[Q] Droid Inc 4G - Did I get a Dud?!? - Verizon HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE

Hi,
Hope this is an OK place to post. I have a completely stock Droid Incredible 4G that I bought brand new a few months ago. I haven't rooted it yet, though I'm not completely opposed to the idea.
- Just wondering from other users if I should expect this phone to be decently smooth & zippy without any noticeable lag when launching apps or browsing?
It just seems like there are big lags when opening apps (sometimes many seconds, especially when first woken up). This seems much slower than my old Incredible. And internet-based apps or browsers seem to take many seconds to load info as well, even on our stupid-fast FIOS WiFi at work (or on LTE). I may be mistaken, but in general it feels slower in some ways than my original Incredible.
- Any chance something could cause this or I might have a dud??
BACKGROUND
I bought this after owning an original Droid Eris, then upgrading to the 1st generation Droid Incredible. I'm a huge fan of the Sense interface (only thing that makes Android nice to me). But my Incredible was just getting a bit old and having problems with Sense crashing often, the browser always crashing when launched, etc.
So I got the Incredible 4G expecting at least a decently noticeable increase in overall smoothness and performance over the original Incredible, based on the much faster processor and newer OS. I knew it wasn't the absolute fastest phone out, but didn't need that. Just wanted something without a gigantic screen.
I got the phone brand new, and have put mostly very common and popular apps on it (e.g., Handcent, SwiftKey, Facebook, Rhapsody, Pandora, Flixter, etc). I'm using about 50-60% RAM, and about 60+% of available phone app storage space. There's a ton of space on internal card and external SD. Most running apps appear to be stock apps that I don't think I can disable or uninstall.
- Anything general to look for to determine causes or general sluggishness?
I 'might' be open to rooting this if there was a VERY stable build of 4.1 running Sense. I'm hoping JellyBean will help a bit in the performance area, but who knows if Verizon will ever release it.
Thanks!

Sluggish
jethrodesign said:
Hi,
Hope this is an OK place to post. I have a completely stock Droid Incredible 4G that I bought brand new a few months ago. I haven't rooted it yet, though I'm not completely opposed to the idea.
- Just wondering from other users if I should expect this phone to be decently smooth & zippy without any noticeable lag when launching apps or browsing?
It just seems like there are big lags when opening apps (sometimes many seconds, especially when first woken up). This seems much slower than my old Incredible. And internet-based apps or browsers seem to take many seconds to load info as well, even on our stupid-fast FIOS WiFi at work (or on LTE). I may be mistaken, but in general it feels slower in some ways than my original Incredible.
- Any chance something could cause this or I might have a dud??
BACKGROUND
I bought this after owning an original Droid Eris, then upgrading to the 1st generation Droid Incredible. I'm a huge fan of the Sense interface (only thing that makes Android nice to me). But my Incredible was just getting a bit old and having problems with Sense crashing often, the browser always crashing when launched, etc.
So I got the Incredible 4G expecting at least a decently noticeable increase in overall smoothness and performance over the original Incredible, based on the much faster processor and newer OS. I knew it wasn't the absolute fastest phone out, but didn't need that. Just wanted something without a gigantic screen.
I got the phone brand new, and have put mostly very common and popular apps on it (e.g., Handcent, SwiftKey, Facebook, Rhapsody, Pandora, Flixter, etc). I'm using about 50-60% RAM, and about 60+% of available phone app storage space. There's a ton of space on internal card and external SD. Most running apps appear to be stock apps that I don't think I can disable or uninstall.
- Anything general to look for to determine causes or general sluggishness?
I 'might' be open to rooting this if there was a VERY stable build of 4.1 running Sense. I'm hoping JellyBean will help a bit in the performance area, but who knows if Verizon will ever release it.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got the Incredible 4g as a warranty replacement for the Rezound. It came new in a sealed box. I was excited to get a newer processor and I don't mind the smaller screen. But it seems sluggish or laggy when opening apps. I've done a factory reset twice. I took it in to Verizon and they tried to tell me it was a "slower phone" than the rezound even though it has a the S4 vs S3 processor. I've disabled a lot of the apps that come with the phone and uninstalled quite a few of the apps I ran without issues on the Rezound and on a DroidX before that. Has anyone else had issues? Wondering if rooting and running a custom rom would help?

jethrodesign said:
Hi,
Hope this is an OK place to post. I have a completely stock Droid Incredible 4G that I bought brand new a few months ago. I haven't rooted it yet, though I'm not completely opposed to the idea.
- Just wondering from other users if I should expect this phone to be decently smooth & zippy without any noticeable lag when launching apps or browsing?
It just seems like there are big lags when opening apps (sometimes many seconds, especially when first woken up). This seems much slower than my old Incredible. And internet-based apps or browsers seem to take many seconds to load info as well, even on our stupid-fast FIOS WiFi at work (or on LTE). I may be mistaken, but in general it feels slower in some ways than my original Incredible.
- Any chance something could cause this or I might have a dud??
BACKGROUND
I bought this after owning an original Droid Eris, then upgrading to the 1st generation Droid Incredible. I'm a huge fan of the Sense interface (only thing that makes Android nice to me). But my Incredible was just getting a bit old and having problems with Sense crashing often, the browser always crashing when launched, etc.
So I got the Incredible 4G expecting at least a decently noticeable increase in overall smoothness and performance over the original Incredible, based on the much faster processor and newer OS. I knew it wasn't the absolute fastest phone out, but didn't need that. Just wanted something without a gigantic screen.
I got the phone brand new, and have put mostly very common and popular apps on it (e.g., Handcent, SwiftKey, Facebook, Rhapsody, Pandora, Flixter, etc). I'm using about 50-60% RAM, and about 60+% of available phone app storage space. There's a ton of space on internal card and external SD. Most running apps appear to be stock apps that I don't think I can disable or uninstall.
- Anything general to look for to determine causes or general sluggishness?
I 'might' be open to rooting this if there was a VERY stable build of 4.1 running Sense. I'm hoping JellyBean will help a bit in the performance area, but who knows if Verizon will ever release it.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also came directly from the OG Dinc. Mine is s-off and rooted running ViperLTE (link). It is indeed Sense-based, very quick, and VERY stable. If you like sense, you'll very much like the ViperLTE ROM. My Dinc4G is much faster and smoother than my s-off/rooted OG Dinc.
Thankfully, now you have a several methods for rooting. Browse through the Dinc4G Resource Index (link). I recommend first rooting and then eliminating all of the Verizon Bloatware which simply takes up space. That alone may speed up your phone. Install something like Titanium Backup and back up all of your current apps and settings, then try out the ViperLTE ROM if you like sense. (And then restore your apps & data from backup). There are now a few other good ROM choices available to try, such as an official release of CyanogenMod 10.1 (not sense based).
Edit: Its been a while since I did the s-off, but I remembered that you may not be able to to the TiB first, as you're not rooted. IIRC, all current rooting methods require running the RUU which will nuke all of your installed apps... it's worth the hassle to reinstall everything after rooting. Once you're rooted, then back everything up. Nandroid, and scheduled backups of your apps are a great idea. With the back-ups done, then you can play around with different ROMs and restore afterwards. Huge time saver.

Related

[Q] Q: General usability question for Gtab

Hey all - I am VERY loath to ask any of these questions, as I pride myself on doing research and figuring things out for myself, but I've come to the point where I just need to ask this community. I purchased the Gtab as part of the Woot fiasco, and immediately replaced stock firmware with Vegantab. From a general perspective, it works fine, with all the know quirks. However, this is my first Android device. I've been modifying windows phones and working with jailbroken iphones and other fiddly things with computers for a long time, so I'm not faint-hearted at tweaking. Anyway, my questions are these:
Given the hardware this thing sports, the performance ROTS. Is it because the OS is just not polished? It's slow to shift from screen to screen. It often delays in recognizing my touch when trying to scroll icons that it thinks I actually am trying t launch an app. In general, it just feels inferior in speed and snappiness of, for instance, iOS (I understand it is much easier to have a single platform to put an OS on and optimize it). I get the program not responding screen, wait or close way too frequently for my tastes.
Then there's the fact that every app installed seems to want to run itself in the background at all times. I'm constantly using the task manager to kill everything, which frees up a ton of RAM and then the tab runs better for a little while. I can't seem to find a way to prevent these apps from doing this. There is probably something very obvious that I am missing, but Facebook should not just decide on its own to run in the background when I haven't launched it.
Any thoughts on any of these things, or can someone point me to an obvious FAQ that I'm missing that answers all my questions?
In theory Android OS should free up RAM as you need it. Google will swear up and down that task killers are unnecessary, and the user doesn't need to manage background processes. That said, I have advanced task killer widget on my home screen and use it whenever things get a little sluggish. I don't use the Facebook app, but most apps have the option in the in-app settings to disable background updates. There are task manager apps that claim to prevent other apps from launching at start up, or kill them automatically, but these will usually end up eating more resources than they save.
As far as home screen switching, I'm not a fan of the stock froyo launcher on a tablet this size. It always seems that the device is expecting a much larger swipe that should be necessary to switch home screens. I use Launcher Pro and it feels faster and more responsive than the iPad 2 for going between home screens.
The scrolling/ inadvertent selecting issue I can relate to. If your coming from iOS, there is this an expectation that the device will always tell the difference between a scroll and a tap. That expectation isn't unreasonable, because Apple is stellar at making scrolling interfaces feel perfect. They have whole sessions at WWDC about implementing scrolling lists into apps. Android on the other hand requires a more deliberate scrolling. Android has gotten a lot better over time, but it often requires a much more deliberate scrolling action by the user. "Flicking" like on the iPad usually doesn't register perfectly for me.
One thing you may notice on the G Tables is that pinch and zoom is wildly unreliable when pinching on the same x or y axis. I'm pretty sure this is a universal issue with the screen. It has trouble recognizing multitouch input when the points of contact are on the same axis. Pinching at an angle is the only way I can zoom reliably.
brettdwagner said:
In theory Android OS should free up RAM as you need it. Google will swear up and down that task killers are unnecessary, and the user doesn't need to manage background processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's like automatic garbage collection, isn't it? Really useful, but sometimes you want to explicitly free things.
There is a way to kill foreground apps on Android. Settings > Applications > Development > Stop app via long-press, will kill the foreground app if you "long-press" the Android back key. Background apps you can either kill using task-managers or not start at all using tools like Autorun Manager from Market.
One thing you may notice on the G Tables is that pinch and zoom is wildly unreliable when pinching on the same x or y axis. I'm pretty sure this is a universal issue with the screen. It has trouble recognizing multitouch input when the points of contact are on the same axis. Pinching at an angle is the only way I can zoom reliably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've noticed this too. Pinch-to-zoom at the same y-axis is hopeless. Same x-axis works okay, but, at an angle works best.
I actually appreciated your post. You knew the limitations of hte device before buying it...you didn't comment on the atrocious screen (and accepted what was to be)
The biggest downfall with the G-Tablet itself was it's software. You admitted that you immediately flashed VeganTab. When I bought mine, it came with TNT Lite, to which I then immediately also flashed to Vegan 5.1.1. I never experienced the stock rom, and actually considered myself lucky, due to the reviews I've read.
I think that some of our issues may actually be due to the fact that we're using software that wasn't specifically designed for OUR devices. Yes, they are all android, yes, they should all work fine, and do, at times, but if using a froyo or gingerbread rom, we're using software designed for phones. I haven't tried the Alpha version of HC (BOS) yet, but even in Alpha stages, people are raving about it, even with it's limitations.
I just recently started using Brilliant Corners. In the flash process, I had to have Stock 4349 (1.2 stock firmware) on the system. I can honestly say that it really wasn't that bad. The response seemed a tad better, I never got the "Forceclose : Wait" option when a process was "thinking." things would just pop up. I can only think that as bad as it is, it manages itself better than some of the ports and mod's we are using, simply becuase they were MADE for the G-Tablet. Yeah, it's ugly, and you can do half of what I can do on BC.
What I find intolerable at times is that Angry Birds: Seasons (only that one, no others) will have really choppy graphics. I haven't found a way to fix it, I've overclocked, though I didn't think that would help, I've uninstalled, and installed, I've recovered backups, etc...alas, rebooting will fix it...it's weird. Not one other game will do that, except for AB:S.
What I find intolerable at times is that Angry Birds: Seasons (only that one, no others) will have really choppy graphics. I haven't found a way to fix it, I've overclocked, though I didn't think that would help, I've uninstalled, and installed, I've recovered backups, etc...alas, rebooting will fix it...it's weird. Not one other game will do that, except for AB:S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works for me, although the birds do take off on their own from time to time. Have you tried downloading from a different source? I pulled my angry birds from Amazon. I'm running Vegan-Tabs 7.0.0
Please don't be offended, as I do believe your question is being asked in good faith. However, I have to admit that I haven't experienced any of the problems you're describing. I've had an iPod Touch since gen 1, and I haven't noticed any difference in the responsiveness. My g Tablet responds the same to flicks as it does to slower swipes, without interpretting them as taps.
I also haven't experienced the slow downs you're referring to when running multiple background apps, though that may have to do with the particular apps you have.
I have not had an issue with zooming in and out by pinching along either the x- or y-axis
Finally, I at least don't feel like the swipe to change screens is excesssive, but then again that could be personal taste or because I'm using a Gingerbread-based ROM.
The one issue I do have is with the on-screen touch keyboard. I feel sometimes that it fails to register letters if I type too fast; I haven't had this issue with iOS, but at least I think I can get used to it, and for serious typing I'll probably use a physical keyboard.
Incidently, I'm using Cyanogenmod 7, which seems to be the "pet ROM" of these forums, for better (it's a solid ROM with a large developer community) or worse (it's not nearly as innovative as mods being developed by some "other users" *ahem*roebeet*cough). I'm not saying this is the reason why I have not experienced these issues; maybe they aren't so striking to me or maybe I've been lucky?
EDITTED: Most typos are due to annoyances with using an on-screen keyboard with the g Tab.
Tablet has been fine to me. Screen responsiveness is on par with iphone/ipad/my htc evo screen.
Vegan tab rom is fresh...all .my functions work sure my wifi drops out after sleeping for a while (yes changed sleep settings) but hey I spent 250 not 500 and I have flash sd and usb....all of which I use everyday.
Thanks for all the responses. I rather expected to get somewhat of a range of replies from "I agree with you" to "you're crazy, mine is fine". To be very clear, I'm not trying to rip on the device at all. I knew I was rolling the dice a little and I know that Android really hasn't matured for a Tablet just yet (in my eyes).
I guess I've sort of had my questions answered to some degree.
scyld - I'm not offended in the least. I have an iphone 4 and many of my coworkers use iPads every day. They are definitely more responsive (to me). However, the stock iOS wasn't on my iPhone. Now that I have it jailbroken and can control which apps suck up memory, it behaves flawlessly. What I believe to be the scrolling/flicking issue is actually that the OS interprets spaces IN BETWEEN icons to be part of those icons, where Apple's OS does not. If I tap between icons on the Gtab, it will launch the one closest to my finger. iOS will not do this. That alone may be why the scrolling seems to be more accurate. I may well try Cyanogen. I mostly don't care about bells and whistles - just responsiveness and usability.
I wasn't aware that Google used the same line about memory usage that Apple swears - in fact, my friend and I stopped in the Apple store because she was having a problem with docking her iphone in her car... The tech ran a scan and told her incidentally that she was out of app memory and told her how to 'kill those pesky tasks' by tapping the little red minuses on all the apps in the app dock. I couldn't stop laughing.
I guess what we're dealing with is the result of an open source open hardware landscape. By having such a fractured base of developers, manufacturers, varying hardware specs, etc, it is much harder to optimize any particular build for any particular device. I did use the stock firmware for a few days and simply found it too limiting. Not to mention the lack of a market, etc. Apple's success is in large part due to the way it's app store works. Every device has it. The app warns you what it will work on and what it will not. Application updates tell you what the update fixes or adds (which Market does only very rarely). I appreciate that there are multiple markets for Android, but they should stick to some established rules for the information given.
I'm writing a novel - sorry - All this being said, I love the idea of Android (and hate iTunes with a passion) and I'm looking forward to a generation or two down the road of the tablet ROMs. I'll give the other ROMs a shot and see if there is improvement. I really appreciate the developers work on the platform thus far. I'll keep reading and messing with settings, tips, tricks to improve what I can.

Opinions so far...

What does everyone think of this device so far. My wife is out of contract and this might be her first smartphone. Any opinions are much appreciated.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
I'm on my second one in less than a week. First one died randomly rebooting about every 5 minutes. Now my new one I just got yesterday just randomly rebooted.
When I took it back, the rep said it just needed hard reset, so she did it, then it rebooted in her hand! It was classic.
Terrible track record so far!
Outta the box, meh.
4 hours outta the box with some tweaking (root, freeze bloat, new launcher, etc) Best phone I've ever had.
Only downside is the locked bootloader which means no AOSP ROMS. But I think I can live with that.
Also MANY people have whined and cried about the penTile display, in my opinion the screen is beautiful. Some apps aren't optimized for the new higher resolution yet so they look a little "off" but it's no big deal. No fault of the phone but of app designers. It should get fixed in due course.
Sent from my DROID X2
Love it so far
I upgraded from the original droid running cyanogen 7 and I love the X2 so far. I installed laucherpro right away and rooted to install wired and wireless tether and freeze some of the bloatware that came with it.
I had a couple random reboots at first but I have not had one for a couple weeks now.
I was a little worried about the battery life at first but after a few days my battery must have finally been broken in and Im pleasantly surprised with the battery life.
No matter what you read elsewhere the screen is AMAZING... you can see it outside while its bright on the lowest setting, you bump it up to the highest and you can see it perfectly in direct sunlight.
People will also bash how much ram this has. Lots of people think that only having 512mb is a horrible thing. But if you actually do some research and learn about how android uses ram you'll realize that extra ram does no good. Essentially if its not being used its being wasted. I run a widget that I can click to see how much ram is left and its usually between 50 and 100. My friend has an atrix and his is usually around 400... which proves that hes not using the extra 512 he has available. So maybe down the road there will be some apps or a new version of android that will need 1gb or ram but i highly doubt it will be before Im up for another upgrade.
Rooting is a must
This was my upgrade from the Droid Incredible also rooted using Sky-Raider, and Cyanogen(mod) 7.0.3. The qHD and the dual core processor sold me on the phone.
After unboxing the I was struck by the brilliance and clarity of the screen and the phone was quite responsive at times. Easily viewable in direct sunlight (even when dimmed)but the phone was hanging when navigating to the home screen and the batter life was less than a day with light moderate use.
I rooted the phone using GingerBreak and after removing Bloatware, it is the best phone that I have seen for the price $199.99 with upgr.
The phone is worth the money, brilliant screen, responsive, and I am satisfied with the performance for now until there is a stable rom for it. Just ran benchmark with Quadrant Standard at 2128!
Read the engadget review posted 6-5-2011.
I really appreciate the opinions everyone. It seems like a great phone, but I think I'm getting her the Droid 3 simply because she's coming from the env touch (assbag of a phone btw) and would appreciate the physical keyboard. Thanks again.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
You folks had better luck than me. First the good points that made me want to keep it.
Build
Display
Battery life
Call quality
Speed for game emulators
Radio reception
Easy to root
Form factor suits one hand operation better than other 4.3"
Tegra 2 has very good audio quality
Why I returned it.
Where is the memory? I appreciate that 108mb of the 512mb ram appears to be allocated to the GPU, but if you add up the OS, Home UI, OS tasks, opened user apps and free ram, there is still about 160mb missing out of 404mb. You can apply a memory script to help out, but the memory slowly leaks away, even with the script. The DX2 starts to lag.
MP3 pops and clicks. This is probably due to the low operational ram mentioned above, but even when not multitasking, there are random pops and clicks and gets much worse if multitasking.
Flash can spike the device temps past 115 degrees. Flash does not appear to get on with the DX2 firmware. Heat spikes and the battery is drained like the DX2 is on an LTE radio.
Random reboots. It seems to mainly happen during web browsing, Flash playback and playing video files. While I was debating on keeping it or not (due to the good things mentioned at top) and rationalizing that the issues would be fixed, my DX2 rebooted while updating a few market apps. I considered that a sign to return it.
Seems better to return it and see if they fix the problems, rather than get stuck with the DX2, IF the problems are not fixed.
IF they fix the issues, I will buy the DX2 again, or wait for the Bionic. I am more likely to get the DX2 again, since I doubt a 4.5" qHD LCD display, dual core and LTE will have very good battery life.
The DX2 would rock REAL hard if the issues are fixed. I have a gTablet with same chipset, 512mb ram and Froyo and it does not have the issues noted.
added:
I miss the DX2, mainly due to the sweet display Back to my Incredible for now
For my part, I've seemingly resolved the quirky behaviour by enabling the performance profile. The "medium" setting would cause reboots and strange laggy app issues. I'm still likely to get the Bionic later as well, and trade this one in for credit. I tend to swap between my upgrade, and my wife's line upgrade.
Ruoh said:
For my part, I've seemingly resolved the quirky behaviour by enabling the performance profile. The "medium" setting would cause reboots and strange laggy app issues. I'm still likely to get the Bionic later as well, and trade this one in for credit. I tend to swap between my upgrade, and my wife's line upgrade.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is the profile setup?
Dark_Wizard said:
Where is the profile setup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
settings> battery & data manager> battery mode
stronggeek said:
settings> battery & data manager> battery mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx!
10char
If you don't need 4G LTE or a front-facing camera, it's a great purchase on Verizon. First dual-core phone for them! More power means longer shelf-life for keeping up with demanding apps/games. Large qHD res screen, Tegra 2 processor, solid build quality and pretty decent camera. Some people don't like the Blur UI, but it's not as bad as it used to be. You can always replace with a third party launcher too.
If this phone didn't look exactly like the original Droid X, people would probably be talking about it more. I'm especially enjoying the tegra 2 gaming - Riptide Gp (link)
Mine is working alright for me, I can attest the Motorola bloatware does slow down the phone quite a bit.
I also have Quadrant only reading "1 Core" so I don't know if Quadrant needs to be updated or the rumors are true that the CPU is limited till we get the Ginger from Motorola.
As far as hardware goes, I doubt the 512mb of RAM will make a difference once we start using custom ROMs and remove quite a bit of the bloat. The Tegra 2 seems to make everything really snappy, the battery is better than my Droid 2, I do miss the keyboard though, so your wife may really really like the keyboard or hate it. I am a really really really big fan of the keyboard phones, but my phone died and they offered to let me upgrade early so I went with a Tegra 2.
Although with all the Motorola software / Verizon software etc. It runs pretty sluggish at times and the significant other's Captivate will run circles around my phone despite being just the Galaxy S internals. She likes to rub that in.
I just smile and wait till I end up running Liberty or MIUI on my phone so I can destroy her smug-ness.
I'm coming from a BB Storm and am super impressed by the DX2...all of the reasons I told myself I DIDN'T need an android phone are the reasons I am using this sucker so often. Love the apps. Here are some of my concerns:
HEAT - The plate below the battery cover, where the speaker is becomes too hot to touch at some points. After reading some of the forums it seems that this will occur more if I am watching flash or doing some major downloading. Three weeks in, it seems to be managed better as I am using Advance App Killer whenever I use the phone to kill process that start when I am doing nothing more than texting.
BATTERY LIFE - At first I was getting about 3-4 hours with moderate to heavy use. As another poster stated above, the battery seems to have broken in a bit, though it seems I will always need to pack a charger if I will be out for more than five or six hours.
MP4 PLAYBACK - I have tried to put 1-2gig mp4's on the SD card in a folder created called "_movies", but the X2 seems to struggle playing these files. On videos I have made using the X2, playback is not a problem. Error message is "File cannot be displayed or played". Annoying.
DISAPPEARING / GHOSTING APPS: Similarly, I have dropped adk files into a folder created called "apps" on the SD card (or sdcard-ext as IDed in file search). I have used my laptop in two ways to write the files: 1) with X2 tethered via USB using Windows 7 to copy/paste files on the SD and 2) removed the SD from X2 and plugged mini-SD into adapter to write files directly to SD.
UNIQUE NOTIFICATION: My BB had the ability to assign separate ringtones to different email accounts...I'm sure that I can do this with an app, but it seems so much easier in the BB settings menu thand the android.
So in researching these issues it seems all paths lead back to one thing: Rooting the phone. I have gingerbreak and am ready to do this, but am reluctant to do it knowing I have about 28 hours setting this phone up custom and I know I will have to start from scratch on that customization. Can anyone confirm that post-root I will still be utilizing the MOTOBLUR? I read a lot about people who hate it, but I like the 7 screens and widgets.
Just my 2 cents on the device. Overall, very happy. I'm sure I'll be extremely happy post-root as I think I am reading that rooting the device will solve a lot of the file and OS issues listed above.
Rock on, great forum. FIRST POST. android noob.
Like it so far , pretty much as good as the X1. The screen looks great , they really improved the visibility in sunlight.
Otherwise I do have a few of the common issues like music skip, slow screen turn on, and random reboots. I figure they will get sorted when I can get a better rom installed.
I'm liking the X2 just fine. I upgraded from the Incredible and I'm glad I didn't go for the DI2. Dual Core...hell yea! Beautiful 4.3" display...hell yea! My guess is that things will get better with easy rooting and Gingerbread. Besides, I didn't really like my DI until I started using customs ROMs and cleaned out the bloatware.
I love it and dont need 4g and wont get it here for years
If your not in 4g area and want a phone better than all the 4g phones get this one. i love this phone i had thunderbolt for a bit but it sucked it lagged like a Mother Trucker. I hate that the bootloader is locked cuz i love stock roms but o well ill live i have launcher pro plus running on mine with it rooted and ALOT of stuff FROZEN it makes it way faster and runs really smooth. i have heard alot of ppl complain about how much launcher pro sucks on this device but it think it works great i may have it have to reload widgets and such 1 out of a 100 times win i hit the home button but prob more like 1 out of 250. also i have used golauncher but i had a few problems with it stock blur actually works decent to but i dont like the look of it and i love 3d app drawer. i cant say ull love the phone but i know i do its by far best phone on verizon. Now if i could get a nexus on verizon id b the happiest man alive but o well i cant so ill have to live with my dx2 until they get a nexus or until another carrier can get service in southern il.

[POLL]-[FLYER]-[HoneyComb or GingerBread] ?

I know this question had been raised many times, just wanted to get/share a decent statistical view/review about Flyer-HC and Flyer-GB..
The Basic Qurstion Would Be:
Why HoneyComb ?
-Is it faster ?
-Is it more stable ?
-Does it have better application/game compatibility ? <-----Doubt this {Gameloft Stuff/Skyscape/Medical Apps}
-Does it look more eyecandy ? <-----Doubt this
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Speed difference is subjective
Personally I think honeycomb fits a tablet better. The ui is more suitable. If you are not willing to root I can see how some do not like the honeycomb bar. Honeycomb apps make better use of screen.
With LeeDroids tireless work, honeybar or honey hide, and LeeDroids tweaks apk, you get the best of all worlds.
jaguaralani said:
I know this question had been raised many times, just wanted to get/share a decent statistical view/review about Flyer-HC and Flyer-GB..
The Basic Qurstion Would Be:
Why HoneyComb ?
-Is it faster ?
-Is it more stable ?
-Does it have better application/game compatibility ? <-----Doubt this {Gameloft Stuff/Skyscape/Medical Apps}
-Does it look more eyecandy ? <-----Doubt this
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To hell with all of that.
HC is closer to ICS.
And in all seriousness, way to have an unbias poll.
Compatibililty: Every single app that worked on my Flyer with Gingerbread works on my Flyer with Honeycomb. I have yet to find an app that Honecomb broke, and that includes games.
Speed: If anything, Honeycomb feels faster than Gingerbread, but the difference is minimal.
Eye Candy: there's not a huge differnce either way, though my Flyer with Honeycomb still feels fresh to me and feels very polished.
Stability: after the last Gingerbread security update, Sense would frequently crash on me. not so with honeycomb.
Expanded capabilities: The pen now works in all applications. Yeah!
Fixes: Arrow keys now map correctly on a bluetooth keyboard when the Flyer is propped up in landscape mode.
Why HoneyComb ?
-Is it faster...everything works and feels smoother to me
-Is it more stable...was never unstable and still isn't
-Does it have better application/game compatibility? never had had compatibility, still don't
-Does it look more eyecandy? yes, definitely...GB on the flyer made it look like a big ugly phone...HC is a heaps better user experience and makes more sense
I prefer Honeycomb, as it offers a better tablet experience than Gingerbread, which is a phone based interface.
Why HoneyComb ?
@jaguaralani maybe it would be better if you ask the reason they used HC instead of GB on Flyer or vise versa.
Main Reason : added pen functionality! SketchBook! lately start using it on Quill. awesome experience.
Application compatibility : HC - i can use Whatsapp Messenger, which is not possible on stock GB.
what about battery life comparism? i haven't notice on GB, but on Lee's HC ROM it stay around 5~6 hours with wifi + 3G and moderate usage.
It really boils down to GB is a phone OS, and HC is a Tab OS. Aside from app compatibility (which falls on app devs, not the OS itself) I vote HC hands down. For all functionality & looks.
\\Carved into this thread by my RAZR//
http://android-gz.com
No comparison two different worlds.
Now I wish the walls could be torn down between Operating systems and treat them as apps running on a much more capable device so we could choose what we would like to run.
Sent from my HTC_Flyer_P512_NA using xda premium
I was running Honeycomb since the day the OTA came to the UK (so a few months now), but last weekend I decided I'd had enough and downgraded. Though it was a slightly harrowing experience, I'm very glad I did...
I very much dislike the updates that have been made to the Sense apps in honeycomb. Having text on each button rather than just the icon looks ugly on such a small screen and swallows precious real-estate. The browser is almost unusable in landscape mode because of this, and there's no option to hide the toolbar!
Lack of a real full-screen mode in Honeycomb really hurts the Flyer imo. 1024x600 is already quite a narrow aspect ratio and isn't particularly high-res. To reduce the vertical resolution by 32 pixels (I think that's the size of the shortcut bar), with no way of opting out is too annoying. It really badly affects games and video watching.
Though the frame-rate on the launcher is generally a bit better in Honeycomb, it reloaded a lot more often and would often pause for noticeable periods - more so than the launcher in Gingerbread. I also don't like how the Sense widgets have shrunk - the big full-screen widgets are one of the things I really like on the Flyer.
So all in all, playing games, browsing and watching videos are all worse for me on Honeycomb. Given these are the three things I do on the Flyer the most, I have to say it's Gingerbread for me... I miss some of the updated tablet apps and the improved performance (in some scenarios at least), but it doesn't outweigh all that's wrong with it either.
I really hope if/when ICS comes out, that they revert to the phone-style layout with hardware keys and a smaller, drag-down panel. It'd be nice if they could enable that interface with tablet apps, but I'd pick a big android phone over a tiny android tablet any day.
It really comes down to whether you like a tablet experience or a big phone. No offense to GB lovers but go play with the EVO 3D and then the Flyer running GB, similar feel.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
All I know is that I wish I never accepted the OTA Honeycomb update. My Flyer has been slow and buggy every since. Browser crashes a lot, flash hangs. Never used to happen on Gingerbread. Issues persist, even with custom ROMs. Can't even downgrade, due to newer HBOOT that is unsupported by revolutionary. I'm just hoping ICS clears things up.
hackworth said:
All I know is that I wish I never accepted the OTA Honeycomb update. My Flyer has been slow and buggy every since. Browser crashes a lot, flash hangs. Never used to happen on Gingerbread. Issues persist, even with custom ROMs. Can't even downgrade, due to newer HBOOT that is unsupported by revolutionary. I'm just hoping ICS clears things up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your issues are not common and to me would indicate an issue other than HC. and I believe if your Hnoot is supported by HTC Dev Unlock you should be able to roll back
FWIW, i rooted and installed the HC OTA on my View yesterday, adn i love it 10x more..to the poster who said GB makes it seem like a big ugly phone, you're so right. the screen is NOWHERE near as nice as my rezound, and it literally just seemed like a giant rezound..so i put HC on it, and damn, everything just looks so much cooler! i love the tablet UI much more.
for that LeeDroid tweaks, is that only on the flyer, or can i use that stuff on my View too?
Put HC on it last night and ended up playing with it for 3 hours after and I am paying for that now! Sooo tired.
Anyway, it is definitely a different experience then GB and makes it feel a lot different then my phone. Sense widgets are a little weird and the use of screen real estate for the launcher is questionable but I like it better right now. Need more time to play though.
The big question is will the wife like it. It is mainly her tablet and she hates change! I am expecting a lot of screaming to come out of her today of how much she hates it and I need to put GB back because she doesn't know how to do anything on HC. Will give you the follow-up report. She hasn't even seen it yet
Neither...
Both have their advantages and both have their disadvantages.
Overall, I think I prefer Honeycomb on my View. I am on stock. I like being able to use the pen more. I like the way the widgets work on the homescreens. The bottom bar mostly doesn't bother me, as I think more apps will build in support for dimming it. Since ther used to be a notification bar on top, I don't think the loss of screen real estate is that big of a deal.
Some issues I have had are that I seem to get more system force closes, but not enough to be bothersome. The stock browser crashes a lot, but I use Dolphin now, so no big deal. The keyboard is sometimes glitchy when editing text.
My other family members have elected to stay on GB because they like the capacitive buttons and don't care as much about being able to use the pen.
HC gives a more natural UI experience when used in landscape mode, with the bar at the bottom. Easier to reach, in a more natural way, in my opinion.
I've rooted GB to have phone function. Obviously GB for me since HC cannot have phone function.
Also, as previous HC user, I find HC not stable. Probably its stable now. But I'm not willing to take the risk and lose my phone function.
Phone has already been added by LeeDroid in his latest honeycomb Rom.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk

Impressions of lollipop

Just got the 5.0 OTA last night, thought I'd share my impressions, especially since this is likely the last major update we'll get straight from google.
The update started with a 325 MB download, then a couple minutes staring at circles bouncing around, followed by 10 mins of "optimizing" apps, likely compiling them for ART. New lock screen is a little funny, have to swipe up to go to the homescreen since the circle lock is gone, and notifications show up right away. The notifications pulldown has gone back to only one, with a second or two-finger pull necessary to see quick settings, no idea why this changes with every Android update.
I have a lot more default google apps uninstalled than new apps installed, and they always try to sneak a couple more in with each major OTA update. In this case, it was a new Photos app, that doesn't work at all with Google+ disabled as I have it; a Google Docs app that requires being signed into a google account, replacing the QuickOffice app that was there before, which didn't require signing in and could actually read pdfs; and a Contacts app that I believe I had disabled before, since it's useless on a tablet without phone service. I disabled all three (strangely, there were two Photos apps with the same icon in the Settings, disabled them both), all of them went into the junk pile with Google Play Newsstand and all the rest. This means I don't have a photo/video Gallery app installed anymore, oh well, have to go find one.
They don't seem to have pulled any fast ones with the Settings this time, though the categories have become even harder to touch to select since they take up half the space horizontally but are still thin vertically. Lollipop feels like a step backwards in UI and usability across the board, for example, the new labels are confusingly undifferentiated from clickable options: I tried to hit the Advanced heading in the Chrome Beta settings five times before I realized it was not clickable. Scrolling down the Settings and hitting the bottom makes a strange half-circle shadow show up at the top, no idea what's going on there.
The graphics generally looked strangely jagged and lower-res right after updating, which I especially noticed with the Chrome Beta, which doesn't show each tab separately in the app switcher like advertised, maybe that's for phones only. Another place the graphics are worse are in the data and battery graphs. Maybe that was just after the update though, because Chrome Beta doesn't seem as bad to me now, or maybe I've already gotten used to it. The data usage graph is worse, since I can't change the time period to a week or 10 days anymore and see what's been using up data lately.
Otherwise, my Nexus 10 feels faster across the board, probably because of ART, and battery life seems to have improved when idle. It's strange how this tablet has had such wild swings in idle battery life over the last couple years, with some Android builds lasting 3-4 days when idle with wifi enabled and others going weeks! I like how the battery usage graph now tries to extrapolate how much time you have left if using the tablet, though I could see that image confusing some users.
As for apps, as usual MX Player stopped working after the upgrade because it doesn't recognize the new 5.0 version number, will have to wait for them to update before trying it out. Everything else seems to work fine. Maybe I'll update here once I get a chance to use lollipop more, but it seems to be a strange mix of better performance and going backwards in UI and usability, with a lot of UI changes seemingly made for the sake of changing something, often making it worse.
Why can't google just focus on adding multi-window to base Android, a feature I've wanted for years and which would actually make Android tablets more capable, instead of adding another coat of paint to the UI and needlessly moving things around over and over again? Guess I'll have to go Samsung and put up with touchwiz if I ever want that.
Honest and straight. I've been crying myself hoarse that each iteration of Android seems to entrench more Google apps into the system as an indispensable part of Android, when the truth is that they serve as leaky apps with access to all your "private" data, under the ploy of enhancing user experience! In actual they are only bloatware that need to be disabled / uninstalled to derive any system enhancement. Each UI has little to offer in terms of improvements, while persistent Google bloatware and services that keep running in the background, hogging system resources, and depleting whatever battery advantages the system improvements offered. Personally I'd like to keep away from lollipop till it rises in my expectations.
Dead Cookies leave no trails...
I couldn't be happier with Lollipop. I mainly surf internet and it is now 10x faster than before. Battery life is also 50% better. It still offered quickoffice for me in the welcome setup, but i didn't need it because drive can read pdf files.
joakim_one said:
... As for apps, as usual MX Player stopped working after the upgrade because it doesn't recognize the new 5.0 version number, will have to wait for them to update before trying it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use the MX Player beta: https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/translation/test-build
Release notes include:
Support HW+ on Android 5.0
Support Pro version on Android 5.0
I've used it on my Nexus 5 with android 5 and it works as well on my HD content as it did no KitKat.
I just stumbled across this nice Ars article that lays out many of the ways lollipop and google are failing at design for larger tablets like the Nexus 10.
I'd have to say, I do enjoy the new OS. It's slightly faster, clean and just works. It's still relatively new so devs (the ones still working on the N10) will eventually catch up. What I don't like is that there seems to be far less free space than before, even with the same setup. This is apparently due to ART from what I've read. 32GB is now the new 8GB. Now if anyone can come up with a 128GB internal memory hack, that would be awesome.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
joakim_one said:
I just stumbled across this nice Ars article that lays out many of the ways lollipop and google are failing at design for larger tablets like the Nexus 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this link. It is an interesting read and seems more balanced than some of the "Lollipop is a bug ridden release" hate-bait I've been seeing. I'll write my on comments on the N10 upgrade experience (upgrade less than 24 hours ago) in a few days but I already disagree or at least am less concerned than the article implies about the wasted space issue.
3DSammy said:
Thanks for this link. It is an interesting read and seems more balanced than some of the "Lollipop is a bug ridden release" hate-bait I've been seeing. I'll write my on comments on the N10 upgrade experience (upgrade less than 24 hours ago) in a few days but I already disagree or at least am less concerned than the article implies about the wasted space issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the first part of your post, but I am the opposite on the second part. The wasted space immediately threw me off. Both on lockscreen and notifications panel.

Aggressive ram management.

Has anybody else experienced or is experiencing rather poor ram management on their S6e?
I'm finding app refreshes really quite abundant. Yes they refresh quickly in most cases but they are refreshes nether the less.
Worst are apps that dump you out of what you are doing like Tapatalk.
System manager tells me I gave 400mb free and yet app refreshes are a common occurrence.
My nexus 6 rarely has to auto refresh - indeed conversely I can open Tapatalk on that and have to manually refresh to get content. But at least I never get dumped out of a thread and taken back to menu.
The Galaxy S5 was poor enough with memory management, I hoped the 3gb in the S6e would put an end to forced reloads & refreshes but nope.
I have a sim free factory unlocked model, no carrier bloat and have factory restored and still same issue persists.
Its as if Touchwiz despite certain improvements is as memory hungry and uncouth as it ever was.
I know how you feel. RAM is always almost full even if there are no apps running. I can multitask without refreshes if I go to an app for a few seconds. But if I spend like even just a minute then I get a refresh. Even with just one tab on Google Chrome, I get a refresh immediately by just using Facebook for a while. I mean wtf?
I believe it's due to the memory leak on 5.0.1 wait till we get 5.1 to see if they fix this issue
mellomelon45 said:
I believe it's due to the memory leak on 5.0.1 wait till we get 5.1 to see if they fix this issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No memory leak is only on nexus devices and related to its particular bootloader - something Samsung device doesn't have. It won't improve if it's not good now.
Graffiti Exploit said:
I know how you feel. RAM is always almost full even if there are no apps running. I can multitask without refreshes if I go to an app for a few seconds. But if I spend like even just a minute then I get a refresh. Even with just one tab on Google Chrome, I get a refresh immediately by just using Facebook for a while. I mean wtf?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep exactly as you describe and it's really quite annoying. Feels like the phone is being gimped by its OS Skin. We shouldn't be having this issue on a 2015 3gb top of range device.
nookcoloruser said:
No memory leak is only on nexus devices and related to its particular bootloader - something Samsung device doesn't have. It won't improve if it's not good now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I didn't know that. Thanks for correcting me. I also have this issue as well and hoping this issue is fixed soon from Samsung.
I have this issue too.. Anoys the heck out of me;.. I can pause pandora, and then open another app, and pandora lost its place!
happens a lot more then it should.
eatonjb said:
I have this issue too.. Anoys the heck out of me;.. I can pause pandora, and then open another app, and pandora lost its place!
happens a lot more then it should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. How come all the so called in depth reviews never mentioned this issue. To me aggressive memory killing and excessive ram usage is far more detrimental to user experience than the odd bit of lag, yet the only thing we kept getting told is how lag free this device would be and how super fast the ram is.... And yet it can barely keep 4 apps in memory for 5 minutes. Its really frustrating.
nookcoloruser said:
Yep. How come all the so called in depth reviews never mentioned this issue. To me aggressive memory killing and excessive ram usage is far more detrimental to user experience than the odd bit of lag, yet the only thing we kept getting told is how lag free this device would be and how super fast the ram is.... And yet it can barely keep 4 apps in memory for 5 minutes. Its really frustrating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ikr.. they didnt mention this ram thing at all. are they even used this phone at all to post those reviews?!? I was using an iPhone 6 Plus before, and I never had this issue at all. I hope they can fix this as soon as possible.
I don't think the reviers use it really all that much. I don't think they load a lot of apps like most us users.. Idk it is sad. I also think Pandora for example is weird. Once you hit pause the icon disappears on top. So it's free to get killed. When songza for example, just pauses and keeps an icon on top. I'll almost chalk that up to bad programming. But fb, chrome and whatever, yea.. Sucky
It's really irritating. My 6 plus with 1gb of ram is better than this. What I don't get is you can have 400mb plus of ram available and stuff starts closing. Makes no sense.
I had this issue with my nexus too, and my s5 with lollypop.. I wonder if there is a settinf
americasteam said:
It's really irritating. My 6 plus with 1gb of ram is better than this. What I don't get is you can have 400mb plus of ram available and stuff starts closing. Makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep... I have less refreshes with my 6+ too.
The 400mb free ram available thing irks me too - if it's free why isn't it being used ? And what the heck is using up the 2.4gb before it ? Even when I tell it to close all my apps the most I have free is around 700mb which soon drops back to the 400-480mb mark. It's crazy how memory hungry and inefficient it's being.
holy crap! finally!
I've been searching for a thread like this for a week. Just got my phone a few days ago and man the ram management is piss poor. My HTC M7 doesn't have this issue. And yes I've wondered why no review site has mentioned this at all. I mostly noticed it on Chrome.. or even the stock browser. But yes it does this auto refresh crap on other apps as well. I don't know about you guys but I have the AT&The variant non edge and I have 5.0.2.
t0md0 said:
I've been searching for a thread like this for a week. Just got my phone a few days ago and man the ram management is piss poor. My HTC M7 doesn't have this issue. And yes I've wondered why no review site has mentioned this at all. I mostly noticed it on Chrome.. or even the stock browser. But yes it does this auto refresh crap on other apps as well. I don't know about you guys but I have the AT&The variant non edge and I have 5.0.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have a stock UK/Ireland factory unbranded handset, so its not carrier app fault either unfortunately.
The M7 & M8 are both excellent indeed - with near stock android levels of memory management, which only goes to prove an android skin doesn't have to suck the life out of a device, which is exactly what Touchwiz feels like its doing.
The S5 wasn't great memory management wise, the Note 4 was good but no where near as good as the Note 3 memory wise and sadly the S6e seems very poor especially when you consider it has 3gb. So it seems to me since the Note 3 Samsung's flagships have been getting worse ram management wise rather than better.
I have a €950 flagship phone which handles memory about as good as a Moto G with 1gb.
nookcoloruser said:
Yeah I have a stock UK/Ireland factory unbranded handset, so its not carrier app fault either unfortunately.
The M7 & M8 are both excellent indeed - with near stock android levels of memory management, which only goes to prove an android skin doesn't have to suck the life out of a device, which is exactly what Touchwiz feels like its doing.
The S5 wasn't great memory management wise, the Note 4 was good but no where near as good as the Note 3 memory wise and sadly the S6e seems very poor especially when you consider it has 3gb. So it seems to me since the Note 3 Samsung's flagships have been getting worse ram management wise rather than better.
I have a €950 flagship phone which handles memory about as good as a Moto G with 1gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you're telling me that the S5 for a year now still has crappy ram management??? that's just crazy and boggles my mind. i seriously don't want to keep this phone for 2 years of this nonsense (i get a new phone every 2 years). if that's the case i might just return this phone. as good as it is, that's almost a deal breaker to me. i always multitask switching from web page to messenger, to camera, sports apps etc.. etc.. then back to web page just to see it auto refresh every time! if i'm just bouncing back and forth between a couple apps within a min or so it doesn't seem to do this but after about 5 mins.. it never fails.. auto refresh is a certain. so sad. i don't want to go back to apple, but right now, i might have to return this phone and wait for iPhone 6S.
what also baffles me is that i don't seem to see much people talking about this issue considering this is a flagship phone and millions have already been sold worldwide.
t0md0 said:
so you're telling me that the S5 for a year now still has crappy ram management??? that's just crazy and boggles my mind. i seriously don't want to keep this phone for 2 years of this nonsense (i get a new phone every 2 years). if that's the case i might just return this phone. as good as it is, that's almost a deal breaker to me. i always multitask switching from web page to messenger, to camera, sports apps etc.. etc.. then back to web page just to see it auto refresh every time! if i'm just bouncing back and forth between a couple apps within a min or so it doesn't seem to do this but after about 5 mins.. it never fails.. auto refresh is a certain. so sad. i don't want to go back to apple, but right now, i might have to return this phone and wait for iPhone 6S.
what also baffles me is that i don't seem to see much people talking about this issue considering this is a flagship phone and millions have already been sold worldwide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think because the phone is otherwise very very fast some folks may not be noticing the refreshes. Its certainly more noticeable on apps that drop you out of what you were doing back to a previous menu screen like Tapatalk.
I think people genuinely want to believe the
Hype that the S6 & S6e are the nirvana of android...
I must admit I too am shocked folks aren't complaining more or are giving the device an easy pass on this issue, but for me its a total PITA.
I will keep the S6e until the next update and hope that has some memory tweaks, but if it doesn't I'll consider just selling it on.
I tiped phonearena about this issu and they announced it today so maybe this will open some eyes in Samsung dep.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Galaxy-S6-exhibiting-overzealous-RAM-management-report-users_id68745
now also up on Sammobile
http://www.sammobile.com/2015/04/28/poor-ram-management-affecting-the-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge/
So far, ive had issues of battery drain with bundled apps such as the AMAZON app store, as most of us here are already aware. I wonder if this ram issue has to do with the same preloaded apps causing issues? What about people who rooted and reinstalled all Play-Store-Reinstallable apps, through the Play store, has that cleared this issue? Maybe the misbehaving apps are taking their system-level privilege a little too far?
Glad some review sites are taking an eye on this. It's actually really annoying. Even my music app constantly shuts off and I have to force it to cause a wake lock for it not to shut off (poweramp has this option)
Sent from my SM-G925T

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