instead?

If you've only ever used a AOSP style CM capable device (like me) you may regret going to something that only runs TouchWiz. Sure, you can change the launcher, uninstall swype and install the better version, and root it to uninstall a bunch of apps you don't want/need... but there are other things you can't change.
The lock screen, phone call screen(s) and some other things are remarkably slow and unresponsive, and is this ridiculous attempt to bring ICS looks and features to a poor gingerbread implementation. I don't understand how a company can make a phone with dual 1.5Ghz cores perform some things so slowly when my 1Ghz MT4G was responsive as hell. The phone feels "nicer" in the hand than some other samsungs I've held but that's about all it has going for it. Oh, and it supports T-Mobile's WiFi calling.
And yeah, the development is going REALLY slow and will likely remain so, even with the generous help of the guys that are making moves on this phone now.
If I had the choice again, I wouldn't. I will never again purchase a phone that isn't already supported by some AOSP style ROM. I thought root was enough and I'd get by with it, but I was wrong.
But that's just me.

dr4stic said:
If you've only ever used a AOSP style CM capable device (like me) you may regret going to something that only runs TouchWiz. Sure, you can change the launcher, uninstall swype and install the better version, and root it to uninstall a bunch of apps you don't want/need... but there are other things you can't change.
The lock screen, phone call screen(s) and some other things are remarkably slow and unresponsive, and is this ridiculous attempt to bring ICS looks and features to a poor gingerbread implementation. I don't understand how a company can make a phone with dual 1.5Ghz cores perform some things so slowly when my 1Ghz MT4G was responsive as hell. The phone feels "nicer" in the hand than some other samsungs I've held but that's about all it has going for it. Oh, and it supports T-Mobile's WiFi calling.
And yeah, the development is going REALLY slow and will likely remain so, even with the generous help of the guys that are making moves on this phone now.
If I had the choice again, I wouldn't. I will never again purchase a phone that isn't already supported by some AOSP style ROM. I thought root was enough and I'd get by with it, but I was wrong.
But that's just me.
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Click to collapse
Well then, wasn't exactly expecting to hear that on this of all boards - it's definitely good to hear, though, as I didn't realize how serious reviews were about the device being bloated like that.
My only other choice I'd be remotely interested in would be the HTC Amaze, and not that I don't like HTC, but I've read the battery life isn't the best, and there's issues like backlight bleeding and whatnot. I guess I'll just wait to get the GS3 and hope there aren't any major issues.

Yeah, sorry
For the price, if the community were more active, I'd say it's a great deal. But if it isn't active now, the sad truth is that it won't get more active down the road. And I wouldn't wait for the likes of me to actually succeed in getting CM9 running on this thing...
As a comparison, the HTC One S has been around half as long and has like 10x the interest and activity. Just walk around their XDA Android Dev subforums and you'll see what I mean. Mind you, the 1S has the same CPU, memory, and other misc. features. The storage and battery are fixed, but that's the only downside. It's got a slimmer package and more accessories available. The blaze is dead in comparison.
TouchWiz just irritates me, but I make do with the phone, and maybe I'm being picky. Ask if you can test drive the thing... insert your sim and make/answer some calls... do some basic things and just know that's pretty much how the device will always be. If you could live with that, then so be it.
For a T-Mobile compatible phone, I'd just get a new Galaxy Nexus, or a 1S. The Galaxy Nexus will be the first to run Jelly Bean, and you'll also have support for a fairly long time from the likes of the CM team and AOKP, et al. It has some great features too. Just food for though

dr4stic said:
Yeah, sorry
For the price, if the community were more active, I'd say it's a great deal. But if it isn't active now, the sad truth is that it won't get more active down the road. And I wouldn't wait for the likes of me to actually succeed in getting CM9 running on this thing...
As a comparison, the HTC One S has been around half as long and has like 10x the interest and activity. Just walk around their XDA Android Dev subforums and you'll see what I mean. Mind you, the 1S has the same CPU, memory, and other misc. features. The storage and battery are fixed, but that's the only downside. It's got a slimmer package and more accessories available. The blaze is dead in comparison.
TouchWiz just irritates me, but I make do with the phone, and maybe I'm being picky. Ask if you can test drive the thing... insert your sim and make/answer some calls... do some basic things and just know that's pretty much how the device will always be. If you could live with that, then so be it.
For a T-Mobile compatible phone, I'd just get a new Galaxy Nexus, or a 1S. The Galaxy Nexus will be the first to run Jelly Bean, and you'll also have support for a fairly long time from the likes of the CM team and AOKP, et al. It has some great features too. Just food for though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I'll try and look into the Blaze in person more before I totally dismiss it, then. After hearing numerous issues with the 1S (between random reboots, screens failing, really hot temperatures, data/service issues, and even stuff as weird as the capacitive buttons being completely unresponsive - all reasons people have returned it, according to a friend at T-Mobile), I'm staying away from it, at least for the moment; I like everything else about the phone, however, and don't care about lack of expandable storage or removable battery. Not a fan of the lack official accessories (and accessory choice in general), however, compared to most Samsung phones.
And nothing against the Nexus but...it just doesn't appeal to me. I can understand any of the numerous reasons to go for one, but it just doesn't stand out to me in any way; I'd much sooner get the Galaxy S 3 for the better specs and camera alone.

magus57 said:
I guess I'll try and look into the Blaze in person more before I totally dismiss it, then. After hearing numerous issues with the 1S (between random reboots, screens failing, really hot temperatures, data/service issues, and even stuff as weird as the capacitive buttons being completely unresponsive - all reasons people have returned it, according to a friend at T-Mobile), I'm staying away from it, at least for the moment; I like everything else about the phone, however, and don't care about lack of expandable storage or removable battery. Not a fan of the lack official accessories (and accessory choice in general), however, compared to most Samsung phones.
And nothing against the Nexus but...it just doesn't appeal to me. I can understand any of the numerous reasons to go for one, but it just doesn't stand out to me in any way; I'd much sooner get the Galaxy S 3 for the better specs and camera alone.
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Click to collapse
I believe the Nexus also has various issues. I honestly don't understand where are all the pessimism is coming from. We are getting the official ICS update, so CM9 is likely to get to us. We are also funding a developer to help him buy a Blaze and improve his ROM. I'll admit the development is slow, but that's to be expected for a carrier specific device that got no advertising. Descent due development will come in time I think.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium

dr4stic said:
If you've only ever used a AOSP style CM capable device (like me) you may regret going to something that only runs TouchWiz. Sure, you can change the launcher, uninstall swype and install the better version, and root it to uninstall a bunch of apps you don't want/need... but there are other things you can't change.
The lock screen, phone call screen(s) and some other things are remarkably slow and unresponsive, and is this ridiculous attempt to bring ICS looks and features to a poor gingerbread implementation. I don't understand how a company can make a phone with dual 1.5Ghz cores perform some things so slowly when my 1Ghz MT4G was responsive as hell. The phone feels "nicer" in the hand than some other samsungs I've held but that's about all it has going for it. Oh, and it supports T-Mobile's WiFi calling.
And yeah, the development is going REALLY slow and will likely remain so, even with the generous help of the guys that are making moves on this phone now.
If I had the choice again, I wouldn't. I will never again purchase a phone that isn't already supported by some AOSP style ROM. I thought root was enough and I'd get by with it, but I was wrong.
But that's just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's funny, but that's exactly how I feel about my Blaze. I thought rooting it to get rid of all the bloat would be enough, but I want more, and there just isn't more out there, despite the efforts of our lovable and hard working dev's. And you're right - the call screen sometimes just isn't responsive at all and I wind up being unable to answer calls, especially if it's coming from an app I'm already running, such as a game. So from now on I'm coming to XDA and doing developmental research before getting a phone. Right now I'm leaning towards a Galaxy S2 (even though the S3 is a faster phone and all - it just does not feel right IMO).

While the lack of development is discouraging to "early" adopters, I really love the form factor (can't stand the 4.3" screens or bigger) and the build quality is surprisingly nice.
Having used CM before on another device, it is weird not having it on here. The lack of customizability is a bit frustrating. But I'm patient. I really think the price point, performance potential, and friendly size will make this a winner once ICS and the appropriate sources/information are released.

So I got a chance to play with one a little bit (basically brand-new, just factory reset)...I'm not seeing the sluggishness/delay you guys are talking about, particularly with the phone calls (receiving or placing). Maybe I'm just used to the delay/sluggishness on my G2 that I don't notice it, but I'd imagine removing all that bloat (and removing stuff like built-in ringtones) would help a decent amount...

magus57 said:
So I got a chance to play with one a little bit (basically brand-new, just factory reset)...I'm not seeing the sluggishness/delay you guys are talking about, particularly with the phone calls (receiving or placing). Maybe I'm just used to the delay/sluggishness on my G2 that I don't notice it, but I'd imagine removing all that bloat (and removing stuff like built-in ringtones) would help a decent amount...
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I have none of the sluggishness issues either. Stock may be bloated but its pretty damn snappy. I've used a MT4G with CM7 and my Blaze is much more responsive overall, it even handles flash without breaking a sweat.

I'm really happy with this phone despite not having much rom support. Coming from a defy there are two things that I don't miss: battery pulls and random reboots. Never happens on this device. For me that makes it worth giving up AOSP...at least for now.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

Just out of curiosity - I've heard that internally there are many similarities between a Blaze and a Galaxy S2. Has anyone ever tried throwing an S2 ROM on their Blaze and, if so, what were the results? Just curious.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium

sparkie6point0 said:
Just out of curiosity - I've heard that internally there are many similarities between a Blaze and a Galaxy S2. Has anyone ever tried throwing an S2 ROM on their Blaze and, if so, what were the results? Just curious.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
they are similars but don't recommend something like that iif you don't know what might happen. Because flashing wrong kernel/rom can brick peoples phone.
sent from my batcave

sparkie6point0 said:
Just out of curiosity - I've heard that internally there are many similarities between a Blaze and a Galaxy S2. Has anyone ever tried throwing an S2 ROM on their Blaze and, if so, what were the results? Just curious.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The B4G is specifically very much like the T-Mobile GS2 (The T989). They are both based on the msm8660_surf board, with the same CPU, GPU and many of the same sensors. There are differences, specifically with the panel (display) and a few of the sensors. The differences are enough that it doesn't quite work on our device. Yeah, I've tried ;-)
What I've been doing is specifically trying to port a number of the things for our device into the ICS kernel available for the T989. My goal is to come up with a bootable ICS kernel for our device. I think that's gonna be the biggest stepping stone to a working CM9 or AOKP build for our phone.
The B4G has nothing other than specs in common with the other SGS2 phones on the market, save for maybe the AT&T SkyRocket. They all use different CPU's and GPU's on a different platform all built by Samsung... and thus different sensors.

I've had a lot of phones starting with the Nexus One (actually the Eris but I try to forget). So far the only issue I see is the ability to "crack flash". IMO sooner or later you'll have a phone that just won't have every developer swooning over it. if for no other reason than there are so many phone out there. (remember the threads when the Nexus came out?)
I bought this phone because it met all of my needs and had good specs. I had the G2x and the Sensation (sold on gave another to my son) but ths phone is better. The extra Ram is noticeable difference IMO and the size of the phone is right for me.
We could have all opted for the Galaxy SII and I'm sure everybody looked at the threads and saw what was going on so........participate........and relax a little.........the phone works very well.

Related

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.
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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).

This phone is still being sold?

Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade.. and the hardware itself is getting old(while still running ICS thanks to our great community, it raises the question how much farther will the phone be able to be updated..)
a cheaper alternative maybe? or its just that good..
That's exactly what manufacturers wants to hear from consumers. Why buy phones that have lasting dollar values and gets frequent software updates when you can buy a new expensive one every year that doesn't have great built quality and with zero to almost no software update?
Android can use a bit cleaning up on the performance side, even the Galaxy Note stock rom have hiccups because of the bloatness, with quadcore phones they'll have more excuss to bloat and put animations in. Windows Phone 7 seems to do fine with single core. It's not like my Galaxy S is struggling with any of the new games at 800x480 resolution.
Well we already know Samsung said "Nope, ain't gonna happen" for ICS on the Captivate even in spite of builds being made available by the talented folk here at XDA and at other places online. The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based, and I get higher benchmarks with this ROM than the stock KK4 AT&T Gingerbread 2.3.5 ROM with:
- Quadrant
- Antutu
- Vellamo (with Vellamo I actually get slightly higher scores than a Galaxy Nexus, unbelievable)
and several others I've tried recently. So much for being "inadequate" or an underpowered device...
So, Samsung, stop whining and making excuses and just give us some ICS source so people can make a pure ROM I suppose.
Doc's v9 is nice since it's currently a beta and completely unthemed, but a lot of stuff won't install properly on it from Play (although I can install them from the APKs if I remember to manually save them in between ROM swaps).
It's a great phone, it has a beautiful design overall (one of my all time favorites, with the HD2 still being the king of all smartphones to me), USB and headphone connections on the top - I hate it when they're on the sides or bottom, and the main draw being the Super AMOLED display.
People still buy 'em, so Samsung keeps making 'em and AT&T keeps selling 'em.
Works for me.
Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade.. and the hardware itself is getting old(while still running ICS thanks to our great community, it raises the question how much farther will the phone be able to be updated..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The R&D and tooling have long been paid for and there are still people buying. It's practically free money for them. The longer they're made, the cheaper they can get. The cheaper they can get, the more they're sold.
I sought this phone out actively because I liked my Epic and knew how to root & fix it easily. I didn't want a contract and for $250 brand new vs $600 for a Note it was a no-brainer.
Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simple, it sells. And with it running 2.3.5, it's very much up to date OS wise. It's not ICS, but at this point what is?
The early adopters are a rather small crowd of people that seems large to us because they are the tech obsesses folks that make xda what it is. They count for next to nothing compared to the "average user."
This phone is exactly what Samsung aimed for it to be, a Flagship. It was way a head of the curve when it first came out, and is still a great phone. It's been muddied by the early releases but, the fact that Samsung still won out (and is the top selling android manufacturer) means it really was an excellent device (and family of devices).
It's time is almost up though, because ICS really is beyond its abilities.
br0adband said:
The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it can't. We don't even have half the features, almost everything new to ICS has been stripped out because we don't have the hardware for it. Sure, the core OS can be made to run on our phone, but even at that we can't run it properly. The things your comparing against are to that of 2.2, ICS is not some dinky internal tweaks. It's a whole new OS, it's 4.0 not 2.4. Now I'll admit that most of the new parts to ICS are little more then shiny buttons that don't serve us much good. But it's rather easy to dismiss things you've never been able to do before. Once you get your hands on a phone actually built for ICS, that is then made future-proof like the ours was, you'll look back at the cappy and laugh at it.
DaNaRkI said:
Once you get your hands on a phone actually built for ICS, that is then made future-proof like the ours was, you'll look back at the cappy and laugh at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had a Galaxy Nexus - the flagship Android 4.0 device - and couldn't stand it so I returned it and decided to wait on something better. Then the Galaxy Note came out and I can't wait to see what ICS can really do on that device, but since I can't actually afford one I guess that won't matter anyway.
Found this Captivate on craigslist for $60 and it's been fantastic since the moment I bought it. I swear the SGS feels more responsive and stable running a "hack" ROM of the same OS than the Nexus did/does. Yes it could just be some placebo effect, I suppose. A benchmark using Vellamo puts this SGS running an ICS ROM (at 1.2 GHz) outpacing the Nexus, go figure - a single core device running an unofficial hack of an OS besting the dual core flagship device for that very OS... ain't it cool?
There may be some aspects of ICS that the SGS can't do (NFC, etc) but they just so happen to be features I don't give a damn about, either so... it all works out in the end.
phone is sold
as long as ppl buy it.
u can get iPhone3gs u know - @ great price.
br0adband said:
Had a Galaxy Nexus - the flagship Android 4.0 device - and couldn't stand it so I returned it and decided to wait on something better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Galaxy Nexus is not a flagship, just like the Nexus S was not. It's a debut phone and like the other Nexus phones, a developers phone. It's mean to showcase the abilities of ICS, not push the limits of a phone. Our phone came out before the Nexus S, yet that phone has a lot of the exact same internals. Why? ours was made future-proofed, nothing better was needed for GB. The Galaxy Nexus was also not top of the line at it's release, just compare it to an SGS2. Future proof would have meant that LTE was designed into the phone at start, not added later.
But you do bring up a very good point that I already admitted to, most of the new abilities are rather unnecessary for a phone. But I don't doubt that once a good ICS phone comes out we'll find ways to work them into our daily life. Just like we have for all the unnecessary things that the Cappy can do now.
The Captivate is a pretty solid phone still. I still have mine kicking around that I use now for playing music since my Galaxy Nexus doesnt have external memory (and apps are getting bigger and bigger in size so I need all the space I can get) so this phone does quite well for that.
I think I would still be using this phone if it had a bigger screen (I got big hands) and if Samsung was continuing to update this.
i use my spare captivate as a skype phone (between rom tests).
and where is the phone still being sold?

[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 ;-)

[Q] Is The HOX really worth it?

I'm about to get my new phone. And was dead set on getting the HTC One X. But as time's gone on, I'm left more and more unsure of the decision. Between the lack of ROM support which is really just a derivative of HTC's failure to foster/support the open source community in the same way that Samsung has. i.e. SGS3 already having CM9 support. On top of that, now there are things like dropped signals and what-not. I'm wondering whether or not the HOX is really going to be a sound 18 month investment that'll keep me fairly in check with the latest hardware and software developments?
get SGS3
end
another nagger
CM9 we have it already working fully
dropped signal on defected devices only! why isnt this clear enough!
Buy an iPhone
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
hamdir said:
get SGS3
end
another nagger
CM9 we have it already working fully
dropped signal on defected devices only! why isnt this clear enough!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung isn't an option for me. It's just a brand I've never had an affinity to. Having CM9 working and having official CM support are hugely different things. Not to mention that the hardware in HTCs will never be fully supported die to the use of proprietary drivers.
Sent from my Incredible S using Tapatalk 2
agree with hamdir..we got all the best roms up and running and got like 3 versions of cm9 which are fully working..what else do you want? and we also got a Paranoidandroid port so again what else would you want...plus windows phone 8 ports should be dropping if the rumoured Tegra 3 chips they would be using would make it easy to port so again i say what else do you want? lol
go and get yourself an s3 my friend and be happy
Think of the One X as the modern HD2 phone with the support we are getting and not even been 3 months since the phone has been released and look what we have already
sabret00the said:
I'm about to get my new phone. And was dead set on getting the HTC One X. But as time's gone on, I'm left more and more unsure of the decision. Between the lack of ROM support which is really just a derivative of HTC's failure to foster/support the open source community in the same way that Samsung has. i.e. SGS3 already having CM9 support. On top of that, now there are things like dropped signals and what-not. I'm wondering whether or not the HOX is really going to be a sound 18 month investment that'll keep me fairly in check with the latest hardware and software developments?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What answers do you expect in the HOX forum....
SGS3 is not without its issues too, one guy even had his phone set on fire on him. LOL
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2
sabret00the said:
Samsung isn't an option for me. It's just a brand I've never had an affinity to. Having CM9 working and having official CM support are hugely different things. Not to mention that the hardware in HTCs will never be fully supported die to the use of proprietary drivers.
Sent from my Incredible S using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seriously whats up with all this proprietary talk i don't get it
we have tons of kernel devs doing wonders like Goku said and its just been three month
we just had a completely working linux 3.4 kernel written from scratch by devs and even wifi drivers are being written for scratch
lack of ROM support are you kidding me
we had a fully working CM9 in just one month from release you really think CM9 official will not come? official CM will always favor devices close to the nexus line in terms of release date
In a word, yes get the hox, I played with an siii today, screen is so dull, touch wiz is awful and from all accounts camera is better on the hox. Don't bother with roms myself as I find the hox works just about perfect on stock.
Do it get the hox!
Agree I was actually thinking about switching until I tried S3... The HOX is indeed the best.
Sckank said:
Agree I was actually thinking about switching until I tried S3... The HOX is indeed the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't say 'the best', both devices have pros and cons.
- but for what I'm after, beautiful phone, feels premium, awesome screen, OTA updates and dedicated nvidia T3 optimized games, the HOX is definitely the better option for me as I don't require removable battery or sd card slot.
But for me, the screen alone is sooo much better on the HOX, and the screen is always the most important spec of any large touch screen phone.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
chrisjcks said:
I wouldn't say 'the best', both devices have pros and cons.
- but for what I'm after, beautiful phone, feels premium, awesome screen, OTA updates and dedicated nvidia T3 optimized games, the HOX is definitely the better option for me as I don't require removable battery or sd card slot.
But for me, the screen alone is sooo much better on the HOX, and the screen is always the most important spec of any large touch screen phone.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, or just like I said, the best. ;-)
Oh, the HOX sounds better too.
Sckank said:
Yes, or just like I said, the best. ;-)
Oh, the HOX sounds better too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use sound enhancer mode it sounds even better..link in my sig
hamdir said:
seriously whats up with all this proprietary talk i don't get it
we have tons of kernel devs doing wonders like Goku said and its just been three month
we just had a completely working linux 3.4 kernel written from scratch by devs and even wifi drivers are being written for scratch
lack of ROM support are you kidding me
we had a fully working CM9 in just one month from release you really think CM9 official will not come? official CM will always favor devices close to the nexus line in terms of release date
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but on my current device. Despite having all the goodies and kernel development. The camera still doesn't work as good as the stock. There's still sound issues etc. I never read about these things with OMAP devices.
Spewy1 said:
In a word, yes get the hox, I played with an siii today, screen is so dull, touch wiz is awful and from all accounts camera is better on the hox. Don't bother with roms myself as I find the hox works just about perfect on stock.
Do it get the hox!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I really just want it for the hardware. But rating is over the S3 does bring a smile to my face.
See what happens to SGS3 when SGS4 coming in. HOX will get better support. I mean long term support. Look at SGS2, not much going in in the original development, ICS upgrade are rushed work. I have a SGS2 so I know the dev environment for that phone. Most dev ditch it for Galaxy Nexus or SGS3. Look at SGS1, no official ICS by Samsung lolz, which have the same spec as Nexus S, and reason is Touchwiz related. Yes SGS3 get CM9 first. Now lets see who get CM10 first. SGS2 got a late CM9 cuz of sources. Not only late on releasing sources, but Samsung messed it up. The CM9 devs almost give up(which i'm glad they didnt) and now AOSP roms are better than TW ICS on SGS2. HTC Sensation got CM9 first compared to SGS2(which was released at the same time). See what i did there? Samsung will dump their previous flagship that easy.
Sensation VS SGS2
- same time release with Gingerbread but when ICS rolled out, Samsung released a rushed firmware upgrade and rushed sources, which makes CM9 slower while Sensation got everything working easily in the early CM9 phase. SGS2 had it too, but too many things not working.
- Sensation still got true and RD devs working on, while SGS2 has many winzippers(no offense to anyone) only(see their forums, has it split between 2 development threads). cuz RD devs on SGS2 find it difficult to work with SGS2 sources. I am not sure why, but no updates for months from them, except CM9 team.
SGS3? yeah cuz they got released with ICS so they got CM9 working fast. Now see when Jelly Bean comes. SGS2 has a lot of devs in the early days, but most has ditch it half way. I admit, SGS2 is still a great device. it was a legendary that revolutionize the dual core, but Samsung wasted it when they have a new flagships.
Your choice. if you like changing phones, go for SGS3, cuz you can buy SGS4 afterwards. but if not, go for HOX, more power till the end of its life. else, buy an iphone. much more easier, peace of mind.
I think the HOX is a brilliant phone, and I've had none of the more permanent faults, like the WiFi issue..
Only fault I've had was the yellow spots, but they went away the next day and I haven't seen them since, also I think it was my own fault.. I was in a public place and I was messing about with settings when it started blaring out music, really loud, and I couldn't turn it down, so I applied pressure to the back to silence it.
Your choice in the end.
I've got both devices and will be sending back my SGS3 for a full refund.
Why?
- I prefer Sense,
- I prefer SLCD2,
- I prefer the brightness,
- I prefer the looks,
- I prefer the build,
- I prefer HTCs overall device support including OTAs and longer albeit slower releases of newer Android versions,
- I prefer the helpful guys on this side,
- I prefer the camera
- I prefer the social network integration,
- I prefer the mail app,
etc etc
Both are good phones don't get me wrong, I'll keep saying any user will be happy with either BUT:
- Removable/extendable battery
- Extendable storage
If the above 2 are important to you avoid the HOX and opt for something else, if not an issue the HOX is a good choice out of the 2 top end Android handsets presently.
I'm not going to say buy the HOX over the SGS3 or vice versa, but I do suggest you handle both then make a decision as user experience is better than me or anyone else saying x y or z about the device.
Another opened BS thread, clutter, nothing to learn, boring, pfffff...
To my opinion it's, to yours it's probably not.
Thanks again everyone. As I said, for me thi sis more about hardware purchase than software preference. I'm not too fond of Sense and really haven't played with TW enough to have an educated decision. But ultimately want rid of the bloat and want to be in charge of my own destiny. Hearing that this phone is considered a first class citizen of the community and is most likely to be the successor to the HD2 is what swings it for me. As I'm coming the Incredible S which for all of it's beauty is essentially a third class citizen. I'll look forward to picking up my HOX midweek.
sabret00the said:
Thanks again everyone. As I said, for me thi sis more about hardware purchase than software preference. I'm not too fond of Sense and really haven't played with TW enough to have an educated decision. But ultimately want rid of the bloat and want to be in charge of my own destiny. Hearing that this phone is considered a first class citizen of the community and is most likely to be the successor to the HD2 is what swings it for me. As I'm coming the Incredible S which for all of it's beauty is essentially a third class citizen. I'll look forward to picking up my HOX midweek.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will never get a real successor to the HD2. I highly doubt that there will be a phone released any time soon which will be able to do so much and still have such active development after nearly three years.
The One X is good but Sense is very unnecessary for ICS in comparison to GB and Froyo. TouchWiz on the other hand is actually rather great now. I hated it for older versions of Android but it seems perfect on the SGS3. It's the little details which are really very impressive, and it's just so smooth. And to whoever said the screen on the SGS3 is dull, with all due respect are you an idiot?! It's by far the best phone screen I've used (better than the One X as well).
One more advantage of the SGS3 over the One X is just how simple it is to root. From what I've read about the One X, it's a bit troublesome to root and flash custom ROMs etc. whilst even someone like myself (never flashed a native Android phone before) can easily use Odin and flash things without really having to do too much thinking.
Nigeldg said:
You will never get a real successor to the HD2. I highly doubt that there will be a phone released any time soon which will be able to do so much and still have such active development after nearly three years.
The One X is good but Sense is very unnecessary for ICS in comparison to GB and Froyo. TouchWiz on the other hand is actually rather great now. I hated it for older versions of Android but it seems perfect on the SGS3. It's the little details which are really very impressive, and it's just so smooth. And to whoever said the screen on the SGS3 is dull, with all due respect are you an idiot?! It's by far the best phone screen I've used (better than the One X as well).
One more advantage of the SGS3 over the One X is just how simple it is to root. From what I've read about the One X, it's a bit troublesome to root and flash custom ROMs etc. whilst even someone like myself (never flashed a native Android phone before) can easily use Odin and flash things without really having to do too much thinking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one x's screen is better then the s3's... It's sharper and the colours look so much better. Plus u can actually view it in sunlight.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Why are we left behind????

I asked this last year and haven't gotten anywhere since.
I started out with the G2 and quickly had CM7 on it. I had a insurance replacement and got the MT4GS as a replacement. Camera is an important app for me. I was spoiled with all the great stuff on CM7 but the Google camera in the G2 was not very good. After trying several camera apps, I found none.
Back to the MT4GS. The camera app was great and it is the biggest reason I have not stuck with the various roms available here.
I did upgrade to the Galaxy S3 but I returned it after a couple of days because I just couldn't justify $350 ( after rebate, total cost). It got me ticked off when I heard a co worker tell me he got his at Sprint for $100 plus the taxes. It is a great phone and it already has much rom development.
SO - Why is our phone so far behind the rest of the good phones out there? Why is the camera with 1080 video so hard to get going? We have a great phone but no developers can approach the complete package I got with CM7.
I am not a developer. I have donated to people whose roms I have used. I have the paid version of ROM Manager, but since I got the MT4GS, it is worthless except to use as an installer.
I used to download nightlies every night.
Signed,
Frustrated
It's a shame, but think of it as a niche market...
Think of the low number of T-Mobile USA subscribers vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of smart people that buy hard keyboard phones vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of people that actually know what 1080p and focal length mean vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people looking for a new phone vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people not getting sucked in by marketing from Samsung, Apple vs everyone else.
Relatively speaking; no one bought this phone.
It's a shame. Because smart people did.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
we have cm7, cm9 and 3.0 kernel which everyone dreams of. Lol what else are you looking for?
xmc wildchild22 said:
we have cm7, cm9 and 3.0 kernel which everyone dreams of. Lol what else are you looking for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sandiegoan said:
camera with 1080 video
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOW who's not reading threads before asking questions, XMC?
It is true that there's a lot less dev on this phone than many others with inferior hardware. It would be nice to have an RC for CM9, for instance(though our build is plenty stable).
I will say, though, that the few we do have are big winners. For big names, We've got MIUI, Virtuous, CM, and AOKP. We've got also got several tweaked stock builds. There ARE roms that keep the stock camera too while being pretty far from stock, so I'm not sure about that complaint.
As far as other devices that have 800 different ROMs available, I spent a lot of time tweaking my OG Droid, and a friend of Mine's HTC EVO 4G. 80% of the builds that are out there on those devices are just clones of each other with buggy themes or different UI versions thrown on, some features enabled or disabled, or debloated rips of the stock rom. If you go into the development sections for these other devices, you will find that the majority of people who make a lot of posts and provide the most help tend to be on one of three to five major ROMS, just the same as you see in the dev section here.
xmc wildchild22 said:
we have cm7, cm9 and 3.0 kernel which everyone dreams of. Lol what else are you looking for?
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For me the phone is perfect. Can't really find anything else that I need and miss? 4 weeks battery life maybe
Paitor said:
For me the phone is perfect. Can't really find anything else that I need and miss? 4 weeks battery life maybe
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^ second that.
I was actually this close to ditching the Slide for the Galaxy Nexus when Jelly Bean was released. I miiiiiiight still do it, but I'm really leaning toward keeping the Slide just because of the camera. The still pictures on this phone are so superior to anything else I've ever used, that I've stopped using a regular camera entirely.
And from what everyone says, the GNex camera is pretty bad. So yeah, better software is nice, but hardware is hugely important, too. The camera and keyboard are what's keeping me with the Slide. Plus, CM9 is pretty sweet.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda app-developers app
Great answer!
:good:
rorytmeadows said:
It's a shame, but think of it as a niche market...
Think of the low number of T-Mobile USA subscribers vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of smart people that buy hard keyboard phones vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of people that actually know what 1080p and focal length mean vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people looking for a new phone vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people not getting sucked in by marketing from Samsung, Apple vs everyone else.
Relatively speaking; no one bought this phone.
It's a shame. Because smart people did.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
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I never thought of it that way. Thanks.
When I think about it, the deal breaker is the camera. The hardware, the app itself and the full video resolution.
When I had the G2, it had a stock android camera app. I didn't miss what I never had. When I got to the slide, I miss the stock camera app. Sense? I could care less about it. I use ADW_EX so my phones and tablet work the same.
I'm just looking for my next great phone.
Thanks for the answers.
I still run a tweaked/optimized stock-based ROM simply because this MT4GS is my ONLY phone. I don't have a landline or other cell, I depend on this phone to always work. I depend on every function of the phone to work reliably (Bluetooth, wifi, wifi calling, camera, GPS, etc.) and not have to deal with "oh, you have to do this this this to get that to work", or "you have to reboot, then hold it upside down, then sacrifice a virgin chicken, then that will work OK until you breath 4 times, then you have to do all that again". It might be fun and exciting to deal with that sort of thing when you're not dependent upon the phone, but I can't risk that.
I'm sad that there isn't an official ICS for this phone. And while the current CM9 alphas are amazing for what they accomplish, and the hard work put into them by the devs is evident and appreciated, I still can't risk using it (or MIUI or others) for the simple reason that they just don't yet provide stock-ROM reliability. That is no slight to the devs, just a fact of life.

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