Hi long time xda fellows. Just wanted to share with you some of my thoughts
Brief Intro
This is just my personal thoughts and it only may apply to me so please don't feel offended by this article. Well, I am developing android apps for a few years now, doing this for a living. Developing various project for my clients most of the time I came across projects which involved "Make it work on android as it works on iOS" and I ended up with the same thing "I need to get an iPhone for testing". I finally took the step 4 months ago and purchased a used iPhone 5 16 GB. The reason was for getting an older version were pretty obvios: I did not wanted to spent too much money on a device which will be used primarily for testing. Iphone 5s was too expensive and 5C was basically an 5 with plastic body.
I am very picky when it comes to my daily driver device. I have owned in the past many devices, my first acceptable device was Galaxy S1 (oh, the lag of android 2.3), then went for Galaxy Nexus (which was quite a good device and I still own it and runs pretty acceptable), Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 3, LG G2. Given the fact that I have small hands, I found G2 to be quite impressive: such small bezels, pretty acceptable firmware, good camera, great form factor and battery life... until I noticed the slippery back which was the main reason to get rid of it. I can't really understand why producers tend to get this shiny plastic as back-cover which offers zero grip. All the time I had the impression it will slip from my hands. I love the back material on black Nexus 5 and I hope they'll continue to use it on the next model. The Note 3 was quote a near perfect phone, contrary to many, I liked the fake leather back as it gave me good enough grip, the touchwiz isn't that bad, stylus was working very good but, after trying to get used to its form factor for 2 months I had to give up. It was simply to uncomfortable for me use, most of the time I found myself needing to use it with one hand and couldn't. Just try to put the shopping list on it and hold the note in one hand and the grocery basket in the other and then check what you buy. But this really comes to personal preference since I gave it to my wife and she says she'll never want a smaller device.
So back to main idea, I purchased a used iPhone 5 for around 350$ while iPhone 5s it is being sold in my country for around 900$. Since I got rid of Note 3, I told myself that if I paid for it, I should use it, so I started using iPhone 5 as a daily device. This means two gmail accounts, calls, skype and instagram.
First impressions:
Where is my notification light ? After years of getting used to it I find it a bit hard to live without. Many say it is not needed but to be frankly I prefer to look at the phone on my table to see if I missed something rather than waking the screen up. Not to mention that I recently released JeFeel app on Google Play and I receive a lot of Instagram notifications. For each of them my iPhone's screen wakes up.Not great for battery life I suppose. Let be honest, how much would a blinking led cost for production ? one cent? Not to mention the other cool things like RGB LEDs on most of the android devices which can be configured to know exactly what notification you received by the color it shows.
What's with this small text size ? Went to Settings to make it bigger and it seems that the Dynamic Font size only works on some of Apple's apps and the rest simply ignore it. I have good eye view and I really find it too small to comfortable read it. Might be because of only 4 inch of diagonal or something. It was a small relief to find the Bold setting which makes things a bit better. Not to mention browsing reddit funny pictures was not that fun.
After being spoiled for years with SwiftKey keyboard, with multiple language support, swipe, fantastic auto correct, I found to iOS keyboard horrible. The auto correct gives me more trouble than helping me so in the end I disabled it. Also to press 2-3 keys to get to things like comma "," or numbers/symbols I find it far from ergonomic. Basically these were my main three things I did not like, coming from android
After three months of usage
Well, believe it or not I got used to the small text size and now I find it acceptable. Still, the screen size is too small to do serious browsing or email answering. I find the keyboard to be still a pain to use. However, I noticed a lot of other things: * I like the notification center and how notification are shown on lock-screen. Swiping a notification opens the app to which it belongs to without the need to unlock. I like how when I read an email on my computer, the notification from lockscreen gets dismissed. Quite cool.
Control center is handy and I use it mostly to toggle auto rotate lock and media volume. Is great that I can access it from anywhere but sometimes I simply open it by mistake when browsing a webpage in landscape orientation
I like how auto brightness works and it really is pleasant for my eyes.
I like the fact that there is a physical button on front, I am definitely not a fan of using the Power button. On android I specially developed StandBy Touch Advanced app to deal with putting the phone to sleep without reaching the Power key. I took a look at iOS SDK and couldn't find a way to do it so I suppose this is not allowed. I have to say inhere that many Android offered quite a nice way of waking the phone from standy by: LG has KnowckOn, HTC has something similar, OnePlus one has it, if I recall well Sony too... Double tap to wake is way more convenient than searching for power key, especially on tall devices. i5 is not the case since it is easy to reach, but I use the Home key a lot to wake the device.
I am not a big fan of metal and I never use cases, I find it slippery and cold, however given the size of the iPhone, it is easy to hold it and never had the feeling that I drop it.
Battery life is not so great, I charge it every day.However it seems to be dropping constantly and I haven't noticed any battery drain (GooglePlay services drain rings a bell on android ?) I am 95% of the time in WiFi coverage and I did a test: I disabled the Cellular data, since WiFi is always on and have found that the battery life has improved a lot. So even if data is not used, I suppose that the cell module is active, most likely waiting to do a quick switch if WiFi turns to be poor. I would have preferred an option to keep it disabled until actually leaving the WiFi area. This things make me miss tools like Tasker on Android.
I like the screen and color reproduction. There is no back-light bleed and colors look real enough for me. Best LCD screen I had. Also the resolution is more than enough for 4" and I don't miss 1080p from android
iOS feel more smooth, I remember not resetting the phone for about 2 months and it was as smooth as in day one. Transitions are smoother, rotate is smoother, app switching is smoother. I like it, I feel that it's more polished than android and even the screen seems more responsive to touches.
some apps seem better on iOS, with more attention to details. My last app JeFeel relies a lot on instagram so I am using it quite a lot to check followers and pictures. Instagram for iOS is easier to use, easier to reload, I don't know, it just feels better. I also like TapaTalk more and some other apps like Reddit pics browser, skype, dolphin browser and so on. I sure miss FireFox since is my browser on PC and I would have loved to have bookmarks sync but since I don't to that much browsing, I'm ok with Dolphin/Safari. A special mention goes to Safari for reading mode (or how it is called) when it renders the text from the page at big size, making it easier to read. Great feature.
As android developer I rely on Google services: Maps, GMail, Google+, Drive and some apps are working ok, some are bad. The biggest disappointment is the Gmail app which is more ergonomic and nicer on Android. No contact pictures, no swipe to delete, I miss these features. Also the rendered text in emails is quite small, so it's good enough for email checking if you don't have many emails.
I haven't changed my ringtone yet because from what I saw I need iTunes for that... well that sucks.
Ah the camera, I don't think I made so many pictures with a phone. I know the camera is not top of the chart, but the form factor of the phone actually made it easier for me to take it out and grab a quick picture. Note 3 had a great camera but getting it out of the pocket, 2 hands needed to use it... You know where I'm going to.
I also like the silent toggle on the left size, very convenient but I would have preferred a visual notification on status bar, that is on, like on android.
As for widgets and stuff, on my android I initially did all sort of customizations and widgets but in the end I started to install more apps, drag shortcuts around and it became a mess. Basically I ended up with a grid of icons, just as the iOS launcher is. So for me, the lack of widgets is not a negative point
I don't like the dialer, seems so... I don't know... limited. No contacts photos on Recents/Contacts list makes it look boring. I also have like a 1-2 seconds delay between the moment I pick up and the moment the caller hears me, that is annoying and does not happen with same SIM on other phones
Unfortunately after 4 months of usage my iPhone's camera started to fail. Sometimes it worked sometimes it just shown black screen. After a few more days I have realized that the screen glass on top of the phone was raised 1-2 milliliters above the frame. I went to a service center (since no warranty) and they glued it somehow back, and now the screen is ok, but the camera still does not work. One nice addition was discovering that I can disable the whole camera feature, so I did and it disappeared from apps and Control Center. I guess that is the only customization of Control center hehe.
Since the camera is not working and I don't want to put any more money on this iPhone, I don't know how long I will be using it, probably until Nexus X or Moto X+1 is released. Or why not, IPhone 6. But overall I can say that the experience with iOS was not as bad as expected. Probably it has to do with me not using so many widgets and apps. I don't remember how many times I have flashed android phones with so many custom ROMs in order to achieve a better phone. Indeed on android you get more freedom, you install custom ROMs and kernels and you squeeze some more performance but this sometimes comes with the cost of bugs and instability. This is the beauty of android, you can customize it, want a toggle of auto rotate, you have it on a custom ROM, want different screen calibration, want to hide on screen buttons, want... you get the point. On iOS you are limited, you can't customize too much and after a while I guess you just get used to it. Unfortunately Android OEM's have started to implement various techniques that will detect rooting/bootloader unlock and will void warranty. We all know the famous Knox trigger on Samsung devices, so installing a custom ROM is starting to get harder and harder without voiding warranty.
Another point I'd like the mention is updates. On android things are starting to catch up, but still with updates through carriers and all the delays, after an android version is released you need to wait for 3-6-never months for an update. Of course this is not available for nexus line. The updates are primarily for flagship devices as previous year devices will take even longer to receive an update. This really forces me to look for a nexus when I get an android device and I sure hope they will get it right this time and not make cuts on screen quality or battery size as on previous models. Motorola seems to be doing quite a good job on updates and I hope they will continue to do so in the future. Android L seems like a really big change and I think it will start to catch up on next year's flagships, so mostly on Q2 2014 but given the skinning of frameworks like TouchWiz/Optimus/and others I somehow doubt the user will see too much material changes. I hope performance will improve since I can see small lag here and there even on latest models. As for iOS8 it seems promising, the new keyboard support will allow fixing one of my major annoyances, also battery statistics will offer more info on apps battery usage. I am curious to see how widgets on Notification center will be received but seeing Apple opening is a good thing. I am also keeping an eye on their Swift language and might start learn it since ObjectiveC was never ever on my taste. I really like the swipe on screens to go back, that is implemented on some apps and I am really curious to see how on bigger screen sizes, reaching the top left of the screen for Back option will fell file. I sometimes feel the need of a Back button. I fear that on 4.7 and 5.5" iPhone one handed usage will be hurt by having hard times to reach Back within an app.
So in the end, is iOS that bad ? It depends, for me, when I use the OS for a few seconds to launch apps that I am using, it does not matter so much what OS it is, as long as its fast and reliable. I find iphone 5 to be fast and smooth and it's a device 2 years old. I bet Iphone 5s with his TouchId and 64bits would have a bigger impact on me and to be honest I am starting to see phones with screen bigger than 4"... too big. It would be interesting to find myself buying iPhone 5S as my next phone.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post, hope I haven't bored you too much.
Related
Hello all,
I'm a former iPhone 2.5G, 3G, 3GS, I4 owner, and have now spent two full weeks with the Captivate. I thought I'd give a few observations to those that are either still on the fence, or are just looking for something Captivate related to read.
I'll break this down into sections for an easier read.
First Impressions: The first thing that struck me was the screen (obviously). The screen seemed HUGE, even though it's technically only .3" larger than my I4. The rest of the form factor was very clean, which I like.
Hand feel: I have larger hands... That made my life with the iPhone rather difficult. I found myself fumbling with the handset, as well as the keyboard. I learned to handle it over the years, but it was not my favorite one handed device. The Captivate fit right in the palm of my hand. I appreciate the weight and overall thin feel of the device, while still giving me a large touch surface. The battery cover looked incredible, but it's brushed metal made it slick enough that I could easily see it falling from my hand. I had iPhone 2.5G flashbacks. I bought a Body Glove case to remedy the problem, and with that, I found the perfect cell phone case. It's wonderful.
Screen: What's there to say, really? It's beautiful. The color saturation and black levels are unrivaled by anything I've ever seen on this level. The only negative I have here is that I had an iPhone 4 previous to the Captivate and that really made the lower resolution on the larger screen noticeable. It was an adjustment, but I've made it.
Touch response: The IOS will always seem to be perfection personified when it comes to the touch response on a phone, but the Captivate gives the I4 a run for it's money. I do notice some recognition lag on the Captivate. Usually upon scrolling through the app list or in the browser. Just not quite as smooth as the IOS. This may very well be linked to the lag in the unmodified Captivate. I have not done the lag fix, as my best friend did the fix. It worked well for the first several hours, then started to slow down. Top it off with the fix going wrong and corrupting his file system.
EDGE and 3G: I know... I know... The thing is supposed to be a phone, and thus make calls... Boring, but definitely a nice experience with the Captivate. I notice the signal bars being a bit on the low end with the phone. I truly believe that they are designed this way, for better or worse. I say this because I get much better reception and call quality in poorly covered areas than my iPhone 3GS, which would typically show more bars. The data response on the phone is fantastic. I'm very happy with the speed of downloads, video streaming, and web page loading. Again the bars look low, but operate like they should show much higher. The negative here is definitely the lack of HSUPA. AT&T decided to disable this feature, I'm assuming, to help with the overly congested data network in iPhone saturated areas. Luckily for those of us with an android device, the community will soon remedy this (hurry up Rogers).
GPS: The biggest pain in my ass... I rarely use the GPS for turn by turn directions, as I'm a man and require no direction... But seriously, the GPS is integrated into every aspect of the OS, and the work flow and experience with the phone would be greatly improved if this functionality worked as intended. We seem to really be at Samsung's mercy here. I truly hope they come through. If not, I feel like there could be some possible modification from the Vibrant, where I've heard there isn't an issue.
WIFI: Very very happy here. The first Captivate I bought had a broken antenna. Wifi didn't work very well. After I traded it in it worked like a champ. I can pull incredible speeds, up and down stream from several stories above my wireless router.
Media Playback: Not super happy here. iTunes(on Windows) is a raging pile of crap, but at least it provided us with a one stop shop for music, cross platform organization, upgrading, and one click syncing. There isn't a real good solution here. I've tried a number of music players, but ended up right back with the Samsung player. It's completely functional, but not elegant, and not feature full by any stretch of the imagination. Now, movies are something different. Getting them to the device is easy, and playback looks incredible. The audio quality of music and movies is much better than my iPhone, but the media management and players themselves aren't up to snuff. That's really where Apple shows it's pedigree.
App Market: Another place where Apple man handles the Android devices. The market is improving at a blazing rate, but it has many issues that the App Store doesn't. With Apple having a strangle hold over the apps and reviews that make it to market, there is very little chance of malware making it to the store at all, much less to the Top Apps (review spoofing bastards). Thank god for Appbrain... That's all I have to say.
Community: Yes... Yes... Yes.... There are so many helpful and brilliant people in the Android community. That really gives me a feeling of longevity for the device. Even if the developer throws in the towel, there will be an entire group of people who seem to be more than willing to step in and tune the device to it's utmost potential. I'm so excited to see what happens when the Froyo roms start hitting. I expect this little phone to really turn some heads. Mine included.
In conclusion, I'm really happy with the phone so far. The GPS is testing me a bit, but I just have to take a few deep breaths and power through with my patience. I think that anybody coming from a Blackberry, iPhone, or any other device will be happy here. But there are some things you have to be willing to do. You must be patient. These phones can do anything, but sometimes the community has to have time to accomplish it. Also, you have to be willing to play... Seriously, tinker with your phone. Download every launcher you can find, download widgets, fonts, apps, play with your settings. Truly explore your phone. There's a lot here that you may not even know exists. Just because you don't see a feature, doesn't mean it isn't there. This isn't Apple, things aren't locked down.
Beautiful review!
The one thing I was most worried about with switching to a Captivate from an iPhone 3GS was the GPS issue as my Apple touting friends were poking fun at me and wishing good luck with getting a GPS fix to check in to venues etc but I haven't had a single issue at least as far as check ins go. I rarely if ever use turn by turn directions, which I could see being an issue if I did.
Overall I'm extremely happy with my Captivate, Android and it's flexibility with customization is a breath of fresh air over iOS! Even with jailbreaking iOS just seemed to be really lacking with quality customizations, sure there were widgets you could add to the lock screen etc but none of it seemed very polished even though there were commercial apps for it.
The only thing I would change about the Captivate would be to add a LED flash for the camera for those random indoor/evening snapshots and it baffles me as to why Samsung left that out, otherwise it would be close to perfect. A front facing cam would have been nice to have as well but I really think those more belong on tablets at the moment than phones, I don't really see myself making video calls when on the go but rather places where I would have a tablet handy.
Correction, two things I would change... The other would be the addition of a physical home button, I'm still getting used to hunting for the touch buttons at the bottom and often hit the wrong one still. It did help once I installed WidgetLocker though so I can press the volume buttons to wake as well as the power button as hunting for the power button was also a bit hit & miss.
The jury is still out on battery life especially as I have been constantly playing with it during to it being a shiny new toy so I will wait to see what real world usage is like.
I hear you on the customization. I am flipping between Launcher Pro and ADW Launcher right now, and it's nice to be able to change things up on a whim. Also, the different keyboards (SWYPE is amazing) also give a nice change of pace.
I don't really care about the flash, really. My I4's flash pissed me off more often than not. When the flash would go off it would cause everything that I was photographing to look like a mug shot. I never really needed a flash with my long history of iPhones, and I guess not having one on any of my phones just made it easy to not notice it missing.
Okay... After spending most of the day before yesterday getting myself all revved up to return my Captivate and show Samsung that their time table was unacceptable by going back to my iPhone 4, I would like to say that I am now once again back on the Captivate, and am shockingly more relaxed than I have been for the last 48 hours. That was the shortest lived, most misguided tantrum that I've thrown in recent memory... I just couldn't do it. The Captivate is, with all it's little flaws, an amazing phone that is really hard to step away from. To add insult to my little snap decision, my iPhone has a massive proximity sensor issue. I was face dialing through most of my conference calls today.
Sad... But anyway. Have a laugh at my expense. My wife asked if I was having some trouble with commitment. I had to remind her that I asked her to marry me... It's just with phones that I have a problem.
I thought I'd start a thread to see what people's favorite features of the Captivate are. Not looking for things like "it's not an iPhone" but more of something like...
My favorite feature is the Panorama setting in the camera. I think it's awesome how you can sweep right to left, left to right, up and down, down and up and it will stitch together a panoramic photo instantly, just like that. I think that's by far my favorite feature.
Others? What do you love about the Captivate?
It's not an iphone
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lol... I should have expected that.
Ok, so I'm totally sold on WinMo 6.5 and this is my first Android device. My gaming rig at home is 2k8R2, but virtually every other system I own runs Linux (8 at home counting VMs). I absolutely love Linux, but letting go of WinMo has been difficult - especially with the great people in those part of the forum. But more and more are moving to Android. So that's where I'm coming from on this.
0) Speed. It's wayyy faster than my 528 Mhz Touch Pro.
1) The screen. It's about 90% the size of the iPhone itself. Resolution is ok, but could be better.
2) Android. The ability to modify anything that I choose to is awesome.
3) It's not an iPhone. I FREAKING *HATE* Apple with a passion.
4) Proximity and light sensor. I expect this feature, but I also really like it.
5) 16 GB of internal memory. That's sweet, until you brick your phone and then Samsung has all of your personal data from TiBu and SMS backups. Dammit.
Things I hate:
0) It appears the GPS issues are mainly antenna-related. There have been hundreds of smartphones with GPS. How hard is it to learn from others' mistakes? This is what you do.
1) Froyo is taking way too long. It's been out for 5 months. Why do we not ALREADY have it?? (Officially...)
2) Devices are shipping with the 3-button combo broken. QA really dropped the ball on that. FAIL.
3) No flash on the back for the camera. Come on, it's one LED.
4) USB is on the top. This is totally personal, but on every other device I've had (mostly HTC), the connector is on the bottom. This is just weird.
5) This is way out of the ballpark, and a complaint about Android itself. The only thing that I dislike almost as much as Apple is Java. Yeah, we can discuss this all day, but I'll still hate Java. I'm uneasy with everything (dex files/executables) being Java based. I understand why they did it that way, and I'm glad they did something besides straight-up Java (that would make the phone unusable), but I'd prefer actual Linux binaries to run on these devices. I'm not sure why they did not do that, so if someone wants to continue this discussion, PM me and maybe we'll open another thread. I'd really like to understand more about this.
All-in-all, I really like this phone.
I love how the battery runs out of juice after about 10-12 hours and doesnt even make it through one business day. I love that!!
GPS. Because it gives so many people a reason to be unhappy. And, as I've said before, some people aren't happy unless they're unhappy. So now they're happy. And that's good.
The screen and Android.
Everything I hated about iPhone has been tended to and all of what i loved about the iPhone is intact.
Don't have to conserve power any more or carry a charger or buy a "juice case" ......Battery is replaceable on the fly.
Removable storage. No need for Syncing SW
Samsungs battery charger/phone stand is a great accessory to have....http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Batte...UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1287164024&sr=8-3-catcorr
These are all going to be comparisons to the iPhone so deal with it.. it's what I came from. It's not an "I hate iPhone" just a comparison because I loved the device when I had it.
I love the customizations that can be done with the phone. From custom ROMS, to tweaking the Icons, and I can do with it what I want to. With an iPhone I was VERY limited by what i can do.
Notification bar - I hated the bubble popup while i was in the middle of doing something else with the phone.
Speed - the phone is 100000000 times faster than my old iPhone 3G.
The ability to backup what I want to - contacts, data, applications - I can back it up. I was at the whim of Apple and its proprietary iTunes before.
The screen is gorgeous - Every thing pops and I think it's on par with the "uber iPhone 4 retina screen". It might not be as crisp or sharp as it.. but it is nice nonetheless.
The Ugly:
I hate the fact that it can be easily killed - but not necessarily bricked. One wrong move and *poof* have to restore the device and start all over again.
The battery life due to the screen being a HUGE battery hog. I am able to get 12-16hrs out of one charge. But I feel as if I have to restrain my phone usage to prolong battery life from the device.
GPS is still flaky at best. Although Samsung states this is a "software" issue - too man Captivate owners have had too many issues with it. Thankfully I don't use it all that often being a casual phone dood (i.e. I don't travel alot, and mainly use it for txt, calls, email, xda, etc...)
Samsung/ATT support by not having the phone truly ready for the public. They have finally released their official 2.2 Froyo to Europe - which means we might see it by December.
Having to had to install a tweaked custom ROM on a device that should have been working from the start.
Java - I personally cannot stand Java. I think it is slow, bloated, bulky, easily exploited, and is not a great programming language. I liken it to Visual Basic in the Linux world. But then again.. the phone could have been programmed in all C, Perl, or C++ only. *eek*. Sure it would have been screaming fast, but who would be programming for it?
Overall I have a feature rich, fast phone that is about 90% functional. As a consumer it is disappointing that my first foray into the Android world had to be so difficult. But thanks to XDA and the people taking the time to make this device work - its been completely worth it.!
I've used everything so far as mobile OSes go. WinMo 6.5, iOS, and now Android. I have to say, Android is by far the best I've used to date.
The things I love about this phone:
The screen is absolutely amazing. I go back and forth between my phone and my iTouch for apps and there's just no comparison. The SAMOLED screen blows Apple's technology out of the water for clarity and color.
We actually have real multi-tasking, not that lame app-switching-loading-an-app-from-memory that Apple calls multi-tasking in iOS4.
It's speed. I never thought I'd get a smartphone with a 1Ghz CPU in it, let alone a standalone GPU capable of 70+ fps in OpenGL. That's just insane. I can still remember using my Blackjack1 with its 200Mhz OMap CPU that we could overclock to a blistering 312Mhz!
The notification bar and the toast notifications. It's nice to be able to continue using an app without getting a popup notification that deletes everything you were working on or pushes your app to the background.
The seemingly limit possibilities of Android. It seems like you can edit just about anything on this phone. While theming the phone could probably be easier, (I wish there was something more like Winterboard for Android) the ability has always been there and there wasn't a need for something like a jailbreak to get there.
And I'm just going to group these last ones into on big category. The camera, the accelerometer, the 16GB of built in storage, the style (especially the nice carbon fiber patterned battery door), and it's lightweight and comfortable design.
I like USB on top. I can charge my phone right side up in my cup holder.
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wildting said:
I like USB on top. I can charge my phone right side up in my cup holder.
You make a very good point.
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wildting said:
I like USB on top. I can charge my phone right side up in my cup holder.
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Ahh, that's the one thing I don't like. I drive an '08 Ford Focus with a manual trans. The cup holders are literally right behind the gear lever and when I put the phone in the cup holder, I'm constantly hitting it the cable whenever I go to shift. I really need to make some sort of dock for the car...
Sent from my Captivate
I love the design and feel. Metal back, corners that make it look different than an iPhone, and the perfect size. 4" is the perfect screen size, perfect.
I was contract free and could get any phone on any carrier and I thought the look, feel, size, etc of the Captivate was the best. 3.5" really too small. 3.7" close...but still not really as nice as 4" for web and games. 4.3" I was holding a damn frozen waffle to my ear...just too big.
The only real negative I have after the Cog 2.2 update (no more lag, faster, better gps, etc) is the battery sucking power of the screen. It is quite manageable with things like dark backgrounds and reduced brightness. However, there is a definite tradeoff on the screen. Personally I like the contrast ratio, colors, etc, better than the iphone4 screen's slightly higher rez. However on bright apps, the battery does take a hit. Battery in all other areas (3G talk, etc) as good as the best out there.
The thing I like the most is the look of the phone, its not squarr, it has really nice curves to it. To me it seems the cappy is the best looking phone around, all my friends are jelous that I got this phone even my friend,that has the iphone 4 lol! Second things is the screen its very clear in,sunlight. When I had the iphone I couldnt see a thing with this phone I can still see everything even in direct sun light. The snappiness of the phone is awesomee to, unlike some other phones like desire it doesnt lag at all!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I like the battery cover, and the phone's design in general :3
WoW..what is my favorite thing...more than just 1 thing for me too...Everything so far. The looks..the feel..the size of the screen..The clarity and detail I get when watching a HD movie on it that I loaded.Just being able to watch a HD movie I loaded on it. The ease of typing a message or making a phone call. The responsiveness of the screen. BTW..I have no lag and am running it stock with the Jf6 rom (is that right ?) Having a great camera helps too...All in all I am well pleased with mine and have but 2 complaints... the gps issue..and the weak usb socket...I prefer the GPS to work properly of course,and the usb socket is what it is and I'll just have to be careful on inserting the plug..but neither were my primary reason for buying this phone..I bought it for all the other reasons I already listed. My wife loves her too..I have to say I've changed my mind about the new Iphone 4's though..they are pretty nice too since bought my sons got them when my wife and myself got our Captivates a couple days ago..They are good solid phones from what I can see..some what limited to what is on them..but otherwise good solid phones..Even my boys watched in awe when I fired up the Transformer movie to show them this morning on mine..but not enough so to exchange them for what we have...They are firmly entrenched in the apple orchard..and have been since the i-pods came out..
Mac
see post #2 and#7
love the super amoled screen!!
What's not to love? Such sheer beauty and potential that I just see quirks where many see problems.
It's inanimate, though, right?
Okay, first of all I am not a fan of android and wouldn't use it but I do work as a liason to some of Google's subsidiaries. I was speaking with some people on our end who were overseeing the latest update and whether or not it would finally step up to the plate and get a hardware accelerated UI like all of the other big competitors and word for word what he told me is "That's up to the boys at Samsung (he meant all other OEMs but we were talking about Samsung's devices at that point in time.) So, like the good little XDAer I am I went and did my research, android can not have a hardware accelerated UI built into the base OS because of the variation in hardware. It is entirely up to your OEM's to implement a GPU accelerated UI which would require a whole new branch to a development team and since it effects so few people it's highly unlikely that it will occur. They are more than willing to contract a third party to utilize an OS that was already in development or in HTC's case build from scratch but the prospect of hiring an individual development team for something so trivial has little to no chance of occurring. I never did expect much from the ugly duckling except for it to market well with people who either wanted an alternative to the iphone or people who couldn't afford an iphone but this is a real kick in the head to pretty much everyone. I now appreciate the way apple and even moreso microsoft are going about the mobile phone game even more.
I know I shouldn't feed the troll but I have some spare time.
Firstly, considering how smooth android is it becomes obvious that it doesn't need hardware acceleration (unlike WP7 for instance).
Should the day come when it is required, then it will be implemented.
There. Question answered.
Umm
isnt the Galaxy S II hardware accelerated
i think its the only android phone that is
qwerty warrior said:
Umm
isnt the Galaxy S II hardware accelerated
i think its the only android phone that is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you're right, the Tegra provides hardware acceleration, and there are several tablets and phones that use it.
qwerty warrior, the chipset available in the S2 is completely ready to go for a fully hardware accelerated UI and it is partially implemented but not fully.
xaccers, I see no reason to get into it with you regarding this matter again, android as an OS is just not up to par with the others, it's just another place for google to advertise. Trust me, the nice people here at google aren't going to prioritize adding features no one cares about. They'd much rather glorify a pallet swap and call it an update. It's slower than the rest and the only selling point is the market and the fact that you can get any app for free.
z33dev33l said:
android as an OS is just not up to par with the others
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except it is, many of us accepted your challenge regarding the lack of smoothness with android, and found you were very wrong.
You can start as many threads as you like denying it, but the fact remains you are wrong.
This is the second thread I see you dissing android. What'd the point? Why don't you use winmo 7, which I like as well, and let us use whatever we want without you winning. I could go and complain abt winno too and how its not customizable, its market is way too small and all its devices are outdated.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
It's Windows Phone 7, nothing like winmo. I'm not dissing android, just stating the facts regarding a meeting I had with a Google representative in passing.
xaccers, your "tests" prove absolutely nothing, I'm sure all of you just busted out your iphone next to your high end android device and swiped side to side? First of all that's highly unlikely and secondly regardless of what you say anyone who has moved to another OS will tell you just how terribly laggy fragmented android is. We've had this debate before, if you want to have another back and forth spanning three days with nothing but your alleged tests as your foundation then have at it. I will do the same on my smooth and seamless Dell Venue Pro that will be recieving the next update just as it did the last one.
what do u mean partially ?
ive used it and there is no stutter what so ever
ie( playing 1080p video on youtube while pinch zooming and its buttery smooth)
i just cant see any stutter
even most people on the SG2 section dont bother with custom roms
some people install custom roms because of battery draining services
currently im running stock and my phone lasts about 3+ days
im not attacking anyone i like everything when it comes to software/hardware
I've used WP7, it sucks, and I use Android at the moment, and it doesn't.
Android is smooth as silk, it doesn't need any long winded transitions to hide the lag of loading an app, I just tap on a shortcut and it opens.
Of course Android can actually have icons, we're not stuck with duplo CGA tiles to bore ourselves to death with.
Once again Zee, you've made comments that can't be substantiated (ie there are many hardware accelerated android devices) and been left looking like a fool.
Maybe one day you'll actually find something genuine to pick holes in Android with, there's plenty of them.
qwerty warrior said:
what do u mean partially ?
ive used it and there is no stutter what so ever
ie( playing 1080p video on youtube while pinch zooming and its buttery smooth)
i just cant see any stutter
even most people on the SG2 section dont bother with custom roms
some people install custom roms because of battery draining services
currently im running stock and my phone lasts about 3+ days
im not attacking anyone i like everything when it comes to software/hardware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
accidentally thanked you haha, enjoy .
I agree, it's the best android experience I've had and while my opinion may be jaded against android due to such a long history of lag and such I did get a bit of stutter exiting and entering apps, and while running angry birds and trying to check email it was not that great. :/ Also the browser and a few other aspects don't seem to be hardware accelerated but the apps I was running should not have been enough to cause such a definitive stutter. Perhaps I've been spoiled by windows phone 7 but I'm just used to everything being seamless.
xaccers said:
I've used WP7, it sucks, and I use Android at the moment, and it doesn't.
Android is smooth as silk, it doesn't need any long winded transitions to hide the lag of loading an app, I just tap on a shortcut and it opens.
Of course Android can actually have icons, we're not stuck with duplo CGA tiles to bore ourselves to death with.
Once again Zee, you've made comments that can't be substantiated (ie there are many hardware accelerated android devices) and been left looking like a fool.
Maybe one day you'll actually find something genuine to pick holes in Android with, there's plenty of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many means of picking holes, I have no interest in doing so. I haven't even bothered with these forums as I don't need to mod my devices to make them better than any android device on the market. I just came on to verify that it was safe for me to utilize my developer account on multiple windows phone 7 devices. I am still looking forward to the day that I am so blinded by an OS that I can't see the obvious lag or lack of even moderately decent coding. Windows Phone has wowed me more than any other mobile OS in existence but even it can't leave me completely blind. I do wonder how a static icon to leave the page looking cluttered and generally ugly could possibly beat out a live tile constantly updating me with all the information I need. Perhaps I just like uniformity across an OS rather than clutter, that's my style.
z33dev33l said:
I am still looking forward to the day that I am so blinded by an OS that I can't see the obvious lag or lack of even moderately decent coding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You think WP7 is good, congratulations, you've been living that day for quite some while, apparently so blinded that you haven't noticed.
I have 4 icons on my home screen, icons I can choose the look of, and the placement, showing off the beautiful animated wallpaper I have.
As for poking holes, I'd be tempted to believe you, after all so far you've not managed to poke any holes, however you start a thread making false claims about Android and it tends to look like you're trying hard.
z33dev33l said:
accidentally thanked you haha, enjoy .
I agree, it's the best android experience I've had and while my opinion may be jaded against android due to such a long history of lag and such I did get a bit of stutter exiting and entering apps, and while running angry birds and trying to check email it was not that great. :/ Also the browser and a few other aspects don't seem to be hardware accelerated but the apps I was running should not have been enough to cause such a definitive stutter. Perhaps I've been spoiled by windows phone 7 but I'm just used to everything being seamless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks
i used nokia phones for a long time and i never made the switch to android because there was a lot of stutter even with custom roms
that small split second of " stutter " really used to piss me off thats why i used non touch screen phones like nokia
they were super fast for what i used it for
then bought a samsung i8910
was a great phone with Symbian ,it had copy paste and the opera browser was awesome .... the the screen cracked after it for 5 meters .... still worked and used it for another 4 months and i was still waiting for the "perfect " android phone and when i saw the SG2 in action i was amazed .personally i dont see the stutter and that enough for me
i never wanted wp7 or IOS because i felt like i was in a jail( coudnt change launchers or overhaul the UI) ... that was basically it ,i just wanted a fast phone that i could upgrade forever until the OS would be soo heavy for the duel core
peace
xaccers said:
You think WP7 is good, congratulations, you've been living that day for quite some while, apparently so blinded that you haven't noticed.
I have 4 icons on my home screen, icons I can choose the look of, and the placement, showing off the beautiful animated wallpaper I have.
As for poking holes, I'd be tempted to believe you, after all so far you've not managed to poke any holes, however you start a thread making false claims about Android and it tends to look like you're trying hard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What it does have is not due to Google or Icecream or whatever pallet swap they're pumping out now. It is due entirely to Samsung so Android itself does not and will not have a hardware accelerated UI and it will likely never be fully implemented on any android device. I have 12 tiles on my homescreen, once for my calls, constantly updating with any missd calls or voicemails, one with my people which constantly cycles up to 9 friends at a time over the icon, all my friends or people I know, a messaging tab which keeps me updated on any missed texts and has a cool little face that shows different emotions based on the number of tabs, my hotmail which just keeps me updated there, my maps which shows my current or most recent destination, my internet explorer... pretty inactive... my me tile which cycles between a picture of myself and my son and any facebook/MSN notifications I might have, an xbox live tile which actively has my live avatar popping in and out (he's wearing a scorpion outfit, it pretty much rocks) and leads to the greatest game hub ever. My calendar that is pretty much my lifeline with this new job, my pictures hub that cycles between 30+ pictures of my little boy, a zune tile that shows my most recent artist listened to and a marketplace hub which constantly informs me of updates. All of this information is readily available with one swipe of my finger and I don't have to worry about whether that unlock is going to go through, whether I'll meet lag on the way down, or anything else. I can also pin literally anything to my homescreen but I don't like clutter. Overall it is without a doubt the most user-friendly user interface and is lag and clutter free, iOS can claim lag free, android can claim neither.
qwerty warrior said:
thanks
i used nokia phones for a long time and i never made the switch to android because there was a lot of stutter even with custom roms
that small split second of " stutter " really used to piss me off thats why i used non touch screen phones like nokia
they were super fast for what i used it for
then bought a samsung i8910
was a great phone with Symbian ,it had copy paste and the opera browser was awesome .... the the screen cracked after it for 5 meters .... still worked and used it for another 4 months and i was still waiting for the "perfect " android phone and when i saw the SG2 in action i was amazed .personally i dont see the stutter and that enough for me
i never wanted wp7 or IOS because i felt like i was in a jail( coudnt change launchers or overhaul the UI) ... that was basically it ,i just wanted a fast phone that i could upgrade forever until the OS would be soo heavy for the duel core
peace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Commendable enough, I do appreciate the ability to change launchers and such and force updates on your phone but neither of them are things I would've ever done if I hadn't needed them. That's why I swapped, the speed and functionality were just a plus... Plus no other mobile game can compare to ilomilo.
I had a nexus one since day one and there was never any lag on it. Seriously smooth on everything it did. I now have a sensation and there is some lag here and there because of sense (i used temp root to disable some bloatware and its much better now). I had an HD7 since launch and it was a great phone, really smooth but I missed some apps on my android and tethering so I gave the HD7 to my dad and moved back to android. Moral of the story, my dad loves his HD7 and I love my android phone.
Android is fine now as is. I use google everything so android just integrates better with that than any OS ever will. Google maps on android is amazing and free.
Seriously man, just let go.
For the record this is not the android general section and any post speaking of another OS as superior is not blasphemy, I am just repeating what was told to me by a high-ranking official working on the latest version of android. It is entirely up to the OEM to set up and always will be.
I notice significant lag on my Nexus One between the time I unlock the phone and when it becomes fully usable, that's using the stock Gingerbread 2.3.4 GRJ22. It's not a big deal though, I just have to wait a few seconds before things settle down before it becomes responsive.
I don't really notice hardly any lag on my Froyo Droid Incredible.
So, lack of UI acceleration... why should I care?
And actually, iOS is not as un-customizable as most would believe. There are plenty of themes and UI customization, I've even seen some emulating WP7 for whatever reason. All you need is to be jailbroken, a process easier than rooting many Android phones.
So far I have not found any way to jailbreak the latest version of WP7, it really is a phone for people who just want to use it the way Microsoft intended. I've read you can downgrade, install ChevronWP7, then re-upgrade and keep the jailbreak, but other than pirating apps, there's not really any benefit to doing that that I'm aware of as I don't believe the homebrew community has really taken off with WP7 (but I'm sure I will be corrected if I'm wrong).
z33dev33l said:
What it does have is not due to Google or Icecream or whatever pallet swap they're pumping out now. It is due entirely to Samsung so Android itself does not and will not have a hardware accelerated UI and it will likely never be fully implemented on any android device. I have 12 tiles on my homescreen, once for my calls, constantly updating with any missd calls or voicemails, one with my people which constantly cycles up to 9 friends at a time over the icon, all my friends or people I know, a messaging tab which keeps me updated on any missed texts and has a cool little face that shows different emotions based on the number of tabs, my hotmail which just keeps me updated there, my maps which shows my current or most recent destination, my internet explorer... pretty inactive... my me tile which cycles between a picture of myself and my son and any facebook/MSN notifications I might have, an xbox live tile which actively has my live avatar popping in and out (he's wearing a scorpion outfit, it pretty much rocks) and leads to the greatest game hub ever. My calendar that is pretty much my lifeline with this new job, my pictures hub that cycles between 30+ pictures of my little boy, a zune tile that shows my most recent artist listened to and a marketplace hub which constantly informs me of updates. All of this information is readily available with one swipe of my finger and I don't have to worry about whether that unlock is going to go through, whether I'll meet lag on the way down, or anything else. I can also pin literally anything to my homescreen but I don't like clutter. Overall it is without a doubt the most user-friendly user interface and is lag and clutter free, iOS can claim lag free, android can claim neither.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except, once again, you're wrong about the lag, you always have been, you always will be.
I don't like clutter, hence only 4 icons, the lovely animated wallpaper, and a subtle slide down notification bar sould I recieve new emails, texts, missed calls, open wireless networks, etc (It's so good even apple have copied it, give it a few updates and Microsoft will probably copy it too).
I don't want anyone who's looking at my phone to just be able to see what my friends are up to, why would I? So I just slide to another page and get the updates as they happen (of course if I was a saddo I could have that on my home screen).
A flick the otherway and I'm listening to my music, again I can have that on my home page if I so wished, but I don't like clutter such as the WP7 tiles force upon you.
Rather than having a tiny photo of my loved ones trapped in a tile, I can of course have them as full wallpaper images, cycling through the photos, after all, if you want to see pictures of your loved ones, 480x800 (or 960x800) is so much better than 173x173.
I recently upgraded from the iPhone 5s to the Galaxy Note 3.
This phone is a revelation and I want to try and give some indication why.
I have been using iPhones for many years with a detor to Android every few months (itchy feet!).
Whilst Android is clearly the more technically advanced platform, I always end up dumping the Android phone a few weeks later and returning to the iPhone.
Why ? mainly for two reasons. 10 years ago we used to say that a phone is mainly for phone calls. Internet was a limited and frustrating experience. Today I realise that I only use my phone 5% for calls, the rest is email, general messaging and browsing. The keyboard and user experience therefore become very important.
Apple software engineers really "get" user experience. I don't know how they do it but the keyboard on the iPhone is psychic. My typing is terrible but it manages to mostly get the right keys and if not, do the correct word substitution. It must estimate if you hit between two keys then pick the best letter in the context of the word you were typing or something like that. And then the word lookup is terrific and terribly accurate
Now Android keyboards gave me much worse typing. Not only that, but the word substitution was not automatic (no way of setting it). I could never get used to clicking on the correct word substitution after practically every word. This whole keyboard thing made me feel like chucking every Android phone in the bin after a few weeks (aka to ebay).
Recently, epiphany! I discovered whilst testing an Android phone, that savvy users actually never used the default keyboard (duh!). I found that SwiftKey app was pretty popular, installed it and bing!, now I had 95% of the apple keyboard experience.
That's the thing about Apple, you see it works great out of the box. Android you need to fiddle with it, and for many users they just don't have time or want to do this.
Step in the Note 3.
Ok, now the keyboard is great. I don't know whether it's the latest version of Android or a Samsung developed keyboard but many of the issues have been solved out of the box. One other thing though, due to the size of the screen they have taken the liberty of adding a fifth row of keys, the numeric ones. Genius! You know how frustrating it is when you are typing in passwords or email addresses with a mixture of letters and numbers, always having to flick between numeric and letter keyboards. Now problem solved. For the first time it seems an Android keyboard is better then the Apple one!
The other thing that frustrated me was the speed. Despite having better specs, Android phones have always had the occasional stutter. This can occur anytime, when scrolling, opening an app, etc.
The Note 3 seems 99.9% free of this. Again not sure if this is software development or brute force.
So whilst we are on the subject of brute force let's talk specs. The Note 3 has 3gb of memory, a quad core snap dragon 800 cpu running at approx. 2.3Ghz and a Adreno 300 GPU (yes, thats right, a graphics co-processor). The screen is a full HD 1920x1280 and is an AMOLED with Gorilla glass 3. AMOLED was invented by Samsung and its simply the highest contrast phone screen you can get. IPS screens, as used by the iPhone, have slightly more accurate colours and a slightly brighter maximum brightness, but the contrast on an AMOLED is quite striking. As well as 32gb of internal storage it has a microSD card. I put in a 64gb one so now I have 96gb of storage. Note that with Android you can install apps on the external card if you want, which is very useful.
This spec approaches many full computers!
Completing the specs it has a truly monster 3200MAh battery and a removable stylus built into the body. A stylus you say, back to the Pocket PC ? not quite, this is a whole new technology. For taking notes (aka the phone name) or drawing, its really very good. It also has a switch on it for a pop up menu and other fun.
Lets talk about the elephant in the room, the size. Samsung have been crafty here, the screen size is 5.7", only 0.7" bigger then the S4 but of course a world different from the iPhone 5. Samsung do have phones with bigger screens (e.g. the Mega) but in this bracket have clearly restrained themselves, e.g. compared to say the HTC One Max , Sony Xperia Z Ultra, etc.
This has paid off. The screen is larger and much more comfortable to use then a smaller screen, but due to the extreme thinness, lightweight and minimised bezel of the device, does not feel gigantic in the hand.
Its a personal taste thing and you have to push yourself to even try a device of this size. But the danger you run is that there is no going back. Even 5" screens look pokey, let alone the iPhone 5.
It fits fine in a jean pocket and you get use to it faster then you would think.
The main reason for me trying this in the first place was to attempt to replace both my iPhone 5s and iPad mini, which I take to work every day, with one device. Also cutting the need for two contracts. On a side note I have 4G contracts from EE and vodafone. Again its something you don't think you need, but once you have you can't go back to 3G. The EE network is more mature and has better coverage, I assume Vodafone will come up to the same coverage in time.
Lastly lets talk accessories. Samsung just get this much better then anyone else. There are all sorts of things, from charging backs (so that you can use wireless charging) to docks and headphones. However the key breakthrough is the S-View wallet type cover. This has a window in to allow the phone to show status reports of phone calls and texts as they come in, without having to open the cover. The phone is "cover aware" and formats a small square window to fit this window. It also switches on when you open the flip cover and switches off when you close the flip cover. This is just sheer genius. It sounds simple but it raises the functionality to a whole new level. The final piece of genius is that the cover replaces the back of the phone, so it doesn't add much to the bulk (although it does clverely add a less then 1mm overhand to protect the sides).
Samsung has always made excellent phones, but its no use denying that its basic design has been influenced heavily by the iPhone 3, which it has kept to slavishly.
With the Note 3 Samsung has finally carved its own genuine innovation into the market and created something quite special which is going to permanently change the direction of phone development.
Put it this way, Apple will be responding to this either this or next year, and not the other way round.
Its not surprising that this is one of the world's best selling phones. A busy central London Vodafone shop told me recently that Samsung had long ago overtaken Apple with sales volume, especially the S4, but now the Note 3 is their best seller. No surprises there.
Hello brother i have mi 11 ultra
And wanna new fold
Do you recommend fold mix 2 ?
And what you like and what you don't?
Why no answer?
Definitely yes if you like miui
Only if you don't have problems with chinese rom, bc mi fold doens't have global rom yet
I answered some of your questions on the other post but I will make my summary here.
1. Either:
a) you must not use Android Auto/ Google Assistant or
b) you must be willing to wait out the 7 days and comfortable rooting your device (with all the issues with banking apps that brings).
2. You must be prepared to suffer compromises on audio quality (very big difference) and camera quality (low light and stabilisation difference) compared to a similar priced candybar flagship.
3. You must be someone who babies their phone a little bit. I'm sure if I dropped this phone it would shatter into a million pieces (as with any foldable).
4. Compared to Fold 4:
a) it lies flat on the table without that stupid shape where the hinge is
b) fold is much less visible in my opinion
c) you would hope that Samsung has the fold technology "safer" given its the forth iteration. That said, haven't heard of any issues from Xiaomi owners thus far.
d) one handed operation is so much better on the xiaomi because of the front screen size and thinness
5. MIUI is a pain in the ass sometimes (10s lockout to enable third party apps for example) and there is a lot of fiddling around to allow apps to run in the background and turn off battery optimisation (prevents notifications from showing properly)
I have been using the Mix Fold 2 for over couple months now and it's awesome from a hardware perspective, with great in hand feeling and the cover screen is usable just like a normal phone, IMHO its definitely better than Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, 3 & 4!
However my biggest gripe is the OTT battery management of MIUI 13 it is a pain, sometimes there is a 10s lockout to enable third party apps for accessibility etc... Even when you have enabled this after while MIUI will randomly disable it in the background so you have to go through the whole process again so frustrating!!!!!
Maybe because it's a Chinese ROM that's its so aggressive either way for that reason alone I will not be buying a another Xiaomi phone in the future.
My next fold phone will most likely be a Honor Magic VS which is definitely getting a global release so the software should be be better optimised for western market, also very keen on the Google Pxel Fold due ETA May 23
The hardware itself is amazing - thin, light, the cover screen has an aspect ratio allowing to use it as your main screen if you wish; doesn't feel cramped like the Z Fold 3/4. You can feel the difference with a 8.02" screen; no other foldable gives you such an experience.
The crease is annoying though, especially if you happen to slide your finger across it when scrolling documents, websites, or playing. Despite the aforementioned, it hasn't been a deal breaker yet for me.
Camera - it's not flagship material, but I'm not a photo junkie, so I don't care.
Wireless charging - it's not present; quite convenient, but you can learn to live without it.
Expandable storage - not there, but same as above.
Audio is good enough; 99% of the time I stream my audio via bluetooth anyway, so I don't really care how it sounds on-device.
Battery - once you configure your device, disable some of the apps, it's exceptionally good, especially with such a big screen. I easily manage 6h+ of SOT while gaming.
Apps - it's a minefield of bloatware - one of the first things you need to do is uninstall them. Some can be removed via the app manager, others need to be deleted from profile 0 via adb.
Connectivity - OK for that generation; better than my SD888 devices.
WiFi is fast; As for cellular reception, I live in an area with terrible cell rception & can comfortably hold conversations on my Fold 2, compared to my other devices where the network often dropping or cutting me off in the middle of sentences.
Software - it's awful; the amount of tinkering to make it remotely acceptable for use is amazing.
Worse - some of the settings, like customization to the profile of each app's battery usage gets reset on reboot. You're forced to register/sign in to Xiaomi if you want to unlock some of the deeper customization features - example: USB Debugging (Security) split into 2 parts.
Some features are locked for use with Xiaomi apps - example: you can't change the launcher. Even if you do, you can't use fullscreen gestures.
After upgrading to MIUI 14/Android 13, my company apps stopped working, although I presume that's going to be affecting a small portion of users only.
It doesn't seem you can flash/boot a GSI (like phh's) yet. I'll hang on to this device for the time being, but if a more compelling offering comes out, I'll probably switch. I was hoping the Pixel Fold would be that device, but I wouldn't go for a gen1 from Google.
In summary - good hardware albeit with some compromises, horrific software experience.
Score - 4/7
adwinp said:
The hardware itself is amazing - thin, light, the cover screen has an aspect ratio allowing to use it as your main screen if you wish; doesn't feel cramped like the Z Fold 3/4. You can feel the difference with a 8.02" screen; no other foldable gives you such an experience.
The crease is annoying though, especially if you happen to slide your finger across it when scrolling documents, websites, or playing. Despite the aforementioned, it hasn't been a deal breaker yet for me.
Camera - it's not flagship material, but I'm not a photo junkie, so I don't care.
Wireless charging - it's not present; quite convenient, but you can learn to live without it.
Expandable storage - not there, but same as above.
Audio is good enough; 99% of the time I stream my audio via bluetooth anyway, so I don't really care how it sounds on-device.
Battery - once you configure your device, disable some of the apps, it's exceptionally good, especially with such a big screen. I easily manage 6h+ of SOT while gaming.
Apps - it's a minefield of bloatware - one of the first things you need to do is uninstall them. Some can be removed via the app manager, others need to be deleted from profile 0 via adb.
Connectivity - OK for that generation; better than my SD888 devices.
WiFi is fast; As for cellular reception, I live in an area with terrible cell rception & can comfortably hold conversations on my Fold 2, compared to my other devices where the network often dropping or cutting me off in the middle of sentences.
Software - it's awful; the amount of tinkering to make it remotely acceptable for use is amazing.
Worse - some of the settings, like customization to the profile of each app's battery usage gets reset on reboot. You're forced to register/sign in to Xiaomi if you want to unlock some of the deeper customization features - example: USB Debugging (Security) split into 2 parts.
Some features are locked for use with Xiaomi apps - example: you can't change the launcher. Even if you do, you can't use fullscreen gestures.
After upgrading to MIUI 14/Android 13, my company apps stopped working, although I presume that's going to be affecting a small portion of users only.
It doesn't seem you can flash/boot a GSI (like phh's) yet. I'll hang on to this device for the time being, but if a more compelling offering comes out, I'll probably switch. I was hoping the Pixel Fold would be that device, but I wouldn't go for a gen1 from Google.
In summary - good hardware albeit with some compromises, horrific software experience.
Score - 4/7
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all of these problems/complaints you have are easily solved by unlocking and rooting. anyone not willing to do that probably shouldn't get this phone.
knives of ice said:
all of these problems/complaints you have are easily solved by unlocking and rooting. anyone not willing to do that probably shouldn't get this phone.
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As probably should every user of every major flagship device.
Sarcasm aside, there are reasons why one such as myself, hasn't resorted to that alternative.
Apart from that, a large number of the issues can be solved via adb; no need to root.
ADB, knowledge, time.
..and here I am, a gorgeous, tactile experience, really monolite-like and premium materials.
finally the MIX brand shines again after years of tarnishing. I'm really excited about the aesthetics.
when unfolded is one of the nicest foldable experiences I had, a large display light to handle.
The crease to me is almost invisible, no problems at all.
Some doubts come from the software, chinese rom only, in social networks (for example whatsapp) messages do not always arrive on time (80% ok), which creates some problems.
usual things that Xiaomi NEVER solves..
I've been very impressed with the Mix fold 2. I came from the Fold 4, and was concerned it wouldn't feel as polished as the Samsung device. It's actually worked out the other way, the Mix Fold 2 feels generation's ahead design wise, closed, it feels like a normal smart phone, and whne open, its an an ultra thin tablet. Even in its 4th generation, the Fold 4 still didn't feel right.
My main concern with the Mix fold 2 was the software, being a Chinese phone. Thanks to the help on here, I have everything I need working just as I want, mainly my banking app, and notifications. For me, it feels smoother, and the animations are better than on the Fold 4. From various reviews, I read the camera wasn't as good as others. I must admit, I've been very impressed with the images produced.
jamesbilluk said:
I've been very impressed with the Mix fold 2. I came from the Fold 4, and was concerned it wouldn't feel as polished as the Samsung device. It's actually worked out the other way, the Mix Fold 2 feels generation's ahead design wise, closed, it feels like a normal smart phone, and whne open, its an an ultra thin tablet. Even in its 4th generation, the Fold 4 still didn't feel right.
My main concern with the Mix fold 2 was the software, being a Chinese phone. Thanks to the help on here, I have everything I need working just as I want, mainly my banking app, and notifications. For me, it feels smoother, and the animations are better than on the Fold 4. From various reviews, I read the camera wasn't as good as others. I must admit, I've been very impressed with the images produced.
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I agree. Got my Mix Fold 2 one week ago. Feels great to use. Do not think I ever will go back to a normal phone again. I am very impressed with the battery life. Screen on time when using the large screen is actually the same as on my Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro. According to Accubattery both phones consume 13% per hour when the screen is on.
The only important thing missing for me now is a virtual keyboard adapted to foldables in order to make typing on the large screen more comfortable. Microsoft SwiftKey has this functionality, however if I apply this setting the same keyboard is used on the smaller screen.
flipp0 said:
I agree. Got my Mix Fold 2 one week ago. Feels great to use. Do not think I ever will go back to a normal phone again. I am very impressed with the battery life. Screen on time when using the large screen is actually the same as on my Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro. According to Accubattery both phones consume 13% per hour when the screen is on.
The only important thing missing for me now is a virtual keyboard adapted to foldables in order to make typing on the large screen more comfortable. Microsoft SwiftKey has this functionality, however if I apply this setting the same keyboard is used on the smaller screen.
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Battery life is really impressive. We're on holiday at the moment, there's been quite a few times where the super quick charging has come in very useful too! I'll use that more than the wireless charging of the Fold 4.
I'm the same, after experiencing this, I don't think I would go back to a normal phone again.
I agree with regards to the keyboard. I'm using SwiftKey, it would be great to have the split on the larger screen, and smaller on the outer screen.
The phone is really nice and with a lot of tinkering, you can have almost everything working on the Chinese ROM.
However, I'd suggest waiting a little bit until the end of the month when the HONOR Magic Vs will be officially released in Europe with Google-friendly software.
The exclusivity of this device is in the lightness combined with the reduced thickness. This makes you forget the fact that it is a bit too high and thus makes it usable.
adwinp said:
The hardware itself is amazing - thin, light, the cover screen has an aspect ratio allowing to use it as your main screen if you wish; doesn't feel cramped like the Z Fold 3/4. You can feel the difference with a 8.02" screen; no other foldable gives you such an experience.
The crease is annoying though, especially if you happen to slide your finger across it when scrolling documents, websites, or playing. Despite the aforementioned, it hasn't been a deal breaker yet for me.
Camera - it's not flagship material, but I'm not a photo junkie, so I don't care.
Wireless charging - it's not present; quite convenient, but you can learn to live without it.
Expandable storage - not there, but same as above.
Audio is good enough; 99% of the time I stream my audio via bluetooth anyway, so I don't really care how it sounds on-device.
Battery - once you configure your device, disable some of the apps, it's exceptionally good, especially with such a big screen. I easily manage 6h+ of SOT while gaming.
Apps - it's a minefield of bloatware - one of the first things you need to do is uninstall them. Some can be removed via the app manager, others need to be deleted from profile 0 via adb.
Connectivity - OK for that generation; better than my SD888 devices.
WiFi is fast; As for cellular reception, I live in an area with terrible cell rception & can comfortably hold conversations on my Fold 2, compared to my other devices where the network often dropping or cutting me off in the middle of sentences.
Software - it's awful; the amount of tinkering to make it remotely acceptable for use is amazing.
Worse - some of the settings, like customization to the profile of each app's battery usage gets reset on reboot. You're forced to register/sign in to Xiaomi if you want to unlock some of the deeper customization features - example: USB Debugging (Security) split into 2 parts.
Some features are locked for use with Xiaomi apps - example: you can't change the launcher. Even if you do, you can't use fullscreen gestures.
After upgrading to MIUI 14/Android 13, my company apps stopped working, although I presume that's going to be affecting a small portion of users only.
It doesn't seem you can flash/boot a GSI (like phh's) yet. I'll hang on to this device for the time being, but if a more compelling offering comes out, I'll probably switch. I was hoping the Pixel Fold would be that device, but I wouldn't go for a gen1 from Google.
In summary - good hardware albeit with some compromises, horrific software experience.
Score - 4/7
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So, Nova Launcher wouldn't work on this device ?
What about AoD Notify ?!
nex_t said:
So, Nova Launcher wouldn't work on this device ?
What about AoD Notify ?!
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It will work with a workaround I mentioned in my debloat thread. You need to install the securitycenter, install the 3rd party launcher & reinstall the securitycenter.
Quickstep will not be working.
Thank you
I've read, there are some issues with the whatsapp notification
Is there a fix for this ? Could you please give more details about ?
I don't think I'd like to open the phone manually, to check if I have a message
Does the Nova Launcher works ? Aod Notify ? Youtube Vanced ?
And the last question : would it be possible to add another software button ( volume ) to the navigation bar ?
As the Good Lock for Samsung
Thanks, again
Well, bummed out about the Magic VS launch. Not coming to UK before July, and no release dates for other EU countries? Rly? It’ll be almost a year old when it finally arrives, not much cheaper than Fold4, and not long before Fold5 will be announced. Pointless.
Guess it’ll be a Mix Fold 2 for me anyway. Was going to get it close to 2 months ago but decided to wait for the VS…