eugene Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 there are probably better places for such topic but still, i value watmm's opinion and would like to hear about your smartphone experiences and suggestions. so far i've only been reading about samsung galaxy s3 and it looks pretty good on paper feature and spec wise, does anyone here have it ? what are the similar alternatives ? the features that are important to me: *not being an apple product *good audio playback sound quality (3.5 mm minijack is a must, i'm not sure if most of the current ones have it ) *all the possible connectivity, hdmi, usb, wired lan, wifi, blueteeth, via as few adapters as possible *comfortable internets *customization and flexibility of the os (probably covered by the "no-apple" category already) *the ability to install free/cracked apps with ease *complete drag n' drop when communicating with windows, i don't want any obstacles or itunes or some shit like that. *~$600 tops if you can't suggest anything just tell what you like and dislike about your current smartphone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 HTC One X. It comes with a Beats sound driver or something, but you can put a sticker over that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 the features that are important to me: *not being an apple product *good audio playback sound quality (3.5 mm minijack is a must, i'm not sure if most of the current ones have it ) *all the possible connectivity, hdmi, usb, wired lan, wifi, blueteeth, via as few adapters as possible *comfortable internets *customization and flexibility of the os (probably covered by the "no-apple" category already) *the ability to install free/cracked apps with ease *complete drag n' drop when communicating with windows, i don't want any obstacles or itunes or some shit like that. *~$600 tops Pretty much any Android based phone will cover you with all the above ! S3 is bloody ace, I'll wait till my HTC Desire dies on me first before I'll get one though - it's a little too pricey for me at the mo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 yeah that one gets mentioned a lot, but "no removable storage" doesn't look that good to me, i kinda want that option to be available (though i dont even know how i'll use it). and what is this Beats thing ? as in dr. dre beats or something ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Yeah that's turned my off getting the OneX as well - MicroSD or not for me thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 I'll wait till my HTC Desire dies on me first before I'll get one though - it's a little too pricey for me at the mo. that's actually an important issue you brought up, how sturdy/reliable current smartphones are, which company excels at this ? they all look so feeble to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest couch Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I Have a 2 year old droid x. It's been good to me, no major issues. The most useful non-phone/texting features: AK Notepad. I have a terrible memory. Everything I need to remember is written on a notepad. Navigator/GPS. Since I road trip a lot it always comes in handy. G-Strings tuner. I can tune my guitar and bass by ear. But I have to get the E string at the right pitch to do it. And it's nice to be able to tune to alternate tunings quickly with the app. I should really just get a tuner pedal but I hate not plugging directly into an amp. Gmail access anywhere. Gchat access anywhere (the chat app is default on the phone and simply called "talk") Uses micro SD cards. I have two of them both with a few different playlists of music on them. Music. (I wish it would do this better though, larger library capabilities, less battery rape) Tape-a-talk. Lots of times I compose riffs in my head when not near my guitar or bass. I hum or beatbox them into the phone or whatever. Then transcribe it to an instrument at a later time. Dave Chappelle soundboards. And the biggest thing: A swappable battery. I often go on long weekend trips where I either forget my charger or have no power source to even charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Yeah possibly bad wording on my part. My Desire is showing no signs of death despite being over two years old - and I've been pushing it pretty hard with CPU over/underclocking, replacing the OS and running the CPU to the limits with Playstation emulation. And not even a single scratch on the screen (though I've got one of those film things on the front to protect it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest couch Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I've had the same screen protector on mine since I got it. The dude at the store just put a free one on. I don't get how people go through these things. It doesn't even have any signs of wear on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takeshi Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I'm using a Samsung Intercept and for the most part it's reliable. Some things I don't like about it: -Not enough memory built into the phone (I don't even have a lot of apps on my phone but lately I get messages like once a week saying my phone's capacity is full) -I've had major problems connecting my phone to a computer via USB. 90% of the time my phone doesn't recognize the connection -battery life could be better -like once a month the phone overheats and starts to act weird and I have to let the battery cool off before starting it again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 With 32gb internal storage, I can't see myself ever wishing I had a MicroSD. Beats is, yeah, Dr Dre Beats. It turned me off at first as well. I'm using my own headphones (Sennheiser's) but a little driver icon pops up when the jack's in. It's certainly a grade above my old iPod, but it's not too invasive. In fact, there's almost certainly a way of turning it off altogether. I worried that the One X might be too big at first, but now my old Desire looks like a kids phone. I started playing GTA3 and it feels completely natural now. Battery life is pretty standard. If you're going to use it then you'll need to charge it every night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I'm using a Samsung Intercept and for the most part it's reliable. Some things I don't like about it: -Not enough memory built into the phone (I don't even have a lot of apps on my phone but lately I get messages like once a week saying my phone's capacity is full) -I've had major problems connecting my phone to a computer via USB. 90% of the time my phone doesn't recognize the connection -battery life could be better -like once a month the phone overheats and starts to act weird and I have to let the battery cool off before starting it again If you've got the guts to do it (the build is beta for your phone so I wouldn't personally touch it) almost all those issues would be fixed by this (then using a CPU underclocker like SetCPU)- http://www.sdx-developers.com/honkerscm7-rom-featuring-reach-kernel-for-samsung-intercept/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azatoth Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I am still amazed that these phones have more brawn than the old laptop I am posting this from. I will probably be the last one to get a smartphone. I just don't see the need for one, especially if I need to charge it every night. I'll keep my Nokia C5 with a 50% unreadable screen for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apatch Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I got my Samsung Galaxy S3 for about 2 weeks, previously for about 1 year got HTC Sensation with modded rom AR HD + Anker battery: - HTC Sense is a way better than Samsung TouchWiz - more ellegant, more practical in use, sammy's AMOLED colours are oversaturated glad that you can tone it down, HTC case design/style and overall phone durabilty is better + S3 got better camera, battery life - AMOLED is more efficient, i got now over 200 apps imported from a previous HTC phone and my phone still works like a new, beats is just a software fake - I was using it on Sensation, it's easy you only need to apply some patch prom XE/XL models, S3 sound is so far the best I heard - voodoo mode is on the way so it can be even improved. Internal memory 12GB + 1GB ram + sdcard if you need to but with some system mount problems if you want to see it in your PC after connection as a drive letter.So why I change my phone ? Because I got some opportunity and it was fairy cheap, I was hoping for a smartphone that I will not need to mod anything and just use it - my phone is already rooted to mod few things that I dislike, and I learned that it stays this way forever, new product = new problems.Samsung pushes for a use of new technologies like : NFC, USB OTG, MHL, S-Voice, S-Beam ... and I like how it works. If I could choose, I would take few things from Sensation (somehow dislike One X) and combine it with my S3 to be a perfect phone ;)If you want to know what flaws are in specific smartphone model and what you can expect after modding it, visit xda forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plstik Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I'll wait till my HTC Desire dies on me first before I'll get one though - it's a little too pricey for me at the mo. that's actually an important issue you brought up, how sturdy/reliable current smartphones are, which company excels at this ? they all look so feeble to me... my Galaxy S has been with me for over two years now and still works fine. Dropped it on the concrete once or twice and no scratches (yet) on the display. Battery life could be better, but 1-2 days are usually no problem. 3 days if I don´t play around with it that often. One thing about the display though, it´s fucking messy. After a year or so you constantly have to clean it. A single wipe with your shirt won´t be enough. Don´t know how it is with other phones.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest disparaissant Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I'm using a Samsung Intercept and for the most part it's reliable. Some things I don't like about it: -Not enough memory built into the phone (I don't even have a lot of apps on my phone but lately I get messages like once a week saying my phone's capacity is full) -I've had major problems connecting my phone to a computer via USB. 90% of the time my phone doesn't recognize the connection -battery life could be better -like once a month the phone overheats and starts to act weird and I have to let the battery cool off before starting it again i had one of these and it was the worst. almost unusably slow for me. all i was running on it was like, facebook and a mood tracker app or something. upgraded to an LG Optimus Elite which is fucking incredible in comparison. only $150 and it runs just fine. tiny and light, too. no front facing camera or light sensor, which is kind of an annoyance, but for a cheap, contract free phone that has unlimited 3g data for $35 a month, i'm incredibly happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 thanks for the useful info guys, going to look into that site apatch brought up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mirezzi Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Wait, why are you anti-iphone exactly? Just curious. I just switched from a Droid to an iPhone and fuck me, what a tremendous improvement. I actually use my phone like a smartphone now, imagine that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Wait, why are you anti-iphone exactly? Just curious. I just switched from a Droid to an iPhone and fuck me, what a tremendous improvement. I actually use my phone like a smartphone now, imagine that. same here. switched from blackberry to iphone and I see huge improvements myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mirezzi Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I resisted the change at first, because I had become so accustomed to a poorly designed UI and OS. Now, no looking back. There are admittedly a few limitations, but on the whole, this is an immense improvement over the Android I was rocking for three years. I actually WANTED to get another Android handset, but now I doubt I ever will again. Far too many shitty fucking manufacturers with hilariously short product cycles. I got dizzy trying to keep up on Motorola's shit. Droid RAZR MAX x2: Extreme Turbo Edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 This is the problem, too many cheap hardware releases and botched phone carrier-tweaked custom OS builds blight the image of the Android OS. Both me and my housemate had a HTC Desire, him being a not too tech savvy Mac guy (not saying Mac users can't be tech savvy, but he personally isn't - just forget I mentioned Mac in the first place. Mac. Mac. Mac.) had no intention of fiddling with the OS which was completely bloated with un-removable apps and crippled by the botched homescreen launcher. So as a result he dismissed the phone (and in tern the whole Android system for any future purchases) as a piece of shit. Me, who likes to tweak things good an proper after plucking up the guts rooted then flashed the phone with Cyanogenmod - so ended up with a proper clean OS: the kind of open and fast system it should've been bundled with in the first place. So I've ended up thinking it's an amazing phone, and am happy to stick with the Android system for many many years to come .... So yeah, in short the open and free/cheap environment that the Android system employs has become a bit of a double edged sword with the landscape of travesties (don't think that's a phrase) that hardware manufacturers & carriers have done to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugene Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 that's only semi serious and i am thinking that maybe it is worth waiting for the 5th iphone, at the very least to see its impact on the prices. but the reasons for hating apple is that it treats the users of its products like retarded children, that's the impression at least..i am planning to hack/crack the shit of my smartphone and i have a feeling that apple won't like it. also, the two phones mentioned here, htc and galaxy 3, are pretty much objectively better than the last iphone. my dad just bought an ipad3 so im gonna visit him this weekend and see if my stereotyping has a basis.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mirezzi Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I thought the same about Apple and its hatred of its users, even AFTER I bought the iPhone to replace my broken Droid. However, within a few days, I was like, "Okay, the sacrifices are worth it. Maybe I am a retarded child after all!" Wait for the iPhone 5 would be my suggestion. It's 99% likely to come out in early October and if you don't like it, you can always buy the Galaxy Nexus+ Cherry Milkshake SLIM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goDel Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 There's nothing retarded/childish about being able to use a smartphone in a simple/productive way. I guess, it's not '1337' and all. But who cares anyways? Yes, iPhone user here. Also, if you're not going for an iPhone, go for a Samsung. If only because Apple sues the crap out of Samsung. So, odds are, Samsung is a serious contender from Apple's point of view. I've read that Samsung and Apple are the only companies in the smartphone business with an already large and still growing marketshare. So Samsung must be doing something right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscillik Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 if you're going to get an Android handset, I would personally recommend a Nexus device - no update bullshit. Don't immediately rule out Apple - it may do what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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