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I was in the same boat deciding between the iPhone 4 and Captivate. Here’s my experience with both. Hopefully it will help someone in making their decision. I’m in the Chicago area and ATT works pretty well for me. I won’t go into details about numbers or front facing cameras because you’ve already read about that. I really didn’t want an iPhone. I had a 3G when it first came out and had nothing but problems.
Screen: First off, both screens look great. It’s like being at Best Buy comparing tv’s. Side by side they all look a little different but once you get it home either one will look great. Ip4 has truer color but the over saturated SC really pops out at you. Even though the screen is only a half inch bigger, the border around it makes it appear bigger yet. Ip4 was easier for me to see in direct sunlight. Touchscreen responsiveness and scrolling smoothness is awesome on both. I liked the SC better.
Buttons: I like the physical buttons on the Ip4. They have a definite feel to them and are in the right location or the location that I’m use to. I got use to the SC buttons but hated the mini usb connector coming out of the top. When using a car charger or syncing to a computer it’s always in the way. Whose dumb idea was that? The buttons on the bottom of the screen SUCK. They go off after a few seconds and you have to hunt and tap around until the screen gives the desired response. Again, after a while you begin to get use to them.
Battery: When I got my SC home, battery life was terrible. About 6 hrs. of moderate use and it was dead. That gradually improved and by the second week, the battery lasted all day with 25% to spare. Since I charge it every night anyway, it wasn’t a problem. Ip4 lasts several days but again, I charge every night.
Apps: I don’t really care about how many thousand apps one has over another. Who needs 800 tip calculators anyway? I probably use about 50. Android has a free app called Missed Reminder that you can set to ring/vibrate if you don’t hear a call, text etc. (Just like my Razor V3 had). Ip4 word, excel, pdf documants right out of the box. With Android I used a free app called Quick Office that opened about 80% of these documents. Sometimes I’d get an error message and couldn’t view the file.
Email: I use Hotmail and Ip4 works great and is very fast. I had nothing but problems with the SC’s email. When I first setup my Hotmail it retrieved my mail although very slowly. I could read messages but if there was pictures or attachments the pinwheel would spin (loading) sometimes 10-15 minutes before loading all or sometimes part of the message. I tried having Gmail fetch my Hotmail which was much faster but most of the time the attachments were blank and showed up as 0 kbts. I was able to view my mail & attachments correctly if I went through the browser but that was kind of convoluted way to get it done. I even tried K-9 mail which did not help. I spoke with Samsung, posted questions on this forum as well as speaking with ATT customer service. The best solution they could come up with was to clear the cache. Their final comments were that some phones are better at email than others. I had the phone replaced but still had the same results.
Keyboard: Ip4 keyboard has bigger buttons than the SC’s keyboard so it’s a little easier for me however I think SC’s swype keyboard is the best. Once I learned how to use it I’d never use anything else. The SC’s Speak to text is cool too. As long as you speak clearly, it’s pretty accurate. Great for texting and driving as long as you’re not checking for mistakes. (My bad).
Browser: Both browsers are great and to me, they seem very similar. IP4 does not support flash. On the SC you can zoom way in on text, double tap and it word wraps to the screen so you don’t have to zig zag through the message to read it. Nice.
Wi-fi: With the SC I can be 20 feet from my wireless router and I’m showing poor signal strength. With the IP4 not only do I show a strong signal, I can pick up three of my neighbors as well.
Phone/Data: Both phones have been in cases since they left the store. Call quality is good on both phones. The SC sounds a little tinny but clear. Several times I’ve had the SC echo when I speak into it. Had to reboot it and it was fine. SC has dropped quite a few calls, more than I’m use to. Often when connected to a land line so I know it’s not the other party. Phone can be lying on a table and signal fluctuates between 5 bars and 0. At 0, sometimes calls connect, sometimes they fail. IP4 has only dropped two calls so far (3 weeks) in known dead areas.
Misc: Haven’t really had any problems with the IP4 so far. With the SC I haven’t had the random shutdown issue I’ve been hearing about. I have had the phone freeze a few times while ringing and not been able to answer a call. Had the call drop while removing it from my pocket (many times). I tried removing it by the edges, front and back, etc. I’ve had the phone pocket dial and even had my alarms deleted. I don’t know how because the phone is locked and there are several steps required to do this. I also get a lot of connection error and network error messages while I have a wi-fi or full 3g signal. In my photo’s app, all of my album art shows up as an individual photo album. I have to scroll through hundreds of albums to get to my Pictures. (Maybe I’m just missing something). I’m sure the gps issue will be fixed but It’s been six weeks. You’d think Samsung would have been all over that. It’s just some weather apps, golf apps etc. rely on gps information.
Conclusion: I love the way you can customize the SC. Between the widgets and live wallpapers it can look really cool. I like customizing; I don’t like messing with something just to get it to work correctly. I think the SC is very promising but right now it’s just to buggy for me. Everyone talks about how the Froyo update will fix everything but its all speculation. At first ATT said it was coming out the beginning of August. Then it was September. Now they claim they may not even release it and wait for Gingerbread. They can’t even send out a fix for the gps. I don’t think there’s a smartphone out that does everything. I’ve returned the SC and hopefully in the future when it’s a little more refined I’ll give android another try. As of right now I would have to recommend the IP4 by a longshot.
I can relate to some of your issues. I have both phones and each have + & -.. Overall I like the captivate more because I can do a lot more with it. For resale value the iphone always wins.
If you embed your album are as MP3 tags you won't see it. If you transfer it over as jpg files in the album folder then it gets indexed as normal picture would.
As for connection errors - I don't have that at all. I have only had one dropped call where my iPhone would drop them all the time and sometimes require 4 or 5 attempts to reconnect. You may have a bad antenna on your phone with your wifi issues too.
I lived with the iPhone 3G for 18 months before i got copy/paste and some other missing features - I figure Samsung will fix us up at some point too.
As for the mini USB cable socket - Samsung has home and car docks that set the phone horizontal, so then the plug is in a good place. Let's face it, no location is good for everybody. The bottom port on the phone was terrible for car use (for me) because I would plug the phone charger into a dash socket and then the phone was upside down when laying on the seat - yes i could buy a mount to hold it upright, but with the Samsung, the top port works for me.
Connection error may be a bit of a fluke, bad timing maybe. I didn't experience any dropped call for several days then att started doing updates in my area, 3g finally this month. My iphone 4 friend had the same issues I did for a matter of weeks now both are better. I admit the iphone is a beautiful product but I disagree about the screen, I have never seen a screen where the colors look truer to me than a galaxy s. For me I'll never give up android, so apple implemented folders, big deal I hated the iphone3g and I hate Ios4 even more. I have no icons folders or shortcuts on my home screen, just a few widgets. I use ADW launcher and use swipe up to launch the contacts, long press search to launch navigation, and home on home screen to launch phone. And I use widget locker to go to the phone, text, camera, or email. I could never fumble through pages and pages of icons for phone functions. Just because its a touchscreen it doesn't need more steps than a traditional phone. I wasn't to pick it up and call. Not pickup, unlock, press icon, press tab for number pad, call. Apples interface need work. On android I can make my own interface. I like icon screens to allow icons to be put where I want not bumped up next to other icons. I need to scan the screen too much with my eyes before I can find the right icon and a phone should be more natural than that. On paper the iphone is fantastic but in my hand android wins hands down.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
It's just a phone. Just pick one and get a new one in one and half years.
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
mwxiao said:
It's just a phone. Just pick one and get a new one in one and half years.
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I couldn't agree more. If the phone is really bad, then you have 30 days to return it. If not, then something better will be along in 12-18 months.
tonyb81 said:
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
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+1, it's like he swyped the thing in a few secs lol.
I have to agree with the battery, the Wi-Fi has to be the biggest power drainer and I would have thought it was optimised for power saving. To be honest everybody is trying to be like the iPhone if you think about it for a minute. But I'm still for Android, live without so many restrictions .
DJNgoma said:
+1, it's like he swyped the thing in a few secs lol.
I have to agree with the battery, the Wi-Fi has to be the biggest power drainer and I would have thought it was optimised for power saving. To be honest everybody is trying to be like the iPhone if you think about it for a minute. But I'm still for Android, live without so many restrictions .
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Me or the OP? I have a habit of writing run on sentences and pushing paragraphs together. And I did swype it pretty quick. But the op did write a lot.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
I must have gotten a good phone, because I wasn't experiencing any of the negatives the OP was talking about (as far as the Captivate is concerned). Wifi range is just as good as my father's iPhone 4, never had a dropped call, never pocket dialed, the 4 buttons at the bottom are always responsive, and just about all the other negatives you said.
Plus, I actually like where the USB connection is, very convenient for me. And I haven't used email on here before, so I can't comment on that.
I'm actually on my second Captivate. The first one had the capacitive touch buttons at the bottom that would push themselves. Outside of that, my wifi signal is pretty much on par with my 3GS. The difference being that the indicator shows the reception to be a bit worse, but the through put is much much better.
The call quality and reception on my Captivate is just as good as my 3GS, however, once again it shows the signal is worse. The big difference I've noticed is that I've never dropped a call with the Captivate, and with the iPhone I would drop about every fifth call.
Some of the issue posted here are non-existen for me. You guys need to give android and the phone some time to get use too. Especially if you had the iPhone for the past 3yrs. I get great battery life remember you're in control your phone do not have things running in the background if you really dont need it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I would have to say (coming from a 3gs) after downloading and installing the hybrid Rom and seeing what the possibilities are I would definitely say that my captivate blows my gfs ip4 out of the water. Just by switching roms I can see how Samsung and ATT did not do a good job with the firmware. I have better reception. The phone really flies through processes. Like you would expect a phone with top of the line hardware should. and when the devs get a hold of the froyo source I can only imagine how this galaxy s will perform
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
tonyb81 said:
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
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+1
Also, I skimmed through your review mate, and you really seem to go on too much about little things as opposed to the core functionality of the phones.
That being said, I have experienced some of your problems to some degree, such as imperfect wifi etc.
1 more thing, doesn't captivate come with inbuilt office program such as thinkfree? Because international i9000 version does (as I have).
p.s. don't mean to sound overly critical, I do respect and thank ya for sharing your experience
i think the battery life on the captivate was poor. exchanged it for an iphone 4, sold it, and going back to the captivate, ironically. i just prefer the android UI.
kluemenadi said:
i think the battery life on the captivate was poor. exchanged it for an iphone 4, sold it, and going back to the captivate, ironically. i just prefer the android UI.
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The battery life on this is better than the aria which was horrid. I admit the 3g I had was better in that department after the upgrade to ios 3.2 or what ever it was. But the battery life on the captivate largely depends on what you are doing, running with it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
iPhone 4 all the way. I've got a captivate and my friend went the iphone4 route. I've used both phones extensively and its not even close. Iphone 4 smokes the captivate. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it for another 22 months
iPhone 4 all the way. I've got a captivate and my friend went the iphone4 route. I've used both phones extensively and its not even close. Iphone 4 smokes the captivate. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it for another 22 months
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Can you elaborate on how it smokes the Captivate?? I had the iphone 4 and it was good, but the Captivate is just as good or better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
lost2030 said:
Can you elaborate on how it smokes the Captivate?? I had the iphone 4 and it was good, but the Captivate is just as good or better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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It really depends what you use the phone for. Personally, I use it for surfing the web, playing games, email, Music, texting, and GPS. Those things are the most important to me, as I basically live on my phone.
With that said, several of those things the iPhone actually does better. Surfing the web is a toss up. The Captivate has an incredible screen with a size bonus, but the iPhone has MUCH better text fidelity and pixel density. Games are a given here. The iPhone's app store just crushes the marketplace right now. Android is catching up, but Apple has those big name developers throwing good games at them every day. Email goes to the iphone as well. The email apps for the Android are sub par when dealing with certain providers like Yahoo. Apple's isn't flashy, but it does work consistantly. Music... Again iPhone is a superior mp3 player. It's easy to manage your collection and buy music on the fly. When Google Music gets up and running they'll be on a more level playing field. Texting goes to the captivate because of SWYPE. It's frikkin fantastic. Then GPS... We know what's happening here. Just waiting on Samsung to come through with the goods.
I wouldn't say the iPhone smokes there Captivate, but you really have to look at what the majority of people do with their phones. One thing that pisses me off with my Captivate is the ESPN app. What a frikkin' dog. Run it side by side with the iPhone equivalent and it's just a slap in the face. For running on equal hardware, the Android app is slow, unresponsive, and sometimes completely non-functional. On the other side of the coin... I love the customization of the Android device. I love being able to flip between widgets and launchers on a whim.
Oh yeah... And I guess I also make calls too. It's a push here, but I do like the speaker of the iPhone a bit better. The Captivate's speaker quality fluctuated from device to device quite wildly, and my most recent handset has a tinny speaker.
@Divinedark I can only agree to the appstore been better than the marketplace, and its the only thing I'm really missing. Everything else android does the same thing in my opinion or better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Hi everyone? How is it goiing? Its me again, sorry for bothering.. i made a thread a week ago to receive an opinion between atrix 2 and sgs2, everyone told me that sgs2 was the best choice, the day before to buy it i found the next issues that are common in sgs2:
-Very bad Battery Life
-Overheating problem
-Yellow thint in the left superior corner in low brightness
-Green tint when white color is present and you watch it from up, left, down and right sides but its perfect looking at it straight over the display
-pink spot in the centre of the camera in white scenes and low light conditions
-blue tint in camera when night mode is on
-laggy 1080p recording in low lights conditions
-buggy stock firmware that makes the device reboot itsefl and crash.
So.. what now? I dont have much time to change it millions of times, its frustrating, i thought i found what i needed.. so now i dont know what to do.. probably i should wait with my defy until a newer device comes out, what you think?
Thanks for your time, best regards from Argentina.
Well if you don't want to risk it then don't.
However I will say the sgs 2 and is the best android phone you could get and most if not all of those issues are minor, you will not face or may be fixed. Cuz if they were major, I'd have returned this phone already or intentionally break it.
$1 gets you a reply
Yeah i know .. i know their are minor issues, i just hate the technical services centres, they are too far and let you waiting a couple weeks.. Otherwise atrix is not officialy in my country, a seller who often travells to the usa brought many unbranded and sim free atrix origonally from at&t and it is crazy overpriced (800 dollards) and the galaxy s2 is better, cheaper because of the carrier block and 2 year official warranty. Are you experiencing some of the issues i mentioned before?
I've been trying to decide if i should get the SGS2 recently as well, except my problem is deciding if i should wait for SGS3 or Nexus, but from extensive research on SGS2 i can tell you a couple things..
SGS2 is gonna have far better developer support
Some of the issues you're reading about may be only a few people, I've heard good results with battery life for SGS2, but remember any phone with a decent sized screen is going to suffer from poor battery life
Atrix hardware just isn't comparable and is more expensive, unless you're really attached to getting the lapdock
if there's a software issue with the SGS2 it's pretty much certain that its known and there at the very least 1 fix for it.
personally I had this debate when i got my captivate, and it took me one look at motoblur (the interface that motorola puts over stock android) for me to make my decision, i can honestly say i hate motoblur.
there are always going to be little problems with both phones, the new atrix just came out so people haven't really had time to discover ever little flaw but that doesn't mean they're not there.
SGS2 has better hardware, and personally i hate motoblur so SGS2 wins on the software side too. And SGS2 developers are incredible here on XDA so you will have access to all the tech support you could ever dream of. To me its a no brainer (unless your attached to getting the dock for the atrix).
I suggest you go to a store, play with both phones as they have quite a quite different feel to them, and just pick the one you like more, they will both work just fine I'm sure. From experience I can tell you that you'll just drive yourself crazy researching. Good luck
Hi there! SGS2 user here. Here's my mixed bag of complaints and thumbs up's
1. Amazing codec support. It can play almost all files that I throw at it, may it be anime in MKV format, youtube HD, HD Video projects rendered from Sony Vegas Pro, etc! It's good for on the go anime and when I need to show my video projects to others. Best of all, it has USB Mass Storage: no pesky itunes or mandatory video reformatting. Just plug and mount, copy and paste, simple.
2. Screen is a mixed bag as well. On the positive side, it's big, bright, and just looks stunning. Also, when the pixel is black, it really is black in the sense that when i am displaying white text on black background, no matter how much the brightness is set to, only the white text brightens and the black backgrounds stay the same. This is the nature of Super Amoled. But the thing with Super Amoled is, it's power-hungry. Yes, when you use black backgrounds, you save more battery because the black pixels are off. Well not really off, but almost off. The problem is that most websites and most movies are not black all the time. On the average, I can get 3 hours max of compounded screen on time per charge. Also, since Amoled is oled or organic lead, the pixels lose brightness pretty fast. Mine's about 3 months old and i can already notice some pixels that are not as bright as the others when displaying a solid color. Take note though that this is only visible IN EXTREMELY LOW BRIGHTNESS. I use an app called screen filter to lower the brightness way beyond the screen can take. Also, black crush (google it, to lazy to explain) happens when in extremely low brightness levels. Last thing, MHL is the technology the SGS2 uses for TV-out. It's actually TV-out and power in, meaning you need to plug in your charger for it to pump out video. Theoretically, this is done so that when you watch video, you can charge your phone. The thing is, the screen is so power hungry that your battery even depletes even when you are plugged in.
NOTE: I easily solved this batter problem by purchasing
1. An extra battery
2. A samsung external charger/phone stand
http://www.ebay.ph/itm/NEW-SAMSUNG-...AU_MobilePhoneAccessories&hash=item19c9ec5e32
3. Yes, it gets hot especially when playing intensive games like Dungeon defenders or when watching a movie through tv-out. But hey, it's really thin, so I'm not surprised the heat can reach my hands.
4. 99.9% lag free. Really, I've never owned a phone as lag free as this, even on stock. This has got to be the speediest phone i've owned.
5. About the tints: well, I don't really experience them since i've installed a custom rom. Or maybe I don't have a trained enough eye. Overall, I like the screen.
6. I don't record 1080p video mainly because the image gets cropped. It's a hardware limitation, AFAIK. Nonetheless, I'm satisfied with 720p. Actually, since I own a DSLR, all phone videos and images look crap to me, but hey, the SGS2 images and video still look nice. AND THE FLASH IS QUITE POWERFULL TOO, very bright for night time video.
For any more questions, feel free to ask.
Thats one of the reason by wich i love xda, veru fast and usefull replies thanks you guys for wasting time to help! And it really drove me crazy, searching, looking for fixes. Reviews, agh, damn, i spent the entire week deciding, even on work lol i'm a sick of mobile technology, smarthphones are my passion and i spent much time reading threads like this. So .. it heats because of hungry display and powerful processor, battery drains because of display, and of course it would be fine in 720p.. i think i'll take the risk, i cant die without trying SGS2! I'll use the entire functions before the 10 days that my carrier gives to exchange it for a new one in case of factory defects, i hope there is no issuees, wish me look!! Thanks you all! I'll notice you when i get home with it.. does the camera suffer the pink issue? Whatever, here i go sgs2
Since day 1 I specifically tested for the pink issue but couldn't produce it. But other users have it too but are saying its been fixed through the new camera firmware, so all in all you won't get it or it will be fixed.
$1 gets you a reply
previously I apologize if I am wrong opinion
I also compare between atrix, sgs2 and Optimus 2x and finally I decided to buy the Optimus 2x
please note that no single man-made is perfect, there must have been the weakness behind it
so I can only give encouragement to you in order not to regret what you buy
sgs2 also have more side than the other handhelds
you can optimize your handheld to fit your needs
you try to thread sgs2 visit there you will find all the advantages of which have been optimized sgs2
i`m sorry, i can`t speak english well
Well, Galaxy R is cheaper and has a better GPU. And its pretty decent handset.
Sent from my Galaxy Ace running J.A.F CM 7.2 Odexed using XDA App
i have an atrix 2, and while i like the design, look and feel of the phone, and most importantly to me, the way it interacts with the car dock, i will say it has it's share of issues.
i cannot get the emails to stop syncing, even with the accounts set to fetch manually
settings menus are just confusing, you can change the same setting in 2-3 different places
even though the phone state 8gb internal memory, this is not true. it is not accessible to the user, you basically get 5gb of app storage. you are then given a 2gb sdcard to fit your pics, music, videos, lol
people are having a lot of sdcard read/write problems
apps2sd renders the sdcard useless
the camera absolutely sucks. takes forever to focus on anything, then snaps, wait... wait... wait... oh, it's blurry
even though it's not a blur phone, it has an ass-ton of blur apps running. freezing some works, but, i found that the blur and social network integration is so intertwined with system apps that you will get a lot of force closes on system apps when you freeze a lot of the services
there is a device health monitor service that runs, and runs gps 100% of the time, killing the battery. you can freeze this, but if you were like me and purchase the phone in hopes of getting away from having to hack and mod a phone to get it to run the way it was supposed to, your screwed.
the gallery app sucks
the music app sucks
you can hear yourself in call on the ear piece, which is oddly annoying
some of the atrix 2 devices have the infamous nexus s bug where the screen goes wonky sometimes while plugged in
bootloader is on lock down
there's no development happening at all
i'm actually at the point of exchanging it, i have 8 days left on my 30 day return period and i'm looking at getting the samsung focus s since there's nothing else worth having at that price point.
but don't get me wrong, not all atrix 2's are having these issues, and it is a good looking device and runs rather smoothly. the accessories, while expensive, are really cool too.
Well first of all i should assume the fact that nothing is perfect, i think i'm becoming a bit perfeccionist, but hey, when we spent some money in buying something we have a too big spectation! And when we find this little issues we say, damn, i wasn't expecting that! It's not working like it should.. Thanks svtfmook for the Atrix opinion, is the first i read and i think that Motorola focuses in Elegancy of the desing and high quality hardware handsets.. Otherwise Samsung has their own processor, the exynos chipset, and focus on the display, the functionality.. whatever.. Comparing the opinions, i think i should get the Galaxy S2 and stop complaining about those little issues.. I think its fine, i can live with it.. i admit i love the way that galaxy s2 do the things faster, i saw many reviews and i said, wow! What a Phone, just like neilbantoc says, The sharp and bright display and the speedy processor are battery hungry .. I think it won't worth waiting either, o don't think that the next phones will be far different to SGS2.. on 10th december i'll go for it, i'll see it how it works and everything and i think i'll fall un love.. Thanks you all, and its a honor for me to be a member and talk with you guys in XDA, its a great forum and i apreciate your patience to explain, there's no forum like this in Argentina, i'll promise next time i will speak english a bit better, sorry haha, take care
Been lurking on these forums for a long time, finally decided to register to share my thoughts on the One X..
I've predominantly been an iPhone user since the launch of the 3g here in Canada. With a jailbreak and length of usage, I have my iPhone set up to do everything I need it to do almost perfectly. In the last half a year or so, however, I've become tired of looking at iOS. Every time I'd look at android devices with their big screens and useful widgets I'd feel a little pang of jealousy. Thus, I started purchasing Android devices non stop and within the last year, I tried the:
Nexus S
Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy S2
HTC Sensation
and
Galaxy Nexus again
I ended up returning / selling each of these phones for a variety of reasons, the two biggest factors were the lack of comparable pixel density and battery life. After getting rid of the Sensation I bought an iPhone 4S and was disturbed by how much worse the battery life was vs the iPhone 4. My 4 would never come close to dying and the 4S was struggling to make it through a day.
The second galaxy nexus with 4.0.4 was almost perfect BUT the samsung build quality bothered me as it just didn't "feel" like a premium device should in the hand..
I knew as soon as I saw the One X I'd have to give it a try. HTC is known for putting together phones that feel great in the hand and this is a factor for me. So far, this phone has been outstanding! I find myself unlocking it regularly just to look at the display. The battery life has been incredible, I have not come close to having the battery die on me on any given day. Granted, I do more texting, twitter, facebook, browsing and text based things vs playing games. The longest day I've had on it so far is 19h 51m with 4h 18m of screen time and I still had 11% of battery left.
Not being a hardcore android enthusiast as of yet, I don't have too much of an issue with sense 4.0. It's pretty to look at and adds some decent functionality. The downside is the minor lag when flicking between homescreens. I would hope that on a flagship, powerful device they'd be able to have virtually no noticeable lag whilst performing such tasks.
This phone does most things flawlessly, I have zero complaints regarding phone performance, call quality, text msging etc. As a phone, it seems to be working extremely well thus far. It also feels great in the hands, the polycarbonate shell almost has a ceramic feel to it. The size is a bit shocking coming from an iPhone but is easy to adapt to.
However, the device isn't without it's bugs, these are the ones I've noticed so far:
-Display: I know HTC is using two different LCD panels, mine is definitely the warmer of the two being used and the whites have a bit more of a yellowy than a blueish tinge to them. I'm not sure how much this bothers me as of yet as in every way the display seems great to look at, I run auto brightness and don't expect it to be extremely bright. I'd be interested in knowing whether anyone with a Rogers unit has a whiter or yellower display?
-Wifi seems to be an ongoing issue. At first it seemed like it would barely hold onto a solid wifi connection at home. I googled like mad and saw a suggestion regarding hard coding the IP vs using DHCP to solve the issue. I didn't think that would be the solution and found another person saying the phone seemed to work better with a wireless network mode of b/g vs b/g/n so I disabled N on my router and the wifi seems to be much more consistent now but not perfect. At times the wifi bars will just disappear for no apparent reason. I've never had an issue like this with any other wifi device at home. Also attempted a channel change. Hoping it's a software issue that gets sorted with an update
-Camera seems pretty average to me.. This is one area where I think the iPhone still excels beyond any other phone I've ever tried. Its simple camera tends to take pretty good 95% of the time. With the One X so far I had a buddy attempt to snap a quick picture of me and it wasn't great. Have tried a few test pictures around the house and the quality seems okay but not great. Keep in mind, I haven't messed with settings, just literally point and shoot. I don't feel as if though you should have to adjust settings to produce a good quality image with a camera phone, I'm not a photographer and have no real interest in learning about photography. I just want to capture a moment on demand and have it captured fairly well without much effort
-Status bar icons: Last night was the first time I've set an alarm on the phone. The icons in the status bar seemed to be going a bit nuts, the alarm icon would disappear and reappear for no apparent reason. Not sure if I just need a reboot because I haven't heard anything about this anywhere
-Call volume display: When I adjust the volume during a call, the volume display is still on the screen when I'm ending the call, which could be minutes later. For some reason it doesn't seem like it's automatically closing off the screen
Anyway, sorry for the long winded intro and thoughts. Would love to hear feedback regarding the issues I've experienced and would be glad to answer questions regarding the device for those of you still waiting to pick yours up.
Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to give us info. Good to know.
Minor723 said:
Thanks for taking the time to give us info. Good to know.
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+1. Can't wait until Friday!
Hey there tawheed12! Picked up a One XL from Rogers friday last week as well, I'll share my experience with the issues you mentioned and maybe we can get a better picture of what's wrong. (no pun intended)
I too have noticed a yellowish tinge. However, I've been reading a lot on Google Books (reading a book on a screen this size is a real treat) and I've noticed that the more I use the phone with a solid, or near solid white screen, the less the yellowish tinge. It could be my imagination, but it could also be the screen needs to be "broken in". I don't know anything about the manufacturing process for this new generation of SLCDs so it might be possible it just takes time.
I tested the alarm and the call volume display issues, they don't seem to exist on mine for some reason. Alarms stick and the volume bar fades away after a few seconds. I tested normally and in speakerphone mode. I wonder if it's a third party app you're using?
As for the camera, I've fiddled around with most of the settings, and it seems to take more focused/better shots if you turn off the continuous shooting mode and frame your pictures normally. I know the high shutter speed is supposed to be a huge selling point but the bursting just seems useless to me. Still, even with it off, photos aren't brilliant or anything. HDR and Low Light modes can be useful sometimes, everything else just seems gimmicky or redundant to me. I have taken a few good shots though, if you want to compare let me know and I'll upload some.
My router is and has always been less reliable than my phone so I can't test that one out for ya
One thing I've noticed, the stock music app seems a little nonintuitive in some areas. Google Voice Actions' "listen to" command won't actually play anything, it just does a search in the app, and it will only do it ONCE. Further tries just bring you to the original search and ignore what you said. Hardly hands free. It also has random issues mixing up album arts with different albums in the queue. I've switched to Winamp in the meantime, but it's a shame because the stock app works very well otherwise.
One thing really bothering me, my camera clicks when changing focus. It was quiet at first, but it's getting louder fast. I hope there isnt an issue with our batch of phones! I'd appreciate knowing if anyone else is having this issue.
Anyways, hope I helped!
MatinatorX said:
Hey there tawheed12! Picked up a One XL from Rogers friday last week as well, I'll share my experience with the issues you mentioned and maybe we can get a better picture of what's wrong. (no pun intended)
I too have noticed a yellowish tinge. However, I've been reading a lot on Google Books (reading a book on a screen this size is a real treat) and I've noticed that the more I use the phone with a solid, or near solid white screen, the less the yellowish tinge. It could be my imagination, but it could also be the screen needs to be "broken in". I don't know anything about the manufacturing process for this new generation of SLCDs so it might be possible it just takes time.
I tested the alarm and the call volume display issues, they don't seem to exist on mine for some reason. Alarms stick and the volume bar fades away after a few seconds. I tested normally and in speakerphone mode. I wonder if it's a third party app you're using?
As for the camera, I've fiddled around with most of the settings, and it seems to take more focused/better shots if you turn off the continuous shooting mode and frame your pictures normally. I know the high shutter speed is supposed to be a huge selling point but the bursting just seems useless to me. Still, even with it off, photos aren't brilliant or anything. HDR and Low Light modes can be useful sometimes, everything else just seems gimmicky or redundant to me. I have taken a few good shots though, if you want to compare let me know and I'll upload some.
My router is and has always been less reliable than my phone so I can't test that one out for ya
One thing I've noticed, the stock music app seems a little nonintuitive in some areas. Google Voice Actions' "listen to" command won't actually play anything, it just does a search in the app, and it will only do it ONCE. Further tries just bring you to the original search and ignore what you said. Hardly hands free. It also has random issues mixing up album arts with different albums in the queue. I've switched to Winamp in the meantime, but it's a shame because the stock app works very well otherwise.
One thing really bothering me, my camera clicks when changing focus. It was quiet at first, but it's getting louder fast. I hope there isnt an issue with our batch of phones! I'd appreciate knowing if anyone else is having this issue.
Anyways, hope I helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know about the screen. It doesn't really bother me too much until I hold it next to a device with more of a blueish tinge.
I noticed the camera focusing sound too, very odd. Never had a phone that makes any type of audible noise when focusing.
I haven't used the music app so can't really help you on that one.
I'll try and take some good pics and upload them and we can compare!
My only real complaint so far is the wifi. It seems VERY shaky at much smaller distances than other phones I've had, to the point that putting my body between the phone and the router at about 20 feet makes the signal disappear. This is the only phone I've ever owned that had this much trouble with the wifi in my house. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in software.
I still haven't experienced any issues with WiFi on mine. It's rock solid.
The only thing I can think of, is that I've disabled Packet Aggregation on my router (Asus RT-N56U) due to some incompatibilities with my D-Link AP (constant disconnections). Perhaps it's the same issue.
Don't own one yet, but I've played with the demo unit at AT&T numerous times. About half the time I've had the wifi drop out on me. This is concerning and hope it can be fixed with an update. Regardless, I will be preording my unit tomorrow.
DannySmurf said:
My only real complaint so far is the wifi. It seems VERY shaky at much smaller distances than other phones I've had, to the point that putting my body between the phone and the router at about 20 feet makes the signal disappear. This is the only phone I've ever owned that had this much trouble with the wifi in my house. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in software.
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I *HAVE* to assume this is a software issue. It's ridiculous how bad it is. Changing my router to just b/g did make it much more consistent but still not even close to 100%. It's constantly slower than my iPhone testing from the same spots of the house. Could always try to enable the "Best wifi performance" option or whatever but it apparently sucks down quite a bit more battery.
I can also say i have the same issues regarding the wifi! Seems to be a widespread issue.
Great news about the battery because I just mostly text and i talk about a good hour on the phone daily, not really a phone gamer, so my battery should be great fingers crossed.
UMGixxer said:
Great news about the battery because I just mostly text and i talk about a good hour on the phone daily, not really a phone gamer, so my battery should be great fingers crossed.
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Considering your usage, I think the battery will be more than adequate!
I do keep my brightness on auto, limit some push notifications and keep my GPS off though I doubt the latter two make much of a difference.
tawheed12 said:
Considering your usage, I think the battery will be more than adequate!
I do keep my brightness on auto, limit some push notifications and keep my GPS off though I doubt the latter two make much of a difference.
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I never have gps on since it sucks so bad on my captivate I have just given up on it for now lol
I got mine about 3 days ago - yesterday and today I have noticed the battery life improving greatly - the first few charge cycles it was a hog, but it seems to be evening out.
I've had many flagship android phones and had an iphone at 6 different times (from 3G to 4S) so I would say I've had my fair share.
This HTC One X is the first android phone I've had that truely feels high end - I LOVE the screen and its all around a great looking device. No complaints from me actually - its also the first android phone I've had I didn't immediately want to flash a new rom on. I will likely flash AOSP on it though at some point, whenever that is possible.
in short - it's a FANTASTIC phone! battery life blows the 4S out of the water.
aussois said:
I got mine about 3 days ago - yesterday and today I have noticed the battery life improving greatly - the first few charge cycles it was a hog, but it seems to be evening out.
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If you are an avid ROM flasher, you know that on new phones, and after ROM flashes, the battery meter is not calibrated. The actual battery consumption is not changing. Just the % battery that is being displayed is changing (getting more accurate).
kinda lame the "Camera seems pretty average". this is supposedly one of the strong selling points of the device. i'll have my GNex laying around for a bit after i get mine so i'll be doing all kinds of comparisons between the two. i have no doubt, though, that it's going to trump my GNex in spades.
mrvirginia said:
kinda lame the "Camera seems pretty average". this is supposedly one of the strong selling points of the device. i'll have my GNex laying around for a bit after i get mine so i'll be doing all kinds of comparisons between the two. i have no doubt, though, that it's going to trump my GNex in spades.
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On the at&t model the camera is clean. Compared to my iPhone 4s and vivid cameras
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
rambo8987 said:
On the at&t model the camera is clean. Compared to my iPhone 4s and vivid cameras
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
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that's good to know. yeah i've been lurking on the engadget review for the international one and they had this to say:
"Now let's talk about image quality. We pitted the One X against the current cream of the crop -- the N8, Amaze 4G, iPhone 4S and Galaxy Note (which uses the same module as the Galaxy S II) plus Canon's S95 compact point-and-shoot. The camera landed somewhere in the middle of this star-studded pack, marginally beating the Galaxy Note and iPhone 4S while almost matching the Amaze 4G. Sure, it's not in the same league as the N8 (which rivals the S95 in some cases), but this is one stellar camera, especially when you consider that HTC is not positioning this phone as an imaging-centric device like the Amaze 4G."
mrvirginia said:
that's good to know. yeah i've been lurking on the engadget review for the international one and they had this to say:
"Now let's talk about image quality. We pitted the One X against the current cream of the crop -- the N8, Amaze 4G, iPhone 4S and Galaxy Note (which uses the same module as the Galaxy S II) plus Canon's S95 compact point-and-shoot. The camera landed somewhere in the middle of this star-studded pack, marginally beating the Galaxy Note and iPhone 4S while almost matching the Amaze 4G. Sure, it's not in the same league as the N8 (which rivals the S95 in some cases), but this is one stellar camera, especially when you consider that HTC is not positioning this phone as an imaging-centric device like the Amaze 4G."
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Trust me. When you get this phone. You won't be dissappointed. Esp in camera area. But again, its a phone, not a dedicated camera, so its kind of silly seeing people dis phone makers because areas like cameras, gaming, screen reso is not stelllar. Want a great camera? Lol buy a camera, want a great gaming console? Buy a game console. Want great display? Go get a 55 LCD screen tv. Maybe I'm just excited about this phone.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
I have to agree the only two complaints I have with mine. The first is the Wi-Fi it seems spotty unless I am less than ten feet from my router. The only other complaint I have is with the sense keyboard. I am testing a few alternatives so its more a preference than anything. Bottom line though the One X is probably the best device I have used in a long time.
Sent from my HTC One X
So with all the threads out there complaining about the lack of features that came with the 8X or WP8, I thought it due time for me to post an update on my phone.
My only request is if youv'e got a real anger issue with something that I post, and want to flame, do it in your backyard, all I hope to see here is just a little love for the 8X and the WP8, K punkins!?
So its been 3 months now, thought I would update what I posted before in the '2 weeks with my 8X' thread. And yes, its a thread full of mcluvin for my 8X. Call me a fanboy, I don't mind. Still gonna sleep good knowing my phone is taking care of my wake up concerns!
so without further adue (spelling? I aint french), here we go:
Industrial Design/Durability - 3 months ago, all I heard was about durability, corners going bad, screen scratching, etc. Well, 3 months later and my phone is still called 'sexy beast' because it really is just a beautiful phone. I keep it in my pocket as well, and the corners are still looking as good as the day I got it. Cleaning is still easy, and I have noticed a few minor scratches on the screen, which considering how many times I put it in the same pocket as my keys, thats downright amazing! My TB had screen gouges after the 1st month.
Build Quality - Still solid as a rock! That little issue about the 1mm difference is still not something I notice, so its still rocking out, lookng and performing great.
Usability of Buttons - I wouldn't say I have large hands, at least I don't think I do. I have noticed that when I hold the phone in my left hand (my usuall position), the volume buttons fall perfectly between my first finger which rests just below the buttons and my next two fingers, which are able to grasp the sides of the phone without touching the rockers. The camera button then falls between the pinky which also rests just below the button and my two middle fingers. And its an easy slide for me to swing my finger to the power button. When the phone is in a pocket and I am listening to music, I find the volume buttons raised just enough where I can find them inside the pocket, and turn up or down. I haven't had any issues with the buttons, and actually find them better in terms of functionality than the buttons on my old TB. And just learned something the other night when my alarm went off. i don't have to hit the off or snooze, just give any button a love tap, bip, off goes the alarm! Woo Hoo! Thankfully the buttons are no problem for me!
Screen - still a gorgeous screen! Still crystal clear! The minor scratches are only seen in full daylight (don't get much of that in WA) and only when viewed at an angle. Otherwise, you wont notice it. And my oils still wipe off without any issues.
Windows Phone 8 - I am still loving the OS of this baby, and sorry folks, I still don't know what the Portico update did! Havent noticed anything new, other than the Wifi thing, which was never a bother for me. I always managed to stay under 1/2 GB even with internet, streaming vids and radios. Its still wicked smooth, quick and very responsive. Still no lag, and only had one random reboot last week. I blame me for that, I was fooling around and started hitting all the tiles I could as fast as I could. It kept trying to open everything I hit, then shut down and came back.
Bottom Line - I still love this phone! Any little issues that I have encountered (few, really few and far between) really are overshadowed by the performance, design, and reliability of the phone and OS itself. I keep learning something new on it, and keep getting compliments!
So I would like to challenge other 8X folks, lets see if we can spread some love to our phones instead of complaining about the little things!
My name is Jerry, and this is my Windows phone!
I've had my 8X for a few months as well, and I have been very impressed with both the hardware and software aspects of the device. It's actually one of the few gizmos I've bought that actually exceeded my expectations.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
70363c1413 said:
I've had my 8X for a few months as well, and I have been very impressed with both the hardware and software aspects of the device. It's actually one of the few gizmos I've bought that actually exceeded my expectations.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
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I tend to agree with you. It's a great phone. I am starting to see the black corners and I have the more than occasional lag when using the windows buttons at the bottom but apart from that, I am happy.
Funny, I had an iPhone I just had to jailbreak. I had an android that I had to keep flashing and with the exception of wanting a few more theme colors and a little tighter integration with Skype, I'm a very happy camper.
I started this journey with the HD2 and WP7 when it first came out. Liked the OS but hated the lack of apps. Went back to android and then bought my HD7. Things continued to improve bit by bit and then I stepped up to a Lumia 900 with WP7.5. Except for the front facing camera (which I want but never use...) and a few of the Nokia apps, it didn’t seem too much of an upgrade from the HD7. Then I got the 8X. Lve the way my live tiles are laid out, love the look, the feel and overall I'm extremely happy.
The only reason I will jump at the next WP8 to be released is if it has an SD expansion slot. I find the 8GB version a real pain (even with skydrive) and the 16GB version has filled up to 13GB in a very short space of time. I'm surprised they ever released WP8 without a requirement for adding storage. MS dictate the start screen buttons, why not storage configs?
Anyway, enough said. Love the phone 95% and that's a damn good number! Cheers! :good:
A little more love
Just wanted to add some love for a feature on the 8X that really is better than any other phone I have used.
thats the bluetooth. I use a vehicle, 2 actually, that have the Sync option. And its so nice to have such quick and effortless connectivity to that system. I turn on the bluetooth, and connection is quick, and controls are flawless. And of course, with Beats working through BT, the sound is really great.
What I also like is how I can set the phone to 'vibrate' only, and it will continue to play sounds or provide turn by turn, read texts, etc until I turn car off, then it goes back into vibrate mode without me having to do anything.
My old TB wouldn't work half the time, or only half the controls would work, or it would skip or pause on and off for minutes on end.
Ah, so nice to be able to listen to music without a hitch.
Now, does anyone know where I can use the NFC? Wouldn't mind giving that a go! What about at like Jack in the box? Would it work there?
Tomorrow i arrive back to windows 8 i had the 8x the day it came out. I sold it thinking i needed ios or android i was wrong tomorrow my new htc8x arrives and I cant wait
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
chiefy009 said:
Tomorrow i arrive back to windows 8 i had the 8x the day it came out. I sold it thinking i needed ios or android i was wrong tomorrow my new htc8x arrives and I cant wait
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then welcome back! Every now and then here I will see a new update, or ROM, or something 'cool' for android, will get a little nostalgic, then look at the.home screen of my phone, and am reminded just how good this phone is!
Sent from my wicked sexy HTC 8X windows phone using Board Express
I've got this MT4GS with a recently replaced screen giving me all sorts of problems, Tmo doesn't have any more of them in-stock for an actual replacement. So lately I've been lurking around the ApexQ forums here, considering whether I take Tmo up on their offer to replace the MT4GS with a Relay. Is this it? Is this the end of the line for higher end sliders?
I get so annoyed when I walk into a Tmo shop and they give me the stink eye over my physical keyboard.
"You should really try Swype"
"Keyboards are going away"
"No one really uses those"
"Just try the S4 out, you'll love it"
Try to swype out a thousand words, then do it with a physical keyboard. I'm a bit of a writer, it might be a tine platform for me to write from, but it works great. Sliders are niche preference, will the entire market really give that up? I'm waiting for Google IO before I make any decisions (because it's coming up pretty soon) but haven't heard any rumors of a high end slider coming down the line. Am I the only one holding my breath here?
Also, I've seen a couple of you post on these forums that have had the MT4GS, I think I would miss the 8MP camera the most. Any thoughts on switching over?
I don't have the relay but I follow it and have played with one. It feels similar in many ways to the MT4Gslide (I have this) but you can really feel the improvements in speed as well as a five row keyboard is just awesome. Being its part of the galaxy s line there should be a fair amount of updates, speculation of course as Samsung hasnt been the best at supporting hardware keyboard phones.
You will miss the camera, not that this one is horrible its just that the MT4Gslide has one of the best ever made. I'm not a huge sense fan but it is better than touchwiz (in my opinion) but more of a resource hog. It is possible to port it over to Sammy phones and has been done before, but I doubt anyone would bother on this phone.
Overall if its a free upgrade I would take it, being I refuse to buy phones from carriers this one would cost me full price and I haven't decided if that's worth it yet.
Good luck on your decision!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
i got both. here are the differences with the relay:
- relay's screen is super amoled pentile... colors are great, resolution sucks big time, pixels can be seen and the red ones are very tiny and the matrix will be very noticeable in some cases
- relay's camera is 5 mp vs 8 of the doubleshot. it is just inferior in both quality and resolution, not much else to say.
- relay keyboard is nicer imho but lacks replicated alt, shift, home, back, menu keys
- battery lasts much longer than the famous 1900mah anker for doubleshot
- the cpu is so much faster, ~2.5x from my findings, also, it heats a lot less
- it is noticeably ligher but more plasticy and flimsy
- stock ics and jb. more development going on
all in all, it is a sidegrade... you lose on some aspects and gain in some others... anyway the high end qwerty era is over since the desire-z/droid 2 period...
I've owned just about every GSM QWERTY device made for android over the past 2 years. I can safely say the Relay is one of the better phones that I've owned for a while.
The G2 was the best phone I've ever had.
The camera is not amazing. It will do in a pinch, but I would take a better keyboard over a better camera any day. The 4G Slide keyboard was horrid. One of the worst I've ever used. I use the keyboard much more than the camera, so my decision was simple. It's based on your preferences, really.
But just remember you don't have many options.
I've been using my relay for about 4 months now and overall I like it a lot.
Some good thoughts first:
The keys are very very good. I find they're slightly less conducive to touch typing than my Sidekick 4G was, but still one of the best small keyboards I've ever used. I can't imagine using a purely touchscreen phone, Swype or not. There's just no competition.
The phone is very quick. I've never once thought to myself "Man, I wish this would happen faster." The OS isn't quite 100% seamless, but it's close enough that I can't find anything to complain about. And things like videos, emulated games, etc are all full speed. The only times I've ever had to wait for something was when I was accessing files, and that's due to my bargain basement SD card.
The battery life has been great. I have no problem getting through my day without carrying a charger with me. Now, I'm not as active a user as some (I don't use facebook, for instance,) but I'm often looking things up on my phone while working, and even using the flashlight, and I always have between a half and a third of my battery when I get home.
The screen and the camera both fall under the category of "It's a phone for chrissakes, what are you expecting??" for me.
The screen is bright, vibrant, sharp. It looks great indoors and passable outside. There's enough room for what it needs to do. If you complain that you can't watch a 1080p movie on your phone, the problem is with your head and not your device. I guess if you offered me a higher resolution I'd take it, but I really don't feel like it needs more. And I wouldn't want the screen to be any bigger. If I wanted a massive screen in my pocket I'd buy an iPad. And then kill myself.
The camera is a dog, but so is every other phone camera in the world. Yes, this one is worse than many. But if you care about what your pictures look like, a $40 digital camera bought used off craigslist will take pictures which are 10 times better than the best cell phone camera on the market. And it's easier to carry a separate phone and camera than it is to have a separate phone and keyboard. So why everybody focuses on the sub-par camera is beyond me.
There's only one thing about the phone which I actually feel is bad, and that's the shape. Coming from a Sidekick 4G, the ergonomics of the phone are a big step down. The Sidekick was a fantastic phone to hold in the hands, both closed an open. The Relay is about as nice to hold as a brick. There's a small lip all around the phone that presses awkwardly against your ear, and it's got a certain awkwardness when open as well. No surprise there, the Galaxy S line has always looked like a knockoff of the iPhone 3G. Why would they start making something comfortable now? </curmudgeon.>
So, yeah. I like it and there's nothing else on the market which comes close to being as good as it. I'd buy one again. I'd suggest it to other people. But I'd also hope that this isn't the last QWERTY Android phone for my network, as there's still room for improvements.
i've came down the g1 (htc dream), g2 (htc desire z), relay lane.
i have my relay now for like 4 weeks. and there's really nothing i can seriously complain about. the cpu and gpu are fast and still come with some reserve. the memory is plenty. the qwerty is a big step up from the dz with the additional row. and battery life is just sweet the dz had the better display when you were outside. the relay's go the far better once you get out of the sunlight.
usually, when i got a new phone, i also got a better cam. but seriously: 5mp is enough for every day use. and as some already stated: it's a cell phone. if you want to have high-end-images, you don't get around buying a dedicated camera. and seriously.. it's the same with the screen resolution. 800x480 is enough for text, websites and pictures to be displayed properly and sharp on the small display. what's the use of a 4" full hd display? besides showing off? again... it's a cell phone. if you want high resolution, get a tablet.
*if* somebody asks me for a cell with a hardware keyboard there really - from my pov - is no reason not to recommend the relay.
and i think it's really a pitty it's not available here in europe and quite hard (and expensive) to get.
i really hope there will be new qwertys that will be available here as well. (the most recent here on sale is the dz).
admittedly the hardware keyboard phones are a niche, but those who want them will be willing to spend a lil more to get them.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using xda app-developers app
I have also used many qwerty phones over the years and have been using the relay for about 5 months now. Previously I have used lg shine xenon, lg shine plus (last lg phone I will ever buy) Sony xperia pro, samsung captivate glide and now the relay. The xperia pro keyboard was the best I have ever used. Too bad it had such low on board memory and only a single core processor.
I hear you on the death of qwerties I can now type quite well with SwiftKey but still love a qwerty for messaging, emails etc. I get the same look from sales staff when I have asked about qwerty sliders.
The relay is the fastest qwerty I have used, bit more than the glides 2x core tegra 2, I also found the keys on the glide to be too flat and there were only 4 rows. Good tactile feedback on the relay, keys are spaced out well and travel is easy. However as mentioned the build quality is not the best and mine has a noticeable wobble when typing. Updates seem good so far although will probably not get past 4.2. I actually went out and bought a q10 last week, loved the new OS but the keyboard was simply too small for me, and for the build quality and screen size the q10 is waaaay over priced, so decided to return it.
On a side note I did a little bit of cosmetic altering the my galaxy s3 stock 2100mah batteries and got them to fit in the relay.. As I live in canada the relay isn't even sold here, and I place battery life pretty much at the top of my list. Need that spare battery and a charger. Anyways good luck with your relay if you get it.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
I'm sure samsung will release a follow up to the Relay, as they seem to be the only manufacturer big enough to support this niche market.
Just give them some more time. They definitely need som enew phones and fresh designs to break up all the slab phones that are coming all the time.
Well, I got the Relay. And with it I end a 8 year HTC only stint which started with the Blue Angel. Fun times...
I just got it today so not much of a chance to play with it. At the moment doing the update. Afterwards will see what else I can do. I find it a bit useless at the moment to try any other ROMs. A bit too early...
I've had 3 previous Android sliders before getting this one - the original G1, Motorola Milestone (which I gave to my husband because it was too big and heavy for me) and the HTC Desire Z. Aside from the Desire Z's incredibly stupid flipping hinge mechanism which I'm convinced was responsible for the display cable dying, it is my favourite of the four (it developed this problem where the screen would die every time I opened the keyboard - I actually disassembled it to see if I could fix it but couldn't)
This phone's not bad and I don't mind it feeling "plasticky" since it's light, while the hinge mechanism seems a lot more solid than HTC's ridiculous designs for the G1 and Desire Z, but the keyboard is LOUD. You have to press the keys really hard and I'm convinced people can hear me typing, which is really not what you want for a mobile device. If you're tweeting under the table during a boring company meeting, you better be good at pretending you're taking minutes!
I also have this weird problem, specific to the Facebook Android app, where it will jump to the top of the page randomly while I'm in the middle of typing a comment. I thought I was pressing something by accident but I've tried typing really carefully and that seem to not be the issue.
I do really miss having a trackball or optical joystick from the HTC devices. It's fine to have arrow keys on the physical kb, but when you have the phone closed sometimes you still want to be able to navigate around and click.
Really happy to have found this thread, has anybody looked at or tried the Motorola Droid 4 ??
It boasts 8MP camera and high definition display, looks like battery lasts a while.. says its splash proof and also has the 4 row keyboard.
I enjoy my glide, but they keyboard with the press on them hasn't ever given me much of an ability to type without looking at the keys..
On my blackberry after a while I was able to roll my fingers across without hardly looking at the keyboard, on computer i type 100wpm so pretty important for me to have a fast typing keyboard. even software app keyboards can't keep up and screw swipe.. without feeling where to rocker my fingers to form words im doomed to choose from autocorrect.