CVByrne Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Yeah but HTC sense is what made the Desire far better than the Nexus one. Back when Sense added loads of things Android was missing. These days ICS is a very complete OS. HTC Desire is the bigger milestone. They merged hardware and in a a non apple phone. That year marked the shift. These days apple fans are treated to lazy refreshes like the 4S and OS that simply catch up with Android. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Yeah I was commenting from a mainly Samsung point of view, just didn't have time to say that as the kids were rushing me The HTC Passion/Desire model was singularly the biggest leap forward HTC, Google and Android have made. Launching with Eclair which was a massive jump from Donut, with the fantastic hardware made it an overnight success. I had the HTC Dream for a while, then was about to switch to a Desire before trying the S1 and fell in love with SAMOLED. Samsung haven't put a foot wrong since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted June 19, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 19, 2012 Anyone with a Nexus or sgs2 might want to give ParanoidAndroid a go. It's a tablet-hybrid rom giving you a tablet feel to your phone. Most apps also switches to their tablet layout. It's pretty cool, and if you dont like it in tablet mode, it's a rock solid vanilla ICS based on cm9 in phone-mode. It's my daily driver. SGS2 version here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Anyone upgraded from the SG2 to the SG3? If so is it a worthwhile upgrade? It appears that O2 have withdrawn the mid term upgrades on business contracts so the upgrade might cost a lot more than I thought it might so will only do it if its really worth it. Otherwise I will run the contract down and go GiffGaff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Anyone with a Nexus or sgs2 might want to give ParanoidAndroid a go. It's a tablet-hybrid rom giving you a tablet feel to your phone. Most apps also switches to their tablet layout. It's pretty cool, and if you dont like it in tablet mode, it's a rock solid vanilla ICS based on cm9 in phone-mode. It's my daily driver. Tried it, couldn't get on with it. Lasted about 3 days. Bottom bar too small to be useful, when made bigger nothing fits. Any apps that switch to tablet mode don't fit quite right. It's nice to try out. I lasted 2 days, then was straight back to AOKP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Got my S3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Got my S3. And? I need the Conor seal of approval before I jump ship! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2012 Looks like the US release of the SGS2 is imminent (AT&T is taking pre-orders). There's fewer differences this time around between the US and EU versions, though the differences may be more significant: * 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU (dual-core)... apparently Samsung still can't get the Exynos to work on LTE; the hilarious bit about this is that T-Mobile US's version, even though T-Mobile is at least a year away from an LTE rollout and their S III won't support LTE even when they roll out, is still a Qualcomm... * AT&T and Verizon's versions drop the dropbox storage (probably because they're planning their own branded cloud storage rollout) * NFC is arguably the big new feature besides ICS in the US S III: previous Galaxy S phones in the US have all disabled NFC in-show advert from last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Got my S3. And? I need the Conor seal of approval before I jump ship! Had to use it a bit first. Battery life is stellar. No problems at all lasting a day no matter how much I used it. The screen is as expected lovely. I like the weight of it as it is similar for its size to the S2. Camera improvements are great too. Video looks awesome. It's a great phone. Hard to know about the browser as I haven't used it on wifi. Don't ask about the s voice as I'll never talk to my phone like a total gimp. Love the screen size, makes a huge difference to browsing the internet and watching TV shows. Phone isn't a stellar phone like the S2, but it is an excellent phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Dislikes , white headphones, slightly poor build quality around how the back fits and how the power button has some give without actually hitting the power . It just feels flimsy compared to the S2. Also Iddon't like how they got rid of the lip down the bottom of the phone. Also the phone is slipppery in the hand. It'll be dropped a few times I'd imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 SGS3 impressions. The Build – First off I thought it looked average at best, I thought it was cheaper feeling in the hand than the S2 and the build quality around the power button and how the back cover fits not being up to scratch. I thought the coating made it feel slippery in the hand and it will be dropped often. But now I’ve spent time with it the look of the thing is growing on me. I’ve read that in more than one review and stragely it’s turning out to be true. The curved efges do actually make it easier to fish out of a pocket. I still miss the bottom lip though. Now onto that slippery surface, it’s there for a reason it magically gets ride of all fingerprints. It is indeed magic that does it. My phone never seems to have fingerprints on it. Amazing. The screen – Firstly you can tell everything is more crisp thanks to the increased resolution, which combined with the increased size makes reading web pages a dream on this phone. HD Videos too look excellent. Aside from that you can tell it doesn’t have a wow factor like the S2’s Plus screen had, if that’s down to this being pentile I’m not so sure. I think it’s because they have tweaked the saturation. They have toned down colours everywhere, while this may please some people, especially people used to some inferior LCD screens this does not please me. I downright loved the saturation levels on the S2, I loved the vivid colours. But of course this is preference. Software – First thing I did was have a couple of days with the new touchjiz, which I like everything to do with it bar the homescreens which continues to be garbage. This being android means I just go pick my favourite launcher which continues to be Zeam with its action bindings and 5 icons in the nice small persistent tray at the bottom. But the rest of the touchjiz software is great, the notifications, the lock screen short cuts, the video and gallery apps. All lightening quick all improved from the S2 all great. That is except the browser. The browser is lightening quick and is really great but Samsung still haven’t been alerted that text reflow exists. Of course this is no problem at all given the best browser out there is Chrome which I duely download, sign into and set as default. The Battery – Now here is where it’s unmistakeable how much of an improvement it is. I last a day no problem no matter what. It is now 5 hours since I unplugged the phone, with 50% brightness it’s been on 50 min train ride of internet browsing and 90 mins of music to get to work. Since then it has had intermittent accessing of Google chat, gmail a couple of apps and two brief internet browses. 3G has been on all the time, no power saving anything no settings changes to synching and it’s just hit 79%. Awesome is the description of it. It can let you do exactly what you want from a smartphone without worrying and still be able to make a call at 3am after a days use. Superb. Camera – This is something I have not fully tested yet, re image quality etc. But what I can tell you is the software improvements are excellent and work a treat, it loads up instantly, burst shot works great as well as picking the best photo from the burst. Other Samsung software things – Pop up play works great and is handy for my crazy habit of listening to video and doing something else. I do it on my PC and now do it on my phone. It may be daft but I watch plenty of stuff that doesn’t need your full attention. The smart stay actually works. I used it today on the train and despite not working 100% of the time still meant I could read stuff without having to touch the screen to keep my phone awake all the time. I’d imagine with software improvements this will work better and better. As for S Voice don’t be daft I’d never use that. Though I am a bit annoyed set Samsung for ditching swype and replacing it with their own inferior finger tracing system. Phone Calls – this is not something normally measured or commented on by myself. But I had to take a couple of business calls on my S2 recently and found I had some definite trouble having a long conversation on the mobile as opposed to a normal work phone. But I got a call on Friday when I was using my S3 from the same person as before and the difference was an obvious improvement. I’m amazed to be honest. So overall opinion of the S3. It doesn’t wow you, it’s not a phone you can’t stop playing with the moment you take it out of the box. There is nothing wow about it bar the batterylife. But it’s a phone that grows on you as you appretiate what Samsung have done. They have made every bit of the whole experience better and usefully better. So it ends up being more than a sum of its parts. Basically Samsung have made a great phone, which this time has surprised me. Even the bundled headphones are great, but I still don’t know about Pebble Blue. What's wrong with black? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 25, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 25, 2012 It's interesting that from what I can see, the US version of the S3 returns to having the same front design as the international version. US S2: US S3: The only reason for the change has to have been to avoid pissing off Apple. Samsung gets billions of dollars annually from Apple in business, and Apple has been very touchy about the iPhone look and feel: having the combination of black body, evenly rounded corners, roughly equal-width areas above and below the screen, and a large button in the center of the lower area below the screen is enough to piss off Apple, and putting out such a phone in the US market is sure to piss Apple off, even if legally Apple has no rights to the design. So Samsung's execs apparently decided that all Samsung phones offered in the US would change at least one of those aspects. For the S2, that meant retaining the S's button layout, but since the S3 goes out of its way in so many places to not look like an iPhone (not being black, not having equal curvature for the corners, the different widths of the upper and lower portions), Samsung didn't feel it necessary to change the design for the US market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 27, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 27, 2012 Jelly Bean Installation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 27, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 27, 2012 Anyone watching Google I/O? 400m Android devices have been activated so far, 1m being activated daily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 27, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 27, 2012 Jelly Bean looks to have much smoother animations than ICS. Improvements to the home screens Voice typing now works offline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 27, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 27, 2012 Voice Search, combined with the Knowledge Graph, now pisses over Siri. Google Now: uses location history, search history, calendar/gmail contents, etc. to deliver better results. E.g. if you're at a train station, it will tell you when the next train comes, or if you're outside a restaurant, what dishes are recommended. If you have an appointment and usually take the bus, it will tell you when to leave in order to make the appointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 27, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 27, 2012 Nexus S updates OTA to Jelly Bean in July Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 No way can Google make any profits from the nexus 7. Pricing has to be geared towards market share and that is it. It is amazingly cheap and worth the money as a portable media player alone. May pick one up for just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 It's hard to say how much they make from Android as they give the software away for free. They are locking down mobile search though, and they make plenty out of that. Apple set Google as their default search engine at the moment but they are only a business deal away from going with Bing or somebody else and that probably worries Google quite a bit, hence this expansion into the tablet space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted June 27, 2012 Administrator Share Posted June 27, 2012 Hmm, jelly bean promised for the Xoom. Mine's still on Honeycomb. Stop ignoring the rest of the world Google. The price of the Nexus 7 is the same as the Kindle Fire. I doubt the components cost $100, but you're right that this is probably about selling content (and a bucket load of devices). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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