Hi everyone,
After my Samsung S2 suffered water damage, I now need to buy a new smartphone, and I had almost decided for the S3, which now costs only GBP40 less than the S2. Until I stumbled upon this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/S7189-MTK6589-Android-Smartphone-UNLOCKED/dp/B00BG8F9G0
I have no problem with the idea of owning an "unbranded" phone, but I'm just worried that it might later turn out to be of substantially lower quality than the original. A colleague of mine owns a previous model of this Star phone (N7100), and he's been happy with it for the past year or so. After playing around with his phone a bit, it seemed fine to me, however I didn't get to test it in more detail (e.g. compare image quality of camera output with that from the S2, or see how stable the GPS fix is).
I'd have really liked to read a proper review for it (with benchmarks etc), or at least see a believable amount of user ratings. The Amazon product page has some good user reviews, but only 22 of them, and you can't really find much information about this model (or about the Star make in general) on the Internet.
What do you guys think? Is there reason to believe this phone would perform (visibly/audibly) worse than its closest Samsung equivalent, or that its life expectency would be shorter? Many thanks in advance for any help, I really appreciate it!
longtalker said:
Hi everyone,
After my Samsung S2 suffered water damage, I now need to buy a new smartphone, and I had almost decided for the S3, which now costs only GBP40 less than the S2. Until I stumbled upon this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/S7189-MTK6589-Android-Smartphone-UNLOCKED/dp/B00BG8F9G0
I have no problem with the idea of owning an "unbranded" phone, but I'm just worried that it might later turn out to be of substantially lower quality than the original. A colleague of mine owns a previous model of this Star phone (N7100), and he's been happy with it for the past year or so. After playing around with his phone a bit, it seemed fine to me, however I didn't get to test it in more detail (e.g. compare image quality of camera output with that from the S2, or see how stable the GPS fix is).
I'd have really liked to read a proper review for it (with benchmarks etc), or at least see a believable amount of user ratings. The Amazon product page has some good user reviews, but only 22 of them, and you can't really find much information about this model (or about the Star make in general) on the Internet.
What do you guys think? Is there reason to believe this phone would perform (visibly/audibly) worse than its closest Samsung equivalent, or that its life expectency would be shorter? Many thanks in advance for any help, I really appreciate it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please use this thread
[Discussion] What's your next smartphone / What should I buy
or this
**DEVICE SUGGESTION THREAD** -- Not sure what device to buy? Ask here!
immortalneo said:
Please use this thread
[Discussion] What's your next smartphone / What should I buy
or this
**DEVICE SUGGESTION THREAD** -- Not sure what device to buy? Ask here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please use one of ^^^^^these^^^^^^ threads. Otherwise the General forum would be full of these kinds of threads. One important difference that is independent of build quality is that branded phones have better OEM support and there is likely to be a lot more development on a branded device.
Thread closed.
Hi everyone, my Relay 4g, thanks to all devs, rocks. I'm even thinking about buying a new one and keeping it in its box - in my experience, phones with hinges and moving parts such as this one do not last long.
We are part, I'm afraid, of a very small niche in the market - no one wants QWERTY phones, or atthe very least no one seems to want to supply them. Has anyone seen any rumor on new/upcoming Android qweerty phones?
Thanks!!
It's sad but no. I've researched a huge amount of materials but I wasn't able to find newer phone on the market than Relay since 2012.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using Tapatalk
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_f3q-5998.php
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I saw it: nothing interesting except LTE, which is useless in my country, and display even weaker. But it's my IMHO nevertheless
Sent from my SGH-T699 using Tapatalk
demkantor said:
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_f3q-5998.php
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Click to collapse
haha specs of that are less than relay in terms of processor, chipset, and camera...thats such a suckerpunch
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/the-app-store-is-proof-were-in-idiocracy/
This is why there aren't QWERTY devices. People don't do anything with their pocket computers..
orange808 said:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/the-app-store-is-proof-were-in-idiocracy/
This is why there aren't QWERTY devices. People don't do anything with their pocket computers..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think part of the problem is that QWERTY for many people is one of those things that you think you can live without... until you try it for some time.
Then you go back to a normal smartphone and you notice how much you don't say because it's a nuisance to type with an on-screen keyboard. You actively avoid having a meaningful conversation or replying to complex e-mails until you get to a pc (yes or meet in person, but lots of far away friends).
*sigh*
rad30n said:
I think part of the problem is that QWERTY for many people is one of those things that you think you can live without... until you try it for some time.
Then you go back to a normal smartphone and you notice how much you don't say because it's a nuisance to type with an on-screen keyboard. You actively avoid having a meaningful conversation or replying to complex e-mails until you get to a pc (yes or meet in person, but lots of far away friends).
*sigh*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! I can hardly explain the significance of hard keyboard to something but I cannot already live with usual phone myself
On-screen keyboard is a total s**t!
Therefore I've bought second Relay already)
rad30n said:
I think part of the problem is that QWERTY for many people is one of those things that you think you can live without... until you try it for some time.
Then you go back to a normal smartphone and you notice how much you don't say because it's a nuisance to type with an on-screen keyboard. You actively avoid having a meaningful conversation or replying to complex e-mails until you get to a pc (yes or meet in person, but lots of far away friends).
*sigh*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you've hit the nail on the head. my first smartphone was the original samsung blackjack (windoze mobile 5, later flashed to a custom 6.1 rom i think), and it was a blackberry style phone. when i tired of that, i got a samsung continuum, which was touch-only. not only was the device massively defective (had to return it so many times, vzw let me get a different model phone), not having a keyboard sucked for actually doing anything. so i got a droid 2 - slider qwerty. that one had its flight license revoked after a high speed impact with a wall, and was replaced with my current droid4. the d4 is slowly dying and its battery can't be (easily) replaced, and i want away from big red, so after much research, i decided that the relay is the best-specced qwerty slider on the market right now - especially sad since the just-released f3q or whatever actually has WORSE specs than the relay. so i bought a relay yesterday - found a local tmo store that had some open item stock and bought one for only $125. now i have to learn how to root, flash, and all that all over again - sammy stuff is WAY different from moto.
because i can actually use my phone for damn near everything (including RDP into the dell poweredge in my garage), i haven't even turned on my desktop pc in all of 2014. granted, i have a work laptop, but i don't have admin rights on it so i can't use it to work on my new relay. might have to commandeer the wife's laptop for that.
when i'm forced to use someone else's touch-only device (including my wife's sgs3 and tab2 7"), i quickly get frustrated by the on-screen keyboard. haptic feedback is no replacement for tactile buttons. that's why touchscreen sucks in a car, and why i hope the Tesla Model E (or whatever they're going to call it now) doesn't have 100% touch controls like the model S and model X. some touch is fine and appropriate in a car, but for some things, having a real knob or button is more efficient and safer. but i digress. calling these phones a "pocket computer" is 100% accurate. maybe someone will come up with a way to make those tack-on bluetooth keyboards not suck so much (like maybe they can clone the droid4's keyboard - it's nicer than the relay's, IMHO) or make it even bigger and make use of the space provided by these phablets out there now. i wouldn't mind carrying around a galaxy note if it had a good slider qwerty on board, and let me shrink the fonts to make better use of that big screen. alas, i just don't see that happening.
Gibson99 said:
you've hit the nail on the head. my first smartphone was the original samsung blackjack (windoze mobile 5, later flashed to a custom 6.1 rom i think), and it was a blackberry style phone. when i tired of that, i got a samsung continuum, which was touch-only. not only was the device massively defective (had to return it so many times, vzw let me get a different model phone), not having a keyboard sucked for actually doing anything. so i got a droid 2 - slider qwerty. that one had its flight license revoked after a high speed impact with a wall, and was replaced with my current droid4. the d4 is slowly dying and its battery can't be (easily) replaced, and i want away from big red, so after much research, i decided that the relay is the best-specced qwerty slider on the market right now - especially sad since the just-released f3q or whatever actually has WORSE specs than the relay. so i bought a relay yesterday - found a local tmo store that had some open item stock and bought one for only $125. now i have to learn how to root, flash, and all that all over again - sammy stuff is WAY different from moto.
because i can actually use my phone for damn near everything (including RDP into the dell poweredge in my garage), i haven't even turned on my desktop pc in all of 2014. granted, i have a work laptop, but i don't have admin rights on it so i can't use it to work on my new relay. might have to commandeer the wife's laptop for that.
when i'm forced to use someone else's touch-only device (including my wife's sgs3 and tab2 7"), i quickly get frustrated by the on-screen keyboard. haptic feedback is no replacement for tactile buttons. that's why touchscreen sucks in a car, and why i hope the Tesla Model E (or whatever they're going to call it now) doesn't have 100% touch controls like the model S and model X. some touch is fine and appropriate in a car, but for some things, having a real knob or button is more efficient and safer. but i digress. calling these phones a "pocket computer" is 100% accurate. maybe someone will come up with a way to make those tack-on bluetooth keyboards not suck so much (like maybe they can clone the droid4's keyboard - it's nicer than the relay's, IMHO) or make it even bigger and make use of the space provided by these phablets out there now. i wouldn't mind carrying around a galaxy note if it had a good slider qwerty on board, and let me shrink the fonts to make better use of that big screen. alas, i just don't see that happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you ever need help setting it up or unlocking it and all that ill be glad to help and guide you to the right threads
What's really sad is that every manufacturer has such a huge lineup (including stupid curved versions of phones that are more expensive and worse than the original uncurved version --- looking at you Samsung) and yet nobody can squeeze out a qwerty with a modern chipset.
The Relay is indeed a keeper! Hope this great community can go on collaborating and updating it for the next few years
I think i will buy another relay to keep in storage! The f3q does not look great:
http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/lg-optimus-f3q.html
And not a lot of dev in the horizon:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2650840&page=4
Easiest way to get aosp is piggyback off a popular device, like we did for s3. I spoke to the LG guys at CM. Nobody is interested in the f3 (non qwerty) or the f3q. I'm personally waiting for project ara
Nardholio said:
Easiest way to get aosp is piggyback off a popular device, like we did for s3. I spoke to the LG guys at CM. Nobody is interested in the f3 (non qwerty) or the f3q. I'm personally waiting for project ara
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The LG Feck really doesn't seem like a new device, so I'm not surprised.
F3Q? No... absolutly not an option to "upgrade".
http://geekaphone.com/compare/Samsung-Galaxy-S-Relay-4G-vs-LG-Optimus-F3Q
The parameters are worse than relay. But F3Q is the ONLY qwerty android released 2014. Sad. Very sad.
NO!
sorgo said:
F3Q? No... absolutly not an option to "upgrade".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strongly agree. It's a piece of s**t
endangered species listed here
qwerty android phones:
http://www.meetgadget.com/gadget/#/gadget/category/Cell Phones/?f[3373][]=4764&f[7178][]=9439
gsm qwerty android phones:
http://www.meetgadget.com/gadget/#/...?f[3373][]=4764&f[7178][]=9439&f[3327][]=4772
side-sliders qwerty android phones:
http://www.meetgadget.com/gadget/#/...s/?f[3373][]=4764&f[3341]=4486&f[7178][]=9439
I am really considering buying another relay to have another one backup phone just for the day when the qwerty phones will be absolutely extinct in the future.
Guiyoforward said:
I think i will buy another relay to keep in storage! The f3q does not look great:
http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/lg-optimus-f3q.html
And not a lot of dev in the horizon:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2650840&page=4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. And Relays seem to remain available through ebay. The prices vary: I've seen some as cheap as $170 and as expensive as $250, but at least they are consistently available from various vendors. And I'm talking brand new still in the package with the plastic. But this may not last forever, though, so yeah, getting two might be in order.
RodimusConvoy said:
Agreed. And Relays seem to remain available through ebay. The prices vary: I've seen some as cheap as $170 and as expensive as $250, but at least they are consistently available from various vendors. And I'm talking brand new still in the package with the plastic. But this may not last forever, though, so yeah, getting two might be in order.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, I bought mine (used device) in november for $125 (plus shipping and import charges, it was ~ €150). Now the lowest price for a device listed as NEW is $163. The only problems I had to replace the screen protector and now my display flex cable is starting to die. Maybe a good idea is to by one for spare parts too But I would recommend to buy a new one just to make sure that the keyboard mechanism isn't used too much.
I have the non-qwerty F3, and it would be seriously better with 8-16x the internal storage. It does have LTE (awesome if you're in an area where T-Mobile is serving it up), better RF performance (better dBm levels in 2G and 3G areas, at least), and amazing battery life, but the lack of internal storage is its Achilles heel. Naturally, they couldn't be bothered to upgrade that when they tacked on a keyboard, and there seems to be nothing on the horizon with regard to custom ROMs.
I dragged my Relay out of storage, popped my SIM into it (had to use an adapter since the F3 uses a Micro SIM), and fired it up again. Then, less than 24 hours after I take the CM plunge, CM development for the Relay grinds to a halt.
What a shame, since, other than a couple of rough edges (the AOSP calendar isn't as good as LG's calendar, and LG's calendar isn't as good as Samsung's, and also I can't sort contacts by last name) I like what I see with the M8 release.
What I am really starting to hate about the smartphone market is that every damn phone seems to have some sort of stupid $#!+ somewhere. Nexus 5? No removable battery, no external SD - the latest fashion! Recent Samsungs? Region locked, even if it's a "soft" lock and I'm unlikely to travel overseas anytime soon. Aren't they also locking the bootloaders on the S5 and Note 3? Don't even get me started on Apple's walled garden. Google seems to be steadily inching in that direction as well, as everything gets shoved into Google Play Services. The LG G3 looks promising (they brought back the external SD and the removable battery, yay!) but it's a flagship phone with a flagship price, and it's anybody's guess whether there will be any custom ROMs for it. Also, the buttons on the back make it useless with my windshield bracket.
Hi,
I'm planning on updating from my Verizon Galaxy S.3 soon. The S3 isn't really a bad phone (except all the damage from my constantly dropping it). So although I would like something faster for sure, it doesn't necessarily have to be the current speed champ. And if I can save a buck or two on a mid-level (or last years high end phone), so much the better.
Of course I have been Googling for android benchmarking sites, but I wanted to ask what your favorite sites are to compare phones. I'm not looking for reviews (yet), I can always look them up after I have narrowed the list of candidates some.
It would be useful if the benchmarking site went back far enough to cover the Galaxy S3, so I can see how far in between any candidate phones are what I have now and the current top of the line. One site I found has a really great list going back ages, but the phones are listed by model number, not the more recognizable name. Even after doing a seperate search to figure out what phone it is, I keep forgetting when scanning the list later. So if you know sites that reference the name also in the description that would help.
Thanks,
Jon
jdnandroid said:
Hi,
I'm planning on updating from my Verizon Galaxy S.3 soon. The S3 isn't really a bad phone (except all the damage from my constantly dropping it). So although I would like something faster for sure, it doesn't necessarily have to be the current speed champ. And if I can save a buck or two on a mid-level (or last years high end phone), so much the better.
Of course I have been Googling for android benchmarking sites, but I wanted to ask what your favorite sites are to compare phones. I'm not looking for reviews (yet), I can always look them up after I have narrowed the list of candidates some.
It would be useful if the benchmarking site went back far enough to cover the Galaxy S3, so I can see how far in between any candidate phones are what I have now and the current top of the line. One site I found has a really great list going back ages, but the phones are listed by model number, not the more recognizable name. Even after doing a seperate search to figure out what phone it is, I keep forgetting when scanning the list later. So if you know sites that reference the name also in the description that would help.
Thanks,
Jon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe gsmarena.com ?
Dont believe benchmarks. They have been proven to be faked and easily boosted to show false readings.
I have struggled to compare images etc. online in order to answer this. I am sorry if this has been asked, but I have googled and searched within these forums before posting this.
Let's say I got an N915P (Sprint) in great condition and obscenely cheap, but with a bad ESN.
Would the space inside and the components me compatible with the logic board from the N915A (AT&T, preferred) or N915V (Verizon, workable)?
If so I can have a working Note Edge up and running for (relative) peanuts. But I don't want to spend a lot on a logic-board that will not fit, or will have different cable fittings.
It looks so far like they are all very similar. Does anyone have experience with this?
Kind regards,
John
EDIT: Currently bidding on an n915a motherboard, if it stays at a good price and I win, I can update this with my experience.
I still highly appreciate all/any response, as it might discover that I should stop bidding immediately
Important update to anyone who needs to know the outcome of this:
I was able to swap the Verizon and Sprint motherboards very easily thanks to the phone's design, and everything works completely naturally. This feels like it has always been a Verizon device.
I swapped the charger port / mic setup at the same time, in case there are any differences, as there often are.
I hope this is useful to someone.
yablokosmonaut said:
Important update to anyone who needs to know the outcome of this:
I was able to swap the Verizon and Sprint motherboards very easily thanks to the phone's design, and everything works completely naturally. This feels like it has always been a Verizon device.
I swapped the charger port / mic setup at the same time, in case there are any differences, as there often are.
I hope this is useful to someone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend, you made my day.
I was wondering swap the same model parts it would works, and you post is the best answer.-
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.