Database Info

Does Polaris CPU usage jump up on screen tap-and-hold?

I am a previous owner of both the Blue Angel, Artemis, Trinity and now Kaiser (I get my Polaris tomorrow - addiction anyone?) In both my Trinity and Kaiser, the speed of games slows to a crawl when a stylus or finger is used on the screen for control. It is really noticeable in games like Skyforce.
Here is a link to the Trinity thread on this subject if you are interested. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=290519&highlight=cpu+slow+down+skyforce
When I used Pocket Mechanic to measure the CPU usage, it jumps to about 40% when the stylus is held on the screen vs only about 3% when it is not touched. It definitely makes gaming on those machines a little annoying!
Just wondering if the Polaris has the same problem...I'm anticipating that it does since it shares the same processor as Kaiser. But I'd love to know for sure...I suppose I could wait till tomorrow to find out, but if someone has a minute to kill, toss me a response. If I don't get an answer, I'll report tomorrow with the results of the CPU test with PM.

Okay, I've tested the Cruise with Pocket Mechanic, and indeed - it does show about a 50% CPU usage when a finger or stlyus is held on the screen. Even bigger CPU consumption than Kaiser or Trinity! Probably because of TouchFlo (which I love, by the way.)
Looks like I will just have to deal with a super-slow playing of SkyForce, K-Rally, and any other game with a screen based control - 'cause the rest of this device rocks!

i mean , why on earth you buy a cellphone/pda device that targets people who actually buy it for either ther gps or office/windows blabla abilities, and you are only into gaming ? Its like buying a so expensive nokia only for his 5mp camera.

sure it does if you look at the number of legs of the cpu's are for the touchscreen it's pretty much says it all

sedde said:
i mean , why on earth you buy a cellphone/pda device that targets people who actually buy it for either ther gps or office/windows blabla abilities, and you are only into gaming ? Its like buying a so expensive nokia only for his 5mp camera.
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Uhhh, dude...I never said I was just into gaming. I was just trying provide a useful bit of information to the community - and if you noticed I said the rest of the device (which is primarily what I bought it for, not gaming) exceeds my expectations. There are obviously people out there who are interested in this topic, since there are entire threads devoted to the issue in forums for more established devices. So turn your flame mode off.
But I do agree with you - one would have to be a real idiot to buy a $750 phone to play games on when a PS3 only costs $399!

psargent said:
Uhhh, dude...I never said I was just into gaming. I was just trying provide a useful bit of information to the community - and if you noticed I said the rest of the device (which is primarily what I bought it for, not gaming) exceeds my expectations. There are obviously people out there who are interested in this topic, since there are entire threads devoted to the issue in forums for more established devices. So turn your flame mode off.
But I do agree with you - one would have to be a real idiot to buy a $750 phone to play games on when a PS3 only costs $399!
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Actually sorry if i sounded like a jerk i didnt want to, but my friends always quote " Dude your phone has 2mp camera , boohoo it sucks", and it always makes me angry. I mean whats the point in giving so much money in order to play / take pictures. I wasnt pinpointing at you. :<

sedde said:
Actually sorry if i sounded like a jerk i didnt want to, but my friends always quote " Dude your phone has 2mp camera , boohoo it sucks", and it always makes me angry. I mean whats the point in giving so much money in order to play / take pictures. I wasnt pinpointing at you. :<
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No problem man, I totally I misinterpreted you as talking to me. I re-read your post and I understand now that it was just a general comment. Sorry I took offense!

[Q] Reliability of unbranded Android phones vs 'original' Samsungs

Hi everyone,
After my Samsung S2 suffered water damage, I now need to buy a new smartphone, and I had almost decided for the S3, which now costs only GBP40 less than the S2. Until I stumbled upon this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/S7189-MTK6589-Android-Smartphone-UNLOCKED/dp/B00BG8F9G0
I have no problem with the idea of owning an "unbranded" phone, but I'm just worried that it might later turn out to be of substantially lower quality than the original. A colleague of mine owns a previous model of this Star phone (N7100), and he's been happy with it for the past year or so. After playing around with his phone a bit, it seemed fine to me, however I didn't get to test it in more detail (e.g. compare image quality of camera output with that from the S2, or see how stable the GPS fix is).
I'd have really liked to read a proper review for it (with benchmarks etc), or at least see a believable amount of user ratings. The Amazon product page has some good user reviews, but only 22 of them, and you can't really find much information about this model (or about the Star make in general) on the Internet.
What do you guys think? Is there reason to believe this phone would perform (visibly/audibly) worse than its closest Samsung equivalent, or that its life expectency would be shorter? Many thanks in advance for any help, I really appreciate it!

longtalker said:
Hi everyone,
After my Samsung S2 suffered water damage, I now need to buy a new smartphone, and I had almost decided for the S3, which now costs only GBP40 less than the S2. Until I stumbled upon this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/S7189-MTK6589-Android-Smartphone-UNLOCKED/dp/B00BG8F9G0
I have no problem with the idea of owning an "unbranded" phone, but I'm just worried that it might later turn out to be of substantially lower quality than the original. A colleague of mine owns a previous model of this Star phone (N7100), and he's been happy with it for the past year or so. After playing around with his phone a bit, it seemed fine to me, however I didn't get to test it in more detail (e.g. compare image quality of camera output with that from the S2, or see how stable the GPS fix is).
I'd have really liked to read a proper review for it (with benchmarks etc), or at least see a believable amount of user ratings. The Amazon product page has some good user reviews, but only 22 of them, and you can't really find much information about this model (or about the Star make in general) on the Internet.
What do you guys think? Is there reason to believe this phone would perform (visibly/audibly) worse than its closest Samsung equivalent, or that its life expectency would be shorter? Many thanks in advance for any help, I really appreciate it!
Click to expand...
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Please use this thread
[Discussion] What's your next smartphone / What should I buy
or this
**DEVICE SUGGESTION THREAD** -- Not sure what device to buy? Ask here!

immortalneo said:
Please use this thread
[Discussion] What's your next smartphone / What should I buy
or this
**DEVICE SUGGESTION THREAD** -- Not sure what device to buy? Ask here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please use one of ^^^^^these^^^^^^ threads. Otherwise the General forum would be full of these kinds of threads. One important difference that is independent of build quality is that branded phones have better OEM support and there is likely to be a lot more development on a branded device.
Thread closed.

[Q] Technical Mobile Blogs?

Hi guys,
Just had a quick question for you guys. Are there any extremely technical mobile blogs? I'm an electrical engineer and I have an (extremely) unhealthy obsession with phones. I literally have had every android phone (save for the extremely low end ones... and even then I've had some). I realized that my hobby could be better utilized by combining it with my fancy university degree.
I'm not talking about Engadget or Gizmodo, or any of the other mainstream tech sites. While they're great, I was thinking of writing up reviews of the more technical details, such as testing battery drain with different kernels or google edition vs stock edition, temperature profiles of the device, and whatever else I feel that typical reviews are missing. I don't imagine it being a big hit, but considering I have all these phones rooted and running a variety of ROMs and kernels, I could at least provide test results for the curious members of XDA as to what ROM/kernel combination gives best battery results.
If there's already blogs out there that go as in depth as I want to go, then there's no point really. If there isn't, would you guys be interested in this?

ShensMobile said:
Hi guys,
Just had a quick question for you guys. Are there any extremely technical mobile blogs? I'm an electrical engineer and I have an (extremely) unhealthy obsession with phones. I literally have had every android phone (save for the extremely low end ones... and even then I've had some). I realized that my hobby could be better utilized by combining it with my fancy university degree.
I'm not talking about Engadget or Gizmodo, or any of the other mainstream tech sites. While they're great, I was thinking of writing up reviews of the more technical details, such as testing battery drain with different kernels or google edition vs stock edition, temperature profiles of the device, and whatever else I feel that typical reviews are missing. I don't imagine it being a big hit, but considering I have all these phones rooted and running a variety of ROMs and kernels, I could at least provide test results for the curious members of XDA as to what ROM/kernel combination gives best battery results.
If there's already blogs out there that go as in depth as I want to go, then there's no point really. If there isn't, would you guys be interested in this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wouldn't be a bad idea. But keep it simple, clean, regularly updated and original
But don't consider my blog as model . I hardly get time to look at it and as a result it's not good. Anyways all the best.

User Review: ZTE Blade V

Greetings fellow xda members and modders!
Having received my ZTE Blade V one week ago, I felt like posting a small review about the phone, its capabilities and my experiences from it, as i have noticed that this phone neither exists in XDA database nor has any relevant topics for it as well.
Before starting the review I would like to state that i live in Greece, where the phone is priced at 159€. For a quad-core phone with no sim-locking that is considered a real bargain. With that covered, we are ready to begin our review
Design
Design-wise, the Blade V is far from perfect, but fairly decent considering its price. Its corners are rounded off and the exterior of the device is clean and simple. It could be even better if the micro-USB port was placed to the bottom of the phone though, beacuse on the left side of the phone you can easily feel a small bump. A camera button would be a nice addtion as well. With dimensions of 126 x 64 x 10.9 mm and a weight of 130g, you might expect a somewhat big and heavy device, but it still manages to fit comfortably in your hand, whether you are left or right-handed, providing easy access to all of its controls.
When you see the back of the Blade V, you momentarily forget that you are holding a device in that price range. The back cover design is very similar to that of the Galaxy S3 (should you choose the black version) and there are no flaws to be found. The back camera could be a little more protected though. The overall quality of plastic seems to be pretty good, and even after removing the back cover many times, there was no squeaking to be heard. Last but not least, the battery is removable which is a big plus for many users.
Display
Many android users (including me) have a lot of requirements when it comes to the display, beacause it can either ruin or boost your experience. Fear not, because Blade V will not dissapoint you. It features a 4-inch IPS LCD multi-touch screen operating at 800x480 pixels which outputs 16 million colours. Sure it is not as sharp and vivid as displays featured at more expensive phones, but it provides a rewarding experience whether it comes to multimedia or daily use. It can be very bright if required and at maximum brightness the screen can be seen even under direct sunlight.
Camera
The device features 2 cameras, but the lack of video calling limits the use of the front VGA camera to taking selfies and using it for skype calls ONLY. The back camera is rated at 5 MP and the lens seems to be of decent quality. Pictures are shot at 2592х1944 pixels, with the user having the conveniences of auto-focus, panoramic shot,picture timer,photo filters (sepia,b/w,negative) and a LED flash which can be set to on,off or auto.
When it comes to video though, many will be dissapointed. While the quality remains decent and the movement fluid, the phone is unable to shoot in HD, with the user being limited to 480p, qvga or qcif quality. Additional choices for video capturing are light on/off (the LED one), the adjustment of white-balance, geo tagging and two codecs: AMRNB and AAC.
Internal Hardware
The main selling point of this phone is its hardware. For 159€, you get a phone with a quad-core CPU, 1 GB of ram, and 4GB internal storage (up to 32 GB with micro sd), with only 2.5 GB of internal memory accesible to the user though. Now let's dive into some technical details: The CPU is a Qualcomm MSM8225Q Snapdragon clocked at 1.2 Ghz. While not top of the line, in combination with the Ardeno 203 GPU and 1 GB of ram, it can promise a responsive,lag-free and fluid experience, from daily use to gaming. I have to mention that I installed A LOT of apps (aproximately 800MB) of varying requirements and still not managed to bring it to its knees. The internal storage is more than enough and gives you room for plenty of applications, but don't expect to be able to install large applications such as NFS Most Wanted, because you might run out of memory.
As for connectivity, the device lacks 4G features but in turn provides full 3G, wifi and bluetooth.
Software
There is not much to say here, as ZTE have done little to customize Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. What must been mentioned though, is a convenient application called Mi-EasyAcces, providing easy acces for up-to 6 user-set applications without having to unlock the phone. Last but not least is the really nice Mi-POP application which enables you to have a back button available anywhere on the screen in order not to have to move your finger down all the time. Otherwise the UI is the same like factory 4.1 Jelly Bean with a launcher
Battery
For the last part of my review, i feel like covering a very important issue of today's smartphones- battery life. The battery is rated at 1800 mAh and provides very good battery life, to the point that a full charge is able to last you two days with medium brightness, moderate use and good coverage.
Conclusion
Before i bought the phone, i believed that this level of experience could not be provided under the 200 euro price tag. Well, this phone proved me wrong. The device sure is not high end but it provides a really impressive and smooth performance. Rooting it was a piece of cake and many people here expect it to become a great modding platform, given its Qualcomm CPU and the spec/price ratio. Even for the basic user, who has no modding knowledge or experience, it is a great entry-level phone for a great android experience
I would like to thank everyone for your time, patience and support you have shown me since i registered at XDA, no matter what problem i have faced. I would be very delighted to see your comments, opinions and experiences with the device, as well as constructive critisism for future posts.
PS: Mods and staff, please feel free to edit/do as desired with the following article

UPDATE:
ATTENTION FELLOW READERS! After ROUGHLY one month of regular use, the screen started showing flashing white pixels on dark images at the bottom left part. They appear to flash rapidly and range from 3-5 pixels per blink. I REALLY hope ZTE covers this, otherwhise they gained one VERY unhappy customer

DarksonDAP said:
UPDATE:
ATTENTION FELLOW READERS! After ROUGHLY one month of regular use, the screen started showing flashing white pixels on dark images at the bottom left part. They appear to flash rapidly and range from 3-5 pixels per blink. I REALLY hope ZTE covers this, otherwhise they gained one VERY unhappy customer
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Click to collapse
What a thorough review, and an interesting read. I feel your pain with the display issues that you're experiencing and, like you, really hope that ZTE comes through and does the right thing. If they don't fix or replace your phone, you should write a letter to the editor of one of the local techie publications and get some exposure on the issue...and, in so doing, help others to avoid a similar fate.
Best of luck and please let us know how it turns out!

Thank you for reading my review and providing me with all this great support, I am really grateful. The issue has mysteriously vanished when i booted up the phone this morning and has not occured ever since (knock on wood). I will try having a Drag Racing marathone to stress it a little bit, in order to check the stability of the device or if any issue will appear again. As you might guess, ZTE's reply to the issue is no-existant and i really hope that they should have reached a solution if this unacceptable problem ever plagues me again.

DarksonDAP said:
Thank you for reading my review and providing me with all this great support, I am really grateful. The issue has mysteriously vanished when i booted up the phone this morning and has not occured ever since (knock on wood). I will try having a Drag Racing marathone to stress it a little bit, in order to check the stability of the device or if any issue will appear again. As you might guess, ZTE's reply to the issue is no-existant and i really hope that they should have reached a solution if this unacceptable problem ever plagues me again.
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Hi, this pixel error is returned? This is ROM bug? You tried the latest Virgin frimware?

No, this pixel error has fortunately not returned since the last time i posted about it. It could have been either a ROM or an application bug by the looks of it. The phone is still running on the stock ZTE rom and is rock solid. In Greece the phone is sold unbranded and unlocked

any chance of a link to the stock rom please?

the only link i have been able to find is this one https://mega.co.nz/#!5Ig3ECwD!R21Vik...2PLpeXW1eFZJFI
which was included in this topic http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2440697
and this link from another forum
http://www.modaco.com/topic/365062-zte-blade-v-stock-roms/
i have not tested them myself though
PS: I apologize to the administration and the community if the use of external links is forbidden, my purpose is to help a fellow friend. If, for any reason, I break any posted rule please notify me and i will edit my post immediately

I also have this phone and I have had not problems at all with it. Great value for money

Update android zte blade v
Good afternoon,
I have ZTE BLADE V from October 2013 Android version is 4.1.2. I am looking to find a later version for my phone but I'm confused about what I read.
If someone can give me some information about whether a new version (unofficial) and the installation process.
Thanks in advance.

which drawback do you mind most about your phone?

[discuss] There are many reasons for us to buy a phone like its fashionable design/operating system/high pixel or its size. But which drawbacks do you mind most about a phone ? Its small screen or its surface ? or some others? Please let us know , it will help to choose the most suitable phone.

for me, the fluency of the system is the most important ! You can't image how much it will annoyed you if it's slow reaction

I believe this topic should be moved to the (Off-Topic) section? As it is a question but it refers to a discussion about devices.

battery life, but I guess thats pretty much for all smartphones...