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[Q] Noob question - NS right for me?

I have about $500 to buy a new unlocked phone and I'm looking at the Nexus S. Until recently I'd just choose the cheapest phone the phone plan offered, so I'm really overwhelmed with this choice. Any advice is appreciated!
I need:
A fast phone (I HATE waiting on apps to open, waiting for screens to change, etc.)
A camera of some kind
Android OS
Ability to root and (probably) install Cyanogen
Good battery life
I don't need:
Music player
Super wonderful camera
HD whatever (I don't even totally get what that whole deal is lol)
I'd also like fast internet... but I have a 3g phone now and rarely even see it say 3g in the data icon. It doesn't seem to make a difference anyway because it takes a million years to load a web site no matter what. I've had it in two different states with supposed 3g coverage so I know it's available. In short, 4g would be nice but it's not a dealbreaker.
So... should I take the plunge on the Nexus S? Or look at another phone or wait for a new release? I've been looking at all kinds of phones for a couple days and I'm just confused. Thanks!

why not wait until Galaxy S II comes out in Aug/Sept

Your first 4 needs are pretty much standard in any high-end Android phone these days. Battery life is subjective on how you use the phone so it's a bit hard to narrow it down for you in that regard as well.
If you gave a more specific criteria, then maybe we could help you further but so far the Nexus S does fit the bill for what you need (but so do many other phones).

As usual, as soon as I post I find the answer... Nexus Prime coming out later this year. 4g and dual-core processor so it sounds like what I want now basically. I guess I'll have to suffer my chipped up old mytouch 3g snail for a little longer.
Thanks!

Hello,
When I consider your expectations, I can say that "yes Nexus S is right for you"
Because I have Nexus S since 10 days, i can not explain taste of pure Android
so fast, stability and reliable.
Absolutely when the nexus series is released, i will buy it

The Nexus S is a great phone for a variety of reasons. As someone who started as a complete novice and has since been bitten by the Android bug pretty hard, I'll try to give you some pros and cons.
The big "con," at least on first examination, is the hardware. Yeah, there are more powerful phones out there; but don't let specs fool you. I went from a Galaxy S to the Atrix because I was lured in by the dual core processor, gb of RAM, etc. Specs don't tell the whole story. The Nexus S is smoother, faster, and more stable than the Atrix, by FAR. I figured I could solve any problems with the Atrix by running CM7 as I had on my Galaxy S...but ROMs are in short supply for the Atrix. The Nexus S, on the other hand, is pretty much perfect straight out of the box (well, once you set it up to your liking).
The elephant in the room when it comes to choosing a new phone these days is Ice Cream Sandwich. No matter what, when ICS comes out, it's going to take time to make it onto most devices, even through unofficial channels. The Nexus S, on the other hand, will get an official update asap. As someone who also uses Honeycomb (3.2), I can tell you the ICS update is probably going to be fantastic.
So, you can get a phone with superior hardware and then jump through hoops to make it smooth, stable, and fast, or you can get a Nexus S. You'll have a great phone as soon as you power it on, and you'll have ICS as soon as it's available.
I've had a Galaxy S, two Atrix 4Gs, a Nook Color with Gingerbread, a Xoom with 3.0/3.1/3.2, and a Nexus S 4G- I can honestly tell you that nothing is better than pure Google. You will have official updates as soon as they're available, and you'll have those updates incorporated into custom ROMs sooner as a result. Everyone else will be jumping through hoops and dealing with buggy ROMs to get the same features.

I been thinking about picking up a Nexus S 4G but the only thing that's stopping me is fear of it not being dual core. not sure how smooth Icecream sandwich would be on it since it's not a dual core phone and the last thing on my mind would the next Nexus phone coming out... the thing is that there's been a lot of speculation that it's going to come out with a 4.3 inch screen which i don't really like in phones.... I like phones that can actually fit in skinny jeans -.-

[Q] Looking for a new phone

I'm looking to buy a new phone, and I'm going to try the Android road once again. My main problem with Android phones has been usability, mostly small glitches, lag, unresponsiveness and other various bugs that annoy me when all I want to do is a complete a simple task. The problem with my current HTC wildfire is that I'm simply sick to death about mostly lag and interface issues, and I'm running a pretty average stock ROM, I forget which one since I kinda stuck with one that I was somewhat happy with and gave up with reflashing.
I've tried plenty of other ROMS and they all tend to be the same in one way or another when it comes to issues like this. I've even got it overclocked to 710mhz, and still facing crappy issues, and pretty big drain in the battery. I just really feel I shouldn't have to go through all of that to get decent usability.
Hell I think the Branded stock HTC ROM out preformed most of the cooked ones, my only problem with it was that was branded everywhere with useless shortcuts and icons.
So I'm looking for something fairly high end, with a physical qwerty keyboard, a 3.5mm jack, and overall simply put, good performance for general use and the odd emulator here and there. I was thinking the HTC desire Z, but since it's going at about $300-$350 I think it might be another mistake, my Wildfire was about that much and after a few months it was a regretful buy.
I really don't want to buy another phone that will let me down, my last three phones were a HTC Touch Diamond which cost a fortune, a Nokia E63 (Because I was that stick of the touch diamond), and my current HTC Wildfire, the E63 was probably the best buy out of all of them, and it was the cheapest.
So please guys, help me find a decent phone, I really don't want to have to fork out the ridiculous amount of money for an iPhone 4 or go back to the E series Nokia phones.
I know it seems a little lazy for me to be asking a forum such a question, this is something I usually research and review, but that has failed me which is why I really want some advice from users themselves, ones that have possibly suffered from the same sort of issues. Reviews are one thing, but daily long term users are another. I remember thinking the Wildfire was good from the reviews, little did I know.

bump
10char

Kind of late for the sgs 2 but I still recommend it. I have not experienced any lag, and I will proudly say it is the most fluid and smooth phone android has to offer. It has software which is unmatched in terms of efficiency and maintainability and security. Moreover it is more or less equal to sense in terms of functionality.

That's sort of in the right track, but as mentioned, I'm looking for something with a physical QWERY keyboard.
I'm thinking maybe the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro, anyone got any kind of negative feedback on that?

If you want a qwerty keyboard, you can have a look at the HTC Desire Z. They are available in The Netherlands here for 319,- euros. I don't know if they are sold in your area though...

How do you like HTC Chacha?
qwerty, android and low price are included

I have the Desire Z and i love my phone its really great, and for me the keyboard was the main reason to buy the phone and after one year with the phone i can certainly say that the phone has much more then the keyboard and u can find many roms for it here in xda...
BUT i want also mention that the phone is nowaday i little bit outdated, with its 800mhz single core prossesor(ok u can takt it up to 2ghz,so its for me never a problem of speed with 1-1,3ghz and the right rom u have more then enough speed,dats my personal few),
The BIG MINUS for me are the 512Mb ram,which u will get to know sometimes when u are useing bigger roms (like sense 3.0,for sure there are ways to "extend RAM" and super roms like the Virtous Unity where almost everything works smooth), but these 512mb ram and the Android together making it sometimes difficult for me, it causes lags and all,(today i have cm7 on it and still now no probs, only the market app is bit slow but that has nothing to do with the phone i think)
....to be honest i never really saw an android headset without any small lag...
and as Kailkti above said, (even if i am not a big samsung and his plastic phone fan) i would also say buy the the SGS2 its really very fast and almost lag and problem free ...as i know....

Manuel91 said:
I have the Desire Z and i love my phone its really great, and for me the keyboard was the main reason to buy the phone and after one year with the phone i can certainly say that the phone has much more then the keyboard and u can find many roms for it here iin xda...
BUT i want also mention that the phone is nowaday i little bit outdated, with its 800mhz single core prossesor(ok u can takt it up to 2ghz,so its for me never a problem of speed with 1-1,3ghz and the right rom u have more then enough speed,dats my personal few),
The BIG MINUS for me are the 512Mb ram,which u will get to know sometimes when u are useing bigger roms (like sense 3.0,for sure there are ways to "extend RAM" and super roms like the Virtous Unity where almost everything works smooth), but these 512mb ram and the Android together making it sometimes difficult for me, it causes lags and all,(today i have cm7 on it and still now no probs, only the market app is bit slow but that has nothing to do with the phone i think)
....to be honest i never really saw an android headset without any small leg...
and as Kailkti above said, (even if i am not a big samsung and his plastic phone fan) i would also say buy the the SGS2 its really very fast and almost lag and problem free ...as i know....but I am unexperienced compared to many devs here....
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Wow Manuel, I'd just like to say thanks, I really appreciate the time you took into giving me details and your personal experience with the phone!

xelasha said:
Wow Manuel, I'd just like to say thanks, I really appreciate the time you took into giving me details and your personal experience with the phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are Welcome ...as said i love my desire Z and i saw dat u are thinking about buying... so i wanted to tell u that the phone is great but has also his minus... and u should know and think about what u want and need...every phone has his + and - ...as i bought my phone i had the choice between the desire z and the galaxy S and i took the desire z and I am happy about it...i wanted a phone with qwertz keyboard, because i am writing much and i dont like TS writing and now there are many other better much more powerfull devices, but only less alternatives to the desire z...( for me personally there i no alternative because i like sense very much an there is no other device with qwertz keyboard from htc, ok the Salsa but thats an other league)...
.)so u have to decide if u want power and lag/bugless phone then galaxyS2 is ...
.)physical keyboard and a middle class phonewith good manufacturing, wich is not lagfree desire z
.)or u should look at motorola(but dont know how the phones really are, only read about one,..two days or so ago... with dulcore and keyboard and all)
so wish u all a nice day ;D

Galaxy Nexus ALL THE WAY!!!!!!! Reasons:
1) Will be smoothest and most stable
2) Will have dev support from google for a LONG TIME
3) Due to dev support, wont be obsolete for a LONG TIME
4) Runs pure android
Personal Experience:
I own a nexus one. I am running gingerbread with little to no lag most of the time. This phone is two years old and I still get OTA updates. I am planning on getting a galaxy nexus. Even though its 2 years old, I still love it, wouldnt trade it for an iphone ever.
Extra Information:
Galaxy nexus runs PURE STOCK, making it much more stable and much less laggy. Almost no reason to spend time rooting and flashing ROMS if you into that. Also, with a 1.2 ghz dual core processor, there's not much room for lag. Last point, ICS was designed to be more stable and smooth than any other android build EVER, so if you want the smoothest android phone possible, the galaxy nexus is the way to go.
Extra Goodies:
First phone to run ICS. Once again, ICS was designed for this phone!!!!!! Get all the goodies from ICS. The highest resolution android screen EVER and its 4.65" Super AMOLED. And LTE and HSPA+ support. So if you are on verizon, sprint, tmobile, or att you can get it.
google.com/nexus

matthewkhoury75 said:
Galaxy Nexus ALL THE WAY!!!!!!! Reasons:
1) Will be smoothest and most stable
2) Will have dev support from google for a LONG TIME
3) Due to dev support, wont be obsolete for a LONG TIME
4) Runs pure android
Personal Experience:
I own a nexus one. I am running gingerbread with little to no lag most of the time. This phone is two years old and I still get OTA updates. I am planning on getting a galaxy nexus. Even though its 2 years old, I still love it, wouldnt trade it for an iphone ever.
Extra Information:
Galaxy nexus runs PURE STOCK, making it much more stable and much less laggy. Almost no reason to spend time rooting and flashing ROMS if you into that. Also, with a 1.2 ghz dual core processor, there's not much room for lag. Last point, ICS was designed to be more stable and smooth than any other android build EVER, so if you want the smoothest android phone possible, the galaxy nexus is the way to go.
Extra Goodies:
First phone to run ICS. Once again, ICS was designed for this phone!!!!!! Get all the goodies from ICS. The highest resolution android screen EVER and its 4.65" Super AMOLED. And LTE and HSPA+ support. So if you are on verizon, sprint, tmobile, or att you can get it.
google.com/nexus
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Thanks for the detailed response Matt, but unfortunately like I mentioned I want a physical QWERTY keyboard, it's a must.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro has a qwerty. The new xperia models are really great once the bloatware is gone and you get a new launcher. I have the Play, and it's gone way above my expectations for a single core model.
Having a perfected single core is better than a still-developing dual.
Edit: didn't see the part where you mention that model. Derp.
Sent from the best phone ever

captain67 said:
Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro has a qwerty. The new xperia models are really great once the bloatware is gone and you get a new launcher. I have the Play, and it's gone way above my expectations for a single core model.
Having a perfected single core is better than a still-developing dual.
Edit: didn't see the part where you mention that model. Derp.
Sent from the best phone ever
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate, also a helpful answer. I think I might choose the Xperia Pro after all, it's got a slightly faster processor than the Desire Z, and I've been extremely happy with Sony Ericsson phones in the past (w850i, **** yeah). I was likely going to remove Timescape anyway, I'll give it a whirl for a few days, but I think I'll prefer another launcher in the end.

I'm using go launcher ex. The customizations and ability to backup settings is great. Whenever I flash a ROM, I just restore the backup and the custom stuff is already done.
I tried the Desire Z when picking out phones. The landscape mode only worked when the qwerty was open, and the screen didn't seem very sharp.. I'm glad I waited an extra few months to get my phone because I would have been stuck with a Samsung, and missed out on the xperia play gamepad. The xplay literally popped out of nowhere in my country. I had no idea it was coming out beforehand.
My advice: look around mobile blog/review sites for previews/announces of upcoming models. You never know, a couple months from now something better suited to you might be released.
Sent from the best phone ever

How is this phone?

So, I'm getting a new phone. I have a Cliq 2 at the moment and I'm currently debating between this phone and the LG G2x. I've heard tons of good things about both phones.
So, how is this phone? What are its good, and bad things? How is the keyboard?
I'm not asking about which phone I should get, I'm just asking about what are the ups of this phone, and what are its downs? How's the stock rom? How are all the custom roms? And any other useful things you guys can throw in about this phone.
Thanks!
Sent from my MB611 using Tapatalk

theholyfork said:
So, I'm getting a new phone. I have a Cliq 2 at the moment and I'm currently debating between this phone and the LG G2x. I've heard tons of good things about both phones.
So, how is this phone? What are its good, and bad things? How is the keyboard?
I'm not asking about which phone I should get, I'm just asking about what are the ups of this phone, and what are its downs? How's the stock rom? How are all the custom roms? And any other useful things you guys can throw in about this phone.
Thanks!
Sent from my MB611 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to sound overly negative but this phone...cons
Very little ROM support
Stock is MySense 3.0 which is watered down Sense 3.0 and sucks
The dual cores don't seem to fire like they should...my MT4G was faster and only one core..
Keyboard is flat and hard to type....
Pros....
Hmmm Camera is cool....
some love the tv out....
and it should get 4.0

Love it. I amazing build quality, amazing camera, amazing keyboard. Sense launcher sucks and stock it sucks but with a rom its awesome.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Pros:
Very stable
Easily rooted
Gets even faster once the Sense launcher and Rosie are both gone
Cons:
Only two devs actually working on this device (Undeadk9 and Kornyone)
No stable CyanogenMod builds yet
Stock ROM is almost pure bloatware

Well I think this phone is pretty snappy myself.
Undeadk9 has created a very stable Rom with an aosp feel and minimum sense just for the dialer and camera, which is perfect for me atleast.
Undeadk9 also is the first to get gpu ui rendering on any rom, so the phone is finally using the most out of its great hardware specs. I think the dual cores are perfect already, but once we get ics, I think the phone will fully utilize both cores
Sent from my RubiX NonSense using XDA App

Pretty good phone. Easy to root. New version of Bulletproof coming out soon.
I had been using a G1 from the start and took some doing for me to switch. Tried 2 different g2s that didn't work.
I really like the G1 keyboard but am getting used to the 4g slide's.
Only draw back is I work in a roaming area during the week and have trouble getting and making calls. Network problems with T-mobiles "roaming" partner network.
Sent from my Bulletproof_Doubleshot using xda premium

leoilios said:
...
Undeadk9 also is the first to get gpu ui rendering on any rom, so the phone is finally using the most out of its great hardware specs...
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Click to collapse
Not quite true - the pre-1.0 version of Bulletproof had hardware rendering set as the default behavior, which I removed for the 1.0 release, and that was a while ago.
--------
I love this device, it's fantastic. Beefy hardware and a nice, smaller package, the capabilities of the device we are opening up is fantastic.
love the keyboard, aftermarket anker battery makes the package, and some nice cases out for it now.
Hardware rendering is a bit buggy, and i'm pretty sure it's a kernel issue that can be addressed - i've been studying this problem since about the middle of august and will start to address the issue in another week or so.
It works fine on the phone itself, but once you start using the TV-out function of the phone it gets weird at times.
If nto using hardware decoding, though, playing video games and watching movies on a TV is a fantastic feature without having to carry around the bulky MHL adapter some phones need, and the screen stays active which means you can use it as a controller for whatever you are playing on the TV.
Love the phone, you probably will too if you pick one up.

Blue6IX said:
Not quite true - the pre-1.0 version of Bulletproof had hardware rendering set as the default behavior, which I removed for the 1.0 release, and that was a while ago.
--------
I love this device, it's fantastic. Beefy hardware and a nice, smaller package, the capabilities of the device we are opening up is fantastic.
love the keyboard, aftermarket anker battery makes the package, and some nice cases out for it now.
Hardware rendering is a bit buggy, and i'm pretty sure it's a kernel issue that can be addressed - i've been studying this problem since about the middle of august and will start to address the issue in another week or so.
It works fine on the phone itself, but once you start using the TV-out function of the phone it gets weird at times.
If nto using hardware decoding, though, playing video games and watching movies on a TV is a fantastic feature without having to carry around the bulky MHL adapter some phones need, and the screen stays active which means you can use it as a controller for whatever you are playing on the TV.
Love the phone, you probably will too if you pick one up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, cool. Before this phone came out I wanted it so bad, but for some reason I just forgot about it haha.
And oh, no CM? My I have it installed on my Cliq2 and I love it. The more custom roms the better haha
Edit: nevermind, just looked at the development section and saw there was a CM rom.
Why did someone say earlier not many ROMs? From what it looks like, there's a lot
Sent from my MB611 using Tapatalk

I like it, Im getting used to the keyboard, but it works. The Bulletproof rom is nice and snappy, feels good in my hands.. its a nice improvement over the 3g slide I used to have.
It has a lot of nice features that will be amazing once rom devs (like Blue6IX) tweek the kernel further
And its one of the few dual core phones with a slide out keyboard.

kornyone got himself added to the CM team by porting the majority of it to this device.
He released a rough alpha version of CM7 for the device, which was freakin' awesome! - just with the release of ICS by Google the entire CM crew is working around the clock to get ICS ported back to older devices, so the CM7 project for this device got shelved for a bit.
Because kornyone was interested in this device enough to go ahead and start getting CM7 ported to it, i'd like to think that puts this phone in a good position to get whatever ICS goodness they are working on.
I'm a bug fan of their work, I run CM7 on my Nook Color and love it - it's amazing what they've done.
For this device, personally, i'm preferring to work with Sense, which I know doesn't appeal to everyone. Once ICS hits the phone I think it'll be important to maintain a Sense option for people who would prefer to keep some of the proprietary technologies they've paid for (like TV-out).
I dunno, I bought a second one of these phones for development purposes, so if that says anything about how much I like it

i like the phone a lot as well, and i just can't get myself to flash CyanogenMod on it, haha(i have a G2 for that ). i personally feel HTC did a good job on this Mysense... even on stock, everything seems to work, and it looks great. granted i haven't used tv-out yet, and it sounds like the playback isn't stellar.... yet. the phone also doesn't seem as blazing fast as one might expect, but it is fast enough. i look forward to trying the next release of Bulletproof because it sounds like Blue61x has slimmed it down, while maintaining stability and all the Sense goodies.

I love this phone. I got it through rma from t mobile, brand new. Took a few to get one that I loved, but I'm much pickier than most. Feels very solid, I think its blazing fast.
I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say it isn't fast. I think this phone is a monster. Fastest phone I've used (mt3g, hd2 with android, mt4g). Notice I've only ever had touchscreen phones. I was in love with the galaxy s2, and thought for sure it would be my next phone. Then I got this thing, and I'm pretty darn sure I won't be switching anytime soon.
Sent from my ICS Splashed MT4GS using XDA App

dung8604 said:
I love this phone. I got it through rma from t mobile, brand new. Took a few to get one that I loved, but I'm much pickier than most. Feels very solid, I think its blazing fast.
I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say it isn't fast. I think this phone is a monster. Fastest phone I've used (mt3g, hd2 with android, mt4g). Notice I've only ever had touchscreen phones. I was in love with the galaxy s2, and thought for sure it would be my next phone. Then I got this thing, and I'm pretty darn sure I won't be switching anytime soon.
Sent from my ICS Splashed MT4GS using XDA App
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Agreed. I own this since a few days. Its fast as hell...I'm using it with cm7, its working pretty well with it, except the cm7 has 720p video recording only. I'm okay with that. Otherwise its one of the best phones with keyboard. The screen resolution tho is a bit lagging behind the current best ones, but at least this phone fits well in the pocket.
sent from HTC Doubleshot cm7

I'm thinking about getting this phone when I get my discount next month. I've had a chance to handle it a couple times, really like the feel of the slider, and the camera is just great(especially when compared to other HTC phones before it)!
It also looks like there's a couple great devs working on it. I'm following Blue's threads and I'm very impressed, plus korny seems to be making great progress with ICS.
Any chance someone could post a video overview of Bulletproof 1.1? I'd really like to see it in action

Can anyone tell me how the sound quality is - earpiece and speakerphone (calls and music) compared to HD2?

ymmp said:
Can anyone tell me how the sound quality is - earpiece and speakerphone (calls and music) compared to HD2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally this phone kicks ass. I have both a Sensation, and HD2 along side this baby. The sound quailty is amazing. I kick back, and relax to some biggie all the time. The screen is WVGA, not as clear as a qHD but is still good. The keyboard is much better than the Q2. I need a hardware keyboard since I text the Wife constantly, and its never let me down. The Duel Core shows off its power along side the 220 gpu. Speaker is load, performance is gooood. I use this over my sensation all the time.
But there's not many ROMs for it Xo there's more ROMs by the banished one on rootzwiki. Bulletproof is a good mysense rom, but there's a lot of neet roms. Where getting a true sense 3.0 rom soon. This phone is a must buy.
Sent from my ICS Splashed MT4GS using xda premium

Litesorrows said:
... Where getting a true sense 3.0 rom soon. ...
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Click to collapse
The stock Sense version is true Sense 3.0, not sure what you mean by this?
Maybe you are thinking Sense 3.5?

The phone is a beast on the spec sheet, but the stock rom is a bloated mess. If you're willing to root it, and freeze some of the bloat, stock isn't bad.
The keyboard is not as good as the MT3GS's, but I'm sure that was a tradeoff for the better specifications.
Basically, if you want a high end phone with a keyboard, there really just aren't many alternatives. I'm hoping we get some sort of ICS ROM (either cyanogen or HTC), as that'd extend the phone's life at least another year.

To Lifesorrows and Johnycat26,
Thanks a lot for the info - I just ordered the phone. I'm really impressed with Android on the HD2, but I really miss a hw kbd and having a great camera (and the extra ROM and RAM don't hurt either!)
To Blue61x, maybe he means a regular Sense ROM not the T-Mo modified "My-Sense" (for example w/o shortcuts on lock screen)?

I just got this phone today! I am loving it. So far. The hw keys a little hard to work with, that's about it though. Otherwise.this thing is a beast!! I love it. Came from a SGS4, big difference. That phone was so slow!!.o waving bye bye to it now. Had.a mytouch 4 h before and mt3h slide before that..o also had a cliq .and a.blackberry 9700. ........
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA App

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..
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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
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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.
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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.
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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] 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!
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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