Galaxy S4... And others.... a bit.... meh? - Galaxy S 4 General

This is likely to be first time in 7 years i haven't upgraded my phone upon a handset refresh.
I'm a terrible phone whore with very little loyalty to brand, i like to own the best phone of the moment and hop between manufacturers. I'd imagine most people on here do the same, with the exception of the insanely irreverent fanboys. Recently (Last 2 years) i've owned.. S2, iPhone 4S, S3, HTC One X and Nexus 4. (Also throw in a couple of dips to Sony and Windows Mobile for brief periods).
First of all, the S4 and the HTC One look like cracking devices. In my eyes they both have positives and negatives and if push came to shove and somebody forced me by gunpoint to pick one, i'd be hard pressed to make a decision.. Perhaps S4 but only because of the battery life and timely updates.. There really is little in it.. Anyone who thinks so is only splitting hairs.
If you're sat using an S2 or a mobile a good 2 years old i can truly appreciate what a jump that the S4 or HTC One to be for you. But if you're the kind of person who upgrades over a 12 month period, there really is little to excite at the moment.
I can't help but feel disappointing..
CPU:
This is the most frustrating topic... We've been steadily increasing in power with little gains in power management, Nvidia tried their best with that '5th core' but ultimately left us all wanting... I'd say the biggest single concern for most smartphone users is battery life now, struggling to make it through a heavy day is part and parcel of owning a mobile.
We are so very close to big.LITTLE kicking in and it seems to be that Samsung and HTC kicked off a little early, shown by the (almost complete) lack of availability of their Exynos variant..
If i bought the S4 or HTC One i'd feel almost cheated if the rumored battery performance of the upcoming CPUs in this segment are anything to go by.
Screen:
Mobile phone addiction aside, one of my other rather 'nerdy' fascination is with audio visual kit, much to my wifes misery.. Screen quality is undoubtedly a big thing for me, yet even i struggle to justify the move from a 720p resolution to a 1080p resolution on a screen only 4.7-5" big..
I've seen the HTC One in person and while i will confess at close proximity i can distinguish the difference, it is by no means the jump the market departments of said companies would like you to think.. I'd go as far to say that most (myself included) would struggle to notice the difference between the two during regular daily use.
LTE:
This is less the mobile manufacturers fault and more the networks but 4G coverage is absolutely woeful when you consider the mass rollout of hardware to utilize. I always thought the S3 LTE was pointless but was convinced this was the early warning sign the governments / networks needed to shift into gear, it doesn't appear to have happened. It's like giving everybody a Bugatti Veyron and telling them they're only allowed to drive it in speed limited residential areas..
I've got friends in the states and U.K and despite the rather gut-wrenching price they pay for LTE price plans, the performance seems poor. I do think we are a good year away from 4G being a realistic benefit to the average consumer, with small pockets of countries experiencing early gains if they live in the capital.
The only positive i can take away from all this is my other half does not have to watch me trawl through reviews, debate the best deal and then watch me giddy on the day of delivery...
Here's hopping next year is a little better!

Have to agree with this, nothing special so far

@OP ( dont wanna quote the whole post lol), trust me when i say that i am one of the biggest phone junkies around, i owned almost all of the flagship of 2012 and plan on owning quite a few in 2013. I see what you're saying when you say " meh" cause phones like the nexus 4, S3, Optimus G and note 2 are already mighty powerful but i think this is where samsung and HTC lead the pack and differentiate themselves with other brands. HTC came out with the best design a phone ever had ( in my opinion) and fantastic sound quality while samsung is expanding its crazy awesome features ( gimmicky for some, absolutely great for me). Its hard to outdo the great phones that came out last year so my question is what did you expect?

I think you need to find more hobbies/occupations in your life tbh.

But to be honest, we are at a point where technology, and especially phones are improving at a very systematical and incremental ways.
Slightly better processor
Slightly better camera
Slightly better screen
Slightly better battery
Really, we will be stuck on this pattern until something revolutionary comes into the mobile market.

JaeKay said:
But to be honest, we are at a point where technology, and especially phones are improving at a very systematical and incremental ways.
Slightly better processor
Slightly better camera
Slightly better screen
Slightly better battery
Really, we will be stuck on this pattern until something revolutionary comes into the mobile market.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, but with all that, there's a lot that's looked over. Like if you have a Samsung Smart TV you can stream what is on your TV to your phoen anywhere you go.
We now have a IR controller with a built in TV Guide. Built in reminder to remind you also. Links to Rotten Tomatoes for movies.
There's a lot more. I just don't know what is revolutionary anymore. The problem is other technology has to catch up, like TVs, Amplifiers and audio receivers, car GPS, etc. The only thing the phone can do now is control and interact with other things.
What can honestly be revolutionary with current technology and our phones now?

How about work on voice call clarity. This quality has been the same Damn thing since the nokia brick phones lol
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app

Squirrel1620 said:
How about work on voice call clarity. This quality has been the same Damn thing since the nokia brick phones lol
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
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The thing is in a day I make max 20 min call time but day in day out 4+hours screen time, iyam this is the norm so this dictates developments, so I bet we get stuck with ok call quality.

Euthye said:
The thing is in a day I make max 20 min call time but day in day out 4+hours screen time, iyam this is the norm so this dictates developments, so I bet we get stuck with ok call quality.
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20 min the norm? Speak for yourself.

j510 said:
20 min the norm? Speak for yourself.
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I know but how about getting a different phone if your prime use is phoning, like a 2g that'll give you 2/3 days, or if you're making calls while indoors plug it in or use a land line, flagship smartphones are computing devices not really phones any more.

thedalmeny said:
This is likely to be first time in 7 years i haven't upgraded my phone upon a handset refresh.
I'm a terrible phone whore with very little loyalty to brand...!
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Click to collapse
While I agree that the upgrades in the GS4 are barely a full generation ahead of the GS3, which is unfortunate given how much a jump the GS2 was over the GS1, and how much the GS1 was ahead of anything else at its time... there is a sort-of point about diminishing returns here as well. It's harder to "improve" certain aspects but so much, as we're beginning to hit the limits of what can even be perceived as an upgrade.
I mean, think about the screen. Very low res -> QVGA -> WVGA -> 720p -> 1080p. Well that's great, but for the next generation, where do you go? There's really no perceivable need to put anything higher into a sub 5" device. Maybe flexible screens? Unbreakable screens? etc etc? That's still not gonna actually increase the photonic information presented to your eyes from the device.
Or take the physical phone body. The GS4 is pushing the screen so far that it's easily covering 80-90% of the entire front surface area. So okay, next gen, you make the entire front surface a screen. Then what? Make the phone thinner? Well, at a certain point you hit a limit there as well. People can only grasp and comfortably hold objects of up to a certain depth. When you get it smaller than that, you're basically just printing a screen onto a knife blade. So that's no good...
Let's try connectivity. LTE and 802.11ac? Most cell networks couldn't saturate their LTE links if they tried, they simply don't have the capacity yet. And even if they did... You're telling me you can even find a use-case where your phone is pumping out/in 100+ mbit/s of data? I mean, at home it's nice to move music/videos/files around sure. But I highly doubt anyone is routinely moving gigabytes of data per hour on any sort of mobile device. Once you hit what you need for say HD video streaming... where else is there to go? Again, the next generation doesn't really need to move data any faster than this.
Sensors? Well, there's actually lots of room for improvement here. And also, un-coincidentally, this is where the GS4 has some the of greatest advantage over other current/last generation devices. While we're still pretty far away from a proper tricorder, we can now sense via magnetometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, light sensor, infrared sensor, microphones, thermometer, hydrometer, barometer, and two cameras... But building sensors isn't the hard part. It's building clever software to do something with these sensors.
I could go on further... but the point I should think is clear. Yea, it's a bit disappointing that nothing since the original GS1/GS2 has really been a full "generation and a half" ahead of the competition... but a large portion of that is simply because we're beginning to hit the ceiling with some of these improvements. Yea, in 20 years "phones" will be unpredictably evolved from what we have now. But I bet the screens still won't have any higher effective PPI than what we're approaching now...

nastyhobbits said:
posting to hit 10 posts so I can actually post in development section....wth.....
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Wrong and wrong.
1) There's a reason you need to post elsewhere first.
2) The fact that you say "what the hell" to that requirement further shows you are not yet ready to post in development.
3) Spamming random unrelated comments into random threads is not the way to reach the 10 post minimum
I suggest you start by reading the rules and the stickies.
Have a nice day, and welcome to XDA.

Im only getting it becuase i wanted a smaller note 2 with no spen. The s4 gives me that with plenty of horsepower. Plus the 32gb $250 price point is a good sell. If the htc one had a replaceable battery it would of been a no brainer based on design alone.

nastyhobbits said:
posting to hit 10 posts so I can actually post in development section....wth.....
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*Face palm* If there's one place where you never post something like that, it's XDA. The moderators here take people who break the rules pretty seriously.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I wish we could have a revolutionary phone come out like the Galaxy SII did. Even today, Galaxy SII is unsurpassed with performance. Is there any app or game that it can't run? I mean, it came out nearly 2 years ago, and still has not been matched by an app.
I hope Galaxy SV comes in the way of the revolution.

Euthye said:
I know but how about getting a different phone if your prime use is phoning, like a 2g that'll give you 2/3 days, or if you're making calls while indoors plug it in or use a land line, flagship smartphones are computing devices not really phones any more.
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I never said my prime use is phone calls. I just said 20 min is not the norm. And again where do you get your information. No matter what phone whether it is a dumb phone or smart phone, one of the main focus of a phone period involves making phone calls. Otherwise it would be called a multimedia device and not a phone.

jahjah440 said:
I wish we could have a revolutionary phone come out like the Galaxy SII did. Even today, Galaxy SII is unsurpassed with performance. Is there any app or game that it can't run? I mean, it came out nearly 2 years ago, and still has not been matched by an app.
I hope Galaxy SV comes in the way of the revolution.
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Wait, what, lol!
Pretty sure the Gs1 started the trend there. Gs2 was nice, but nothing revolutionary.... The s3 was by far the best in the series thus far, until this one comes out.
With that said, I like my Note 2 more so than my s3.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

I think the Note series has been pretty revolutionary and Samsung has worked hard to come up with clever things to do with the stylus.
I don't know what big hardware improvements are left to do. The one I would like the most is 3-D capabilities, both screen and camera, like the Evo 3D. I would imagine in the last two years the technology has gotten better and Samsung could market it a lot better than HTC. Plus there is more 3D content than two years ago. Samsung could also do cool things with 3D and the hover technology.

j510 said:
I never said my prime use is phone calls. I just said 20 min is not the norm. And again where do you get your information. No matter what phone whether it is a dumb phone or smart phone, one of the main focus of a phone period involves making phone calls. Otherwise it would be called a multimedia device and not a phone.
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Ah well tough break, I guess this phone isn't for you then.

Shammyh said:
While I agree that the upgrades in the GS4 are barely a full generation ahead of the GS3, which is unfortunate given how much a jump the GS2 was over the GS1, and how much the GS1 was ahead of anything else at its time... there is a sort-of point about diminishing returns here as well. It's harder to "improve" certain aspects but so much, as we're beginning to hit the limits of what can even be perceived as an upgrade.
I mean, think about the screen. Very low res -> QVGA -> WVGA -> 720p -> 1080p. Well that's great, but for the next generation, where do you go? There's really no perceivable need to put anything higher into a sub 5" device. Maybe flexible screens? Unbreakable screens? etc etc? That's still not gonna actually increase the photonic information presented to your eyes from the device.
Or take the physical phone body. The GS4 is pushing the screen so far that it's easily covering 80-90% of the entire front surface area. So okay, next gen, you make the entire front surface a screen. Then what? Make the phone thinner? Well, at a certain point you hit a limit there as well. People can only grasp and comfortably hold objects of up to a certain depth. When you get it smaller than that, you're basically just printing a screen onto a knife blade. So that's no good...
Let's try connectivity. LTE and 802.11ac? Most cell networks couldn't saturate their LTE links if they tried, they simply don't have the capacity yet. And even if they did... You're telling me you can even find a use-case where your phone is pumping out/in 100+ mbit/s of data? I mean, at home it's nice to move music/videos/files around sure. But I highly doubt anyone is routinely moving gigabytes of data per hour on any sort of mobile device. Once you hit what you need for say HD video streaming... where else is there to go? Again, the next generation doesn't really need to move data any faster than this.
Sensors? Well, there's actually lots of room for improvement here. And also, un-coincidentally, this is where the GS4 has some the of greatest advantage over other current/last generation devices. While we're still pretty far away from a proper tricorder, we can now sense via magnetometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, light sensor, infrared sensor, microphones, thermometer, hydrometer, barometer, and two cameras... But building sensors isn't the hard part. It's building clever software to do something with these sensors.
I could go on further... but the point I should think is clear. Yea, it's a bit disappointing that nothing since the original GS1/GS2 has really been a full "generation and a half" ahead of the competition... but a large portion of that is simply because we're beginning to hit the ceiling with some of these improvements. Yea, in 20 years "phones" will be unpredictably evolved from what we have now. But I bet the screens still won't have any higher effective PPI than what we're approaching now...
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Click to collapse
I have to disagree about LTE. That 100mbs conection is shared across possibly 100's of users and it does not take alot to bring it down to it's knees.
Video of sub 500kbs LTE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-VVwPqhXwI
That and really 2,3,4,5,10 GB is not really that much data if you plan using the LTE speeds fully. If I didn't have a unlimited plan, my bill would be higher in a month than what my phone cost.
I will say your right about the screen 1080p is good, well really for most 720p does the trick. ( I can still see the dot's on a 720p 4.3in screen though, but most can't.)

Related

[Q] So has anyone been put off?

So has anyone been put off by this device and the initial (lack of) reviews and comments from other posters?
I was 100% sure to get it, but held out a few days and now kind of feel 75% sure and wondering now whether to wait for the Evo 3D or even wait a few more months and see what else HTC will bring to the table.
I'm no Samsung fanboy and personally hate my gf's galaxy but i still think HTC haven't shouted enough about this device to persuade me that it's their flagship device like the Desire was last year.
I know it's early days and there is still time for sense to be updated but i'm just not feeling any hype about it.
I wish people with the device would make more threads about their experiences with it. At the moment it seems there are just a few threads floating about.
I've yet to see a good battery thread with praise or complaints....This..to me is the big deciding factor. Since my Desire, with heavy usage, can barely got 4 hours I know pretty much anything can beat it, but it'd be nice to have a device where i can have all my widgets and syncing going on without the worry of needing to charge it at lunch time.
Htc holiday
NEW HTC DEVICE TO COME: HTC HOLIDAY
Look here :
http://www.talkandroid.com/41135-htc-holiday-lead-atts-new-lte-phones
The folks over at Pocketnow have discovered — thanks to some details on a few leaked ROM’s — that HTC is planning two new LTE phones for AT&T, the HTC Holiday and HTC Lead. Some of the specs we know are:
•Both have 1.2 gig dual-core processors
•The Holiday has 1 GB of internal RAM while the Lead has 768 MB
•The Lead has a 4.3-inch WVGA screen, while the Holiday has a 4.5-inch qHD display
•The Lead has only a 5 MP rear camera, while the Holiday has a front 1.3 MP camera and a 8 MP rear camera
•The Lead supports Bluetooth 3.0 while the Holiday supports Bluetooth 4.0
•Both phones run the Qualcomm MSM8660 baseband chip for HSPA+ and LTE support, as well as the Adreno 220 GPU
beautyangel said:
NEW HTC DEVICE TO COME: HTC HOLIDAY
Look here :
http://www.talkandroid.com/41135-htc-holiday-lead-atts-new-lte-phones
The folks over at Pocketnow have discovered — thanks to some details on a few leaked ROM’s — that HTC is planning two new LTE phones for AT&T, the HTC Holiday and HTC Lead. Some of the specs we know are:
•Both have 1.2 gig dual-core processors
•The Holiday has 1 GB of internal RAM while the Lead has 768 MB
•The Lead has a 4.3-inch WVGA screen, while the Holiday has a 4.5-inch qHD display
•The Lead has only a 5 MP rear camera, while the Holiday has a front 1.3 MP camera and a 8 MP rear camera
•The Lead supports Bluetooth 3.0 while the Holiday supports Bluetooth 4.0
•Both phones run the Qualcomm MSM8660 baseband chip for HSPA+ and LTE support, as well as the Adreno 220 GPU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chances of it coming to UK is minimal though
enjoying my sensation since Friday morning, still very happy with this phone, flawless all the time.
everyday48 said:
enjoying my sensation since Friday morning, still very happy with this phone, flawless all the time.
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Elaborate on the battery please, it's my biggest deal breaker
Its a bit too early too comment, a few cycles in is the perfect time to comment... out of the box battery will obviously be a lot different to what it will be like in a couple of weeks of usage.
Jas_932 said:
Its a bit too early too comment, a few cycles in is the perfect time to comment... out of the box battery will obviously be a lot different to what it will be like in a couple of weeks of usage.
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personally, i'm still not convinced by that argument. I've had my fair share of phones and never seen a difference....I think the fact that the user stops using it as much as when in the honeymoon period, thus seems like the battery is better...
Yeh, that is one way of looking at it, but you also find the settings that are best for you and your own usage of the phone, thus making it easier to manage the battery usage... such as brightness of the screen... what apps you use etc and etc. There is unfortunately, a million and one ways to look at the argument
The biggest and best question i would ask people, is are they HAPPY with the phone? if not, why? and if so, why?
Jas_932 said:
Its a bit too early too comment, a few cycles in is the perfect time to comment... out of the box battery will obviously be a lot different to what it will be like in a couple of weeks of usage.
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I am happy with this phone.
battery, if you don't play lots of game or browse website, it can last 1 day. battery is always the big issue with smart phones.
Root it and you never stop using it
Barff1984 said:
personally, i'm still not convinced by that argument. I've had my fair share of phones and never seen a difference....I think the fact that the user stops using it as much as when in the honeymoon period, thus seems like the battery is better...
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Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Looks like those HTC's won't be coming to the UK...for AT&T and LTE.
Also nobody knows when the Holiday and Lead are coming out. Nor when the GSM version of the Evo 3D are coming out. If you need a new phone there's not much point in waiting for an unspecified future date in the hopes of something better as something better is always coming (don't forget the rumours that Samsung will release a new flagship every 6 months). If you just want a new cell phone and can handle to wait then sure, go ahead.
As for the reviews... I get the impression that HTC was pressed for time. Not exactly rushed, but close to it. If you recall the ROMs on some of the preliminary models shown in hands-ons were only using one core and they supposedly had a firmware upgrade just before releasing. Add to that the bad press over the preliminary benchmarks which were worse than the Nexus One and maybe HTC didn't want to hand out review units until it was completely ready (which I get the impression was the actual launch of the device). We know Slashgear is getting a review ready and I think it's safe to assume GSMArena is too so I just wait a bit more. If you aren't convinced then go with another phone which does convince you. The important thing is that you be happy with whatever decision you make.
not been put off and its very logical there are no real reviews yet...official launch worldwide is about somewhere in june.. only vodafone has now the exclusivity plus the phone has not been sent to reviewers yet !
I have . . . paused. I really wanted it, but the lack of praise on this forum has made me wonder. But I really I cant see myself with the galaxy II. My gf has the Galaxy s and whilst its quick, i miss the heft of my HD2 when i hold it.
So it feels alot like the Sensation, with or without shortcomings, is the only other path right now. Does anyone else feel that way?
freedirk said:
I have . . . paused. I really wanted it, but the lack of praise on this forum has made me wonder. But I really I cant see myself with the galaxy II. My gf has the Galaxy s and whilst its quick, i miss the heft of my HD2 when i hold it.
So it feels alot like the Sensation, with or without shortcomings, is the only other path right now. Does anyone else feel that way?
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Click to collapse
The quality of the device is fantastic. It feels really nice, the screen is amazing. The new qHD display is nice, bit different from the WVGA, and I think I already prefer it.
Missing root but I hope (really hope) this will come
I have no doubt root will come. Nothing is ever unbeatable. No employee is not disgruntled enough, no certainty is ever certain.
Patience. And thanks for telling me that. I need to hear it
Just waiting for root and I'll be jumping to buy one. I need a front facing camera and as I'm completely happy with the Desire HD this is a step up of the same plus the added speed. Keep looking at the SGSII but that plastic is sooooooo off putting
This forum has spoilt us and we're getting picky now
One wonders what device we'll be carrying 5 years from now
By the way, don't count on root coming real soon - have a read whats going on in Incredible S
ps. Congrats to the folks with this awesome device in hand!
abuserkadayf said:
not been put off and its very logical there are no real reviews yet...official launch worldwide is about somewhere in june.. only vodafone has now the exclusivity plus the phone has not been sent to reviewers yet !
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...been intending on signing up and posting a few bits but have been too lazy recently, but I shall do so now.
The above is what I was going to say. The phone hasn't been launched properly yet, it's effectively just Vodafone customers getting a bit of a pre-release taster. I wouldn't be surprised if we're also being used as a bit of a test group so that they can see what we like/don't like and what needs fixing/ramping up in future releases. I also expect the ROM that's shipped with the general release phones to be updated from what we've got, considering that they have a month of user testing to look at.
As for the phone, I haven't transferred my number over yet and I can't use my T-Mobile SIM as although allows me to text and call, it doesn't seem to want to allow Internet on my phone. So although I've played with it, I haven't really 'used' it yet. It seems really, really nice though. Screen is lovely and going back to using my Hero today feels like going back to some lo-res toy!
Couple of things I'll say aren't too good:
The LED notification is really hard to see compared to the full blown 100 megawatt light on my hero.
The browser, although really good, doesn't seem to like full flash sites. I was trying to watch a few highlights videos from ehlhockey.tv and it was really struggling, but that may just be me or the dire, dire design of the site as full flash sites are made by the devil himself!!
Battery will need a bit more time, but I took the phone off charge at about 6pm last night and checked it at 7am this morning and it was still on 100% with WiFi on. I think HTC have somehow discovered perpetual energy. If it's on 100% when I get back tonight then I'm going to be hooking it up to the mains in the house and living off of the free HTC electricity!
phi11ip said:
Battery will need a bit more time, but I took the phone off charge at about 6pm last night and checked it at 7am this morning and it was still on 100% with WiFi on. I think HTC have somehow discovered perpetual energy. If it's on 100% when I get back tonight then I'm going to be hooking it up to the mains in the house and living off of the free HTC electricity!
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Haha good stuff. But don't stop there. notify the power companies and hook it up to the national grid before another Sensation user does it HTC might be on to a real winner with the battery
First impressions
As you can see from my signature, I've had a broad range of OSs and devices in my hand, and must admit, going from a much played-with HD2 to this Sensation is the biggest jump advancing jump I've made.
The HD2 made upgrading a hard choice, we were spoilt with that, so on doing my research, playing with many Samsungs, Motorolas, Nokias etc (much to the annoyance of shop staff) none of them made any impression above 'meh' in a lot of my criteria other than the Sensation.
I've been bullying this poor thing for 48 hours now, and there has only been one glitch - HTC sync decided not to play for about 20 mins, but after Win7 forced a driver upon it, it was very fluid. The same as the rest of my experiences of this device.
I've got an overlap of contracts this month so i've been testing real-world 3g usage on both O2 and Vodafone, and must say, this battery life is like a backpack worth of battery compared to the HD2, on a par with the large-ish one in the X1.

Sensation - best phone of all time ?

What a beautiful phone !!
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
The main thing, or the sum of the parts, about this phone, is that HTC have put all their previous experience into the form factor and it shows.
For such a large screen device it feels small and light in the hand. It also looks smaller then it it.
The alu/plastic back is the perfect shape for holding and setting down. The front glass is lovely and the way you take the back off is the best way - no slide off shell that almost breaks everytime you do it, rather a release button and a smooth slide off. Even the slide-off is confidence building - the back encircles the main phone can curves round at the top. This ensures no rattling and also sealing the internals nicely.
The build quality is light and day difference from the Samsung Galaxy SII, for example. The Samsung is light and feels cheap. Worse, the last one I looked at in an O2 shop had a piece of velcro on the back slicking it to a small stand. Repeated removal meant that the thin plastic back was warped, one corner stuck off exposing some electronics and the middle had a nasty fold down it meaning it was hardly attached.
HTC Sense is the next jewel in HTC's crown. Sense 3D is no big upgrade but after some configuration it appears as jewel like as the body (I have a B&W picture background from the HTC collection) with dual clocks on the home screen, and a swiss watch skeleton clock on the lock screen).
Operation is fast and smooth. There are occasional jerks but I am sure this will be dealt with with a firmware upgrade (after all, multi-core CPUs are just introduced to Android).
The screen is a joy. Not so bright or contrasty as a AMOLED, but fantastic in its own right. The one criticism, if a bit picky, is that the contrast drops off sharply as you look at an angle. The extra 100 pixels either way over the normal high-spec android is really really useful for surfing and email (540x960).
Main gripes:
1. Not many apps using multi-core cpu
2. Not many apps using full screen resolution
3. Volume on ear piece could be a bit higher
All-in-all a great software effort for HTC's first dual core release but hardwarewise a mature and well thought out build with real ownership pleasure.
I think you could make the Moto Cliq sound amazing. You just made me so excited to have this phone.
What a phone.
Cheers
remember dude, new phones come out every 2+ Months.. And every 6 Months to a year the technology in the phone will increase and become the norm.
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Nice try, HTC Sales Deparment.
StefanB86 said:
Nice try, HTC Sales Deparment.
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hey, I'm really open to commission if anyone is offering
dbirdflyshi said:
remember dude, new phones come out every 2+ Months.. And every 6 Months to a year the technology in the phone will increase and become the norm.
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
looks like a 1980s list
Sony xperia play -come on - no review says that ....
I would definitely own the Sensation over the iPhone 4, any day of the week. It's not even close. To me, that's a significant statement to make given how the iPhone has pretty much dominated.
Hey,
I've just come from having an iPhone 4(had it a year, and got bored), and this is my first Android phone. I must say i am happy with the phone, but the best phone ever? Not yet.
The iPhone has a great Retina screen and its build quality is great. But you have to jailbreak it to get some basic features, like bluetooth, customising themes, tethering etc.
The Sensation is great out of the box, not a snappy as i anticipated i think due to sense. But i has everything i need as stock.
Sound is a bit low, and crackly sometimes. But i am impressed.
Cant wait to root it and unlock the real speed of the phone
nick
dbirdflyshi said:
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah like the other dude said, this list looks... off a bit.
Sensation is beautiful but the best graphics?
3Gs the best phone ever? Really?
Nexus One, the best android phone ever? Maybe only to the dev community.
Fastest - Should read fastest data speeds, then yes I would agree with that one. In terms of overall responsiveness, then no.
Gaming phone - could be any Galaxy S1 (Power VRSGX540 is still a beast), GS2, or any tegra2 device out there. The Xperia play has an Adreno 205 GPU which makes it decent at best, physical controls and all. But it lines up with the rest of Sony's product lines - They make a lot of good stuff, just never the best.
colonel said:
looks like a 1980s list
Sony xperia play -come on - no review says that ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your lucky i didnt mention the N-Gague
BBOOZE said:
I would definitely own the Sensation over the iPhone 4, any day of the week. It's not even close. To me, that's a significant statement to make given how the iPhone has pretty much dominated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same way but..... give iPhone 4.3" screen and T-mo bands and we'll talk again. I don't like apple, SJ or their nazi ways but there's something fascinating about having a device that just. works. out. of. the. box. Mind you, this is coming from Android follower since day 1 (Got G1 on the day of the release). I'm sick of rooting phones just to make them work and I thought that Sensation will be the phone I can live with. I mean it does sound great on paper but in real life - software on it is big heaping pile of ****. I truly believe that HTC is getting too comfy being one the biggest names in Android game and they are cutting corners left and right. Guess what - it shows.
Can't wait for S-off and CM.
colonel said:
What a beautiful phone !!
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
The main thing, or the sum of the parts, about this phone, is that HTC have put all their previous experience into the form factor and it shows.
For such a large screen device it feels small and light in the hand. It also looks smaller then it it.
The alu/plastic back is the perfect shape for holding and setting down. The front glass is lovely and the way you take the back off is the best way - no slide off shell that almost breaks everytime you do it, rather a release button and a smooth slide off. Even the slide-off is confidence building - the back encircles the main phone can curves round at the top. This ensures no rattling and also sealing the internals nicely.
The build quality is light and day difference from the Samsung Galaxy SII, for example. The Samsung is light and feels cheap. Worse, the last one I looked at in an O2 shop had a piece of velcro on the back slicking it to a small stand. Repeated removal meant that the thin plastic back was warped, one corner stuck off exposing some electronics and the middle had a nasty fold down it meaning it was hardly attached.
HTC Sense is the next jewel in HTC's crown. Sense 3D is no big upgrade but after some configuration it appears as jewel like as the body (I have a B&W picture background from the HTC collection) with dual clocks on the home screen, and a swiss watch skeleton clock on the lock screen).
Operation is fast and smooth. There are occasional jerks but I am sure this will be dealt with with a firmware upgrade (after all, multi-core CPUs are just introduced to Android).
The screen is a joy. Not so bright or contrasty as a AMOLED, but fantastic in its own right. The one criticism, if a bit picky, is that the contrast drops off sharply as you look at an angle. The extra 100 pixels either way over the normal high-spec android is really really useful for surfing and email (540x960).
Main gripes:
1. Not many apps using multi-core cpu
2. Not many apps using full screen resolution
3. Volume on ear piece could be a bit higher
All-in-all a great software effort for HTC's first dual core release but hardwarewise a mature and well thought out build with real ownership pleasure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more! This phone has made, by far, the best first impression (and continued) of any new device I've purchased in years.
I'm not sure why the 3GS was brought up here - I went from the 3G to the 3GS and really didn't feel it was worth it (it was a free upgrade through work, so what the heck). The original iPhone can get a mention, but I wouldn't give any of the subsequent models anything special.
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
DSF said:
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the galaxy s 2 is faster but perhaps new htc software will make it up
however the margin is not worth it compared to the terrible build or Fischer price os
DSF said:
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a d*ck move you pulled there. Go back under the bridge from which you came. The OP didn't once claim that this phone was better than the GS2. He was merely stating that he's in love with his phone. Nothing wrong with that. Everyone already knows that the GS2 is superior performance wise. Now go back to your Samsung forums and leave us be.
colonel said:
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then what's this?
Smart reply what can I say..
@colonel, well sgs2 feels solid in hand. No cranks, etc.
I'm posting here just because I don't like when the true is distorted. I could easily chose the sensation but for me the sgs2 wins (raw performance, ram, storage, etc).
Have a nice day.
DSF said:
Then what's this?
Smart reply what can I say..
@colonel, well sgs2 feels solid in hand. No cranks, etc.
I'm posting here just because I don't like when the true is distorted. I could easily chose the sensation but for me the sgs2 wins (raw performance, ram, storage, etc).
Have a nice day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before you come out here looking like a complete *ahem* ...wait, too late... I was ABOUT to say that you should probably take into consideration that at this point in time this IS the best phone ever available in the United States. For any of us living here, it's a no brainer. As far as the rest of the world - can't people be allowed to enjoy anything anymore?
borodin1 said:
I feel the same way but..... give iPhone 4.3" screen and T-mo bands and we'll talk again. I don't like apple, SJ or their nazi ways but there's something fascinating about having a device that just. works. out. of. the. box. Mind you, this is coming from Android follower since day 1 (Got G1 on the day of the release). I'm sick of rooting phones just to make them work and I thought that Sensation will be the phone I can live with. I mean it does sound great on paper but in real life - software on it is big heaping pile of ****. I truly believe that HTC is getting too comfy being one the biggest names in Android game and they are cutting corners left and right. Guess what - it shows.
Can't wait for S-off and CM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree about how nice it is that the iPhone works out of the box but I have to say I was able to get up and running in no time on my new Sensation just by entering my gmail account info...boom everything was there.
As for Sense I never liked/used Sense before but IF I got stuck with it on the Sensation I wouldn't be ready to kill myself. Frankly I think CM ROMs are waaaay overrated...so they are faster, great, but half the time stuff like GPS don't work. That said I will root this baby the second I get the chance.
......NOT !!!
ps: ok, maybe the best htc phone of all time.
GS2 is definitely more powerful at the moment. But after software update, hopefully the Sensation will show big improvement. I mean Sense 3.0 runs very smoothly on EVO 3d, so there's no reason why Sensation couldn't.
Sound and camera quality on HTC, however, need to be a lot better. Samsung have this, as well as sheer power and speed covered. But of course, HTC have an upper hand in the aesthetics of the phone, both hardware and software.
While I long for GS2's unstoppable power, I really cannot stand its big, non-matchingly-colorful, unpolished interface (I don't mind the plastic build). Same with the Sensation - unbelievably beautiful look of the device and UI, but things like dust under screen, dim screen (compared to EVO 3d), whispering speaker volume and average camera quality turn me off quite a bit.
So, I'm gonna stick to my good, old blackberry and wait until HTC or Samsung
address their weakness.

Lets talk about Android

I have been having numerous arguments with people regarding Android vs the rest.
We all know that Android is an operating system, that is used by many phone manufacturers - therefore it CANNOT be compared to iPhone directly and vise versa!
Same thing is about Windows OS.
What I am trying to say is that Android equipment manufacturers have to step up the game. I believe that making a new phone every other month is a BIG NO NO. Especially when the phone is not well tested.
As an example, I own myTouch 4G. First one had a washed out screen and not working Genius button. Second one had a spic of dust under the screen, but lucky for me - it had both good screen and eMMC. So I decided to keep it. Other folks have their phones die on them because of the bad eMMC chip.
Similar issue goes to the G2 (I read about bad eMMC chips). I also heard that Sensation has some issues too!
I witnessed people exchanging up to 7 phones, and yet to get a good one.
On the other hand, Samsung devices are seem to be very plastic on the touch. I did held them in hand. Yes, the screen looks gorgeous, but the phone itself feels bad in the hand.
LG is another story.
I haven't tried or read about SE phones.
You would ask, why the hell did I write this all?
I simply want to voice my opinion. I just sick to see all these phones popping out and then read that one has bad power button, another has 2 types of screen, and then get one of them. I really want to see Android rise up in class!
Heck for not having problems I could have gone with iPhone, but I am an Android fan and chose it because it can do what I need!
I believe with the resources that Samsung, HTC, LG and other have - they can do so much better!
Lets discuss what bad sides Android phones have and what can be improved. I think it is more productive topic than fighting over blindly.
The reason for Samsung's "plastic" feel is durability, you drop a metal phone then the weight is going to make it more likely to break, the plastics Samsung uses often just has the back pop off, maybe a scratch.
As for HTC, they're just not a quality company. They build devices that are pretty from afar but once you use them they often have horrid flaws. Very little quality control.
There's nowhere near the level of QC there used to be in the 'real' smartphones - Treos, Communicators, iPAQs etc.
I think they do a pretty good job, there's a fit and finish for just about every taste out there today. The target audience has changed a lot, the userbase has expanded exponentially, plus there are many more manufacturers today, all vying for a slice of the pie - price competitiveness has a lot to do with this, too.
It sucks, but these things are built to be thrown away. Why pump billions of dollars into the fit and finish of something outdated two weeks after it hits the streets? Sucks for us, but 'near enough is good enough' for the manufacturers, and fair enough in my opinion
z33dev33l said:
The reason for Samsung's "plastic" feel is durability, you drop a metal phone then the weight is going to make it more likely to break, the plastics Samsung uses often just has the back pop off, maybe a scratch.
As for HTC, they're just not a quality company. They build devices that are pretty from afar but once you use them they often have horrid flaws. Very little quality control.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed about Samsung durability, I've dropped my phone on probably every surface and it is still good.
As for android there many problems with the OS. No hardware acceleration is probably big on my list. My nexus runs pretty good but I do notice lag from time to time. Stock browser is a joke to use, hella amounts of lag when viewing pics and forget about even viewing flash, so opera for me.
I hope ICS will live up to the hype, because I'm really digging the Nokia and windows mobile deal. Only time will tell...
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
I was rooting for androids latest iteration to blow at least iOS out of the water but if that leaked nexus build is a final it doesn't even look smooth on a nexus device...
Who know?Probably NOT a final build as it as no acceleration. Word is that ICS will have hardware acceleration for both the interface and browser.
We will see.It does look impressive though....
On quality:My HTC Desire is horrendous, all buttons are almost dead, that has to do with quality. On the other hand my Huawei IDEOS X5 is surprisingly good for what i paid for (hint: zero but costs about 199euros).
If you want quality go for a truly expensive and good phone like the gs2, if not buy smething cheaper.
P.S. the buttons on the iphone 4 HAVE problems.3 of my friends went to the applestore to change them.That is not good build quality imho.
Eh, I like dells build quality though they fail as a software company. Honestly though I do hope ics is more impressive than it looked in that video because that was just slow and choppy, then again I guess the default UI of android isn't what's supposed to sell android. It's the customization options available.
I have a HTC Desire HD, and in my oppinion Android+Sense is the best mobile combo. all the good things from android + an awesome HTC skin.
Company's like Samsung don't make skins for their phones. I think that they should start making them. Ans if they do that, i might buy a Samsung phone or something like that after my HTC. But if they dont start making skins, i don´t want them...
i like my desire with htc sense, also like iphone with long time battery.
z33dev33l said:
The reason for Samsung's "plastic" feel is durability, you drop a metal phone then the weight is going to make it more likely to break, the plastics Samsung uses often just has the back pop off, maybe a scratch.
As for HTC, they're just not a quality company. They build devices that are pretty from afar but once you use them they often have horrid flaws. Very little quality control.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
i own HTC devices with metal... and all of them are broken, chipped so badly i have to pull out my sandy paper or file to smooth the metal back out, because the phone shell has been ripped apart after many close encounter with the floor
since i switched to Samsung the plastic design has proven that it can handle the drops much better than the metal
I got an issue with samsung and their software updates.
I've been lucky so far with HTC. Good build quality and frequently updated software.
If I need to trade off iphone quality for the freedom of Android, I will.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
There got to be some military grade glass, that will hold all kinds of abuse. My back cover of Glacier is already swinging from side to side. I really hope that this upcoming Nexus will fix all of the issues I, and many other, have with Android phones build quality.
I still do not get, where did samsung got info that 4.65" screen is good for everyone?
hmm. interesting thread, and views.
my experience hasn't been so great with samsung phones. i had a samsung moment and that thing was terrible. and apparently the gs2 is having some problems as well. users have reported problems with the screen/display having some kind of stain like color on it, and the wifi antenna has also been reported by many to be skittish.
not surprising to me. that's what happens when you push a device out based on deadlines rather than completion of thorough testing. regardless of what company is putting the phone out - HTC, samsung, LG... any of them will have problems if they don't ensure a good testing phase pre-release.
i went from the moment to the evo 3D, and the difference is night and day. and i have handled a gs2 and all i can say is i am not impressed. it feels weak and flimsy and in the end, it's still a samsung to me, with the samsung company behind it. i will never own one. but that's just me.
meanwhile, my evo 3D seems to be just a powerhouse in the performance area. i consistently hit quadrant scores over 4300 and linpack scores of 100+ and RL benchmark is completed in about 18 seconds.
there are merely a couple phones out there putting numbers like that down consistently. i know it is that fast in reality, as well, because performing tasks such as viewing, zipping, and opening pdfs from my work email are done extremely fast, and significantly faster than when the phone wasn't rooted with a custom rom/kernel.
just my opinion, but if you can't see the advantage in power and functionality in the android OS, you are not using your phone for anything other than playing games and texting.
I played this bubble game, it's fun. After a few rounds I found myself always stopped in the middle by the app ad and when I restarted the game, the previous records were all gone. Annoying!
Europa. said:
I played this bubble game, it's fun. After a few rounds I found myself always stopped in the middle by the app ad and when I restarted the game, the previous records were all gone. Annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love the relevance! Made my day so far
I agree with most of your arguments, but there's nothing we can do about it.
Manufacturers are still going to release one smartphone per month because people are used to buy tons of different phones to show to their friends.
More smartphones = more profit.
Doesn't matter if for the market it would be a lot better to play with only one "model" like iPhone does.
Let's hope that Google's Nexus can step up its game and be the iPhone rival.

Should I buy the HTC ONE S ?

Hi.
I need your help. I'm confused about that device because I read about his problems (For example: THE Sensitive button).
And about his poor battery life which can't survive for one full day..
And that I can get only 10GB of RAM, so I can't put much apps/movies/music/photos.
And I hope that it doesn't get too hot in heavy / easy use.
But I still like this model.
I'm wondering if I should buy this model or to buy Galaxy s2 / something else.
(I don't want big screen - 4.3 is enough for me P: )
- Do you recommend me to buy it or to buy something else?
- Please tell me everything you know about this model - the good and the bad
It's really important for me.
73 views but 0 replies ?
Guys please, soon I have birthday, so I don't have much time
LalyGirl said:
Hi.
I need your help. I'm confused about that device because I read about his problems (For example: THE Sensitive button).
And about his poor battery life which can't survive for one full day..
And that I can get only 10GB of RAM, so I can't put much apps/movies/music/photos.
And I hope that it doesn't get too hot in heavy / easy use.
But I still like this model.
I'm wondering if I should buy this model or to buy Galaxy s2 / something else.
(I don't want big screen - 4.3 is enough for me P: )
- Do you recommend me to buy it or to buy something else?
- Please tell me everything you know about this model - the good and the bad
It's really important for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery life - User dependant. Also other factors can impact this such as signal strength, type of data used, screen brightness. Looking at the battery stats thread it seems fine, better than my HOX and that's saying something.
10GB of user space available. 4GB for system & 2GB for apps. Plenty for apps. You have 10gb available to you for music, movies, photos etc. For some this is enough for others not so much. But with the ability to sync items to cloud storage for most it shouldn't be an issue.
Heat - Can't comment, but from various reading it seems cooler than other devices.
Not got the device but comparing to let's say the SGS2 this seems to have a higher resolution screen despite having a pentile screen.
Audio - Read it has one of the cleanest outputs on a mobile device, not heard it personally but it should be fine.
CPU - The S4 is one of the best dual cores around, so much there is a shortage and pretty soon they will switch to the S3. So grab the S4 version whilst you still can. It's plenty fast and outbenches some of the quads out there.
Sense - HTC's overlay, you'll love it or hate it. I love it. Has good contact management, lovely widgets, good for social networking, and such but can be a memory hog.
Camera - HTC has done a good job on the camera front. Like my HOX I like the pictures that it takes and the burst mode is a blessing. The software is also good and easy to use.
LED - This has a notification light, albeit 2 colours only compared to some other devices but at least it has one.
To sum it up it's a good mid range device. And should serve you well. Not having the device myself I'm only giving you my thoughts from reading reviews and taking some parts of my HOX.
nikzDHD said:
Battery life - User dependant. Also other factors can impact this such as signal strength, type of data used, screen brightness. Looking at the battery stats thread it seems fine, better than my HOX and that's saying something.
10GB of user space available. 4GB for system & 2GB for apps. Plenty for apps. You have 10gb available to you for music, movies, photos etc. For some this is enough for others not so much. But with the ability to sync items to cloud storage for most it shouldn't be an issue.
Heat - Can't comment, but from various reading it seems cooler than other devices.
Not got the device but comparing to let's say the SGS2 this seems to have a higher resolution screen despite having a pentile screen.
Audio - Read it has one of the cleanest outputs on a mobile device, not heard it personally but it should be fine.
CPU - The S4 is one of the best dual cores around, so much there is a shortage and pretty soon they will switch to the S3. So grab the S4 version whilst you still can. It's plenty fast and outbenches some of the quads out there.
Sense - HTC's overlay, you'll love it or hate it. I love it. Has good contact management, lovely widgets, good for social networking, and such but can be a memory hog.
Camera - HTC has done a good job on the camera front. Like my HOX I like the pictures that it takes and the burst mode is a blessing. The software is also good and easy to use.
LED - This has a notification light, albeit 2 colours only compared to some other devices but at least it has one.
To sum it up it's a good mid range device. And should serve you well. Not having the device myself I'm only giving you my thoughts from reading reviews and taking some parts of my HOX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like your comment a lot! thank u!
By the way, If I will buy the HTC SENSATION XE and install on it the android 4, it could be better then the HTC ONE S ? Because it has better battery, and I can use memory card.
LalyGirl said:
I like your comment a lot! thank u!
By the way, If I will buy the HTC SENSATION XE and install on it the android 4, it could be better then the HTC ONE S ? Because it has better battery, and I can use memory card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say think about longer term, it's an older device. The One S is the newer device and I'd be thinking about Jelly Bean the next android version. One S being newer would more likely be quicker to get it than the XE. It'll have more support from HTC.
Looking at the specs of both phones:
HOS is faster,
HOS reportedly has better battery life,
HOS has better screen in regards to viewing angles and sunlight compared to the first generation SLCD, again this could be subjective,
HOS is thinner and ligther,
HOS has the better camera,
HOS has native Sense 4 support,
HOS has 1gb of RAM compared to XEs 768MB,
You'll enjoy either but if you can I'd opt for the HOS if storage space isn't that important to you.
LalyGirl said:
I like your comment a lot! thank u!
By the way, If I will buy the HTC SENSATION XE and install on it the android 4, it could be better then the HTC ONE S ? Because it has better battery, and I can use memory card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both the Sensation and One S and there is really no comparison, the One S is much better. I still like my Sensation but the One S is better looking and feeling, has better battery life and a nicer screen, and is much faster.
I haven't had any of the problems that people have reported here (sensitive button, poor reception etc.). Battery life has been good for me so far, and while it does warm up when you're using it heavily it's not "hot" by any means.
The lack of SD slot is not really a problem for me, but whether you can live with it depends on your usage. I've never used more than 4GB of SD card on my Sensation, so the 10GB on board is more than enough.
The only problems I would be concerned about are:
1) Chipping on the black version. I honestly think it's overblown (like most issues with all phones, only people who have problems speak up), but if you are really worried about it get the silver one. It looks even better IMO and it won't chip as the finishing process is different.
2) Getting the 1.7GHz Snapdragon S3 version instead of the 1.5GHz S4. The S3 is the previous generation chip, used in the Sensation, and is slower (despite the higher clock speed, the architecture is different) and uses more power. I don't know if there's a way to tell what you're going to get beforehand, though. Only thing I can think of is if you see "1.7GHz" anywhere on or near it, stay away.
Read my one S review (and all the other posts by me in that thread as well, as I have updated some stuff like wifi speeds and battery life, last update was today, so the last post will be useful for you) in sig and also read my post here addressing your issues/questions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27056580&postcount=7
As for the heat, only gets hot when you're charging it, but this is the same for every device, in use for games etc. mine is pretty cold to touch
There is also a video in my last post in the neowin review thread showing a thermal output test comparison between the GS 2, Razr and the S.
nikzDHD said:
I'd say think about longer term, it's an older device. The One S is the newer device and I'd be thinking about Jelly Bean the next android version. One S being newer would more likely be quicker to get it than the XE. It'll have more support from HTC.
Looking at the specs of both phones:
HOS is faster,
HOS reportedly has better battery life,
HOS has better screen in regards to viewing angles and sunlight compared to the first generation SLCD, again this could be subjective,
HOS is thinner and ligther,
HOS has the better camera,
HOS has native Sense 4 support,
HOS has 1gb of RAM compared to XEs 768MB,
You'll enjoy either but if you can I'd opt for the HOS if storage space isn't that important to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so I will stay with the one s.
And how is the speaker of the hos/hox ?
Nick L said:
I have both the Sensation and One S and there is really no comparison, the One S is much better. I still like my Sensation but the One S is better looking and feeling, has better battery life and a nicer screen, and is much faster.
I haven't had any of the problems that people have reported here (sensitive button, poor reception etc.). Battery life has been good for me so far, and while it does warm up when you're using it heavily it's not "hot" by any means.
The lack of SD slot is not really a problem for me, but whether you can live with it depends on your usage. I've never used more than 4GB of SD card on my Sensation, so the 10GB on board is more than enough.
The only problems I would be concerned about are:
1) Chipping on the black version. I honestly think it's overblown (like most issues with all phones, only people who have problems speak up), but if you are really worried about it get the silver one. It looks even better IMO and it won't chip as the finishing process is different.
2) Getting the 1.7GHz Snapdragon S3 version instead of the 1.5GHz S4. The S3 is the previous generation chip, used in the Sensation, and is slower (despite the higher clock speed, the architecture is different) and uses more power. I don't know if there's a way to tell what you're going to get beforehand, though. Only thing I can think of is if you see "1.7GHz" anywhere on or near it, stay away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK U! and i don't understand you, which one is better - 1.7 GHz or 1.5GHz ?
Terminator19 said:
Read my one S review (and all the other posts by me in that thread as well, as I have updated some stuff like wifi speeds and battery life, last update was today, so the last post will be useful for you) in sig and also read my post here addressing your issues/questions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27056580&postcount=7
As for the heat, only gets hot when you're charging it, but this is the same for every device, in use for games etc. mine is pretty cold to touch
There is also a video in my last post in the neowin review thread showing a thermal output test comparison between the GS 2, Razr and the S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you like this device as I see Good review by the way! I think that this one is good for me.
And how is the speaker?
LalyGirl said:
Ok so I will stay with the one s.
And how is the speaker of the hos/hox ?
THANK U! and i don't understand you, which one is better - 1.7 GHz or 1.5GHz ?
So you like this device as I see Good review by the way! I think that this one is good for me.
And how is the speaker?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speaker for the HOX is fine, not as loud as say the SGS3 but it's consistent where as the SGS3 can be distorted on higher volumes. I prefer the ringtone sounds out of the HOX than SGS3.
Nick L said:
I have both the Sensation and One S and there is really no comparison, the One S is much better. I still like my Sensation but the One S is better looking and feeling, has better battery life and a nicer screen, and is much faster.
I haven't had any of the problems that people have reported here (sensitive button, poor reception etc.). Battery life has been good for me so far, and while it does warm up when you're using it heavily it's not "hot" by any means.
The lack of SD slot is not really a problem for me, but whether you can live with it depends on your usage. I've never used more than 4GB of SD card on my Sensation, so the 10GB on board is more than enough.
The only problems I would be concerned about are:
1) Chipping on the black version. I honestly think it's overblown (like most issues with all phones, only people who have problems speak up), but if you are really worried about it get the silver one. It looks even better IMO and it won't chip as the finishing process is different.
2) Getting the 1.7GHz Snapdragon S3 version instead of the 1.5GHz S4. The S3 is the previous generation chip, used in the Sensation, and is slower (despite the higher clock speed, the architecture is different) and uses more power. I don't know if there's a way to tell what you're going to get beforehand, though. Only thing I can think of is if you see "1.7GHz" anywhere on or near it, stay away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Terminator19 said:
Read my one S review (and all the other posts by me in that thread as well, as I have updated some stuff like wifi speeds and battery life, last update was today, so the last post will be useful for you) in sig and also read my post here addressing your issues/questions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27056580&postcount=7
As for the heat, only gets hot when you're charging it, but this is the same for every device, in use for games etc. mine is pretty cold to touch
There is also a video in my last post in the neowin review thread showing a thermal output test comparison between the GS 2, Razr and the S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nikzDHD said:
Speaker for the HOX is fine, not as loud as say the SGS3 but it's consistent where as the SGS3 can be distorted on higher volumes. I prefer the ringtone sounds out of the HOX than SGS3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok and when you use your smartphone as a cellphone (Make a call to someone), so how does the person on the other side hear you? Clean? Horrible ? Loud?
LalyGirl said:
So you like this device as I see Good review by the way! I think that this one is good for me.
And how is the speaker?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I love it!
Thanks
Speaker is great, better than the GS 2 all round.
Here is what GSMarena had to say about the audio:
The cleanest audio output we have seen
The HTC One S performance in our audio quality test came as a really pleasant surprise to us. It appears that the Beats influence hasn't been limited to a single equalizer preset this time as the smartphone delivers the cleanest output we have seen from any device so far.
When connected to an active external amplifier, the HTC One S audio is simply flawless - volume levels are a little above average and it got excellent scores on every part of our test.
What's most impressive though is the One S retains virtually the same performance when you plug in a pair of headphones. The stereo crosstalk takes the tiniest dip of any smartphone we've seen so far, while the rest of the readings are either totally unaffected or worsen by an undetectable amount. Volume levels remain the same too, so it's arguably the most impressive overall performance to date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LalyGirl said:
Ok and when you use your smartphone as a cellphone (Make a call to someone), so how does the person on the other side hear you? Clean? Horrible ? Loud?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very good! Call quality is great for me.
Loud (can adjust the volume) and clean.
You have dual mics, so any background noise is blocked out Obviously extreme noise like cars racing right beside you and loud music might not be completely blocked out and besides you won't be able to make the other person out anyway
Terminator19 said:
Yup, I love it!
Thanks
Speaker is great, better than the GS 2 all round.
Here is what GSMarena had to say about the audio:
Very good! Call quality is great for me.
Loud (can adjust the volume) and clean.
You have dual mics, so any background noise is blocked out Obviously extreme noise like cars racing right beside you and loud music might not be completely blocked out and besides you won't be able to make the other person out anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far, I see that people prefer HTS ONE S
That's nice, and now I really want it XDDDDD
I've just upgraded to this phone from the Desire S. I was thinking about getting the One X or the S3 too but I want a high end mobile phone not a mini tablet. This phone is amazing coming from a rooted desire S, its so fast and smooth I don't plan on rooting it.
My advise is to simply get this phone.
pumpernickel77 said:
I've just upgraded to this phone from the Desire S. I was thinking about getting the One X or the S3 too but I want a high end mobile phone not a mini tablet. This phone is amazing coming from a rooted desire S, its so fast and smooth I don't plan on rooting it.
My advise is to simply get this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I think I'll buy it
Jesus christ, how old are you?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
iArtisan said:
Jesus christ, how old are you?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you asking me or someone else?
1) The battery life on this phone sucks. Expect to be getting no more than 4 hours of usage on average. The iphone 4/4s gets a solid 6 hours of usage. Thats 150% more battery life and I don't need to fiddle with the settings at all to achieve this.
2) The hardware has major design flaws. First of all the black one has that chipping problem with the paint. Well I have used my phone for less than 2 months and it looks butchered as hell. People complain about the iphone 4/4s, well I dropped a gazillion times and it still looked almost brand new when I sold it. I dropped the 1S one time! and the paint already came off. The front camera is recessed and gathers dust like crazy. It's impossible to clean it because its recessed and the dust has no where to go. Crap and dust also builds up near the top plastic cap. The speakers are also located exactly on the back of the phone. So if you put your phone on your table, you can't hear it ringing. Not only that the volume is so low. I missed tons of calls.
3) The community for this phone sucks. There is barely any activity on the fora and development for custom roms is stagnating. I mean sense is crap and there is only like 1 guy working on cm9? And correct me if I am wrong but the last version of AOKP is like from 3 weeks ago with tons of bugs. Now look at the Galaxy Nexus or the 1X fora. Or look at the SGS3 fora and that phone has not even been completely released yet. Its crazy. And this is worrying cause even sense has tons of bugs. There is for example this 3g/H switching that still hasn't been fixed as far as I know.
4) Then there is this low resolution pentile screen. Well its definitely ok and you shouldn't worry about it. But you WILL notice a huge difference if you put it next to the nexus, 1X or the iphone 4/4s and you will run in to all kinds of trouble with apps. For example while my own 720p videos looks good on this phone, youtube videos will look crap no matter how high you put the settings. There are tons of these annoying things. The screen is the reason why its not quite yet a flagship device while it could have been.
That being said I think its the best android phone on the market. Its the fastest android phone on the market. It doesn't have a cheap flimsy plastic body and it has a thin and light design. Aluminum feels really good on the hand especially when its cold. Its like 100 dollars/euro cheaper than the 1X and SGS3. I'd wait for the iphone 5 though. And if that turns out to be nothing or if the wait is too long then go ahead and purchase the 1S cause thats what I recommend out of the top3 android phones.
wilcoholic said:
1) The battery life on this phone sucks. Expect to be getting no more than 4 hours of usage on average. The iphone 4/4s gets a solid 6 hours of usage. Thats 150% more battery life and I don't need to fiddle with the settings at all to achieve this.
2) The hardware has major design flaws. First of all the black one has that chipping problem with the paint. Well I have used my phone for less than 2 months and it looks butchered as hell. People complain about the iphone 4/4s, well I dropped a gazillion times and it still looked almost brand new when I sold it. I dropped the 1S one time! and the paint already came off. The front camera is recessed and gathers dust like crazy. It's impossible to clean it because its recessed and the dust has no where to go. Crap and dust also builds up near the top plastic cap. The speakers are also located exactly on the back of the phone. So if you put your phone on your table, you can't hear it ringing. Not only that the volume is so low. I missed tons of calls.
3) The community for this phone sucks. There is barely any activity on the fora and development for custom roms is stagnating. I mean sense is crap and there is only like 1 guy working on cm9? And correct me if I am wrong but the last version of AOKP is like from 3 weeks ago with tons of bugs. Now look at the Galaxy Nexus or the 1X fora. Or look at the SGS3 fora and that phone has not even been completely released yet. Its crazy. And this is worrying cause even sense has tons of bugs. There is for example this 3g/H switching that still hasn't been fixed as far as I know.
4) Then there is this low resolution pentile screen. Well its definitely ok and you shouldn't worry about it. But you WILL notice a huge difference if you put it next to the nexus, 1X or the iphone 4/4s and you will run in to all kinds of trouble with apps. For example while my own 720p videos looks good on this phone, youtube videos will look crap no matter how high you put the settings. There are tons of these annoying things. The screen is the reason why its not quite yet a flagship device while it could have been.
That being said I think its the best android phone on the market. Its the fastest android phone on the market. It doesn't have a cheap flimsy plastic body and it has a thin and light design. Aluminum feels really good on the hand especially when its cold. Its like 100 dollars/euro cheaper than the 1X and SGS3. I'd wait for the iphone 5 though. And if that turns out to be nothing or if the wait is too long then go ahead and purchase the 1S cause thats what I recommend out of the top3 android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, So do you recommend me to buy it ??
Or should I buy the sony xperia s ??
wilcoholic said:
1) The battery life on this phone sucks. Expect to be getting no more than 4 hours of usage on average. The iphone 4/4s gets a solid 6 hours of usage. Thats 150% more battery life and I don't need to fiddle with the settings at all to achieve this.
2) The hardware has major design flaws. First of all the black one has that chipping problem with the paint. Well I have used my phone for less than 2 months and it looks butchered as hell. People complain about the iphone 4/4s, well I dropped a gazillion times and it still looked almost brand new when I sold it. I dropped the 1S one time! and the paint already came off. The front camera is recessed and gathers dust like crazy. It's impossible to clean it because its recessed and the dust has no where to go. Crap and dust also builds up near the top plastic cap. The speakers are also located exactly on the back of the phone. So if you put your phone on your table, you can't hear it ringing. Not only that the volume is so low. I missed tons of calls.
3) The community for this phone sucks. There is barely any activity on the fora and development for custom roms is stagnating. I mean sense is crap and there is only like 1 guy working on cm9? And correct me if I am wrong but the last version of AOKP is like from 3 weeks ago with tons of bugs. Now look at the Galaxy Nexus or the 1X fora. Or look at the SGS3 fora and that phone has not even been completely released yet. Its crazy. And this is worrying cause even sense has tons of bugs. There is for example this 3g/H switching that still hasn't been fixed as far as I know.
4) Then there is this low resolution pentile screen. Well its definitely ok and you shouldn't worry about it. But you WILL notice a huge difference if you put it next to the nexus, 1X or the iphone 4/4s and you will run in to all kinds of trouble with apps. For example while my own 720p videos looks good on this phone, youtube videos will look crap no matter how high you put the settings. There are tons of these annoying things. The screen is the reason why its not quite yet a flagship device while it could have been.
That being said I think its the best android phone on the market. Its the fastest android phone on the market. It doesn't have a cheap flimsy plastic body and it has a thin and light design. Aluminum feels really good on the hand especially when its cold. Its like 100 dollars/euro cheaper than the 1X and SGS3. I'd wait for the iphone 5 though. And if that turns out to be nothing or if the wait is too long then go ahead and purchase the 1S cause thats what I recommend out of the top3 android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once again, all of that is in YOUR opinion and from your usage only as well, plenty of people including me have had the exact opposite to you. Just because you experience problems doesn't mean that every one else will....
1. Is that on screen time your talking about? If so that is very good! (depending on usage and screen brightness) No other android phone gets anywhere near that unless the screens are set to like 0% and airplane mode enabled for a bit. Just look at my review and you will see the usage that I am getting from a single charge, now go and find me an android phone on stock ROM with a stock battery that can beat that (apart from the motorola razzr for obvious reasons). The iphone 4/4s also seem to have a problem with battery life for quite a few people, heck apple have even released a number of updates iirc to try and fix the battery drain
Plus don't forget that the iphone 4/4s doesn't have the same amount to do as an android phone.
2. The MAO issue is not a "hardware" problem, but a design fault.... Also I have had my phone since release day and still have no signs of chipping anywhere apart from inside the USB port plus HTC have addressed this now as they have got a design, which has a bevelled USB and less sharper edges. Well you were extremely lucky with your 4s then as due to the build of it and being mostly glass, the screen is almost always guaranteed to shatter when dropped......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elKxgsrJFhw
It all depends on where abouts the ground impacts the mobile, you could be lucky or not so lucky with any device. If you want to be safe than sorry then a case is a necessary item for all mobiles, even the GS 2. Some devices are just more durable than others.
I have had no problems with dust getting under my screen, had my mobile since April, yes dust does gather in the front camera part, however, a quick blow and wipe with a pencil in a cloth sorts that problem out.
Emmmm what? The volume is amplified a wee bit when it is placed on the desk due to that reason, you can raise the volume as well you know or use a louder ring tone, you must be pretty deaf if you can't hear your mobile ringing......
3. The community isn't great, but it is starting to pick up now especially since the kernel source was posted, there are a few good ROMs from what I have read such as trickdroid and leedroid. Sense is crap in your opinion, many people including me love it and I for one won't be changing to a stock ICS ROM as I don't want to loose the features of sense, which IMO are better than the alternatives. The gallery, dialer, calendar, clock app are superb and not to mention the sense camera along with all the features, which you won't find on any other mobile or stock ICS ROM. Of course the galaxy nexus is going to have a damn good developing community, it's only the official/stock android phone that all the developers use to develop apps for and was the first phone to have a 720P display. The developing community here will never be as good as the the 1X or GS 3 community as they are the "flagship" devices and the phones that everyone will go for just for because of that "term"
Also the tegra chipset is apparently proving to be hard to work with for the developers with the 1X due to nvidia lack of support.
What are these bugs you speak off? I haven't had any problems with mine, super stable, super quick and smooth, multi-tasking is fine as I have disabled a lot of sense stuff and apps that I don't need and am using apex etc. instead.
If you look at my other post addressing issues you will see that I don't have the 3G/H bug, along with many other people.
The iphone is well known to have signal issues as well, not remember the 4 or 4s release where people were complaining about terrible signal, and apple said essentially "you're holding the phone the wrong way" and had to give out free bumper cases to solve the issue as it was a problem with the new antenna that they were using......
4. There is no problem with the screen, sure it ain't 720P and doesn't use RGB matrix, but it is perfectly good and better than most other mobiles screens apart from the ones you mentioned along with a couple of SE mobiles. The screen is nice and sharp still, the only areas I notice the pentile matrix is with white text on black backgrounds and some icons and even still I have to put my eyes right up to the screen. Plus the reason HTC went with with the pentile version is because the battery life is better with it than the RGB version (same reason Samsung went with pentile on the GS 3 instead of RGB). What kind of trouble have you run into with all these apps that you speak of because of the screen? What on earth are you talking about again??? Youtube videos will look crap no matter what settings you put them on??? The youtube videos look great.
Seriously, it sounds to me like you have a faulty one s if that is truly what you are experiencing.......
And after all that you still think the 1S is the best android device there is
LalyGirl said:
OK, So do you recommend me to buy it ??
Or should I buy the sony xperia s ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just buy it. It's a fine phone. These have been snapped up by many in the UK past few days due to a cheap contract deal so many more HOS users in the pipeline.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Spread the good word of our oneS

I believe that we have a truly amazing device in our hands. If you love your oneS then the least you could do is to write a good review about somewhere like on amazon or something especially since now we have some saboteurs trying to ruin our devices name and drop its rating to zero. But in actuality if our device gets horrible reviews no new developers will come here to work with our phones. I don't believe that is fair and so I am starting my own campaign called goodreview-Aday where I will give positive feedback on our device and rate it high on several major websites that sell our phone such as amazon eBay etc. Everybody can join me to keep development alive for our phone! If everybody not experiencing the alleged issue wrote one good review on one site their evil little "campaign" will have no chance!
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Roundtableprez said:
I believe that we have a truly amazing device in our hands. If you love your oneS then the least you could do is to write a good review about somewhere like on amazon or something especially since now we have some saboteurs trying to ruin our devices name and drop its rating to zero. But in actuality if our device gets horrible reviews no new developers will come here to work with our phones. I don't believe that is fair and so I am starting my own campaign called goodreview-Aday where I will give positive feedback on our device and rate it high on several major websites that sell our phone such as amazon eBay etc. Everybody can join me to keep development alive for our phone! If everybody not experiencing the alleged issue wrote one good review on one site their evil little "campaign" will have no chance!
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's so amazing about this phone?
louis.b said:
What's so amazing about this phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only the best CPU chipset, better than the quad in the GS 3 and X (s4)
Amazing build/perceived quality compared to any other android mobile
Great design/looks
Amazing audio, which is only matched by the GS 3 and perhaps the iphone 5
One of the best cameras
Great battery life out of the box, again best there is for android phones
Fastest android mobile currently
IMO sense V4
Regarding the first post, developers won't go by "user reviews" on shop sites, they will look into all the hardware detail and kernel source/drivers/software stuff etc. and if they like what they see then they will buy it.
Terminator19 said:
Only the best CPU chipset, better than the quad in the GS 3 and X (s4)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not any more, HTC have reworked the One S to use the Snapdragon S3, and for most regions outside the US at least all newly manufactured units will be the revised spec.
Terminator19 said:
Amazing build/perceived quality compared to any other android mobile
Great design/looks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, and now that they seem to have done something about the metal arc oxidation issues its build quality is great.
Terminator19 said:
Amazing audio, which is only matched by the GS 3 and perhaps the iphone 5
One of the best cameras
Great battery life out of the box, again best there is for android phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, yes and yes, the Beats gimmick aside the regular audio output is of very good quality as GSMArena's measurements show. Camera is a delight to use, although the S3 version has a small buffer lag between shots. Battery life, surprisingly, seems to be very similar between the S3 and S4 models.
Terminator19 said:
Fastest android mobile currently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The S4 version yes, the S3 version no.
IMO sense V4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Sense 4 is really good, better than TouchWiz although I suspect most people on XDA prefer stock Android if it means faster updates
Personally, I think the One S was a really good phone when it launched, but the change to the S3 processor has changed my view of the model significantly; it is still a good phone for what it is but the price is too high for a phone using a 2010 chip.
louis.b said:
What's so amazing about this phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please don't be a ****. From your signature it looks like you don't even have this device. You are probably one of the trolls who wrote bad reviews.
I agree this device is amazing-but Htc needs to step up their game and provide S-Off and in general be more developer friendly -Htc Dev has done more harm then good it seems to me and recovery is a mess some use twrp others prefer cmw - If Htc would show better support It would be one the best phones to date Just my 2c
kenyw said:
Not any more, HTC have reworked the One S to use the Snapdragon S3, and for most regions outside the US at least all newly manufactured units will be the revised spec.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And the UK still has quite a lot of S4's. Although S3's are being sold here as well, but not sure which places are selling only those versions. I think amazon are only supplying the S3 versions now. AFAIK the network shops still have supplies of the S4 version.
kenyw said:
but the price is too high for a phone using a 2010 chip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completely agree about that with regards to the S3 version.
Regarding the battery and speed, I thought it was the other way round (in real world usage), battery much worse and performance isn't as good but for standard usage like games etc. there isn't a huge difference.
Doesn't help when no one has posted any info. on the battery of the S3 though i.e. screen shots and detailed info..........
jmcdonald58 said:
I agree this device is amazing-but Htc needs to step up their game and provide S-Off and in general be more developer friendly -Htc Dev has done more harm then good it seems to me and recovery is a mess some use twrp others prefer cmw - If Htc would show better support It would be one the best phones to date Just my 2c
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^Absolutely agree with this. Recovery really is a mess.
The rest of the device is overall good, but there are some cons to go with the pros.
+ Nice display, accurate colors. PenTile didn't bother me a bit. Great viewing angles and black is truly black, unlike on the Samsung devices where black appears blotchy. 4.3 for me seems the sweet spot for screen size and overall phone size.
+ Slimness of device is nearly unparalleled.
+ Speed (based on S4) is best-in-class
+ Battery life (on Sense ROMs) is excellent
+ Camera and Video capabilities are excellent
- Overall call quality on the latest two radios is awful. Crackling and full of static. This is subjective, and I'm in Los Angeles, which isn't known for amazing AT&T voice quality. This leads me to
- Inconsistent data speeds. Again subjective, but my Lumia 800 seems to pull down faster and more consistent speeds on the ATT HSPA network.
- SIM Cover starts to creak if you remove it more than the first time you install your SIM.
- Placement of the power button at top right for this tall a device is not ergonomic. AOSP/CM10-based ROMs enable wake via volume rocker, which is useful, but inconsistent.
- Saving the biggest for last, is the keyboard accuracy. The stock Sense keyboard is terrible, but the replacements in the market aren't much better. I consistently make ridiculous typing mistakes on Android's keyboards even after calibrating them. How many times do I have to type out 'The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog' in order to have it make a difference? This is, again, subjective, but with my large hands on a large device with plenty of screen real-estate, the keyboard should just work. And unfortunately on this device, it doesn't.
matt310 said:
^Absolutely agree with this. Recovery really is a mess.
The rest of the device is overall good, but there are some cons to go with the pros.
+ Nice display, accurate colors. PenTile didn't bother me a bit. Great viewing angles and black is truly black, unlike on the Samsung devices where black appears blotchy. 4.3 for me seems the sweet spot for screen size and overall phone size.
+ Slimness of device is nearly unparalleled.
+ Speed (based on S4) is best-in-class
+ Battery life (on Sense ROMs) is excellent
+ Camera and Video capabilities are excellent
- Overall call quality on the latest two radios is awful. Crackling and full of static. This is subjective, and I'm in Los Angeles, which isn't known for amazing AT&T voice quality. This leads me to
- Inconsistent data speeds. Again subjective, but my Lumia 800 seems to pull down faster and more consistent speeds on the ATT HSPA network.
- SIM Cover starts to creak if you remove it more than the first time you install your SIM.
- Placement of the power button at top right for this tall a device is not ergonomic. AOSP/CM10-based ROMs enable wake via volume rocker, which is useful, but inconsistent.
- Saving the biggest for last, is the keyboard accuracy. The stock Sense keyboard is terrible, but the replacements in the market aren't much better. I consistently make ridiculous typing mistakes on Android's keyboards even after calibrating them. How many times do I have to type out 'The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog' in order to have it make a difference? This is, again, subjective, but with my large hands on a large device with plenty of screen real-estate, the keyboard should just work. And unfortunately on this device, it doesn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recoveries come from our local friendly developers if your recovery is a mess contact them it is no way htcs fault. I love this phone despite no s-off. And that's okay for me lol we will steal it from the Onex one day lol.
For the new radios and your crackling problem, most unlocked android devices have this issue when you unlock them I have a sidekick 4g on att right now and this on tmob and there is a compareable difference
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
I absolutely love this device. I had the choice between the one s and the s3 and chose this one and am really pleased. It fits my hands perfectly and outperforms most devices. The battery life is unparalleled. I average 4 to 6 hours on screen time while some friends with s3's only get 2 hours with power saving on. The lack of s off is little annoying but not that big of a deal for me since my hboot is so low. As for the people spreading negative reviews in hopes to "teach HTC a lessons" this is a horrible approach. Operation rolling thunder should be stopped!!
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Terminator19 said:
And the UK still has quite a lot of S4's. Although S3's are being sold here as well, but not sure which places are selling only those versions. I think amazon are only supplying the S3 versions now. AFAIK the network shops still have supplies of the S4 version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to mention that on Tuesday 11/09/2012 i received my nice new htc one s from talktalk.co.uk ( run on vodafone network) and it is a Z560e model (Ville C aka S3) version, personally i am not to bothered but figured worth mention for anyone who maybe intrested in UK
Terminator19 said:
Only the best CPU chipset, better than the quad in the GS 3 and X (s4)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
? better ? u idiot.
Just because it's A15Krait u got 2 cores....that GUN Exynos 4412 have it A9 but 4 cores son.
Which is rapes your HTC one S.. I didn't talk about ****ty Adrenno 225....which is garbage.
So don't talk about better or not.
My One S
My S one is about 5 months old. After years as a Nokia fan-boy I finally gave in and reluctantly jumped ship. So I was presented with a problem: Which phone do I get. I won't be taking up a place in a queue for the new iPhone 5 with the iSheep - as a Ubuntu user getting an android was a no-brainer. I chose the One S because 1/ it wasn't Samsung (my personal prejudice) 2/ the One X was slightly too big for my taste.
I know Nokia missed a very big boat by sticking with Symbian for so long, but on a personal level I was happy because I know them inside out I can mod them easily and enjoyed playing about with them despite the limitations. In fact the limitations made it more of a challenge and more interesting.Eventually the lack of progress Symbian was making, combined with the fact that Nokia jumped in to bed with Micros*#t forced my hand. So to be honest, I waited for T-Mobile to deliver my One S with very little enthusiasm. That's changed. I love my One S.
So as it's my first Android I can't say its any better or worse than a Galaxy III, a WildFire or a Nexus. I do know that I am very happy with it. On the hardware side I am happy about the lovely big screen, the slim casing and the nice finish. I am very happy with the processor speed and flawless screen refresh. Battery life could be better, but I will never be happy with battery life. Software wise, I am happy that there are people out there making ROMs which while flawed are keeping me very busy and making me feel like I have a new phone every week or so. I am happy that I have a JB based ROM while HTC has yet to release the "official" JB for the One S.
Which is all a long winded way of saying I love it.
avetny said:
? better ? u idiot.
Just because it's A15Krait u got 2 cores....that GUN Exynos 4412 have it A9 but 4 cores son.
Which is rapes your HTC one S.. I didn't talk about ****ty Adrenno 225....which is garbage.
So don't talk about better or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice grammar, who is the idiot?
Obviously, you have no clue, "OMG has quad, must be better!"
Firstly lets have a look at performance, shall we?
Have a look at these benchmarks of the X (s4 version) compared to the GS 3:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-review-761p5.php
Notice how any test, which relies solely on the CPU is better on the S/X (S4)? Take it that isn't enough? Here have another benchmark comparison by another expert site:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5868/htc-one-s-review-international-and-tmobile/3
Once again, notice the CPU dependant tests?
Heck even the one S and XL holds it own very well in the other tests that are reliant on the GPU etc.
So much better performance per core (which is much better rather than having an extra 2 cores considering nearly every android app still doesn't fully utilise dual core let alone quad, therefore the much better performance for one core is better!).
However, that is just benchmarks, which only shows the potential power and doesn't really relate to real world usage. Have you actually used the mobiles yourself and compared tasks to see which is quicker?
I have (along with many others phones) and the S is the quickest/snappiest android device there is, quicker than the GS 3 especially in launching/loading apps, game levels, installing apps/games, loading thumbnails in the gallery etc.
Now onto battery life/power efficiency:
Lets take the XL for this test as it is more fair since it has the 720P res. and bigger screen, although it does have a much smaller battery compared to the GS 3, but have a look here anyway:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5868/htc-one-s-review-international-and-tmobile/2
Although I always take benchmarks for battery life with a pinch of salt as they aren't exactly a great representative when it comes to real world usage.
But reading through many posts, XL users are able to get up 6 hours on screen time (auto brightness) spread across 1-2 days, where as the best that GS 3 users seem to get is around 5 hours spread across 1-2 days, on average the XL users are getting 4-5 hours on screen time with 1-3 days usage and on average the GS 3 users are getting 3-4 hours on screen time spread across 1-2 days.
Can you read the graphs ok?
Also nothing wrong with the battery life on my stock S and same goes for many other people. Like to see GS 3 users get the same as me with my usage......
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27665378#post27665378
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27010378#post27010378
Now onto the heat that the chips generate, well there simply is no contest in this area, here is a video comparing the S4 to the exynos dual core chip used in the GS 2 and some other CPU, which is used in one of Motorola's phones:
And the exynos quad won't run any cooler than the S4.
Oh and yup the adreno 225 combined with the S4 is real xxxxx, oh wait..........
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6121/glbenchmark-25-performance/2
matt310 said:
Saving the biggest for last, is the keyboard accuracy. The stock Sense keyboard is terrible, but the replacements in the market aren't much better. I consistently make ridiculous typing mistakes on Android's keyboards even after calibrating them. How many times do I have to type out 'The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog' in order to have it make a difference? This is, again, subjective, but with my large hands on a large device with plenty of screen real-estate, the keyboard should just work. And unfortunately on this device, it doesn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally find the typing is very good even with the sense keyboard.
With swiftkey it is even better!
Terminator19 said:
Nice grammar, who is the idiot?
Obviously, you have no clue, "OMG has quad, must be better!"
Firstly lets have a look at performance, shall we?
Have a look at these benchmarks of the X (s4 version) compared to the GS 3:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-review-761p5.php
Notice how any test, which relies solely on the CPU is better on the S/X (S4)? Take it that isn't enough? Here have another benchmark comparison by another expert site:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5868/htc-one-s-review-international-and-tmobile/3
Once again, notice the CPU dependant tests?
Heck even the one S and XL holds it own very well in the other tests that are reliant on the GPU etc.
So much better performance per core (which is much better rather than having an extra 2 cores considering nearly every android app still doesn't fully utilise dual core let alone quad, therefore the much better performance for one core is better!).
However, that is just benchmarks, which only shows the potential power and doesn't really relate to real world usage. Have you actually used the mobiles yourself and compared tasks to see which is quicker?
I have (along with many others phones) and the S is the quickest/snappiest android device there is, quicker than the GS 3 especially in launching/loading apps, game levels, installing apps/games, loading thumbnails in the gallery etc.
Now onto battery life/power efficiency:
Lets take the XL for this test as it is more fair since it has the 720P res. and bigger screen, although it does have a much smaller battery compared to the GS 3, but have a look here anyway:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5868/htc-one-s-review-international-and-tmobile/2
Although I always take benchmarks for battery life with a pinch of salt as they aren't exactly a great representative when it comes to real world usage.
But reading through many posts, XL users are able to get up 6 hours on screen time (auto brightness) spread across 1-2 days, where as the best that GS 3 users seem to get is around 5 hours spread across 1-2 days, on average the XL users are getting 4-5 hours on screen time with 1-3 days usage and on average the GS 3 users are getting 3-4 hours on screen time spread across 1-2 days.
Can you read the graphs ok?
Also nothing wrong with the battery life on my stock S and same goes for many other people. Like to see GS 3 users get the same as me with my usage......
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27665378#post27665378
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27010378#post27010378
Now onto the heat that the chips generate, well there simply is no contest in this area, here is a video comparing the S4 to the exynos dual core chip used in the GS 2 and some other CPU, which is used in one of Motorola's phones:
And the exynos quad won't run any cooler than the S4.
Oh and yup the adreno 225 combined with the S4 is real xxxxx, oh wait..........
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6121/glbenchmark-25-performance/2
I personally find the typing is very good even with the sense keyboard.
With swiftkey it is even better!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! Terminator 1 - troll 0 :good:
Closed Source Project said:
Please don't be a ****. From your signature it looks like you don't even have this device. You are probably one of the trolls who wrote bad reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because I dont own it doesnt mean I havent used it. I work for a phone shop and my co-worker has this phone. I think it's "interesting" to see HTC uses the S3 in the version sold in all regions in Asian Pacific, and yet charges the same price as the S4 version. Not sure how amazing Sense 4.1 will be once it comes but from what I've seen out of the box it's laggy. But I guess it's gonna really a big injustice since no-one asks for it anyway. Everyone buys either Samsung or Apple or (rarely) One X.
I think I should shut my mouth because when people say the truth on here they are often mistaken for being trolls and get banned. Scary.
laggy? sense 4.0 on my one s is less laggy than my friends SGS3 and even iphone4.
you sir, are biased and doesnt know what you are talking about.
and about the phones people buy, that has to do nothing with the wellness of the phones, its absolutely marketing, which HTC lacks alot.
pookipsy said:
laggy? sense 4.0 on my one s is less laggy than my friends SGS3 and even iphone4.
you sir, are biased and doesnt know what you are talking about.
and about the phones people buy, that has to do nothing with the wellness of the phones, its absolutely marketing, which HTC lacks alot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Biased? lol yeah right I dont even own those phones. And to say that sense 4.0 is smoother than Touchcrap 4.0 and iOS5 is just outright lying. Yes it's smoother than sense 3.0 but it's still laggy and I have been following the One X long enough to know that A LOT OF people complain about how laggy sense 4.0 was.
And FYI people dont ask about HTC not because HTC doesnt advertise enough. As a matter of fact a lot people know about them. They just dont buy them because HTC has the reputation of making buggy phones. And as a former owner of 2 HTC phones I cant say I disagree.
louis.b said:
Just because I dont own it doesnt mean I havent used it. I work for a phone shop and my co-worker has this phone. I think it's "interesting" to see HTC uses the S3 in the version sold in all regions in Asian Pacific, and yet charges the same price as the S4 version. Not sure how amazing Sense 4.1 will be once it comes but from what I've seen out of the box it's laggy. But I guess it's gonna really a big injustice since no-one asks for it anyway. Everyone buys either Samsung or Apple or (rarely) One X.
I think I should shut my mouth because when people say the truth on here they are often mistaken for being trolls and get banned. Scary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got an S3, didn't you? I'm sorry about that and have been quite out-spoken about HTC's idiotic behavior regarding other countries, but the S4 One S is a great piece of machinery.
I have never had on hands experience with the S3 version so can't comment on it, however, when I have had my S4 one S side by side with the GS 3 (quad) and the 4s, the one S has been quicker/snappier/instant smartphone and the GS 3 appears smoother overall, although this is largely down to the animations and the animation scaling used, when JB arrives on both phones there should be no difference at all then really, in terms of smoothness.
I have found the 4s/4 to be laggy in quite a few places personally and not as silky smooth as what many people make it out to be.
Also, the one X hardware (tegra 3) was very poorly optimized with sense/ICS, when the mobile was first released, it was so laggy and nowhere as instant as the one S (S4), since the last update it has improved somewhat, however, still not as good as the S (S4) and GS 3, with JB it should be much better as the nexus 7 has the exact same hardware and it is smoother and faster than both the GS 3 and S, of course assuming HTC don't **** up with driver optimisation on sense Vxx whatever it will be with JB.
Regarding why people don't get HTC handsets, yes for some reason people seem to think they're an awful company with poor phones, I would have agreed with some of their phones (largely the desire HD, IMO their worst phone), however, most of their phones (especially the one series) are actually very good and out of the people I know who have a HTC android device have been very happy with theirs and not had any problems (a lot of people absolutely love sense, the homescreen and widgets impresses the "average joes" a lot). And it does largely come down to marketing/brand in the end, as in the UK here, the majority of ads that I see on TV, posters on bus stops etc. is for the GS 3, iphone, GS 2, galaxy ACE & Ace 2 (the Ace mobiles are bundled with very good network deals though, the ads aren't actually for the phones themselves) along with a few for the one X and virtually no ads at all for the one S (still have not seen a single ad on TV for the one S), people automatically recognise the GS 3 and iphones where as with the likes of HTC phones people aren't sure about them and automatically think they aren't good since they never heard of them.
It is a shame because HTC did start the "empire" of android with the hero, desire and nexus one, dread to think where android would be now if it weren't for them.

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