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I used to be a iPhone fanboy and somewhere along the way I thought I'd give Android a try and I got myself a Samsung SGS2. There must be a lot of people out there in the fruit cult wanting to be brought to the green robot cult or vice versa. Here's my complete NON-BIASED story that might help you out with consideration of both the user experience and the technical side of things.
WARNING: This is a looooooong story. So if you're not into a good long thread, please skip.
NOTE: The iPhone being discussed is a jailbroken, fully utilized iPhone. A non-jailbroken iPhone cannot come even close to the SGS2.
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APPS:
Surprisingly, the Android Market and the Apple AppStore are not created to be equal. Although most of the popular apps like Facebook, eBay, Google apps are available on both stores, the Apple equivalent apps are usually several versions ahead (i.e. Navigon, Tunein Radio, etc.) except for the Google-centric apps and/or other apps that I don't typically use. The apps simply look / feel better on an iPhone. But for sure they run faster on the SGS2 hands down. There's IXX0XX on the iPhone for the *free* apps. The Android-equivalent AXX, BXX, 4XX, etc simply cannot compete against it. Although it's much easier to find *free* Android apps from all over the place, IXX0XX, as a centralized place to go, has all of the popular high-quality paid apps/games, up-to-date version.
RESOLUTION / SCREEN SIZE
I don't know why people always want a 4.3", 4.5" or even bigger screen on a phone. For me, as long as the same amount of information can be displayed on a screen, that's what counts. The SGS2 screen is huge compared to the iPhone, and certainly things do appear bigger and easier to read. However, the iPhone resolution is just much higher. If you look very closely on an iPhone 4 screen, you simply cannot see the pixels, whereas for the SGS2 (non-HD version), it's just like every other smartphone, you can see the pixels (but not so bad). Why does this matter? Say, you open a webpage in overview on an iPhone, it's almost like the letters that are too small to see is because my sight is not good enough to read it. But with the SGS2, the letters that are too small to see is because the screen doesn't have a good-enough resolution to display it. This is the best way I can put it. The text does appear much sharper on the iPhone.
PHONE QUALITY / FEEL
This is really a personal preference. The SGS2 has a huge screen, so it is bigger. Both look very slick. I like the weight of the SGS2 because it feels much lighter so if I ever drop it, it *should not* be destroyed. The iPhone is a little too heavy. Heavier = Better Quality? I don't think so. Some people complain that the back cover of the SGS2 is just soft plastic. It feels quite good though. The textured surface prevents fingerprints. The iPhone is only good in terms of its size. I can do one-handed operation where my thumb can pretty much reach both sides of the screen. The SGS2 is slightly too big where it's not too comfortable to use it single-handedly over a long period of time.
ROOTING V.S. JAILBREAKING
Android ROOTING = iPhone JAILBREAKING. It is so much easier for the Android to be freed. You simply flash a rooted kernel, then you're "jailbroken" no matter what firmware version you have. Everytime an iOS version comes out, we have to wait for the Dev team to find a new security loophole in the firmware in order to get a jailbreak. Note that Apple appears to be hiring these bright guys one by one. Even if you can get a tethered jailbreak, it is still not acceptable. If your iOS ever crashes, you need to plug in your computer to properly boot the phone. What I really like about Android is that you can do everything without a computer (once rooted). You can flash new kernels, new ROMs, complete restore (nandroid), all without a computer. With an iPhone, if you want to reflash your firmware to newer/lower version, you need to be beside a computer, even for restoring apps / app settings.
BACKUP / RESTORE
On an iPhone, you cannot do a true "complete backup" because everytime you want to install a firmware to the phone, the firmware needs to be signed by Apple (or Tinyumbrella with your SHSH). And naturally, your saved data cannot be integrated to this "firmware". With the SGS2, there's a system partition and a user partition. And you can do a "nandroid" backup, which is a complete image of your system (think Norton Ghost or Acronis Home Image), saved on your sdcard partition or EMMC (external sdcard). On the iPhone, you need PkgBackup to backup your Cydia apps (as a list, now with settings as well), and Chronus to backup your AppStore apps. After the backup, you must copy the backup files (at least for Chronus) to the computer because you only have a single partition on the iPhone. A wipe will take your backup with it. On the SGS2, we can use CWM to do a complete system image as mentioned above, or use TitaniumBackup for individual apps (this includes both the app itself and the settings). If you use CWM, once restored, your phone is EXACTLY the way you left it. With TitaniumBackup, it's even a greater concept because you can constantly backup updated apps individually whereas with CWM you have to do a system image everytime. So this means the apps become like "modules" that you can put on different ROMs for instance.
LATEST PHONE??
The good thing about Apple is that once you get the iPhone of the year, you know you have the latest and greatest of that year because of the steady annual release. As for Android, once you buy one, another manufacturer might come up with a better (if not better, a slightly different hardware offering) phone that makes you wonder if you should've waited. This brings us to fragmentation. There are so many Android phones with all kinds of hardware combination and you just don't know which one is the best. As of this writing, the SGS2 is the best available phone IMHO, the SGS2HD is the even better one yet to come. But if you want a balance of specs and price, there are too many to choose from.
FRAGMENTATION / NOKIA
Why the heck would I mention Nokia here? In my opinion, I think one of the reasons why Nokia failed is that it tries come create so many differnt phones to suit the different needs of everybody whereas Apple created a phone that is good for all. Even worse, Nokia will create two phones with similar specs, and one phone will have a need-to-have feature while lacking one need-to-have feature, which appears on the other phone, which is itself not perfect. This is crap. They have the power to give you everything you want but they don't. With Apple, the user experience is the same for everybody. With an Android, I am hoping it doesn't get to the level of how Nokia played the game. Think of iPhone as a PS3 while the Android is a PC. A PC is all powerful, you can have different amount of RAM, different video cards, etc. Every PC user will tell you how they tweak their machine to achieve a certain benchmark score and you wonder why you can't or if the score posted is a fake. But with PS3, everybody playing the same game experience the same thing. That being said, there are too many firmwares (ROMs) to choose from for Android, each offering something different, suited for phones with different hardware. I think this model will be improved once Ice Cream Sandwich comes along where phones with different hardware can share just one firmware.
BACKGROUNDING / MULTITASKING
Android users keep saying that iPhone doesn't do true multitasking, which is somewhat true. But now that Android does full multitasking, everybody complains about battery life and everybody is looking for the "best task killer", which is not supposed to be required for a UNIX kernel. True, iPhone does not do true multiasking. But the iPhone "semi-multitasking" is very well implemented. Whenever you quit an app, the OS stores the last state of the app. So technically it has stopped running. But when you go back, you are at where you left it. This is great for most of the apps like games, readers, etc., where they don't really need to be running in the background. But for Nav apps like Navigon, Tomtom, or even Install0us while downloading an app, these apps do run in the background. With Backgrounder, you can set the behavior of how each app implement multitasking. With Android, every app can run in the background and there is no quick kill button. Although the kernel will kill the app automatically when the memory is low, some apps can misbehave. Try to have Dolphin HD Browser open a page with Flash content and go back to the home screen. The app simply keeps playing the flash content in the background all day long, draining your battery. Thankfully, there's Watchdog Task Manager, which does not blindly kill apps but use CPU threshold to determine what apps are misbehaving. To summarize, with Android, get Watchdog and Wave Launcher, then Multitasking works great. With iPhone, get Backgrounder and use Activate to set up a good gesture to bring up the multitasking bar.
BATTERY / PUSH
All smartphones drain battery fairly quickly, including the iPhone. But Android (SGS2, specifically), drains battery even quicker. On the SGS2, there's this Android OS Bug (Google AOS Bug), which can take off out of nowhere, and drain your battery within half a day without you even touch the phone. But it has been fixed now with Siyahkernal 1.8. But even then, the SGS2 does eat much more battery than an iPhone. One big reason I believe is due to how each phone (or app, actually) manages data. With Android, you have Background Data and Sync to transmit data in the background. But the problem is app developers don't need to follow this API. They can write any app the way they want. Some may keep transmitting data in the background with you knowing unless you use Droidfirewall to block it. With iPhone, we have PUSH notification, which every app follows for transmitting data in the background. I have only now come to really appreciate it. Although for some reason, PUSH email chews a lot more battery out of the iPhone (for Android too) compared to the regular PUSH notification. But the way PUSH is implemented on the iPhone, it IS superior. Android users, due to the battery drainage, have become paranoid about their data toggles. Everything must be toggled off (data/wifi/etc.) when the screen goes off (using Juice Defender or the like). So you are missing out being able to get real-time messages while out and about. With the iPhone, even with PUSH notification on 3G you hardly notice any battery drain when idle and screen off. This is a big plus for Apple. The iPhone has VERY LOW consumption when idle even with PUSH/3G/WIFI all turned on. The SGS2 has a constent ~1.5%/hr drain even when everything is turned off. But of course, if you are on a naked ROM with absolutely no other apps installed, the standby is somewhat better. That's why I think the fact that app developers can program any way they want is not always a good idea. Once you install some apps that do things in the background, your idle battery drain increases.
HARDWARE BUTTONS
Why, Apple, why only one button?? I really like the SGS2 with back and especially the menu buttons. All settings can be accessed in the app instead of going through "settings". Maybe because I'm used to PC's. I still don't like having only one mouse button on a MAC. Having BACK button makes multitasking that much easier. Although the iPhone home button can be assigned different tasks (double click / single click, using Activator), the way SGS2 implements buttons is much better. That being said, I don't like the other variants of Android phones with 4 to 5 buttons. If the function can be consolidated, I'd like that better (i.e. Menu + long pressed = Search).
TV OUT + BLUETOOTH MOUTH/KEYBOARD
If you have a SGS2, you have a fully functional computer in your living room. With the HML cable and bluetooth keyboard/mouse, you can surf the web, watch movies, and do just about everything else on your HDTV. With a BT mouse you can actually have a cursor on your screen (only a BT keyboard works on the iPhone). Although the control is not perfect, but it is certainly usable. Note, the videos (or Youtube videos) are in HD when you watch it on the big screen via SGS2. I am very very impressed. The only downside is that "sometimes" the phone drains the battery instead of getting charged. This goes the same with using SatNav apps while on car charger. The kernel has a 650mA limit on charging while using GPS and a bright screen, the usage might go over 650mA, this might explain why. With Siyahkernel and an inid.d script, you can change the charging limit to 1000mA, but it makes no difference for me. But my theory is that the battery charges slower when the phone temperature is higher in order to protect the battery. Becuase when it's nice and cool, the phone does get charged even when using GPS.
PHONE / MSG APPS
Android comes with a pretty good set of apps by default. The phone app, for instance, I cannot live without being able to search a contact by T9. (i.e. find Richard by typing 7424). With the iPhone, you need to go to Contacts and search by scrolling, which is very inconvenient. But with the jailbroken app iSmartDialer, it solves the issue. The Message app is about the same for both phones. But with the jailbroken app Tlert, or iRealSMS or etc, the experience is even better. You can set up a gesture to bring up the non-intrusive messaging box to type and send. But in general, the Android has a much better notification delivery system through the drop down menu (which has the toggles too). iPhone has SBSettings for the toggles but it doesn't looks as nice. Notification-wise, the iPhone is very intrusive. Without the special SMS jailbroken apps above, when an SMS comes in, you either HAVE TO reply to it, or you have to dismiss it (and possibly forget about it). The Android notification drop down stores all the notifications very nicely.
LOCKSCREEN
iPhone + LockInfo = great. But with Android + JKAY V11, although we don't get notifications right in the lock screen, we can have different ways of launching apps quickly. With Android you can kinda get lockscreen notifications through widgets and WidgetLocker.
BROWSER
Coming from a Nokia N85/N86, the iPhone stock browser is a big upgrade. Although there's no flash support, most sites are formatted quite well on the iPhone. But going from iOS to Android, it is at least 10 times better. Even the stock browser loads pages really fast. When you scroll up and down through a very long page you no longer see the "squares" (where page is not loaded properly). I use both the Dolphin HD for full webpages and Opera Mobile for everyday use. The Opera Mobile is REALLY FAST. And Flash support is just great. You finally get the real desktop browsing experience that you cannot find on an iPhone. I don't like the idea of Apple restricting the way developers write their browsers. Every browser on the AppStore simply runs the default iOS browser as its base and add visual tweaks to it. This is true even for the iPhone version of Skyfire. Back in the Symbian days, the Skyfire is truely revolutionary (for the Nokia phones) where contents are compressed on the server side and streamed to the phone. However, Skyfire is a little too slow waiting either for the webpage or the video. The Android browser is so much so much faster. And tabbed browsing interface is good on both phones.
CAMERA
SGS2 camera beats the crap out of an iPhone 4 camera. It is true that the iPhone 4 can take a pretty decent photo when you are "absolutely still". SGS2 camera is simply better with more options. The night mode actually takes very good pictures even without flash. The iPhone 4, if you move at all during the picture taking, the photo becomes blurred. The iPhone camera is only good under very well lit condition and that you're absolutely still.
SYNCING
With SGS2, you can forget about iTunes. If you have a picture, drag it in because your phone shows up as a USB drive. If you have music, pictures, or whatever, create your own folder, drag them into anywhere you want. The iPhone depends on iTunes too much. Although with PWNTunes you can make the iPhone into a USB drive and drag music in there. But everytime you drag something new in there, the scanning for the new content takes a while. Also, SGS2 is truely integrated with Google services. I keep a copy of my Contacts on the Gmail server and that's all I need. The iPhone with Gmail exchange server set up, it can do the same, but the battery drain does apply for the iPhone (i.e. battery drain with exchange email described previously).
MULTIMEDIA
SGS2 can play all kinds of file formats, which pretty much eliminates the need for a computer. The iPhone requires VLC player or alike. It does work, but for one, you cannot organize your files by folders.
VOIP
SGS2 has a fairly sufficient VOIP client built in. And you can get a modded phone app to do call recording. This is not as easy on the iPhone. I use Acrobits as my VOIP client on the iPhone and I can only do call recording on VOIP calls but not regular GSM calls. The VOIP incoming calls rely on PUSH notification, which is a bit inconvenient because once you get the notification, you have to consider the delay of opening the respective VOIP app to properly receive the call. By the time everything is opened, the caller might've given up. On Android, the client itself is constantly listening for incoming calls at the cost of battery. But it does responds like the regular calls.
GPS
The actual GPS performance when a signal is locked is pretty much identical for both phones practically. However, when you depend on AGPS for a triangulation, the iPhone works much faster and accurately. For instance, the Camera geotagging works more reliably with the iPhone because it will record your location nearest to the cell tower you are connected to. But with Android, many apps apparently do not use this information and try to wait for a full GPS signal. The result is, if you take a picture, the location recorded can be way off.
ACCESSORIES
When I went to Best Buy / Future Shop to find a car holder for my beloved SGS2, I was totally pissed by the fact that every (+95%) accessories in the store are for the iPhone!!?? Ebay is probably the only other good place to look for accessories. The good thing is that the iPhone headphone with mic and control does work on the SGS2. Note the microphone jack pins changed from the Galaxy S to the S2. S2 follows the iPhone (i.e. headphone works, mic works, call button works, but not the volume buttons). For the Galaxy S, two of the pins are reversed like the Nokia phones. So I'm glad that SGS2 is more "future-proof" in this regard. At least it accepts iPhone headphones (which is the trend??)
WARRANTY
I haven't had to deal with this yet for my SGS2. But when my iPhone broke the last time (home button stopped working), I just unjailbreak it (new flash) and took it to the nearest Apple Store (not the one I bought the phone from), and a brand new iPhone was given to me no questions asked (they only checked for any sign of water damage by looking at the special stickers in the headphone jack and charger port). But I am pretty sure the Samsund warranty cannot be as good as the Apple warranty. For one, I got the international version from Expansys.ca. So if it breaks, I guess I would need to buy a new one.
SELLING THE PHONE
The iPhone retains its value very very well. My iPhone 4, I bought at about $6xx, I sold for $540 after one year. My iPhone 3GS, which I bought locked, I sold it much higher than my buying price. I think the SGS2 is more like a car, once you drive it, the price is at least halved.
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I'm so tired of typing, I'll type some more some other time. Feel free to ask me questions though.
I also just switched from the iPhone to the S2. I have had a iPhone since THE iPhone so this was a big decision for me.
For the most part, there is no comparison. The S2 is so much better.
But...and there always is one isn't there?
I am now thinking about switching back. The one big hold up I have right now is sending videos via MMS. With the iPhone, ANY video I shot could be sent. No matter the size, the duration or the settings. I always shot video at the highest quality and could send them any time later.
Can't do that with the S2. 1000k limit. That sucks.
Bloody hell thats one long long story...Some parts i agree with you some i dont.
Apps yes hands down appstore is the best..If i was you i would not be posting about Installous and about the same for android cause its against the rules here my friend.
Display i have to say the S2 beats the retina anyday...Sorry i had iphone 4 and although i loved it for me the S2 is perfect you cant beat AMOLED..But again thats my opinion.
Jailbreaking and rooting...il be honest i find jailbreaking alot more easier and simple to do than rooting....Regarding downgrading to a previous version on the iphone that was pretty easy to but sometimes right painful...Just factory reset the phone and you got as it was out of the box.....Well i always managed to find a way just incase i messed up..
Anyway im happy with the S2 it does what i want and most of the apps i manage to live with...I cant see myself without it and only as time will come we will see more quality apps coming in the market..
Next upgrade for me..Galaxy S3...Be sure to find out that will be a world beater my friend...Nice post though very good reading
MuddyPaws1 said:
I also just switched from the iPhone to the S2. I have had a iPhone since THE iPhone so this was a big decision for me.
For the most part, there is no comparison. The S2 is so much better.
But...and there always is one isn't there?
I am now thinking about switching back. The one big hold up I have right now is sending videos via MMS. With the iPhone, ANY video I shot could be sent. No matter the size, the duration or the settings. I always shot video at the highest quality and could send them any time later.
Can't do that with the S2. 1000k limit. That sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the limit is usaully set by the network not the phone (its usaully 300kb for mms)
unless your talking about sharing online via youtube or facebook etc ???
there is no way you sent a hd video longer then 10-20 seconds via mms on the iphone
I too have been an iPhone owner since it's inception. I toyed around with an Android phone I bought from Craigslist earlier in the year just to see what all the fuss was about. It was an HTC something or another on AT&T. I REALLY wanted to like the Android OS, but I hated that phone. I had to charge it every 3-4 hours, even WITH Juice Defender running. I promptly sold it on Craigslist for more money than I paid for it, so that was a lose/win.
I went back to my iPhone 4, which was tried and true. Then one day, I dropped it on it's face, and spiderwebbed the screen. My entire life was on that phone. Thankfully, I have a no-questions asked warranty from Squaretrade, and they fixed it for $50. (Would have cost me $150 from local iRepairman). I needed a phone to use while it was on vacation, so I bought the Galaxy S brand new on Craigslist for $200 cash. Again, I decided to try to give the Android OS another chance. (I also have a Xoom, and make love to it every day. It KILLS my iPad, but thats another write.)
My iPhone4 came back fixed after a week, but I have yet to reactivate it. I continued to woo the Galaxy S.
When the Galaxy S2 was released. I had a dilemma. Wait for the iPhone 5 and hope it went to the 4.5" screen, (which would have been THE selling point for me), or buy the Samsung Galaxy S2. As soon as the iPhone4S was announced, it was decided. I went straight to the ATT store and upgraded to my Galaxy S2.
I have had it for a week now, and I can say, this IS a fantastic device, if not the best I have ever owned. While I can agree with most of the OP's remarks, the iPhone is a dummies phone. It is no-frills out-of-the-box, and it just works. To also mention, I had a PhoneSuit on it, which gave me 2-3 days battery life without a recharge. The PhoneSuit is amazing. I would only hope they would make one for the S2. The Android phones take some tweaking to get them to work like you want. I expect to see a flood of accessories before x-mas.
I will leave the verdict out on which brand I like better. I enjoyed the no-frills of the iPhone, but I love the Android phone too. It is a true nerds phone.
buxz777 said:
the limit is usaully set by the network not the phone (its usaully 300kb for mms)
unless your talking about sharing online via youtube or facebook etc ???
there is no way you sent a hd video longer then 10-20 seconds via mms on the iphone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it was for sure better resolution than the "record for mms" setting on the S2. And the iPhone did the conversion on the fly. So you could take the video in HD today, and a week from now send it to someone via MMS. You can't do that with the S2. You have to know you are going to send it via MMS and record it in that setting. Which means you can't also use that video to send to youtube or use on your computer because the quality is terrible.
MuddyPaws1 said:
I also just switched from the iPhone to the S2. I have had a iPhone since THE iPhone so this was a big decision for me.
For the most part, there is no comparison. The S2 is so much better.
But...and there always is one isn't there?
I am now thinking about switching back. The one big hold up I have right now is sending videos via MMS. With the iPhone, ANY video I shot could be sent. No matter the size, the duration or the settings. I always shot video at the highest quality and could send them any time later.
Can't do that with the S2. 1000k limit. That sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
think you should just switch over mate..you sound like an iphone boy through and through...be honest if the 4s was a tad bigger i would of gone for it as well but like i said im happy with what i got now
MuddyPaws1 said:
Well it was for sure better resolution than the "record for mms" setting on the S2. And the iPhone did the conversion on the fly. So you could take the video in HD today, and a week from now send it to someone via MMS. You can't do that with the S2. You have to know you are going to send it via MMS and record it in that setting. Which means you can't also use that video to send to youtube or use on your computer because the quality is terrible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iam sorry but through mms the limit is set by the network which is 300kb - 600kb
if i take a video and add it to my sms , the sms turns into a mms , it then converts the picture/video small enough if it can ie it wont be able to ahrink a 30min hd video into 300kb
i dont have to take the video in mms settings the sgs2 can convert things on the fly and does , what it doesnt do is make the impossible happen and shrink a 30mb file into 300kb
the iphone wouldnt either i have owned one (the iphone4) it cant magically make a video shrink from 30mb-300mb into 300kb , as you say the quality would be horrendous even on a small video taken in mms mode , so a longish clip shot in hd would look just as bad if not worse
the iphone works on exactly the same principal so i dont understand your post and your problem isnt even a problem?? try adding an 8mp photo to your sms , its over 1mb and hus to be shrunk , everytime i do this my sgs2 says converting .... then adds the picture
seriously mate the sgs2 does convert media but it cant do the impossible and make the alps fit in your car garage at home
King Shady said:
Cool story bro
... I didn't read it :/
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was JUST asking myself, did King Shady read this? I hope he tells us or I won't have a decent sleep tonight!
Exidrion said:
I was JUST asking myself, did King Shady read this? I hope he tells us or I won't have a decent sleep tonight!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you'll sleep tight tonight. . Anyways I don't understand how some people can write this much for an online forum - where we don't even know each other!
i love reading these write up before buying a phone. thank you! I pretty much agree with you on most points.
buxz777 said:
iam sorry but through mms the limit is set by the network which is 300kb - 600kb
if i take a video and add it to my sms , the sms turns into a mms , it then converts the picture/video small enough if it can ie it wont be able to ahrink a 30min hd video into 300kb
i dont have to take the video in mms settings the sgs2 can convert things on the fly and does , what it doesnt do is make the impossible happen and shrink a 30mb file into 300kb
the iphone wouldnt either i have owned one (the iphone4) it cant magically make a video shrink from 30mb-300mb into 300kb , as you say the quality would be horrendous even on a small video taken in mms mode , so a longish clip shot in hd would look just as bad if not worse
the iphone works on exactly the same principal so i dont understand your post and your problem isnt even a problem?? try adding an 8mp photo to your sms , its over 1mb and hus to be shrunk , everytime i do this my sgs2 says converting .... then adds the picture
seriously mate the sgs2 does convert media but it cant do the impossible and make the alps fit in your car garage at home
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The S2 does not convert on the fly. I have a 20 second video I shot on the S2 and it will not send it...tried with many MMS apps and it always says file too big.
I have sent 3 minute videos from the iPhone and it just goes through.
King Shady said:
Cool story bro
... I didn't read it :/
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a numpty! Most pointless post I've read on XDA to date. Go back to GameFAQs. (why am I even bothering?)
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Good write. I have decided to sell my Galaxy SII and get an iPhone 4S
Sgs2 is class for iphone 4s .Pleas go buy iphone and leave this forum wee hawe job.what kind of smartphone dhont hawe flasplayer?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
I like the luxury of having flash but never use. Not a good case anymore. Try watching a half hour video and tell me how much battery you have left...
Thank you dikai_yang and taking time writing and for posting.
As for many others commenting Ipone vs. SGS2 you seems to have good insight and have taken time to write in a educational way that many of us could learn a bit from.
If you later take your time writing about your experiences I would definitely read it.
blunted09 said:
I like the luxury of having flash but never use. Not a good case anymore. Try watching a half hour video and tell me how much battery you have left...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On Saturday I went to an artist Showcase (half wanted to go, half forced by the queen), and watched three quarters of the Auburn-Arkansas game. I would say Flash is pretty useful indeed.
Currykiev said:
What a numpty! Most pointless post I've read on XDA to date. Go back to GameFAQs. (why am I even bothering?)
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its funny because your post was just as useless as mine . We both troll!!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
The only point I do not agree with or am knowledgeable enough to disagree is Rooting vs Jail breaking. Firstly root for me means being able to do anything with your device. Meaning the ability change roms, kernels and aspects of the system.
Now rooting in some phones do not or did not have such a privilege. Phones like droid 2, x10, droid x. These phones you could "root", meaning say the ability to use titanium backup or root explorer. In other words gain superuser access. What you could not do was change kernels, which is the heart of a rom.
So the point you are making about rooting on Android being easier isn't entirely true since some phones do not actually have "true root".
Wasn't really sure where to put this, since there isn't a forum for this device but thought people here might be interested?
First impressions are incredibly favourable.
It feels absolutely incredible in the hand with how slim it is, and the build materials are stellar - a refreshing change from Samsung's usual gear (every now and again they show that they really can make extremely classy looking and feeling devices, only wish they did that more often!). The screen is amazing, but I only realised how good it is when I had it next to my Transformer Prime - I thought the Prime's screen was stellar (best on a tablet yet I thought) but the 7.7 makes it look thoroughly average.
It's HC 3.2 with TW, and runs pretty well with just the occasional tiny micro-hitch here and there (the Prime's Tegra 3 is the only device I've had so far that could drive HC well enough to call 'buttery'). I noted with interest that there is no lag typing in the browser with a software keyboard, must be something Samsung have done to it because even the Prime had attrocious lag in HC in browser typing...
Need to get some stupid proprietary connectors tomorrow and can then do usual connectivity test and video...
Questions?
where'd you get it? is it GSM? does it have voice calling feature enabled? is the SAMOLED+ as good as its hyped up to be. How much did it cost?
chrisrotolo said:
where'd you get it? is it GSM? does it have voice calling feature enabled? is the SAMOLED+ as good as its hyped up to be. How much did it cost?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it from Mobicity, mine isn't the 3G one, but it is available (and by the looks of it calling should be possible for those inclined!).
The SAMOLED+ is pretty stunning. Only a couple of days ago I was saying how the Transformer Prime has the best screen on a tablet but side-by-side the 7.7 blows it away (I think in Super-IPS mode the Prime will have a significant advantage for outdoors usability though).
Price was in the order of $750NZD from memory, as always with a device at release there is a premium to be paid.
very nice. yeah here's the link for 3g version described aas full voice calling ability..
http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-galaxy-tab-7-7-16gb-3g.html
I think Im all set with my 7.0+ until a nice quad core 7" with voice comes along with some beefed up specs.
chrisrotolo said:
very nice. yeah here's the link for 3g version described aas full voice calling ability..
http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-galaxy-tab-7-7-16gb-3g.html
I think Im all set with my 7.0+ until a nice quad core 7" with voice comes along with some beefed up specs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, if you're happy with that screen size I see no reason not to wait and pick up the ASUS one, amazing price point on that!
Yep.. the only thing they didn't do well is... price Almost twice as much as for the 7+ ?!? For a bumped screen and CPU clock? Come on Samsung, you can do better!
For that price I would expect it to be twice as fast and have at least HDMI out built it...
ryhoo2 said:
Yep.. the only thing they didn't do well is... price Almost twice as much as for the 7+ ?!? For a bumped screen and CPU clock? Come on Samsung, you can do better!
For that price I would expect it to be twice as fast and have at least HDMI out built it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have we gotten a confirmation for pricing in the US yet? Pricing this above $479 is a mistake.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Kiwi's lose out on price; in Australia you can pick the wifi version up for about $550. I reckon I've seen it on the grey market for about $500.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
NZtechfreak said:
Wasn't really sure where to put this, since there isn't a forum for this device but thought people here might be interested?
First impressions are incredibly favourable.
It feels absolutely incredible in the hand with how slim it is, and the build materials are stellar - a refreshing change from Samsung's usual gear (every now and again they show that they really can make extremely classy looking and feeling devices, only wish they did that more often!). The screen is amazing, but I only realised how good it is when I had it next to my Transformer Prime - I thought the Prime's screen was stellar (best on a tablet yet I thought) but the 7.7 makes it look thoroughly average.
It's HC 3.2 with TW, and runs pretty well with just the occasional tiny micro-hitch here and there (the Prime's Tegra 3 is the only device I've had so far that could drive HC well enough to call 'buttery'). I noted with interest that there is no lag typing in the browser with a software keyboard, must be something Samsung have done to it because even the Prime had attrocious lag in HC in browser typing...
Need to get some stupid proprietary connectors tomorrow and can then do usual connectivity test and video...
Questions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have the wifi version and its really amazing...screen is just wow..
Does your touchwiz version allows editing mini apps tray ..somehow some people with 3g version seems to have it but mine does not
Do you have the original tab plus? Could you do a size and weight comparison? I want to see how much thinner and lighter it is compare to the tab+
darkhunter21 said:
Do you have the original tab plus? Could you do a size and weight comparison? I want to see how much thinner and lighter it is compare to the tab+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weight :Tab+ is 345 gm , 7.7 is 340 gm.
Thickness : Tab+ 9.9 mm , 7.7 is 7.9 mm
Hi, I have the gsm 3g version, it does indeed have voice calls its kind of like a big phone really, I got mine from panamoz.com ordered on monday night and recieved at 1pm on the friday.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
I got the 3G 7.7 a couple of days ago. I'm in the US and ordered it from negrielectronics.com for about US$650 plus shipping. They shipped it on Tuesday and I got it on Thursday - how convenient that we had a winter storm in Chicago and we got sent home from work, so I could be home to receive it :-D The model I have is the silver-backed one, and looks like it came from Hong Kong.
I took it to an AT&T store today to activate it on a month-to-month data plan. The staff were drooling over it! FYI for anyone else doing the same thing, they had to fake the IMEI in their system to get it to come up with the correct data plan, as their system did not recognise my Tab's IMEI, with it not being an AT&T device. They ended up using the IMEI of one of the HSDPA (*not* LTE) tablets they had in the store. Also, after it was all activated, I had to go into the APN settings and add a new APN titled "broadband" (no username/password) for data to actually work.
I love this Tab - the hardware is spectacular, and the screen is out of this world! My only dilemma is what to do about my Tab 7plus, which I've had for about a month. I'm still within return period for that, but there's something about the 7plus where, for all the tech whizzbangery of the 7.7, the 7plus just feels that little bit more personal.... It might just be that because the 7plus has the rougher back, it's a bit easier to hold one-handed. The 7.7 is a bit slippy.
About ready to order a 7.7 myself from negri...but wifi only. Just worried about U.S. Developed roms being compatible down the road when the US version launches. Does your IR blaster work?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
Hello guys.
I also got a 7.7 3g a couple days ago and registered here to share some impressions and questions. Coming from a galaxy s plus and iPad, this is my first experience with honeycomb.
The hardware is great, as has been said many times. The tablet is gorgeous, a little heavier than it's svelte looks may suggest and feels solid, gets barely warm, a pleasure to hold.
The size is ideal for web browsing on the move, pages in landscape are generally easy to read without need of zooming and panning around. I also find amoled screens to strain eyes a little less than lcd thanks to the potentially darker colors.
Battery life is ok, not incredible. I got over 8 hours of random use with wifi and auto screen luminosity.
The software is a different story.
The preloaded Swype keyboard is bugged. On large documents, double tapping a word to select it causes the editor to scroll to the top and select a random block from the first lines. The frequency of this happening seems correlated with the dimension of the document - almost always on the 100Kb file I'm working with now, but you don't need to get nearly as large.
I verified the bug with three different editors, jota, 920, and the built in note app. It's less apparent on the latter as it only handles short notes, but still happens constantly on specific words.
It's especially annoying because the keyboard is otherwise excellent, imo more responsive to fast swipes and accurate in text prediction than the commercial SlideIT alternative, it even has cursor and edit keys accessible with a couple taps.
Other issues I imagine belong to honeycomb and well known here, but were a surprise to me, used to a fine gingerbread experience.
The interface suffers from significant hiccups. Apps can't write on the micro SD, thought as consolation Samsung's preloaded file manager allows to copy data to it.
Multitasking is unreliable for serious work as background apps get randomly closed and lose data. Registering to this forum I left Dolphin browser to open the verification email, went back to find all tabs gone. The same browser on a phone with half the ram rarely if ever had the issue.
App crashes have also been much more common, included one with the pre installed pen memo app, few with the settings manager, more with Dolphin.
I'll cut it before this becomes a rant on the OS. I'm interested in knowing if others can reproduce the keyboard problem, to make sure it's not my device to be defective.
Bottom line, ICS can't come soon enough and hopefully will address issues. This tablet needs and deserves better than the stuff it's running now.
Btw, I got it from Negri too, excellent service. There is no IR gun, it may be specific to other models or just have been removed from the final specs.
thank u for that in depth review!
Sent from my SCH-I800 using xda premium
fabiovolta said:
Hello guys.
The software is a different story.
The preloaded Swype keyboard is bugged. On large documents, double tapping a word to select it causes the editor to scroll to the top and select a random block from the first lines. The frequency of this happening seems correlated with the dimension of the document - almost always on the 100Kb file I'm working with now, but you don't need to get nearly as large.
I verified the bug with three different editors, jota, 920, and the built in note app. It's less apparent on the latter as it only handles short notes, but still happens constantly on specific words.
It's especially annoying because the keyboard is otherwise excellent, imo more responsive to fast swipes and accurate in text prediction than the commercial SlideIT alternative, it even has cursor and edit keys accessible with a couple taps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find swipe-type keyboards rather useless on tablets because of the size of the device, and even though this one is smaller I still never want to use them here either.
Try Swiftkey Tablet X or Thumb Keyboard, much better for me (I would think the majority of Android tablet owners are using one of these two keyboards).
fabiovolta said:
App crashes have also been much more common, included one with the pre installed pen memo app, few with the settings manager, more with Dolphin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dolphin seems to have issues at the moment, I'm seeing reports like that across multiple device forums, try Opera Mobile instead?
I've not had any problems with app crashes myself.
Anyone tried playing YouTube videos in a browser in Galaxy Tab 7.7? I've tried stock browser and Dolphin Browser, but neither seems to be able to play YouTube videos. (I was able to do so when I was using Galaxy S II without the YouTube app.) The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is installed. Any ideas?
ccampbell1 said:
I got the 3G 7.7 a couple of days ago. I'm in the US and ordered it from negrielectronics.com for about US$650 plus shipping. They shipped it on Tuesday and I got it on Thursday - how convenient that we had a winter storm in Chicago and we got sent home from work, so I could be home to receive it :-D The model I have is the silver-backed one, and looks like it came from Hong Kong.
I took it to an AT&T store today to activate it on a month-to-month data plan. The staff were drooling over it! FYI for anyone else doing the same thing, they had to fake the IMEI in their system to get it to come up with the correct data plan, as their system did not recognise my Tab's IMEI, with it not being an AT&T device. They ended up using the IMEI of one of the HSDPA (*not* LTE) tablets they had in the store. Also, after it was all activated, I had to go into the APN settings and add a new APN titled "broadband" (no username/password) for data to actually work.
I love this Tab - the hardware is spectacular, and the screen is out of this world! My only dilemma is what to do about my Tab 7plus, which I've had for about a month. I'm still within return period for that, but there's something about the 7plus where, for all the tech whizzbangery of the 7.7, the 7plus just feels that little bit more personal.... It might just be that because the 7plus has the rougher back, it's a bit easier to hold one-handed. The 7.7 is a bit slippy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
congrats. I would have never brought this into my local AT&T store, they would have tried to make sure it never gets used on their network, and would have threatened me to cancel my unlimited data plan (grandfathered). you're a brave man. they were very nice to help you.
I might actually want the 7.7, if it had a thin/slim bezel.
krystalho said:
Anyone tried playing YouTube videos in a browser in Galaxy Tab 7.7? I've tried stock browser and Dolphin Browser, but neither seems to be able to play YouTube videos. (I was able to do so when I was using Galaxy S II without the YouTube app.) The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is installed. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the hongkong 6800 version and it plays hd youtube videos fine...
Sent from my GT-P6800 using XDA App
Considering to buy one.
in a price of 300$ it has no other competitors...
Will it get ICS ? (Custom ROMS,OR OFW..)
Thanks.
I have been reading that samsung is not going to update this with ics because they are releasing another 7 inch tablet with ics. Honestly it's just rumors and speculation, but I would say no. I got mine the other day for 280 bucks shipped. For that price, it's good enough for me. Beware though, the thing is full of bugs.
johnwaynegacy said:
I have been reading that samsung is not going to update this with ics because they are releasing another 7 inch tablet with ics. Honestly it's just rumors and speculation, but I would say no. I got mine the other day for 280 bucks shipped. For that price, it's good enough for me. Beware though, the thing is full of bugs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May you give an example
The ui is really laggy, none of the input boxes in the web browser work as expected, the remote control feature (for me at least) never worked once, netflix does not respond correctly. When netflix does work, the screen will occasionally flicker. This is all I have noticed in the few days I have had it. Also, the screen has really bad resolution.
johnwaynegacy said:
The ui is really laggy, none of the input boxes in the web browser work as expected, the remote control feature (for me at least) never worked once, netflix does not respond correctly. When netflix does work, the screen will occasionally flicker. This is all I have noticed in the few days I have had it. Also, the screen has really bad resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WTF I REALLY DONT WANT THIS DEVICE. Anything else you would recommend ?
john you NEED to hard reset your device. upgrade it with the latest firmware and how did u get this for 300?
In best-buy.... 300$
You say that john is worng?
yup8 said:
In best-buy.... 300$
You say that john is worng?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything works fine for me. On occasion it needs to be reset by holding the power button because it won't wake up (look at the "sleep of death" thread)
But the browser, netflix, and remote all work fine for me.
It is slated to get ICS. It will probably be delayed into 4th quarter this year though.
johnwaynegacy said:
The ui is really laggy, none of the input boxes in the web browser work as expected, the remote control feature (for me at least) never worked once, netflix does not respond correctly. When netflix does work, the screen will occasionally flicker. This is all I have noticed in the few days I have had it. Also, the screen has really bad resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update your tablet! Mine works fine, the browser is really responsive, UI doesn't seem to slow down, Netflix works great, even HDMI to my TV!
I dont want a buggy dying device, any other advice?
yup8 said:
I dont want a buggy dying device, any other advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go and take a look for yourself at your local BestBuy, etc... IMO. This is by far the best 7' tab out there. No problems to speak of for me.
not sure how buggy it is for other people...
anyways.
the stock launch is horrible. never mattered to me because i always install another launcher on all my android devices.
the stock browser is ok. its annoying that the brightness always dims. i installed the browser from asus. its faster and doesnt do that annoying dimming. it also has the dark honeycomb theme instead of the light theme that comes with the tab.
I live offshore so i cant go to best buy
johnwaynegacy said:
The ui is really laggy, none of the input boxes in the web browser work as expected, the remote control feature (for me at least) never worked once, netflix does not respond correctly. When netflix does work, the screen will occasionally flicker. This is all I have noticed in the few days I have had it. Also, the screen has really bad resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never had any of these issues with this device before or after the update. The screen resolution is not that bad IMO, sure it could be better but hey you could always buy and over priced, mediocre spec, limited OS apple product with a nice screen.
Sure development on this device is slow at this point, but thats what you get with a device that not many top devs are drawn too. garyd9 seems like an awesome dev but like he said, it's really upto samsung to release ICS or better source code to get things going.
I love this device for the size and hardware, I think the IR is a nice touch as long as app development get more involved.
Just always keep in mind that Samsung is in the business of mass producing a bunch of devices and making money. Customers service and support is an after thought.
Sent from my GT-P6210 using xda premium
drksilenc said:
john you NEED to hard reset your device. upgrade it with the latest firmware and how did u get this for 300?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would get the g-tab 7.7 on the 10.1 3g lil more costly but better all-round
I actually got it on amazon from electronics expo, the price varies greatly depending on the time of day. As soon as I added it to my cart the next one was 340 dollars. Maybe it goes to 340 and the price goes down for every one they sell until it hits rock bottom and then goes back up to 340. I need to check my software version, but the first thing I did when I booted it up was check for software updates in the settings menu. I dont have it on me, I am at work, and it is at home next to my bed. I will check later on how to update software.
I am up to date on my firmware already.
It will get ics its been said many times.
Just don't know when.
Thaddeus, Mar 09 12:40 (PST):
Hi,
Thanks for contacting Peel and a big thanks in advanced for your patience pertaining to this Galaxy Tablet issue. At this time, there have been issues relating to the way the tablet fires off the IR codes, this IR driver fix is part of Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS update. I wish there was a timeline on when Samsung will release this update but unfortunately there is not, this issue is in Samsung's hands. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, we want you up and running with Peel as much as you do. We will let you know as soon as this update becomes available.
Thanks for your interest in Peel,
Thaddeus
Peel Support
I truly hope that they just rushed out GB to get the product to market to give them more time to work on a fully stable ics build.. Probably just wishful thinking though
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk
As a person who did his research, I was deciding upon the Amazon Kindle Fire and GT 7+, I decided with the Galaxy Tab and I believe it was the right decision. Great design, super thin and light, it's powerful enough for what I do. I'm a student and power user. I do a lot of reading, browsing and work email from this tablet.
Pros:
Still very customizable, even with most of its lock downs. Extremely easy to root.
Very powerful without the TouchWiz. Using a 2nd launcher like Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher EX works without issues.
Screen may not be SUPERAMOLED, and its a lower resolution like 1024 600 then other tablets, the colors and screen quality is exceptional.
Web browsers on this is super fluid and flash works as fluid as a desktop.
Great battery. I've managed to get 1.5 - 2 days use out of it without charge. That is with web browsing, music listening, some movies or youtube, book reading.
Great form factor. It's super thin, so it's easy to hold and pocket. I have a folio case for it, and it still fits in my pocket with minimal thickness.
Works great with google voice. I say this because of the ear piece built into the surface. If you get some voicemail, and you're working on your tablet, you can listen to your voicemail in private without having to pull out the headphones or making the volume super low. Which brings me to my next part.
Great sound! It's loud enough for me to listen to music and through the headphones is clear and crisp (using my pair of workout sony headphones - amazing how a $20 pair of headphones sounds just as good as Beats by Dre )
Camera is satisfactory. I don't usually use mobile phone cameras, but this one is okay for my purpose. I take pictures of ad designs and use Skitch to make markup notes on the image.
Cons:
Samsung Kies - You're [almost] required to use Kies to transfer files to and from the device, which leads me to my next item...
Locked down storage - Unlike common android devices, you cannot mount the storage or sdcard. Even using a 3rd party file manager will not let you manage the files.
Proprietary USB cable - 30pin to usb, not standard. Nuff said...
terrible flashing methods - I accidentally bricked my last GT7+, and it was my fault, but if I bricked it, I would have to send it to Samsung for "repair". Unlike other companies, and I'll use Apple as a good example, you can't download the official firmware for your device and reflash your tablet.
So in the end, the Pro's outweigh the cons, and I've found some easy workarounds without having to use Kies. I mean I use Kies just to backup (I guess), but for normal file management, I use File Expert. It turns your tablet into a FTP server or you can log into your tablet's file system via a browser and do some manual file management with upload and downloads. Unfortunately, it won't let you work in the SDCard, but it's better then nothing. Then I use DoubleTwist to manage my music with Air Sync. Excellent piece of software!
Anyway, it's a great tablet, and I'm sure ICS will make it better too. Samsung said its one of the tablets to get ICS, it's just a matter of time when. Even without ICS, it works well.
Hi! Lenovo just released its Intel Atom Android smartphone called the Lenovo K800. It is the second smartphone powered by Intel to hit the market. It has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM, and 4.5 inch HD screen. Look at its full specs here: www.chinaphonereview.com/lenovo-k800-lephone-k800
I wonder how Intel could stand up against the more established smartphone processors. Please share your thoughts on this phone.
toffzter said:
Hi! Lenovo just released its Intel Atom Android smartphone called the Lenovo K800. It is the second smartphone powered by Intel to hit the market. It has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM, and 4.5 inch HD screen. Look at its full specs here: www.chinaphonereview.com/lenovo-k800-lephone-k800
I wonder how Intel could stand up against the more established smartphone processors. Please share your thoughts on this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think very soon they will be on pair with samsung,when it comes about smartphone processors.
Intel chips are excellent for desktops and laptops. But I still cannot say if I want a phone with the logo "Intel Inside". Although Intel is a giant in the CPU business, it is still a newbie in the smartphone department. Let's see if Intel Atom exceeds expectations with Lenovo K800.
I wonder if someone could get Windows 7 or x86 Ubuntu running on it. It has an x86 processor, 1GB of RAM, 1280x720 display.
X86 does very well in android. Also there are many socs that actually use more power than even the previous generation pine trail atoms. The a5x comes to mind. The new medfield chips reduce the power significantly.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Got it!
Hi There,
Got the Phone in China (I live there). First surprise, the phone comes without a micro SD card slot. Apart from that the phone delivers what was shown a few months back.
Package (nice) gives you the phone, battery, headset, usb wall plug and usb cable (µUSB).
Surprises come from the software: there is
no google play
no gmail (
no gmaps ((
which is kind of hard to take for an android phone...
Gmaps = > download the APK, it works (AGPS seems not operational though as the fix is super slow to come)
I downloaded the APK, google play starts but asks for an account, then closes, whatever your answer is to the question whether you want to add an account or not.
Adding account: It seems you can only add an exchange account, not a google account, which is probably the source of the problems I am facing (which I believe is a general problem on Android phones bought in China)
Gmail does not work
Google earth crashed
Skype works
So if anyone has a hint, how to add this real google account, then enable the rest (Google play, Gmail), this would really be helpfull to turn the device to a real Android device.
Let me know if you guys have questions on the device, I'll try to visit this thread on a regular basis.
root required...
Hi,
so the google play stuff is quite typical to the Android China phones which do not have this google account connection.
Here is what I found on another xda thread:
You need to have googleservicesframework and googlefeedback installed on your phone as well for it to manage account. Download any gapp packages, for instances cyanogenmod ones and adb push it to system/app. With both the market and the googleservicesframework in the system, it will be able to manage the account and work as it should. Hope that helps.
adb remount
adb push c:\market\GoogleFeedback.apk /system/app/GoogleFeedback.apk
adb push c:\market\GoogleServicesFramework.apk /system/app/GoogleServicesFramework.apk
adb push c:\market\Vending.apk /system/app/Vending.apk
adb reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So now the big deal is to get the device rooted
Hi,
Got some more time to play with the device.
Gmaps works well, but GPS seems not able to get a locate from the cell, so maps only gives you its position once the gps gets a fix, which is quite longer..
Gmail can be installed, by getting the GoogleServicesFramework.apk installed (you can get it from a CM7 Gapps package).
Then it works well, the only drawback being the contacts imports from your Google account seems not possible.
Google play is still a no go, same for Google earth. I could get Google Translate to work as well, very usefull when you live abroad!
Forgot to add: Z4Root does not work for me.
root continued
well, tried super one click, also Doomlord Zergrush, both also not working
Have you tried asking the seller for support? Maybe they have rooting services. Most Chinese shops have the capability to root the phones they sell. They usually have roms for their phones.
thanks
He he I bought the phone online from Lenovo (launch offer).
But it a good suggestion, so I'll visit the phone market this week end, thanks!
So how's your phone now? Have you got the bugs fixed?
It's amazing that an Android phone should ship without any gapps - considering the missing link with your Google account means you can't autosync your contacts (assuming you're coming from another Android device).
Is there any progress in getting the device rooted? Like someone else said, it'd just be a case of getting a working recovery & flashing the CM gapps package.
now working...
Hi,
superoneclick ended up rooting the phone.
Gapps working now
About the absence of Gapps, this is just the way it is in China.
Even the default search is not Google, which is shocking on an android phone
And people want it this way, my chinese colleagues do not want google play/ gapps !
Some more
a parallel thread on this
http://www.modaco.com/topic/355005-the-san-diego-hacking-topic-root-progress-etc/
Congrats! So how's your phone's performance now? Can you post a little review of your phone?
ManuLM said:
Hi,
superoneclick ended up rooting the phone.
Gapps working now
About the absence of Gapps, this is just the way it is in China.
Even the default search is not Google, which is shocking on an android phone
And people want it this way, my chinese colleagues do not want google play/ gapps !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy days : )
Impressions after a few weeks of usage
here are some impressions on the device, after a few weeks of usage on a daily basis.
My reference is another Android Phone, the Samsung Galaxy S2 which I own for a year now. I can't pretend to make a detailed review ala Endgadget, so I'll rather cover some topics to highlight. Feel free to ask for any specific questions.
Screen:
First point, the screen on the K800 is a 4.5inches display, and this is a notable difference from the GS2. More space, but also much more points. This is my first HD(720p) display, and I must say I love it...
Surfing is easier and nicer, and watching a 720 DivX on the device is actually fairly impressive. Note the rescaling works well, and a usual DivX would do just as good, without the extra points.
The display delivers a more realistic color than the GS2 amoled, less vivid, also I feel less bright.
Hardware
general size and shape are not K800 top spots. The design is very squarish, the phone is also rather thick (~11mm is nowadays a thick phone). It is also heavier.
Overall assembly quality is very good, but squarish. It is also heavier than the GS2, note there are reasons for it: bigger display, bigger battery also (1900mA).
Assembly quality is very good and the phone feels solid, and sits nicely next to my Lenovo laptop without looking ridiculous.
One topic of regret is the absence of a SD card slot, forcing you to rely on the 16GB internal storage.
Usage
SW: it is shipped with Android 2.3.7 as said earlier, and if this can be seen as an issue by many of us SW enthusiast, it is also an advantage on the power side. Together with the large battery, the phone offers quite an extended usage. With a "light" day (3G / GPS always on, few calls/mails/SMS, light surf, few minutes of playing) I only draw ~25% of the battery. I love this !!
On a heavier day I managed to draw almost 50% (when I just got it), playing around, downloading apps, trying various stuff and customizing UI besides a normal usage. The average is around 30-40% per day depending on my usage. This overall is a very nice aspect of the phone.
After having my GS2 flashed to ICS LPG, I faced a major increase of the battery, having to recharge the phone during the same day when my usage was a bit heavy, which is really annoying (and made me buy a juice pack...). GS2 drains its battery faster.
Speed:
The UI sometimes has some quick slow downs, not killing but visible (scrolling accross desktops), which are hard to explain, but overall the experience remains very smooth. I also faced some issues of reactivity on the android soft buttons, be it back, home, or context menu. While it is not killing for the usage, it is a point to improve and it makes the user experience not up to the level of the galaxy S2, because you have to press the button sometimes 2-3 times before it reacts. Also the haptic feedback (very short vibra run when you type) is much sharper on my Samsung device, so there is some more maturity needed on Lenovo side here (I guess they have to learn here).
The surfing is really fast on the K800, be it on 3G or on Wifi where it really goes fast. Getting pages is notably faster than on the Galaxy S2.
USB interface is also quite enjoyable, I reached 17MB/s on a file transfer, which makes the transfer of big files (read 720p content) quite fast and convenient. I faced no recognition issues at all on my various computers.
You really feel like the hardware interfaces on the device are not skimmed down anyhow, and that feels good. I could not try the WiDi as I have no WiDi receiver.
Compatibility:
I faced only minor issues on the device, like G earth does not run, so do some apps, like Asphalt 5 or 6, but I could not spot too many issues here. I also could not get temple run running on the device.
That's all that comes to my mind right now, so I'll be just posting further impressions on the go.
This device is now my primarily device, and in the evening I do not worry that I'll run out of juice.
Wow! Thanks for the review! So, is it safe to say that it is the best smartphone you've tried? How about the camera of the K800 and its call quality?
well there are some maturity issues like reactivity (will it be improved by SW? It should be doable for reactivity) and form factor Design (soap box) as reported above, which make the experience not complete, but for a first Android flagship device by Lenovo, result is overall really impressive and competitive on several aspects (speed, power, display...).
Call quality is good I have nothing to complain about here (including speakerphone), camera I have not been testing extensively so I can't really tell you so far, how good it is.
Hi all, I am currently deciding between each tablet experience and I am stuck on a decision. I have read a few times some posts here and on other websites about each device and it seems to be...
gaming/media - nexus
productivity/ s pen - note
however my needs kind of fit all four and I can live without the s pen.
I read alot
I am a teacher so I need to be able to annotate books and pdfs
I also want to plug a keyboard in a type emails/ documents from time to time
but (just incase the surface rt is mentioned) I love android and I love media and games.
I really want the best and most future proof experience.
Now I currently have a note and I do like it, but I can get a nexus for a good price but would need to sell the note.
I like both touchwiz and vanilla android (as I had a nexus 4) and for me really, speed is important (one element I do like about iOS).
So.. which device would be best? Thanks.
p.s. I plan to pair either one with either the asus fonepad or nexus 7.
A big plus for me with the note is the micro sd slot. But if space is not an issue then probably the nexus for speed and resolution.
I traded a Nexus 4 for my Note 2 and feel the Nexus 4 doesn't even come close to the Note 2 at least for me.
If you plan on plugging in a keyboard you may want to look around the edge of your note very closely.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda premium
If you can wait a little man, I sure Samsung and Google with be releasing new variants of the devices real soon already in hearing rumours of the new nexus 7 coming with full hd, and I'm sure the new note 10.1 will have octo core with 3 gigs of ram
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
So the 2 big things for me were the not has memory expansion...
I have a 32gb internal note with 64gb sd card and am filling these up...
Because of the new additions to android and the greater resolution and capabilities of the new tablets, games are getting bigger and bigger. I downloaded a game the other day that required over 1gb of additional files, not to mention game saves... A small internal memory, 16gb, is no good as I filled that one too fast.
Now you might not get a lot of big games like that but I find a few apps fills things up pretty quick especially if you add in video files, music and text/doc/pdf files...
The 2nd for me was the ability to make and receive calls on my tablet, I have the N8000, as it can be a pain if you have to keep reaching for your phone. A bluetooth headset and my not allow me to make/receive calls and still find the data I need to share. This might not be a biggie for you but it's so easy not to have to hunt down my phone if I need to make a call.
I haven't found any problems with speed, I run a stock , rooted rom and it's blazingly fast as long as I don't fill up the internal memory too much.
The screen is fine, unless you are actually comparing screens all the time you won't see the difference as you can use the resolution its got fine. I watch shows and movies on mine all the time and no complaints here...
Love the speakers, the fact they are located on the front means the sound is directed to you, the user, not to everyone else in front of you.
Most apps work fine though I have found a few that require sideloading. There's also a few that are s-pen specific.
Interface is easy to use and if you don't like it find another like Apex or Nova...
S-pen is of course the be all and end all of why you would buy this over any other android tablet. It makes life SOOOO much easier, is fantastic when it comes to annotating PDF's and writing, makes drawing fantastic as the wacom digitiser recognises how hard or softly you press the pen to the tablet and gives a corresponding line width. Also a lot more precise than just the rubber stylus that you can get for the other tablets.
Overall I was happy with my purchase of the Note. It's a good work horse, Allows me to work or play, sometimes both at the same time, and hasn't let me down yet...
The only real complaint I have is why Samsung decided to not allow a USB HDD to run. You can plug a memory stick in with no problems but plug in a 2.5" portable HDD and you get the dreaded " A High Powered USB Has Been Detected" . Considering I have an Acer A501 that uses the 1Tb HDD with no problems this was a disappointment, but then again I have got the sd card and the USB key to use so not too much of a problem...
Can't say anything about the nexus as I don't have 1. Sorry, no help there but you might get some idea about the Note.
Cheers...
Buy either. The note is great but the screen is outdated. Better wait the the next version of the note
If you're going to be annotating more than just a little, I'd say you need the stylus to keep from going insane.. Otherwise, there isn't much I'd add for either side.