Hi all (first post ),
I was a happy FreeRunner user until it was stolen
Now I'm looking for another hackable phone.
Many points me to the Nexus One, but by reading the forums I see that it's not the only one which is rootable, it's just that the vendor make it easy.
I'd like a phone which can run custom images (all system on SD is better) and have a AMOLED screen with high resolution (I was used to 640x480).
It does not matter what OS it runs as long as I can change it without losing too much functionality (e.g. everything but 3d acceleration/wifi is ok). I'd like to run Meego one day.
I don't mind a hardware keyboard.
I'd like something which is more on ~400 $ than $500, even less if possible.
Minimal accessories is some sort of camera, 3g and good gps.
I looked at the wiki (when it was still working) but it's really tedious to search for prices/possibility to hack for every phone.
Thank you for the tips.
Galaxy s3
Get the Galaxy s3.
Galaxy Nexus
I would recommend the 32GB Galaxy Nexus. They keep up on software updates. I was looking at the S3, but I am not a fan of touchwiz and some other features of the phone. The Galaxy series is the best on the market, so you really can't go wrong with either.
What phone service do you have? Or are you looking for like unlocked?
Samsung galaxy nexus,GalaxySII or Galaxy R
Send From My Galaxy Gio and O2x
Your vote is depending on; performance stability(over-clocking), speed(while multitasking, games, Etc), sleekness of phone(screen, colors, crispness), and stability of custom Rom(since not everyone is using the same ROM) and the current Device you are using of course.
If this post is in the wrong location, Moderator please move it to proper location please.
PS PLEASE list your pro and cons about the phone you are using.
I like the hardware of the galaxy s but id prefer a lot more versatility of rom's.
I got to play with a nexus s the other day and fell in love.
All the phones are similar. The G2 and the Nexus S will have stock Android with no skin overlays like the Samsungs and the MT4G. The Nexus S is the only one running the latest Android (Gingerbread) and is probably the only one which will see it officially. The Nexus S will also see a few future upgrades like Honeycomb and whatever is next.
The Samsung Galaxy S is already outdated with the recent release of the Samsung Galaxy S 4G that is due out soon. It basically is a Galaxy S with a front facing camera and ability of 4G (which only the Nexus S lacks).
So it is a crap shoot. I have a Nexus One and we get Google updates all the time whereas other devices will get updates a few times a year. Also having a completely stock Android Experience tailored around your specific phone is awesome.
On the other hand, if you want the best experience, most use Cyanogen roms. They are great because they offer a ton of flexibility and functionality over traditional stock roms. So if custom roms are your thing, then getting constant updates from google really doesn't matter as the awesome devs will disperse the updates to any popular model.
Personally I would pick a Galaxy S if I had to choose out of that list. My Nexus One is plenty awesome still to hold out for something better. The Dualcore phones are due out soon and I think those will be the next standard in Androids.
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..)
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Click to collapse
The R&D and tooling have long been paid for and there are still people buying. It's practically free money for them. The longer they're made, the cheaper they can get. The cheaper they can get, the more they're sold.
I sought this phone out actively because I liked my Epic and knew how to root & fix it easily. I didn't want a contract and for $250 brand new vs $600 for a Note it was a no-brainer.
Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simple, it sells. And with it running 2.3.5, it's very much up to date OS wise. It's not ICS, but at this point what is?
The early adopters are a rather small crowd of people that seems large to us because they are the tech obsesses folks that make xda what it is. They count for next to nothing compared to the "average user."
This phone is exactly what Samsung aimed for it to be, a Flagship. It was way a head of the curve when it first came out, and is still a great phone. It's been muddied by the early releases but, the fact that Samsung still won out (and is the top selling android manufacturer) means it really was an excellent device (and family of devices).
It's time is almost up though, because ICS really is beyond its abilities.
br0adband said:
The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based
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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?
Before I start, I'd just like to say that this is just my personal rant and even though some of you may not agree, that's why I'm having this as a discussion thread.
Let's get this started then.
All I see going around XDA are people comparing their own devices to the latest Nexus device and saying 'Should I switch to the Nexus?' or a load of people rimming off the Nexus' as if they're the best thing since sliced bread.
Some of you may wonder why this bothers me. I'll tell you.
Just because a device has the Nexus brand name, it doesn't make it any better than any other phone of equal quality. A hell of a lot of people will see a device is a Nexus and immediately want to get it.
Why would you want to?
If you ask one of those people why a Nexus is so great, they'll say one of three things or a mix of the three.
The reasons are;
1) All Nexus devices look great and have great build quality.
2) It's guaranteed to have great developer support.
3) It's officially supported by Google so it will get the latest Android updates before any other device.
Now, let me tell you my response to each of those points...
1) Most Nexus devices don't look great. The only one which looks good, in my opinion, is the Nexus 7. Apart from that, none of them look any better than other devices around.
2) Yes it will have great developer support, but so do a lot of phones which are already around and have been for ages now. An example of that is the Galaxy S2. It's been around for over a year and a half and it still has more development than most phones do
3) Again, this is true. But they're not the only devices to get the Android updates quickly. This site has a smattering of great developers so it will never take long for other devices to get the latest versions, and you haven't even needed to buy a new phone just to get the latest and greatest.
So with that being said, why buy the latest Nexus device when I'm reality it isn't any better than devices which are already available?
I know some of you may be Nexus fanboys and not agree with anything I've said, but I'm hoping that some of you agree just so I know that I'm not the only person who isn't being hypnotized by the word 'Nexus'.
As I said at the top of this post, I'm leaving this as a discussion so if anyone would like to add anything extra or disagree with what I've said, then you can feel free to do so.
But whatever you do, DON'T TROLL OR FLAME OTHER PEOPLE SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU DON'T AGREE WITH THEM!
Agree with all of the above! I'm getting it to replace my GNex.. it's a better device and I don't need two Nexuses
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
True most other phones have similar specs (lol dnt want a nexus 4 anymore)
any suggestions??
My first real Android experience has been with the Nexus S 4G about one year ago today actually... i replaced my iPhone 3GS...
Being my first android experience, i didn't know what android offered until i physically had the phone in my hands... i had it for two weeks before deciding to root it and try out the latest Android at the time, 4.0 ICS... fell in LOVE with my phone after that... i only realized other Carriers/manufacturers added their own version of android after i got used to ICS and started looking for other devices to upgrade to... once i became educated with android, i realized that i got extremely lucky with my first android experience/purchase... because not only were other devices not officially updated to ICS, but the rollout of ICS took a very long time to even start getting stable ports/builds from developers... the skin thing also turned me off from wanting another device...
Simply put, even tho my phone is rooted, i can only vouch for devices that come with pure Google experience as that was my first real android experience... someone will say that you can always root your device and update as developers push out there latest ROMs for other devices... but i can't promote that to my friends/family that don't even know what rooting means (like myself before)...
i strongly promote the Galaxy S3... in fact just yesterday someone posted on Facebook asking if they should get the gs3 or iPhone 5... i was surprised to see out of around 20 replies, only 2 said to get the iPhone 5... i said gs3 but i also mentioned the Nexus 4 and its amazing price point... she looked it up but liked the gs3 look more... today she bought the gs3 because of that and because the N4 isn't available yet...
Before, if anyone asked me what phone to get, I immediately said the gs3 hands down... now my response is Nexus 4... i prefer the sleek/clean look and curved glass of the Nexus devices... the gs3 would be great IMO if it didn't have hard keys like back/home/menu at the bottom... so with that, the N4 looks better to me than any other device out there... i also loved the look of the Gnex... sadly, that one lacked in specs for me to upgrade my ns4g... and sadly the N4 lacks CDMA/LTE support for me to upgrade... now I'm kinda stuck as to what now?
Hope that was a civil response you want in this thread
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
FangV said:
True most other phones have similar specs (lol dnt want a nexus 4 anymore)
any suggestions??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ask in this thread mate
the1dynasty said:
My first real Android experience has been with the Nexus S 4G about one year ago today actually... i replaced my iPhone 3GS...
<SNIP>
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Click to collapse
I can understand why some would want the pure Google experience, but there are ROMs which provide an extremely close experience anyway. Plus with the added features they have, it seems like the logical choice to go for custom ROMs, at least in my opinion.
If you use the thread linked above, you'll be able to ask there about what device to get next if you're not too sure.
And yeah, that response was all good
Galaxy S3 was a lot slower and laggy compared to my gnex. Went back to my gnex after a week. I buy the nexus for the pure android. Its smoother, cleaner, quicker and just better.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
bendirkss said:
Galaxy S3 was a lot slower and laggy compared to my gnex. Went back to my gnex after a week. I buy the nexus for the pure android. Its smoother, cleaner, quicker and just better.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah.. noticed the same when comparing JB on my S3 to JB on my Nexus..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
KidCarter93 said:
Ask in this thread mate
I can understand why some would want the pure Google experience, but there are ROMs which provide an extremely close experience anyway. Plus with the added features they have, it seems like the logical choice to go for custom ROMs, at least in my opinion.
If you use the thread linked above, you'll be able to ask there about what device to get next if you're not too sure.
And yeah, that response was all good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know custom ROMs are available for other devices... but the only other phone on my radar was the gs3 but I hated those buttons... i enabled the on screen buttons on my ns4g and my kernel let's me dim the light on the capacitive buttons so its like they're not even there anymore lol... i lost some screen real estate but no biggie really...
I was really looking forward to the next nexus and was really disappointed to hear no CDMA/LTE support being that i have unlimited with Sprint now and I'm gonna be switching to a special unlimited plan with Verizon in a month or so... i really wanted to continue using nexus devices but looks like I'll have to go elsewhere for now... luckily, I'm content with this ns4g being that i got it tuned nearly perfect for good performance... the SD read is still a bit slow tho... i can survive until something wets my appetite again like the N4... or I'll just get the SGS4 if nothing comes out before then...
Btw, I'm on 4.1.2 right now running most apps from 4.2 system dump... so this 2year old phone can even take photosphere, and quite well i might add... no rush to upgrade devices... if rather put that money to getting the Nexus 10
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
Another reason is that all of the hardwares of Nexus devices are guaranteed to be open, unlike most Samsung touchwiz devices.
Another one is that new nexus devices are all have insanely low prices as they are subsidized by Google.
Also, now nexus devices have the greatest fastest socs in the market. Just look at nexus 4's S4 pro and nexus 10's Exynos 5.
In response to your opinion,
1. Not all nexus devices have great build quality, especially those ones made by Samsung. But in my opinion, all nexus devices have great design and look. Just look at the nexus 4. It's one of the most gorgeous phones in the planet.
2. For your information, the development of the Galaxy s2 is now dead. Also, the galaxy s3 is almost dead. Those are caused by their closed source drivers.
3. Nexus devices are the first to get the STABLE, latest android version.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
The reason is that the Nexus line keeps choices simple. Also, they don't have bloat (TouchWiz, Sense, etc) - and don't say get an AOSP ROM. I have heard that they are nothing but trouble. I quite like the idea of my tablet looking like it's running the same OS as my phone. And personally, the Nexus 4 is the best looking phone out there IMO, even compared to the iPhone 5 and the Samsung S3 (the style/position of the home button killed that design). I really like the UI design of stock Android too, it's not childish or cutesy looking like the bloat or iOS. I'm into the whole 'sci-fi' theme of it.
Also, looking at most other phones, they generally fall short in certain areas, whereas the Nexus devices as of late are looking relatively well considered. After using a Galaxy Nexus, I despise the current state of AMOLED tech. That rules out almost every Samsung phone under the sun. HTC One Xes supposedly have sucky battery life (plus, Tegra 3 vs a quadcore Snapdragon simply isn't a competition at all), and I've decided that lasting less than 5 hours with the screen on (for any mobile device, tablet, phone, whatever) just isn't good enough anymore.
Tablet-wise, for an Android tablet, there is no comparison to the upcoming Nexus 10. The Note sucks and the Infinity really sucks. The iPad wants you to get into the whole Apple ecosystem with Macs and iPhones to really get the best out of things like iCloud and whatnot, and Mac sucks for software & games.
The only real competitor to a Nexus is Windows 8 and WP8, which both look great (better than Android except for the whole 'Bing' thing) but their ecosystems aren't ready for real use yet. I have to say, the Lumia 920 is packing some awesome technology, and with the winter season coming I would really appreciate the touch screen you can use with gloves on. Not to mention the typical Nokia build quality, plus it seems to have everything covered.
The Nexus phones are the quickest to get updates and don't have any OEM skins or bloatware that is forced on the users. While an AOSP ROM can be ported to any phone in theory, it takes time and there are usually hardware issues due to closed source or unavailable drivers, and also locked bootloaders.
The problem with the Nexus line is its sort of like Apple's devices in the sense that there is limited hardware choice and device's memory can't be expanded. My personal hardware tastes are for a smaller device with no more than a 4.3" screen and it must have a microSD slot. I'll put up with OEM skins, bloatware can be frozen with root, as hardware is more important to me than software. But everyone it entitled to their own opinions and preferences.
Nexus phones do have bloat. Google+, google currents, Google earth, google movies, Google books, etc. All /system apps that can't be removed. Most of them are useless.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Personally running Slim on my S3 is fast enough for me and my aged brain, any faster and I can't keep up!
Add to that my phone is my main music player hooked up to amp and speakers, I love that I can dual boot to get Samsung best bits(few!)
Not worried about lte
Glass back may be stylish.....but is utterly stupid on a phone.
......I am stupid!.....the reasoning?..... .this is all my opinion, nobody is really interested, and I'm not really interested in theirs......ergot......I MUST be stupid for posting in first place.....
jordanishere said:
Nexus phones do have bloat. Google+, google currents, Google earth, google movies, Google books, etc. All /system apps that can't be removed. Most of them are useless.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was that your final answer? I use most of those... and last I checked, u can go to the play store and uninstall all of them... don't even need root if I'm not mistaken...
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
KidCarter93 said:
If you ask one of those people why a Nexus is so great, they'll say one of three things or a mix of the three.
The reasons are;
1) All Nexus devices look great and have great build quality.
2) It's guaranteed to have great developer support.
3) It's officially supported by Google so it will get the latest Android updates before any other device.
Now, let me tell you my response to each of those points...
1) Most Nexus devices don't look great. The only one which looks good, in my opinion, is the Nexus 7. Apart from that, none of them look any better than other devices around.
2) Yes it will have great developer support, but so do a lot of phones which are already around and have been for ages now. An example of that is the Galaxy S2. It's been around for over a year and a half and it still has more development than most phones do
3) Again, this is true. But they're not the only devices to get the Android updates quickly. This site has a smattering of great developers so it will never take long for other devices to get the latest versions, and you haven't even needed to buy a new phone just to get the latest and greatest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I'll agree not all Nexus look great, though that's a real personal preference thing. I for one, would prefer the Nexus one look over the Nexus s. I currently own a Gnex and I'd be honest in saying it looks alright, but I would like some changes made (Nexus 4, comes close)
2) To be fair, of course the S2 (and noteably other handsets) will have a large dev support, in terms of quantity they sell a lot more than the Nexus family (exception of the Nexus 7, that's the first Nexus priced aggressively)
3) Quick =/= first to get updates. Some people just want the newest FIRST.
I personally choose the nexus because I don't want to be caught with a device that will have a short support life (mentioned above). History shows the Nexus WILL have the most official updates:
Nexus one: Shipped with Eclair, last official version was GB
Nexus S: Shipped with GB, officially supported till Jelly bean
Gnex: Don't know yet, but its gone from ICS to JB.
If you go to dev section, there are even newer (unofficial builds) I don't buy phones every year so I want a phone that will last me 2 years at least.
Hello XDA,
I am looking for a bit of advice as I will be buying a new smartphone as soon as I can figure out what to get. I was quite interested in the Nexus 5x, however it seems to have a number of shortcomings(No SD...Kind of important to me!). I am currently debating between the 5x and the MOTO X PURE. I've never been a spec junkie, rather I have been concerned with UX. I am curious if the 2G LPDDR3 and SD801 of the N5x will hold up against the current LPDDR3 3G & LPDDR4 4G found in current "Flagships".Many here may hate me off the bat for saying this; but up until the iPhone 4 I was a faithful customer. I appreciate a well made and integrated package. That is something many Android devices lack IMO. However after my i4 I switched to android as needing to jailbreak was a PITA and I have,for the most part, loved it! Furthermore; I wish there were still WebOS options! Too bad it crashed and burned! I've never understood "Fan Boys".
At any rate I need a new phone. Currently I'm using a POS HTC Desire 510 w/ Raptor ROM as it will not function w/ the desensed dragonROM anymore(I HATE SENSE!!!). I am looking for a device that will last me 2 years with the latest android release. I'd like something snappy and likely to be supported by future ROMs(Love CM). My budget is around $400 and I am inclined to go with the 5x, however I have seen many better offerings available at the same price or less(OnePlus 2).
I generally like to use CM(as mentioned above) and a few XPOSED Modules. I generally use my Phone for: Web Browsing, Audio, YouTube, Camera, Reading and of course Phone Calls. I also use some Network Utilities, but that's about it.
The N5x's 2Gb of RAM and lack of SD Card scares me(I will only get the 16GB ver.) as does the Moto's non-existent MM ROMs. I am looking for something that will last for the next 2 years with current ROMs available. My other concern is security. There is a plethora of malware for Android and at the very least I'd like a device that can stay up to date. ANY ADVICE XDA?
We already have a thread for such discussion.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620179
Thread closed