i thought i'd ask openly since i've done a fair amount of homework, but i'm still inexperienced when it comes with rooting these devices etc.
i used to be a symbian guy, then switched to htc only winmo phones, and joined this forum back in 04. we would flash custom roms etc etc (i really enjoyed it)
what phone do you guys recommend that's either out now or coming out soon for a US provider? i'm looking for top of the line, super fast, easily rooted, new roms flashed (no encrypted boot loaders etc)
i've been on the iphone since 07 (2g, 3g, 3gs) but the new iphone4 just doesn't impress me very much and i'm ready to finally make the move to (what i believe to be) a better device.
any opinions out there? i'm currently with at&t, but can jump ship to verizon or t-mobile (i kinda like the htc evo, but i always hear people complain about sprint here) and i read the droid x will most likely have an encrypted boot loader, so i'm not sure about verizon either.
I was in the same situation as you last week. I have no complaints about ATT's service in my area and signing a contract with another carrier didn't look too appealing since I've been out of contract since 08.
The Nexus One meets all of your criteria and then some. I do not have that gadget lust anymore, I don't feel that it is incomplete like I always felt with my other devices. Hell the only thing I really felt that was missing from the stock build is waking with the trackball, I too came from an iPhone and it just feels natural as opposed to using the sleep button.
I don't think you can really go wrong with any of the top tier Android offerings right now. They all have strengths and weaknesses but the simple fact that the Nexus One gets the (official) updates first made it an easy choice for me.
thanks for the reply. i've been looking at the nexus one for the same reasons you described... the ability to get updates quickly, and the fact it comes with a vanilla rom. i wish i could get the att version with a discount... it looks like if i go with it i'll need to get t-mobile.
i was a little hesitant just because im not sure how it holds up against the latest round of android devices (due to it being out for a while now) but it definitely looks fairly solid from what i've ready.
i ditto the nexus one..IF you want to stay with ATT..but a very customizable phone is the motorola droid..plus a physical keyboard is a BIG plus for me..but the droid is a little old and you should wait for the droid 2 next month..the thing is..who knows who long is going to take for dev to start working on droid 2...droid already has a large drawer full of kernels, themes, roms..ect
yeh, i think theres just too many phones out/coming out to make a decision. the nexus multitouch problem i keep reading about seems kind of annoying... i played with an evo on sprint today and apparently sprint has extremely slow data in my area (even tho it was full bars on 3g) and the droid x might have a locked/encrypted boot loader which i read will definitely affect the ability to flash roms (so i've read)
almost as bad as car shopping.
thanks guys for all the advice so far.
In todays world is all about what people and users want, right? Developers like the idea of creating custom ROM's, adding their own touch to phones, I am guilty myself. Not here to ramble on the bionic release date nor the whose network is better however sprint has truly the only unlimited data plan ( Their representatives do need help and lack in customer service) and please T-mobile stop talking how your unlimited, you are not!
I can see how the 3D is setting the bar for smart phones, but is it really necessary? Now should motorola even lock the Boot-loader? These two phones are the best out there right now, yes I know the bionic is not out as of now. Im going to go with the realease date of August,4,2011. I called in Verizon yesterday and talked to one of their manager, this is how it went.
Me: How much would it be to cancel the line 541-***-****. I would like to go ahead and switch networks and try out the Evo 3d.
Manager: ok, I can help you. But before I answer your question may I ask why your are looking to cancel?
Me: i've been stuck with this crappy phone because I was going to upgrade to the bionic when it originally was suppose to be released. And feel it isn't right what Moto is doing to us, and they still lock their phones on top if all that. They should just worry about what we as customers like and want instead of being a stuck up company.
Manager: I'm sorry to hear that, I too myself have been waiting on the bionic. I think everyone here at work have also. Please be patient I know its hard and also I mean its just right around the corner.
Me: Around the corner?
Manager: yes, its suppose to be released Aug, 4. I heard its not even called the bionic anymore they have completely redesigned the whole phone!!! It will be worth the wait.
There you have it folks spoken truth straight from Verizon. I would continue on About my conversation but that would only bore you to death....... (chirp, chirp, chirp) What have we learned?
1. New designed
2. Not called bionic anymore
3. Verizon is not smart for taking unlimited data plan off (Switching once my contract is up)
4. August, 4, 2011 released date
5. Will be sold out first day ( Because all Verizon employees want it and they will buy and even get it for way less they anyone else) Did you know they receive 60% percent off any phone of their choice even raffle phones like crazy and get them for free. Most times they will sell them by posting them on Craigslist and Ebay. Don't believe me do some research.
6. Verizon are a**holes when you want to cancel with them
7. Love the design and look of the original bionic ewww... to the droid 3 ( No offense people not a fan of the keyboard thing)
8. Locked boot-loader
9. Don't expect anything Cheap will most-likely be $300.00!
10. Stuck On waiting and waiting, Motorola can sure keep a secret.
Now that you know all they America, you decide! Remember This is my opinion, theres lots of great phones (Android) Out there and everyone has their top phones these are mine. Help me decide on which phone to get by leaving a comment below! Should I wait?.........
I would just consider that if you already have unlimited data but jump to sprint and come back to Verizon later, you're not gonna have your unlimited data anymore. I find the bionic slightly irrelevant as long as the galaxy s2 is still going to be coming to the US.
Hi all,
I've had a Galaxy S3 which I've been happy with for the past year and a half, however want to move onto something newer. I'm an off-contract user, so buy my phones outright and then utilize prepaid on various carriers for my service.
Anyway my primary concerns are getting fast android updates, stock experience, and a not-too-large phone (no bigger than S3 ideally).
So I picked up a Moto X Developer Edition - seems like a great phone, very mod friendly etc., very fast, nice size, however I'm concerned about future software upgrades.
I know Moto has been very good about updating the OS to the newest version quickly, however I wonder about the S4 Pro dual-core processor inside - specifically if Qualcomm will continue to make drivers for it as new android versions come out. It's a similar processor to that in the Nexus 4, which is now 18 months old, and therefore technically falls outside of Google's prescribed "update window."
I wonder if the Moto X will get stuck behind on software updates not because of Motorola, but because of its older chipset.
Is this a valid concern? Would the N5 be more future proof in that respect? It seems from a usability standpoint, both phones are top notch and more or less exactly what I'm looking for. I want to own the one I end up choosing for another 1.5 years or so, and want it to remain pretty fast / updated to latest OS over that time.
Thoughts between the two?
Thanks much,
-Dirk
1st post in this forum!
Are you buying?, if so, what are you replacing?. I haven't been visiting XDA in a while, I used to visit everyday, and tinker regularly. I'm replacing a Tmo Note 3, yes unlocked , rooted and ROM'd. I was just waiting for the right one I guess.
Camera and removable battery were important to me. I wish this had 4GB RAM, but I think it will be fine.
As far as unlockable bootloader's , I've never owned a Blu ( supposedly rebranded Gionee), but some research looks like they have fastboot, and have been unlocked in the past. I'm hoping this remains to be true.
I hope to see this place bustling, with the pricepoint of the device , there should be plenty of involvement.
Ciao!:highfive:
Thinking about it.... This versus Moto X pure versus OP2
This phone has seriously peaked my interest. My HTC One M8 has been on the fritz lately. The power button has become super sensitive and I find it turns itself on and off at times, thinking the button is pressed when it isn't :/
Im looking to get something soon and this phone looks like a steal for what we get.
I really dig this phone. I don't know about the lack of an app tray. is there much dev support for this phone? just wondering if I get it will I be stuck with basically an iphone layout lol
I currently have a Note 4 Att (locked bootloader) and am sick of no root. So if this phone gets rooted and has a good dev community bringing out ROMs, count me in.
Root shouldn't be an issue.
sigtau2001 said:
I really dig this phone. I don't know about the lack of an app tray. is there much dev support for this phone? just wondering if I get it will I be stuck with basically an iphone layout lol
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Use Google Now launcher... how do people like you even find XDA Forums when you dont even know to switch the launcher...
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That new Helio X10 processor might actually get some good support. Plus its a Gionee under the skin so people have had it for about a month in China and India.
Moynia said:
Use Google Now launcher... how do people like you even find XDA Forums when you dont even know to switch the launcher...
---------- Post added at 02:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:39 PM ----------
That new Helio X10 processor might actually get some good support. Plus its a Gionee under the skin so people have had it for about a month in China and India.
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I searched assh*le and it brought up Moynia and I thought I would come on here and irritate you. Maybe I missed something, I thought this thread was talking about developer support. I assume you started somewhere and didn't just wake up knowing everything.
Im stuck between this and moto x pure... IDK WHAT 2 DO!!!
Lenn0x I've had the first 2 moto xs. While they are sweet phones I don't really see that much difference between 2014 and 2015. I like new and/or different features in my phones.
Definitely going to give this a look. I have a Huawei Mate2, but it appears Huawei wants to go all "samsung" on their pricing with
their new models. Soon as it is in the wild, and a few reviews come back, may have to give this one a spin.
If this is just a rebranded Gionee Elife E8, I wonder if we will be able to have a joint Dev community where we can use roms for both. If it's the same internal, theirs says Gionee and ours say Blu outside, then I don't see why it wouldn't work.
I was looking to replace my Oneplus One. Had an invite for the 2 but decided to pass since the specs aren't really that much better. The Pure XL releases on my birthday so thought I'd give it a try.
Warning
*EDIT*- I discovered just now that this forum is for a different phone than the one that I owned, and the photos and specs that are provided are for the wrong phone. So, this information is not applicable to the device that will be released in September of 2015. However, it is still valuable information as the actual Pure XL will be using the same Amigo UI that the Life Pure XL did, and could very possibly have the same crippling bugs that the last version did. Or not. I will keep this here as a cautionary tale for all.
*/EDIT*
I owned this phone between June of 2014 and April of 2015, and I had quite the experience with it. Yes, the specs look fantastic, just as good as a OnePlus One or a Galaxy Note 3. However, the software and lack of support from the manufacturer are what will kill your experience with this phone.
This device is the Gionee Elife E7 rebranded for sale in North America. I would suggest looking at the forum for that device in depth before deciding to commit to this phone. I have not checked on it in a while, but the phone will likely ship with Jellybean (4.2.2) and you will have to go through many hoops in order to possibly get a hacked, Taiwanese version of KitKat. If you are interested in Lollipop, I would forget this phone entirely. The stock ROM on this phone is a messy pile of Indian and Chinese Engrish that will leave you extremely frustrated. There are crippling bugs such as my very favorite: not being able to change the soft keyboard. Whatever you choose initially, it will be stuck that way unless you factory reset the phone. Seriously. You will similarly be able to change the default home screen, once and once only. The fancy camera sounds great, until you aren't able to actually take pictures because the Camera app FC's every time you open it. Try to use Google Camera app instead? Great idea, except that the full 16 MP resolution isn't supported by other apps. The installed music app doesn't let you sort by any parameter, you have to manually look through a huge list of all of your songs. Little things like this that you would expect thorough testing in development to have addressed have been ignored.
Also, there are only a couple of custom ROM's for the E7, one of which works fine and the other (Nori) will brick your device completely and utterly. There are several versions of this phone in the wild, one of which has true LTE support and for which Nori's ROM was made, and which the Pure XL is not. DO NOT FLASH THIS ROM. You will end up with a $300 piece of plastic. To be completely safe, do not flash any ROM that is not designed specifically for this phone. Since there are currently none, then this phone is a poor choice for those wanting to take that route.
The most you will be able to safely and reliably do with this phone is root it. Even then, you have to use King Root which is questionable at best. Don't have a Windows computer to run King Root on? That's as far as you can get. I would strongly recommend that anyone who has even the smallest desire to root, control and customize their phone (everyone reading this post) to stay as far away as you can from this phone and buy a used OnePlus One or a Note 3. The prices are almost comparable and you will end up with a phone that is truly useable and customizable.
Eyeing this phone as well, came here to see if people had luck rooting these phones with different ROMs.
If not, would probably just get a Nexus phone that is being announced soon, or even the original Nexus 6 (same price now).
And there's always the LG G3 or G4 (still using the Optimus G (G1) with the help of CM to keep it a valid phone)
Almost pulled the trigger on a Nexus 6, and then I remember about this BLU Pure XL. I was in contact with the company when they had it on Kickstarter. My main concern was the use of MTK processor. While I wasn't worrying about the performance of it (MTK high end chips are powerful!), I didn't like how they set up the internal storage partition. So I asked them and they assured me that there wouldn't be storage partition on this device, meaning about 50-55 gb would be user accessible (I deleted the email so I have no proof of their claim now). Too bad at that time I didn't need a new phone, otherwise I could have take advantage of their price of $249 (or $299, don't remember).
Anyway, I'd probably pick this over the Motorola Nexus 6, but am still considering the Oneplus One. Decision decision... too bad my LG G2 crapped out on me after that stupid Android Lollipop update. Totally messed up my phone. Otherwise I could probably still use it for another 2 years.
felix168 said:
too bad my LG G2 crapped out on me after that stupid Android Lollipop update. Totally messed up my phone. Otherwise I could probably still use it for another 2 years.
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Not try to use LGNPST recovery???
Matty77 said:
Not try to use LGNPST recovery???
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so my LG G2, after that Lousypop update, has gone from battery drain to WIFI drops, to the latest which was when I wasn't able to answer an incoming call. When that happened, the phone would just keep ringing and ringing, and I wasn't able to do anything with it. None of the button was responding. So I went online to see if someone came up with a fix. In the back of my mind, I knew there was a good chance everything would go back to normal once I reboot, but then since I wasn't even able to turn it off, I came across some Youtube video of a guy trying to remove the battery (which was a dumb idea to begin with... there is a reason that these batteries aren't to be messed with in the first place), and I thought maybe I could disconnect it to power off the phone. Well, I didn't get that far. LOL... I kind of broke the back panel a tad and trim, and I put everything together and just shoved the phone inside the closet to let it ring and drain out the battery. The next morning, charged the dead phone and turned it back on, everything seemed normal, except for all that cosmetic damage that I made, which I was more upset with myself since I have always kept it in tip top shape. And last week, it developed a new problem... sometimes I voice calls aren't clear, and speakers are skipping. Time for a new phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BLU Pure XL is looking better and better by the minute... until I realized it's actually even taller than the Motorola Nexus 6! LMAO! decision decision...
At this point, I'm one foot closer to getting this thing too. I have an Asus Zenfone 2 which I really like but I just had it replaced due to the cellular connection on the second SIM slot in my house and the problem still persists so it seems it is a device problem. Possible theory is because the second SIM slot only supports 2G data although why that would interfere with the ability for mere phone calls I don't know, but in any event, the second SIM slot will not work in my house and this is the second phone now, so it is going back. I am going to try one more replacement SIM card again just like last time, but I already did that once before and it didn't help. So the Blu Pure XL both slots I think are LTE so I shouldn't have the same issue if that 2G slot is the culprit issue. If it is, then clearly for some odd reason, my house, in a major suburban metro area, just must deflect those signals in some bizarre fashion because I can gets calls everywhere else, but today I tried numerous times already and it is non-functional and I already wrote in to ASUS. So I think I am going to have to return the Zenfone. I can't make calls on it today already from the second SIM-the line is unavailable and when it becomes available, it drops off right away. Obviously this is not workable and it's the ZF2 as a device that doesn't work in my house on SIM 2, but SIM 1 works just fine. Issue is, I have two lines.
I've been rocking the oneplus for about a year. Amazing phone. By far the best I've owned. My days of waiting for an upgrade are over. I plan to buy the pure xl. My only fear is that it won't be popular with the devs therefore no cool stuff to flash. I will wait a month or 2 to see what happens. At the very least I'd be OK with cm nightlies. My wife has had 2 blu phones in a row. Good quality and performance for the price.