Here's a little background, on Saturday I got a Galaxy S and it was screwed(No 3 button modes), I got another SGS and it had the same issue. Not to mention that its GPS was a bit screwed. Now I'm not being against SGS, its an awesome phone and honestly I'm a bit skeptical for switching after my 6 hour experience with the phone but I need another phone.
Now I'm thinking the next best option, HTC Desire. I need a ROMable phone with good community around it, the phone itself needs to be fast(Or with the ability to be fast), the touch needs to be good(Very important, I'm used to an iPod Touch, so I want a touch experience close to the iTouch, I mean snappy, quick and accurate). I know it has a relatively bad Multi-Touch but is it really that bad? Does it support 3-point or greater touches?
Also how is the gaming experience on it? I know it has a weaker GPU than Desire but is it absolutely bad?
Note : The comparison/experience need not be from stock ROM, it can be from any ROM as long as it is available in the wild.
EDIT : Also how is the screen if Desire when compared to SGS, iTouch 3G(iPhone 3GS)? I know its a bit smaller than SGS but would it make a difference?
Multi touch is a no, it's 2 point only I believe...
Still best phone I've had, better than iPhone 3GS IMO - not used the SGS but have heard a number of bad things about it
Best thing you can do is have a go on one, then you can make up your own mind
I'd still like some opinions before I go into the store. The problem is here you actually don't get to try it before purchasing it, stores are skeptical due to the theft.
How is the touch experience in general?
I came from an HD2 and it was night and day compared to that in terms of the screens!! I'd say it's comparable to the iPhone 3GS in terms of text input but as I've not properly used an iPhone I can't say more than that. I've had no issues with the touch personally, I'd say it's a blinding phone and best I've ever used
Have you tried playing games on the Desire? Is it good in terms of gaming?
Only game I've played is Angry Birds and for that it's fine - end of the day it's a phone so I use it as one (email, calls, SMS) so can't comment more than that
Dragooon123 said:
Have you tried playing games on the Desire? Is it good in terms of gaming?
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Click to collapse
Gaming is fine - if the controls are appropriate for the Desires touch screen. I've no problems with games like Nova, Skies of Glory, Dungeon Hunger, Angry Birds etc.
As to the GPU, yes it is weaker than the one in the Galaxy S, but to be honest when I do play I can't say I can really notice it. It certainly isn't a bad GPU, it's just not as fast as the PowerVR GPU in the Samsung and iPhones.
That being said, if phone gaming was only of my primary requirements, I would probably buy an iPhone anyway, though the gap is definitely narrowing!
Regards,
Dave
P.S. Note that two points is still more than one, so it does have multi-touch!
If anyone even dares to suggest me iPhone in this thread I'll shoot them in an instance . Not that it is a bad phone, I've decided to not go with it.
Multi-touch aside, is the normal touch application good? Is the screen accurate and responsive? I'm talking about the problems faced with touch screens such as applying too much pressure for it to recognize a command, the screen not being responsive etc. Especially in typing.
Is their really a big difference between 3.7" and 4.0" screen? Also, is the screen on Desire good when compared to other high-end handsets(Xperia, Galaxy, iPhone)?
Also, what are the chances for it to be completely bricked? Not that I'd intentionally do something bad(I'm quite good at flashing I guess, I've flashed my dad's Herald numerous times).
Also the most important thing, how is the GPS? I plan on using MyTracks with it to record tracks for 4-6 hours. Basically my dad is documenting the locality with photos and he goes on for 4-6 hours every day taking photos and 360 degree panoramas of different places. We'd like to Geotag them but my camera doesn't support it, so we plan on tracking it with MyTracks and then patching it with Apple's Aperture.
MyTrak as in Snooper? I work for them!!
General touch screen is just as good as an iPhone - it's a capacitive screen so little contact is needed to use and I've had no problems with it at all. Colours are vibrant too (but I've got an AMOLED screen, new ones tend to have the SLCD screen which is slightly less vibrant apparently)
The 3.7" screen's fine to view and a lot easier in the hand than my old HD2 (although it was a nice unit to use - shame about WM6.5)
My Tracks, as in Google's My Tracks. It records your GPS movement for a desired amount of time.
How is the screen's test? My biggest complain with HTC's Herald was that the screen could break very easily, is the screen on Desire strong? Can it stand scratches from objects like keys, coins or sharp objects? Is it drop-friendly?
I've a Martin Fields protector on mine and it's in its official case at all times when not in use but it is a glass screen so is still strong. I never have it in a pocket with anything else as a precaution, though
Related
Tell me guys.
Went from a tytn2 to a Raphael...
Should I go for the Hero or TP2 ?
Never used a Hero.
The TP2 from T-Mobile is hands-down the best WM-based device I've ever had my paws on. You can pry it from my cold, dead fingers.....
Macedon2000 said:
Should I go for the Hero or TP2 ?
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Click to collapse
Do you want a Windows Mobile phone with a brilliant physical keyboard and lots of neat business features that also does a reasonable job of multimedia, or do you want an Android-powered, multimedia-oriented device with a capacitive touchscreen that supports multi-touch, and which also does a reasonable job of business-oriented stuff? The two are really very different. It would make more sense to be having trouble deciding between a Hero an iPhone - they're much more similar in philosophy (IMO).
i dint really get the difference between the two types of screens...capacitive and resistive.
I played a bit with an iPhone 3GS today and it felt really good...i like the iPhone because everything just works... but I got bored after 3min of playing with it.
just the thought of not being able to flash new roms etc. makes me puke.
I like my RAPH but i would like a bigger screen, better(faster/smoother) handling of multimedia(pics/music/video) like iPod on iPhone, sort of.
so its down to winmo or android.
I was also thinking weather to go for hero or the touch pro2 but the touch pro2 has an amazing keyboard and watching movies on it look pretty impressive and i dont mind it not using a 3.5 mm jack as i use a stereo bluetooth headset. So i went for the touch pro2 and WOW im glad i did, im writing this from my touch pro 2 now.
It also has a reasonably good stock rom, the stock rom on my wizard was hopeless and if it wasnt for xda-developers i would never of had it for so long.
TP2 definetly, because the hardware keyboard that for me is a must!
The telephone conferencing and voice features are really good. Easy to setup and to use. Sound is good too. Credit to HTC for adding features that are fundamental to a what a good business phone should have.
I really don't like the way the Hero looks. Just for that I would go with the TP2.
Macedon2000 said:
i dint really get the difference between the two types of screens...capacitive and resistive.
I played a bit with an iPhone 3GS today and it felt really good...i like the iPhone because everything just works... but I got bored after 3min of playing with it.
just the thought of not being able to flash new roms etc. makes me puke.
I like my RAPH but i would like a bigger screen, better(faster/smoother) handling of multimedia(pics/music/video) like iPod on iPhone, sort of.
so its down to winmo or android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
capacitive screens are designed for finger-friendly touches. when you touch the screen with your finger, the press generates an electric stimulus that the phone reads as a press. capacitive screens can't use normal styli, so there is a loss in accuracy
resistive screens are designed for accuracy, due to the use of styli
I got the Tmobile Touch Pro2 and I am very happy with it - awesome screen size and acceptable thickness for a fullsize keyboard. hulu.com on skyfire for this screensize totally rocks. I have heard that the flash browser of Hero is slow, but then again - it hasn't been XDA-fied yet (not that I know of, anyway).
But I am in the same boat as you - want the Hero too!!!
Good news is that I have a work ATT phone that will be up for renewal in October, hopefully when the Hero comes in!
Can't really help you with your choice except say - go to the Tmobile store and see the TMobile touch pro2 in person.
And don't count out the diamond2 either.
It truly is a great time to have HTC shares....hmmm maybe I should be looking into that! lol!
poppinpengawen said:
capacitive screens are designed for finger-friendly touches. when you touch the screen with your finger, the press generates an electric stimulus that the phone reads as a press. capacitive screens can't use normal styli, so there is a loss in accuracy
resistive screens are designed for accuracy, due to the use of styli
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Resistive screens need to be pressed quite hard, while capacitive ones only need to be touched lightly. Capacitive screens tend to be more responsive, so they will probably track your finger better when scrolling, and there's less likely to be any ambiguity about whether you've pressed something or not. But the most significant difference (aside from the fact that you can't use a stylus with a capacitive screen) is that a capacitive screen, given appropiate OS support, can support multi-touch - that is, it can detect being pressed in more than one place at once.
So, on the Hero and iPhone if you're running (say) Google Earth, you can rotate the map by putting your thumb and forefinger on the screen and twisting your hand. You can also zoom in and out by putting thumb and forefinger either side of a section of the screen, then moving them together or apart. This is much more convenient and intuitive than the TP2's zoom bar.
Macedon2000 said:
I played a bit with an iPhone 3GS today and it felt really good...i like the iPhone because everything just works... but I got bored after 3min of playing with it.
just the thought of not being able to flash new roms etc. makes me puke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A jail-broken iPhone is actually pretty flexible.
I almost bought an iPhone rather than a TP2. It was really only the cost that put me off in the end. (Not the absolute cost, but it's too expensive for what it is). The user-interface design on an iPhone really is beautiful - it's not just that everything works, it's that everything works intuitively and quickly and neatly. The lack of a physical keyboard was also a problem for me (as I'm rather clumsy and have short, fat fingers) but the on-screen keyboard on an iPhone is the best I've seen; and the lower resolution of the screen (on iPhone or Hero) niggles a bit - for mobile web-browsing the extra screen res on a TP2 or Diamond2 really makes a difference for reading small text.
The call quality is also very good on a TP2 - I need phones to be clear and loud as I'm partially deaf. People hear you very clearly on the TP2 as well, thanks to the high-quality soise-cancelling microphones.
Hi, I have been offerred this phone free on an upgrade for my HTC touch HD, is this a decent enough upgrade, how does it compare to the HD2?
I have read lots of reviews but lot of them conflict each other, my main areas of concern are as follows:
1. What is the battery life actually like?
2. Is the screen as bad as people say in daylight?
3. What is the camera quality like for stills?
4. Has there been any offical announcments about the DIVX / 720p video recording update?
5. Is there a decent video player comparable to Coreplayer which supports muliple codecs?
Thanks
1. Not the best, but good enough. I use the device pretty heavily and it gets down to about 15% by the end of the day. Light usage can probably last 2 days.
2. It's as good as any other AMOLED device.
3. Pretty good. Low-light shots are not that great. LED flash helps but often it's either not bright enough or the shots get washed out.
4. No
5. Not sure. But I personally prefer to encode my videos so that the default player can accept it.
Thanks,much appreciated.
The developer community for the HD2 is comparatively erm, developed at the moment. Obviously it's still early days, but seeing as the Nexus One tends to be the modder's choice of phone, like the HD2 is for WinMo, I think the Desire will always be in the Shadow of the Nexus to an extent.
A friend with an HD2 struggles to make his last the whole day. He always carries a spare battery. The HD2's screen is very nice, but side by side with the Desire, everything seems washed out and the advantages of AMOLED are clear. Outdoors in sunglight the Desire's screen is poor but not unusable. Using my phone outdoors has never caused me any major problems. I would say the HD2 is more aesthetically pleasing device overall and more customisable at this stage, but with 2.2 almost certainly coming to the device, I think the Desire is a sound choice and don't regret buying it.
I've got an HD2 and I used to cook ROMs for it - WinMo is easier to get your head around than Android IMO - and the community is more developed as WinMo has been around longer. However, I prefer the Desire as the size is better (HD2 is nice but it's huge!!) and it runs better out the box. My HD2 was only good after I'd played about with it
Hardware wise they are very similar. 1ghz Snapdragon, 576 memory. The HD2 has a massive 4.3 inch screen compared to the Desire's 3.7 inch... Put pretty much any phone next to the Desire though and the Desire will make the other phone's screen look quite poor. The clarity and color on the Desire is just... well... it blows any other phone out of the water as far as screen quality. The camera I have found is quite good. The low lights though can sometimes get washed out, but I have found that is an issue even on normal cameras so not really here or there. The phone over all is pretty good. The battery life is kind of sporadic, it really depends on what you do with it, and what you have going. Sometimes it can last days without dropping below 50%, other times I find it dropping like 10% every 20 minutes. I am thinking 2.2 will help out with battery life a bit... and the longer I have the phone the better the battery life seems to get. Between the two devices, it pretty much comes down to which operating system you prefer. I dislike Windows Mobile, and like Android. They are similar phones spec wise, the only thing the HD2 has over the Desire is screen size, and even then the HD2 screen is no where near as nice as the Desire's. If you do want/need the massive size, you could wait for the HTC Supersonic to come out. It's basically an HD2 with Android.
I briefly bought a few phones before settling for the desire. All I can say is its like the leatherman of phones. You just have to hold one of these things & you won't look back
I had lots of smart phones in the past, mainly Win Mobile ones and then deflected over to the other side (iPhone). Not going to get into a debate what is better, but the in my opinion iPhone was and still is a great device. The new iPhone will be even better.
Saying that, I went for this device because it was much more configurable and has much more potential without "jail breaking" etc.
Compared to other devices I'm still impressed about the speed, responsiveness and generally it has been much more "bug free" than any smart phone I have owned in the past and I've owned a lot. I have not had it reboot on me once yet (2 weeks of solid use).
I have a few forced closure of apps but that's an app issue. What made the iPhone great was the apps that was written especially for the iPhone and hopefully the android market will reach that same heights in the future.
Battery life is not great, but I've never had a smart phone last more that a day without charge, but I use it a lot during my train journey into work and have push email, plus other data intensive apps. I bought this phone to give me all this functionality and I find no point in trying to get more than a day if I have to sacrifice not being able to use the phone to its full potential.
Screen is good, nice and crisp. I don't watch movies on the phone, but I encoding it would be better to have it in a resolution suitable for the phone.
In conclusion, I think this phone is worth it, I don't regret buying it and not looking to buy anything else, until....... iPhone 4g.
Thanks again everyone for your comments, these have been really helpful.
So after getting my defy, I wondered why its such a secret among the general public - it has its own (awesome) tv advert, its really high quality, and on top of that it has android! Whats not to love?
Anyways here is a list of why any potential buyer should get this rather than a BB, iPhone etc etc
1. Android- maybe one of the more obvious reasons, but it is the most open mobile platform, meaning you can customize it exactly how you would like it rather than how a company thinks you should have it.
Supports a long list of software that any businessperson, gamer and social networker would ever need.
2. Toughness- Ever wanted to watch some youtube in the shower? well now you can, with the motorola defy anything is possible.
Ok maybe not, but still- there are many videos demonstrating how resistant this phone is to water scratches dust sand etc, so if you are one of those people who go through many phones then this is for you.
3. Screen- Soo its not the retina display, or a smexy AMOLED, but it is still amazingly beautiful at about 60% brightness(conserving battery ftw
3.7" takes up most of the phone, making it really small compared to desire, iphone etc which is nice, because wasted space kinda sucks.
4. Price- the most important point of all, its insanely cheap pricetag- £300/$400 ish for a phone that is(should be) competing with the iphone(one of the most sold phones ever, if you havent heard )
Notes:
-Can run angry birds with 0 to minimal lag -when ads appear
-Runs spyro on psx4droid at steady 50fps with minimal frames dropped (only one of my old psx games i tested so far)
-Best multitasking ability ever, wish moto included app switcher in the dropdown though
-1000 to 1100+ on Quadrant. Best score for stock 2.1? If this is the case, then it may beat some of the higher up(?) android models eg G1 when running 2.2, yey
-Decent camera at nighttime, much better than the reviewers have been saying imo. Much better than my old phone, marketed for its camera also 5mp. Obviously cant compete with actual cameras (10+) but then what phone can? excluding the n8.
-You WILL fall in love with swype. Even i was doubtful of its wizardry, however now i dont like typing normally(been about 5 days since i got it)
Real keyboards need swype (C) ?
-Personally i didnt notice the 'lag' in motoblur homescreen, its just their version of elasticity but kinda faily. Obviously switched to Lpro for 3d drawer and multidock. Dont care for the other crap.
Anyways, rant over
Hope you enjoyed the read and contstructive criticism/additional info welcome
These are the things which make me happy to be a defy's owner:
- First of all, the size of the screen compared to the size of the phone, no empty space, just a big screen covering almost all the front side, simply amazing!
- Water proof - wow.
- Great great performances! I know there were good hardware but i've been suprised looking at the score in the quadrant benchmark.
- Price, one of the cheaper phone ever if you consider specs and equipments.
- Android, a lot better than iOS and WP7 but, call me mad, not better than WiMo (i was developing WiMo apps for long time, by the programmer side i have to say there's no other mobile OS open and flexible as WiMo is).
I'm kind of in the same boat, left wondering.
I had a Froyo 2.2 based device before, with a 4.3" LCD and quite the fastest processor out there. I always found 4.3 way toooo big for my uses. The faster benchmark scores just meant my battery beeing empty earlier. I don't really care for the apple iOS hype, or for WP7 (play on both for a while).
What's really cool though is:
- It's water and dust proof/restistant. I have a life besides playing Angry Birds. I ski, hike, bike, I am actually out there when it snows or rains, or is blistering hot. I can drop the phone in the snow and it ain't dead. I can get rained out while bikeing without it crapping out.
- Motoblur. I actually do like it. I do like the Facebook/Twitter integration. I do like the fact I can upload pictures right away. Each Vendor (SE, Moto, HTC, Samsung) adds a little ontop of "stock" Android to differentiate their branch. Out of those Motoblur is actually the nicest I have seen.
- I do like the fact that Motorola has a Eclipse based developer suite that I can download without having to worry about missing bits and pieces, and then having a AVD that looks like my DEFY (ok, using a ARMV5TE emulation is a slight downfall ;-)). I do like the fact that Motorola opensources most of the bits and pieces, so that curious minds can look.
I used my BB 9700 for almost a year and switched to this phone a few days ago. First full touch screen phone I have ever owned and Im, suprisingly, happy with this phone. Fast, tough and sexy.
People should pick up the DEFY just based on the 3G reception alone. I'm so glad it has a OMAP 3630 as well. It clinched the purchase for me.
Sent from my MOTO DEFY
Hey guys... Ive had both the Samsung Focus and the HTC Surround... not sure which i want to keep though... Surround is louder which i like ringtone wise and i like the soft touch back.. I liked the screen, camera and thickness of the focus more though.... Just looking to see what other peoples thoughts were or maybe what your determining factor was...
focus, compare the screen of both phones side by side and you'll clearly see the difference
Compare them side by side using office or email and you'll notice the surround looks better. The surround does better with the lighter colors. Size really isnt a factor because even though the Focus is thinner (less then an 1/8 of an inch) because when you compare all 3 dimensions the Surround is actually smaller. Both are good picks. Just go with your gut and I'm sure you'll be pleased either way.
do you use your phone as a multimedia device or a business device? Thats kinda what it comes to.
Been using a Surround for more than a week now. It feels substantial but not clumsy and has excellent build quality. I thought the Samsung felt cheaper and had a more pixilated screen. Vote for Surround.
The ATT store I went to had the Focus and Surround side by side.. played with both and bought the Focus eventually. The Focus is really very thin and light and you wont even fell it in your pocket. Also even though its basically all plastic it does not feel cheap.
Definitely keep the Focus.
The way that I decided between the two (well, three for me) was to stand at the AT&T display and play around with both. With one in each hand, making the decision was really rather easy for me.
I was really impressed by the Focus. The large, pretty screen made me happy. I bought one.
Honestly, my impression of the Surround was that it was a terrible joke gone awry. It makes absolutely no sense to me, and it boggles my mind that the Surround was ever manufactured, much less brought to retail. Every time I see one, I want to slap Ralph De La Vega for polluting my potential choices with garbage like that instead of bringing over quality equipment.
That being said, lots of folk really seem to thing that the Surround is not a miscarried fetus of design, and as such what you should take away when considering your personal device should be what matters to you. Think about what you do or want to do with your phone on a daily basis, and apply that to the choices you have at hand. I ended up choosing the Focus, but you may decide that something else fits your desires better.
I'd hate to be the one to bump a thread but I too am looking at these two devices. I have always used qwerty phones (I have the Tilt 2 now) and HTC. However now AT&T only has the LG to choose from for a kb and its screen is small, quality is nominal compared to the other two and the kb feels horrible to the touch (and cheap).
Now I am trying to figure out which of these two phones (Focus/Surround) I want.
Focus: I like the focus for its larger screen, lighter weight and the fact that is has 1gb internal sys mem (sys mem, not storage mem). However all of the store displays of all AT&T stores I went to have a slight image burned onto the screen. They told me the screens are on 24/7 but still...the other phones don't have that. Also it lacks 50% of the space since it doesn't have the 8GB card in it.
HTC Surround: I like the brightness a little more on this screen, plus the HTC software (ie, youtube). The sound is a better obviously and it has the extra 8GB card. The screen is a little smaller though, it has way less sys mem (not storage mem), and less talk time (battery life)...at least based on specs.
I need good images, accurate keyboard for a touch kb, use it for business and space....well I have a 8GB SanDisk so I'm sure it would work in the Focus so space isn't much a concern. Battery life is important as I use my phone a lot. Also important is speed....the HTC has 1/2 the sys mem pretty much as the Focus does...yet I haven't heard anyone make any comments about this yet.
PS: Oh! and I can get the HTC Surround for 1 penny but the Focus is $99.....so that also obviously adds a little imbalance.
jh20001 said:
I'd hate to be the one to bump a thread but I too am looking at these two devices. I have always used qwerty phones (I have the Tilt 2 now) and HTC. However now AT&T only has the LG to choose from for a kb and its screen is small, quality is nominal compared to the other two and the kb feels horrible to the touch (and cheap).
Now I am trying to figure out which of these two phones (Focus/Surround) I want.
Focus: I like the focus for its larger screen, lighter weight and the fact that is has 1gb internal sys mem (sys mem, not storage mem). However all of the store displays of all AT&T stores I went to have a slight image burned onto the screen. They told me the screens are on 24/7 but still...the other phones don't have that. Also it lacks 50% of the space since it doesn't have the 8GB card in it.
HTC Surround: I like the brightness a little more on this screen, plus the HTC software (ie, youtube). The sound is a better obviously and it has the extra 8GB card. The screen is a little smaller though, it has way less sys mem (not storage mem), and less talk time (battery life)...at least based on specs.
I need good images, accurate keyboard for a touch kb, use it for business and space....well I have a 8GB SanDisk so I'm sure it would work in the Focus so space isn't much a concern. Battery life is important as I use my phone a lot. Also important is speed....the HTC has 1/2 the sys mem pretty much as the Focus does...yet I haven't heard anyone make any comments about this yet.
PS: Oh! and I can get the HTC Surround for 1 penny but the Focus is $99.....so that also obviously adds a little imbalance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speed is never mentioned because its not that big of an issue. Windows Phone 7 was designed specifically for these devices and as such, has a minimum system requirement, and because of that, they both work very well on any of the devices on the market currently. The extra memory doesn't make much of impact on performance.
To be honest, aside from the SAMOLED screen, the Focus looks boring and feels cheap. Also, Samsung's track record for supporting their own devices has been subpar at most, for this reason alone I steer away from Samsung devices unless its a Samsung TV.
The Surround doesn't win any design awards, but I do think it looks better than the Focus and doesn't feel cheap. The speaker, while not really useful, is great for pumping out music and video (which is good since WP7 is a media-centered device). Not to mention the awesome support that HTC devices get from HTC, from software to updates, HTC has a much better track record than Samsung.
And when it comes to smartphone battery life, I think its safe to say you're not going to get great battery life period. You are gonna have to plug in your phone at least once a day, and anyone expecting it to last any more than that will be in for a surprise. So I usually ignore battery life when looking at phones (unless the battery life is really dismal).
Obviously they both have their ups and downs and its up to you to decide whats most important to you. The screen burn-in issue on the Focus is one I've heard before, so that actually would bother me quite a bit. I haven't heard any issues with the Surround really.
I just hope if I were to choose HTC, if it will last with good use until the end of the day. I am perfectly fine with charging my phone ever night. It's just when I have to charge it i the middle of the day and wonder if I even have a charger near me that bothers me. My tilt 2 has even had this issue (although usually it does ok).
can't speak much for the surround but i have a HTC 7 Trophy and it lasts through the day. however, i use mine for radio for like 6 hours of the day and by about 7pm it's dead, so i charge it at work. but still, that is using the radio for 6 hours...
which one is having trouble getting updated? get the other one.
nrfitchett4 said:
which one is having trouble getting updated? get the other one.
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Click to collapse
lol, this has been another factor in choosing. It's the Samsung Focus that has been having troubles. That alone has put a lot of favor towards the surround for me and installs a lot of negative assumption in Samsung's build quality.
jh20001 said:
lol, this has been another factor in choosing. It's the Samsung Focus that has been having troubles. That alone has put a lot of favor towards the surround for me and installs a lot of negative assumption in Samsung's build quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't we wait and see how a real update is handled. If NODO comes out at the same time for both devices (even if it was delayed because of the Samsung), it really doesn't matter, because both received the update at the same time.
Weighing in on the question at hand. The Focus takes some of the best pictures of any smartphone on market today. If that is important to you, then that is reason enough to get the focus.
The Focus has a very nice screen, with gorilla glass. The battery life is top notch. The external speaker isn't bad. Fast NAND memory that may likely be more reliable.
The Samsung simply has higher quality components, even though the two devices share many of the same components.
Now, I do have the Focus, but when buying a WP7 device I wasn't bound to any single carrier, so I was able to research out all the devices thoroughly, and the Focus is the one I went with.
Well I do know that I thank all for their feedback. I have decided to order the HTC Surround. There has been good reasons for both sides to get either phone but the more I read online, the more I see people complaining about the screen burn-in issue as well as upgrading windows and the history of Samsung's own efforts to update their products.
Once I have the Surround I will share my own feedback to help contribute to the pot of knowledge.
Get the Focus. Its faster, has better specs, better battery life, better screen, etc.
Sent from my Samsung Focus using Board Express
I have a Captivate at the moment but am considering a Focus, no other phone is even in the running. I have been spoiled by the Samsung screen.....nothing else will do. I've looked at the surround but it just can't compare.
jh20001 said:
more I read online, the more I see people complaining about the screen burn-in issue as well as upgrading windows and the history of Samsung's own efforts to update their products.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really think this is going to end up like the whole plasma screen burn in issue - something we will hear about for years to come that is more of an issue in word than in reality. Regardless I hope that the Surround works out for you.
As a Surround user, I can say that the battery life is terrible. I love the phone although with moderate usage I still end up having to charge it around 5 PM if I plan on going anywhere that evening. Or if I make any long phone calls.
I'm gonna talk about my one week+ old HOX, and like always, I have a lot to say.
To start with, my last phone was the Omnia II, and it was a piece of ****. I had no idea someone was capable of producing something so stupid I'm just totally shocked I mostly used it as a regular phone+music player. It sucked mainly because of the WM6.5 OS, its just funny how someone could even sell such a thing and call it a smartphone. Firstly the performance sucks and it's obvious, nothing goes beyond 10fps in WM6.5, you'd be lucky to get over 5. The music player playlist scrolls at about 3fps, the keyboard has a half second to one second lag, the browser runs at about 0.8fps, it is a full featured browser but you can barely browse the most plain mobile sites. With performance like this, multitasking can kiss my ass, how about get any single task done right before you can multitask? That resistive touchscreen also sucked, I was stupid I didn't do enough research to know the difference. Why would you have a phone screen that is NOT covered with glass? Why? Ignoring the obvious hardness differences, it sucks when those reflections on my screen are distorted, I wanna see a perfect mirror reflection, I'm a perfectionist ok? And of course there are about three apps for WM. I know there are more but they look like windows 95 and has tiny ui elements designed for styluses so they don't count. And those ones that look like windows XP or with lame 3d themes, SPB shell or some ****, those don't count as well.
Look at iPhone! That's how it should be done, everything must be perfectly smooth period. If its not smooth it's not even worth mentioning I don't care how many features you have. iPhone 4 really kicked android in the ass with that retina display. I still don't get it, even today people are releasing phones with this "qHD" resolution, wtf? That's just laughable it's lower than a phone released two years ago! With a much smaller screen! Really? Who's gonna accept that? Sometimes they even call it their "flagship" product, gimme a break. 720p is the minimum period.
So just a few weeks ago I was struggling to decide between the iPhone 4s, HOX the S3, and Sony's yet to be released waterproof 1.5ghz dual core phone. I can't wait for the Sony because iPhone 5 is coming out by the time they release it so that's out of the question. I already have the iPad so I decided to try out an android phone, already got a taste of iOS. I picked the HOX and here is why.
The Galaxy S III isn't as good looking as the HOX to begein with. Maybe Samsung has been having too many problems with patents their design is severely compromised it looks like a really cheap phone but obviously with latest technologies like that screen and its thickness. That bottom part looks really bad it reminds me of a really ugly version of the Omnia II, it looks so 2006 if you unrest and what I mean. That top part also look really bad with those obvious holes for sensors and cameras, they should be hidden like on the HOX. The back side and the rim also look like a very cheep phone but thinner and bigger.
The galaxy s3 screen is also bigger I think, but with the same resolution which makes its bigger size a negative fetus because it's harder to use. Oh wait, in fact it's of a lower resolution because of that pentile ****, it only has 2/3 the number of sub pixels as the HOX. The amoled display is vibrant but that's not equivalent to good because it's too vibrant and the colors are inaccurate. Take a look at a professional display review of the s3 all three primaries are way off they are over saturated. White balance is non existent it's too blue and sometimes green it hurts my eyes. The amoled display is also far dimmer than the HOX, doesn't bother me much but it's also a down point.
The S3 is slightly faster and has a bigger battery. But the Sense UI also look better and no I'm not a fan of flashing ROMs anymore. Honestly I don't give a **** about performance as long as it's smooth I'm happy, and I don't play 3d games at all. I saw this review concluding the s3 has a mich much battery life, I don't know what to say about their stupidity, it must have been tough finding someone to do that video review with a straight face. They test battery life by playing a video that's basically a static image, on max screen brightness. Ok to start with, the HOX has a much brighter screen, in fact, 60% brighter if I remember correctly. So the HOX shouldn't be competing on max brightness. It should be on 60%. Secondly that S3 has a freakin amoled display how can you compare that with an LCD? That stupid video they use is mostly dark blue with a small rainbow so the total display output of an oled display displaying that image is probably less than 33%. So, we should have the HOX's screen brightness decreased by another 66% down to 20% max brightness to be fair. Or, we should have a video with realistic scenarios like full white google home pages. But of course, the s3 with a bigger battery and it's more advanced processor is probably better on battery life in any case, just not by THAT much.
But that battery life advantage doesn't nearly compare with the HOX's much better looking unibody and its solid feel. HOX's better camera quality and speed. HOX's studio quality display, I just wish that display is 10-bit, cuz sometimes you see banding. Beats Audio is mostly advertising but it's not a bad addition.
However, using the HOX for a week, I found a couple of problems with android phones. For example, they're never ashamed of releasing unfinished products are they? How come LWP pauses when I swipe between home screens? Wtf is that all about? Releasing a feature that's partly or completely useless? It's not too bothering on non-parallax and slow LWPs, but that's not the best part of having a LWP is it? That's a big one but there are also some small ones like the photo stack widget, it resets to the first picture all the time. I can't uninstall useless ****s like google+, showme, latitude, local, locations, navigation, car.... I mean do we not have enough navigation apps already? I don't even think you can uninstall the setup wizard. In iOS you can't uninstall newsstand or reminder but at least you can hide them in a folder and their icons look really good, much better than "show me" at least. The system also doesn't come with a file manager, I wonder how youre supposed to empty your download folder, do you just let it eat up all your storage? And oh, the three dots of death, not too bothering, but it just leaves you thinking if HTC even test their phone, might as well just not have any of the touch buttons so I can feel lest wasteful?
and honestly, I don't like android's multitask system, because you don't know what's running and what's not running. In iOS you always know nothing is running, you don't worry about battery life. But in android they could all be running for all I know, but sometimes I also want an app to run in the background. There should be a better way to manage that. Like having a multitask bar like iOS, have most apps go on save state, but you can allow certain apps to run a background process which could be independently managed from save state. So I don't have to either kill an app or let it eat my battery.
Overall, I'm still really satisfied with the device. It's generally as smooth as the iPhone, browser performance is on par with the iPad2 which is good enough. Audio performance is also good with my Etymotic Research MC-5. And the screen is just a treat sometimes I press the power button just to see the beautiful screen showing my wallpaper. And the unibody, it feels much better than the S3 glossy plastic.
thx for this objective review
all ur info r 100% spot on
enjoy the hox, upcoming update that we have it leaked will solve the 3dot menu and 90% if the bugs also boost performance by a good margin (real performance not benchs)
yea too bad HTC made a very big mistake
they worked so hard for such a great device and total reboot for them but then shot themselves in the foot by rushing it out as they were worried about the s3 but it really had the opposite effect many of the early new comer adopters jumped ship (1.26 was a disaster)
speaking of the s3 my employer shares all ur points and he is dying to switch it with the hox
starting from ICS you can disable system apps (not all but most of them, maps and google+ for sure for example, and they bother you... like they bother me, lol)
just dont update them and from application's settings tap "disable" and they'll disappear from launcher (i guess it just "chmod -r" the apk), you dont have to be rooted for that
i've picked mine yesterday, used and bought 06-29 but the owner wanted to try the S3 and payed it a good price... it's awesome, no wifi issues of yellowish screen.
so far i'm really entusiastic...
jacobgong said:
But of course, the s3 with a bigger battery and it's more advanced processor is probably better on battery life in any case, just not by THAT much.
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Great write up. And your bottom line conclusion's spot on. No phone is perfect. You compare the good against the bad against what's important to you and decide from there. No one's "wrong" in picking any of the phones you mentioned if it's "right" for them. After using the phone for a couple of months now there are some things that I'd like to see done differently and make me wonder what HTC was thinking. Then there's things that are so well done and seem so intuitive that they just make me smile. I just played a two hour and forty minute movie using HTC Watch via Media Link and not only did it work flawlessly in 720p, it only consumed 20% of my battery. The fact that a phone, any phone, can now do that is pretty amazing.
As for battery life. Exynos Quad is highly overrated; that or Teg3 is underrated. Comparing the One X to the SGS3 and adjusting for the differences in battery size, the One X actually performs better than the SGS3 in all but video playback where the darks of the content favor AMOLED. It's meaningless in real life because of the smaller fixed battery in the One X, but HTC, Nvidia, or both deserve a lot of credit for extracting that type of efficiency from a chip that's not exactly modern.
Enjoy your new phone...
But for some reason HTC decided you shouldn't be able to disable Google+ or show me, or setup wizard. While you can disable Facebook and YouTube.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
jacobgong said:
But for some reason HTC decided you shouldn't be able to disable Google+ or show me, or setup wizard. While you can disable Facebook and YouTube.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
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Uninstall updates then you can disable.