What to look for in an Android Phone?

So on Friday, I ran to the closest corporate ATT store to port out of Sprint and get the Note II. It's quite the hulk compared to my 4.5" Galaxy S II.

http://i.imgur.com/EbmnO.jpg

When I went from my HTC EVO to the Galaxy S II, it was a pretty big difference in battery. But this time, with the move to the Note II, it's a HUGE difference.




I can get 5hrs of screen on time with my everyday usage. And this is with the wifi radio on and LTE on all day long. I got just slightly over 2hrs screen on time by the end of the day on my Galaxy S II with probably around 16-18hrs standby.

 

How do you like the size? Is it weird to talk with it to your ear?

 

The size is perfectly fine with me. My hands are large as I can palm a basketball so general usage isn't uncomfortable. Fits in 90% of my pants pockets fine since most of them are regular fit. The straight leg pants are fine if I'm walking/standing but I gotta take it out if I'm going to sit.

Talking on it isn't an issue either. This thing is slightly less wide than the original note.

You need to get off of Sprint man. That data network is a true downer.

 

Are you in a ATT LTE area? I'm in a Verizon LTE area and am sad when Sprint barely provides 500kb u/d. Alas, my whining to them got me a early phone upgrade and 2 months free. I haven't taken them up on the phone upgrade yet because it will extend my contract to 2014 instead of Oct 2013.

 

Indeed I am. ATT opened up LTE here at the beginning of the year.



It's not as fast as ATT's other markets since this is one of the markets that ATT only has 10MHz of the 700MHz spectrum they have LTE in. They have 20MHz in most of their other markets. But this is definitely super fast for any type of phone usage.. faster than my U-Verse I have for ATT. They have exceptional coverage here in Raleigh too. I went for a 15 mile drive to the airport on the highway and had LTE all the way there. Also, at the mall downstairs where the corporate ATT store was that I got this phone, has little if any Sprint signal. I have to roam a majority of the time in that mall (meanwhile I get wimax on the second floor). ATT did perfectly fine throughout that mall.

The issue I have with Sprint is that their rollout for LTE is going to be super super slow. And it's already shown in the markets that they have LTE in right now is much slower than their competitors. It's pretty much a foreshadow of what's to happen if they don't fix this. Their data network is only going to get oversaturated again like it is now. The other big issue is that all of their phones now dropped wimax in favor of LTE. So, if you don't have LTE in your area, you're going to have a bad time on their dial up 3G network until you get LTE, whenever that will be.

 

The Note 2 is the phone that interests me the most right now also. I think I'd have to try it out for size for a little while first. My friend has the original note and the only bad thing besides the size being not great for everyone is the speed of the thing, which mostly comes down to software. It badly needs an update. The Note 2 seems easier to live with than the Note, that's for sure.

I'll be buying in Late June-July, so I'll probably go with something newer like the Galaxy S4, but a phablet may win me over if there is a modern one released that ticks all boxes around that time. Even the HTC and Sony ones that aren't out for a few months will look pretty dated in 7-8 months when it comes time to decide.

 

My wife's camera has stopped working on her SGS3. She gets a "camera failed" message whenever she tries to do anything using the camera. I thought it was a software or firmware issue, so I backed everything up and did a factory reset and wiped the cache from the recovery console. When that didn't fix it, I tried completely re-flashing the phone with the AT&T stock ROM using ODIN. Even after totally reloading the OS, the camera still fails. Between this and the weird USB issues, I'm convinced she just got a lemon. AT&T is sending her a replacement. With all of the issues she's having, I feel vindicated in going with an iPhone this upgrade cycle.

I've grown tired and frustrated with all of the weird issues you encounter on Android, and I just want something stable. I still think Google needs to take more control over the OS, and stop OEMs and carriers from crapping it up with bloatware. All of the phones need to have a standardized update process. I also think they need to maintain some standards for the hardware, so you don't end up with half-baked and/or under-performing phones. Something is wrong when a 15 year old kid in his mom's basement can make a better ROM than what the Android phones are shipping with. I have my doubts any of this will happen though. And with the iPhone 5 getting the high-end features that had been staples of the nicer Android phones for a few years (4G, high res screen, etc) I just can't be bothered to fuck around with Android anymore. I wish my wife weren't such an irrational Apple hater, because trying to fix her phone yesterday on my day off kind of annoyed the shit out of me.

Also, to all the people who will point out that I'm irrational Apple hater, you do realize I'm mostly just trolling the shit out of you, right? I especially love getting a rise out of alterego. Pushing his buttons is fun for me because he's so straight laced and gives such reasoned arguments while I basically hurl shit at him. It's kind of like how it's not fun to throw a pie in someone's face unless they're a really dignified person. In real life, I actually love a lot of Apple products. Also, I'm probably going to buy an iPad mini. I tried one the other day, and it's razor thin and extremely portable. In fact, it's easily the most portable tablet I've encountered. And the price is right. The mini seems to me like what tablets should have been all along, ie moderately priced and highly portable.

 

That is exactly why I tried the 4s to begin with. Android was just a buggy POS that I got fed up with... I don't mind it as a toy or even tablet, but I need my phone to work reliably at all times.

I do hate how long it takes to root these iPhones. It's been out over 6 weeks and they can't hack it up. No way I'm upgrading the OS until I can get some of the hacked features.

 

indeed. none of any of that will happen since the main reason android's marketshare is where it's at now is without that stuff. MS has those controls in place, and it's really struggling to gain any marketshare.

Google does have its owned controlled devices with the nexus series so at least the consumers still have a choice.

there's only a few things I like in stock Android, but other than that, I mostly prefer using the oem overlays. one of google's biggest weakness is in their camera app and samsungs is way better.

 

Continuing to give a reasoned argument while having shit thrown at you is the opposite of having your buttons pushed. I think you actually got frustrated at the lack of success...

 

This doesn't seem very reasoned:

Sometimes I'm trolling so many people at once, I lose track of who I'm even trolling.

 

Pretty sure you said that the "is for Fags" label on that thread was not to be taken seriously.

 

This must be a troll post! You can slickdeal a full iPad3 for less than the mini.

 

trololollolololooll



But seriously, I need my otterbox to come from amazon. I'm terrified I'm going to scratch this thing.

 

Let me know when you hacked that thing. Have you heard of PwnTunes? It basically allows plug & play usb connectivity without software install.

 

I made the fucking retardo mistake of updating mine right out of the box, so I probably won't be hacking it for awhile.