I think it's got a cute camera, but all around it just... sucks. The battery is even worse than my Nexus 5, and the phone is just ugly, especially in the front, in my opinion.
Actually I like the design much better than the M9, not too worried about the battery, and it seems HTC has finally overcome it's greatest flaw in its camera.
Wish it has a dual SIM function (it's important in SE Asia and developing countries) and waterproof.
Otherwise, it's pretty nice.
I just can't believe they are still plastering a fugly logo on the front taking up valuable screen real-estate. I'll never buy another HTC as long as they keep doing that. At the very least they got rid of the "hardware" buttons... except then they replaced it with a larger hardware button copying samsung and apple. The waste of space is just terrible. Nexus 6 has slightly more than half an inch in top/bottom bezeling combined while these things look like they are rocking 1.5 inches or more!
Not to mention it's looks like a sad copy attempt at newer samsung/iphone styles - hardly unique at all. I don't think the copy-cat ploy is going to work for the third guy doing it. I'd bet money that this is yet another flop.
http://www.xda-developers.com/the-a9-is-not-the-hero-htc-needs-nor-the-one-it-deserves/
Xenosis said:
I just can't believe they are still plastering a fugly logo on the front taking up valuable screen real-estate. I'll never buy another HTC as long as they keep doing that. At the very least they got rid of the "hardware" buttons... except then they replaced it with a larger hardware button copying samsung and apple. The waste of space is just terrible. Nexus 6 has slightly more than half an inch in top/bottom bezeling combined while these things look like they are rocking 1.5 inches or more!
Not to mention it's looks like a sad copy attempt at newer samsung/iphone styles - hardly unique at all. I don't think the copy-cat ploy is going to work for the third guy doing it. I'd bet money that this is yet another flop.
http://www.xda-developers.com/the-a9-is-not-the-hero-htc-needs-nor-the-one-it-deserves/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the design is necessarily a bad thing. It may be emulating Apple, but it's still metal and it will appeal to quite a number of people, if not for the design then for the build quality alone. With that being said, the battery is most likely gonna drag the phone down, unless they can do what the Moto G is doing with their battery, which by the way is larger than the A9.
Also, I hope there are capacitative back and recent apps buttons to complement the physical home button. Otherwise, the home button kinda becomes redundant, even with a fingerprint scanner, because you have the full set of controls on the screen right above the home button.
Using HTC 8 years now but couldn't find new model for me. Like the design but inside phone is not what you expecting from phones these days.
Just to hang for time that HTC makes serious phone I switched to OnePlus 2.
HTC A9
Very bad design, I think they need to change thier concept designer and CEO then they try to find another inspiration like One M7 & 8 and I think they will not be able to do that until they think out of Apple hater Box
bennaye said:
I don't think the design is necessarily a bad thing. It may be emulating Apple, but it's still metal and it will appeal to quite a number of people, if not for the design then for the build quality alone. With that being said, the battery is most likely gonna drag the phone down, unless they can do what the Moto G is doing with their battery, which by the way is larger than the A9.
Also, I hope there are capacitive back and recent apps buttons to complement the physical home button. Otherwise, the home button kinda becomes redundant, even with a fingerprint scanner, because you have the full set of controls on the screen right above the home button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bad? nah. Sad? I think so. Who needs more of the same thing? It's because they are failing that they decided to copy what they thought would be a safe bet. Personally I'm not even too bothered by the small battery as I pretty much always keep my phones around 50% and up as wherever I am there is usually a place to charge them. Fast charging will make that even more feasible. (Probably their logic)
In my opinion, the fingerprint scanner should be on the back of every phone, like many are already doing, not the front. Or even on the side makes more sense. It should be in a place that is easy to access with only one hand. The bottom of the front of the phone makes it so you have to support it with the other hand while swiping to do it comfortably.
My point is that any capacitive/hardware buttons that can be done in software are redundant and they are especially atrocious when taking up screen real estate. When done in software, the screen can be 1/3 inch to 1/2 inch larger.
When I got my One m7 way back, I thought it was awesome and compared to what was out there, it was. That is until other phones came out that were the same size but had smaller bezels, didn't waste space with a giant logo and capacitive buttons. A clear successor in design IMO.
Maybe it's just me but since everyone can do nice specs, a decision on a phone comes down to smaller things and for me, screen size/quality is one of the most important. The way the front of the phone looks is important, and how well utilized the space is is important. HTC has always done a horrible job utilizing space well so far as I've seen.
I hate it. The design is fine but why? Don't copy Apple just to get a few new users to switch. Stick with the M8 style design with some differences. Bezeless? The specs are not that great. They even removed boomsound wtf. (unless it is considered a mid range phone).
They need to spend some money and get ultra specs. They need a 4k screen, ultra boomsound speakers that are really loud with a pop out speaker like the old HTC Surround while keeping it a thin phone, Snapdragon 820 with 2 gh and 3-4 gigs of ram, a 25 ultra pixel rear camera with Nikon DLSR sensors to bring the ultimate in picture taking and making it the best camera phone ever even better than some stand alones, 6 ultra pixel front facing cam, 3500 MaH battery. Now if they did that, I'd buy that in a heart beat or are these features too unrealistic?
HTC needs to realize people care about what is written on the specs sheet next to the phone in a phone store. People see low numbers (even though the processor may optimize it to make the low numbers feel like higer for example battery MaH) they will go to another phone that has higher numbers on the specs sheet.
I just really hope they change their mind about their design philosophy to me its not a good change, but I applaud the hardware and the fact they have marshmellow running on it already
MsEvyLynch said:
I hate it. The design is fine but why? Don't copy Apple just to get a few new users to switch. Stick with the M8 style design with some differences. Bezeless? The specs are not that great. They even removed boomsound wtf. (unless it is considered a mid range phone).
They need to spend some money and get ultra specs. They need a 4k screen, ultra boomsound speakers that are really loud with a pop out speaker like the old HTC Surround while keeping it a thin phone, Snapdragon 820 with 2 gh and 3-4 gigs of ram, a 25 ultra pixel rear camera with Nikon DLSR sensors to bring the ultimate in picture taking and making it the best camera phone ever even better than some stand alones, 6 ultra pixel front facing cam, 3500 MaH battery. Now if they did that, I'd buy that in a heart beat or are these features too unrealistic?
HTC needs to realize people care about what is written on the specs sheet next to the phone in a phone store. People see low numbers (even though the processor may optimize it to make the low numbers feel like higer for example battery MaH) they will go to another phone that has higher numbers on the specs sheet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree with you on this, HTC hasn't copied from Apple. But it is other way round.
This is the design that HTC has pioneered and continued to evolve. There is a reason why iPhones and Samsung devices now look like they do, because HTC has a superior design. They always seem to fall short when it comes to specs and marketing.
Xenosis said:
My point is that any capacitive/hardware buttons that can be done in software are redundant and they are especially atrocious when taking up screen real estate. When done in software, the screen can be 1/3 inch to 1/2 inch larger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point was that since HTC already went with a physical home button at the front which doubles as a fingerprint scanner, they might as well include the other capacitive buttons. Having just one button on the front seems kinda pointless. But I do agree that the fingerprint sensor should be on the side or on the back.
MsEvyLynch said:
I hate it. The design is fine but why? Don't copy Apple just to get a few new users to switch. Stick with the M8 style design with some differences. Bezeless? The specs are not that great. They even removed boomsound wtf. (unless it is considered a mid range phone).
They need to spend some money and get ultra specs. They need a 4k screen, ultra boomsound speakers that are really loud with a pop out speaker like the old HTC Surround while keeping it a thin phone, Snapdragon 820 with 2 gh and 3-4 gigs of ram, a 25 ultra pixel rear camera with Nikon DLSR sensors to bring the ultimate in picture taking and making it the best camera phone ever even better than some stand alones, 6 ultra pixel front facing cam, 3500 MaH battery. Now if they did that, I'd buy that in a heart beat or are these features too unrealistic?
HTC needs to realize people care about what is written on the specs sheet next to the phone in a phone store. People see low numbers (even though the processor may optimize it to make the low numbers feel like higer for example battery MaH) they will go to another phone that has higher numbers on the specs sheet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, first of all, anything that has to do with Nikon sucks. Second of all, complaining like that just makes you look bad.
herzig.grant said:
Dude, first of all, anything that has to do with Nikon sucks. Second of all, complaining like that just makes you look bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not complaining, I'm just stating what HTC needs to do to get back where they need to be. Going this route is just making it worse for them.
Honestly I think it is a dumb a** phone and it seems like HTC is in self destruct mode
MsEvyLynch said:
I'm not complaining, I'm just stating what HTC needs to do to get back where they need to be. Going this route is just making it worse for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you have a point.
I've used HTC phones basically for almost every upgrade I had. I found their build and quality to always be top notch. What I liked about HTC is that you can almost always unlock the bootloader and go the custom rom route and the boomsound speakers. The One A9 ditched everything to try to get more people to like HTC. What I want is a HTC phone with top notch specs 5.1-5.5" screen, I could care less about finger print scanning but sure whynot, a nice shooter with OIS and a competitive price point and I think they should be able to get back. Sense skin on the HTC is what makes the experience unique.
nice especially the design though I'm not impressed with its built and other stuff. sticking with the N5 ndysf
Best thing about HTC these days is still Sense interface. Stock android, Samsung etc...OS/look/feel is garbage. I remember when I first got the Nexus, the one with the led trackball..years ago. I almost dumped that thing in 1 day until I found the ability to get an updated Rom with better apps/design and look/feel of the phone. HTC was a saving grace. Get rid of Blinkfeed, keep the clean/polished apps of Sense and interface...and put some real serious hardware in the phone.
Only good thing about this is going to be marshmellow/developers and the ability to have all carriers supported and unlocking out of the box in the US. Otherwise, from the forums, you can see how support of the M9 and later variants have decreased over the years.
Don't know. Maybe sell the M9 and try the A9...I don't do much with my phone, and the little I do, I really need a better polished interface that Apple/MS have done well for years versus the Android.
Shoot, been playing with Candy 5 on my M9 which is pretty close to Marshmellow and standard Android, what a piece of garbage interface/apps they still produce Google....pretty pathetic considering.
Unfortunately, I'm on Verizon for the next year...likely jump ship in 14 months and go back to something like ATT/Cricket and universal/GSM phones. Good thing my wife/kids have iPhones that will work on any network already. Just need to dump my VZW M9 and move on with my life...gheez. The mobile/cell phone business is really a joke with many manufacturers, such a cluster these days and so many options, most Android.
Related
What a beautiful phone !!
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
The main thing, or the sum of the parts, about this phone, is that HTC have put all their previous experience into the form factor and it shows.
For such a large screen device it feels small and light in the hand. It also looks smaller then it it.
The alu/plastic back is the perfect shape for holding and setting down. The front glass is lovely and the way you take the back off is the best way - no slide off shell that almost breaks everytime you do it, rather a release button and a smooth slide off. Even the slide-off is confidence building - the back encircles the main phone can curves round at the top. This ensures no rattling and also sealing the internals nicely.
The build quality is light and day difference from the Samsung Galaxy SII, for example. The Samsung is light and feels cheap. Worse, the last one I looked at in an O2 shop had a piece of velcro on the back slicking it to a small stand. Repeated removal meant that the thin plastic back was warped, one corner stuck off exposing some electronics and the middle had a nasty fold down it meaning it was hardly attached.
HTC Sense is the next jewel in HTC's crown. Sense 3D is no big upgrade but after some configuration it appears as jewel like as the body (I have a B&W picture background from the HTC collection) with dual clocks on the home screen, and a swiss watch skeleton clock on the lock screen).
Operation is fast and smooth. There are occasional jerks but I am sure this will be dealt with with a firmware upgrade (after all, multi-core CPUs are just introduced to Android).
The screen is a joy. Not so bright or contrasty as a AMOLED, but fantastic in its own right. The one criticism, if a bit picky, is that the contrast drops off sharply as you look at an angle. The extra 100 pixels either way over the normal high-spec android is really really useful for surfing and email (540x960).
Main gripes:
1. Not many apps using multi-core cpu
2. Not many apps using full screen resolution
3. Volume on ear piece could be a bit higher
All-in-all a great software effort for HTC's first dual core release but hardwarewise a mature and well thought out build with real ownership pleasure.
I think you could make the Moto Cliq sound amazing. You just made me so excited to have this phone.
What a phone.
Cheers
remember dude, new phones come out every 2+ Months.. And every 6 Months to a year the technology in the phone will increase and become the norm.
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Nice try, HTC Sales Deparment.
StefanB86 said:
Nice try, HTC Sales Deparment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey, I'm really open to commission if anyone is offering
dbirdflyshi said:
remember dude, new phones come out every 2+ Months.. And every 6 Months to a year the technology in the phone will increase and become the norm.
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
looks like a 1980s list
Sony xperia play -come on - no review says that ....
I would definitely own the Sensation over the iPhone 4, any day of the week. It's not even close. To me, that's a significant statement to make given how the iPhone has pretty much dominated.
Hey,
I've just come from having an iPhone 4(had it a year, and got bored), and this is my first Android phone. I must say i am happy with the phone, but the best phone ever? Not yet.
The iPhone has a great Retina screen and its build quality is great. But you have to jailbreak it to get some basic features, like bluetooth, customising themes, tethering etc.
The Sensation is great out of the box, not a snappy as i anticipated i think due to sense. But i has everything i need as stock.
Sound is a bit low, and crackly sometimes. But i am impressed.
Cant wait to root it and unlock the real speed of the phone
nick
dbirdflyshi said:
Best phone of all time still is handed to the iPhone 3gs
Best android phone of all time is still the Nexus One
Best Graphics phone is the Sensation
Best Power of the CPU is the Sensation
Fastest Phone: Thunderbolt
Best Gaming Phone : Tied Sony Xperia Play / G2x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah like the other dude said, this list looks... off a bit.
Sensation is beautiful but the best graphics?
3Gs the best phone ever? Really?
Nexus One, the best android phone ever? Maybe only to the dev community.
Fastest - Should read fastest data speeds, then yes I would agree with that one. In terms of overall responsiveness, then no.
Gaming phone - could be any Galaxy S1 (Power VRSGX540 is still a beast), GS2, or any tegra2 device out there. The Xperia play has an Adreno 205 GPU which makes it decent at best, physical controls and all. But it lines up with the rest of Sony's product lines - They make a lot of good stuff, just never the best.
colonel said:
looks like a 1980s list
Sony xperia play -come on - no review says that ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your lucky i didnt mention the N-Gague
BBOOZE said:
I would definitely own the Sensation over the iPhone 4, any day of the week. It's not even close. To me, that's a significant statement to make given how the iPhone has pretty much dominated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same way but..... give iPhone 4.3" screen and T-mo bands and we'll talk again. I don't like apple, SJ or their nazi ways but there's something fascinating about having a device that just. works. out. of. the. box. Mind you, this is coming from Android follower since day 1 (Got G1 on the day of the release). I'm sick of rooting phones just to make them work and I thought that Sensation will be the phone I can live with. I mean it does sound great on paper but in real life - software on it is big heaping pile of ****. I truly believe that HTC is getting too comfy being one the biggest names in Android game and they are cutting corners left and right. Guess what - it shows.
Can't wait for S-off and CM.
colonel said:
What a beautiful phone !!
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
The main thing, or the sum of the parts, about this phone, is that HTC have put all their previous experience into the form factor and it shows.
For such a large screen device it feels small and light in the hand. It also looks smaller then it it.
The alu/plastic back is the perfect shape for holding and setting down. The front glass is lovely and the way you take the back off is the best way - no slide off shell that almost breaks everytime you do it, rather a release button and a smooth slide off. Even the slide-off is confidence building - the back encircles the main phone can curves round at the top. This ensures no rattling and also sealing the internals nicely.
The build quality is light and day difference from the Samsung Galaxy SII, for example. The Samsung is light and feels cheap. Worse, the last one I looked at in an O2 shop had a piece of velcro on the back slicking it to a small stand. Repeated removal meant that the thin plastic back was warped, one corner stuck off exposing some electronics and the middle had a nasty fold down it meaning it was hardly attached.
HTC Sense is the next jewel in HTC's crown. Sense 3D is no big upgrade but after some configuration it appears as jewel like as the body (I have a B&W picture background from the HTC collection) with dual clocks on the home screen, and a swiss watch skeleton clock on the lock screen).
Operation is fast and smooth. There are occasional jerks but I am sure this will be dealt with with a firmware upgrade (after all, multi-core CPUs are just introduced to Android).
The screen is a joy. Not so bright or contrasty as a AMOLED, but fantastic in its own right. The one criticism, if a bit picky, is that the contrast drops off sharply as you look at an angle. The extra 100 pixels either way over the normal high-spec android is really really useful for surfing and email (540x960).
Main gripes:
1. Not many apps using multi-core cpu
2. Not many apps using full screen resolution
3. Volume on ear piece could be a bit higher
All-in-all a great software effort for HTC's first dual core release but hardwarewise a mature and well thought out build with real ownership pleasure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more! This phone has made, by far, the best first impression (and continued) of any new device I've purchased in years.
I'm not sure why the 3GS was brought up here - I went from the 3G to the 3GS and really didn't feel it was worth it (it was a free upgrade through work, so what the heck). The original iPhone can get a mention, but I wouldn't give any of the subsequent models anything special.
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
DSF said:
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the galaxy s 2 is faster but perhaps new htc software will make it up
however the margin is not worth it compared to the terrible build or Fischer price os
DSF said:
I was a htc fan for a long period of time. Now i'm cured..
OP: go to youtube and watch some comparison videos between sensation and galaxy s2.
How can you claim that? Damn, some people just cannot accept the reality.
How much free usable ram do you got? Can you play full hd videos with flash?
Strange...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a d*ck move you pulled there. Go back under the bridge from which you came. The OP didn't once claim that this phone was better than the GS2. He was merely stating that he's in love with his phone. Nothing wrong with that. Everyone already knows that the GS2 is superior performance wise. Now go back to your Samsung forums and leave us be.
colonel said:
Best phone of all time ?
Well not if you want a small phone or a keyboard, but it you want a bigger screen smartphone this has to be yes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then what's this?
Smart reply what can I say..
@colonel, well sgs2 feels solid in hand. No cranks, etc.
I'm posting here just because I don't like when the true is distorted. I could easily chose the sensation but for me the sgs2 wins (raw performance, ram, storage, etc).
Have a nice day.
DSF said:
Then what's this?
Smart reply what can I say..
@colonel, well sgs2 feels solid in hand. No cranks, etc.
I'm posting here just because I don't like when the true is distorted. I could easily chose the sensation but for me the sgs2 wins (raw performance, ram, storage, etc).
Have a nice day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before you come out here looking like a complete *ahem* ...wait, too late... I was ABOUT to say that you should probably take into consideration that at this point in time this IS the best phone ever available in the United States. For any of us living here, it's a no brainer. As far as the rest of the world - can't people be allowed to enjoy anything anymore?
borodin1 said:
I feel the same way but..... give iPhone 4.3" screen and T-mo bands and we'll talk again. I don't like apple, SJ or their nazi ways but there's something fascinating about having a device that just. works. out. of. the. box. Mind you, this is coming from Android follower since day 1 (Got G1 on the day of the release). I'm sick of rooting phones just to make them work and I thought that Sensation will be the phone I can live with. I mean it does sound great on paper but in real life - software on it is big heaping pile of ****. I truly believe that HTC is getting too comfy being one the biggest names in Android game and they are cutting corners left and right. Guess what - it shows.
Can't wait for S-off and CM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree about how nice it is that the iPhone works out of the box but I have to say I was able to get up and running in no time on my new Sensation just by entering my gmail account info...boom everything was there.
As for Sense I never liked/used Sense before but IF I got stuck with it on the Sensation I wouldn't be ready to kill myself. Frankly I think CM ROMs are waaaay overrated...so they are faster, great, but half the time stuff like GPS don't work. That said I will root this baby the second I get the chance.
......NOT !!!
ps: ok, maybe the best htc phone of all time.
GS2 is definitely more powerful at the moment. But after software update, hopefully the Sensation will show big improvement. I mean Sense 3.0 runs very smoothly on EVO 3d, so there's no reason why Sensation couldn't.
Sound and camera quality on HTC, however, need to be a lot better. Samsung have this, as well as sheer power and speed covered. But of course, HTC have an upper hand in the aesthetics of the phone, both hardware and software.
While I long for GS2's unstoppable power, I really cannot stand its big, non-matchingly-colorful, unpolished interface (I don't mind the plastic build). Same with the Sensation - unbelievably beautiful look of the device and UI, but things like dust under screen, dim screen (compared to EVO 3d), whispering speaker volume and average camera quality turn me off quite a bit.
So, I'm gonna stick to my good, old blackberry and wait until HTC or Samsung
address their weakness.
I've got this MT4GS with a recently replaced screen giving me all sorts of problems, Tmo doesn't have any more of them in-stock for an actual replacement. So lately I've been lurking around the ApexQ forums here, considering whether I take Tmo up on their offer to replace the MT4GS with a Relay. Is this it? Is this the end of the line for higher end sliders?
I get so annoyed when I walk into a Tmo shop and they give me the stink eye over my physical keyboard.
"You should really try Swype"
"Keyboards are going away"
"No one really uses those"
"Just try the S4 out, you'll love it"
Try to swype out a thousand words, then do it with a physical keyboard. I'm a bit of a writer, it might be a tine platform for me to write from, but it works great. Sliders are niche preference, will the entire market really give that up? I'm waiting for Google IO before I make any decisions (because it's coming up pretty soon) but haven't heard any rumors of a high end slider coming down the line. Am I the only one holding my breath here?
Also, I've seen a couple of you post on these forums that have had the MT4GS, I think I would miss the 8MP camera the most. Any thoughts on switching over?
I don't have the relay but I follow it and have played with one. It feels similar in many ways to the MT4Gslide (I have this) but you can really feel the improvements in speed as well as a five row keyboard is just awesome. Being its part of the galaxy s line there should be a fair amount of updates, speculation of course as Samsung hasnt been the best at supporting hardware keyboard phones.
You will miss the camera, not that this one is horrible its just that the MT4Gslide has one of the best ever made. I'm not a huge sense fan but it is better than touchwiz (in my opinion) but more of a resource hog. It is possible to port it over to Sammy phones and has been done before, but I doubt anyone would bother on this phone.
Overall if its a free upgrade I would take it, being I refuse to buy phones from carriers this one would cost me full price and I haven't decided if that's worth it yet.
Good luck on your decision!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
i got both. here are the differences with the relay:
- relay's screen is super amoled pentile... colors are great, resolution sucks big time, pixels can be seen and the red ones are very tiny and the matrix will be very noticeable in some cases
- relay's camera is 5 mp vs 8 of the doubleshot. it is just inferior in both quality and resolution, not much else to say.
- relay keyboard is nicer imho but lacks replicated alt, shift, home, back, menu keys
- battery lasts much longer than the famous 1900mah anker for doubleshot
- the cpu is so much faster, ~2.5x from my findings, also, it heats a lot less
- it is noticeably ligher but more plasticy and flimsy
- stock ics and jb. more development going on
all in all, it is a sidegrade... you lose on some aspects and gain in some others... anyway the high end qwerty era is over since the desire-z/droid 2 period...
I've owned just about every GSM QWERTY device made for android over the past 2 years. I can safely say the Relay is one of the better phones that I've owned for a while.
The G2 was the best phone I've ever had.
The camera is not amazing. It will do in a pinch, but I would take a better keyboard over a better camera any day. The 4G Slide keyboard was horrid. One of the worst I've ever used. I use the keyboard much more than the camera, so my decision was simple. It's based on your preferences, really.
But just remember you don't have many options.
I've been using my relay for about 4 months now and overall I like it a lot.
Some good thoughts first:
The keys are very very good. I find they're slightly less conducive to touch typing than my Sidekick 4G was, but still one of the best small keyboards I've ever used. I can't imagine using a purely touchscreen phone, Swype or not. There's just no competition.
The phone is very quick. I've never once thought to myself "Man, I wish this would happen faster." The OS isn't quite 100% seamless, but it's close enough that I can't find anything to complain about. And things like videos, emulated games, etc are all full speed. The only times I've ever had to wait for something was when I was accessing files, and that's due to my bargain basement SD card.
The battery life has been great. I have no problem getting through my day without carrying a charger with me. Now, I'm not as active a user as some (I don't use facebook, for instance,) but I'm often looking things up on my phone while working, and even using the flashlight, and I always have between a half and a third of my battery when I get home.
The screen and the camera both fall under the category of "It's a phone for chrissakes, what are you expecting??" for me.
The screen is bright, vibrant, sharp. It looks great indoors and passable outside. There's enough room for what it needs to do. If you complain that you can't watch a 1080p movie on your phone, the problem is with your head and not your device. I guess if you offered me a higher resolution I'd take it, but I really don't feel like it needs more. And I wouldn't want the screen to be any bigger. If I wanted a massive screen in my pocket I'd buy an iPad. And then kill myself.
The camera is a dog, but so is every other phone camera in the world. Yes, this one is worse than many. But if you care about what your pictures look like, a $40 digital camera bought used off craigslist will take pictures which are 10 times better than the best cell phone camera on the market. And it's easier to carry a separate phone and camera than it is to have a separate phone and keyboard. So why everybody focuses on the sub-par camera is beyond me.
There's only one thing about the phone which I actually feel is bad, and that's the shape. Coming from a Sidekick 4G, the ergonomics of the phone are a big step down. The Sidekick was a fantastic phone to hold in the hands, both closed an open. The Relay is about as nice to hold as a brick. There's a small lip all around the phone that presses awkwardly against your ear, and it's got a certain awkwardness when open as well. No surprise there, the Galaxy S line has always looked like a knockoff of the iPhone 3G. Why would they start making something comfortable now? </curmudgeon.>
So, yeah. I like it and there's nothing else on the market which comes close to being as good as it. I'd buy one again. I'd suggest it to other people. But I'd also hope that this isn't the last QWERTY Android phone for my network, as there's still room for improvements.
i've came down the g1 (htc dream), g2 (htc desire z), relay lane.
i have my relay now for like 4 weeks. and there's really nothing i can seriously complain about. the cpu and gpu are fast and still come with some reserve. the memory is plenty. the qwerty is a big step up from the dz with the additional row. and battery life is just sweet the dz had the better display when you were outside. the relay's go the far better once you get out of the sunlight.
usually, when i got a new phone, i also got a better cam. but seriously: 5mp is enough for every day use. and as some already stated: it's a cell phone. if you want to have high-end-images, you don't get around buying a dedicated camera. and seriously.. it's the same with the screen resolution. 800x480 is enough for text, websites and pictures to be displayed properly and sharp on the small display. what's the use of a 4" full hd display? besides showing off? again... it's a cell phone. if you want high resolution, get a tablet.
*if* somebody asks me for a cell with a hardware keyboard there really - from my pov - is no reason not to recommend the relay.
and i think it's really a pitty it's not available here in europe and quite hard (and expensive) to get.
i really hope there will be new qwertys that will be available here as well. (the most recent here on sale is the dz).
admittedly the hardware keyboard phones are a niche, but those who want them will be willing to spend a lil more to get them.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using xda app-developers app
I have also used many qwerty phones over the years and have been using the relay for about 5 months now. Previously I have used lg shine xenon, lg shine plus (last lg phone I will ever buy) Sony xperia pro, samsung captivate glide and now the relay. The xperia pro keyboard was the best I have ever used. Too bad it had such low on board memory and only a single core processor.
I hear you on the death of qwerties I can now type quite well with SwiftKey but still love a qwerty for messaging, emails etc. I get the same look from sales staff when I have asked about qwerty sliders.
The relay is the fastest qwerty I have used, bit more than the glides 2x core tegra 2, I also found the keys on the glide to be too flat and there were only 4 rows. Good tactile feedback on the relay, keys are spaced out well and travel is easy. However as mentioned the build quality is not the best and mine has a noticeable wobble when typing. Updates seem good so far although will probably not get past 4.2. I actually went out and bought a q10 last week, loved the new OS but the keyboard was simply too small for me, and for the build quality and screen size the q10 is waaaay over priced, so decided to return it.
On a side note I did a little bit of cosmetic altering the my galaxy s3 stock 2100mah batteries and got them to fit in the relay.. As I live in canada the relay isn't even sold here, and I place battery life pretty much at the top of my list. Need that spare battery and a charger. Anyways good luck with your relay if you get it.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
I'm sure samsung will release a follow up to the Relay, as they seem to be the only manufacturer big enough to support this niche market.
Just give them some more time. They definitely need som enew phones and fresh designs to break up all the slab phones that are coming all the time.
Well, I got the Relay. And with it I end a 8 year HTC only stint which started with the Blue Angel. Fun times...
I just got it today so not much of a chance to play with it. At the moment doing the update. Afterwards will see what else I can do. I find it a bit useless at the moment to try any other ROMs. A bit too early...
I've had 3 previous Android sliders before getting this one - the original G1, Motorola Milestone (which I gave to my husband because it was too big and heavy for me) and the HTC Desire Z. Aside from the Desire Z's incredibly stupid flipping hinge mechanism which I'm convinced was responsible for the display cable dying, it is my favourite of the four (it developed this problem where the screen would die every time I opened the keyboard - I actually disassembled it to see if I could fix it but couldn't)
This phone's not bad and I don't mind it feeling "plasticky" since it's light, while the hinge mechanism seems a lot more solid than HTC's ridiculous designs for the G1 and Desire Z, but the keyboard is LOUD. You have to press the keys really hard and I'm convinced people can hear me typing, which is really not what you want for a mobile device. If you're tweeting under the table during a boring company meeting, you better be good at pretending you're taking minutes!
I also have this weird problem, specific to the Facebook Android app, where it will jump to the top of the page randomly while I'm in the middle of typing a comment. I thought I was pressing something by accident but I've tried typing really carefully and that seem to not be the issue.
I do really miss having a trackball or optical joystick from the HTC devices. It's fine to have arrow keys on the physical kb, but when you have the phone closed sometimes you still want to be able to navigate around and click.
Really happy to have found this thread, has anybody looked at or tried the Motorola Droid 4 ??
It boasts 8MP camera and high definition display, looks like battery lasts a while.. says its splash proof and also has the 4 row keyboard.
I enjoy my glide, but they keyboard with the press on them hasn't ever given me much of an ability to type without looking at the keys..
On my blackberry after a while I was able to roll my fingers across without hardly looking at the keyboard, on computer i type 100wpm so pretty important for me to have a fast typing keyboard. even software app keyboards can't keep up and screw swipe.. without feeling where to rocker my fingers to form words im doomed to choose from autocorrect.
What I don't understand is at the start of the year we had the big show down of the GS4 vs the HTC One. People were going spec crazy to even the fact that the GS4 must be better because it has DDR3 or the HTC One screen must be better because the PPI is 480 (my phone says 480) to the GS4s 441. We even had people complain that the GS4 was a pentile screen and it didn't look as sharp as the HTC One and that OLED fades over time and if you have a static image on for too long, you'll see burn in. I can confirm the screen burn with OLEDs, the phones I've had in the past with OLED screens always get it.
However suddenly when it comes to Nokia they seem to get away with selling you dated hardware. It's 720p, the PPI is 334 and it's a PENTILE OLED screen...... they even put this tinted black glass over the front to try and hide the future screen burn. Somehow Nokia get away with it and people don't care, where it comes to everyone else however, they'll get scrutinized and people will say it's **** straight away.
Not only that but you're getting a dated S4 dual core and an Adreno 225 which is 2/3 years old at this point. What Nokia are basically doing is selling you last years hardware at $300 on contract! I could accept the argument that Windows Phone doesn't need better hardware or whatever, though nor does Android. My Galaxy S2 never had any lag or weird issues at the time it was released, it was one of the fastest phones out there. It's easy to look back at it now and say it was a PoS, that's because the software has evolved to the point it's showing its age. My point is, I'm not going to buy a phone that is crazy expensive, to get dated hardware that is now so cheap that Nokia must be making a mint.
I keep seeing this argument of how Android is laggy and requires 1000 cores to run properly. It's just not the case, I have a HTC One and Android runs perfectly smooth, no stutter and nothing has pushed it in terms of gaming and the browser is mega fast. If I put the HTC One next to a Windows phone in a store and compare them, I'm not seeing Android lag at all. In fact what I do see is the browser on the HTC One is way faster and it boots up a hell of a lot faster and the animation on the scroll is smoother, where it looks like it is dropping frames on the Windows Phone.
Windows Phone is smooth on the whole yeah, however it's a myth to me that Android is a laggy pos that requires a super computer to run well. I look at my usage on my HTC One and what does it say? 2 cores in use, 2 cores on idle and it's clocked at 1.1ghrz. So in reality Android doesn't need 4 cores to run well, those cores are only used from moment to moment when the cpu requires it. The same with memory, my phone is using 768mb ram right now, it doesn't need 2gb of ram, though I'm guessing a chunk of that is for the GPU as well, when it comes to memory, more is always better as it allows games to use larger texture files and what not. So I just don't get why you'd spend more money for less, I don't find that acceptable, yeah if the price was cheaper then it would be fine but... it isn't.
Battery life as well for the 1020 is meant to be horrible if you actually use the thing you buy it for, the camera. It's only 2000MaH and you cannot replace it and from my experience with the 808, you really need to replace that battery if you're taking lots of shots. If an Android device got that poor battery life, people would be going crazy, yet it's another thing that because it's Nokia... let them get away with it. I get 1-2 days out of my HTC One, it's only like 300MaH more than the Nokia 1020 and the 920, it's proof again for me that Android doesn't drain battery life mad, it's how you use it. You have freedom on Android to use the device how you life, I'm sure if you have 6 pages of widgets and you have every app open from under the sun in the background, you will drain battery. I'm just glad I have the freedom to do that and with true multitasking, not just a saved state.
I have to come onto form factor as well, again if an Android phone was as big as a 920 or a 1020 then people would be going crazy, even if it was an iPhone. Every review says the 920 is giant and hard to fit into your pocket and every review says the 1020 is horrible to hold because they put the camera bump too low down. Why do they get a free pass from that? People hated how the HTC One rocked about on a flat surface but no one seems to care that the 1020 is even worse.
Windows Phone lacks apps, it's a restrictive OS where you have to wait for Microsoft to do everything for you. It's basically a worse IOS with a different look, both pride themselves on being smooth but where Windows Phone lacks functionality, people give it a free ride because it looks different. I see so much hate on IOS because of Apple and how it's a closed OS, yet the same people do not care it's the same for Windows Phone. If Microsoft made it open like the desktop, I'd be so happy, however I hate having to wait years for them to do something, when a custom rom would have already done it on Android. Yet in every argument, the good points of Android never come up, it's always these unfounded arguments of how poorly it runs. I just think do your research, if you're going to buy a PoS phone that runs Android, then that's your own fault, you can find those cheap good for nothing phones on any platform.
At the end of the day though the 920 had a mediocre over saturated camera where the images were far too soft. I remember a website doing a blind comparison and funnily enough the iPhone 5 was everyone's favourite because Apple just get the software so right. The 1020's focus is obviously the camera and technically it beats everything but the 808, which lets be honest isn't really a smart phone as it runs Symbian. I've owned an 808, I've compared pictures to the 1020 and the 808 looks much better, especially in full resolution mode. I had to sell the 808 because I couldn't stand being on Symbian any longer and a camera doesn't make a phone, I can buy a separate camera and I have. I have a go pro 3 for my Motorcycle and I have a DSLR for shooting pictures I actually care how they turn out... obviously a DSLR beats even the 808 and 1020.
Again though I think the 1020s camera is flawed, it doesn't have a dedicated image processor, so images take so long to save. At the same time I could have taken 20 images on the HTC One or GS4 and for every day use they look just as good when you upload them to facebook or whatever people do. I think people are trying to treat the 1020 as some professional camera and forgetting about the rest of the phone. If you want a professional camera, there are much better options and you don't get locked into a 2 year contract paying $300 upfront. I do not feel that it's a good quick point of shoot like most other smart phones out there, just simply because it does take a long time to save images. Obviously the image quality is better, I've had first hand experience, however the images are over saturated like mad, judging by the 920, Nokia will not fix this. The images are over sharpened, you can not go down to ISO 50 and there is no ND filter for direct sunlight shots. So I don't see any advanced in this camera over say the 808 or a dedicated camera, I cannot see why it's hyped so much. The end result is too much grain and noise in the picture, especially if you use Nokia's automatic settings which just increase the ISO even in the daylight to 200... no wonder why there is so much noise. Realistically I want to be putting it to 50... yet I can't?
I think there is far too much hype for the phone that doesn't really do anything really well, the OIS could have been much better and the mic performance is lacking. I'm not sure if it's their software controlling the mics or if it's crap hardware. However it sounds like it's only recording in mono or it's really muffled or something, maybe Windows Phone doesn't support stereo recording?
You get these crazy rabid Nokia fanbois now just going crazy if there is any criticism and it's really weird. You don't get this from Android because people aren't tied to an OEM, people generally just go for the best handset that is released at that moment in time.
slannmage said:
What I don't understand is at the start of the year we had the big show down of the GS4 vs the HTC One. People were going spec crazy to even the fact that the GS4 must be better because it has DDR3 or the HTC One screen must be better because the PPI is 480 (my phone says 480) to the GS4s 441. We even had people complain that the GS4 was a pentile screen and it didn't look as sharp as the HTC One and that OLED fades over time and if you have a static image on for too long, you'll see burn in. I can confirm the screen burn with OLEDs, the phones I've had in the past with OLED screens always get it.
However suddenly when it comes to Nokia they seem to get away with selling you dated hardware. It's 720p, the PPI is 334 and it's a PENTILE OLED screen...... they even put this tinted black glass over the front to try and hide the future screen burn. Somehow Nokia get away with it and people don't care, where it comes to everyone else however, they'll get scrutinized and people will say it's **** straight away.
Not only that but you're getting a dated S4 dual core and an Adreno 225 which is 2/3 years old at this point. What Nokia are basically doing is selling you last years hardware at $300 on contract! I could accept the argument that Windows Phone doesn't need better hardware or whatever, though nor does Android. My Galaxy S2 never had any lag or weird issues at the time it was released, it was one of the fastest phones out there. It's easy to look back at it now and say it was a PoS, that's because the software has evolved to the point it's showing its age. My point is, I'm not going to buy a phone that is crazy expensive, to get dated hardware that is now so cheap that Nokia must be making a mint.
I keep seeing this argument of how Android is laggy and requires 1000 cores to run properly. It's just not the case, I have a HTC One and Android runs perfectly smooth, no stutter and nothing has pushed it in terms of gaming and the browser is mega fast. If I put the HTC One next to a Windows phone in a store and compare them, I'm not seeing Android lag at all. In fact what I do see is the browser on the HTC One is way faster and it boots up a hell of a lot faster and the animation on the scroll is smoother, where it looks like it is dropping frames on the Windows Phone.
Windows Phone is smooth on the whole yeah, however it's a myth to me that Android is a laggy pos that requires a super computer to run well. I look at my usage on my HTC One and what does it say? 2 cores in use, 2 cores on idle and it's clocked at 1.1ghrz. So in reality Android doesn't need 4 cores to run well, those cores are only used from moment to moment when the cpu requires it. The same with memory, my phone is using 768mb ram right now, it doesn't need 2gb of ram, though I'm guessing a chunk of that is for the GPU as well, when it comes to memory, more is always better as it allows games to use larger texture files and what not. So I just don't get why you'd spend more money for less, I don't find that acceptable, yeah if the price was cheaper then it would be fine but... it isn't.
Battery life as well for the 1020 is meant to be horrible if you actually use the thing you buy it for, the camera. It's only 2000MaH and you cannot replace it and from my experience with the 808, you really need to replace that battery if you're taking lots of shots. If an Android device got that poor battery life, people would be going crazy, yet it's another thing that because it's Nokia... let them get away with it. I get 1-2 days out of my HTC One, it's only like 300MaH more than the Nokia 1020 and the 920, it's proof again for me that Android doesn't drain battery life mad, it's how you use it. You have freedom on Android to use the device how you life, I'm sure if you have 6 pages of widgets and you have every app open from under the sun in the background, you will drain battery. I'm just glad I have the freedom to do that and with true multitasking, not just a saved state.
I have to come onto form factor as well, again if an Android phone was as big as a 920 or a 1020 then people would be going crazy, even if it was an iPhone. Every review says the 920 is giant and hard to fit into your pocket and every review says the 1020 is horrible to hold because they put the camera bump too low down. Why do they get a free pass from that? People hated how the HTC One rocked about on a flat surface but no one seems to care that the 1020 is even worse.
Windows Phone lacks apps, it's a restrictive OS where you have to wait for Microsoft to do everything for you. It's basically a worse IOS with a different look, both pride themselves on being smooth but where Windows Phone lacks functionality, people give it a free ride because it looks different. I see so much hate on IOS because of Apple and how it's a closed OS, yet the same people do not care it's the same for Windows Phone. If Microsoft made it open like the desktop, I'd be so happy, however I hate having to wait years for them to do something, when a custom rom would have already done it on Android. Yet in every argument, the good points of Android never come up, it's always these unfounded arguments of how poorly it runs. I just think do your research, if you're going to buy a PoS phone that runs Android, then that's your own fault, you can find those cheap good for nothing phones on any platform.
At the end of the day though the 920 had a mediocre over saturated camera where the images were far too soft. I remember a website doing a blind comparison and funnily enough the iPhone 5 was everyone's favourite because Apple just get the software so right. The 1020's focus is obviously the camera and technically it beats everything but the 808, which lets be honest isn't really a smart phone as it runs Symbian. I've owned an 808, I've compared pictures to the 1020 and the 808 looks much better, especially in full resolution mode. I had to sell the 808 because I couldn't stand being on Symbian any longer and a camera doesn't make a phone, I can buy a separate camera and I have. I have a go pro 3 for my Motorcycle and I have a DSLR for shooting pictures I actually care how they turn out... obviously a DSLR beats even the 808 and 1020.
Again though I think the 1020s camera is flawed, it doesn't have a dedicated image processor, so images take so long to save. At the same time I could have taken 20 images on the HTC One or GS4 and for every day use they look just as good when you upload them to facebook or whatever people do. I think people are trying to treat the 1020 as some professional camera and forgetting about the rest of the phone. If you want a professional camera, there are much better options and you don't get locked into a 2 year contract paying $300 upfront. I do not feel that it's a good quick point of shoot like most other smart phones out there, just simply because it does take a long time to save images. Obviously the image quality is better, I've had first hand experience, however the images are over saturated like mad, judging by the 920, Nokia will not fix this. The images are over sharpened, you can not go down to ISO 50 and there is no ND filter for direct sunlight shots. So I don't see any advanced in this camera over say the 808 or a dedicated camera, I cannot see why it's hyped so much. The end result is too much grain and noise in the picture, especially if you use Nokia's automatic settings which just increase the ISO even in the daylight to 200... no wonder why there is so much noise. Realistically I want to be putting it to 50... yet I can't?
I think there is far too much hype for the phone that doesn't really do anything really well, the OIS could have been much better and the mic performance is lacking. I'm not sure if it's their software controlling the mics or if it's crap hardware. However it sounds like it's only recording in mono or it's really muffled or something, maybe Windows Phone doesn't support stereo recording?
You get these crazy rabid Nokia fanbois now just going crazy if there is any criticism and it's really weird. You don't get this from Android because people aren't tied to an OEM, people generally just go for the best handset that is released at that moment in time.
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Click to collapse
The hype is for the camera. It is much better than anything out there. There are dozens of reviews for this phone already. They have regurgitated the same things you have listed. No one in the mainstream tech media is trying to distort the truth. Just because searching Lumia 1020 on Google turns up a million hits from MyNokiaBlog and WPCentral and WMPoweruser, the domain names should already make it obvious. These are fansites and propaganda sites with almost zero traffic. Just because you see them often on Google or twitter doesn't mean everyone is gushing over the Lumia 1020 and ignoring or justifying all its failings. No one has this phone and no one is buying this phone. The Lumia 1020 forum at WPCentral is almost dead and this forum is practically dead. This is the internet. It should be pretty obvious that it only takes one or two people posting incessantly to make it feel like a legion.
Lol people call me a troll when I post long rants about the Lumia 1020. But this is a real troll rant. Blowing up little flaws and non-issues, or spinning misinformation. It's like an aggregate or everything bad that has been ever said about this phone, true or false, for the sake of piling it on instead of real concern. I actually care about the Pureview tech, so I complain alot. I think you're just bored.
Nothing I said was false.
All true things no doubt. But if you value having a truly great camera in your pocket, then the shortcomings are able to be quite easily overlooked.
The only things lasting more than two years in your phone are your pictures - why not get the best ones possible so you can have good mementos?
Sent from my RM-877_nam_att_205 using Tapatalk
Wow... you really need to get back on your medications dude. Maybe get outside more.
LagunaCid said:
All true things no doubt. But if you value having a truly great camera in your pocket, then the shortcomings are able to be quite easily overlooked.
The only things lasting more than two years in your phone are your pictures - why not get the best ones possible so you can have good mementos?
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Click to collapse
Exactly. During his techno-babble rant against the 1020 (or is it the 920? or WP in general? )... the one spec that the OP forgot to mention ... the one that is most salient to why the 1020 is getting hype... the one that everyone is talking about... the fact that it has a 41MB camera. Oops, must have forgotten that one. I'll say it again, FORTY ONE MEGABYTE camera. That is not a leap in phone technology and innovation, it is a freakin rocket launch. That absolutely crushes all existing smart phones, beats most point-and-shoots, and even produces better photos than some entry level DSLRs. None of the other specs matter if the OS runs smooth (save maybe the screen argument... although you blew that too. Ive had a 920 since it came out and there is no sign of fading or burn-in at all, and never will be during its useful life). Number of cores... GHZ processor... blah... blah... blah... none of that matters if the user experience is excellent, which it is and you even admitted:
Windows Phone is smooth on the whole yeah
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having quad core this or over-clocked that does a WP user no good because unlike android, it doesn't need it to run properly. That is stuff that android users haggle about. But the one things that your phone won't ever do... ever... with all it's technical superiority and all... is take 41-freakin-MB photo
You know what really grinds my gears with Nokia? Battery. Can they at least ball up and put something that actually lasts? 2000mAh is n.o.t.h.i.n.g. for smartphone these days, especially phone with CPU/data active OS like WP. Got 920 and then swapped it for 925 (work phones), and i really really don't talk that often or use it, and i couldn't even last a day without shutting things down. Sad.
I am an amateur photographer, I had the lumia 1020 phone since release and I haven't looked back. In matter of fact I stopped using my galaxy note II completely. Alot of people say megapixels are over rated but 41mp has been really helpful to me, I can crop out like 5 individual pictures out of 1 shot without losing quality.
smuook said:
Exactly. During his techno-babble rant against the 1020 (or is it the 920? or WP in general? )... the one spec that the OP forgot to mention ... the one that is most salient to why the 1020 is getting hype... the one that everyone is talking about... the fact that it has a 41MB camera. Oops, must have forgotten that one. I'll say it again, FORTY ONE MEGABYTE camera. That is not a leap in phone technology and innovation, it is a freakin rocket launch. That absolutely crushes all existing smart phones, beats most point-and-shoots, and even produces better photos than some entry level DSLRs. None of the other specs matter if the OS runs smooth (save maybe the screen argument... although you blew that too. Ive had a 920 since it came out and there is no sign of fading or burn-in at all, and never will be during its useful life). Number of cores... GHZ processor... blah... blah... blah... none of that matters if the user experience is excellent, which it is and you even admitted:
Having quad core this or over-clocked that does a WP user no good because unlike android, it doesn't need it to run properly. That is stuff that android users haggle about. But the one things that your phone won't ever do... ever... with all it's technical superiority and all... is take 41-freakin-MB photo
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Click to collapse
You mean 41 Mega Pixel photos? 41 MP not MB. I can make most cameras take a 41MB picture but it doesnt mean its going to look good. Its an innovation for its packaged size as in for its ability to be designed into a relatively thin form factor. In fact the full 41 MP, photos are not as good as its down sampled 5MP version. The hardware on the 1020 is solid only the camera is bleeding edge. My problem with WP is not the hardware or the UI its the app ecosystem. The lack of the apps I absolutely need keeps me from getting one. I had a 920 last year for a week and the lack of my most used apps was just too much. I waited and those apps still arent on WP. I will continue to wait till WP has the apps I need before I buy another one.
And when I say SMALL I really mean that because anything above 11.5 cm to 12 cm seems medium to me and anything above that seems plain big or giant like 14 or 15 cm phone. Don't they have the technology to build a great small 4 inch screen smartphone with decent front and rear cameras and a smooth android version? They do! Then why not give us such phones because there are enough people who would like decent sized screens and small and great smartphones! -- So, WHY are there no small smartphones anymore?
I don't know, it look like these days, small is associated with cheap and under-performing. I know, it's a false assumption but, it seem that people associate a smaller phone with the small device they had 3-4 years ago. I know, I have been guilty of this too. When I see a small phone, it's hard for me to avoid associating it with my first phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace), it was small and it was crappy. Hardware was simply not up to the task and Gingerbread was ugly. Now, in 2015 it would be possible to install high performing hardware on a small screen because technology has advanced, I know.
PlayHunter said:
And when I say SMALL I really mean that because anything above 11.5 cm to 12 cm seems medium to me and anything above that seems plain big or giant like 14 or 15 cm phone. Don't they have the technology to build a great small 4 inch screen smartphone with decent front and rear cameras and a smooth android version? They do! Then why not give us such phones because there are enough people who would like decent sized screens and small and great smartphones! -- So, WHY are there no small smartphones anymore?
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Click to collapse
my guess, not enough demand. im guessing the average desired size is around 5-5 1/4" right now. manufacturers will always move in the direction of the majority of their customers wants, or they will loose customers.
bweN diorD said:
my guess, not enough demand. im guessing the average desired size is around 5-5 1/4" right now. manufacturers will always move in the direction of the majority of their customers wants, or they will loose customers.
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Click to collapse
I agree with the trend, but I think there would be enough demand for 4 inch screens packed in a less than 12 cm phone with great specs. Make it with gorilla glass, IP65 and IP68 resistant, at least 5MP front and 16MP rear cameras with all available enhancements, removable 2500+ mAh battery (so the talk time or using apps for many hours through the day won't be an issue), put in a smooth android to work on a quad core platform (& +dual sim).
Then make it a limited edition (say 100,000 devices) that sells internationally. And DON'T MAKE IT CHEAP!
Say sell it for £500 a piece. See if it sells, and HOW FAST it sells. I bet the batch would be sold pretty fast!!!
If a success, then add something in the specs and make a very similar variant to continue and feed the demand.
I am the only one who would LOVE such a phone? If there are others too, then post, let's make our voices heard!
Sorry to dig out an old thread, but the situation hasn't changed yet
I've been searching for a while now for a more or less up-to-date (max 2-3 years old) compact phone. I totally agree with [MENTION=64403564 [user=7152785]@PlayHunter[/user][/MENTION], I know that the trend is to go 5 inch +, but I really like to have a small phone in my pocket and I've already been wondering if I'm the only one
Even with my old Sony Xperia Mini (yes the very old one ),
Nico3d3 said:
Hardware was simply not up to the task and Gingerbread was ugly
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but I really liked it for being Jeans-friendly And 3 of my friends bought it just because of the same reason after seeing it.
Sure, there are the Sony Z5/X/XZ Compact, but those are already bigger than my 5" Nexus 5.
I liked the size of the Z1 Compact and the iPhone 4. I think a phone in this size, with small bezels, a 720p screen and mid-to-high range hardware would attract many people.
The problem is obvious:
bweN diorD said:
im guessing the average desired size is around 5-5 1/4" right now. manufacturers will always move in the direction of the majority of their customers wants, or they will loose customers.
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I was thinking the same as @PlayHunter:
PlayHunter said:
Then make it a limited edition (say 100,000 devices) that sells internationally.
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A friend of mine once found a Chinese manufacturer, where you could configurate a phone as you wish (he got a 6" with TV Receiver, extra Battery and CyanogenOS) for ~€200, they were also making small ones. At the time he told me, the company has been bought by Lenovo and shut down... So here I was, thinking what to do if my (already too big ) Nexus 5 goes dark one day.
I ended up being in contact with a custom Android device manufacturer, who could produce our dream phone, for a reasonable price, with a minimum quantity of 5000 devices. If we could find enough people interested in this, we could make it happen ourselves
Wow the Pixel 3 XL is getting bagged and dogged on left and right as if it's the worst smartphone ever made. Yes it could have been designed better for sure. Try to go the more minimal notch like Essential or something, and no bottom chin, do the stereo speakers like the HTC 10, or and the iPhone XS, and Note 9's, do, etc... to allow a more full screen design. Yes give us 6GB RAM.
Mainly in tech forums I keep reading so much hate for the Pixel 3 XL;
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pixel-3-pixel-3-xl.2106788/page-68#post-26666374
And YouTube channels dogging on the phone big time
But I still wouldn't go iPhone, just not an iOS fan whatsoever. And Samsung Touchwiz not my thing either. So if I hate the iPhone, don't like Galaxy phones and the Pixel 3 is sub par, what's the other options? I wish we had a third option, a Windows Surface phone or something.
Oh well, I still have my White Pixel 3 XL on order, and not changing. Yes the notch is ugly, and more RAM would have been nice, but I still value stock Android, updated directly and quickly from Google, and the smooth fluid vanilla UI, and the amazing camera, and A+ rated display, and IP68 rating, and wireless charging. Maybe I'm a sucker, but that's my choice.
Honestly, I didn't even notice the notch when I was checking out the display phone at Verizon. I love the feel of the phone, very well balanced and light compared to my old Nexus 6. Can't wait to get my phone call on Thursday (I hope) to come and pick up my phone.
I think manly they are charging Flagship prices but not delivering on flagship hardware /specs compared to whats already on the market and instead are betting on software to carry them. Now i love pure android how its meant to be not a fan of all tweaks each manufacture adds to the phone, If Samsung offered a note 9 /S9 pure (ie stock android no mods) i think the pixel would be left in its dust. The Pixel's have always seemed to be a generation behind. I love my pixel 2 xl i know i just wanted something more to go with the great feel of stock android and what not. maybe next year, i have my 3 XL ordered and will use it for a week or two to see if its worth the upgrade over my 2 XL
How would I have like to see Google design the Pixel 3 XL? Well on a realistic manner not some unrealistic futuristic design but a realistic version could have been a cross between like the LG V30 shape and size with the minimal bezels but give it the Essential notch and stretch the screen out on the top and bottom. And then do the stereo speakers like on the Note 9 or iPhone so they don't have to be front-facing, and allow for full display with almost no bezels at like 6.2" or so. And give it 6GB RAM. And a bigger 4,000MaH battery.
At the end of the day, for October 2018, I still think FOR ME, the Pixel 3 XL is the best phone out.
- Stock vanilla Android is my bread and butter OS. I go back to owning the Nexus-One when it was new, then waiting in line for the Nexus-S at launch. I just have a thing for stock Android, all other versions of Android just irritate me, or frustrate me.
- Updates first and quickly
- A+ rated display
- Best camera
- Wireless charging now
- IP68 rating is nice
- Phone can easily be rooted, mainly for the best ad blocking and Substratum themes
No other phone right now interests me. The Note 9 or S9+ ? Not at all, no way, Lagwiz still exists no matter what people say. The LG V40, yeah that's cool, but not a fan of the LG skin, and they suck at updates. iPhone XS Max looks super cool, a very beautifully built device, really liked it a lot, but man I hate iOS, and on the XS Max the OS looks out of place, dated like something from a decade ago. OnePlus 6T, yeah will be a great phone, but they always skimp somehow.
Is the Pixel 3 XL the best phone of 2018 ? NO, not at all. But for me a stock Android nerd, it's really the only option.
Yeah if the Iphone XS Max ran android it would be a dream phone lol IMO ... That said i do think the Note 9 Running stock android with all the software options of the pixel 3 would be a great option as well .
PSA:
Don't read Mac/Apple websites for reviews on Android devices. They are quite happy being locked into their apple ecosystem and will never appreciate the open source model of a pixel device.
No hate here, just wish the display was LARGER......Note9/V40 temp me with their larger displays......but I can't get away from pure google... C'mon google, 6.5 next year!!!
Why the hate? Did you notice that big black malignancy at the top of the screen? What about specs that are less than impressive? My guess is the answer is right there between those two things. Flagship means flagship, you want to charge this kinda money you need some wow factor and the ability to say you're second to none and have that hold water.
These devices don't give me that vibe. Too me they're like the second toughest guy on the block saying "Look, I can juggle!" As to the former enough has been said about it. I personally found my Best Buy experience to fall between what some said. At points when I was busy manipulating the GUI I forgot about it completely. Any time I stepped back from specific tasks the thing jumped out at me, it was like getting mugged with an ugly stick every timei looked at the phone as an object.
Yeah, I'm stupid so I'm still thinking about buying even though I'm not convinced I won't be sorry.
razor237 said:
I think manly they are charging Flagship prices but not delivering on flagship hardware /specs compared to whats already on the market and instead are betting on software to carry them. Now i love pure android how its meant to be not a fan of all tweaks each manufacture adds to the phone, If Samsung offered a note 9 /S9 pure (ie stock android no mods) i think the pixel would be left in its dust. The Pixel's have always seemed to be a generation behind. I love my pixel 2 xl i know i just wanted something more to go with the great feel of stock android and what not. maybe next year, i have my 3 XL ordered and will use it for a week or two to see if its worth the upgrade over my 2 XL
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I don't agree with this at all. The pixel 3 xl has a Samsung screen which looks amazing (and I bet is par or at least close to what you see on a Samsung phone), it has the latest Quallcom processor, the best cameras and software, same day updates, wireless charging, front facing speakers, I mean, what else does it need to be 'flagship specs' to you? What, because it only has 4 GB of RAM? That's literally the ONLY thing I can come up with, and that's only because many OEM's have stuffed more RAM in their phones this year. And honestly, it's not really necessary, at least not for 90% of people who use smartphones. Sheet, iPhones only have 4 GB or RAM. They only had ONE GB or RAM for a looonnnggg time. No one complained about that.
To me, this is a premium flagship, no question. The hate is mostly the RAM and notch. It's superficial. Last year it was the blue shift. Which, I think that plus the terrible quality control was actually warranted. This year, it's not much to hate on. Either you like it, or don't get it. And you can hide the notch. Either way, I'm excited about it coming today. I LOVE 2 xl, but I'm definitely ready for this upgrade, even though I was very on the fence before I checked one out in the store. My point here is, people are going to hate on something every time. Every time. If you don't like something, don't get it. It's really that simple.
My $0.02
gettinwicked said:
I don't agree with this at all. The pixel 3 xl has a Samsung screen which looks amazing (and I bet is par or at least close to what you see on a Samsung phone), it has the latest Quallcom processor, the best cameras and software, same day updates, wireless charging, front facing speakers, I mean, what else does it need to be 'flagship specs' to you? What, because it only has 4 GB of RAM? That's literally the ONLY thing I can come up with, and that's only because many OEM's have stuffed more RAM in their phones this year. And honestly, it's not really necessary, at least not for 90% of people who use smartphones. Sheet, iPhones only have 4 GB or RAM. They only had ONE GB or RAM for a looonnnggg time. No one complained about that.
To me, this is a premium flagship, no question. The hate is mostly the RAM and notch. It's superficial. Last year it was the blue shift. Which, I think that plus the terrible quality control was actually warranted. This year, it's not much to hate on. Either you like it, or don't get it. And you can hide the notch. Either way, I'm excited about it coming today. I LOVE 2 xl, but I'm definitely ready for this upgrade, even though I was very on the fence before I checked one out in the store. My point here is, people are going to hate on something every time. Every time. If you don't like something, don't get it. It's really that simple.
My $0.02
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I was simply stating why i think so many people hate the new pixel 3 xl from reading it sure does seem like a lot don't like it.
I agree the screen looks great but it should since they woke up and used a Samsung panel this time yay , my issue with it is its basically the same size as the 2 xl when you look at the usable part of the display and that is kinda disappointing to me i wanted a screen the size of the note 9 / XS max on the pixel 3 xl instead they went with a huge notch that takes away from the phone in stead of adding to it i honestly think they would have been better with out it at all, in person the notch isn't bad at all its big but once you play with it for a bit i didn't notice it as much and i don't mind the bottom chin as people call it since i love front firing speakers always hated cupping the end of the phone to direct the sound lol . They added an extra front camera and notch but no type of face id another missing feature that would have been a great addition to the pixel but we got wireless charging back so i guess its a trade off.
I said nothing about the ram because i think that's a mute point for most for the exact reason you said, apple has had little ram for a long time there is a difference between the two since apple designs the cpu they can help optimize it for the amount of ram they are using but mostly they iOS optimized for how it can handle the ram. google does the same with the pixel, most of the other phones need the extra ram because all the bs they add uses so much of it. for me as of now my daily usage on my 2 XL is 2.4-3.2 or so, 4gb is enough for me in 6 months that may not be the case but i doubt it
everyone has different ideas of what makes a phone flag ship quality or not, so this is just my opinion and you can agree or not for me i feel they could have done better and they came up a bit short compared to other phones only time will tell though and i still cant wait to get mine and use it to see if its worth the upgrade from the 2xl or not for me.
Nah, I don't buy it. Flagship is flagship. Almost flagship if it weren't for one big weakness is not flagship, it's second rate. I'm one of those people that can take advantage of more than 4 gigs of ram, I'm currently using 3.2 at home which is about average for me but usually hit in the upper 4s, lower 5s at work. Go ahead and name the one phone which is claiming flagship status and charging flagship prices but does not have me covered? See where I'm going?
Flagships is flagship, not second best with software optimization that every rooted oneplus will have installed not too far down the road on a phone that costs little more than half the price. Yeah, I'm talking about the camera. Still perhaps best in class overall but more than one reviewer has noted that telephoto shots lag behind other flagships including the fruit devices. They need to up their game here, flagships don't polish turds, they deliver the best hardware and polish that.
One that doesn't bother me in the slightest that I noted is the phones perceived build quality is a step behind Samsung and Apple. I cant point to one particular thing, either of those two just felt a little more expensive. As I said, I don't care because the phone will go into a case and I wont see it again until I give it to one of my kids or grand-kids in the spring.
So yeah, to me it feels like it's not quite up to flagship par except in price. It's all those things combined that give me that impression. And yeah, I'm still thinking about buying it, last night I got as far as putting it in my cart. Pixel has always been more the whole than the sum of its part, they are satisfying to own even if some things about them are underwhelming. The doubletake on the notch has me spooked though, when I was moving around the GUI it faded out of existence but when I just looked at the phone I kept doing this "whoa, what the hell were they thinking" thing. Cant figure out if that's ever going to go away or if it's going to be like a sore tooth. Still, buy in or not I'll never really consider it flagship hardware and every redraw I get will remind me of it should I start to forget.
The flagship price, the poor software utilization of the notch, the smaller battery and 4 GB RAM were the deal breakers.
The Note 9 is every bit as fast as the Pixel 3 XL, has a much better screen, better battery and SPen for the same price. The Pixel 3 XL may very well be a great phone but when priced with the Note 9, it needed SOMETHING to justify the price. Also, one can easily get a great condition LG V35 ThinQ or S9+ with better specs for hundreds less. Once the price drops, then it might be a better competitor.
For me a premium device needs to last me 2 years and be a useful companion for the duration.
The phone needs to be well built to last, have a good screen and the hardware features need to be ergonomic.
In addition to this the phone must have quick, well thought out software that ties in nicely to my favourite services.
For me, my best option is the Pixel 3 XL. I was considering the new Mate 20 pro as it is very similar in price here in the UK but there is now way I'll be putting up with their software and clutterware for two years. I'm also put off by their storage media and awful to uae, curved screen.
The pixel is getting stick for having underwhelming specs but this is a very short-sighted view unless your sole purpose for the device is to run benchmarks. People needs to evaluate what they use their phones for and what they need to achieve that.
I'm running the original Pixel XL 32Gb and it is still fantastic for all of my everyday uses. My wife is in fact selling her Samsung s9 and will be having my Pixel now that I've upgraded to the 3 XL.
Just as a side note, iPhones are brilliant for many as they offer a great experience across their devices and therefore are useful for their duration. This is more important than having a 40MP camera and 8Gb of RAM for the vast majority.
A lot of that was subjective: I find the Apple experience awful, spread it out across more devices and I call that cancer. I have to say however that your concept in general is on the mark in that the experience is what matters rather than the numbers. It's a fair summation.
for the peeps that hate on the notch and the ram .. just go buy the OnePlus 6T and be done with it
It's all just opinion as we have stayed here. The easy to pick on parts of any product is the visual appearance and listed specs. The new pixel XL appears to be poor in this area for a lot of people. Usabilit of the entire package is impossible to judge from online reviews.
If it is anything like the original Pixel, the phone will be great. If it's like my old Samsung phones or my iPhone 7, no thank you.
The phone is what it is. If you don't like it for the way it looks or a feature that it has or doesn't have, don't buy it. If all you have to say is you hate the notch, spare us. There are a lot of phones I don't like. I don't buy them and I don't seek out their communities and complain about them. This forum is here for the people that have the phone, not for those that hate it.
dmb219 said:
The phone is what it is. If you don't like it for the way it looks or a feature that it has or doesn't have, don't buy it. If all you have to say is you hate the notch, spare us. There are a lot of phones I don't like. I don't buy them and I don't seek out their communities and complain about them. This forum is here for the people that have the phone, not for those that hate it.
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This! Sooo much this! Last year with the pixel 2 xl, there were so many trolls who had zero intention of ever buying the phone who came onto the forum just to talk sheet. One thread went hundreds of pages. It was ridiculous and stupid. If people like that really have that much time on their hands that they have to go troll things that have nothing to do with them, get a hobby or a life. Seriously. I'm surprised there isn't more yet on here. But, people have only begun to start getting their phones, so, I'm not holding my breath that it won't start.
It still looks like a toy next to any Samsung phones.
My note 9 looks like a monster next to my xl3.
I hate the notch. I'm not those people that will get over it.
I never will.
Anyway, display on xl3 looks great to me.
Camera is amazing.
Anything else