Android: Phone News and Discussion Thread
Senior Moderator
Lollipop showed up on my M8 last week. Took them long enough, my Shield got the update like 2 weeks after Google released it.
So far it works great. No crashes or any issues.
So far it works great. No crashes or any issues.
Senior Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Better Neighborhood, Arizona
Posts: 45,641
Received 2,329 Likes
on
1,309 Posts
Needs more Lemon Pledge
Still waiting for lollipop on my MotoX...
Whats up?
What carrier ?
which phone ?
My N5 (sprint) has been pretty stable, as has been my N7 (wifi)
I dont have alot of extra cool apps running, pretty plain jane
Anyone replace their N5 with an N6? If so, thoughts? Is the battery life as good as they make it out to be or is it really just a few more hours than the N5? It's a tough sell at 650 bucks, but I can probably get almost half back by selling my N5...makes it a little more feasible.
Oliver!!!
Galaxy S4. Replacement screen burned out. I went to AT&T and picked up a Note 4, but I'm really on the fence about it. Have 14 days to figure out whether its for me or not. I may just replace it again and see what MWC has in store for the next few months. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Team Owner
I loooooove my Note 4. The adjustable split screen between WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter has been great esp with all that real estate. Lightning fast, fast charging, great photos. At least on 3/6 you'll see what the S6 is about.
Last edited by Doom878; 02-27-2015 at 07:16 AM.
Oliver!!!
24 hours in and I'm enjoying it. It really doesn't seem that much bigger than the S4, it is a lot faster though. Screen is gorgeous. Haven't played with S Pen much yet. Still on the fence whether its worth the monthly to keep it though.
Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Not Las Vegas (SF Bay Area)
Age: 40
Posts: 63,302
Received 2,798 Likes
on
1,991 Posts
S6 and S6 edge announced.
Also Samsung Pay.
Also Samsung Pay.
The following users liked this post:
Doom878 (03-02-2015)
Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Not Las Vegas (SF Bay Area)
Age: 40
Posts: 63,302
Received 2,798 Likes
on
1,991 Posts
no SD slot, no removable battery.
samsung pay uses NFC and works with magnetic card swipe readers.
samsung pay uses NFC and works with magnetic card swipe readers.
Last edited by Mizouse; 03-01-2015 at 04:50 PM.
Pro
"The headphone jack is at the bottom" ::mind blown::
The following users liked this post:
Doom878 (03-02-2015)
Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Not Las Vegas (SF Bay Area)
Age: 40
Posts: 63,302
Received 2,798 Likes
on
1,991 Posts
Banned
Good, one of my complaints about phones in general.
Safety Car
S6 and S6 Edge Hands-on by MKBHD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtLH...ature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krxr...ature=youtu.be
First Galaxy phones that have piqued my interest in a long while. This S6 will be running the latest hardware of everything on top of looking pretty damn good: Exynos 64-bit 14 nm, 5.1" 1440p AMOLED screen at 556 ppi, F1.9 lens, wireless charging, UFS 2.0, LDDR4 and 50% charging in 30 minutes this thing should be insanely well built and possibly the fastest device out there. I'm glad they're phasing out the 16GB models. Its about time phones start at 32 GB.
at HTC. What are they thinking? All the momentum they gained on the M8 is gonna go to waste. Reports are also saying that the M9 will have 21 GB available out of the box. 21 out of 32 GB! WTF HTC. Its like Samsung and HTC decided to switch positions this year.
^HTC One M9 | One Smartphone | HTC United States
Click on the Specs on top right corner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtLH...ature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krxr...ature=youtu.be
First Galaxy phones that have piqued my interest in a long while. This S6 will be running the latest hardware of everything on top of looking pretty damn good: Exynos 64-bit 14 nm, 5.1" 1440p AMOLED screen at 556 ppi, F1.9 lens, wireless charging, UFS 2.0, LDDR4 and 50% charging in 30 minutes this thing should be insanely well built and possibly the fastest device out there. I'm glad they're phasing out the 16GB models. Its about time phones start at 32 GB.
at HTC. What are they thinking? All the momentum they gained on the M8 is gonna go to waste. Reports are also saying that the M9 will have 21 GB available out of the box. 21 out of 32 GB! WTF HTC. Its like Samsung and HTC decided to switch positions this year.
Available storage is less due to phone software. Approximately 21 GB storage available for user content. Available storage is subject to change based on phone software updates and apps usage.
Click on the Specs on top right corner.
The following users liked this post:
Doom878 (03-02-2015)
Safety Car
Samsung Galaxy S6 Sample images:
Check out the Samsung Galaxy S6 camera samples - GSMArena.com news
Here's the imgur mirror for the images:
http://imgur.com/a/R0LDe
^Those pics are looking pretty good. I hope it supports the new Camera 2 API's implemented in Lollipop so more apps start being made to handle RAW images.
Check out the Samsung Galaxy S6 camera samples - GSMArena.com news
Here's the imgur mirror for the images:
http://imgur.com/a/R0LDe
^Those pics are looking pretty good. I hope it supports the new Camera 2 API's implemented in Lollipop so more apps start being made to handle RAW images.
The following users liked this post:
Doom878 (03-02-2015)
Team Owner
The S6 is a pretty phone but I hate that Samsung got rid of expandable memory and swappable batteries. Plus the Edge from what I'm reading doesn't have the utility of the Note Edge. I hope the Note 5 doesn't follow.
I saw the pics in the above post. It seems to have difficulty with the darks zoomed in like in the below pic. Other than that it looks great.
As boring as the M9 still is apparently it's their best version of the phone. At least it has removable memory And apparently the camera is improved.
I saw the pics in the above post. It seems to have difficulty with the darks zoomed in like in the below pic. Other than that it looks great.
As boring as the M9 still is apparently it's their best version of the phone. At least it has removable memory And apparently the camera is improved.
Banned
Expandable memory and removable batteries are the manual transmissions of the phone world.
Goodbye.
Moderator
iTrader: (1)
the point of diminishing returns
Pro
I can't say I'm a fan of the two-tone on the M9. And what's with the asymmetrical BoomSound speakers?
Most of the tech blogs emphasize that the M9's camera software is being tweaked, implying that image quality will improve in the final production version.
I do hope that's the case. One would have to wonder how much of an improvement, though...
Most of the tech blogs emphasize that the M9's camera software is being tweaked, implying that image quality will improve in the final production version.
I do hope that's the case. One would have to wonder how much of an improvement, though...
Safety Car
I can't say I'm a fan of the two-tone on the M9. And what's with the asymmetrical BoomSound speakers?
Most of the tech blogs emphasize that the M9's camera software is being tweaked, implying that image quality will improve in the final production version.
I do hope that's the case. One would have to wonder how much of an improvement, though...
Most of the tech blogs emphasize that the M9's camera software is being tweaked, implying that image quality will improve in the final production version.
I do hope that's the case. One would have to wonder how much of an improvement, though...
Senior Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Better Neighborhood, Arizona
Posts: 45,641
Received 2,329 Likes
on
1,309 Posts
Yeah, the camera is my only complaint with my M7. Otherwise, I still love the phone two years later. That's a lifetime when it comes to me and electronics.
Team Owner
A lot of negative opinions so far out there about the S6 and it being an iPhone clone with less features than the S5. The reviewers and people who actually used the phone seem to love it.
Safety Car
I think the primary people that are complaining about the new S6 series are the people who wanted a removable battery and an exapandable microSD slot. Both of which are probably being used by a small percentage of users nowadays. I know quite a few people who have the S3, S4, S5 who didn't even know you could expand the storage with a microSD...I actually had to show them how to use the microSD slot. Lol.
Personally, I think Samsung did an awesome job on the S6 series. This is the first time since the S2 that I think it actually looks good. They also went all out specs wise from CPU, RAM, Display, Storage, and Hardware. Also, the transition to UFS 2.0 probably made the microSD the bottleneck of the whole phone which is probably why they got rid of it especially if they're focused on taking quick pictures with the camera. So far the benchmarks out there are showing that the S6 is blowing out the performance of the Snapdragon 810s by big margins which is what's currently in the Flex 2 and M9.
Personally, I think Samsung did an awesome job on the S6 series. This is the first time since the S2 that I think it actually looks good. They also went all out specs wise from CPU, RAM, Display, Storage, and Hardware. Also, the transition to UFS 2.0 probably made the microSD the bottleneck of the whole phone which is probably why they got rid of it especially if they're focused on taking quick pictures with the camera. So far the benchmarks out there are showing that the S6 is blowing out the performance of the Snapdragon 810s by big margins which is what's currently in the Flex 2 and M9.
Team Owner
Android Central posted some videos comparing the S6 to the S5, Note 4, and iPhone 6 on the speed to load the camera. It smoked the S5, very slightly beat the Note 4, and the iPhone 6 seemed to be head to head with it. I'd prefer to keep the SD slot and just have Sammy tone down TW to get their speed improvement. I'll take the Note 4 with my slot and take the .001 seconds to open the camera app
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
Anyone replace their N5 with an N6? If so, thoughts? Is the battery life as good as they make it out to be or is it really just a few more hours than the N5? It's a tough sell at 650 bucks, but I can probably get almost half back by selling my N5...makes it a little more feasible.
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
Seems like a lot of you guys like the Note 4, any complaints? I'm just not sure about the size.
Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Not Las Vegas (SF Bay Area)
Age: 40
Posts: 63,302
Received 2,798 Likes
on
1,991 Posts
Still pocketable and can be used 1 handed.
Anything bigger might be too big IMO.
Safety Car
Samsung Galaxy S6 Memory Benchmarks:
AndroBench comparison - the Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge's memory speeds obliterate other flagships
AndroBench comparison - the Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge's memory speeds obliterate other flagships
For the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Samsung brought forth UFS 2.0. Think of UFS 2.0 as the next big thing for mobile devices after the ubiquitous eMMC standard found in all devices operating with NAND flash memory. UFS has up to four times faster data transfer speeds. For example, eMMC 5.1 - the standard's latest version - achieves transfer speeds of up to 250MB/s (read) and 125MB/s (write). The older eMMC 5.0 standard is no slouch either, and is found in most top-end handsets powered by Snapdragon 801 chipsets and above. That's impressive enough, but UFS 2.0 HS-G2 goes up to 725MB/s, and HS-G3 has a peak speed of 1.45GB/s. Woah!
Team Owner
need help:
I want to unlock my Note 3 to travel internationally. I have the Tmobile unlimited international data but i wanted to unlock it just in case if the speed is not fast enough, so i can purchase a sim card locally.
I got the unlock code from T mobile and followed the unlock instruction that i have done in the past on other phones without any issue .
But this time, when i put an ATT sim card in, my phone did not ask me to enter the unlock code, it just went to my regular home screen without internet or network.
Tried many times and also called Tmobile but they are useless.
Anyone know if there is a way that i can "Force" the unlock code in without following the regular instruction?
I want to unlock my Note 3 to travel internationally. I have the Tmobile unlimited international data but i wanted to unlock it just in case if the speed is not fast enough, so i can purchase a sim card locally.
I got the unlock code from T mobile and followed the unlock instruction that i have done in the past on other phones without any issue .
But this time, when i put an ATT sim card in, my phone did not ask me to enter the unlock code, it just went to my regular home screen without internet or network.
Tried many times and also called Tmobile but they are useless.
Anyone know if there is a way that i can "Force" the unlock code in without following the regular instruction?
Safety Car
need help:
I want to unlock my Note 3 to travel internationally. I have the Tmobile unlimited international data but i wanted to unlock it just in case if the speed is not fast enough, so i can purchase a sim card locally.
I got the unlock code from T mobile and followed the unlock instruction that i have done in the past on other phones without any issue .
But this time, when i put an ATT sim card in, my phone did not ask me to enter the unlock code, it just went to my regular home screen without internet or network.
Tried many times and also called Tmobile but they are useless.
Anyone know if there is a way that i can "Force" the unlock code in without following the regular instruction?
I want to unlock my Note 3 to travel internationally. I have the Tmobile unlimited international data but i wanted to unlock it just in case if the speed is not fast enough, so i can purchase a sim card locally.
I got the unlock code from T mobile and followed the unlock instruction that i have done in the past on other phones without any issue .
But this time, when i put an ATT sim card in, my phone did not ask me to enter the unlock code, it just went to my regular home screen without internet or network.
Tried many times and also called Tmobile but they are useless.
Anyone know if there is a way that i can "Force" the unlock code in without following the regular instruction?
Team Owner
Thank you sir.
Team Owner
Does not work. That is for Note 2.
Menu list is different.
Menu list is different.
Safety Car
Hmm...not sure why it isn't giving you a prompt. Are you running a stock ROM? The only other solution I can think of, short of rooting it and doing the Chainfire method, is to factory reset your phone. That should definitely trigger the prompt if you're running a stock ROM.
Team Owner
Hmm...not sure why it isn't giving you a prompt. Are you running a stock ROM? The only other solution I can think of, short of rooting it and doing the Chainfire method, is to factory reset your phone. That should definitely trigger the prompt if you're running a stock ROM.
Phone is stock. I really do not want to reset the phone... too much work.
The only thing i can think of is Tmobile fucked it up. Because last Oct i went to Canada and Tmobile gave me a code to temporarily unlock the phone for 30 days, so i can purchase sim card in Canada and it was supposed to be locked again after that automatically.
I am curious if the "re-locking" process kinda messed up the unlocking process. I asked Tmobile, they said it shouldn't.
So now the phone is pretty much 50% unlocked (no prompt) and 50% locked (not recognizing any other SIM card.
Team Owner
Very few complaints about Note 4. I had a Note 2 before so I'm used to Touchwiz. After you shoot a pic it does take time to see it. The size is great and with the case I have that's very minimal, it's easy for me to handle and I don't really drop it.
The following users liked this post:
97BlackAckCL (03-09-2015)
Moderator Alumnus
Some random thoughts - my daily driver is the Note 4.
Note 4 and one handedness - depends GREATLY on what you want to do one handed. If you have any doubts about pocketability/reach issues/etc, make a cardboard mockup and test it out. I never use my phone one handed, and when I try I generally regret it. I've always considered the Notes to be small (two handed) tablets.
I love having a fingerprint sensor. Right now my phone is fully unlocked if connected to trusted hotspots or my smartwatch (via the Dislock App). 'Private' apps I don't want my friends seeing like gmail or mint are locked to fingerprint unless connected to trusted hotspots. Best balance of convenience/security for me.
I am okay with losing external battery (having a big external is sufficient). It's nice to be able to yank the battery if something goes really wrong, but not a biggee.
I'd be very reluctant to lose the external SD. I like the ability to backup to external SD, so if I kill my phone I can just pull out the SD and restore onto a secondary phone. This goes double since I like to try ROMS and tweak system files via Xposed etc. And it's nice to be able to buy the 'smaller memory' phones and still have massive space.
I suspect I'll be holding on the Note 4 for a while - I haven't seen anything feature wise that I'm "wishing I had".
Note 4 and one handedness - depends GREATLY on what you want to do one handed. If you have any doubts about pocketability/reach issues/etc, make a cardboard mockup and test it out. I never use my phone one handed, and when I try I generally regret it. I've always considered the Notes to be small (two handed) tablets.
I love having a fingerprint sensor. Right now my phone is fully unlocked if connected to trusted hotspots or my smartwatch (via the Dislock App). 'Private' apps I don't want my friends seeing like gmail or mint are locked to fingerprint unless connected to trusted hotspots. Best balance of convenience/security for me.
I am okay with losing external battery (having a big external is sufficient). It's nice to be able to yank the battery if something goes really wrong, but not a biggee.
I'd be very reluctant to lose the external SD. I like the ability to backup to external SD, so if I kill my phone I can just pull out the SD and restore onto a secondary phone. This goes double since I like to try ROMS and tweak system files via Xposed etc. And it's nice to be able to buy the 'smaller memory' phones and still have massive space.
I suspect I'll be holding on the Note 4 for a while - I haven't seen anything feature wise that I'm "wishing I had".
Moderator
iTrader: (1)
yes! 5.1 is rolling out!!!!
should be better than 5.0 in every way!
should be better than 5.0 in every way!
Senior Moderator
It's been quite awhile since I've had the Sammy S3. And with me being eligible for an upgrade, I thought to give the incoming S6 Edge a shot...put in my preorder. Should arrive in early April.
Not sure if I'm that jazzed about the "side" screen but we'll see how useful that gimmick is.
Not sure if I'm that jazzed about the "side" screen but we'll see how useful that gimmick is.