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LG KS660 Dual Sim / Dual Standby first impression

Ok so right off the bat I'm not a professional phone reviewer. This is just me talking about a phone I'm excited about... I didn't post any pictures as I didn't take any yet, but I'm very pleased with the look and you can find plenty online.
So I've spent the last two weeks researching and looking for a good dual sim phone, with dual standby capability. Before I start, without a dual standby capability a dual sim phone doesn't let you take a call from one number, while you are talking on your other number.
This phone is the international version and is a triband 900/1800/1900 - as always be sure your service provider runs on the band before you buy a phone. It also has to separate IMIE numbers as well.
[This next paragraph is for entertainment only, so feel free to skip to the next one if you're not interested in a very good prank.]
I ordered this phone from Amazon and chose overnight shipping. Needless to say I've not been excited about a phone for a very long time, but this time I was. Unfortunately the last update was that it was checked into Memphis, which has all flights grounded. So, the 2nd day I check the tracking and I see that it's out for delivery, I hop in my car and start the 40 minute drive to my office to pick it up. 3 minutes out my manager calls me and tells me "it just arrived"... I arrive and I open my shipping box, upset that it's late but happy it's here. I pull out the phone box and open it up... only to see some piece of crap prepaid ancient mini brick phone. I instantly flip my lid, and for a split second I considered just snapping this piece of crap in half. I then dump the box contents on the floor, and then realize there is a group of people in tears laughing. Turns out my best friend cut the packing box open (from the bottom as not to damage the label) and put his crap phone in it. Anyways, on to my thoughts...
[Appearance] So, when I pull the phone out it's really quite nice looking. It has the shape and appearance of an Iphone, but it has the 4 hard buttons at the bottom. One nice thing comparing it again to the Iphone is that not everyone and their dog has one of these. Very slim form and smaller overall than the Iphone. I have not taken pictures yet, and have not completely tested it overall but I have already decided that it was well worth the $260 ($230 from another seller, but I paid the extra $30 for piece of mind).
The first thing I do is pair it with my windows mobile Smartphone and I then beam over all of my contacts. The windows mobile phone just sends them all, but I had to hit accept for every single file. Tedious, but much easier than actually re-entering them in by hand. After that I had to enter into the file explorer and choose reload for about 90% of them (one by one again). In the end they all transferred over, with attached photos. The only thing that didn't transfer was the ringtone assignments.
[Call Quality] Once I was able to get outside of work hours I placed both my personal and work sims inside the phone. I've tested it like crazy just on calls alone. First, the speaker phone is WAY louder and much more clear than my HTC Fuze (Raphael). In addition the call quality when not on speaker phone is quite nice as well. There were times when I thought I dropped the call because there wasn't that light hiss in the background. Next I tried calling out on the sim. When you dial a number, just to the right there are a couple of boxes and you just touch the sim you want and whalla, you're calling out on that sim. It also had no problem taking calls from one line while on the other. It's just like call waiting. The only negative to it is that the icon which identifies the sim is very small and in the top left of the incoming call, so it's somewhat hard to tell which line is ringing. Although I predict I will get quite used to it.
The touch screen is very responsive and is actually fairly easy to negotiate around with just using your fingers. The speed of the phone is nearly instant in everything you do, outside of accessing memory to change a ringtone or something (super slow). Granted I have a crapload of photos and ringtones on my microSD card.
[Features] It has some pretty cool features within the simple operating system. There are 4 hard buttons on the bottom, and 4 soft buttons at the bottom of the touch screen. The hard buttons are useful and make sense. The screen buttons are also good. There is one button on the bottom right that opens up a new menu on the right side of the screen. This menu has 4 long buttons that let you easily access everything you need within the phone. In addition there is a little rounded tab at the right side of the screen when you are in idle mode. The first tab allows you to access your "widgets" You can just drag them and drop them right onto the desktop, or drag them right back in. Out of the box the widgets are as follows: FM radio, round old school clock, Calendar, music, photos, world time, memo notes, missed calls, messages, and schedule. Really neat in that you can just place them where you want, and they all come out small but expand into the full featured widget. At the idle screen you can also slide your finger either right or left, and it makes the screen flip as if it was a cube. Your widget menu has not been replaced by a speed dial menu. Press any icon from 2-9 (1 reserved for Vmail) and it lets you choose a contact to associate. You can then drag that icon right onto the desktop of the phone as well. Overall very cool features so far.
The locking mechanism is quite nice as well. You can either unlock with a short hold on a key on the screen, or the lock key on the right side of the phone. About the only negative so far is that there isn't a slide to unlock, and you press the hard keys to answer or decline. I know at some point I will accidentally answer or decline someone while pulling the phone out of a full pocket.
Next onto the camera. 5M camera with a crapload of image settings. While the quality isn't nearly as good as my high end digital camera, it shares many of the same features. It has an LED flash, and you can really play around with the settings (assuming you are a camera buff, otherwise most will just confuse you). It lets you take quick action photos in sets of 3, 6, or 9 in fast succession too. it also has a video camera, but I didn't test it as of yet.
It has an FM radio which needs to have the dual earphone wired headset hooked up to it to use (typical). The headset of course has a microphone also for those of you who think talking on Bluetooth was invented by the "debil". (That's some high quality H20).
The PC suite that comes with it is pretty nice so far also. When you connect the phone you can choose between 4 options. One can be a music sync for all the music lovers out there, but my presumed favorite is that you can use the phone as a modem with the provided software (not tested yet). You can connect to your PC via USB or Bluetooth. I only wish my work computer would allow for me to install software! Oh well...
Text messaging and MMS is nice as well. You can choose most of the typical entry methods, but I've been having fun with the handwriting entry. Don't leave any gaps when you spell any letters, but it's cool to just write on the screen and have it put it right into a text. It's slower than using the on screen key pad, but a fun novelty for now. It doesn’t appear to have a full touch screen qwerty, but I also didn’t rotate it to landscape during testing so it could be there.
I did have one issue with my voicemail recognizing one number at AT&T, but after a long hold time they just reset my voicemail and both numbers worked like a charm in accessing vmail. One negative, and a fairly big one is that when I called both of my lines and left voicemails it still only put one voicemail notification at the top. It's not possible, or at least I've not figured out how to discern which line has the voicemail on it. Although when unlocking it puts a nice big box on the screen stating the calls I missed. In addition the missed call widget is nice to show missed calls as well.
About the only issue I am having so far is getting the internet to work. I want to test it just so I can verify it will work, and to mess around with the browser some. I intend to drop my dataplan as I only used it for my GPS previously, and since Santa brought me a full on GPS I know it's a wasted $30 a month.
[G-sensor] It also has what I think is called the G-sensor, or at least the thing that rotates the screen when you do. Also when you drag the widgets or speed dials onto the screen you can shake it to “snap them into place”. Personally I prefer to place them in the locations I want though.
So, in closing I love this phone so far. The last phone I was this happy with was the original Razr back when no one else but me and a select few had it (only a few other dummies willing to pay the $500 for it back in the day). I presume that I have missed a fair amount of things people may be interested in, so please feel free to ask for additional information and I will see if I can discern it from messing around with the phone. My HTC Fuze and Crap dual sim Chinese phones are officially retired. I’m sure I’ll snag another smartphone at some point so I can load up all of the tweaks from here, but for now it’s nice to have a phone that isn’t slow to respond and accomplishes my personal goals.

But no windowsmobile, right?
HI, thats a long review. Think a lot people are happy about it, cause it is a good phone i suppose.
But it's not windowsmobile,isnt it?
I need "dual sim" "dual standby", and find no windowsmobile phone that supports this. I have two china phones, which both drive me mad, more than windowsmobile ever did, so I finally want to find a solution.
Don't think this is the right thread to post my topic,so I'll search now for the right place here in xda-developers.
Cheers

Android Wear : A Retrospective

Okay so its been a while since the release of the first Android Wear devices, whats Changed ? Is it Worth It ? Was star trek onto something ?
Android Wear is still in its infancy, and clearly has a LONG way to come.
If your still undecided about getting android wear before the holiday period let me help you make your decision.
I have used both the Moto 360 & Lg's G Watch, so Im ignoring device Specific additions because thats not really anything to do with Android Wear its to do with the supplied hardware so don't expect to hear me talking about screen quality this is SOFTWARE ONLY !
After a summers use of Android Wear i have come to a conclusion that many may find hard to swallow and ill go through my reasons and thoughts lets start with what it does well.
From Now on Android Wear will be : AW
Driving :
It works perfectly in theory for driving, you can "Okay Google" and send a SMS or place a call ( provided it is safe to do so, or via BT in car audio ) Great ! you think but now the problems of reality occur.
If your Travelling to and from work / home e.c.t you may need to send a SMS or place a call to Standard numbers ( Home / Work / Mum / Dad e.c.t ) however asking to call " Joe Blogs *Insert work place name here* " is not always picked up correctly and AW.
The Screen will show a turning loading / thinking icon and do one of two things ( 1 ) Finally work it out but by this time you've given up or have tried again : (2) Sits there thinking and just times out and forces the watch to disconnect from your paired device.
Then you hit the issue of no phone signal and whilst driving you don't have time to check the tiny screen to see if the microphone icon shows that its ready and connected to accept your voice task again your sat there talking to your watch like an idiot.
Now android Wear has no way of telling you without looking that you have signal / Connection / ready to accept a command, so you may aswell have your phone hooked up Via BT audio in your dock and do it all via the stock Google now because its faster and easier to tell if you have reception.
As a Pedestrian :
This is a massive sticking point, you can glance at your watch to see the time ( and there should be a better option for the Date for all watch faces ) and the weather and that's about acceptable in society.
Talking to your watch to send an SMS e.c.t get you some funny looks and personal space, also you don't want the general public to know / hear about whats for dinner and your plans for the working week(end).
This can all be done from your phone and you won't look like you got beamed down by a passing space ship.
However Turn by Turn Navigation on your watch is great ! no longer glued to your phone screen burning up battery time trying to do a 15min walk you have never done before, AW handles this perfectly turn by turn !
Searching :
Google Android Wear , asking your watch to give you the 5 day forecast for your next holiday destination next week is a no go, your presented with a unreadable card crammed with search results and a swipe option to open it on your phone !? this bemuses me the whole point was to show us fast easy information.
This kind of task is better done on your phone and so are many other common searches like show me the nearest cash machine / Mc Donalds / Navagate to " Cinema e.c.t " this totally renders AW useless !
Asking for weather and time in other places or in your current region is fine as it seems to do these automatically as long as location reporting is activated on your handset.
Asking for anything beyond this well you may as well have used your phone or asked a passer by.
Alarms / Notes / Fitness Tracking :
These Functions work as advertised and as you'd expect on your phone and some even work offline ( Alarms / reminders / notes ), provided your hardware supports fitness tracking you can grab data using 3rd party apps or the soon to be released google FIT, however lots of phones already do this via a pedometer and there for this function is rendered useless because you end up with two sets of data that are quite different from each other ( I have logged 15,000 steps on my watch to find around 8,000 on my handset.
Phone Tasks :
Calling ( apart from the niggles described in the Driving section ) well here is a mess, accepting / declining a call is partly pointless accepting a call forces you to grab your phone and answer, so this option should be removed so you can only decline or view whos calling, I can hear my phone ringing from my pocket so i'll take it out to look if I can.
There is no option to answer a call and force it to be taken via speaker phone so if your doing a two handed task with your phone near by and some one calls you still have to stop, otherwise in situations like driving the accept call function is fine provided you can pass the phone to a passanger or are hooked up via BT audio.
Final Thoughts :
It works great In car provided you have signal and can shout at your wrist simple names and messages, and you don't already have a in car phone cradle set up where you have voice activation enabled - All of this will be super seeded by android auto so having AW for this reason alone is totally negated and you may aswell wait for Android Auto or carry on with your BT set up.
As of above the rest of AW is pretty useless because using AW is best in a car or doing two handed things where you can't stop and answer the phone, basic function is great and it looks nice but well though out functions are lacking and the actual deployment scenarios where its is applicable are far and few between for several reason stated.
Personally its a gimmick, and even for the G Watch's cheap price its still not worth it and i can't see it ever being.
Google's own voice actions on phones far surpasses AW's usefulness.
Possibly in developing markets I can see it being worth an investment for under $80 to pair with an android one device.
With my BT car stereo / Nexus 5 / Nexus 7 / PC computer its a nice luxury but thats about it, it doe snot let me achieve day to day tasks any faster than just having my phone around its just an annoyance.

I have a G watch and today it is pretty useless. I preferred my old Sony Smartwatch 2, it had better apps, I was able to check twitter, facebook, Whatsapp, call registry, whole sms emails in my phone. With android wear, by now I cannot.

I find it troubling that it has as much power under the hood as a low end smartphone but can't do nearly as much. If I was extremely busy and had bad memory I would use it more but for now it is just a fancy watch to me. I want to be able to actually open an app like Google music. Scroll through albums/tracks/etc. like I do the Google now cards. Use it as a remote for chromecast instead of pulling out my phone. I dunno. I can think of lots of cool things it COULD do but doesn't or won't ever do. Hopefully it is like chromecast and gets some updates and more features in the future. My Sony smartwatch 2 also had more function than the new aw.
Edit: I have read that the new sw3 will allow you to sync music to it and use it seperately from the phone as a music player. I will probably switch to that device simply for that feature alone. G watch is currently in its cradle collecting dust.
---------- Post added at 03:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:21 PM ----------
One more thing. This is silly, I'm sure its some kind of disorder, but I don't like to talk much. I prefer text or email when people contact me or I contact someone else. I don't like to use the voice commands in Google now or on wear. I just don't like to talk much at all unless I am in a real conversation with real people in person. That makes it hard for me to utilize this tech in its current state. If they just add more touch functionality I would be grateful.

I find that accepting calls is actually very helpful when walking or riding a bike.
I usually have a headset on, a quick glance at my watch shows me who's calling and I can decide whether it's appropriate to take the call while in traffic, noisier surroundings etc.
Having the option to accept calls with speakerphone would be nice though.
From my experience the main use case for Wear watches is quick access to notifications w/out reaching into one's pocket. As of now it's only a small usability improvement but the platform has more potential.

Thanks for the overview of your experience. I tend to agree with most of your observations. I have had the Sony, Galaxy Gear, Qualcomm Toq, and now the LG. All have their pros/cons. Everyone wants something different/specific out of their smart device. I am enjoying the AW experience but miss several capabilities I had with the other platforms. I want some ability to look at history of email/messages/etc.. that I lose after I swipe a card. Battery life is manageable but needs to improve if they expect the masses to embrace (Toq with low energy Mirsol screen 5 days continuous use).
I question who Google uses to test their software. They need to use others from outside their company to beta test this. Get a wide variety of testers (XDA Developers/College kids/Business professionals) to slap on a beta watch/software and listen to what they say. I know the Google developers have a vision of how they want the software, but quite frankly the Google Now experience is not my favorite.
AW 2.0 is due out soon. I don't expect a radical departure from the current approach. I do hope that the development kit will open up more so 3rd party developers can put in some of the capabilities myself and others like.
I am still a smartwatch geek and genuinely enjoy my AW watch. I think by next year we will have hardware and software that can accommodate the vast variety of different things we all want out of our devices.

I would use the navigation on my AW watch a lot more if when google maps navigation started up on the phone it could have an option to not unlock the screen. My phone is always in my pocket and screen always pointing inward to protect the screen if I walk into a table. If I set AW navigation, the phone screen will wake up and my phone often will register screen swipes through my pocket material next to my leg and do random things.
I feel that kicking off AW navigation, then having to take out the phone and switch off the screen and put back in my pocket makes the AW part a bit redundant.
Likewise with making calls if I am using a Bluetooth speaker or headset with phone in pocket.
I would much prefer Waze had android wear function than google maps anyway.
Also i find of I go to do a Google command on my watch about a third of the time the dumb options list with 'drink a glass of water' comes up and the watch stops listening. Then if I have my hands full I end up having to swipe the screen downwards with my damn nose to resolve the situation. I use mini launcher & would love a way to stop the stock app drawer from coming up at all.
That said I do have a really busy work life and find the reminder feature really useful & I use it for everything.
However, the alarm function which I thought would be useful is rendered pointless by it's insistence to only set any alarm to go off every day at that time, rather than a one off. The few times I have used it I end up at the same time the next day having to go into the menu & deleting the alarm once it has gone off pointlessly the next day as well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app

I can't help but agree with all the points the OP makes, my G Watch is currently gathering dust and awaiting the new update but I am not expecting much. Just like ruben46 I found my old Sony SW2 to be a much more useful device despite the superior hardware of the G Watch.

good thread.
i mostly agree with what's been posted, but much like when Quicktime 1.0 came out (160x120 video playing at 3-5 fps) AW has alot of growing up to do.
i'm a little depressed with the lack of activity in the watch & AW forums on here..there's not the kind of volume forums like the N4 and N5 enjoy..but that's to be expected with less than a dozen watches on the market that nobody is rushing out to purchase.
i'm excited about 2.0 and also the refresh (when it happens).
one thing not mentioned on here is the 'tinycam' webcam app. i have a webcam purchased for baby watching and when i get it set up, i think the webcam app could be useful anytime we're downstairs or something to get a notification if the baby is moving. same for using it as a security device.
i should point out i also bought a pebble for my brother but not sure if he really took advantage of it..i sure had fun setting it up for him.
so yeah..AW is very 'meh' so far but i think once the devs start digging in it will start to ramp up with new possibilities.
i'm holding onto the G and we'll see how it goes.

Android Wear, what I love and Hate

Ok as some of the members of this forum may know I got off to a shaky start with my Android wear watch (a Sony SW3).
I've now had it about four weeks and have over come the major problems I initially had, so I thought I would start a tread highlighting the things I love and the things I hate so others can assess if a smart watch is for them.
Firstly, what I love:
- Reading messages from Text, Email, Whatsapp and Messenger
It's so simply to just quickly look at my wrist see if I'm interested, if not I delete, if I am, may read further on the watch or if the message is to long, find my phone and continue there.
- Voice control
A really unexpected plus for me. I thought 'OK Google' was a bit of a gimmick at first, but how wrong could I have been. It's fantastic (OK, I feel a bit of a nerd saying OK Google to get it started, but that's a tiny problem). Driving and going to be late, OK google, Send text message to XXXX, then speak your message eg ' Sorry running late will be with you in 30 minutes. The translation is actually pretty accurate and it's done, you don't have to take your eyes off the road!
- It's an accurate watch, not sure where it gets it's time from but I guess it comes from the phone which in turn gets the time from the network which means no more setting, not running fast or slow. Not sure how it works when you change time zone though but I'll find that out soon enough.
- It's waterproof. Don;t forget to turn the touch screen off, but I've now been swimming with it, I regularly shower with it. Not a hint of a problem.
- Control you music system. I use Sonos around my home and I can turn the volume up and down, change track. Ok it's limited but it still an unexpected benefit.
- Control Bluetooth music with Spotify. Really a feature best used in the car. There's an app that will fire up Spotify on your phone which in turn will use the blue tooth audio to connect to your car. No more digging around to find you phone, unlock it, fire up spotify, find your play list etc etc etc.
- Incoming calls. Nice feature as I can decide if I want to take the call without having to find my phone to see who's calling.
What I hate (ok hate is a bit strong, but)
- The UI I think is not properly thought through You have al these options, tilt to wake, tilt to scroll through cards. Clumsy at best and a battery drain at worst (tilt to wake particularly) Even the touch screen to wake is not that cleaver as it can be operated but a lot of things touching the screen not just me, eg a sleeve, particularly one that is damp
- Voice control Ok I know I've said above that voice control is fantastic but it has one major down side, it needs internet connectivity. If it doesn't have it, it just doesn't work! Wish it would use the processing power of my phone to process voice.
- Wifi, ok I accept this is probably a bug, but wifi doesn't currently work properly, for some reason it will drain all the all the battery for no apparent reason and it does it very fast. I've now turned it off and only turn it on on the occasions because it's great to have full functionality
- Screen, the screen is fine, but that's damming it with faint praise. I would really like to see a higher quality screen and a little bit bigger would be nice.
- Incoming calls. When rejecting a call, it would be good to be offered a 'rejection message' that is sent via text giving a reason for the rejection.

When rejecting calls you can slide up instead of left por right swipe ano it will show up predefined messages that it will automaticly send to The caller.
::enviado do meu oneplus one via tapatalk::

My complaints (1 month usage) is the app tray feels bloated. Not every app needs to be displayed. Not every app has options set through the watch. Also the layout feels cramped to me. I would prefer some options (icons only, 1x2, list mode, 1x1 mode, text/no text, recent shortcuts at top on/off, etc.)
2. Embedded speaker for taking quick calls without digging for your phone last minute. 1 problem a watch introduces is that your phone starts to be left behind. I now leave my phone on the counter while I buzz around my home. Phone rings, its a mad dash down stairs to find my phone.
3. Some sort of keyboard. I'll take the old school T9 input. Just let me type a few things.

player911 said:
My complaints (1 month usage) is the app tray feels bloated. Not every app needs to be displayed. Not every app has options set through the watch. Also the layout feels cramped to me. I would prefer some options (icons only, 1x2, list mode, 1x1 mode, text/no text, recent shortcuts at top on/off, etc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download wear mini launcher from the playstore. It's a brilliant replacement that let's you customise the watch to how you want it.

I totally agree with you. I also use Android wear for
Reading messages from Text, Email, Whatsapp and Messenger
Voice control

Agree with some points according to my experience with my old android wear.
Hope my new one will work better.

My most of my complaints are solved with the Asus ZenWatch2. It is a solid upgrade to the LG G Watch. Once Marshmallow drops, we'll get a new app tray and speaker support (Zenwatch2 and Huawei) for calls.
I tried the alt launchers and it doesnt replace the stock launcher but runs over top of it. So it just adds to the chaos. However after the nostalgia wore off, I dont really use apps thus dont need to go into the app drawer.

Keyboard: try FlickKey
player911 said:
3. Some sort of keyboard. I'll take the old school T9 input. Just let me type a few things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try FlickKey Keyboard for Wear. It adds a keyboard to any app that wants to call it. Right now, that is limited to Wear Messenger, Coffee for Wear, and K-9 for Wear - you need one of those messaging apps to be able to use it. BTE, FlickKey is not a T9 style keyboard - it works better than that.

I have tried various keyboards. What I was referring to was an option, by default, in Android wear to have a keyboard input. I don't use any of those apps, thus having a keyboard right now would be irrelevant.

What apps would you like to use a keyboard with?
player911 said:
I have tried various keyboards. What I was referring to was an option, by default, in Android wear to have a keyboard input. I don't use any of those apps, thus having a keyboard right now would be irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I certainly agree that users should be able to decide for themselves if they want to use a keyboard or not, and which one they want on their smartwatch. What apps would you like to use a keyboard with? FlickKey can be added to any app with just about 15 lines of code. So message the dev who makes the app you want FlickKey in and let them know they can easily add it for free.

I find Android Wear to be very useful - when it works. Performance on my original 360 hasn't been very consistent either but I'm sure the S400 watches fare much better. Seriously though - every Android OEM needs to switch to AMOLED as soon as possible since it's much more suitable for smartwatch use.

I have installed AW on a Samsung Gear 2 (ported to the watch by @biktor_gj) and it runs really great !
Much much better than the default Tizen where it comes with normally.
Since I am using AW, I'm really hooked on it.
I love to be able to navigate with my watch and/or get notifications (from Google Maps) about any traffic jams or hold ups on my route.
I love to be able to use my voice to respond to whatsapp messages or even use my voice to make a new message without even holding my phone.
Really looking forward to the upcoming version (Marshmellow?), which suppose to have speaker support, because the Gear 2 has a build-in speaker.
So that means I can make calls too again from my watch (which is now only possible in Tizen, but not AW).

Hangouts and Messenger and Email (I know there are email clients that support wear and flickkey). I doubt Hangouts or Messanger will get it support.

Got update for my Gear S3 to Tizen 3.0 - packed full of new stuff

Hi.
Got all of my 258.5MB of Tizen 3.0.0.1 update last night....and it's packed full of new stuff.
The update itself was a bit bumpy and took a while to get the watch back in use, including having to do a complete reset because the watch faces I has installed myself did not work. I have re-loaded some and they work okay. It gives you an option to order them differently (e.g. newest first), which is useful.
I have not yet been through everything and need to get used to (and happy with) some changes, but it seems to be working okay now. Also, it seems I have more storage than before; it shows 2.53GB / 4.0GB.
You can get a full list of new functions here:
Thanks.
Hi again.
Had a chance today to look at some of the new functions and here are a few highlights:
=> You can now share your custom watch faces with others from your watch, by sending a message to a contact in your list. I tried and it seems to work, however, I will still have to check if it arrived and in what form.
=> Since I had to reload my custom watch faces, I modified a few and did a re-build. In the previous version, this a was longer step because it would not always build the face on my watch first time and i had to try a few times before it would load. Now, its done first time and is super fast!
=> To view your watch faces, if you turn the bezel (left&right), the view shows more faces on the screen, albeit smaller in size, but its really cool and lets you select from the thumbnail view.
=> The functions are grouped a bit differently, and it tells you what's included (e.g. Settings; Watch faces & styles - gives a list of what's included, which is helpful when searching).
=> There's a new Watch Only option, which is supposed to give you many days of use on a single battery charge. However, the screen just shows a simple digital watch view and times-out quickly - not really useful other than for an emergency (say, if you are hiking / traveling / on a flight and can't get it re-charged easily for a few days).
=> the inner circle of the watch is being used much more to provide new info (e.g. with colour-coding & text to tell you what you've selected - say if a set an alarm for 6.00am, there is a blue circle going from 0-6 showing how much time if left. Nice feature.
=> I think I already mentioned before that you can choose to re-order your watch faces, so you either get the same as before, or you can choose to get the new ones created at the start of the list, even before the stock faces. Useful when you have created many and would need to skip through them all to get to your latest face.
Anyway, there's much more to look at, so I think that's all for now. I feel happier with this update, now that I have got over the hassle of having to reset and reload my watch faces, plus a no. of other steps I had to do on the Gear Designer.
Thanks.
(Apologies if there are any typos)

1 terrible new feature is missing from the lists:
turning the watch away now not only puts it in standby/AOD, but also dismisses open notification pop-up and marks them as read.
so now half the time I get a notification it's dismissed the moment I try to read it.

Another useful feature is gone! The back gesture! Now every time I want to go back in the menus I have to reach for the back button!
Any way around that?

So I just updated to this update. I am using the watch maker app to get watch faces. I applied the watch face I've been using for awhile and the watch face font automatically changes to the font I have set for the watch. Is there anyway to keep the font as is from the designer?

Another awful thing missing from this update is how they fail to mention that 3.0 also made the notifications folder "read only" and you can now no longer have custom notification tones; you're limited to ringtones only. Wtf? SMH.

The-CROW said:
Another useful feature is gone! The back gesture! Now every time I want to go back in the menus I have to reach for the back button!
Any way around that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completley agree. I really like rest of the update. better design of infos, new "Status menu" fast access for example to audio and volume control and so on, but the deleted "back gesture" really kills me...

Tizen 3, S3 HRM and battery life
I gotta jump in on this. I've been a sammy user for many years, like most of you for sure. Phones mostly, a few major appliances, guitar (I think) and Gear S3.
Got the S3 in April. All was fine until August, '17. At that point the HRM went nutty most of the time. In S-health mode (all-the-time heart monitor during walk, run, ect. I'd walk 3mph walking my dog and HRM would record up to 205 BPM with a few reasonable periods around 90 BPM like I would expect from low exertion activity. Running 12 MPH same. Talked to the aweful sammy csr for warranty repair. Indian accent so thick you could tight rope on it. Huh? what? back and forth for 15 minutes. "Jesus, get me to someone I can understand", I was immediately transferred, and worked out the mechanics of the return quickly (If you cann sammy csr, unless you love punishment, as for a native English speaker). Sent it in, week later returned. Wore it on first workout: same-o, same-o.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/gear-s3/help/s3-heart-rate-monitor-wildly-reporting-t3666104
Started over, this time skipping India all together. Sent it in with a note. Week later comes back with a note: The watch is functioning properly. My take on that is "get over it".
Pissed as hell I call again, telling them I don't appreciate the attitude. They can replace the watch or return my money. I was told to send it in. I said **** you and hung up. I can't tell you how bad I wanted to slam the phone down. Good ol' days.
I'm using the watch like normal ever thought the HRM is a total waste. I'm looking for a suitable replacement, but the S3 is on a level of it's own. Damned you Samsung!!!
Enter Tizen 3. Right away I hated the new "functions", but the batter life. Horrid!! Reset, turned off functions like bezel on feature, weather, notifications: I was getting 1.5 to 2 days charge rather than 3.5 to 4 says I was getting on T2.
Not taking this: Called sammy csr, asked for native English speaker, then manager. The csr was ver comforting, and I held back as much as possible, and I was civil, but I had to tell someone at sammy how jumbled-up this whole stupid smartwatch thing was making me. I told her I would not just box it up and send it in for the third time unless she could convincingly assure me I would get this resolved, for once and for all. She was apologetic and made some notes, suggesting I include a screenshot of the activity.
I boxed the goddamn with a two page note, four screenshot prints and a prayer they would either figure-out the problems (HRM & battery) or replace the watch, using Tizen 2 firmware (even if not replaced).
This is where I am at the moment, waiting for the verification email that their service department received my device.
I've read other posts specifically related to decimated battery after flashing Tizen 3, but no one on this thread, up to now, has mentioned it.
You guys having battery issues? If so, how are you addressing these?

How's everything now?

Issue with black crush, adaptive brightness, notifications, Hotmail issue? and other.

Hello everyone!
Hopefully you guys gonna understand that I just got this phone 2 days ago and been a iPhone user since Iphone 4! (Went from Iphone 7 to P2 XL) So I hope I don't get too much hate because hey, after all. I bought the Pixel 2 XL 128 GB
Anyways where to start.. It's been very hard to go from iOS to Android but luckily I studied abit as a software dev. where we learned few things with Androids so I did know some stuff atleast but there is quite good benefits with Pixel 2 XL that made me go :highfive::silly::victory:
The camera, I can just say Holy crap.. I never seen so good camera in my life on a small device like this! No doubt about it, The customization on Android where you can enable bluetooth, locations and all that is a really good one too and the screen is also really beautiful, There is so much stuff that I like with it but also some stuff I still need to learn and that's why I am here, and hopefully I can get the help I want and also hope it's not gonna be very long text aswell.
Problem:
[*]Adaptive brightness
This one goes banana, hopefully im not the only one but I have never seen anything more sensitive brightness as Google's, Changes every page / app you use and feels quite annoying as it goes up and down all the time and it just kills your eyes slowly. I did find an app called Lux Lite that helped me quite abit but with lower brightness takes me to the next point which is...
[*]Black crush
Black crush, For those who maybe doesnt know what it is, basically you can follow it up by watching this youtube clip: youtube[DOT COM]/watch?v=CYMRRn2Fu1s (Yes, im a newbie and joined today )
- Simply showing when you reduce your brightness, the dark color disappears and becomes totally black - The reason I want to use it is just against the night when very strong brightness kills your eyes just at bedtime. I usually check NBA and Twitch Just before I fall asleep, and now maybe it will sound racist but that's just love! Basically basketball players that are dark-colored and make them completely black and you only see their matchwear and it ruins a small part of the match.
I have looked into other videos and found that the issue is not only with Pixel 2 but also coming now to Samsung phones and basically the new Oled where the company gives a bad calibrations. Im not sure what Iphone uses if its AMOLED but look etc. at iPhone X, probably one of the best
detailing in dark areas of all phones that I have tried and sure I could have bought that phone but also i'm surprised this is not anything is talking about in any youtube reviews so I don't know whatsup with this but this is slowly making me go back to my iPhone 7... I hope im not the only one?!?!?!
I did find an app called Screen balance that helps it abit but I mean... 945$ for a Phone that I need an APP that I NEED to buy to make it look good?! Come on?!
But please, don't take this offensive now. It still gives a really good picture at high brightness! no doubt about it.
[*]Notification
Well, This might be a fix that someone that as more experience than me in Android now so basically I will make a construction of what I want and maybe someone can help me out?
Basically on Iphone there is a button on the left where you toggle to turn on or off the sound and what's happends basically is it just kills all sound if the toggle is on and what I did is that I turned off vibrations so basically I get everything notifications just without sound and vibrations AND thats what I want to make on the Pixel 2 XL now, What I have done so far is to hold the volume down button until it changes to Do not disturb and in the settings I turned on everything but now on the Screen "Where you just see the clock" it just sometimes gives me like small icons AND sometimes it gives me like a big notification like iPhone did.. but however, Is there another way I can do this like so its more instead of just the small icons and to check? Because etc when Iam at work I can usually see if something pops out on the screen (Can even be a pop out for 10 sec) but now it can be very hard if it's only a small icon adding. Hopefully you understand ish what I mean!
[*]Email Hotmail issue?
This is a combination of notification and not, basically what I have seen this is not as fast response as Gmail, basically if I get a email from Gmail, the notification usually pops out instantly BUT when it comes to Hotmail, this can take over 15minutes until the email even comes to the Gmail app (Where I connected it with my Hotmail since it had that option). and I sometimes can't risk it when im waiting for a important email to come where I wait too long so I need to check pretty often manually to see if I get one.. Now the issue is I don't know if that is a issue when Don't distrub is on or if its the Gmail application, Does anyone have any solution for me here?
[*]Snapchat
Well what to say here, Im not sure but I do think this isn't a issue coming from the phone itself but Snapchat, The quailty is just awful, Im sure my Nokia 3310 would make a better picture than that on Snapchat :fingers-crossed: but anyways the quailty is horrible and maybe there is a way to make it atleast abit better or something, I know that Snapchat is alot better with iPhone and also this isn't a big issue, like its not end of the world to get this worked nownownow but I do feel like it could be atleast at the same level as Samsung quailty atleast?!
Now I think im done and hopefully I did not overkill and I do hope from bottom of my heart that I could get all the answers of my questions and hopefully it's not hard to read since my English isn't the best one but I did try my best and hopefully I could love my Pixel 2 XL as much as I did on my iPhone! Help me newbie out!

I don't have other issues but my main issue is my pixel 2 non xl is black crushing. It looks like absolute garbage at night like in bed. Some videos I can't watch it gets that bad.

My phone is a Pixel 2 (which this forum is about) rather than a 2XL, so some differences may be related to the different hardware. I've not enough experience with the 2XL to compare.
Adaptive brightess: actually I don't have a problem - it works pretty well, perhaps occasionally I want to raise it a bit in dark conditions (I normally have the slider set between 25-30%, as I find that more comfortable than higher brightness), but otherwise the only time it causes problems is if I use the phone in portrait mode and shade the sensor with my hand.
Black crushing: my phone is a 2 rather than a 2XL, so has a different display panel. I don't have a problem in any of the images I've used for testing until I set the (non-adaptive) brightness below 5%, and even then I'm not in a very dark room at the moment so it may be that I'd see more if I were. But as it's a different panel that's probably not relevant.
The iPhone X is using a Samsung OLED screen. At best it will be the same technology that Samsung use on their current phones, but usually they sell 3rd parties a slightly older revision. So any differences will be in the tuning: Samsung do tend to assume that people want excessive saturation and contrast, so I could imagine them tuning in a way that crushes blacks. The 2XL uses an LG panel: it's fundamentally the same technology (p-OLED and AMOLED are just branding names: both are plastic substrate active matrix OLEDs), but a different company's implementation. People generally reckon Samsung are a bit ahead of LG in that game though.
Notifications: TBH I don't bother with "Do Not Disturb" - I do it old school, with a quick setting tile to toggle between Ring (which is Ring and Vibrate for me), Vibrate and Silent - the latter is neither ring nor vibrate. Not as convenient as the silencer switch on the side (which OnePlus have copied, but then Apple copied it from Palm in the first place), but not much in it (wake phone with fingerprint scanner, swipe down on scanner to reveal quick toggles, then tap it - only takes a couple of seconds in total). I'm not completely clear about the rest of your description of small icons vs big notifications, especially what you mean by "small icons": do you mean little dots on app launcher icons, or a small icon in the notification bar that tells you that there is a notification tile if you pull down the slide? Your "do not disturb" preferences include an option to block visual disturbances, so maybe check how that is set. Some apps handle notifications in different ways. Some apps can use the notification light to inform you that there are notifications waiting, which I find helpful (mind you I turn off the always on display, may be different for you).
Hotmail: I don't use hotmail, but the obvious question is whether you have set it up to use imap push (so you get notified immediately) rather than the phone regularly to see whether there is new mail. It sounds like your email client may be polling every 15 minutes.
Snapchat: I've never used snapchat in my life, so can't help.

Thrillofit said:
Hello everyone!
Hopefully you guys gonna understand that I just got this phone 2 days ago and been a iPhone user since Iphone 4! (Went from Iphone 7 to P2 XL) So I hope I don't get too much hate because hey, after all. I bought the Pixel 2 XL 128 GB
Anyways where to start.. It's been very hard to go from iOS to Android but luckily I studied abit as a software dev. where we learned few things with Androids so I did know some stuff atleast but there is quite good benefits with Pixel 2 XL that made me go :highfive::silly::victory:
The camera, I can just say Holy crap.. I never seen so good camera in my life on a small device like this! No doubt about it, The customization on Android where you can enable bluetooth, locations and all that is a really good one too and the screen is also really beautiful, There is so much stuff that I like with it but also some stuff I still need to learn and that's why I am here, and hopefully I can get the help I want and also hope it's not gonna be very long text aswell.
Problem:
[*]Adaptive brightness
This one goes banana, hopefully im not the only one but I have never seen anything more sensitive brightness as Google's, Changes every page / app you use and feels quite annoying as it goes up and down all the time and it just kills your eyes slowly. I did find an app called Lux Lite that helped me quite abit but with lower brightness takes me to the next point which is...
[*]Black crush
Black crush, For those who maybe doesnt know what it is, basically you can follow it up by watching this youtube clip: youtube[DOT COM]/watch?v=CYMRRn2Fu1s (Yes, im a newbie and joined today )
- Simply showing when you reduce your brightness, the dark color disappears and becomes totally black - The reason I want to use it is just against the night when very strong brightness kills your eyes just at bedtime. I usually check NBA and Twitch Just before I fall asleep, and now maybe it will sound racist but that's just love! Basically basketball players that are dark-colored and make them completely black and you only see their matchwear and it ruins a small part of the match.
I have looked into other videos and found that the issue is not only with Pixel 2 but also coming now to Samsung phones and basically the new Oled where the company gives a bad calibrations. Im not sure what Iphone uses if its AMOLED but look etc. at iPhone X, probably one of the best
detailing in dark areas of all phones that I have tried and sure I could have bought that phone but also i'm surprised this is not anything is talking about in any youtube reviews so I don't know whatsup with this but this is slowly making me go back to my iPhone 7... I hope im not the only one?!?!?!
I did find an app called Screen balance that helps it abit but I mean... 945$ for a Phone that I need an APP that I NEED to buy to make it look good?! Come on?!
But please, don't take this offensive now. It still gives a really good picture at high brightness! no doubt about it.
[*]Notification
Well, This might be a fix that someone that as more experience than me in Android now so basically I will make a construction of what I want and maybe someone can help me out?
Basically on Iphone there is a button on the left where you toggle to turn on or off the sound and what's happends basically is it just kills all sound if the toggle is on and what I did is that I turned off vibrations so basically I get everything notifications just without sound and vibrations AND thats what I want to make on the Pixel 2 XL now, What I have done so far is to hold the volume down button until it changes to Do not disturb and in the settings I turned on everything but now on the Screen "Where you just see the clock" it just sometimes gives me like small icons AND sometimes it gives me like a big notification like iPhone did.. but however, Is there another way I can do this like so its more instead of just the small icons and to check? Because etc when Iam at work I can usually see if something pops out on the screen (Can even be a pop out for 10 sec) but now it can be very hard if it's only a small icon adding. Hopefully you understand ish what I mean!
[*]Email Hotmail issue?
This is a combination of notification and not, basically what I have seen this is not as fast response as Gmail, basically if I get a email from Gmail, the notification usually pops out instantly BUT when it comes to Hotmail, this can take over 15minutes until the email even comes to the Gmail app (Where I connected it with my Hotmail since it had that option). and I sometimes can't risk it when im waiting for a important email to come where I wait too long so I need to check pretty often manually to see if I get one.. Now the issue is I don't know if that is a issue when Don't distrub is on or if its the Gmail application, Does anyone have any solution for me here?
[*]Snapchat
Well what to say here, Im not sure but I do think this isn't a issue coming from the phone itself but Snapchat, The quailty is just awful, Im sure my Nokia 3310 would make a better picture than that on Snapchat :fingers-crossed: but anyways the quailty is horrible and maybe there is a way to make it atleast abit better or something, I know that Snapchat is alot better with iPhone and also this isn't a big issue, like its not end of the world to get this worked nownownow but I do feel like it could be atleast at the same level as Samsung quailty atleast?!
Now I think im done and hopefully I did not overkill and I do hope from bottom of my heart that I could get all the answers of my questions and hopefully it's not hard to read since my English isn't the best one but I did try my best and hopefully I could love my Pixel 2 XL as much as I did on my iPhone! Help me newbie out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might be better at posting this on the pixel 2xl thread
Sent from my Pixel 2 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

gvsukids said:
You might be better at posting this on the pixel 2xl thread
Sent from my Pixel 2 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh you are right, My bad, I just created a new there! Thanks for that!
Large Hadron said:
My phone is a Pixel 2 (which this forum is about) rather than a 2XL, so some differences may be related to the different hardware. I've not enough experience with the 2XL to compare.
Adaptive brightess: actually I don't have a problem - it works pretty well, perhaps occasionally I want to raise it a bit in dark conditions (I normally have the slider set between 25-30%, as I find that more comfortable than higher brightness), but otherwise the only time it causes problems is if I use the phone in portrait mode and shade the sensor with my hand.
Black crushing: my phone is a 2 rather than a 2XL, so has a different display panel. I don't have a problem in any of the images I've used for testing until I set the (non-adaptive) brightness below 5%, and even then I'm not in a very dark room at the moment so it may be that I'd see more if I were. But as it's a different panel that's probably not relevant.
The iPhone X is using a Samsung OLED screen. At best it will be the same technology that Samsung use on their current phones, but usually they sell 3rd parties a slightly older revision. So any differences will be in the tuning: Samsung do tend to assume that people want excessive saturation and contrast, so I could imagine them tuning in a way that crushes blacks. The 2XL uses an LG panel: it's fundamentally the same technology (p-OLED and AMOLED are just branding names: both are plastic substrate active matrix OLEDs), but a different company's implementation. People generally reckon Samsung are a bit ahead of LG in that game though.
Notifications: TBH I don't bother with "Do Not Disturb" - I do it old school, with a quick setting tile to toggle between Ring (which is Ring and Vibrate for me), Vibrate and Silent - the latter is neither ring nor vibrate. Not as convenient as the silencer switch on the side (which OnePlus have copied, but then Apple copied it from Palm in the first place), but not much in it (wake phone with fingerprint scanner, swipe down on scanner to reveal quick toggles, then tap it - only takes a couple of seconds in total). I'm not completely clear about the rest of your description of small icons vs big notifications, especially what you mean by "small icons": do you mean little dots on app launcher icons, or a small icon in the notification bar that tells you that there is a notification tile if you pull down the slide? Your "do not disturb" preferences include an option to block visual disturbances, so maybe check how that is set. Some apps handle notifications in different ways. Some apps can use the notification light to inform you that there are notifications waiting, which I find helpful (mind you I turn off the always on display, may be different for you).
Hotmail: I don't use hotmail, but the obvious question is whether you have set it up to use imap push (so you get notified immediately) rather than the phone regularly to see whether there is new mail. It sounds like your email client may be polling every 15 minutes.
Snapchat: I've never used snapchat in my life, so can't help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally my fault that I bringed in Pixel 2 XL into a Pixel 2 thread, that's so stupid of me and I can understand the reason why you couldn't give me the reason I have issues with! but I still appreciate the answers you could bring in here!
About the notifications, if you search on google for ( android 8.1 always on display ) that's what I meant with small icons. But you are right with the notifications, I have found out that every app gives different notifications and some of my apps have really bad notifications, that sometimes they dont even pop out :silly:
About the hotmail it is exactly the issue there, I did set it up in Google gmail and it says it is IMAP but I could only have it on every 15 minutes, Downloaded Hotmails program and its the program that doesn't give me notifications.

Oh, if you meant the Always On Display then actually I don't use it in "always on" mode! I have to tap to wake it, so all I can say for sure is that while many apps leave a notification, if I wake it a second time it just shows the icon. What I don't know is whether in always on mode it would switch to just showing the icon after some time, or when another notification comes in, or whether it would stay there until you interact. There are some that I've never seen show text, but most of those are persistent things I'd not want to show it anyway (e.g. showing that the "WhatsApp web" app on my computer is active is something I'd not want an actual text message for). If you wake the screen with the power button you can usually see more detailed notifications on the lock screen than the always on display.

Large Hadron said:
Oh, if you meant the Always On Display then actually I don't use it in "always on" mode! I have to tap to wake it, so all I can say for sure is that while many apps leave a notification, if I wake it a second time it just shows the icon. What I don't know is whether in always on mode it would switch to just showing the icon after some time, or when another notification comes in, or whether it would stay there until you interact. There are some that I've never seen show text, but most of those are persistent things I'd not want to show it anyway (e.g. showing that the "WhatsApp web" app on my computer is active is something I'd not want an actual text message for). If you wake the screen with the power button you can usually see more detailed notifications on the lock screen than the always on display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah exactly! I turned it off and it is like you said, That some applications doesn't show any text or anything but just an small icon on the always on display and sometimes it does show a preview notification (Like a bigger notification) so thats what curious me like what's the reason of that :fingers-crossed:

I've never been very systematic in observing what gives what sort of notification, not least because if I think there's anything significant I tend to unlock the phone to look. I know that some types of notifications never show anything more than an icon (e.g. as mentioned the notice that the WhatsApp companion app on my laptop has connected). Some, such as calendar and email, I know do. I assume that it's linked to the type of notification, but haven't studied in enough detail.
As a test I just turned my ambient display to always on and sent myself an email. A detailed notification appeared for a few seconds, before disappearing and being replaced by the small app icon. With the display set off but to wake when new messages arrive it shows the full notification for a few seconds, and just the icon when I wake it. With it not set to wake the screen for new notifications then when I woke it with a tap I got the full notification even though it had been delivered about 30 seconds earlier (but only the first time I woke it). Personally if I were designing it I'd give options for the more detailed notifications to persist, rather than just be replaced by an icon after a few seconds, but I don't think Google have done that.

For snapchat u can enable camera HAL in developer options to improve the quality mine did

jaggillararla said:
For snapchat u can enable camera HAL in developer options to improve the quality mine did
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done that and there was no difference for me

Thrillofit said:
I have done that and there was no difference for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try reinstalling it. I've heard Snapchat is building a new app version from scratch so I'm crossing my fingers it will be better
Otherwise idk what else to do to improve the quality