Drank the Samsung Kool-Aid for far too long.. - T-Mobile HTC One (M7)

Like the title says, I've been a Samsung leg humper since the original Galaxy S. In my line of work, I always had access to the latest handsets. Had almost every variant of the Original Galaxy S (ATT, International and T-Mobile 4G version) Galaxy SII again in ATT, International and T-mobile versions, The S3 in the Quad-Core International Version and T-Mobile Dual Core S4 version, then had also both the Note and Note 2.
I just preferred Samsung phones over other Android phones. My most recent addition is my T-Mobile Galaxy S4.
I am currently in the process of returning it! Wow did Samsung disappoint me in this edition. It feels unfinished, unrefined, slap together with a bunch of gimmicky tricks that I disabled immediately after 10 minutes of messing with them. The phone feels cheap... especially in the black version. That back plastic finish and pattern looks SUPER TACKY. They should have at least made it look like the finish on the Note 2's Titanium Gray, that at least looks pretty premium for plastic.
Don't get me started on the software, the phone LAGS. I mean A LOT! I was using a Nexus 4 while waiting for the S4 and boy is it night and day. The Nexus is buttery, the S4 lags in simple tasks like closing and opening the dialer and switching between homescreens, it lags when you open the camera. It stutters everywhere. It feels like a 2 generation old Android Phone, not the latest and greatest. It's quite pathetic really.
The stock keyboard is terrible, it lags when you type fast. It just can't keep up with fast typing. I was even pushed the latest software update a couple days ago which everybody raves fixes a bunch of lag, it helped but honestly the phone still lags and stutters all over the place. Completely inconsistent and frustrating. What really ticked me off was that Samsung disabled flash player support in their native browser and chrome. That was the last straw..
Today my T-Mobile HTC One arrived, I've been playing with it for the last 5 hours and I can't put it down! Well it's currently on the charger right now so I can play with it some more. That's the biggest compliment I can give it, when my S4 arrived, I played with it for maybe an hour and was so disgusted by the lag that I haven't really enjoyed picking it up and using it much since I received it 9 days ago! The HTC feels just so much more refined in everything, it feels finished and polished. Software is smooth, I saw a tiny, and I mean TINY bit of lag during closing a couple apps but it's nothing compared to the stuttering on the S4. Boom sound is overrated I think, the S4 is just as loud (seems almost louder?) but the HTC sounds fuller. I thought I was going to be blown away, but I wasn't. Sounds pretty good though, just not as amazing as all the reviewers make it seem. Camera is nice so far, nowhere near as feature packed as the S4, but it took decent low light pictures tonight. I'll try it again out in daylight tomorrow.
The LCD screen on the HTC ONE is so much better than the AMOLED screen on the S4 in my opinion. Text and everything seems just so much easier and smoother to look at. Everything looks crisp, and smooth.
Well that is it so far, I'm so glad I gave the HTC a shot. This one is a keeper for sure! Goodbye Samsung, you used to wow me with your products....HTC just kicked your butt on this round.

I completely agree that Samsung did not do as well as HTC this time

What is your line of work if you don't mind? I played with my friends s4 today- I have the note 2 and also noticed the lag on stock touch wiz and the keyboard. I put him on nova launcher and it was buttery smooth going through the phone's interface. I know what you mean by keyboards lag but I think Samsung will push an update to smooth things out, which honestly should have been done from the start. I like how the s4 looks with that texture but it is a bit tacky and wow does or attract fingerprints. It's plastic body does allow it to be thinner and lighter though. Each phone has its advantages and disadvantages .
JediX13

gonna give the HTC one a try if i dont like it, hopefuly the 32gb s4 will be out by then

Well after almost 24 hours of use I can report some other findings.
The Camera on the S4 is hands down better in good lighting, the HTC produces a lot of noise even in great light. A little disappointed in that area since I do use my phone to take lots of family photos.
NEED FOR SPEED: Most wanted. Not available on the HTC One but is available for the Galaxy S4. Lame. They have the same processor and the same screen resolution yet the Samsung supports it and the HTC one doesn't. It's one of my favorite time killing games. A little sad there...
The LED notification on the HTC seems to time out after about 5 or 10 minutes, which makes it useless. I sometimes come back and glance at the phone thinking there are no messages because the LED notifier turns off, I check my phone just in case and I have lots of texts and emails. Minus another point for the HTC. The S4 will glady blink all day long until you open it up to check it. This one really bothers me because I rely heavily on the LED notification.
Boom sound still is overrated...
Overall, the HTC disappointed me in a few areas so far... I've yet to find a phone that is near perfect as the Note 2. Which in my opinion is an awesome phone, just needed a little speed boost in games and maybe a tiny bit smaller form factor and it would have been perfect.
I'll hang on to the HTC for a while and wait to see what the Note 3 can offer...... So far the Note 2 is still my favorite handset of all time.

Nice to hear that update. I too miss the LED notification that the S3 has. It's nice having something, but Samsung really nailed the notification LED. I can live with the size of the LED on the One, but it would be nice to have more of it, and different colors for different notifications.
I also agree with the daytime photos. The One is good enough for my needs but the S4 does indeed pull in a great amount of detail.
I do however love "boomsound". I watch a lot of videos on my phone and can clearly hear the difference between the One, my GS3 (which I still have), and my Z10. It might not be louder than the other two, but man it just sounds better. If you do a blind sound test, you can clearly pick the One over the others.
HTC Could have really put a dent in Samsung's sales if they'd included an 8 "ultra pixel" camera.

Some of the things I agree with about the One. But I have a few pointers, I see no reason whatsoever why you're are getting noise on the One. The sensor is far to large to get noise unless you are in low light where it stills blows away other devices. Check your settings.
I've been using the camera in mediocre light with no noise.
As for the LED it is pretty much useless, especially coming from the world's greatest in the Galaxy Nexus. What I did was root and flashed the kernel that enables the capacitive lights to blink on a notification and it doesn't shut down after 5 minutes.
Also I finally heard the difference today between beats on and off. The difference is night and day, you will lose a good quarter volume but the sound is worlds better. Loud < Quality.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

I honestly thought I would be one of the few to get the One after having the S3. Looks like there are plenty!

I don't get any noise on my One either.

I think I'm going to get a HTC....
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium

Im using Galaxy S3 now, its a piece of crap. Im on vacation when the One isnt release yet. So I went and bought S3, will give this to my nephew.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

I owned the S2 and the S3, then I bought the HTC One as well. The S4 is just full of useless gimmicks honestly, and they are marketing it as such. They didn't change much other than internal hardware compared to the S3 and the HTC One is a completely fresh new idea.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

I think the S4 is a damn fine phone. However I've owned ever galaxy s and note series except the S4.
I needed the change. Just something different.
The ONE fit that bill perfectly.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

mr.orange303 said:
I think the S4 is a damn fine phone. However I've owned ever galaxy s and note series except the S4.
I needed the change. Just something different.
The ONE fit that bill perfectly.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Both are good phones. I bought the one at Wal-mart. Saw that they had a 14 day return policy. I expected to check it out and return the phone. But today the 2 weeks is up, and I just can't make myself give it up.

My latest phones iphone iphone 3g 3gs 4 4s htc sensation samsung galaxy s s2 note note 2 now the HTC one.
Samsung did screw up on their galaxy s3s (s4). I knew they were on this path without a better phone with metal body or any other material besides plastic. Even though most won't admit it people buy the HTC one because of its looks.
I too agree the galaxy note 2 is/was my most favorite phone ever since I got the first iphone in 2007 before that maybe the motorola rzr . The note 3 should not be bigger unless they make it narrower, The note 2 is still too wide.
I have been all samsung phones like you too. It wasnt really the koolaid it was because they did have the best phones since the s2.
HTC one camera sucks ass!
Yes i said it, ok low light its good, but its still 4 megapixels so if you're going to zoom at all there is no clarity.
Boom sound is overrated
my note 2 with volume mod is louder
I hate the HTCs notification!!!
I also hate the battery life. I'm biased because my note 2 lasts a day and half of heavy use without a charge yes 24 hrs + 12 hrs/
I also dislike the ceo of htc. Production delays (because of the 4 gigawiggle pixel) cost over a month of HTC ones sales they lost out on billions of sales!! because of the inferior camera. Why not just put a 8 or 13 megapixel camera??!??
I guess im a little angry because I bought HTC stock and because of the production delay it cost HTC its early lead before the S4 launch.
Both sides made huge mistakes
Samsung if they made the s4 with a metal build would have maybe crushed the htc one.
The HTC one lucked out that samsung didnt.
Because can you imagine if samsung's s4 came in a fancy new metal design?
HTC one metal design no microsd card no removable battery 4.7" screen
S4 metal design microsd card slot removable larger battery 5" screen

I'm good with my s4,i love the design on the one, but I wouldn't be able to live without a extended battery. Both phones are awesome, up to user choice. I just hate people putting rants and complains and blah blah blah. Both phones are flagship phones, they both are new. They both are good.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app

So basically Dan there is no pleasing you. HTC one hands down better device than s4. It seems you want perfection though , which you will never get.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

Okay, here is a picture I took in front of my friend's house. In good lighting.
Can somebody tell me WTF is up with the HTC ONE camera? It looks like utter **** at 100 percent crop in full daylight condition.
Quality reminds of something you get from those $20 kids toy digital camera.

Dan37tz said:
Okay, here is a picture I took in front of my friend's house. In good lighting.
Can somebody tell me WTF is up with the HTC ONE camera? It looks like utter **** at 100 percent crop in full daylight condition.
Quality reminds of something you get from those $20 kids toy digital camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that looks bad real bad. settings must be off?
I have noticed when I take a pic say of a building with a phone number. When i zoom to read the numbers. the numbers are blurry. Not with my note 2 and i would assume s4 13 mp

seattletecg said:
that looks bad real bad. settings must be off?
I have noticed when I take a pic say of a building with a phone number. When i zoom to read the numbers. the numbers are blurry. Not with my note 2 and i would assume s4 13 mp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the HTC one pictures look like they were taken by a home made Lego camera. Very Very bad.

Related

HTC Amaze or Samsung Galaxt 2?

hey guys i know there are alot of posts like this but i just wanted to see what amaze owners and samsung GS2 owners thought about the phones...
im getting a new phone today and want to know what you hate and like about the HTC Amaze.
Thanks everyone,
Zach
a few posts below, there is already a vs thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1301088
Thanks yeah i read a bunch and watched youtube videos... i even went and played with each one i just cant decide which one i would like more lol
LogikWear said:
Thanks yeah i read a bunch and watched youtube videos... i even went and played with each one i just cant decide which one i would like more lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the samsung felt cheap... I like the weight of the amaze. Feels like a solid product
Based on build quality, amaze. Samsung makes plastic toys, HTC makes quality phones.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
TheSneakerWhore said:
Based on build quality, amaze. Samsung makes plastic toys, HTC makes quality phones.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that HTC has very good design quality, but keep in mind that the premium build design comes with a cost. Heavy feeling device that not everybody finds comforting to hold and what feels like slight overheating because of the metals used in the design. Every device heats up with use, but because of HTC's choice of materials you feel it more than other devices such as Samsung etc.
With that being said, I do wish Samsung would step up a little bit more as far as design is concerned. Maybe using 95%
plastic with a few aluminum pieces to add a little more character. The Nexus S might be Samsung's worst looking device IMO but I loved it because of how light and easy it was to hold for long periods of time.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
I actually did all the research etc too like everyone else, I bought the Amaze on the first day, 2 days ago I returned it and got the SGS2 (blasphemy) and yesterday returned it to get an Amaze again... end of story
SGS was nice, some cool software features, but HTC sense just well makes sense (does everything and minimal need if any for 3rd party widgets or any real need for a 3rd party launcher). Camera compared to the Amaze's camera was sh!t. Kies Air was cool though wish HTC did something like that. battery life was fantastic on the SGS2 though. The Amaze feels just soo much better in hand...
edit: dialer/etc on SGS2 looks generic compared to the polish of all the HTC software.
Did you have to pay the 50$ restocking fee each of your returns?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
MRpeabodyia said:
Did you have to pay the 50$ restocking fee each of your returns?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope.. not a cent
OuncE718 said:
I agree that HTC has very good design quality, but keep in mind that the premium build design comes with a cost. Heavy feeling device that not everybody finds comforting to hold and what feels like slight overheating because of the metals used in the design. Every device heats up with use, but because of HTC's choice of materials you feel it more than other devices such as Samsung etc.
With that being said, I do wish Samsung would step up a little bit more as far as design is concerned. Maybe using 95%
plastic with a few aluminum pieces to add a little more character. The Nexus S might be Samsung's worst looking device IMO but I loved it because of how light and easy it was to hold for long periods of time.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand your point, but I keep/collect phones as a hobby--nary once have I kept a cheap Sammy device. I'd take heavy and solid over plastic and cheap. I bet Sammy only spends $40/phone to manufacture (if even that).
*Keep in mind, that is US adjusted price, not eastern-labor prices.
OuncE718 said:
I agree that HTC has very good design quality, but keep in mind that the premium build design comes with a cost. Heavy feeling device that not everybody finds comforting to hold and what feels like slight overheating because of the metals used in the design. Every device heats up with use, but because of HTC's choice of materials you feel it more than other devices such as Samsung etc.
With that being said, I do wish Samsung would step up a little bit more as far as design is concerned. Maybe using 95%
plastic with a few aluminum pieces to add a little more character. The Nexus S might be Samsung's worst looking device IMO but I loved it because of how light and easy it was to hold for long periods of time.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need an oven glove to use my Samsung Epic Touch, the phone gets hot to the point that I can smell the heat. This happens sporadically but especially when viewing videos.
I got some hands on the with SGSII last night. My wife's friend bought one from Sprint yesterday. It was a quick phone. I am on my first Android device and since I have the Amaze all I really know is Sense. I found it easy to use and customize but it just felt cheap to me. She loved the fact it was light. For me though it felt like a good firm grip would crack something. I am sure it wouldn't but it just felt fragile. Performance wise it was about like the Amaze. I say total toss up / opinion between the two. I love the Amaze it gets my vote.
Oh and I have had no heat issues as all with my Amaze. My iPhone got warmer...
I had a Samsung Vibrant and hated the GPS on that phone. The SGS2 felt like a Vibrant on steroids. Touchwiz is also kinda boring. The HTC Amaze is awesome! Great build quality and Sense UI is beautiful. Amaze also has higher resolution. Go with the Amaze.
hiazn said:
I actually did all the research etc too like everyone else, I bought the Amaze on the first day, 2 days ago I returned it and got the SGS2 (blasphemy) and yesterday returned it to get an Amaze again... end of story
SGS was nice, some cool software features, but HTC sense just well makes sense (does everything and minimal need if any for 3rd party widgets or any real need for a 3rd party launcher). Camera compared to the Amaze's camera was sh!t. Kies Air was cool though wish HTC did something like that. battery life was fantastic on the SGS2 though. The Amaze feels just soo much better in hand...
edit: dialer/etc on SGS2 looks generic compared to the polish of all the HTC software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me battery is important..can you tell me the difference you felt? I don't believe I will be able to go for the SGS2...it is just too wide for me and very difficult to fit it in the pocket..but the battery on the Amaze needs 3rd party softwares to arrive at the end of the day.
I always have Bluetooth on, WiFi or 4g, and sync 2 emails every 15min, Twitter update every 30min.
With normal use for me- txt, phone calls, email, checking twitter, random use of netflix, and checking xda.. I usually jump on a charger in about
6-7hrs at 40-50% maybe. Sgs2 will just about almost double that length of time... Right now I'm at 45% after 6hrs.....
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA Premium App
The higher screen resolution is what sold me on the Amaze. The Galaxy S2 has a larger screen but a lower resolution. To me, it looked crappie next to the Amaze.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using Tapatalk
Get HTC amaze.its much prettier better build quality better camera and HTC sense!higher resolution and what else!!Its smooth as butter too and 1.5ghz dual core not 1.2 so its nearly better in every way!apart from battery life though..
MBT93 said:
Get HTC amaze.its much prettier better build quality better camera and HTC sense!higher resolution and what else!!Its smooth as butter too and 1.5ghz dual core not 1.2 so its nearly better in every way!apart from battery life though..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
?? - The Galaxy SII for T-Mobile is a dual core clocked at 1.5 gHz.
You know what is really lame? I went to the T-mobile store and since they redesigned the place with laminate flooring and lots of space so it looks more chic they also removed every single working phone available. There was nothing but cases and accessories hanging on the walls and the only two "dummy" phones for the SGS2 and Amaze were hanging out near the entrance. There was literally no other phones, and definitely no real ones besides shells of phones. The T-mobile version of the SGS2 is much better than the ATT SGS2 and Infuse because the black is completely different with a much nicer material and is actually ergonmic since it isn't flat with a sudden hump, but instead tapers with the hump and has some thickness/ergonomics. I could not really tell if the Amaze was a premium handset or not because I could barely hold it with the giant black chastity belt. The black plastic felt nice, but I could barely tell if was metal. Since it was a dummy phone the weight was also all wrong. Well I'll be playing crapsunless I can find a way to get to the Best Buy out of town.
I went with the Amaze simply because I got burnt so bad with the vibrant. Samsung never addressed the faulty GPS and the the all plastic frame just feels cheap. I also used both at the T-mobile store and they are both very nice but the amaze is just elegant. Go with the amaze you won't be disappointed!
Sent from my Amazing Amaze

HTC amaze far superior to SGS2

I used the nexus one for two years EXTREMELY HAPPY. until I dropped and broke it. So I went to buy a phone and I was initially going to buy the amaze, but for some reason my brother, the strore owner and my mom all loved samsung so I said fine. I HATE THIS PHONE.
i've had the sgs2 for about two days and can tell you from all the research i've done and shots i've taken. my moms my touch 4g takes better pictures. my nexus pictures comes out almost the same clarity sometimes even better. I did some research, and this is what I did not know, If you guys knew anything about camera's the HTC amaze comes with a backside illuminated sensor only one other phone has that and that's the iphone 4s. the aperture on the htc amaze is also f/2.2 compared to sgs2 which is around f/2.7 and better than the iphone 4s which is f/2.4. the lower the aperture the more light the camera lets in and thus better picture quality comes out.
As far as the phone itself goes I hate the SGs2, not because its a bad phone....samsung is just retarted with all that real estate I can only see like 6 contacts on a screen at a time and in many screen everything is blow up and cannot be changed unless you changed the density of the phone after rooting, which messes with the programs and doesn't show them correctly and the phone itself. but when I did this, the contact screen and the settings screens looked amazing, they showed, the dialer was about 1/4 of the screen and the rest was black (this is what I mean about messing things up changing pixel density) with the superamoled plus I have changed the densit of my phone to 160 from the original 240 and EVERYTHING looks VERY crisp BECUAUSE OF THE EXTRA SUBPIXELS...everything on the SGs2 looks TOO BIG stock...its like a kids toy, that screen can hold 25 icons easily instead of the regular 16 or whatever (as I use launcherpro to cram the icons) even the notification bar is too big...sure it has a big screen but if you have a smaller phone that gives you the same effect (5 or 5 contacts in one screen etc. and same amound of icons like my old nexus one) I'd take the smaller phone over the sg2 that does not use the big screen efficiently AT ALL so i don't have to lug a big thing around...some programs like the web browser and messaging you can decrease font size and it is still perfectly clear and crisp due to the extra subpixels even though its a 480 by 800 phone, I don't understand why samsung didn't make this an option for the entire phone. there's nothing superior in the galaxy S 2 over the HTC amaze, besides having better color on the screen than a qhd lcd (which some say is better) and being lighter....touchwiz 4.0 has nothing over sense either... even the lockscreen is crap on touchwiz, I had to buy widgetlocker pro to use instead of the regular one. the build quality of HTC amaze is sturdy and nice, yes a little heavier than sgs2 which uses all plastic...I plan on getting a case for either one so I don't care if its made of plastic or metal, if you're going to argue the dropping the phone is better with plastic.
The amaze also packs like 4 microphones while the sgs 2 has 2. the sgs2 speakphone is very muffled and crappy, where the htc amazes is extremely clear.
I am so pissed with such a nice screen on this phone samsung could have lowered the density and given us much more for the real estate instead they were just lazy and kept the same old thing. It like me having a 50 inch monitor that is can show crisp at lower resolutions but I limit the system to having a lower density or resolution. Maybe some people like the BIG OLD spaced out icons and contact list, but I'm not a 90 year old person who needs a big icons and fonts like that.
as far as the galaxy nexus goes I have not seen one yet, but samsung again cheped out on the camera and the processor. it has a 720p pentil amoled, which is yet to be determined if it will prove to overcome the pentile downfall.
also the amaze has a dedicated camera and camcorder button.
I hope as they update to ICS they can change the density of this screen, then I might think about keeping the phone...otherwize I'm going to HTC amaze or something better that comes out by then.
I don't hate samsung, infact I love samsung TV's better than all TV's and have a galaxy tab 10.1 which is running stock honeycomb and will never upgrade to touchwiz. Samsung shines in screen quality thats all they know how to do. ( The camera department and software department of samsung is lacking, as well as some hardware. now If they can only get the software department to use the very nice screen the way it was supposed to be used...if you count the subpixels on the sgs2 and the htc amaze. They both come out almost equal. with and edge actually on the sgs2. learn how to use your screens samsung!!!!
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Tbh im to lazy to read it all XD
Sent From my Galaxy S II T-Mobile
phreshjoker said:
Tbh im to lazy to read it all XD
Sent From my Galaxy S II T-Mobile
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He definitely wrote an essay.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
So you write this to convince yourself to get the amaze. as much as opinions go, you state the camera is better and screen real estate could be better as well as pixel density. It's pretty clear this phone is not for you. If you're within buyers remorse why not just return it if you feel this opinionated and unhappy with it?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
seansk said:
I used the nexus one for two years EXTREMELY HAPPY. until I dropped and broke it. So I went to buy a phone and I was initially going to buy the amaze, but for some reason my brother, the strore owner and my mom all loved samsung so I said fine. I HATE THIS PHONE.
i've had the sgs2 for about two days and can tell you from all the research i've done and shots i've taken. my moms my touch 4g takes better pictures. my nexus pictures comes out almost the same clarity sometimes even better. I did some research, and this is what I did not know, If you guys knew anything about camera's the HTC amaze comes with a backside illuminated sensor only one other phone has that and that's the iphone 4s. the aperture on the htc amaze is also f/2.2 compared to sgs2 which is around f/2.7 and better than the iphone 4s which is f/2.4. the lower the aperture the more light the camera lets in and thus better picture quality comes out.
As far as the phone itself goes I hate the SGs2, not because its a bad phone....samsung is just retarted with all that real estate I can only see like 6 contacts on a screen at a time and in many screen everything is blow up and cannot be changed unless you changed the density of the phone after rooting, which messes with the programs and doesn't show them correctly and the phone itself. but when I did this, the contact screen and the settings screens looked amazing, they showed, the dialer was about 1/4 of the screen and the rest was black (this is what I mean about messing things up changing pixel density) with the superamoled plus I have changed the densit of my phone to 160 from the original 240 and EVERYTHING looks VERY crisp BECUAUSE OF THE EXTRA SUBPIXELS...everything on the SGs2 looks TOO BIG stock...its like a kids toy, that screen can hold 25 icons easily instead of the regular 16 or whatever (as I use launcherpro to cram the icons) even the notification bar is too big...sure it has a big screen but if you have a smaller phone that gives you the same effect (5 or 5 contacts in one screen etc. and same amound of icons like my old nexus one) I'd take the smaller phone over the sg2 that does not use the big screen efficiently AT ALL so i don't have to lug a big thing around...some programs like the web browser and messaging you can decrease font size and it is still perfectly clear and crisp due to the extra subpixels even though its a 480 by 800 phone, I don't understand why samsung didn't make this an option for the entire phone. there's nothing superior in the galaxy S 2 over the HTC amaze, besides having better color on the screen than a qhd lcd (which some say is better) and being lighter....touchwiz 4.0 has nothing over sense either... even the lockscreen is crap on touchwiz, I had to buy widgetlocker pro to use instead of the regular one. the build quality of HTC amaze is sturdy and nice, yes a little heavier than sgs2 which uses all plastic...I plan on getting a case for either one so I don't care if its made of plastic or metal, if you're going to argue the dropping the phone is better with plastic.
The amaze also packs like 4 microphones while the sgs 2 has 2. the sgs2 speakphone is very muffled and crappy, where the htc amazes is extremely clear.
I am so pissed with such a nice screen on this phone samsung could have lowered the density and given us much more for the real estate instead they were just lazy and kept the same old thing. It like me having a 50 inch monitor that is can show crisp at lower resolutions but I limit the system to having a lower density or resolution. Maybe some people like the BIG OLD spaced out icons and contact list, but I'm not a 90 year old person who needs a big icons and fonts like that.
as far as the galaxy nexus goes I have not seen one yet, but samsung again cheped out on the camera and the processor. it has a 720p pentil amoled, which is yet to be determined if it will prove to overcome the pentile downfall.
also the amaze has a dedicated camera and camcorder button.
I hope as they update to ICS they can change the density of this screen, then I might think about keeping the phone...otherwize I'm going to HTC amaze or something better that comes out by then.
I don't hate samsung, infact I love samsung TV's better than all TV's and have a galaxy tab 10.1 which is running stock honeycomb and will never upgrade to touchwiz. Samsung shines in screen quality thats all they know how to do. ( The camera department and software department of samsung is lacking, as well as some hardware. now If they can only get the software department to use the very nice screen the way it was supposed to be used...if you count the subpixels on the sgs2 and the htc amaze. They both come out almost equal. with and edge actually on the sgs2. learn how to use your screens samsung!!!!
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lololololololololol!!!!!!!!!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
I actually read it all 0_0
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
chib1panda said:
So you write this to convince yourself to get the amaze. as much as opinions go, you state the camera is better and screen real estate could be better as well as pixel density. It's pretty clear this phone is not for you. If you're within buyers remorse why not just return it if you feel this opinionated and unhappy with it?
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I have so much to say in response to the OP, but I don't want to sound like an ass. I really don't see the point of this post. This long, boring essay would of definitely been suited well in the Amaze section.
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Didn't you just get it? Take it back and get the amaze. Bet after a week you'll wish you hadn't. Good luck
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Or he'll notice the horrible screen bleed from the soft keys and reconsider.
mikeyinid said:
Didn't you just get it? Take it back and get the amaze. Bet after a week you'll wish you hadn't. Good luck
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mikeyinid said:
Didn't you just get it? Take it back and get the amaze. Bet after a week you'll wish you hadn't. Good luck
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This phone has issues too but I think they are much more tolerable than overheating, battery and signal issues. The Amaze has issues that most likely will never be fixed with software.
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Don't forget the lack of Dev in amaze forum
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Just go get a POS Amaze and be happy then.. Hahah
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I bought the Amaze and the GS2. I prefer the GS2 over the Amaze still.
Check our my sig.
I am going to return just hate the restocking fee. I just want to hear from people who have had both and went for the sgs2 and why?I'm going to be paying full price around 600 and keep it for a while just want to now some good evidence why sgs2 is better?
seansk said:
I used the nexus one for two years EXTREMELY HAPPY. until I dropped and broke it. So I went to buy a phone and I was initially going to buy the amaze, but for some reason my brother, the strore owner and my mom all loved samsung so I said fine. I HATE THIS PHONE.
i've had the sgs2 for about two days and can tell you from all the research i've done and shots i've taken. my moms my touch 4g takes better pictures. my nexus pictures comes out almost the same clarity sometimes even better. I did some research, and this is what I did not know, If you guys knew anything about camera's the HTC amaze comes with a backside illuminated sensor only one other phone has that and that's the iphone 4s. the aperture on the htc amaze is also f/2.2 compared to sgs2 which is around f/2.7 and better than the iphone 4s which is f/2.4. the lower the aperture the more light the camera lets in and thus better picture quality comes out.
As far as the phone itself goes I hate the SGs2, not because its a bad phone....samsung is just retarted with all that real estate I can only see like 6 contacts on a screen at a time and in many screen everything is blow up and cannot be changed unless you changed the density of the phone after rooting, which messes with the programs and doesn't show them correctly and the phone itself. but when I did this, the contact screen and the settings screens looked amazing, they showed, the dialer was about 1/4 of the screen and the rest was black (this is what I mean about messing things up changing pixel density) with the superamoled plus I have changed the densit of my phone to 160 from the original 240 and EVERYTHING looks VERY crisp BECUAUSE OF THE EXTRA SUBPIXELS...everything on the SGs2 looks TOO BIG stock...its like a kids toy, that screen can hold 25 icons easily instead of the regular 16 or whatever (as I use launcherpro to cram the icons) even the notification bar is too big...sure it has a big screen but if you have a smaller phone that gives you the same effect (5 or 5 contacts in one screen etc. and same amound of icons like my old nexus one) I'd take the smaller phone over the sg2 that does not use the big screen efficiently AT ALL so i don't have to lug a big thing around...some programs like the web browser and messaging you can decrease font size and it is still perfectly clear and crisp due to the extra subpixels even though its a 480 by 800 phone, I don't understand why samsung didn't make this an option for the entire phone. there's nothing superior in the galaxy S 2 over the HTC amaze, besides having better color on the screen than a qhd lcd (which some say is better) and being lighter....touchwiz 4.0 has nothing over sense either... even the lockscreen is crap on touchwiz, I had to buy widgetlocker pro to use instead of the regular one. the build quality of HTC amaze is sturdy and nice, yes a little heavier than sgs2 which uses all plastic...I plan on getting a case for either one so I don't care if its made of plastic or metal, if you're going to argue the dropping the phone is better with plastic.
The amaze also packs like 4 microphones while the sgs 2 has 2. the sgs2 speakphone is very muffled and crappy, where the htc amazes is extremely clear.
I am so pissed with such a nice screen on this phone samsung could have lowered the density and given us much more for the real estate instead they were just lazy and kept the same old thing. It like me having a 50 inch monitor that is can show crisp at lower resolutions but I limit the system to having a lower density or resolution. Maybe some people like the BIG OLD spaced out icons and contact list, but I'm not a 90 year old person who needs a big icons and fonts like that.
as far as the galaxy nexus goes I have not seen one yet, but samsung again cheped out on the camera and the processor. it has a 720p pentil amoled, which is yet to be determined if it will prove to overcome the pentile downfall.
also the amaze has a dedicated camera and camcorder button.
I hope as they update to ICS they can change the density of this screen, then I might think about keeping the phone...otherwize I'm going to HTC amaze or something better that comes out by then.
I don't hate samsung, infact I love samsung TV's better than all TV's and have a galaxy tab 10.1 which is running stock honeycomb and will never upgrade to touchwiz. Samsung shines in screen quality thats all they know how to do. ( The camera department and software department of samsung is lacking, as well as some hardware. now If they can only get the software department to use the very nice screen the way it was supposed to be used...if you count the subpixels on the sgs2 and the htc amaze. They both come out almost equal. with and edge actually on the sgs2. learn how to use your screens samsung!!!!
Thanks for listening to my rant.
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cool story bro
Sent from my T989 Samsung Galaxy S2
Meh... enjoy being able to fry an egg on your HTC phone & having to carry a charger with you everywhere you go.
This reminds me of waaaaay back in early 05 when I was devving for the Sidekick II. The Treo 650 had just been announced and I was sick of having to hack the hell out of my SKII just to get ringtones on it, so I was gung-ho to get a T650. I went to the Danger forums & posted a long rant just like this about how much I hated the SKII & how I was gonna get the T650 as soon as I got paid. Lets just say that we've been MUCH nicer to the OP here than the Sidekick crew was to me xD Their general (and cleaned up) response was "don't let the door hit you in the ass, *****". Granted, I WAS happier with the Treo, but yeah... bashing a device IN that device's home forum- not the best idea! lol...
I hate HTC phones...I'M on a pos evo .4g right now because i sold my galaxy s vibrant for sgs 2....I love samsung phones and super amoled...Cya and dont let the door hit ya on the way Out!
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I can argue everything you just said. But seriously I'm too lazy.
Lets just say.. YOULL COME BACK
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I'm sick of HTC. I've had the N1, MT4G, and the Sensation ALL with some type of dust under the screen problem with the sensation being the worst (which is why I got rid of it as soon as I noticed and picked up the SGS2 and am damn happy about it). I did love those phones, especially the beloved N1, but I can't stand seeing that dust when the screen was off or if I used a dark wallpaper. The only thing I do miss is the qHD and CM7, but the SAMOLED makes up for the screen and cyanogen himself said CM is being worked on already for the 989, so I'm pretty stoked for that too.

Is it me or is the 3d not even in the same ball park

I know this may have been discussed, but I went to look at the samsung nexus and samsung galaxy sII and wow do theses phone blow the 3d away. I was really surprised. The 3d is not even in the same ball park. I like my 3d but the 2 just make it feel so cheap. The screen doesnt even compair to either 2. The cameras are so much better than the 3d. If anyone says different they are on crack. Come a few more weeks i'll be able to upgrade and once sprint gets the samsung nexus I will defiantly make the switch. I have always had htc phones but its time to move on to bigger and better things.
They may seem nice at first but I've had nothing but bad experiences with samsung phones. I'm just one person though...I'm gonna stick with htc. Just my 2 cents.
We're comin from a pure power source.
it's just you.
to each his own though. my honest opinion of the s2 was that it felt cheap like a toy and had no "robust" feel to it. the earpiece speaker/call quality was **** compared to my 3D, the screen was low resolution, it had all kinds of bugs, and the OS looked like something from a nintendo game.
i will reluctantly be buying a nexus as well, reluctantly. and it will just be to try it out. i am skeptical simply because it is a samsung.
cds36 said:
I know this may have been discussed, but I went to look at the samsung nexus and samsung galaxy sII and wow do theses phone blow the 3d away. I was really surprised. The 3d is not even in the same ball park. I like my 3d but the 2 just make it feel so cheap. The screen doesnt even compair to either 2. The cameras are so much better than the 3d. If anyone says different they are on crack. Come a few more weeks i'll be able to upgrade and once sprint gets the samsung nexus I will defiantly make the switch. I have always had htc phones but its time to move on to bigger and better things.
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I'm gonna help you out and predict most people's responses:
Troll, have a good life, great story bro, etc.
You might consider giving a better argument. For instance, my gf's galaxy nexus seems to have a brighter and sharper screen. It's also a light phone. The camera appears to instantly take the shots. In fact I took a photo with it of a moving car and the car was barely blurred.
Yeah im in no way bashing Htc I was just really surprised. I know getting updates from samsung is like pulling teeth thats why im going with the nexus straight google.
karate134 said:
I'm gonna help you out and predict most people's responses:
Troll, have a good life, great story bro, etc.
You might consider giving a better argument. For instance, my gf's galaxy nexus seems to have a brighter and sharper screen. It's also a light phone. The camera appears to instantly take the shots. In fact I took a photo with it of a moving car and the car was barely blurred.
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Click to collapse
True ... The argument just go see for yourself and compair. Like I said i like my 3d, but these just seem to be in a different class.
I hated how the EVO 3D felt in contrast to my Exhibit II 4G. Something about the overall plasticness that makes it feel lighter and more better.
Not to mention, the plastic body helps absorb shock much better than the dense material HTC uses. I'm glad I got rid of my EVO with its crappy radio.
My 2¢
I've had them all.
Motorola - best antenna
Samsung - lightest
HTC - most development
Or you could just go buy an iphone. Studies have shown, if you own an iPhone you're more likely to have sex
Go for it and enjoy! I'm happy with my 3D and the better dev community here.
Yes it is in the same ball park! I had the SGS2 for about 5 months and yes it was very good and I loved the super amoled plus screen, the things i don't like about it is that if feels cheap in the hand and the lack of Led Notifs (yes you can get bln but that doesn't cut it) Also Touchwiz sucks. From personal experience I would say the SGS2 devs are superb and it does have a great community, I have not looked around the 3D's forum to compare the two, even if it did have a bad community I don't mind as I got this phone at a great price and ill hopefully have it until it's life is over (which I hope isn't soon)
If you want a phone that feels like you could break it apart with you hands by all means go for the Sgs2. The galaxy nexus on the other hand I have to agree that it does look like it's in another league.
fpineda101 said:
Go for it and enjoy! I'm happy with my 3D and the better dev community here.
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THIS!
Dev support here is huge, and never liked Samsung aside from their screens to an extent...
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I liked using my Evo 3D. I'm using a Nexus S 4G right now (got a really good deal), and I just love the screen. The amoled screen, to me, looks much better than the TFT displays HTC uses. The 3D screen is light years ahead of the Evo 4G screen with it's pink hues when displaying at white background.
I will also say the camera sensors in the samsung devices are of better quality than what HTC uses. Again, this is in my experience, and I'm also not a professional photographer.
To say the 3D is not in the same ballpark as the SGSII, or Galaxy Nexus really isn't fair. At the time of release, the 3D was almost on top of the world. Shortly thereafter, the GSII came out, with its exynos processor, which has better performance than the Snapdragon used in the HTC devices.
Also, the Galaxy Nexus is a newer phone, with a larger screen, higher resolution, plus it's running the latest version of Android. This phone will eventually become "crappy" as the quad core devices come out, or future versions of android roll out that make this phone "sluggish". No phone stays on top for very long. The Nexus One, and Evo 4G are the only phones that have largely kept their halo status, despite their age.
in my opinion from first glance its easy to choose the gs2 or galaxy nexus over the e3d. but after having played with all 3 and knowing ppl with the others and there expierence im gonna go ahead and stick with htc..
screen wise although i love how awesome the super amoleds look the low resolution on the gs2 with such a big screen is a super turn off for me. the galaxy nexus on the other hand is just pure awesomeness screen wise. but the e3d's size and resolution are way more important than how vibrant it is. and this one might just be me but i find the slcd color reproduction to be way more accurate and not excessively vibrant as oppsed to samoled but the blacks suck..
as for the processor i still cant figure out why everyone goes crazy over the exynos its an awesome processor but as is the msm8660 in the e3d neither chip beats the other outright both having strong and weak points. and if uve played with a sense 3.5 or ics rom u know how awesome this phone will be when we do eventually get our update. right now thou its still great sense 3.0 isnt as fluid as 3.5 or above but its fast and runs apps amazingly. i cant stand touchwiz but thats not important because some ppl do. only stock android or sense for me
camera ill give that one to samsung they win big time haha. but the e3d camera still gets the job done and with the right settings i still manage to get some great shots.
i want to get the nexus ive been wanting one forever but the only thing stopping me is the lack of a microsd which isnt to crazy because id still have the same amount of memory i do now but there is no room for expansion which sucks. and i might actually miss sense to much. the widgets mainly but for me sense makes android so easy to get around.
and the build quality of sammy phones is just terrible. such great hardware put into this cheap plastic shell feels like a toy. i love my evo and my e3d ive dropped em several times and have no dents or scratches on my screens and ive never used a case the worse ive gotten is wear marks from using them for so long...
dont overlook the e3d it stands up really well against those two. they all got their perks that make em great just pick which is right for you.
I'm not sure why everyone gets hung up on the "poor build quality" of the samsung devices. They are made of plastic, and are light weight. Other than that, they are built very solidly. They do have glossy plastic, which shows scratches much easier than on matte plastic. The Evo 3D is entirely encased in a plastic wrapper, but it's heavy. The weight is the only difference in "build quailty".
HTC has had issues with light leakage around their screens. Dust getting between the digitizer and the LCD. I've heard of samsung phones getting blown speakers, lower signal quality (both wifi and 3G/4G), and lack of updates, but beyond that, their devices are fairly solid. HTC has recently been putting out better quality devices, so they have learned from past mistakes.
I'm just curious to see if there are truly a higher percentage of breakage with samsung phones, vs HTC phones.
Please note: I'm not hating on HTC phones, as every smartphone I've ever owned, with the exception of the Nexus S 4G, have been made by HTC. I just don't hear about samsung phones breaking all the time.
The nexus just came out, it should be "better"
The gs2 is good too but they have made like 10 skus of one device and mismatched different hardware on each one which blows for the end user
big screen with no HD, this one has this chip, 4g here not 4g there.... pure milk age of there first widely popular phone
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It's you. One word. Touchwiz.. At least we have the option of either sense, aosp, or miui.
I love my 3D. My next phone will be the next HTC Lte phone in sprints lineup.
Sprint EVO 3D.
HW version: 002
TWRP v1.1.1
Hboot 1.4.1000
Radio: 1.06.00.1216
for me its the glossy plastic that feels cheap. the lightweight is nice but i prefer a lil weight like the e3d gives u a better grip on it in my opinion. my cousin had the vibrant and any drop wouldnt break the phone but would eat chunks of that plastic were with the plastic htc uses it doesnt dent so easily worst u get is a nice scratch. the galaxy nexus seems interesting because it looks and feels much higher quality imo but i havent heard much if it actually is.
now for defects i havent experienced any and this is my 3rd htc android phone (hero, evo, evo3d) now im probably just lucky as both my evos were launch day and my hero i bought after at&t decided to rape me with some bull**** bill lol. i know there have been defects and although they r bad i much rather have light leakage or dust as opposed to weak signal and no gps.. but thats what warranties are for. there will always be a bad apple in a bunch as long as i can get it replaced for free i wont complain about it
i dont hate samsung btw. there phones are nice ive been considering getting one but for now im liking what htc has been doing and unless samsung changes it up its probably gonna stick that way because from the rumors of sense 4.0 i think im going to fall in love all over again..
only gripe i have with htc that i think they should consider is jumping on the samoled bandwagon as long as they keep the high resolution it would make them the top choice haha
Having had the Sprint version of the SGSII for a few months, I can definitely say this phone is in the same ballpark. My main issue with the SGSII (again, I'm only referring to the Epic Touch 4g here, I have no experience with the other versions) was the build quality, followed by the array of annoying bugs.
The build quality was particularly bad, the plastic felt very cheap and was scuffed extremely easily. The back of the phone is made from some of the thinnest and flimsiest plastic ever, it would come off so easily. The redeeming factor here was the screen, it was fantastic and easily one of the best screens on the market right here. The resolution was a little low but definitely not bad.
Moving on to the bugs...
The first bug that became apparent to me (and practically everyone else) was the random loss of service that would occur. It became very annoying when your phone would randomly drop out of service and stay like that until you clear the RAM or reboot the phone. Many people couldn't even use the phone for a business phone because they had to remain in contact with people, and having to check constantly for LoS was a HUGE annoyance. Next is the GPS, utterly terrible, there are no other words to describe it, it would take up to 20 minutes at times just to get a lock. I remember on one occasion a few days after buying the phone, I was planning on going to a concert and using it to navigate (Between the Buried and Me/Tesseract/Animals as Leaders ) but on the way back I could not receive a lock on the satellites and by the grace of god I somehow managed to make my way back home.
Still, the SGSII is an amazing phone with great specs, but in my personal opinion, from the build quality and support from htc alone, this is better.
Jesus guys....... no offense, but are we comparing a phone that was released June of last year. Buy what you like!! All three are great phones!!
I've handled the E4GT, the GNex, and, of course, my own Evo 3D.
And I prefer the 3D by far. The E4GT, while fluid, feels too insubstantial for my tastes. The 3D is thick and heavy, and I love that. My Evo 4G survived drop after drop and it still works, and I'm confident my 3D will be able to do the same (In fact, near the end of my time using the OG Evo, I would throw it every time it overheated and shut off; still nothing wrong with it besides a few scratches and that overheating issue).
The E4GT may have a better camera, but the 3D is no slouch itself. I have been very satisfied with the pictures I have taken; I'm not a professional photographer by any means, and most of you are in the same boat.
I have always looked at Sense as superior to Touchwiz. Touchwiz is more fluid, but Sense seems to have better integration and it just feels more solid.
It's the development community that makes the difference though. Compared to the 3D, the development community for the E4GT is abysmal. As said by Viperboy, "I really can't wait to get the Galaxy Nexus & get rid of the E4GT. What a development failure, IMO. Phone is great but no good development." Last I checked they barely if at all have CM and MIUI, and they don't have much at all for ICS.
The GNex is a good phone, but the specs are a bit disappointing and I don't see it as being an immensely better phone once other phones start to run ICS. It's main advantage is the screen.

Considering exchange of HTC One X for S3

I've had my One X on AT&T for a couple of weeks now, I quickly fell in love with the design and build quality of the hardware. The screen is simply the best I've ever seen. The camera and camera app are great. I'm coming from a Captivate so of course everything is an improvement. But there are a few minor but important to me things that are really bugging me, I was wondering if S3 owners could let me know how they are. I'm trying to stay with the stock ROM this time around.
First, I was looking forward to finally having a notification LED again. But the HOX's is utter crap. It's tiny, dim, green only, and dismisses itself after a few minutes. Is the S3's easy to see in a well lit room? Can you customize the colors for different notification types?
Second, the vibration is absurd on the HOX. It's too strong and too loud and completely uncustomizable. Can you change the vibration intensity or the pattern for notifications or other things on the S3? Is it noisy when it vibrates?
Lastly, I am surprisingly disappointed in the battery life. I feel like Anandtech's review really led me astray here. It seemed manageable for the first few days but now I really feel like I have to curb my usage during the day so I won't have to immediately plug it in when I get home. I've even tried to set it up for power saving but it seems like after 12 hours off the charger with pretty moderate usage (maybe 2hrs of screen time) it is begging to be plugged in. Any thoughts on the S3 in this regard?
Thank you for any input. I'm not looking forward to having to pay the restock fee or cover the price differential (got the One X for $120) but I'll do it if it will alleviate these little things that constantly bug me through the day.
My thoughts...
Short answer. It depends.
I had the One S for two months before switching to the T-Mo version of the S3. Though the One S and One X aren't identical, they're pretty similar in terms of hardware, UI, and features.
Modding
Though I can't speak for the One X, if you frequent XDA and love to tinker with your phone, I think the S3 is going to offer more opportunity. Its the same exact phone with all carriers so there will probably be more development. There weren't a ton of One S developers and the phone had already been out for some time. That being said, if you're less inclined to tinker, I really feel that Sense 4.0 has come a long way. Its clean and well put together (especially compared to the Touchwiz UI on the S3). Touchwiz has a thousand features you'll never use and misses features you'd always use (like being able to change a song on the lockscreen as opposed to having to unlock the phone).
Storage
Lack of expandable storage sucks. Even with Dropbox, if you're on a 6 hour flight (which I am frequently), streaming doesn't help. If you're one that can live without your whole media collection with you and don't mind streaming, I'd give the edge to the One X, but if you (like me) fly alot, the S3.
Battery
My brother in law has the One X, and I had the One S. Perhaps it was the smaller screen, but I never had an issue with the battery. It would last 18 hours commonly and seldom needed a recharge. I doubt the S3 battery is much better, but the fact you can carry around other batteries helps. Though.. IMHO, Duracell and others make a USB charger that you can plug in to your phone for a charge. Is it better to carry one of those around or a spare battery? Either way it sucks because you have to carry something. I'd say this is a draw.
Audio
I'm sure many will flame me and disagree, but the audio absolutely sucks on the S3 (at least the US version since we were robbed of the Wolfson chip). Bland, bass-less. Its like listening to music with a tin can on your head. I think this will get better over time as devs make modifications (like Voodoo sound), but for now, its crap. People around here seem to dislike Beats audio, but I gotta say.. It sounds significantly better than the stock S3. Hopefully that gets fixed, maybe it never will.
Camera
This is a tough one. I loved the camera on the One S (and presumably, One X). PM me and I'll send you some shots I took with it. You would have a hard time believing its not a DSLR. The S3 camera is good... It has some nice features. I'm not sure it holds up as well in low-light and I'm not sure it captures color as well as the One series. Just MHO. Both are great, but I felt with the One S the quality of picture I was getting eliminated my need to carry a second camera. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the S3. Pictures still seem like they were taken by a camera phone...
I'm not gonna lie... I've had the S3 for a little over a week. I like it. But there are still so many things I miss about the One series. I'm hoping as the dev community grows for the S3, eventually I'll be happy I made the switch.
Hey thanks for your thoughts on this. Pretty much what I was thinking... they're both great but each does some things better than the other. It's funny you mention the audio, I did think the One X sounds pretty impressive when I loaded some music on it. Hopefully I can find a demo S3 in store so I can find answers my nitpicky questions about the notification LED and vibration functions.
The LED is pretty bright, and stays on. I can easily see it from across the room.
not sure about the vibration, I rarely use it and have never experienced the One X
Battery life is surprisingly good one the S3, and as mentioned you can always get a second battery, I got a battery charger from Samsung and it came with an extra battery for $50 between those two I never run out.
I know you said you would like to stick with the stock ROM but if you are willing to load a custom ROM this one: http://goo.gl/WP6TC is giving me much better battery life than the stock one.
a coworker has the EVO 4G LTE (Sprints version of the One X) and it is pretty nice and feels a bit more solid but I like the removable battery and SD card slot on the S3 and considering Samsungs bootloaders are unlocked and they make the source code available immediately I knew there would be more development for the S3 than the One X.
both phones are awesome but the grass is always greener on the other side so I'm sure whichever one you go with you're gonna want the other, at least that's how I am.
I've been pretty happy with the S3 for the <2 weeks I've had it. now I just need Sprint to hurry up and flip the switch on LTE in LA.
Good Luck Man!
The only reason I would consider getting a One X over my S III is the screen. Not a fan of the PenTile display and its much dimmer than the One X. However, I'm keeping the S III because of a massive developer base.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Swapped my HTC One X for the SGS3...and absolutely love my decision. Best feature of all is the eye tracking, the fact that when im reading the phone and the screen never turns off is worth it alone. Then you have better battery life, I can actually get an entire day out of a charge on this phone unlike the HOX, I get better signal here in ATL and have less drop calls, then you still have the replaceable battery and expandable memory...and finally NFC
Like I said, got rid of my HOX for the SGS3 and LOVE IT!!! Do it today, tomorrow, yesterday
PS- I personally think the screen looks so much brighter and better than the HOX
I had the evolte this blows that out of the water hands down. The evolte really should have sold for $150 not $200 this is a $200 device
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
I bought the HTC One X and held onto it for 29 days, then returned it for the SGS3 (which i preordered a couple weeks before it came out).
I liked many things about the HTC One X. The screen quality was a little bit better on the HOX, but its smaller. The SGS3 uses a pentile display, which means that even at the same resolution as the HOX, you can still see the pixels, but its something that most people wont notice. The SGS3 is seems like its a little bit brighter than the HOX too, but not enough that the average phone user would ever even notice the difference.
They both have the same processor, but the SGS3 has 2GB ram vs the 1GB ram on the HOX. Now most people wont notice a difference with the RAM, but for all that multitasking, it really does help! Oh speaking of multitasking, the HOX cant do it and the SGS3 can! If you go to the task list on the HOX and click on a screenshot of a program you had open, it is what it is.. just a screenshot... The HOX literally runs the program again rather than holding it in memory, so you never get to keep your position when multitasking...
When it comes to audio, the HOX stock is definitely better with Beats Audio, and the phones speaker seems to have a little better sound as well, but it wasnt as loud as my GS3 is.. When it comes to headphones or streaming to your car stereo, or even your in home stereo, the HOX is definitely better, but for the SGS3 and even the HOX, you can download equalizers from the play store that brings the balance back to the SGS3 when compared to the HOX. Also, the device you have it connected too probably has its own equalizer or somewhat of one that helps as well.
Memory is a huge issue on the HOX, you have 16GB and nothing but 16GB. If you want or need more, too bad... SGS3 has the MicroSD slot so you can expand up to 32GB (or was it 64?). And for giggles, you could carry multiple microsd cards with you if you wanted!
Battery was ok on the HOX, and its significantly better on the SGS3, especially with bloatware removed and an active task killer (i've always had great luck with these, i dont understand how some dont see a difference?). I typically get around 20 hours with medium use of my SGS3, but my HOX would have to be plugged in by the end of the day, or by bedtime if i barely used it...
Speaking of the battery, the day i got the phone, it froze on me... Every possible combination of buttons and hooking it upto the computer in every possible way, running certain programs, adb, nothing would reboot the phone or turn it off.. Ended up waiting over 7 hours for it to die after i spent 3 hours trying to shut it off. I can not live without a removable battery!!! F U HOX! Anyway!
Overall, i think the SGS3 is a better phone. Not MUCH better, just better. The LED light is bigger, brighter, and the ear piece speaker doesnt block the it like the HOX. The battery is bettery, the removable battery and external storage is a huge plus, but the HOX's screen is barely better, has better stock audio, and Sense 4.0 is definitely better than Touchwiz, BUT!!! I dont use either... I typically install Apex or LauncherPro and use one of them. The HOX has a nicer looking lock screen, but the SGS3 lock screen features and the way it works is much nicer.. I prefer the watery stuff over the orb thing. And i like being able to say "Hi Galaxy" or whatever i choose to unlock it hehe
When it comes down to the decision, your not really caring about custom roms and things like that, so your decision should come down to the size of the phone. The SGS3 is bigger, but has a bigger screen, and with a case is even bigger. The HOX is smaller and has a smaller screen. Feel them both in your hands, and play with the screens. It wont take you long to decide which you prefer. Either way, if i were you i'd go with the SGS3 because if you decide in the future to root and install custom rom's, you'll have much less of a hassle with SGS3 than the HOX.
1: the led on th s3 is a lot stronger ive tested
2: havent compared vibrations so i am not sure
3:the battery life is a lot nicer on th GS3 so i would switch if i was you not to mention the GS3 has rremovable battery and external SD slot so battery and storage are better...
modding wise the SGS3 is known as a great phone for developers. if you ever want to not use the stock rom, there are many options for roms out and most developers havent had the sgs3's delivered yet! within weeks there should be a fix for just about any problems you encounter with the phone.
switching to the sgs3 would be a good choice as the it is better in about every criteria you mentioned. one problem is though, the super amoled pentile display is darker and a bit more saturated than the HOX unless you like that. hope i helped
Wow, tons of good info! Thanks everybody. I was leaning towards just keeping the One X, as several people have told me even if I switch, the grass is always greener on the other side. But from what people are consistently saying, battery life may be reason enough to switch. I don't like having to curb my phone usage to make it till evening without running on fumes.
I don't agree at all with the statement regarding the SGS3 screen being a bit brighter. I had an EVO 4G LTE (ONE X Clone) and returned it for a SGS3. The first thing i noticed is how much DIMMER the SGS3 screen is compared to the EVO 4G LTE. It is almost unviewable on a sunny day. The SGS3's max brightness is like 75% on the EVO 4G LTE. Also auto brightness is really bad on the phone. It defaults to a setting that is way too dim. I'm still undecided if I should return the phone or not. Unfortunately, i'm not really impressed with either phones. Both have their flaws.
PMad said:
I bought the HTC One X and held onto it for 29 days, then returned it for the SGS3 (which i preordered a couple weeks before it came out).
I liked many things about the HTC One X. The screen quality was a little bit better on the HOX, but its smaller. The SGS3 uses a pentile display, which means that even at the same resolution as the HOX, you can still see the pixels, but its something that most people wont notice. The SGS3 is seems like its a little bit brighter than the HOX too, but not enough that the average phone user would ever even notice the difference.
They both have the same processor, but the SGS3 has 2GB ram vs the 1GB ram on the HOX. Now most people wont notice a difference with the RAM, but for all that multitasking, it really does help! Oh speaking of multitasking, the HOX cant do it and the SGS3 can! If you go to the task list on the HOX and click on a screenshot of a program you had open, it is what it is.. just a screenshot... The HOX literally runs the program again rather than holding it in memory, so you never get to keep your position when multitasking...
When it comes to audio, the HOX stock is definitely better with Beats Audio, and the phones speaker seems to have a little better sound as well, but it wasnt as loud as my GS3 is.. When it comes to headphones or streaming to your car stereo, or even your in home stereo, the HOX is definitely better, but for the SGS3 and even the HOX, you can download equalizers from the play store that brings the balance back to the SGS3 when compared to the HOX. Also, the device you have it connected too probably has its own equalizer or somewhat of one that helps as well.
Memory is a huge issue on the HOX, you have 16GB and nothing but 16GB. If you want or need more, too bad... SGS3 has the MicroSD slot so you can expand up to 32GB (or was it 64?). And for giggles, you could carry multiple microsd cards with you if you wanted!
Battery was ok on the HOX, and its significantly better on the SGS3, especially with bloatware removed and an active task killer (i've always had great luck with these, i dont understand how some dont see a difference?). I typically get around 20 hours with medium use of my SGS3, but my HOX would have to be plugged in by the end of the day, or by bedtime if i barely used it...
Speaking of the battery, the day i got the phone, it froze on me... Every possible combination of buttons and hooking it upto the computer in every possible way, running certain programs, adb, nothing would reboot the phone or turn it off.. Ended up waiting over 7 hours for it to die after i spent 3 hours trying to shut it off. I can not live without a removable battery!!! F U HOX! Anyway!
Overall, i think the SGS3 is a better phone. Not MUCH better, just better. The LED light is bigger, brighter, and the ear piece speaker doesnt block the it like the HOX. The battery is bettery, the removable battery and external storage is a huge plus, but the HOX's screen is barely better, has better stock audio, and Sense 4.0 is definitely better than Touchwiz, BUT!!! I dont use either... I typically install Apex or LauncherPro and use one of them. The HOX has a nicer looking lock screen, but the SGS3 lock screen features and the way it works is much nicer.. I prefer the watery stuff over the orb thing. And i like being able to say "Hi Galaxy" or whatever i choose to unlock it hehe
When it comes down to the decision, your not really caring about custom roms and things like that, so your decision should come down to the size of the phone. The SGS3 is bigger, but has a bigger screen, and with a case is even bigger. The HOX is smaller and has a smaller screen. Feel them both in your hands, and play with the screens. It wont take you long to decide which you prefer. Either way, if i were you i'd go with the SGS3 because if you decide in the future to root and install custom rom's, you'll have much less of a hassle with SGS3 than the HOX.
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Click to collapse
I'd say go for it. I was all HTC and then they dropped the ball on quality and overall build. I made the switch to Samsung phones and won't go back.
There's a reason why Samsung's SIII was more anticipated than any HTC phone out there. It wasn't just marketing.
spydc said:
I don't agree at all with the statement regarding the SGS3 screen being a bit brighter. I had an EVO 4G LTE (ONE X Clone) and returned it for a SGS3. The first thing i noticed is how much DIMMER the SGS3 screen is compared to the EVO 4G LTE. It is almost unviewable on a sunny day. The SGS3's max brightness is like 75% on the EVO 4G LTE. Also auto brightness is really bad on the phone. It defaults to a setting that is way too dim. I'm still undecided if I should return the phone or not. Unfortunately, i'm not really impressed with either phones. Both have their flaws.
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Click to collapse
...
I turned up the brightness on both devices. You have to look at the same picture. The S3 is much more vibrant. It's not dimmer at all. With the black backgrounds on the E4GL, it looks flatter. Your decision is biased.
Since I don't think I saw anyone mention it. I the vibration is not too loud or too strong. You can also customize it with a few patterns. I think I there are like five or six to choose from. Also you can't customize the LED but it is plenty bright.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
benzin84 said:
Since I don't think I saw anyone mention it. I the vibration is not too loud or too strong. You can also customize it with a few patterns. I think I there are like five or six to choose from. Also you can't customize the LED but it is plenty bright.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the G S III its pretty prominent and audible. You can also create custom patterns.
There's a pp called light flow, but its currently being re-worked for the G S III, but you can change it.
chrischoi said:
I'd say go for it. I was all HTC and then they dropped the ball on quality and overall build. I made the switch to Samsung phones and won't go back.
There's a reason why Samsung's SIII was more anticipated than any HTC phone out there. It wasn't just marketing.
...
I turned up the brightness on both devices. You have to look at the same picture. The S3 is much more vibrant. It's not dimmer at all. With the black backgrounds on the E4GL, it looks flatter. Your decision is biased.
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Click to collapse
WRONG. It is MUCH dimmer.
Turn the screen to white on both in a store and compare. You will be sad.
AMOLED has severe flaws. One is it's just plain dim especially on whites.
Also PenTile sucks. It's not too bad with such a high resolution but it's still noticeable to me even at arms' length.
The S III screen is sh!t even compared to an old Droid. Everything else about it is awesome. Except Wifi dropping which is also a pretty big deal but other than that it's great.
But the screen is important to me. I'm having serious thoughts about keeping my VZ S III. I just ordered it mainly because of the unlimited data going away and S III being "the phone" of 2012. I'm so disappointed on the crap screen.
macdroid01 said:
WRONG. It is MUCH dimmer.
Turn the screen to white on both in a store and compare. You will be sad.
AMOLED has severe flaws. One is it's just plain dim especially on whites.
Also PenTile sucks. It's not too bad with such a high resolution but it's still noticeable to me even at arms' length.
The S III screen is sh!t even compared to an old Droid. Everything else about it is awesome. Except Wifi dropping which is also a pretty big deal but other than that it's great.
But the screen is important to me. I'm having serious thoughts about keeping my VZ S III. I just ordered it mainly because of the unlimited data going away and S III being "the phone" of 2012. I'm so disappointed on the crap screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your crazy dude. I LOVE the screen in the s3. I took my evo lte back. I much prefer the screen on the s3
I had the [email protected] one x for 3 weeks and brought it back for the S III. Reason: swappable battery, sd card and 4.1 upgrade this fall.
Yes, the one x has a better screen for outside, and the format factor is slightly better but the above won me over. Wifi and 4G speeds are the same. Quadrant score is also higher on the siii for some reason.
The ui on the siii really isn't bad considering and I don't regret my decision.
Someone mentioned the Siii having a dimmer screen. That's because the default brightness is lower than the default on the one x. Yes the one x can get brighter (not really viewable at that point) but not for what I saw. Once I made changes to equal the one x they were equal.
This from a guy who has had two HTC android phones previously.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
I had one for 3 weeks too, but i was already worrying about space when the drop box promo was killed... I was upset and left without enough storage on my HOX for what I wanted, especially music. Multitasking was pretty poor too, it reloaded most apps most of the time, even swapping between just two normal apps.
Removable storage, battery, and proper multitasking/ram for the future sold me. I wasn't thrilled with the design when the GS3 was launched, it looked bad really. I still prefer the One X's sexy body and screen, but this is much better than I expected. Easily a solid 9 to the HOX's 10.
Accessory selection will be MUCH wider for the GS3 vs the AT&T One X. Higher numbers sold, more carriers carrying it, and matching versions around the world mean big things for cases, docks, etc.
Vibration feels a lot more higher class than the One X which almost felt like something was rattling . The LED light is diffused a lot to make a big light up area as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
Sweet, thanks for the input on the LED and vibration. Things aren't looking so good for my One X. Still hoping to find a working demo S3 to try out before making my decision.
I had the international One X and T-Mobile One S, I like them both but the deal breaker for me was lack of sd card and the kinda poor battery life. Not to mention the LED notification light was a joke.
Sent from my S3 using xda premium

Note 2 vs. DNA vs. Nexus 4. I had all 3.

Here is my LONG and slightly biased review of the 3 top devices right now.
I had a DNA, Nexus 4, and Note 2 all at the same time and here is a summary of my thoughts on how they compare.
The DNA and Note 2 were my personal phones, the Nexus 4 belonged to my company and was purchased for a tear down analysis. I got to use it for about a week.
I have been following the HTC J Butterfly ever since it was announced in Japan. Although I was 100 percent satisfied with my Note 2, I was quite intrigued with the phone's full 1080 progressive display. So many pixels crammed in 5" of screen real estate must be amazing I figured. I wanted to see if this phone would give me second thoughts and sway me away from my beloved Note 2.
Screen:
1. DNA
2. Note 2
3. Nexus 4
The crown jewel of the HTC DNA is the display, while quite amazing in person, it reminds me a lot of the iPhone 5's Retina display, just bigger. I know the DNA has a much higher ppi density, but in reality you really can't tell the difference once the resolution gets so high in a 4-5" screen. Only situation where I could clearly distinguish the difference was in text, and when zoomed all the way out and the texts are all microscopic but still legible if you put a magnifying glass to it.
The novelty of the 1080P screen wears out QUICK. I showed a few of my co-workers and friends/families and they couldn't really see what the big fuss was all about. They say their iPhone 4S/5 ect. looks the same. Oh well, I should have brought with me a magnifying glass to brag about the difference I suppose. Once the novelty wears off, the beautiful screen becomes more of a curse. A LOT of games/apps don't work right with the 1080p display. I know developers will eventually update their apps, maybe, to support the 1080p resolution but in the meantime it's a waiting game. I hate waiting...and it seems like I'm missing out on a lot of good games and apps while other phones get to enjoy it RIGHT NOW.
Next, The high ppi count combined with HTC sense lags this phone. You can tell it taxes the GPU/CPU pushing all those pixels. If you claim your DNA doesn't lag, then you either don't know what lag is, or never experienced a phone that is lag-free. The iPhone 5 is lag free, the Nexus 4 and Note 2 are "almost" lag free but those two still offer much smoother UI performance as a whole than the DNA.
The Nexus 4 screen is "nice" but it's nothing to write home about, nor is it super uber amazing like some Nexus fans might lead you to believe. The viewing angles and resolution are above average but the color is quite disappointing. Everything looks washed out and drab on the screen next to the DNA and Note 2, no real pop or anything to make it stand out. It reminds me a lot of the display on my LG G2X, just higher resolution.
Note 2's screen, don't be fooled by the "only" 267ppi count. This screen is by far one of the best displays I've seen on a smartphone, and I've had pretty much most all high end smartphones due to the line of work I do and frankly, my addiction. The lame background that Samsung loads on this phone default from the factory does not do the phone justice. I can see how a person would think the screen isn't anything special when they first turn it on. Com'on Samsung, load a high resolution default background to show off that beautiful screen, not some low resolution, plain blue background with a feather in the back.
This display is not like the other Samsung AMOLEDs of the past like the Note 1, Galaxy S, Nexus, Galaxy S3. Those are all Pentile matrix. Those are not comparable to the Note 2's screen.
The Note 2 is an RGB matrix OLED HD NON-PENTILE display, the highest resolution one that Samsung has ever put on a phone. And it's a spectacular display, which blows the other Samsung SuperAMOLED's out of the water. Everything looks sharper on a non-pentile display. Don't be fooled by the ppi count on AMOLED's when comparing pentile to non-pentile, the S3 might have a higher ppi density but the Note 2 offers a superior viewing experience. Text, images, ect. all look much more clear, sharper and cleaner on the Note 2.
It doesn't quite match the DNA's overall brightness and resolution but it's a solid, high resolution beautiful screen. Better than the Nexus 4's screen by far.
Camera:
Camera quality wise I would rank them as follows.
1. Note 2
2. DNA
3. Nexus 4
The Note 2 takes the best pictures in all light conditions, the DNA takes good pictures in good lighting but they produce a LOT of noise and it gets worse as the lighting drops. Noise is very apparent when you blow the picture up to 100 percent crop. The Nexus 4 is last place, I could not take a decent picture with that thing especially low light. The Note 2 takes really high quality pictures without a lot of noise, I am very impressed with it.
Build:
Build quality and feel.
1. Nexus 4
2. DNA
3. Note 2
I got to hand it to LG and Google on the Nexus 4, this thing feels like a million bucks in your hand. Glass front and back, rubber surround between. It just feels very premium. Like German Engineered. =) It just feels really good in your hand. Just don't drop it.
The DNA feels... Japanese. Very well built, gives the impression that it should last for a long time and fare well in drop survival . Doesn't quite match the Nexus for that extra premium feel. Very ergonomic to hold, I think it was my favorite thing about the DNA. It felt really nicely balanced in your hand for it's size.
Sadly the Note 2 feels like a GM product. Plastic, plastic, plastic. Even the simulated metal surround is just painted plastic. Upside is it's relatively light for it's size but don't expect it to have a premium feel to it, it's not bad, it's actually very solid but just not premium feeling like the other two. Feels better in the hand than the Note 1, which was kinda ridiculous and shaped more like a tablet. The Note 2 feels like a phone, just a large one. Not the most comfortable phone to hold for a long time one handed but definitely not that bad.
Software.
1. Note 2
2. Nexus 4
3. DNA
The Note 2 is on a whole different planet when it comes to functionality and software. I know many people scoff at Touchwiz and Sense, or any UI overlay that messes with the pure Android experience. I too was one of those people. My mind was blown when it came to the Note 2. It's been a month since I had my international Note 2, and about a week with my T-Mobile Note 2. I am still finding out new incredible things the software and S-Pen can do on this phone. Touchwiz is truly great on this phone, also it is butter smooth in operation. I can't believe I'm saying this but Touchwiz on the Note 2 makes pure Android 4.2 on the Nexus 4 seem rather lame and boring. It seems like Samsung really took their time, did their homework to really optimize the operation of their UI on this phone. Rooting and Installing custom roms is as easy as they get on the Note 2. Flash 1 simple file, and bam you got a custom recovery. Root and install custom roms and kernels till your hearts desire!
HTC Sense, now this is one beautiful looking UI. Unfortunately DNA is loaded to the gills with bloatware, OMG I've never seen so much bloat on a phone. You can tell the UI really taxes the phone's CPU and GPU. The performance definitely do not match the benchmarks. Don't get me started on unlocking the bootloader on this thing, have you guys seen the instructions? Seems more complicated than brain surgery with the risk of bricking your phone the whole process.
What can I say about the Nexus 4? It has pure 4.2 Android and is very smooth. On par with the Note 2. Pure Android feels sorta naked, with not much stuff to discover. It's plain jane, what pisses me off is Google decided to take out the AOSP browser and made Chrome the default browser. No flash support and performance isn't that great. I'm surprised that Chrome is actually pretty decently smooth on the Nexus 4 but still not as good as the stock AOSP browser. I did not like the on screen buttons which took a lot of screen real estate away.
I always found the S-Pen on the original Note kinda gimmicky, not so much on the Note 2. It is incredibly useful on the Note 2 and I find myself using it ALL THE TIME and I'm not a pen/tablet kinda guy. It's literally 10 times more accurate and functional on the Note 2 loaded with all kinds of great features. Air view is one of them and awesome!
Battery life:
1. Note 2
2. DNA
3. Nexus 4
Okay this is no contest. I am a HEAVY user with a lot of screen on time, I hardly charge my phones. The Note 2 gets me through the day with Heavy Usage, 10+ hours and I still have 25 percent reserve. Same type of usage, the Nexus 4 is dead in 3 1/2 hours flat The DNA is slightly better but still dead in about 4-5 hours of the same type of usage. With light to moderate use, the Note 2 got me through a weekend of camping with no charger in sight, that's with browsing the web, checking email, doing some work related stuff, streaming a few Youtube videos for my daughters. I would never attempt that with any other phone. Impossible with the Nexus or DNA. The Note 2's battery life is simply unbelievable. What's even better than the Note 2's amazing battery life? The ability to carry MORE if needed, since it's removable! The Nexus 4 battery blows! I'm at 60 percent just browsing the web on that thing for 45 minutes, hopefully with the next few updates Google will find a way to make the battery last longer.
Storage:
1. Note 2
2. DNA/Nexus 4
Again, No contest.
I had a 64GB Sandisk from my GS3, popped it into my Note 2 and now I have 80GB of combined storage. It's perfect for putting in literally my whole movie collection and mp3 songs on the go. My daughters could browse through the movie collection and find the ones they want to watch anywhere to keep them quiet, no need to plan ahead and only put in only 1 or 2 choices due to storage limitations. I could carry along more SD cards as I wish, basically limitless storage capacity is priceless to have.
After having owned and used all 3, I returned the DNA pronto.
There is absolutely no device that has satisfied me in all areas like the Note 2, it's basically the Swiss army knife of phones. It's a no contest comparing the DNA or Nexus 4 to the Note 2. They don't stand a chance. This is the ONE and ONLY device that has ever stopped my urge and yearning to try something different because I know there is no other phone out there that can measure up to it. Literally and figuratively.
I wouldn't put the fragile Nexus 4 at the top of build quality when the glass cracks easily. There's even been reports that temperature change (it being warn in your hand and then sat on a counter top) cracks it. Plastic is better build quality because it's built to last.
Thanks.. Well written comparison between the three phones and i think it's fair for the most part.
Highly biased towards the note 2 but that's your opinion
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda premium
Unless the DNA overheats or I use chrome, I don't see low framerate. I got it to overheat and used chrome at the same time today.
Wasn't pretty.
I wish people would stop calling low framerate lag. Lag is not even a relevant term.
LOL This sounded like a "Gather around kids, let me tell you about these phones, I had all 3!" "ooohhhhhhh aaaahhhhh"
Seriously though I have to agree with the OP on Touchwiz. I have a Note 10.1 tablet and I had a Galaxy SIII. I traded my S III to my sister for her upgrade so I could get the Note 2 on Verizon when it came out. Got tired of waiting and got the DNA. The DNA is a great phone, don't get me wrong, but after playing around with the S III and the Note 10.1 I found Sense to be just . . . boring. The whole 1080p thing really gets boring quick and I was just left with a skin that doesn't do all that much.
Today a friend was showing me that she bought the S III I recommended her to buy and I was showing her all these little things I liked and I kept having to say "no, my new one doesn't do that... but look at the screen!".
I carry 2 phones with me at all times. My Serious "work" phone (Verizon) because I need a phone that will work wherever I travel and my "Just for fun" phone (T-Mobile prepaid).
There is a lot I do like about the DNA, call quality is great, display really is amazing, I love the looks of it and it just feels reliable. So I made the decision that I'm going to keep the DNA on Verizon and instead I'm going to replace my Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile with the Note 2. I think it makes sense, Verizon is my Reliable line and I think the DNA will be the most reliable PHONE, T-Mobile is my for fun line so I think the Note 2 will be the most fun phablet for it.
That's a whole bunch of hardware to carry around lol.
It really is an addiction LOL, I carry a manbag (IT'S NOT A PURSE!) with my Galaxy Note 10.1 and my Nexus 7 and my Bluetooth keyboard and a bunch of cables and a portable hard drive and chargers and then I carry my 2 phones around and I don't do **** with any of it. It's always a "Just in case" thing. It's that Ti and Ne kicking in.
People always slagged off Touchwiz but I tried Android on a phone in store in 2010 and I hated it, I then decided to go for the iPhone 4. When it came to the GS2 launching I had gotten so fed up of how restrictive IOS is that I sold my iPhone 4 and got the GS2 last year. It was so much better than the Android I used before and I messed around with lots of roms after people saying how stock is much better and I hated it, stock just lacked so many features that TouchWiz had. I also thought the apps Samsung had on the phone all just worked, where the stock apps felt rather dated. Then using the Note 2 in store I just the added functionality of the pen, especially being able to quickly write numbers down while on the phone without having to go through menus. PiP and the multiple windows open is just something I so badly want now and I loved how Samsung have improved TouchWiz so much since the GS2.
I would buy the Note 2 if the specs were more impressive, however the Mali 400 is a real let down, it struggled a bit on the GS2 and it would be even worse on the Note 2.
Though I've tried The Nexus 4 at work as my mate has one and I still think stock Android is **** compared to Touchwiz.
I truly appreciate this, thank you very much! I agree with everything you said as well (as far as the DNA and N2 go, I haven't used the N4). You've made the decision to return the DNA in for the Note 2 that much easier!
DNA has no screen stuttering when navigating the launcher or any of the apps... there will be some moments when its loaded up with apps that ive been using where it might have a very slight stutter but it usually corrects itself ... I personally love sense compared to anything else... the rest of my family all got GS III's and i hate touchwiz so much... the entire UI stutters from opening apps navigating screens and settings.. haven't played with a note II yet so i cant really go into detail with that...
Don't know what your whole family did to their S3's but I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in saying the S3 is quite smooth. Of course its not nexus 4 quick though
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
I had the note2 on T-Mobile for two weeks and now the DNA for one week. They are both great phones! Personally I don't care for sense or touchwiz, but then again that's why we are all here....you can get your android os anyway you like. I settled on the DNA because, I have always used HTC, even pre android, and think that they have the finest build quality in the android world. Also the note2 felt just slightly to big.
I think it really comes down to those little personal preferences when dealing with these power house phones! You won't be sorry with any of these.
I really wanted to like the S3, but nothing about it was 'woah' for me. It didn't look that good, and I didn't mind waiting to see what else was around the corner. So I got the DNA, and I'm blown away. I really don't care about comparing Touchwiz vs. Sense vs. Pure Android, because regardless of what skin I have, I'm going to either find an AOSP ROM or I'll be uninstalling all the bloat ware and using a different launcher.
The S3 is a good phone, and I would recommend it, but I love my DNA a lot more. The screen isn't a novelty for me really, its just beautiful and not Pentile.
The note2, I feel like that's not considered on the same category. I've never gotten to play with one, but if we are looking at $200 on contract, DNA is the way to go and not go to up for the Note2.
Pretty insightful, especially since I'm deciding between the DNA and Note 2. I haven't tested either phone in the store yet, but I plan on doing that soon. Swaying to the DNA because of the awesome design (IMHO) and the screen. Note 2 is looking good because of the removable battery and expandable storage. 6+GB of music will fill the DNA FAST since I can't really use cloud storage (NYC subway has no service). I have only 2 problems with the Note 2 from all the videos I've seen: 1. That sore thumb of a logo on the home button 2. Doesn't seem like the S-Pen works with AOSP roms like CM/AOKP/PA, based on what I've seen with the Note. Sort of a problem since I'm sure the S-Pen is a considerable amount of the final cost of the phone.
How clear would you say the screen on the Note 2 is? I've really only experienced the screen on my GNexus and a few of the first Galaxy S phones. I actually love my Nexus's screen, but at 5.5", I can't think of it being as nice.
Talked to a friend of mine who has tested both. He feels the Note 2 is no faster than the DNA even at lower resolution.
.torrented said:
DNA has no screen stuttering when navigating the launcher or any of the apps... there will be some moments when its loaded up with apps that ive been using where it might have a very slight stutter but it usually corrects itself ... I personally love sense compared to anything else... the rest of my family all got GS III's and i hate touchwiz so much... the entire UI stutters from opening apps navigating screens and settings.. haven't played with a note II yet so i cant really go into detail with that...
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I agree here 100% I hated...HATED! Sense on my thunderbolt but this is a whole new sense.. I'd almost venture to say I prefer this newest sense to stock android... Just my input on that
This is very good thread, not biased at all to be honest. I was in love with the DNA display for the first few days, and guess what it wore off, lol. Now I can't tell a difference between 1080p and 720p lol. I now tell people hey you won't be able to tell after 2 days, lol.
I am about to go tomorrow to check out the note 2 and see if the narrow design fits my hands. I might switch it out but I am not going in with the mindset to pick one up, I however will be ready to exchange it if I am impressed. I am really tired of sense I like other launchers and for some reason they don't seem to run as fast on the 1080p screen.
Sense is so unproductive it looks nice but seriously why the hell do I have to go in to settings to change a wallpaper, the long press on home screen just lets you add widgets, so stupid. HTC seems to have made it worse.
I love the DNA but if I am as impressed by the note 2 I might exchange it out tomorrow.
---------- Post added at 06:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 AM ----------
adrynalyne said:
Talked to a friend of mine who has tested both. He feels the Note 2 is no faster than the DNA even at lower resolution.
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Click to collapse
Trust me unless your friend was a robot he wouldn't know. They are both fast phones, if someone says they can see the difference when they use it, they are most likely lying, lol.
I could be wrong but regarding battery category,
Is your Notes 2 using TMobile's network ? since Verizon's Note 2 is only available tomorrow, I guess the Notes 2 you own is GSM version.
Verizon's DNA is running on LTE.
So I would give it some kudos for running on LTE doing the heavy usage you had for 4-5 hours with 2020 mAH battery, (note 2 has a 1.5 bigger battery inside.)
Thanks for the review - and thanks for trying out phones that you know you are going to return. Helps everyone out when our carrier has to handle RMAs for people that want to try phones just to review them.
*sighs*
-D

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