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=== OFFICIAL first impressions thread! =====

I just put official to reduce the amount of individual threads. Anyway, since some people are getting their Captivates, please post your first impressions of the device below. Also please include pictures of your phone to make it less boring! Also describe your experience getting it at the store, I'm sure people will want to know things when they get theirs.
Will update when I get it.

n' for the love of god, plz try out the gps

Picked mine up yesterday at the local ATT store. It was only $350 no commitment.
(I am coming from a tilt2)
This thing flies. Yes menus may jerk a little, but thats because of all of the Samsung and ATT crap. It is definitely worth the money. It is much lighter and thinner than I expected too.
Now if we could only figure out how to root this thing and kill the ATT and Samsung stuff
EDIT: GPS is great. Locks in about 5-15 seconds for me.

matthewpapa said:
Picked mine up yesterday at the local ATT store. It was only $350 no commitment.
(I am coming from a tilt2)
This thing flies. Yes menus may jerk a little, but thats because of all of the Samsung and ATT crap. It is definitely worth the money. It is much lighter and thinner than I expected too.
Now if we could only figure out how to root this thing and kill the ATT and Samsung stuff
EDIT: GPS is great. Locks in about 5-15 seconds for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wooo 1 confirmed good gps experience!
im glad you like it. cant wait to pick one up myself

Wow you got it quick! I could have sworn that ATT was going to release the device later in the week. Where you are, it is already released? Do they have store models as well (for demo purposes)?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

No store models out. They may let you try one out though.
I knew since it was supposably coming out on Sunday that they would have to have them before then because nobody that I know of delivers sunday. So id been calling every day since monday to see if theyd gotten them in, and finally yesterday they did
i think samsung pressured att to move up the launch because the droid 2 (or whatever its called) came out yesterday as well
EDIT: if anyone has any questions please shoot. im glad to share the wealth

matthewpapa said:
No store models out. They may let you try one out though.
I knew since it was supposably coming out on Sunday that they would have to have them before then because nobody that I know of delivers sunday. So id been calling every day since monday to see if theyd gotten them in, and finally yesterday they did
i think samsung pressured att to move up the launch because the droid 2 (or whatever its called) came out yesterday as well
EDIT: if anyone has any questions please shoot. im glad to share the wealth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there stutter in the videos u record at 720p on objects moving quickly? saw a youtube of droid x and galaxy recorded clip and the galaxy had stutter when panning and on cars driving by.

quick question, how is call quality on the phone? also speaker phone quality?

I havent had any problems with video record quality or stuttering, but i will put it to more tests later
As far as call quality: reception is unparalleled on any phone ive used. I can hear people better than I have ever been able to. The quality of the audio you send out is upper average. The dual mike noise cancellation works almost without a flaw, however. Speakerphone is 99% as great my old tilt2, which was the best speakerphone I have ever heard.
And as far as fingerprints? dont worry about those. This phone's screen is so great that i never notice them even though it can accumulate quite a few
only complaints so far is that the stupid power cord receptacle is cheap and it doesnt lock the power cord in when charging, and that gameboid for some reason doesnt work correctly

im trying to get this phone for my girlfriend. i was looking on the ATT website but i don't see it, but you picked it up in store...are they slowly coming to all the stores?

what is gameboid?
another user posted something about the power cord then corrected himself saying it was the way he had it plugged in. try playin around with it. i think he said something about a slide cover he hadnt opened all the way
@thisguy10
its hit or miss at local stores. call ahead n confirm they have it and will sell it.

matthewpapa said:
only complaints so far is that the stupid power cord receptacle is cheap and it doesnt lock the power cord in when charging, and that gameboid for some reason doesnt work correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if your device is just an oddball in this regard. Most of those adapters are fairly snug in the devices I've used. Has anyone else talked about this in reviews and videos? I've watched a few and haven't heard anything, but perhaps I just ignored it.

-In general how is the navigation in terms of smoothness ?
-How is xvid/divx video play back ?
-I know it plays several audio formats, but does it play FLAC ?

matthewpapa said:
I havent had any problems with video record quality or stuttering, but i will put it to more tests later
As far as call quality: reception is unparalleled on any phone ive used. I can hear people better than I have ever been able to. The quality of the audio you send out is upper average. The dual mike noise cancellation works almost without a flaw, however. Speakerphone is 99% as great my old tilt2, which was the best speakerphone I have ever heard.
And as far as fingerprints? dont worry about those. This phone's screen is so great that i never notice them even though it can accumulate quite a few
only complaints so far is that the stupid power cord receptacle is cheap and it doesnt lock the power cord in when charging, and that gameboid for some reason doesnt work correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dual mic nosie cancellation? I was under the impression that there was just one mic.

Well i dont know but if there is no dual mike cancellation, whatever software/hardware filter they are using worked really well
I will have to test different video formats when I get home for benchmark sake.
Just went by the apple store in the mall because it was on the way to lunch. I loaded some websites on the demo iphone 4 and my captivate side by side at the same time. as far as loading speeds its pretty much a draw, which is good. Opera mini was significantly faster, but of course that is a preprocessor browser and a completely different animal. I tried rotation benchmarks and the Captivate for sure wins that one. Keyboard on the iphone4 is def better than the samsung keyboard, but if you switch to swype (and know how to use it) it is like 300% faster
@ systoxity
you are correct about the door not being open all the way. i charge it before i go to bed so i guess i didnt see that the door was still partially closed because my lights were out
@I,Rookie
Window speeds are fast, except with the Samsung widgits. I am very impressed so far. I could be biased though because i am coming from a tilt2 which was uber slow
btw does anyone know of a good Android RSS reader that does podcasts too?

Can you change the Iphone like "shortcuts" that are on the bottom of the screen? I've seen several videos saying that you are stuck with the defaults but seem to remember watching someone change them in a video a few days ago, but can't find it now.

Going off a hands-on video, I believe you have to go into the App Drawer and then hit menu then edit.

Has anyone tried the DLNA sharing (sharing video/music from a desktop to the phone on a LAN)? Is it laggy?

Wireless Tethering?
One of the Samsung videos mentioned wireless tethering. Has anyone check the Captivate for that capability?

Alright, here are my first impressions. I don't have one yet, but I got the chance to play with one for a while.
----Screen----
It's beautiful. The most impressive part is that blacks are truly black. The colors are impressive as well and aren't as oversaturated as the AMOLED screens on the Incredible and N1. Sharpness wise, the Captivate is on par with the Incredible and N1. Like the AMOLED screens on the Incredible and N1, these new Super AMOLED screens still aren't as sharp as LCDs. You can see jaggies if you look close. If you're coming from an iPhone 4, you will definitely notice that the Captivate's screen is less sharp.
----Launcher and UI----
Scrolling between home screens is pretty smooth. It's not iPhone smooth, and it's not quite as smooth as the HTC Aria, but it's on par with the Incredible and Evo and a lot smoother than the Droid X (which is awful). Swiping through the application drawer is iPhone smooth though, which is appropriate because it looks nearly identical to the iPhone interface. Scrolling through lists on this phone isn't iPhone smooth, but it's smoother than any other Android phone. Samsung has also implemented elasticity within many lists so that they bounce when you reach the end. I like it. Oh, and live wallpapers run like butter.
----Browser----
Scrolling around web pages is very smooth. Again, it's not iPhone smooth, but it's smoother than any other Android phone. Unfortunately, the browser has one major flaw. It doesn't reflow text to fix the screen when you zoom in. This is something you may not appreciate unless you've used an HTC phone or some alternative browser with this functionality. After using the Aria for the past two weeks, I can say that browsing is tedious and frustrating on the Captivate without this feature. I'm not sure if Dolphin supports this functionality, but if it does it would instantly become my default browser if I got this phone.
Update: It seems the browser DOES reflow text, but only when you double tab or use the buttons to zoom, not when you pinch to zoom. In light of this, it's not such a big deal. I could live with the default browser.
----Lag/Stalling----
Some refer to it as lag. Others refer to it as the stalling issue. Either way, it's real and it's there. I noticed it whenever I was in an application and pressed the home button to return to the home screen. I set my Aria next to it and compared them side by side. My Aria returned to the home screen faster every single time. On the Aria, returning to the home screen happened instantly, while on the Captivate it often took a second or two, or sometimes as much as 5 (yes FIVE) seconds! I first noticed the issue when leaving the Maps application. It consistently took 3 or 4 seconds to return to the home screen from the Maps application.
If it weren't for the fact that there is supposedly a fix for this (which isn't exactly foolproof and may have side effects by the way), this would be a total deal breaker for me. It's that bad. I really hope Samsung releases an update soon to fix the issue for those who don't want to go tinkering with the OS, but Samsung isn't exactly known for their support or quick releases.

Captivate or IP4?

I was in the same boat deciding between the iPhone 4 and Captivate. Here’s my experience with both. Hopefully it will help someone in making their decision. I’m in the Chicago area and ATT works pretty well for me. I won’t go into details about numbers or front facing cameras because you’ve already read about that. I really didn’t want an iPhone. I had a 3G when it first came out and had nothing but problems.
Screen: First off, both screens look great. It’s like being at Best Buy comparing tv’s. Side by side they all look a little different but once you get it home either one will look great. Ip4 has truer color but the over saturated SC really pops out at you. Even though the screen is only a half inch bigger, the border around it makes it appear bigger yet. Ip4 was easier for me to see in direct sunlight. Touchscreen responsiveness and scrolling smoothness is awesome on both. I liked the SC better.
Buttons: I like the physical buttons on the Ip4. They have a definite feel to them and are in the right location or the location that I’m use to. I got use to the SC buttons but hated the mini usb connector coming out of the top. When using a car charger or syncing to a computer it’s always in the way. Whose dumb idea was that? The buttons on the bottom of the screen SUCK. They go off after a few seconds and you have to hunt and tap around until the screen gives the desired response. Again, after a while you begin to get use to them.
Battery: When I got my SC home, battery life was terrible. About 6 hrs. of moderate use and it was dead. That gradually improved and by the second week, the battery lasted all day with 25% to spare. Since I charge it every night anyway, it wasn’t a problem. Ip4 lasts several days but again, I charge every night.
Apps: I don’t really care about how many thousand apps one has over another. Who needs 800 tip calculators anyway? I probably use about 50. Android has a free app called Missed Reminder that you can set to ring/vibrate if you don’t hear a call, text etc. (Just like my Razor V3 had). Ip4 word, excel, pdf documants right out of the box. With Android I used a free app called Quick Office that opened about 80% of these documents. Sometimes I’d get an error message and couldn’t view the file.
Email: I use Hotmail and Ip4 works great and is very fast. I had nothing but problems with the SC’s email. When I first setup my Hotmail it retrieved my mail although very slowly. I could read messages but if there was pictures or attachments the pinwheel would spin (loading) sometimes 10-15 minutes before loading all or sometimes part of the message. I tried having Gmail fetch my Hotmail which was much faster but most of the time the attachments were blank and showed up as 0 kbts. I was able to view my mail & attachments correctly if I went through the browser but that was kind of convoluted way to get it done. I even tried K-9 mail which did not help. I spoke with Samsung, posted questions on this forum as well as speaking with ATT customer service. The best solution they could come up with was to clear the cache. Their final comments were that some phones are better at email than others. I had the phone replaced but still had the same results.
Keyboard: Ip4 keyboard has bigger buttons than the SC’s keyboard so it’s a little easier for me however I think SC’s swype keyboard is the best. Once I learned how to use it I’d never use anything else. The SC’s Speak to text is cool too. As long as you speak clearly, it’s pretty accurate. Great for texting and driving as long as you’re not checking for mistakes. (My bad).
Browser: Both browsers are great and to me, they seem very similar. IP4 does not support flash. On the SC you can zoom way in on text, double tap and it word wraps to the screen so you don’t have to zig zag through the message to read it. Nice.
Wi-fi: With the SC I can be 20 feet from my wireless router and I’m showing poor signal strength. With the IP4 not only do I show a strong signal, I can pick up three of my neighbors as well.
Phone/Data: Both phones have been in cases since they left the store. Call quality is good on both phones. The SC sounds a little tinny but clear. Several times I’ve had the SC echo when I speak into it. Had to reboot it and it was fine. SC has dropped quite a few calls, more than I’m use to. Often when connected to a land line so I know it’s not the other party. Phone can be lying on a table and signal fluctuates between 5 bars and 0. At 0, sometimes calls connect, sometimes they fail. IP4 has only dropped two calls so far (3 weeks) in known dead areas.
Misc: Haven’t really had any problems with the IP4 so far. With the SC I haven’t had the random shutdown issue I’ve been hearing about. I have had the phone freeze a few times while ringing and not been able to answer a call. Had the call drop while removing it from my pocket (many times). I tried removing it by the edges, front and back, etc. I’ve had the phone pocket dial and even had my alarms deleted. I don’t know how because the phone is locked and there are several steps required to do this. I also get a lot of connection error and network error messages while I have a wi-fi or full 3g signal. In my photo’s app, all of my album art shows up as an individual photo album. I have to scroll through hundreds of albums to get to my Pictures. (Maybe I’m just missing something). I’m sure the gps issue will be fixed but It’s been six weeks. You’d think Samsung would have been all over that. It’s just some weather apps, golf apps etc. rely on gps information.
Conclusion: I love the way you can customize the SC. Between the widgets and live wallpapers it can look really cool. I like customizing; I don’t like messing with something just to get it to work correctly. I think the SC is very promising but right now it’s just to buggy for me. Everyone talks about how the Froyo update will fix everything but its all speculation. At first ATT said it was coming out the beginning of August. Then it was September. Now they claim they may not even release it and wait for Gingerbread. They can’t even send out a fix for the gps. I don’t think there’s a smartphone out that does everything. I’ve returned the SC and hopefully in the future when it’s a little more refined I’ll give android another try. As of right now I would have to recommend the IP4 by a longshot.

I can relate to some of your issues. I have both phones and each have + & -.. Overall I like the captivate more because I can do a lot more with it. For resale value the iphone always wins.

If you embed your album are as MP3 tags you won't see it. If you transfer it over as jpg files in the album folder then it gets indexed as normal picture would.
As for connection errors - I don't have that at all. I have only had one dropped call where my iPhone would drop them all the time and sometimes require 4 or 5 attempts to reconnect. You may have a bad antenna on your phone with your wifi issues too.
I lived with the iPhone 3G for 18 months before i got copy/paste and some other missing features - I figure Samsung will fix us up at some point too.
As for the mini USB cable socket - Samsung has home and car docks that set the phone horizontal, so then the plug is in a good place. Let's face it, no location is good for everybody. The bottom port on the phone was terrible for car use (for me) because I would plug the phone charger into a dash socket and then the phone was upside down when laying on the seat - yes i could buy a mount to hold it upright, but with the Samsung, the top port works for me.

Connection error may be a bit of a fluke, bad timing maybe. I didn't experience any dropped call for several days then att started doing updates in my area, 3g finally this month. My iphone 4 friend had the same issues I did for a matter of weeks now both are better. I admit the iphone is a beautiful product but I disagree about the screen, I have never seen a screen where the colors look truer to me than a galaxy s. For me I'll never give up android, so apple implemented folders, big deal I hated the iphone3g and I hate Ios4 even more. I have no icons folders or shortcuts on my home screen, just a few widgets. I use ADW launcher and use swipe up to launch the contacts, long press search to launch navigation, and home on home screen to launch phone. And I use widget locker to go to the phone, text, camera, or email. I could never fumble through pages and pages of icons for phone functions. Just because its a touchscreen it doesn't need more steps than a traditional phone. I wasn't to pick it up and call. Not pickup, unlock, press icon, press tab for number pad, call. Apples interface need work. On android I can make my own interface. I like icon screens to allow icons to be put where I want not bumped up next to other icons. I need to scan the screen too much with my eyes before I can find the right icon and a phone should be more natural than that. On paper the iphone is fantastic but in my hand android wins hands down.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

It's just a phone. Just pick one and get a new one in one and half years.

That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.

mwxiao said:
It's just a phone. Just pick one and get a new one in one and half years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't agree more. If the phone is really bad, then you have 30 days to return it. If not, then something better will be along in 12-18 months.

tonyb81 said:
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, it's like he swyped the thing in a few secs lol.
I have to agree with the battery, the Wi-Fi has to be the biggest power drainer and I would have thought it was optimised for power saving. To be honest everybody is trying to be like the iPhone if you think about it for a minute. But I'm still for Android, live without so many restrictions .

DJNgoma said:
+1, it's like he swyped the thing in a few secs lol.
I have to agree with the battery, the Wi-Fi has to be the biggest power drainer and I would have thought it was optimised for power saving. To be honest everybody is trying to be like the iPhone if you think about it for a minute. But I'm still for Android, live without so many restrictions .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me or the OP? I have a habit of writing run on sentences and pushing paragraphs together. And I did swype it pretty quick. But the op did write a lot.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

I must have gotten a good phone, because I wasn't experiencing any of the negatives the OP was talking about (as far as the Captivate is concerned). Wifi range is just as good as my father's iPhone 4, never had a dropped call, never pocket dialed, the 4 buttons at the bottom are always responsive, and just about all the other negatives you said.
Plus, I actually like where the USB connection is, very convenient for me. And I haven't used email on here before, so I can't comment on that.

I'm actually on my second Captivate. The first one had the capacitive touch buttons at the bottom that would push themselves. Outside of that, my wifi signal is pretty much on par with my 3GS. The difference being that the indicator shows the reception to be a bit worse, but the through put is much much better.
The call quality and reception on my Captivate is just as good as my 3GS, however, once again it shows the signal is worse. The big difference I've noticed is that I've never dropped a call with the Captivate, and with the iPhone I would drop about every fifth call.

Some of the issue posted here are non-existen for me. You guys need to give android and the phone some time to get use too. Especially if you had the iPhone for the past 3yrs. I get great battery life remember you're in control your phone do not have things running in the background if you really dont need it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I would have to say (coming from a 3gs) after downloading and installing the hybrid Rom and seeing what the possibilities are I would definitely say that my captivate blows my gfs ip4 out of the water. Just by switching roms I can see how Samsung and ATT did not do a good job with the firmware. I have better reception. The phone really flies through processes. Like you would expect a phone with top of the line hardware should. and when the devs get a hold of the froyo source I can only imagine how this galaxy s will perform
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

tonyb81 said:
That was extremely painful to read. If you really want other people to actually read this you should space it out properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Also, I skimmed through your review mate, and you really seem to go on too much about little things as opposed to the core functionality of the phones.
That being said, I have experienced some of your problems to some degree, such as imperfect wifi etc.
1 more thing, doesn't captivate come with inbuilt office program such as thinkfree? Because international i9000 version does (as I have).
p.s. don't mean to sound overly critical, I do respect and thank ya for sharing your experience

i think the battery life on the captivate was poor. exchanged it for an iphone 4, sold it, and going back to the captivate, ironically. i just prefer the android UI.

kluemenadi said:
i think the battery life on the captivate was poor. exchanged it for an iphone 4, sold it, and going back to the captivate, ironically. i just prefer the android UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery life on this is better than the aria which was horrid. I admit the 3g I had was better in that department after the upgrade to ios 3.2 or what ever it was. But the battery life on the captivate largely depends on what you are doing, running with it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

iPhone 4 all the way. I've got a captivate and my friend went the iphone4 route. I've used both phones extensively and its not even close. Iphone 4 smokes the captivate. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it for another 22 months

iPhone 4 all the way. I've got a captivate and my friend went the iphone4 route. I've used both phones extensively and its not even close. Iphone 4 smokes the captivate. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it for another 22 months
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you elaborate on how it smokes the Captivate?? I had the iphone 4 and it was good, but the Captivate is just as good or better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

lost2030 said:
Can you elaborate on how it smokes the Captivate?? I had the iphone 4 and it was good, but the Captivate is just as good or better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends what you use the phone for. Personally, I use it for surfing the web, playing games, email, Music, texting, and GPS. Those things are the most important to me, as I basically live on my phone.
With that said, several of those things the iPhone actually does better. Surfing the web is a toss up. The Captivate has an incredible screen with a size bonus, but the iPhone has MUCH better text fidelity and pixel density. Games are a given here. The iPhone's app store just crushes the marketplace right now. Android is catching up, but Apple has those big name developers throwing good games at them every day. Email goes to the iphone as well. The email apps for the Android are sub par when dealing with certain providers like Yahoo. Apple's isn't flashy, but it does work consistantly. Music... Again iPhone is a superior mp3 player. It's easy to manage your collection and buy music on the fly. When Google Music gets up and running they'll be on a more level playing field. Texting goes to the captivate because of SWYPE. It's frikkin fantastic. Then GPS... We know what's happening here. Just waiting on Samsung to come through with the goods.
I wouldn't say the iPhone smokes there Captivate, but you really have to look at what the majority of people do with their phones. One thing that pisses me off with my Captivate is the ESPN app. What a frikkin' dog. Run it side by side with the iPhone equivalent and it's just a slap in the face. For running on equal hardware, the Android app is slow, unresponsive, and sometimes completely non-functional. On the other side of the coin... I love the customization of the Android device. I love being able to flip between widgets and launchers on a whim.
Oh yeah... And I guess I also make calls too. It's a push here, but I do like the speaker of the iPhone a bit better. The Captivate's speaker quality fluctuated from device to device quite wildly, and my most recent handset has a tinny speaker.

@Divinedark I can only agree to the appstore been better than the marketplace, and its the only thing I'm really missing. Everything else android does the same thing in my opinion or better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

is the dx2 bootloader locked/unlockable?

is the dx2 bootloader locked/unlockable?
i got a dx2 today and for fun ran "adb reboot-bootloader" and got a fastboot device, but could not find any fastboot drivers and am not sure if they are the same drivers as adb.
windows 7 x64 if any one needs to know

what exactly does this mean?

The bootloader is still locked and it has the same security of all recent Motorola phones

Where did you get that screenshot? Looks like unlocking.. maybe?

i took the screenshot.
it looks like nvflash is locked. also
C:\Users\Nick\Desktop\fastboot>fastboot getvar secure
secure: yes
finished. total time: 0.003s
C:\Users\Nick\Desktop\fastboot>fastboot getvar all
INFOversion-bootloader: 1000
INFOproduct: daytona
INFOsecure: no
INFOmid: 001
INFOversion: 0.4
INFOserialno:
INFOversion-baseband: currently un-supported
all: Done
finished. total time: 0.003s

I would imagine since it is tegra 2 that it has the same restrictions as on an atrix.

why there's no specific droid x2 forum yet?

Chad_Petree said:
why there's no specific droid x2 forum yet?
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Click to collapse
My guess would be that right now the DX2 is in limited release with full sales beginning on the 26th and hopefully we get some 2.3 love then too!

so for some reason i attempted to ask Motorola, and now they think my phone is broken...lol
before you ask why i don't really know

ZeroOveride said:
My guess would be that right now the DX2 is in limited release with full sales beginning on the 26th and hopefully we get some 2.3 love then too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.

elkay said:
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
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Click to collapse
No offense or anything but im not to sure what's wrong with your phone I have not had a single issue with this phone yet. Its way faster then the fascinate that's I had and yes this doesn't look as good as the fascinate but love the keyboard and the size of the screen. Runs smooth for me. The letters look no different from any other phone I have had other then the phone 4. Im enjoying this phone and for me there's nothing really to look forward to for phone in my opinion.

elkay said:
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
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Click to collapse
I would recommend taking that back to Verizon, seems like you have some hardware errors to me
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

grandlarceny77 said:
No offense or anything but im not to sure what's wrong with your phone I have not had a single issue with this phone yet. Its way faster then the fascinate that's I had and yes this doesn't look as good as the fascinate but love the keyboard and the size of the screen. Runs smooth for me. The letters look no different from any other phone I have had other then the phone 4. Im enjoying this phone and for me there's nothing really to look forward to for phone in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not hardware problems, and the display problems are very obvious if you compare side by side with a DX1 or another phone that supports 16.7M. Just look at the battery icon. The green color is produced by alternating green-dark-green-dark pixels instead of the same shade for each pixel across. It produces images that are painful to look at. The text is easy to see, too. Just go to google and do a search. The dark blue highlighted links are very jagged. Here's an obvious test for the color depth problem:
Load this picture in your browser, and then load it on your phone. You will see a smooth image on your computer (unless your monitor isn't 16.7M, either) and you will see horrible banding problems on your DX2.
http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/People/Grad_Students/wrdavis/ray/24b.jpg
As far as the crashing and force-closes go, it *may* be due to LauncherPro, but I have never had problems with it up until now, and I'll be disappointed if I can't use it going forward. I've also read other reviews from people saying the phone doesn't appear to perform any better than the DX for normal phone use. Regardless, this horrible screen is a deal killer for me.

Green seems to be the most susceptible to the banding problem. Viewing this image on a computer or DX and then on the DX2 makes the problem even more blatantly obvious:
http://www.droidforums.net/gallery/data/518/MEGA-GreenGradient.png
Viewing this page makes the text problem VERY obvious:
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/tools/colors/sccscgrn.htm
You can't deny it's a lower quality screen. Brighter does not mean better quality.

A-HA! I think I've discovered why this is happening, and it IS a hardware limitation. The technology is called "pentile" and can be read about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family
After reading this, it's obvious why the green is having the largest issue with displaying properly. The Atrix apparently uses the same display and people are complaining about that one, too. Google has plenty of hits on it.

elkay said:
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. Got mine of Saturday and have to say all the opposite feelings. The screen is amazing. I would say it is on par with my iPhone 4's but I think the colors are better.
I think you got a bad device, I have mine rooted and it has the best Quadrant Score I've ever gotten (2755 http://yfrog.com/gy70tqwj ). The text is clear for me without any problems and have had no force closes on Launcher Pro or to the device itself. Bluetooth works flawlessly with my Pioneer in car system as well. I would say go and return it and get a replacement.

ZeroOveride said:
Wow. Got mine of Saturday and have to say all the opposite feelings. The screen is amazing. I would say it is on par with my iPhone 4's but I think the colors are better.
I think you got a bad device, I have mine rooted and it has the best Quadrant Score I've ever gotten (2755 http://yfrog.com/gy70tqwj ). The text is clear for me without any problems and have had no force closes on Launcher Pro or to the device itself. Bluetooth works flawlessly with my Pioneer in car system as well. I would say go and return it and get a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you click on any of the test images that I posted? And I'll say again, brighter isn't always better. The colors are very exaggerated, way too over-saturated. I'd take the iPhone 4 screen over this. At least it's more color-accurate and doesn't have the banding and green pixel problems that this has. Load the green text page that I linked and compare it to another android phone and you'll see just how bad it is.

Perfect examples of what's going on. The image quality difference is blatantly obvious. The DX1 display is the same as the top examples in each photo, the DX2 display is the same as the bottom ones.
http://expiance.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/light-text.png
http://expiance.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/stripes.png
http://expiance.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/rgbw-photo.png
Looking at the photograph example, look at the horrid loss of detail.

elkay said:
Perfect examples of what's going on. The image quality difference is blatantly obvious. The DX1 display is the same as the top examples in each photo, the DX2 display is the same as the bottom ones.
Looking at the photograph example, look at the horrid loss of detail.
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Click to collapse
I noticed the screen while playing with a demo unit before trading my 3 day old cdma iphone 4 in. I decided it was probably the new resolution not being utilized by android properly since its probably based off the droid x and had been rushed out after so many tegra delays. I say wait for ota update to 2.3 before drawing any conclusions. that all said, the iPhones resolution is amazing but it's terrible in the light and the 3g data speeds were horrible. Both phones side by side with full bars the iphone has a latency of 500+ droid was 110 range, iphone 4:
.8 megabits
Droid x2:
2.3+ megabits
As for the speed of the phone I'm consistently getting over 2700 peaking at 3054 with airplane mode enabled, gps off and all the poorly coded widgets from motorola removed from all home screens. I'm still disappointed by the available memory (ram). The highest free was 130's with an average of 70mb. To me this indicates room for improvement and further proof that the OS is far from optimized so I'm looking forward to the 2.3 roms released here and ota.
I got a max of 712 for gpu in quadrant which is disappointing since the original galaxy s scored in the 800's. I expected more from nvidia but the galaxy was probably modified and google supposedly improved gaming with android 2.3.
So what are you guys getting in quadrant? How much free ram can you get?

hax0red said:
I noticed the screen while playing with a demo unit before trading my 3 day old cdma iphone 4 in. I decided it was probably the new resolution not being utilized by android properly since its probably based off the droid x and had been rushed out after so many tegra delays. I say wait for ota update to 2.3 before drawing any conclusions. that all said, the iPhones resolution is amazing but it's terrible in the light and the 3g data speeds were horrible. Both phones side by side with full bars the iphone has a latency of 500+ droid was 110 range, iphone 4:
.8 megabits
Droid x2:
2.3+ megabits
As for the speed of the phone I'm consistently getting over 2700 peaking at 3054 with airplane mode enabled, gps off and all the poorly coded widgets from motorola removed from all home screens. I'm still disappointed by the available memory (ram). The highest free was 130's with an average of 70mb. To me this indicates room for improvement and further proof that the OS is far from optimized so I'm looking forward to the 2.3 roms released here and ota.
I got a max of 712 for gpu in quadrant which is disappointing since the original galaxy s scored in the 800's. I expected more from nvidia but the galaxy was probably modified and google supposedly improved gaming with android 2.3.
So what are you guys getting in quadrant? How much free ram can you get?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a hardware limitation, no OTA can fix it. It would require a hardware revision. Read my link a few posts up that goes to a wiki about the pentile display. The pixels are literally in a different configuration inside the display.
As far as memory goes, I think that might be part of my problem somehow with the performance. I'm sitting at 9% free at idle (31MB), and notice when I exit just about any app, LauncherPro needs to reload all my widgets. I think it's being forced to dump everything when I load an app to free up memory for it. Odd thing is - I have the exact same widgets loaded on my DX and don't experience any of these problems. When you use a new launcher, the old launcher doesn't stay in memory does it? (i.e. motoblur staying in memory) I have all my motoblur homescreens blank.
Going back to what I said before about the screen, I'll take image quality over brightness. I never minded cupping my hand over the top of the display when I was in direct sunlight (which I rarely had to do anyway). I still think the DX1 display is beautiful, and far better than the DX2.

Had my Rogers One X for a week - impressions

Been lurking on these forums for a long time, finally decided to register to share my thoughts on the One X..
I've predominantly been an iPhone user since the launch of the 3g here in Canada. With a jailbreak and length of usage, I have my iPhone set up to do everything I need it to do almost perfectly. In the last half a year or so, however, I've become tired of looking at iOS. Every time I'd look at android devices with their big screens and useful widgets I'd feel a little pang of jealousy. Thus, I started purchasing Android devices non stop and within the last year, I tried the:
Nexus S
Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy S2
HTC Sensation
and
Galaxy Nexus again
I ended up returning / selling each of these phones for a variety of reasons, the two biggest factors were the lack of comparable pixel density and battery life. After getting rid of the Sensation I bought an iPhone 4S and was disturbed by how much worse the battery life was vs the iPhone 4. My 4 would never come close to dying and the 4S was struggling to make it through a day.
The second galaxy nexus with 4.0.4 was almost perfect BUT the samsung build quality bothered me as it just didn't "feel" like a premium device should in the hand..
I knew as soon as I saw the One X I'd have to give it a try. HTC is known for putting together phones that feel great in the hand and this is a factor for me. So far, this phone has been outstanding! I find myself unlocking it regularly just to look at the display. The battery life has been incredible, I have not come close to having the battery die on me on any given day. Granted, I do more texting, twitter, facebook, browsing and text based things vs playing games. The longest day I've had on it so far is 19h 51m with 4h 18m of screen time and I still had 11% of battery left.
Not being a hardcore android enthusiast as of yet, I don't have too much of an issue with sense 4.0. It's pretty to look at and adds some decent functionality. The downside is the minor lag when flicking between homescreens. I would hope that on a flagship, powerful device they'd be able to have virtually no noticeable lag whilst performing such tasks.
This phone does most things flawlessly, I have zero complaints regarding phone performance, call quality, text msging etc. As a phone, it seems to be working extremely well thus far. It also feels great in the hands, the polycarbonate shell almost has a ceramic feel to it. The size is a bit shocking coming from an iPhone but is easy to adapt to.
However, the device isn't without it's bugs, these are the ones I've noticed so far:
-Display: I know HTC is using two different LCD panels, mine is definitely the warmer of the two being used and the whites have a bit more of a yellowy than a blueish tinge to them. I'm not sure how much this bothers me as of yet as in every way the display seems great to look at, I run auto brightness and don't expect it to be extremely bright. I'd be interested in knowing whether anyone with a Rogers unit has a whiter or yellower display?
-Wifi seems to be an ongoing issue. At first it seemed like it would barely hold onto a solid wifi connection at home. I googled like mad and saw a suggestion regarding hard coding the IP vs using DHCP to solve the issue. I didn't think that would be the solution and found another person saying the phone seemed to work better with a wireless network mode of b/g vs b/g/n so I disabled N on my router and the wifi seems to be much more consistent now but not perfect. At times the wifi bars will just disappear for no apparent reason. I've never had an issue like this with any other wifi device at home. Also attempted a channel change. Hoping it's a software issue that gets sorted with an update
-Camera seems pretty average to me.. This is one area where I think the iPhone still excels beyond any other phone I've ever tried. Its simple camera tends to take pretty good 95% of the time. With the One X so far I had a buddy attempt to snap a quick picture of me and it wasn't great. Have tried a few test pictures around the house and the quality seems okay but not great. Keep in mind, I haven't messed with settings, just literally point and shoot. I don't feel as if though you should have to adjust settings to produce a good quality image with a camera phone, I'm not a photographer and have no real interest in learning about photography. I just want to capture a moment on demand and have it captured fairly well without much effort
-Status bar icons: Last night was the first time I've set an alarm on the phone. The icons in the status bar seemed to be going a bit nuts, the alarm icon would disappear and reappear for no apparent reason. Not sure if I just need a reboot because I haven't heard anything about this anywhere
-Call volume display: When I adjust the volume during a call, the volume display is still on the screen when I'm ending the call, which could be minutes later. For some reason it doesn't seem like it's automatically closing off the screen
Anyway, sorry for the long winded intro and thoughts. Would love to hear feedback regarding the issues I've experienced and would be glad to answer questions regarding the device for those of you still waiting to pick yours up.
Cheers!

Thanks for taking the time to give us info. Good to know.

Minor723 said:
Thanks for taking the time to give us info. Good to know.
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Click to collapse
+1. Can't wait until Friday!

Hey there tawheed12! Picked up a One XL from Rogers friday last week as well, I'll share my experience with the issues you mentioned and maybe we can get a better picture of what's wrong. (no pun intended)
I too have noticed a yellowish tinge. However, I've been reading a lot on Google Books (reading a book on a screen this size is a real treat) and I've noticed that the more I use the phone with a solid, or near solid white screen, the less the yellowish tinge. It could be my imagination, but it could also be the screen needs to be "broken in". I don't know anything about the manufacturing process for this new generation of SLCDs so it might be possible it just takes time.
I tested the alarm and the call volume display issues, they don't seem to exist on mine for some reason. Alarms stick and the volume bar fades away after a few seconds. I tested normally and in speakerphone mode. I wonder if it's a third party app you're using?
As for the camera, I've fiddled around with most of the settings, and it seems to take more focused/better shots if you turn off the continuous shooting mode and frame your pictures normally. I know the high shutter speed is supposed to be a huge selling point but the bursting just seems useless to me. Still, even with it off, photos aren't brilliant or anything. HDR and Low Light modes can be useful sometimes, everything else just seems gimmicky or redundant to me. I have taken a few good shots though, if you want to compare let me know and I'll upload some.
My router is and has always been less reliable than my phone so I can't test that one out for ya
One thing I've noticed, the stock music app seems a little nonintuitive in some areas. Google Voice Actions' "listen to" command won't actually play anything, it just does a search in the app, and it will only do it ONCE. Further tries just bring you to the original search and ignore what you said. Hardly hands free. It also has random issues mixing up album arts with different albums in the queue. I've switched to Winamp in the meantime, but it's a shame because the stock app works very well otherwise.
One thing really bothering me, my camera clicks when changing focus. It was quiet at first, but it's getting louder fast. I hope there isnt an issue with our batch of phones! I'd appreciate knowing if anyone else is having this issue.
Anyways, hope I helped!

MatinatorX said:
Hey there tawheed12! Picked up a One XL from Rogers friday last week as well, I'll share my experience with the issues you mentioned and maybe we can get a better picture of what's wrong. (no pun intended)
I too have noticed a yellowish tinge. However, I've been reading a lot on Google Books (reading a book on a screen this size is a real treat) and I've noticed that the more I use the phone with a solid, or near solid white screen, the less the yellowish tinge. It could be my imagination, but it could also be the screen needs to be "broken in". I don't know anything about the manufacturing process for this new generation of SLCDs so it might be possible it just takes time.
I tested the alarm and the call volume display issues, they don't seem to exist on mine for some reason. Alarms stick and the volume bar fades away after a few seconds. I tested normally and in speakerphone mode. I wonder if it's a third party app you're using?
As for the camera, I've fiddled around with most of the settings, and it seems to take more focused/better shots if you turn off the continuous shooting mode and frame your pictures normally. I know the high shutter speed is supposed to be a huge selling point but the bursting just seems useless to me. Still, even with it off, photos aren't brilliant or anything. HDR and Low Light modes can be useful sometimes, everything else just seems gimmicky or redundant to me. I have taken a few good shots though, if you want to compare let me know and I'll upload some.
My router is and has always been less reliable than my phone so I can't test that one out for ya
One thing I've noticed, the stock music app seems a little nonintuitive in some areas. Google Voice Actions' "listen to" command won't actually play anything, it just does a search in the app, and it will only do it ONCE. Further tries just bring you to the original search and ignore what you said. Hardly hands free. It also has random issues mixing up album arts with different albums in the queue. I've switched to Winamp in the meantime, but it's a shame because the stock app works very well otherwise.
One thing really bothering me, my camera clicks when changing focus. It was quiet at first, but it's getting louder fast. I hope there isnt an issue with our batch of phones! I'd appreciate knowing if anyone else is having this issue.
Anyways, hope I helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know about the screen. It doesn't really bother me too much until I hold it next to a device with more of a blueish tinge.
I noticed the camera focusing sound too, very odd. Never had a phone that makes any type of audible noise when focusing.
I haven't used the music app so can't really help you on that one.
I'll try and take some good pics and upload them and we can compare!

My only real complaint so far is the wifi. It seems VERY shaky at much smaller distances than other phones I've had, to the point that putting my body between the phone and the router at about 20 feet makes the signal disappear. This is the only phone I've ever owned that had this much trouble with the wifi in my house. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in software.

I still haven't experienced any issues with WiFi on mine. It's rock solid.
The only thing I can think of, is that I've disabled Packet Aggregation on my router (Asus RT-N56U) due to some incompatibilities with my D-Link AP (constant disconnections). Perhaps it's the same issue.

Don't own one yet, but I've played with the demo unit at AT&T numerous times. About half the time I've had the wifi drop out on me. This is concerning and hope it can be fixed with an update. Regardless, I will be preording my unit tomorrow.

DannySmurf said:
My only real complaint so far is the wifi. It seems VERY shaky at much smaller distances than other phones I've had, to the point that putting my body between the phone and the router at about 20 feet makes the signal disappear. This is the only phone I've ever owned that had this much trouble with the wifi in my house. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I *HAVE* to assume this is a software issue. It's ridiculous how bad it is. Changing my router to just b/g did make it much more consistent but still not even close to 100%. It's constantly slower than my iPhone testing from the same spots of the house. Could always try to enable the "Best wifi performance" option or whatever but it apparently sucks down quite a bit more battery.

I can also say i have the same issues regarding the wifi! Seems to be a widespread issue.

Great news about the battery because I just mostly text and i talk about a good hour on the phone daily, not really a phone gamer, so my battery should be great fingers crossed.

UMGixxer said:
Great news about the battery because I just mostly text and i talk about a good hour on the phone daily, not really a phone gamer, so my battery should be great fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering your usage, I think the battery will be more than adequate!
I do keep my brightness on auto, limit some push notifications and keep my GPS off though I doubt the latter two make much of a difference.

tawheed12 said:
Considering your usage, I think the battery will be more than adequate!
I do keep my brightness on auto, limit some push notifications and keep my GPS off though I doubt the latter two make much of a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never have gps on since it sucks so bad on my captivate I have just given up on it for now lol

I got mine about 3 days ago - yesterday and today I have noticed the battery life improving greatly - the first few charge cycles it was a hog, but it seems to be evening out.
I've had many flagship android phones and had an iphone at 6 different times (from 3G to 4S) so I would say I've had my fair share.
This HTC One X is the first android phone I've had that truely feels high end - I LOVE the screen and its all around a great looking device. No complaints from me actually - its also the first android phone I've had I didn't immediately want to flash a new rom on. I will likely flash AOSP on it though at some point, whenever that is possible.
in short - it's a FANTASTIC phone! battery life blows the 4S out of the water.

aussois said:
I got mine about 3 days ago - yesterday and today I have noticed the battery life improving greatly - the first few charge cycles it was a hog, but it seems to be evening out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are an avid ROM flasher, you know that on new phones, and after ROM flashes, the battery meter is not calibrated. The actual battery consumption is not changing. Just the % battery that is being displayed is changing (getting more accurate).

kinda lame the "Camera seems pretty average". this is supposedly one of the strong selling points of the device. i'll have my GNex laying around for a bit after i get mine so i'll be doing all kinds of comparisons between the two. i have no doubt, though, that it's going to trump my GNex in spades.

mrvirginia said:
kinda lame the "Camera seems pretty average". this is supposedly one of the strong selling points of the device. i'll have my GNex laying around for a bit after i get mine so i'll be doing all kinds of comparisons between the two. i have no doubt, though, that it's going to trump my GNex in spades.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the at&t model the camera is clean. Compared to my iPhone 4s and vivid cameras
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

rambo8987 said:
On the at&t model the camera is clean. Compared to my iPhone 4s and vivid cameras
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's good to know. yeah i've been lurking on the engadget review for the international one and they had this to say:
"Now let's talk about image quality. We pitted the One X against the current cream of the crop -- the N8, Amaze 4G, iPhone 4S and Galaxy Note (which uses the same module as the Galaxy S II) plus Canon's S95 compact point-and-shoot. The camera landed somewhere in the middle of this star-studded pack, marginally beating the Galaxy Note and iPhone 4S while almost matching the Amaze 4G. Sure, it's not in the same league as the N8 (which rivals the S95 in some cases), but this is one stellar camera, especially when you consider that HTC is not positioning this phone as an imaging-centric device like the Amaze 4G."

mrvirginia said:
that's good to know. yeah i've been lurking on the engadget review for the international one and they had this to say:
"Now let's talk about image quality. We pitted the One X against the current cream of the crop -- the N8, Amaze 4G, iPhone 4S and Galaxy Note (which uses the same module as the Galaxy S II) plus Canon's S95 compact point-and-shoot. The camera landed somewhere in the middle of this star-studded pack, marginally beating the Galaxy Note and iPhone 4S while almost matching the Amaze 4G. Sure, it's not in the same league as the N8 (which rivals the S95 in some cases), but this is one stellar camera, especially when you consider that HTC is not positioning this phone as an imaging-centric device like the Amaze 4G."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me. When you get this phone. You won't be dissappointed. Esp in camera area. But again, its a phone, not a dedicated camera, so its kind of silly seeing people dis phone makers because areas like cameras, gaming, screen reso is not stelllar. Want a great camera? Lol buy a camera, want a great gaming console? Buy a game console. Want great display? Go get a 55 LCD screen tv. Maybe I'm just excited about this phone.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

I have to agree the only two complaints I have with mine. The first is the Wi-Fi it seems spotty unless I am less than ten feet from my router. The only other complaint I have is with the sense keyboard. I am testing a few alternatives so its more a preference than anything. Bottom line though the One X is probably the best device I have used in a long time.
Sent from my HTC One X

Question Issues with a recently bought Pixel 6a and advanced replacement

I recently bought a Pixel6a with the Black Friday deal in Europe. Loved the software, but hated the hardware. Battery life has been awful since it didn't last a day, the colours look duller than my previous devices, has rainbow banding on white screen which is annoying for me and forced me to change to Dark Mode, but it's still annoying when reading with white background or watching videos (let's say there's a wardrobe in a video, a part of the wardrobe looks greener, the following looks normal and the following looks pinkier). The device doesn't overheat to the point of stop working, but It heats enough to be uncomfortable on my hands doing common everyday tasks (e.g. It gets to 40C when using Youtube/Twitch and 45C while gaming according to CPU Monitor App, but It feels hotter than what it looks like (disclaimer: 5G has been deactivated ever since I got the phone and using latest December update)), and after prolonged use, 15 mins or more, I have to let it down to cool it because touching the bare aluminium is uncomfortable to hold. I've sometimes found out it just heats up for no reason at all with no processes in the background.
I contacted Europe Google Support since I have till the 15th of January to send back the phone if I want. They first suggested a repair (I don't know what the tech support wanted to repair since It just sounds like a defect) and ended up doing an advanced replacement for a completely new device because the tech support guy concluded the device was defective based on my description. The device I got for replacement was a refurbished phone instead of a new factory one. Still, I tested out the device and found out it that had worse rainbow banding and the same heating issue or worse.
I contacted support again and they said they would contact the higher-ups with my case and I'd receive an email soon with an answer. Honestly, I'm not really hopeful with the upcoming answer, and I can't believe Google sends refurbished phones for clients in the returning window, I've had other phones with similar replacements and always got a completely new factory one and I feel betrayed about it.
I read online that a lot of people went through this problem and it got resolved after a replacement but it looks like I haven't been that lucky. Wondering what to do about it, thinking of asking Google about an actual replacement that hopefully doesn't have the uncomfortable heat and rainbow banding, but I'm in the verge of returning it due to this last experience. The pixel 6a is really good for browsing the web and using apps really fast since the software experience is so smooth compared to other devices, but I end up watching videos on my older devices (I have a really old 200€ Samsung, bq) because the experience is just better. I'm also a heavy phone gamer, so I don't mind a little heat when playing games, but this much looks like it's gonna wear the phone really fast and it's very concerning.
However, unlike many other users, I found no issues at all with the fingerprint sensor! Found out It just works better using the tip of the thumb rather than the full thumb and It works 100% of the time on both phones. Thumbs up for that! And also, the motor inside this device that produces the vibrations is the best one I've found so far in my life.
Let me know your thoughts and if you have the same temps while doing simple everyday tasks like me, and if the devices I have are really defective or that's their intended use because I have no stores available near me to check the phones or ask about it, and therefore take action based on it.
Thank you all in advance!
Other issues I found with the Pixel6a that I believe CAN be fixed through software:
The first 5 levels of volume don't actually move the slider a bit. Really annoying.
Saturated colours are really below the rest of the devices in the market. The only option for colour settings is either Natural or Adaptive, but even Adaptive looks like bare Natural on other devices I have. I also can't believe a Pixel has a cold-warm slider for taking photos but doesn't have the same slider for the colours of the phone itself. Let the people have the colours they want and don't force them on your business clamping or force them to root the phone.

Really disappointed to hear about the screen issues.
Honestly a colour temp adjustment for the screen should be standard on all phones now. I was shocked when I found that 2022 pixels still require a custom kernel just to choose your own white point.
That rainbow banding would drive me nuts too - reminds me of old school OLEDs I used several years ago.
Such a shame because I really want to experience the pixel camera, but looks like I'll be forced to go with Samsung or Xiaomi again.

Google's quality control is horrible. You wouldn't be the first to have to ask for a second replacement to get a "normal" device.
The "overheating" issue sort of fixes itself after a few weeks of use. I didn't want to believe others when they told me so, but I have experienced it on my own as well, and it does go away overtime.
DanTheSage said:
The first 5 levels of volume don't actually move the slider a bit. Really annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the case with all Pixels, basically. The bottom half of the volume slider (whether using the device's speakers or headphones (whether wired or not, made by Google or not)) is basically useless. Luckily, there's no noticeable distortion at max, but it doesn't get loud enough always.
DanTheSage said:
Saturated colours are really below the rest of the devices in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You had mentioned earlier in your post that you have an old Samsung. Compared to what devices on the market do you think the Pixel's screen isn't saturated enough? Samsung has a tendency of oversaturating their displays to make them pop, so they aren't very accurate either.