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[Q] Experts, what's the phone for me?

Hello everyone,
I would like some advice from you guys as I think you know what you're talking about (and I don't in this area )
Situation:
* not an IT'er, hence not informed about these things
* Current phone = Nokia E51
* Has a long battery life and hence very reliable
* I have a long commute to work every day
Lots of time (waiting) on the train
Would like a phone to mitigate the boredom
Expectations for a new cell phone:
* Battery life of minimally 24 hours
I want to be able to take it off the power grid at 7am on a friday only to have to plug it back in again around 7am on saturday with quite some power (20-25%-ish) to spare
* After having done the following:
some texting and a few minutes of calls throughout the day and evening
browsing/using youtube/watching some movies or listening to music for +-2hours
being able to go out with it at night and google some random stuff (i.e. checking which movies they're playing etc.)
without having to worry in any degree whatsoever that I'll be left with a dead phone in case something unexpected happens during the night (car breakdowns or other accidents, hospital visits, friends or family who urgently need to contact me, etc.)
* Other points of interest:
Budget doesn't matter too much, can be cheap and can be expensive
Screen needs to be fit for reading on the internet/some pdf's etc
No physical keyboard
I do not care about the camera functions
Already took a look at:
* Windowsphone / blackberry (Not my cup of tea)
* HTC (Have only heard bad things about this, and all the people I know who had one got rid of it)
* Iphone (Itunes annoys me, and so do the apple people who freak out about their cell phones)
* Samsung Galaxy S2
Was blown away when I saw this phone
Went to order it yesterday after having read unanimously positive reviews (techradar and such)
Then read about the battery life span which renders it useless to me (had no idea that people can live with that kind of thing in this day and age)
Cancelled it about 2 hours ago and got my money back, thankfully.
* Nokia 5800
link to phone
My brother has this and is happy about it
I can't imagine there's nothing better on the market than a 3 year old phone
So long story short:
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you guys might have for a phone that would suit me. Perhaps I'm too demanding for current technology?
Thanks guys.

When I got the Galaxy S the Battery life was maybe 8 hours. After rooting the phone deleting all the bloatware and installing a custom rom, Well.......... 30 hours +/-.
The point is battery life is soley contingent on how you set up the phone and what you do with it. Frankly, out of the box, Samsung sets the phone up poorly. That is how forums like these got started, They saw great hardware and sucky software.
Now, The S2 is awesome hardware, and the development on it is just beginning. I would recommend you read the S2 forum general and development sections. You are going to find that people have addressed the battery problem.
My Galaxy-S Phone I bought 2 batteries so I would never have to worry about battery...... now, I do not know where the spares are it has been so long since I have needed them.
I would be using the S2 if it was available here in the USA NOW. But we still have to wait 45 days more.
Read up on that forum here is the link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1055
Right Now the best phone out there is the S2
Stick with the Android Format it is way more flexible Win-7 is decent but not enough support, and win7 and Iphone do not make it easy to modify the phone.
Other than the email syncing advantage on the Blackberry it offers nothing else. Android long term is the way to go.
Hope that helps

Yes I followed that forum for a while, which is what made me cancel my order for the S2.
People are getting horrible battery life out of it that is nowhere near the 24hour minimum range I'm requiring, and I doubt they'll be adding 50% to the battery life it currently has.
On a different forum where I posted the same question, one advice that has come in by now is this:
Motorola Defy with Cyanogenmod that puts the latest android OS on it.
I'd like to have a few options though so suggestions are still more than welcome.

I would still go for the GS2 despite the battery issues it will be a great phone

schmeather said:
I would still go for the GS2 despite the battery issues it will be a great phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no "despite" the battery issue I'm not buying a phone to babysit it.

[Q] Considering a tf300

Hi everyone, As title states i am looking to buy a tf300 to replace my aging hp dv6000 laptop running vista (yes i know why u stayed with vista, got used to it) At this moment I do not need a laptop as my desktop will be able to manage everything but do require something on the run enter tf300..
I do have a couple of questions if someone can answer them that would be great!
1. I have heard that the tf300 drains battery whilst the screen is off i have read things like the acer a510 has the ability not to drain battery whilst screen is off. Has there been any development that will help achieve this?
2. There is great rom development here with this device, has development help improve battery with this deivce? review stats indicate that the tablet on its own is only good for 8 hours with dock it may get you to 11 hours..
Any help will be much appreciated.
Cheers.

It would be a great idea to check out the Dev. section of the tf300t's forum to see if they have got a ROM that improves battery life. (There is, but I'm to lazy to find the link )
That said are you considering getting the keyboard dock with the tab as well? I would highly recommended it, and it would go to increase the battery life of the tab.

Ok thanks I will have a look see, yes of course I will get the dock my trade off will be battery life though but with the only brand to have keyboard and android power its hard to move away from

Yes it drains when the screen is off. Someone said they lost %6 over 24 hours with the wifi left on. At that rate it would take over 2 weeks to completely drain it.
Imagine the rate would be less if you keep the wifi off. Don't take any of that as a guarantee, just word from one unverified source.
And there's always development going on. It's a fairly popular device that's new on the market. There's bound to be plenty of things coming from the community over the coming months.
One thing to also consider is how fast the TF300 charges. It only takes a couple hours to put a full charge on mine. Much better than some other tablets *cough ipad cough*.

cool thanks for that, i know what u mean that other tablet.. somehow one has managed to make its way into the house...no its not mine its my mums..

Like pretty much every other device, there is battery drain when sleep. But it's not like you'll wake it with half your battery gone or anything. The drain will be in the low single digits, like 2% or 3% Most people who have the tab only charge once every one or two days. Sometimes even less.

Ok cool, well I have just made my purchase hopefully it will be ready for pick up sometime tomorrow, it was $598AUD but I had some gift cards and filled a money jar worth of coins so I am going to be paying about $300 for a new tf300.
Thanks guys for your inputs.
Cheers.

Just got my tf300 looks amazing. I have a noob question... Should I be putting my existing Gmail account on my phone to link to the tablet or should I make a brand new account? Reason is if I use my existing one will that back up everything on my phone to the tablet and if I were to flash roms and recover everything will it screw around with it? First time tablet owner Btw
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

I have the same two Google accounts linked on my tablet and phone with no problems.

Ok so nothing conflicts by using the same account?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

Nope. Google can tell which device you're using. If you go to the Play Store on a computer, when you install an app, it will give you a list of all the devices you're logged into. It won't restore apps from one device onto another.

and it's even better if you use the same account, because it automatically syncs whatever (from google and their products, services,...) you have in this device to other android devices you sign in.

Awesome thanks guys, everything is running great thus far only problem i have come across is the mouse on the keyboard can be a bit laggy at times other than that its great!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA

Upgraded from charge to a Note 2

Title says most everything.
I was traveling across country when my Charge's battery gave up on me. I did like this phone. I stopped in Fargo, ND at a local verizon store and asked if anyone around had a battery. they were helpful and looked all around plus where I was traveling to. No batteries in stock. Of course I could buy one online but that would take days to get delivered. When traveling 1400 miles, one doesn't want to go phoneless for long incase there is trouble.
So I upgraded to a Note 2. I like it a lot but I still don't want to let the charge go away too quickly. I have a neighbor who could use it on his wifi. If only I could find some batteries cheap. My neighbor is legally blind and uses a motorola droid 2. I think he is only able to text because he can tactile feel the buttons on his screen. Regardless, I would like to give him this charge to try if I can find a decent battery cheap enough.
That is about it. I have moved on to a Note 2 and want to keep this charge alive. Any help would be appreciated. Especially if I can keep my low sighted neighbor connected.
God bless
Gonk

Gonkulor said:
Title says most everything.
I was traveling across country when my Charge's battery gave up on me. I did like this phone. I stopped in Fargo, ND at a local verizon store and asked if anyone around had a battery. they were helpful and looked all around plus where I was traveling to. No batteries in stock. Of course I could buy one online but that would take days to get delivered. When traveling 1400 miles, one doesn't want to go phoneless for long incase there is trouble.
So I upgraded to a Note 2. I like it a lot but I still don't want to let the charge go away too quickly. I have a neighbor who could use it on his wifi. If only I could find some batteries cheap. My neighbor is legally blind and uses a motorola droid 2. I think he is only able to text because he can tactile feel the buttons on his screen. Regardless, I would like to give him this charge to try if I can find a decent battery cheap enough.
That is about it. I have moved on to a Note 2 and want to keep this charge alive. Any help would be appreciated. Especially if I can keep my low sighted neighbor connected.
God bless
Gonk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
easy enough. i did this when I gave the Charge to my son. after rooting and installing tweaked 3.2, I was able to install apps like android firewall to prevent his games from accessing the internet.
I then set the phone to airplane mode, then turned on wifi. only problem is that each time the phone reboots, you'll need to enable wifi.
hope this helps.

Gonkulor said:
Title says most everything.
I was traveling across country when my Charge's battery gave up on me. I did like this phone. I stopped in Fargo, ND at a local verizon store and asked if anyone around had a battery. they were helpful and looked all around plus where I was traveling to. No batteries in stock. Of course I could buy one online but that would take days to get delivered. When traveling 1400 miles, one doesn't want to go phoneless for long incase there is trouble.
So I upgraded to a Note 2. I like it a lot but I still don't want to let the charge go away too quickly. I have a neighbor who could use it on his wifi. If only I could find some batteries cheap. My neighbor is legally blind and uses a motorola droid 2. I think he is only able to text because he can tactile feel the buttons on his screen. Regardless, I would like to give him this charge to try if I can find a decent battery cheap enough.
That is about it. I have moved on to a Note 2 and want to keep this charge alive. Any help would be appreciated. Especially if I can keep my low sighted neighbor connected.
God bless
Gonk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also just left the SCH-I510 for the SCH-I605 (this week). Loving the new toy.
Not sure if I can help you in respect to your low sighted neighbor...
Cheap batteries are on eBay, if you don't mind wait. search for "sch-i510 oem battery", last I checked they ran $6-7ish.
I am playing around with a WIFI only ROM to use as foundation for a music player. Not sure if there will be tangible benefits of disabling the non-WIFI Radios, but it might be fun to see. If you are interested let me know...
No promises on when I'll have something to share. For the most part I've got it built, just need to teach myself how to package it as a recovery install zip, or make an ODIN Image.
PS for your neighbor a tablet with a larger screen might be in order. I've got an Acer Iconia A500 that I just rooted/unlocked/ROMed last week. I noticed they are getting cheap on swappa. With ICS+ and the Xposed framework and app settings module you could customize the fonts... just thinking out loud.

A way to tell the 'mileage' equivalent of a device? (usage history/battery cycles)?

Hi xda,
So I'm trying to sell my used google pixel -- 120gb (mint condition.)
The thing is -- that It's essentially brand new in terms of usage, it sat on my desk used sparingly for many months due to getting busy with life and
purchasing two phones with only meaning to keep one. And now that I want to sell it, I want to be able to convey that in my Swappa posting that its essentially more 'new' than the manufacturing date may imply.
Is there any statistic that Android carries onto the hardware/bios of the phone that cant be wiped/reset without some difficulty, that can serve the same purpose of an odometer in a car? (Or another example -- when you sell DSLR's used on the open market they often post things like 'shutter click count' sort of stats, to indicate the 'mileage' on the body of the unit).
I've looked into battery cycles but so far found nothing solid, hoping more android pro's know something that can help~!
Also ive looked into battery specific apps, but most seem to ask for root access, and while I can root it, I think some sellers might not prefer it, especially if it'd be only for the purpose of finding one or two statistics. Any other way, or are such stats essentially meaningless on android?
thanks!!

you could just say that it hasnt been used much. honestly, whats more important is how much warranty is left on the phone, especially the pixel since many of them have hardware issues popping up.

The only thing I've seen that comes close to what you're asking for i had on my galaxy s6. It was phone info Samsung app and it gave all kinds of info about the device including how many times the charger had been plugged in as well as the headphone plug. Mine had been plugged in what seemed like a ridiculous amount of times. I think it was well over a thousand, not sure how that's possible. I don't have root now so I can't get that stat out of it anymore. Not sure if there is something similar for other phones.

In us but allways got exnos version cause I require root but hated the lack of carrier aggravation. Now seems snapdragon is root able. Whitch to get

Just wanted to find some opinions on what to get basically it's been awhile since I was on her and my note ten is having the cold battery can't charge issue so Im looking what to replace it with and need root and loved the functionality of a fully unlocked bootloader but I missed the great speeds of a US phone since I'm in the US so wonder what I shoud do?

Too cold, won't charge?
You think it's a mobo failure on the 10+?
I've never seen that warning. Use something like DevChek to view all the sensor temperatures.
May just be a battery failure. They're good for about 2 years on a heavily used phone, my lasted 1.5 years and failed.
I'm looking at getting a second Note. My choices are another 10+ or a new 20U. It will likely be another 10+; it a solid, stable, fast phone with no glaring issues. If still running on Pie, that's a huge plus, Android 10 and especially 11 just suck. I don't have high hopes for 12.
So if it's the battery or C port PCB*, just replace and wait for the 2022 Note release.
From what I've read the Snapdragon has a better chipset architecture and instruction set.
They seem to be notoriously hard to root. Probably not a good choice for rooting.
I know you can optimize a stock 10+/Pie, not sure how well that will go with Android 10 and above. Some of the functionality isn't there for valuable 3rd party apps like Karma Firewall's logging feature. You can still use Package Disabler or ADB edits to kill the bloatware though.
On newer high dollar phones is many ways rooting is a liability especially with warranty/insurance and you lose Knox, Samsung Pass etc if you use that junk. There are those especially on this forum that swear by it but won't acknowledge their cost in time (which can be and typically is huge) and inconvenience.
Stock Androids/roms are easier to troubleshoot and more secure. If there are issues with a stock setup there will be thousands or more with the same issue making solutions more likely and easier to find. With a custom setup you are on your own which can quickly implode into a time sucking blackhole in more ways than there are stars.
If I was going to root it be an older Note... not a brand new one... risk/time vs reward.
*the C port PCB may have a temperature sensor, not sure. It can cause a lot of bizarre issues in seemingly unrelated systems like internet connection, I know that for a fact. Make sure if you do replace it you get the exact PN that on that PCB or it will not function properly! Both the battery and C port PCB are relatively easy to replace with the proper tools and skillset. Both are cheap, under $50. Make sure you replace the back cover OEM seal with the same or equivalent if you open it up. Do not use generic double sided adhesive tape!

And the award for Longest Post Title and Longest Run On Sentence In A XDA Post goes to...
*Nervously opens envelope*
@ressegger !!!
*Raucous applause*

ressegger said:
Just wanted to find some opinions on what to get basically it's been awhile since I was on her and my note ten is having the cold battery can't charge issue so Im looking what to replace it with and need root and loved the functionality of a fully unlocked bootloader but I missed the great speeds of a US phone since I'm in the US so wonder what I shoud do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes ,
i had this same issue of yours ,
"to cold to charge" can't charge ,
notice/issue .....many years back .
Can't remember which device of mine it was , think it was a Samsung Tablet A 2016 .
Anyway ,
Took devices to Samsung Service Centre.
It was the USB charging port .
They did not charge me much for the repairs .
Got it fixed and device charging normally / working fine afterwards.
My point is whatever you do or decide do not "throw/give "device away .
It's a small fix.....!
good luck

I am running the US snapdragon spammy 20 - ultra rooted up with boot loader unlocked thanks to afane and his advanced bros, although due to the lock down on many features such as scoped (controlled) storage preventing apps from being installed outside of the control room (googel store), did I mention notification sound got locked down too?